frugal underground

If you're new here, you may want to subscribe to my RSS feed. Thanks for visiting!

The common cold is supposed to be just as its name implies – ordinary and relatively harmless. And yet nowadays, the symptoms of the cold and its more advanced “form”, the flu, can no longer be dismissed as plain coughs and sneezes that will pass in a few days.

I was almost unable to come up with this post myself as the whole family came down with the worst bout of flu we’ve seen in years. While I’m fairly confident that none of us has contracted the much talked-about and dreaded A(H1N1) virus, the onset of this new epidemic has led me into thinking about how we should pay more attention to keeping ourselves fit and healthy.

Costs can skyrocket when it comes to the treatment of serious health problems but oftentimes all it takes is a boost to the immune system to keep the viruses away. And let’s do away with the notion that living healthy is expensive. On the contrary, it could cut down on a lot of unnecessary expenses that we currently spend for.

Check out these tips and see what I mean:

Get adequate sleep. What else is there to say? Sleep costs you nothing yet does a lot for your immune system.

Quit the soda and drink water. Water is cheaper, healthier, and doesn’t bombard our bodies with sugars and additives.

Take it a step further and use tap water. I’m sure your purified water expense is way above your regular water bill. Purified doesn’t always mean cleaner though, and sometimes all you may need is a reliable water filter. PUR pitchers for instance are priced no higher than $19 but it does the job of straining out contaminants, and the water tastes great to boot.

Soak in some sun. Healthy sun, that is. Kids especially should get enough exposure to Vitamin D to help them develop strong bones and teeth. So pry them out of their console games and keep them running outdoors for some “sunshine vitamin.” Again, it’s free but the benefits are priceless.

Apply proper hygiene. A bar of soap or a small bottle of hand sanitizer shouldn’t make a dent in our budget but these are actually our first lines of defense against catching any unwanted germs.

Discover the benefits of “free” exercise. Who needs a home treadmill or an expensive club membership when a few rounds of brisk walking or jogging around the neighborhood would do just as well?

Quit smoking. With the recent rise in tobacco taxes, kicking the habit once and for all would do both our body and wallet good.

Skip the junk food and eat healthy. A healthy immune system always goes hand in hand with a healthy diet. Sure, organic fruits, veggies, and meats can be pricey, but you haven’t explored the other cheaper options yet.

As an alternative to the more expensive meats and fresh fish, some great but inexpensive alternative sources of protein are:

Fruits are the best sources for Vitamin C. The richest fruits (and not necessarily the steepest-priced) are the kiwi fruit, guavas, and oranges. Another affordable option would be to take Vitamin C supplements. You don’t get to enjoy the fruit but at least you get your needed dose of the vitamin.

Here’s to a long, healthy and frugal life!

I’m a big fan of Freecycle, it not only leverages the power of the internet, but also works on the local level so it helps build community.

At base it’s not much different than handing something you don’t use down to your younger brother or sister - and most of us have done that.

The way it works is that you go to the main Freecycle website and find the closest local group.  Each group has its own Yahoo! group which provides a mailinglist.  If you have something you just want to get rid of, you post it on the group and if any member has a use for it they can email you back through the group.  If you get multiple offers, you choose whichever one you like best.

The catch is that you can’t accept anything in money or trade for the item.

Everything has to be completely unencumbered and free.  You provide it, they pick it up, no money changes hands.

It’s a great way to be frugal:  you can often get fairly expensive items like couches and washing machines for nothing.  Now the best stuff does go pretty quickly, so if you’re serious about Freecycle you need to set it up so you get immediate notifications and call or email as soon as you see something you want.  The early bird really does get the worm.  (Please pardon the cliche)

I touched on this briefly at the beginning, but I really have to discuss the local aspect of Freecycle because I think it’s one of its greatest strengths.  Humans are naturally social, we’ve lived in groups and communities for as long as we’ve been on Earth.  Freecycle builds on that strength by making sure groups stay relatively small and locally focused.  It builds a community within a community and that helps cut down on “freeloaders,” who would try to game the system to get as much as possible whether they have a need for it or not.

Freecycle works because it’s in tune with human nature and doesn’t try to fight it.  Give it a try, it can save you a ton of money.

If you have anything you want to add - good stories or bad - or even competitor sites - don’t forget the comment box at the bottom.  That’s what it’s there for.

We’ve all heard both sides to the argument on being frugal vs being cheap.

While both can lead to cost savings for a household, the former is more about getting quality products at lower costs, while the latter is getting something simply because it has the lowest price (or comes free!) without much thought to its make, functionality, and how it could affect other people (not leaving a tip in a restaurant for instance IS cheap).

Adults can live without those unnecessary luxuries or make those small “sacrifices” in the name of frugal living and being eco-friendly. But just how much of our frugality should be applied to buying for our kids without crossing the line to cheapness? Here are some great ideas for frugal moms, which can bring in huge savings for you without sacrificing your young ones’ comfort and little pleasures.

Having at least three children or more will definitely make a dent on your clothing budget. When shopping for kids’ clothes, try the following:

A child’s birthday that’s just around the corner can be a stressful time for parents because birthdays are typically associated with costly parties. As frugal moms know, birthday treats don’t necessarily have to be bank-breaking. A few suggestions:

Now, I’d like to think that the ideas mentioned above were certainly within the bounds of frugality. So what for me would be ‘cheap mode’ for kids? Off the top of my head, just two:

As with everything else, it’s all a matter of perspective. What may be frugal for some, could be thought of as cheap by others.

As a parent, do you have these “frugal vs cheap” debates within yourself?

School will be out soon and while most of us are raring to go on that family vacation, sadly, not all of us can afford to. Or if we choose to go through with it anyway, some of the fun is taken out of the supposedly stress-free vacation because we have to compute and then re-compute the expenses as we go along.

I’ll let you in on a little-known secret: It’s possible to go on a great vacation even if you are on a budget. Don’t believe me? Try out these tips and see how you can still have a fabulous getaway without breaking the bank.

When to plan

We usually start planning our vacation months in advance. Not only does it translate to huge savings and the assurance that you can always secure that place in your intended hotel, the thrill of having something to look forward to is something that makes you feel good long before you start packing up those bags.

On a side note, I find a much-anticipated vacation an effective way to get the kids to calm down – “We won’t go on that trip to Disneyland (or wherever) if you guys won’t behave this very minute!” It hasn’t been Disneyland as yet, and sure, it’s pure bluffing but you get the picture.

Using travel sites

As soon as our destination is planned, or at least the choices have been narrowed down to a shortlist, here are some of the sites that we usually check first.

I love how these sites offer very friendly-user interface where you can just input the data for your impending getaway such as the proposed dates, destination, hotel amenities, and other specifics. Other sites worth checking out are Orbitz.com, BestFares.com, and Hotels.com.

To fly or to drive?

Contrary to what some vacationers may think, flying to get to places isn’t such an expensive option these days. A lot of airline companies now offer airfare costs of less than $100 depending on your base, destination, and your planned travel dates. Booking early can get you even bigger discounts.

When your destination isn’t that far out of state, and especially when you’re traveling with kids, driving can be the best option for you. Taking the car to your destination will not only let you save hundreds on travel costs, you can also make it part of your vacation fun especially for the young ones who would love the experience of taking in new sights along the way.

A home away from home

Hotels can give you some of the best amenities available when on vacation but if you want to save on dining costs as well, finding a hotel or apartelle that comes with a kitchenette will allow you to prepare budget-friendly, home cooked meals. Even if you choose to dine out occasionally, having your own small kitchen will make it easier for you to recycle leftover foods for the next meals.

Don’t forget your rewards points.

For many, going on vacation is also one way of using up all those rewards points accumulated from months of using your credit and/or debit cards. Depending on your cards, earned points can be converted to airline miles, hotel discounts, or cash credits for some souvenir shopping.

So, where are you going this year?

As a mother and the other member of the two-man finance board in the family, I’ve long since discovered that keeping our credit card level in check can be one of the most challenging household finance issues to deal with. Debt tends to creep up on us slowly before we can even realize that we’ve already created a monster that’s totally out of control. A moment of weakness that happens once too often, can build up our existing debt to levels so high, that recovery can take years.

Even if we enjoy a comfortable enough level of income presently, the anxiety of having to cope with past debts can sometimes cause us to miss out on quality time we could have spent with our loved ones, or even just moments to stop and smell the flowers. Life indeed, is too short to get ourselves saddled with debt.

If we don’t want to find ourselves constantly having to deal with creditors on our door, or jeopardizing our child’s college education fund, these few reminders might come in handy in keeping the bills away.

Work hard, live well, laugh out loud. Whether we get to be forty or a hundred and forty, life can still be enjoyed to the fullest… without signing ourselves up to a lifetime of debt in the process.

I have a confession to make:  money management doesn’t come naturally to me.

In fact, I’m one of those people who wants to go get a new book on payday whether I need it or not.  In the past this kind of spending has led to what I guess you could call ‘accidents’ where little transaction fees I had forgotten about added up and bit me on the backside and caused checks to bounce.

It’s no fun when a handful of $2.00 ATM fees cause your rent check to bounce:  No fun at all.

Just to add insult to injury, many banks process transactions from largest to smallest, rather than in the order they were presented.  If you’re smart, this shouldn’t mean anything, because you never spend more than you have available.  If you’re not, it means that instead of one fee, you’re paying eight - putting you $200 behind before you can blink.  This is what we financial professionals call bad.  Don’t do it.

Now that I’m older, and I hope wiser, I tend not to do those sorts of things.  It’s not so much because I have more self-control (although I hope I have) but because I’ve set myself up not to fail.

I don’t pay my rent out of my living expenses anymore.

Here’s how the system works:  I use three bank accounts.

Instead of just the standard checking and savings accounts I have two checking accounts (as well as the savings); I use a check card on one and write checks on the other.  The way it works is simple:

First, you figure out your budget:

Add up all your regular bills, the stuff you pay every month or two months and figure out how much you have to spend from each paycheck to cover those bills. That money, plus a little extra to cover things like your bank charges, goes into your check account.

I’m not going to talk about savings, because that’s assumed.  (How can you be frugal without saving money?  Inquiring minds want to know.)

The money that’s left over goes into your check card account.  This is the money you spend on anything from gas to groceries, to day-to-day living.  It’s not a free pass to overspending by any means; you still should be watching what you spend, how much and where you spend it.  It’s just a way to make sure that if you do miss something - or if your sp0use filled up the car right after gas prices went up (instead of before like you asked them to) it doesn’t cascade through all the checks you have outstanding.

This is particularly important if you have one of those landlords:  you know the ones, they fill your lease agreement with dire threats about what can happen if the rent is three minutes late - but then don’t cash the check for three weeks, leaving the money just sitting there.

If you think about it, the real key to money management; as my co-bloggers and I are all saying in our own fashions is to stay organized and in control of your finances.

If you set your finances up properly you have to work at messing them up; and then you’ve got human laziness working for you instead of against you.

As the title of the post says, my name is Dave and I’ll be blogging for you today.

I’m a stay-at-home Dad and freelance writer.  My partner works outside the home and I stay home and look after the kids; her two teens and our daughter who will be seven next week.  It’s probably no surprise that no matter how much money comes in, somebody finds a need for it so we always try to make the most of our money.

That’s especially true when one of the teens had to to take his girlfriend to her junior prom last weekend and it’s his senior prom this weekend.

So today I want to talk about some things we did right, and some things we might have done better:

Before I go any further I should mention two factors that are very important to me:  value for money and absolute price.  While getting value for your money is always important, it’s the absolute price that always sets the final boundary.   It’s not very frugal to save money on one thing but then have to spend extra money on something else later because you blew your budget today.

Anyway - after the cut - on to the prom. Read the rest of this entry »

As a generally-overwelmed business owner, the last time I went to plan a vacation I decided to stick to the tried and true because I was overwhelmed with the number of travel websites to search. For my next vacation, I intend to pleasantly surprise my hubby by planning our trip through SideStep.

SideStep is a website that searches over 200 travel websites to find the best travel deals on the web for you. Over six million people use SideStep monthly to find travel savings. That’s because SideStep checks consolidators, agencies, hotels, airlines, rental car companies and vacation package folks to find the best deals around. They also have partnerships with major travel corporations like as Orbitz.com, Continental Airlines, JetBlue Airways, American Airlines, Best Western, Hilton Hotels, Hotels.com, Avis Rent a Car and Budget Rent a Car.

You can register for free at SideStep and you can save your travel search preferences and register your searches. By joining SideStep, you can also share your travel experiences with reviews and communicate with other members.

Using SideStep for vacation planning will save me time and money in the future. Anyone used it or found any good competitors?

Photo by KRob2005

Not everyone can afford a gym membership or a personal trainer to help them get in shape. As a matter of fact, most people just don’t have the money or the time to travel to the gym before or after their full time jobs. How can a person on a budget lose weight and not lose money?

You can find basic dieting tips and health or fitness information on the web, in the library or at the book store. You can surf and skim for ideas without spending a penny. Get as much information as you can, and apply what you learn.

Here are some quick and easy money-saving weight loss tips:

• Walk as much as possible.
• Drink water instead of soft drinks.
• Use the stairs, not the elevator.
• Stand instead of sit.
• Do sit-ups, leg lifts, or arm curls while watching television.
• Eat less junk food and more fruits and vegetables.
• Eat less meat.
• Never go for seconds.
• Eat slowly, and stop before you are totally full.
• Always get a good night of rest.
• Try to find at least 30 minutes a day to relax, clear your mind and reduce stress.

These tips will help you to increase your metabolism and lower your calorie intake, without the membership fee and special food costs. If you commit to a healthier lifestyle you can lose weight while keeping your wallet fat.

Here are some ways that people spend money unnecessarily. You can save money little by little if you watch the tiny money grubbers. You might think, a dollar here, or a dollar there, won’t matter. The truth is that a lot of little things really add up.

To illustrate, here is a typical example of allowing little money grubbers waste your money…

Photo by taylorkoa22

Jo-Ann has a full time job, and she loves to use the vending machine. Everyday on her short break, she spends $.75 on a can of soda and $.65 on her favorite snack (that’s $308 per year).

Jo-Ann also has some credit card debt. She always pays more than the minimum, but decides to put her extra money into an interest bearing account instead of paying down the debt. Although her savings will return some money, $50 per month, the interest fees on her cards add up to about $80 per month. (She will still lose $30 per month, $360 per year.)

Jo-Ann doesn’t like to use the internet too much because she is afraid of identity theft. She pays postage for all of her bills (even though she could pay them online). She has to mail six envelopes per month with a stamp. That adds up to $38.28 per year.

Jo-Ann could save more than $700 per year if she pays her bills online, brings a snack from home, and pays down her credit card bills. In five years, she would save $3,500!

Photo by NURR

You should always have a plan when you are going to spend money. Consider just three areas where we regularly save by planning.

Groceries. Planning the meals to cover a week or two weeks will help you stick to a budget. Instead of buying food on impulse, you can plan each meal ahead and get the necessary ingredients. You should also make sure that you check the levels of household cleaners and toiletries. Avoiding an extra trip to the store will bring down the chances of an impulse purchase.

Entertainment. Everyone likes to get out and have fun. If you really need to get out once in a while, plan an inexpensive night out. Set the amount you will spend and stick to it. If you use cash only, you will be more inclined to stick to budget.

Major purchases. You can save a fortune if you explore your options. When looking for a car, furniture or major appliances, there is much room for error. Think about quality. It might not be the best choice to buy the cheapest thing out there, because it may not last as long. Check the consumer ratings on the brands you are considering. You don’t have to pay top dollar, but cheap isn’t the way to go with certain things.

Pay your savings account like a bill. The age old method of promising to put aside whatever is left over at the end of a month just doesn’t work well. When you get paid, the first thing you should do is put money away into savings.

Photo by Aytena

Budget a specific amount of your check to put aside every time you are paid. If over time, you think you can put aside more, go for it. Just be consistent.

Make sure you are earning interest. There are several excellent savings accounts that will earn you over 5% APY. I have accounts with HSBC, and ING Direct frequently offers good deals, too. This money will be liquid, meaning you can withdraw money any time, without penalty, if you really need to (the idea is to have a fixed amount that you can afford to set aside).

You should also make a deal with yourself that if you get extra money (gifts, tax returns, a bonus, and especially a raise) that you will use it to reach savings goals.

If you truly want to begin a frugal lifestyle, you should strive to never pay full price if you can help it. For almost anything you need, you can shop around and find a bargain.

When it comes to children’s clothing, you definitely want to get things on sale. Since children are always growing, it doesn’t make sense to buy them expensive clothes or shoes. Unless you have several children to pass down the clothes to, it isn’t a wise investment.

Photo by Bargain Betty

The best time to shop is one month before seasons officially change. All of the winter clothes will go on clearance sales as spring starts, and all of the summer clothes will be on clearance sales right before the fall. Shopping on special holiday sales and back to school season will save you a ton.

Also, when it comes to groceries, appliances, DVDs, books, or just about anything you may want to buy, wait for the sale. Look for used ones in good condition and use coupons and/or club discounts.

Photo by wild friday

First and foremost, plan well in advance. Survey a few different places to go, and do some quick online searching to get a feel for the costs. We went to Park City, Utah last summer because summer is their off-season, and had a great time in the sun. Check the hotel prices, look into other accommodations, and discount options. Plan the travel method (drive, plane, train, bus). Decide how long you will stay. Also plan what you will eat. Food is one thing people often forget to budget for.

The next step is budgeting the trip. How much will it cost to travel there and stay for x days? How much will the food cost? Will you need transportation to get around in the area? What about souvenirs? Finally, come up with a ball park figure, and set aside a small amount of money to start saving up.

Try to put in some extra hours at work, or cut some luxuries like eating out for several months in advance. Set aside money as “vacation cash” into an interest- bearing account, and don’t use any of it (unless there is a real emergency). You might have to make a couple sacrifices, but it will be worth it if you plan it well.

Instead of spending money on games that other people have created, you can create your own. Here’s how.

First, choose a theme or subject. If your family has watched a lot of movies together, for example, you can make a game about movies, or about a single movie.

Photo by Camille Panzera

Second, decide what the object of the game should be. For example, in the movie game, the object can be naming the movie a certain line is from or naming as many movies as you can with a certain letter of the alphabet.

Next, decide on the rules. For the movie game, the rules could be that only the team captain can speak, television films don’t count, or points off for talking out of turn. Write the rules down so that you can address them later if there is a conflict.

Now decide how you will keep score. You can use points, candy, or pennies to tally up who is winning. Will you be playing by teams, or individually?

You can also choose a reward for the winning person, or team, but that’s optional. Be creative! You might find that you have as much fun creating your game as you do playing it!

Have you heard about the cheapest family in the United States? There is a 20/20 special about a family of seven that lives debt free on a household income of $35,000! They don’t use credit cards.

This family owns a home and two cars, and by stretching every dollar, they have saved the thousands and thousands that most of use waste. They stick to the hard and fast rule that you shouldn’t buy anything that you don’t have the money for. Easier said than done in our country, right?

They meticulously plan grocery shopping using coupons and sale fliers. The husband and wife use walkie-talkies to communicate sale options and prices on certain items. They also purchase clothing and furniture used. They never go over budget, and don’t buy things that they can’t afford.

This family proves that financial discipline can truly pay off. You don’t have to have a high salary to make a good living for yourself. It is just important that you use what you do have wisely. They published a book called America’s Cheapest Family and it is in stores now.

Photo by k-girl

Everyone wants their wedding day to be special. Unfortunately, most people can’t afford the fairy tale wedding that celebrities have. You can get into serious debt if you don’t know how to get the best deals. Here are some simple, and practical money saving tips for planning a wedding. (This is a subject that’s near and dear to me, since my youngest sister, Leanna, got married last weekend. She followed most of these tips.)

Keep the guest list as small as possible. Invite immediate family and close friends only. If you don’t want a tiny wedding, a guest list of 50-75 is just intimate enough for a brief and personal greeting with each guest.

Make the wedding favors yourself. This doesn’t have to be super labor-intensive. My sister got wedding-themed conversation hearts and some little bags with drawstrings; they cost a tiny bit more than circles of netting with ribbons, but she assembled all the favors in less than an hour.

If possible, have the food set up buffet style instead of served. Leanna got some “sandwich trays” from the local supermarket and it was very easy to arrange them in a buffet line.

Instead of having a special cake designed, you can make it yourself. You can also have a non traditional cake. One idea is to have a couple different cakes prepared, with one special cake with the bride and groom’s names, or something special, so you know which one to cut.

Keep the bridal party small. Just have a best man and maid of honor.

If you can, buy your wedding dress during the $99 gown sale at David’s Bridal or consider Target. Leanna didn’t find anything she loved in those cases, but she did get a gorgeous and fairly inexpensive non-sale dress at David’s Bridal.

Get your shoes from a department store, not a specialty shoe shop. My bridesmaid shoes were on sale for $20.

Drowning in credit card debt is a burden for many people. Sometimes you don’t know where to begin, or it seems like your debt is so large you’ll never escape. The following are ten simple ways to help you move towards debt-freedom.

1. Pay your highest interest rate cards off first.
This is considered common knowledge these days, but it’s easy to confuse paying off your highest interest credit cards with paying down your highest balance. Even if you owe only $150 on a 28% department store card and $5,000 on an 18.5% credit card, pay your minimum monthly payment on your higher balance, and use as much as is left over to get that monster-rate balance clear. (Then forget about using that card again until your other debts are down!)

Photo by wackocatho

2. Double up on payments
Paying your minimum payments twice a month (every 2 weeks or every paycheck) will get your debt down to zero in less than half the time of paying once! If you can manage, doubling up at the beginning of the month will save you even more. Lenders make more interest the longer you wait to pay.

3. Don’t wait to pay
The day your bill arrives, it’s a good time to make your payment. Don’t let the grace period trick you into thinking you’re saving interest charges on anything but your most recent purchases.

4. Pay online
Using online banking cuts out a few days worth of snail mail travel time (and thus, interest charges), and saves you the cost of the check. Plus you’re less likely to risk late payment penalties due to a problem with the mail. Remember, however, that online payments may take a couple days to clear depending on your bank, so plan your payment a few days before it’s due.

5. No more notes
If you do send in checks each month, avoid writing notes as your credit card company is allowed to route your note with the bills and checks attached to them to different departments for up to five days which could cause you to miss your payment due date. The same goes for memos.

6. Write clearly
Your check may also be passed around for five days if your handwriting is difficult to decipher. So print nicely to avoid late fees.

7. Don’t be charmed by pre-approved credit cards
If you’re already approved (and you have poor credit) there are a couple reasons why you should run from such offers. Credit card companies are banking that you will rack up more debt (this is how you got in your situation to begin with), and to match your risk comes a high interest rate.

8. Read the fine print on 0% balance transfers
Balance transfers sound like they are buying you time, but remember that there is often a fee (2% or so of your balance to be transferred) just to make the transfer. And your low APR won’t last forever and will rebound to a much higher rate after as little as three months. Your interest rate on purchases or cash advances is also something to watch for. These can be even higher and usually there is no grace period. Unless you’re confident you can pay off your debt and not make any new purchases while your 0% period lasts, you may end up worse off than when you transferred.

9. If you’re really in trouble…
When your debt is so large that you’re considering bankruptcy, here’s a little known tip. Credit card lenders would rather get something out of you than nothing. So call your credit card companies and explain truthfully your situation. Ask for at least a two month stay on your debt with no payments required so you can work on resolving your bad credit. Request that they note this in your file and make note of the supervisor or agent you spoke with. Your credit card company may be willing to either forgive part of your outstanding debt, rework your monthly payment schedule/requirements or eliminate your interest payments over the long-term. It may seem tempting just to declare bankruptcy and forget about the debt completely, but remember that bankruptcy carries its own consequences that greatly affect your future credit options.

10. Flee annual fees
You probably didn’t know that you could ask your credit card company to waive your annual fee. Call your credit card company and mention that you are considering switching to a different company’s offer but you would consider staying with your current card should your annual fee be waived. You’ll probably get it.

If you’re disciplined enough to never carry a credit card balance, don’t even bother getting any card with an annual fee. The main reason for annual fees is for the credit card company to be able to offer rewards or lower interest rates and charge a bit extra for the privilege. If you essentially don’t pay any interest anyway, you don’t care whether your card is 9.99% interest or 19.5%.

About the guest blogger: Linda Bustos is the Marketing Director for Creditorweb.com, where you can learn about credit cards and compare credit card ratings and reviews. And check out how close you are to debt freedom with the credit card payoff calculator.

Photo by pt harriet

You should never underestimate the power of the coupon. You may think, “What difference will it make if I save $0.25 on bread this week?” When you are tight on funds and have numerous bills to pay, every little bit helps. Clipping coupons can really save you money in the long run.

Here are some coupon rules:

Don’t go out of your way to buy items that you don’t need just because you have a coupon. Unless it is free, you will save more by not buying it.

Wait until the item goes on sale to use the coupon. (Many stores also offer double or triple coupon weeks, and you can hang on to coupons until then and save even more)

Don’t be afraid to try a new brand. If it costs less, why not try it?

You can find coupons in your local Sunday paper, right in the store, or online. All you have to do is visit a reputable coupon site, like SmartSource.com or CoolSavings. There are many more sites that offer coupons. The best way to save is waiting until the item goes on sale at your local grocery store to use the coupon. You can save hundreds of dollars per year!

Here are some quick penny-pinching ideas:

Serve and eat smaller portions. You will probably lose weight, too.

Photo by KJKing

Share the meal when eating out. Many diners and other restaurants will give oversized portions. Share a dish between two people. You can also do this with dessert.

In the summer, only use the air conditioner during the hottest part of the day (noon to 5 pm). After that drink water, have an ice pop, and take it easy. Fans take less energy as well.

Use florescent light bulbs, in the summer. They use less heat and electricity.

Put a portion of your paycheck into an interest-bearing savings account every time. Don’t touch the money unless you can’t cover a bill. Even if it is just $5, it will add up in time.

Every time you break a dollar, put all of your loose change in a jar. Don’t touch the money until the end of the year.

Make your lunch instead of buying out everyday.

Photo by Aditya Bhelke

One great way to save money is to buy things in bulk. For example, we all need toilet tissue, right? It may cost you a great deal less to buy a twelve roll pack than a four pack in the long run. The price per roll is typically less for a large pack.

If you pay close attention to the size to price ratio, you can get more of your money’s worth by getting larger packages. Larger jars of mayonnaise are usually cheaper per ounce than smaller jars. Paper towel, ketchup, peanut butter, rice, and just about everything else will cost you less in the long run if you grab the bigger bag, box, or container. If you know that you will use it all without it spoiling, buy the big one.

You can find larger packages that are cheaper per ounce, bottle, or roll at most supermarkets. If you are anywhere near a Costco, or BJs, you can get a membership there. These stores specialize in bulk packaging, and will save you tons of money on just about everything you buy. Wholesale club memberships sometimes have a small fee, but the money that you save is much more than the cost.

Last week I received notification that the site 100 Big Coupons wanted to purchase a review here. Fair enough, I thought, and agreed.

According to their review request, they “… offer coupons for all the major online stores to help people save money while still getting what they want. The service is free to use for anyone who wishes and requires no registration or personal information.” With that in mined, I’ve looked over the site and have come away with a few main impressions.

Design

My first impression was one of being overwhelmed. There is a lot of information on that front page, and I can’t immediately tell what’s most important. The headings on the sidebar are decent, but what can I say, I’m a designer and I felt somewhat lost. Because I’m getting paid for this review, I took the time to sort through everything, but I’m not sure I would have if I’d just stumbled across the site.

Functionality

What does the site actually do? They share coupon codes. You know when you place an online order and it says “If you have a coupon code, enter it here”? Well, there are lots of sites that gather and share various promotional codes in the hopes of making money either through advertising or affiliate programs. 100 Big Coupons is one of these sites. I make it a habit to search for coupon codes when checking out at stores that usually have them, like GoDaddy, so I’ve seen lots of these sites.

When I clicked around through 100 Big Coupons, I found a fair amount of coupons, but also some confusion. For instance, clicking on a product category brought up a list of stores in that category, and also said: “View the 36 coupons in this category:” The colon made me assume the coupons were listed below… but they weren’t. I assumed something was broken. Later, I moused over the statement and realized it was a link, and clicking it brought up the promised coupon. However, since it isn’t underlined until I put my mouse over it, I didn’t realize that I could click it.

Similarly, I tried a search for GoDaddy, since I know they almost always have coupons floating around, and essentially got a blank page as a result. There wasn’t even a statement that there were no coupons found. I understand that no one website will have all available coupons listed (and I think that 100 Big Coupons isn’t even interested in listing domain name coupons) but I found the response unhelpful and potentially confusing.

When you DO find a coupon that interests you, though, the site is good about giving you the information you need to use the coupon.

But can it save me money?

Possibly. It depends on the kinds of things you buy, and mostly on whether you’ll remember to check the site before purchasing.

Suggestions

I feel like 100 Big Coupons is trying to be too many things to too many people. I imagine that offering coupons is a fairly low-profit-margin business, so a lot of eyeballs are crucial, but I’d much prefer to see the site focus a little and branch out within a niche. For instance, I frequent sites that feature domain coupons. Why not create a site that focuses on exclusively on Women’s Clothing (for instance) and has a blog that not only lists coupons but alerts readers to unusually good deals? That way you as a customer don’t have to go out of your way to check the site; it’s more likely that you’d use a coupon because you were already subscribed to the site.

Related Link: SmashDeals - Online Shopping Coupons, Codes & Bargain Sales Offering the best coupon codes and deals from around the web. Browse our latest computer, electronics, clothing, gadgets and other deals today!

I know I just posted about Dreamhost’s deal yesterday, but today I’m going to post about a completely different kind of web host, and the permanent deal they offer you.

NearlyFreeSpeech.net is a very unusual host. To start with, they don’t offer any hosting “plans”. They do something that’s almost unheard of instead: they charge you for what you actually use. Specifically, they charge a penny per megabyte of storage you need each month (this covers the files you put on their system) and a dollar per gigabyte of traffic (the “traffic” is the amount of information your website sends over the Internet to reach your visitors—the more visitors you have, the more traffic).

Let’s do a little compare-and-contrast. Dreamhost offers a truly insane amount of storage space and included traffic. 99.9% of people will probably never use the full capabilities of this account.

For example, let’s look at my usage. I wanted to see how NearlyFreeSpeech would shake out for my actual sites, so I looked at my stats for storage and traffic over the last few months. Right now, I’m holding pretty steady at about 77 MB of storage each month. Since I’ve been a Dreamhost customer (around 7 months), I’ve used about 4.5 GB of traffic. I didn’t sign up for a really great deal with Dreamhost, but it’s not bad at $7.95/month. That’s about $56 over the time I’m looking at.

Now what would this cost me at NearlyFreeSpeech? Let’s look. 77 MB/month * $0.01 = $0.77/month. 4.5 GB (not measured per month, just total) * $1 = $4.50. My total for the last seven months would be $9.89.

Now beyond cost, there’s another upside. Because I’m paying for actual usage, it is definitely in the best interest of NearlyFreeSpeech (hereafter refered to as NFS) to keep my site up and running. All hosts try to keep sites up, obviously, but NFS has an extra motivator: if my site’s down, they stop earning money. If no one can visit my site, I don’t pay for traffic. NFS has every reason to try very hard to keep my site operating.

Similarly, if my site takes a long time to load, visitors won’t necessarily wait around. If they leave, again, I won’t be paying for traffic, and NFS won’t make money. So you can also bet that they care deeply about keeping equipment modernized and optimized, and will rapidly look into any issues that are hurting the performance of sites.

From a technical standpoint, I’ll also point out that NFS has a very sensible load-balancing setup designed to keep both slowness and outages to an absolute minimum.

Obviously, I think NFS has a lot of “pros”. There are a few “cons”, though.

First, they don’t seem like a “hand-holding” kind of company. They expect their setup to appeal to people who have some experience with web hosting, so while I hear that provide great tech support and a members forum, I would sincerely doubt that they have a lot of “touchy-feely” tutorials or techs. If you’re starting from scratch, and have never done the web thing before, and don’t have a web developer helping you, another host might be a better option.

Second, there are some technologies they don’t support. These are clearly stated in their Frequently Asked Questions and include (sorry for the geek-speak!) SSL, FastCGI, cron, and Ruby on Rails. If you want something outside of normal hosting, you should make sure you read the FAQ before signing up. (Actually, it’s a pretty entertaining read, regardless…)

Other than those two items, I see no downside. When my contract with Dreamhost runs out, I’ll be moving my sites to NFS.

I know this was a pretty nerdy post, so please, if you’re confused-but-curious, or have questions, leave a comment and I’ll do my best to help you out!

Orville Redenbacher is bribing you to sign up for their new newsletter: sign up and get a “rent one, get one free” coupon at Blockbuster. Not that great of a deal, but handy if you’re already in the habit of renting movies at Blockbuster.

Do note, though, that this is very ambiguously labeled “And for a limited time, if you are one of the first to sign up…” If you try it and don’t get your coupon at the end of the process, leave a comment here and I’ll update the post.

I just got an email announcing that Brita is now making water filters for refrigerators. It looks like they make them for most brands and models, and to help kick off the sales, they’re offering a $10 rebate on Brita fridge filters purchased at Sears.

I’m not positive this is a good deal (because I don’t know how much they sell for, and how that compares to the filters I usually buy), but if you’re inclined in this direction, by all means, get some money back. (And leave a comment telling us if it’s a great deal!)

It is an Apple-crazy week in my house. I’ve been thinking about getting a Mac mini for some time now (for my business), and the time came quite clearly when Daniel’s motherboard died last week. It’s old enough that it can’t be cheaply replaced, so we’re going to do a bit of a computer shuffle, with the Mac being the key.

I looked on Apple’s site to see what retail was on the model I wanted, and then went comparison shopping. I checked Apple’s refurbs, Amazon, and other various sites. In the end, I got a great deal on eBay (have I mentioned that I love eBay?): a couple hundred dollars less than retail.

Wednesday, my sister Leanna and I went into KeyBank to sign up for checking accounts and take advantage of their awesome free iPod nano promotion. I already have a great MP3 player, but I think an iPod will make a great Christmas present. Leanna’s boyfriend also signed up last weekend, so we used him as a referral, making him a nice $50 and getting $25 each just for mentioning that.

I also have to say, the employees at this particular KeyBank location were amazing. I’m probably going to write a post in my (yet to be unveiled) business blog about their fantastic customer service. Based on this one visit, I have a much better opinion of Key than I did last week.

Anyway, the deal with the iPod offer is that you sign up for checking and also for either direct deposit (not an option for me, being self-employed) or a credit card. Sixty days later, you’ve got yourself an iPod. The account guy helping us said that this promotion has been stunningly successful; they hit the expected number of new accounts weeks earlier than they had planned, and Key extended the promotion for a week. Bring on the iPods!

And the most recent Mac development: Leanna is currently training to do some work (as an independent contractor) for me. Coding, template building, that kind of thing. Her computer is now a little over five years old (and it wasn’t cutting edge when it was new), so she’s been looking for a laptop to replace it. She ended up deciding on a Mac, too, both because it will make it easier to work with me, and because of all the fabulous things we keep hearing about them from other web developers.

We looked locally (she was hoping to get rewards points on her low-limit credit card by splitting the transaction) but the deals just weren’t there. eBay wasn’t really top-notch, either—one guy was offering a great deal but his feedback had all sorts of comments about really slow shipping (like 2 months slow!), so we opted for Amazon. They’re offering a nice $100 rebate, which took the price down to both her budget, and the price of comparable Windows machines.

We signed up for the Amazon Prime trial, and Leanna opted to pay the $4 to get the computer delivered Next Day Air. It will arrive this afternoon and she’ll spend much of the holiday weekend working on her coding skills.

All in all this week, we’ve saved a grand total of $770 off retail on Apple products. Not bad for a little research!

A month or two ago, I received an email from someone who had seen this blog and wanted to tell me about his own frugal site. I get a few of these emails each month, but this one hit me at a crazy busy time, and I didn’t take the time to look at his site until now.

Because the gentleman was kind enough to include a summary of what the site does, I’m copying it here:

DealMine.com is aggregating member discounts and rewards from loyalty programs, credit cards, associations (AAA, AARP), unions, etc and matching them up to comparison shopping technology. The idea from a consumer perspective is that as popular as comparison shopping is, the information they provide is limited to price, tax and shipping info and that does not provide all the information and consumer needs to make a purchasing decision. For example, the average consumer has nine credit cards, belongs to four rewards programs and at least one association or club (sources: FairIssac and Colloquy) all of which have member benefits and have not been aggregated anywhere before in a way that makes them easy to use. We help consumers discover deals they didnt even know they had available like 10% off at Target.com with AAA or $15 off at Bluefly with Visa cards…

The site features two types of searches. The first is into the directory to compare discounts or rewards like this one for car rentals currently featuring over 100 deals: http://www.dealmine.com/deal-directory/Travel-discounts/Car-Rentals/49

The other search on the site is actual comparison shopping where prices at various stores are matched up to affinity/membership discounts and benefits. See below for an example of a “Compare Prices” search on jeans: http://www.dealmine.com/compare-prices.php?s=jeans

The site currently features discounts and rewards from 29 member programs and is growing quickly.

I was impressed at the concept when I read the email. It seems like a tool that could help a certain market segment (namely, us, “the cheapskates”). And goodness knows I’m part of way too many rewards programs, and don’t keep track of them nearly as well as I ought to.

I tried out the site to see what I thought. My impression: a touch clunky, but extremely useful. The registration process includes a spot where you tell DealMine what rewards programs you’re part of, and then future searches are customized to your actual memberships.

I was impressed at the options for filtering and sorting on a product search. For instance, I did the example jeans search, and found loads of bargains on pants. But then I saw I could filter to show only five-pocket jeans, or bootcuts, and limit it to deals under $20. That’s handy.

I went on to find a lovely pair of bootcut jeans at Sierra Trading post that were under $20 shipped, and would net me 4 hotel rewards points per dollar. I didn’t buy them (that’s still a lot of money for jeans, in my opinion, and I don’t need any right now), but it was a good exercise in seeing the potential benefit of this site.

My biggest concern? Whether I will remember to use the site. I’d like to see them offer a search plugin to the Search Bar in . That would make it much more likely that I’ll return when it’s time to buy.

I’ve enjoyed reading the little saving tips that Budget Savvy sends out from time to time (by request, of course). I’ve been too cheap (of course!) to subscribe to the magazine sight unseen, though.

I was pleased to check my email this morning and find the announcement that they’re taking the magazine online (and I believe this will be online only), and not only that, they’ll be offering it for free. They are separating the articles out by “applicable area” (e.g. “living room”, “board room”, “pantry”), which has potential for interesting browsing. Beyond the articles, there’s also what appears to be a blog (though oddly, no way to leave comments that I can see).

It looks like they still have a little tweaking to do, but this new site has great promise and I’ll definitely be checking it out on a regular basis.

I’m curious: I’d expect the readers of this blog, as a rule, to be more financially savvy than the general public (not because I’m so brilliant, but because you obviously are interested in making good money choices or you wouldn’t be reading about personal finance). So here’s a poll, and I’m hoping you’ll weigh in. And by all means, feel free to leave comments, too.

Last year, we turned on our air conditioner twice.  At times it was a little hot and sticky (here in the Boise, Idaho area it tops 95° pretty much every day in full-on summer), but in general, Daniel and I acclimated to it pretty well and didn’t mind much.

Other people… well, that is a bit trickier.  My sister lives with us, and her boyfriend often spends Friday and Saturday nights here (on the couch!), and they were both extremely uncomfortable last summer.  I felt kind of bad about it, but we offered to let them run the A/C and pay for the additional cost, and that didn’t go over so well.

This year, I’m working from home (not in a building air-conditioned to about “frigid”), and I’d like to figure out a happy medium—something that will keep the fam happy and still keep the bills reasonable.  I think that a big part of this will just be to actually get up and close the windows when it gets hotter outside than inside (I love fresh air, but it’s sensible to keep the fresh air limited to the night and morning hours in this case).

What I’m really wondering about is air conditioner efficiency.  For instance, right now it’s 87° outside and 82° inside, so only a 5° spread.  I can’t image it would cost much to keep it 5° cooler inside (vs. outside).  But what about days when it’s 100°?  I’d like to know what kind of curve the air conditioner efficiency has as related to inside-outside temperature differences.  For instance, if it costs, say, a dollar per hour to cool the house to 10° below the outside temperature, but $2/hour to get °15 lower, that would be worth knowing.  (I’m sure those per-hour numbers are way off, but you get what I’m saying, right?)

Another thing is that I saw this “Cool-n-Save” gizmo.  It seems pretty smart; it cools the A/C unit itself with evaporation.  A study showed it cut the cost of air conditioning by up to 30%.  However, I don’t know how much the air conditioner costs to operate, so I’m not sure whether the Cool-n-Save is worth $80—the break-even point would be when the air conditioner has accrued a cost of $267.  I’d be surprised if we use that much, just because if we get next month’s bill and it’s about $80 (and the others who benefit from A/C opt not to contribute), I’d expect it to pretty well stop.

The truly aggravating thing about this is that I feel completely uninformed.  I don’t know the best way to use my air conditioner, and that annoys me.  So please, by all means, enlighten me!  If you don’t know anything about air conditioner efficiency, no worries: I mostly want to know how other people handle the cost/comfort balance.  What do you do in the summer?

I was making a pasta salad yesterday and decided to go all out… I bought sun-dried red bell peppers.  (I know, I’m really living large here!)  The salad was quite tasty, and the peppers were a delicious touch, so this morning I was thinking about the logistic of the peppers.

I have a dehydrator that doesn’t get used as much as it could, and while I imagine it wouldn’t be exactly the same as sun-drying, it seems like it would be a passable imitation.  “Think how much money I’ll save by doing it myself!” I thought gleefully.  Until I actually double-checked my receipt, that is!

Turns out that for me (at this time of year, at the store where I do most of my shopping), buying the sun-dried peppers is less expensive than buying fresh bell peppers and dehydrating them myself (not to mention the extra labor involved!).  The sun-dried peppers were $1.50 for what appears to be about two peppers; the fresh were the same cost per pepper!  Later in the season I expect that the fresh peppers will drop to about $.88 each, but it’s still cheaper to buy them already dried.

Just goes to show that the pricebook can reveal even the surprising deals!

I just discovered AddALL and am hooked. AddALL is a book price comparision site that’s getting me better results than all of the methods I’ve been using, and their sister sites (A Magazine Area, A Music Area, and A Movie Area) will help you in the same way when you’re looking for magazines, CDs, and videos.

What makes these sites so great? Their core functionality. I frequently use Froogle, which does a decent job, but Froogle doesn’t give me the final price… I have to visit the merchants’ sites and figure out shipping costs for myself. Sometimes these merchants make them hard to find. The price that Froogle gives me is usually not the price I’ll end up paying.

Not so with AddALL and friends. When I search, I tell them that I’m in the Continental U.S.A. (for shipping costs) and Idaho (for tax rate). All of my search results include shipping and taxes, so I can tell upfront that I will be paying exactly $22.98 for “Art Of Project Management” to be delivered to my doorstep (significantly cheaper—and easier!—than my previous plan to buy a discounted B&N gift card and purchase the book with my sister’s prefered B&N card).

I like that AddALL is book-specific (and the other sites are medium-specific). That means that the merchants are pre-selected with the intention of pointing people to books, and I don’t have to worry about all of the off-topic results I get with Froogle or eBay.

I am also appreciative that AddALL actually has a business model: when you purchase books through their site, they get a commission. I’m fine with that, and consider it a good thing. Too many “cool” sites started as hobbies or good ideas end up costing the creator too much to maintain and go away. The fact that there is a reasonable expectation of income for them (at no cost to me) gives me hope for the longevity of this excellent service. I’ll gladly buy though them!

Bottom line: this service is a fast, streamlined way to find the best final price for that book you’re pining for.

Yesterday I came across a relatively new (December ‘05) blog devoted to the art of frugality. I was looking at the Relevant book store and my eye was drawn (of course!) to “Cheap Ways to Tie the Knot” by Cara Davis (I should clarify: I’m not getting married, I’m just cheap). As I read through the description, I was delighted to find a web address (not linked, go figure) to Cara’s blog, Cheap Ways To …

This is good stuff, folks. Cara has a unique set of topics, and every one of her titles and exerpts made me want to read the whole post (so maybe this isn’t a great thing if you have stuff to get done right now). Every blogger has their own kind of posts, and Cara’s are interesting and practical. I found the post “Coupon Fraud” somewhat surprising, as I had no idea this was going on. I also appreciated Cara’s reflection on ethics. Frugality doesn’t exist in a vaccuum, so it’s good to see a holistic approach.

I’ve added Cara’s blog to my sidebar, and I encourage you all to check it out. I hope you enjoy it as much as I am.

PC Advisor has some good product recommendations to help you get more value from your CD burner and printer. It’s worth reading the post, but if you just want a quick summary, get the free program SizeMe to reduce wasted space on your CDs (or Picasa for images) and use a Rubber Roller Rejuvenator to give new life to a paper-jamming printer.

There are lots of reasons why it’s good to have some short term savings, a kind of cushion, if you will. Chief among them is that you won’t be overdrawing your checking account should your timing be a little off. But there are some other less-obvious advantages that can save you money.

The main one is that by having money in reserve, you can afford to “go without” some money in the short term to save money. A prime example of this is the various tax-free health savings accounts. By considering what your expenses are likely to be, and committing to cover them before they happen, you can save a significant chunk of change, depending on your tax bracket. This is the same idea behind various retirement options, too. Pay now to save later.

In our household, we’ve been using this idea to save money on recreation. One example is the health club. My husband is a semi-serious cyclist and wanted to keep in shape during the cold winter months, so we looked for a health club that offered cycling classes in addition to the weights that we should be using year-round. When we found the club we wanted to join, they quoted several different prices based on the term of the contract and the method of payment. Because we were willing to pay upfront for two years in advance, we are paying about half of the standard cost. Obviously this is only a good idea on something you will definitely use (we’re 6 months in and still going to the gym several times a week).

Here’s one that we’re planning on doing. Every year, our local ski hill sells season passes at an extremely low $199 per pass… but they only sell them at that price for one weekend. We just bought our passes for the 2006/2007 season, but we’re already thinking of 2007/2008. Here’s why: the ski hill runs a “cash card” sale just before they open (usually Novemberish, I think) where they sell these cash cards at 75% of their face value. Basically, get a $100 cash card for $75. These cards are accepted anywhere on the mountain and can be used to pay for lift tickets, lessons, whatever. What we’re focused on is that they can be used to pay for passes.

So come this November, we’re going to figure out what we will be spending in the full next year ($199 pass for me, $199 pass for Daniel, $120 for the lessons I intend to take, plus a little for food on the mountain) and we will buy a cash card with that full amount on it. In the end, we’ll be buying our passes for $150 each, my lessons for $90, and the overpriced food on the mountain for an amount that resembles a fair price. Sure, we have to plunk down $450 upfront, but we save a full $150 just by planning ahead.

The moral of this story? Whether you’re talking health care or retirement or recreation, you can often save a lot by paying upfront—so make it a priority to have the necessary short-term savings available.

Related Link: cash advance quick payday loan applications

CiN Weekly has a short article on “Frugal & fresh” weddings. Frankly, I think they have a different idea of frugal than I do (they highlight a dress by a “lesser-known designer” for $875 retail; that’s a large chunk of the entire cost of my wedding). But they have some ideas that might be helpful, especially those who think that a wedding has to be expensive. I think the best aspect of the article is that it will hopefully inspire some creative, out-of-the-box kind of thinking—the kind of thinking that can save a bundle.

A while ago, I came across a store on eBay that interested me: The Organic Vanilla Bean Company. I added them to my favorite eBay sellers, and that was the extent of our relationship… until now.

In case you don’t know, vanilla beans are expensive. I thought the prices were kind of outrageous until I read about what’s actually involved in raising and harvesting vanilla beans… it involves precise timing and hand pollinating, if that give you any idea, so the cost is reflecting the work involved. I have a single vanilla bean stored in my pantry right now (a cool, dark place, you know). I’m afraid to use it. I keep thinking, “What if I use it and the recipe turns out lousy? I’ll have squandered my one vanilla bean.” Because at $8/bean or whatever, it’s not like I’m going to be buying more on a regular basis.

Last week I received the periodic eBay email featuring “Your Favorite Sellers”… and saw that The Organic Vanilla Bean Company had just listed some beans. I was feeling adventurous, so I thought, what the heck, and bid on one lot. It was a quarter-pound of 6-7″ grade A Tahitian vanilla beans, and the shipping was $3. A quarter-pound of that size is about 30 beans. I decided to bid something so ridiculously low that if I won the auction, it would be clear that God Himself wanted me to have those vanilla beans. So I bid a very random $6.38, and left for the weekend.

Imagine my surprise when I returned and found that I’d been offered a “Second Chance Offer” at my bid price! I didn’t hesitate. 30 vanilla beans for less than $10, shipped? Sign me up!

The point of this entry? Consider buying your gourmet food on eBay. You might save a bundle.

Meal plans are your friends. What is a meal plan? I guess the definition of “meal planning” is simply investing a little time in advance (listing out the food you’ll use in a given time period) to save time and money later.

In particular, you’ll save time by not wondering what to make for dinner each evening (while standing in front of an uninspiring open refrigerator); you’ll save time when you shop because you’ll know exactly what you need; you’ll save money by buying only what you need and not wasting money on things that go bad before you use them. Now that we’re all singing the praises of meal plans, let’s get down to nuts and bolts.
Read the rest of this entry »