frugal underground

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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!

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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.

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The central focus of the FreebieCreditReport.com site is, not surprisingly, credit reports. When I first visited the site, the thing that caught my eye was “Herbie,” a nerdy-looking guy that makes me think of that guy that’s always yelling obnoxiously about free grants (I can’t remember his name for the life of me!). Not necessarily the best first impression, but at least there’s no obnoxious yelling.

Next to Herbie is a central offer of the site: answer 10 simple questions and get an estimate of your credit score. I couldn’t remember all of the exact information requested, but I’m pretty sure my guesses were close, and sure enough, Herbie gave me an estimate of my credit score. Handy!

The only thing is, I have no idea how accurate it is, because the last time I knew my actual credit score was in 2002 when we bought our house (that’s the last time it’s actually mattered to me for financing purposes). Herbie’s numbers were about 75 points lower than my 2002 number, but that’s likely the result of my credit card games (signing up for the joining incentives, then closing the account, etc.).

One thing that seemed oddly missing from the results page was any indication of how good or bad my credit score is. There is a link in the sidebar to an informative article about credit scores, but it’s not linked from the results themselves and is kind of hard to spot. It would probably be more useful if the link was prominently displayed with the results, or better yet, the results included some kind of relative assessment like “above average” or “excellent” or “needs work”.

The revenue model for the site seems to be passing visitors on to sites that will (eventually) charge them money, and pay a commission to FreebieCreditReport.com. This is a very popular business model for financial sites, and FreebieCreditReport.com does a good job by providing useful information on their site, particularly the articles on the sidebar. If you’re looking for clear explanations of credit-related concepts, their articles are very helpful.

If you follow the links through to MyFICO or the other partners, read the fine print carefully. Many of these services will give you a free report but automatically enroll you in a subscription to their services. Make sure you know what you’re signing up for. If you just want a general idea of your likely credit score, FreebieCreditReport.com is a good resource.

This is a sponsored review, but the editorial content has not been altered in any way for payment.

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One of the new kids on the block in regards to frugal blogs is Frugal Mania, located at www.frugalmania.com. This website is a part of the 451 Press network, an ever-expanding presence on the Internet that now boasts over 300 blogs. Frugal Mania is run by Allison Goines, who is a “student, homemaker and mother of three,” according to to her bio on the site. This site started just in July, but already, they are dishing out new tips at an amazing rate. This is one site that you never have to worry about stale content–it’s updated almost every day, and sometimes many times a day.

There are a number of awesome hints at Frugal Mania, and Allison seems to have a knack for uncovering other helpful sites as well that can be of service in all parts of our lives to help us save money. Some of my favorite posts from the past few weeks include The Top Ten Money Drains, Frugal and Green, and Net Worth.

My one criticism of the site would be that her posts don’t really have a lot of depth. The blog itself isn’t really “fun” to read–it’s more like a list of money-saving tips. However, this can be a good thing as well. I don’t have to shuffle through lots of personal stories, opinion pieces, and irrelevant posts. I can log online, read a few quick tips for the day, and be on my way. For someone who doesn’t have a lot of time to spend learning about ways to save money, sites like Allison’s are a godsend.

What will she come up with tomorrow? Who knows…but I’ll be at her blog, reading it to find out the latest and greatest money saving tip she finds!

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Photo by JonDays

Do you like to take road trips with your family? Does anyone ever complain about their neck hurting? I’m sure that you have seen those comfortable-looking neck pillows that are made for travel. If not, I should tell you that they can be a bit expensive for a pillow. Here is a way that you can provide some comfort without spending the extra money on the luxury.

Use the material from old clothing as the outside of the pillow. Sew the sides into the shape of a pillow, but be sure to leave a whole open to stuff the pillow. You can shape it to be a square, rectangle, or the U shape that neck pillows come in. You can also add a zipper, or use the zipper from the item of clothing you are using, so you can empty it for a wash in the machine.

You can use other pieces of old clothing, rice, collections of lint from the dryer, beans, or cotton balls to fill the pillows.

Once the pillow is stuffed to your liking, seal the opening.

That’s all there is to it. Be creative. It is a fun and easy project!

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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.

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The Frugal Duchess says of herself, “I’m another spoiled writer, with fine tastes and a small budget.” Sounds like my kind of girl! The Duchess’ real name is Sharon Harvey Rosenberg, and her website, found at sharonhr.blogspot.com, is one of the blogs on the ‘net if you’re interested in money-saving tips. The tagline? “A fun, frugal & fashionable way to save money & live well.” After checking out her site, I think that this tagline is extremely fitting.

One of the best things about the Frugal Duchess and her blog is her ability to make a boring subject interesting. For example, when writing a post on money management, she cites her kids’ lemonade stand and talks about the need to love what you do, plan for the rough times, and market yourself.

Her posts are also easy to read, because she organizes them in quick-to-scan bullet points. For example, in her post about Converting Clutter into Space, Tim & Money, Sharon takes six tips and teaches readers to cut clutter using resource links and step-by-step instructions.

If I had to say anything bad about the Frugal Duchess and her blog, I’d be hard pressed to give my critical comments. She does repeat the information about her different shops and books at the end of each post, which gets a little repetitive when you’re scrolling through the great content, so these things would better serve as a sidebar. However, I’m willing to overlook this because the posts she makes are thought provoking and original.

I’d recommend Sharon’s blog to anyone who lives the frugal lifestyle! I can’t wait to see the next piece of advice she has for those of us concerned with saving money.

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You might be throwing away things that you could use again. There are plenty of created ways to make treasure out of your trash. Here are a few ideas:

Use your old mustard or ketchup squeeze bottles as a cake decorating tube.

Use a cardboard box and manila folders for a filing system.

Give the stuffing paper from purses, book-bags or shoes to the kids for drawing paper.

Photo by HagitR

You can use a shoe box as a place to keep your incoming mail.

Keep old book bags, as long as they don’t have holes. You can use them for day trips, or a flight carry-on.

Use paper and plastic bags from the grocery store as garbage bags. You can also reuse the bags to carry new groceries. (Some stores will give you a $0.02 credit for each reused bag.)

Use the Styrofoam from packages to create a model size snow town for your kids’ little toy characters.

The possibilities are endless! Be creative!

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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.

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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!

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