Monthly Archives: October 2008

TGIF Link Round Up – Halloween Edition

Happy Halloween! On the right are the pumpkins we carved last weekend. The scared one on the right was mine. Sorry about the crummy quality. I just grabbed the camera and snapped a picture for posterity. :)

Tony and I have a full night of scary movies and popcorn ahead of us tonight! But first a link round up!

I hosted the Festival of Frugality this week, and it has an appropriately spooky theme. If you haven’t had a chance to browse the best of frugal blogging this week, I suggest you check it out. Lots of great ideas!

And here are my favorite posts from my reader this week:

  • Lynnae at Being Frugal shares her frugal moving tips. We’re already looking ahead to our next move in a year and a half, and I’ll definitely keep these ideas in mind.
  • Mercedes at Common Sense with Money crunches the numbers and uncovers the real cost of layaway offers. Yikes! Very timely as many retailers bring this practice back.
  • Paid Twice offers an interesting perspective about dieting and food costs. I find that one of the number one ways to reduce the food budget is avoiding overeating.

I hope all of you enjoy your Halloween tonight! Be safe and have fun!

Frugal ways to keep warm without turning up the furnace

Photo by mharvey75

Lately the blogosphere has been abuzz with tips for reducing heating costs while staying warm this winter. Kacie at Sense to Save wrote a pretty complete list of tips to beat cold this winter. I recommend you check out her post, but first here are some extra tips from me for staying warm in the house without turning up the heat.

While I live in a pretty warm climate, the temperature does drop to 30 degrees or so in the evening, sometimes lower at night. What I really want is a cozy fireplace, but we don’t have one of those. We were able to stay pretty cozy without one last winter, even with the thermostat set at 60 degrees.

If you live in a colder climate, you might not be able to keep your thermostat that low. Find your personal limit — the temperature where you’re a little chilly, but not endangering yourself, your family, or your pets. Bundle up with some warm clothes, socks, and slippers.

Still cold? Then use these tips to warm up:

Exercise!

Get up and get moving! When I get cold in the evenings, I throw on a sweater and do some yoga. Physical activity stimulates blood circulation, keeping you warmer. It’s also good for you, and it’ll keep those extra pounds from creeping up during the cold winter months.

Dress your bed for the weather.

Invest in a down comforter and warm flannel sheets. A down comforter can be a big initial investment, but with proper care it will offer years of warmth with lower thermostat temperatures. Down alternative is just as warm for a lower price. Our down comforter was a gift, so it cost us nothing. And it keeps us toasty all night even though our bedroom is the coldest room in the apartment.

Invite your pets to snuggle with you.

Animals emit a remarkable amount of body heat. My dog is like a little mini furnace. Whenever I’m chilly, I invite him onto the couch or bed to snuggle with me. We keep each other warm, so I don’t have to worry that the apartment is too chilly for him. It’s win-win.

Add a little extra warmth.

I love the idea of the homemade heating pad. Unfortunately, I don’t have a microwave. So I just use a plain old heating pad under my blanket set on low. It’s like a little mini electric blanket. I feel like it would be overkill if I was covered up completely with an electric blanket, but a little heating pad provides just enough warmth without overheating me. Sure, it uses a little electricity, but not as much as the furnace would use pumping heat throughout the apartment.

Sometimes when my husband’s feeling extra sweet he’ll lay the heating pad on my side of the bed and turn it on while I’m getting ready for bed. My side of the bed is all warmed up by the time I lie down! Isn’t he sweet?

Quilt.

I’ve taken up hand quilting in the past few months, and it’s really one of the best ways to stay warm on a cold evening. It gives me something to focus on, keeps me moving, and best of all I have a cozy quilt covering my lap while I work.

Take a long, hot bath.

When all else fails, I run a bath as hot as I can stand it, close the bathroom door to trap the heat, and soak until I feel warm. When I get out of the tub, I dry off completely and bundle up in cozy clothes before I open the bathroom door. Usually I head straight to bed and snuggle with my husband under the down comforter. Honestly, though, if the bath water is hot enough, the cold air feels great when I open the bathroom door.

Sip a glass of red wine.

Not only will it warm you up and put a little color in your cheeks, but red wine is actually good for your health in moderation. Not to mention tasty and relaxing. :)

Classic frugal mistakes newbies make

I’ve learned a lot of lessons and made plenty of mistakes over the years. If you don’t do it right, frugality can actually end up costing you money or alienating people around you.

Here are some common frugal mistakes. Some of them I’ve made myself, some of them I’m seen others make, but all of them offer important lessons about frugal living.

1. Buying something just because it’s on sale.

It’s easy to get caught up in the mark-down of a sale item. If an item’s regular price is much higher than the sale price, it’s tempting to convince yourself that it’s a good deal. But if you don’t really need the item — if you’re only buying it because it’s marked down — then you’re actually losing money. Just because the item is 50% off doesn’t necessarily mean you can’t find it cheaper somewhere else, either. This is particularly important to remember as we head into the major post-Thanksgiving, pre-Christmas sales.

2. Compromising quality for a lower price.

I’m not talking about the subtle quality difference between name brands and generics. Most frugal folks don’t even notice a difference in that case. I’m talking about buying junk to save money. I learned this lesson the hard way when I bought ink cartridges through an online retailer, and they didn’t work. I ended up getting a refund, but the point is that I wasted a lot of time and energy on junky cartridges to save only a few dollars.

The tricky part is that it’s hard to know whether you’re buying junk or not until you’ve tried it. The best you can do is educate yourself on products and their low-cost alternatives, seek out reviews, and try to be sure you’re getting quality products at a low price. In the end, though, it takes a lot of trial and error to find a balance between quality and price. Make sure you’re not gambling on big ticket items, though.

3. Not budgeting for surprises or irregular expenses.

I love zero-based budgeting. The only problem is that it’s very easy to assign all of your income to various expenses without leaving room for irregular expenses like oil changes for the car, haircuts, or gifts. These are expenses that don’t qualify as emergencies, but don’t really fit anywhere in the monthly budget. I’ve only been sticking to a budget for about three months now, but every single month something comes up that I wasn’t expecting or that I forgot to add.

I handle it by planning for certain expenses, like car maintenance and haircuts, by putting aside a few dollars every month. I also try to leave about 5% of our income for “miscellaneous expenses.” This doesn’t always work out, but it’s a good goal to strive for. If you don’t use the money by the end of the money, throw it into savings or debt.

4. Being “cheap.”

There’s a big difference between being frugal and being cheap. To me, the difference is in the effect your behavior has on others. Frugality should never come at the expense of others. The most obvious examples of cheap behavior are stiffing a good waiter to keep a restaurant bill low or showing up to a dinner party empty handed to avoid spending money on a bottle of wine or dessert dish. There’s a good reason that cheap has a such a negative connotation.

Besides, the way I see it, frugality is a fun game. I’m constantly challenging myself to find clever ways to live well and give more to the world around me without spending a lot of money. Being cheap is cheating. Where’s the fun in that?

5. Depriving yourself.

The most important lesson I’ve learned is that frugality is a lot like dieting — if you’re too extreme, you’re probably not going to succeed. Frugality isn’t about deprivation. There are certainly sacrifices involved, but it’s important to make sure you’re not completely depriving yourself of the little things in life that makes you happy. For me, that means treating ourselves to a restaurant meal once a month, budgeting $50 a month for entertainment, and finding frugal ways to continue our favorite hobbies.

Festival of Frugality #149: Monster Mash Edition!

In honor of Fright Night on Friday, this week’s Festival of Frugality pays homage to famous Halloween monsters. Enjoy!

Editor’s Picks:

Naturally Frugal shares some ideas for saving money by taking proper care of your body, possessions and the environment. It really is true that an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure.

Finding Financial Peace presents a guide to making after-holiday sales work for you. With a little advanced planning, you can get some great deals on holiday items for next year.

Sound Money Matters shares 7 homemade Christmas gifts that don’t suck. These are great ideas for cutting holiday gift expenses without cutting important people from your list.

Christian Personal Finance tested whether driving slower increases gas mileage. The results are pretty amazing.

Money Ning questions whether buying in bulk really saves money or just ends up costing you more. Definitely an interesting perspective.

Frugal Living

The Part-Time Life conserves water and saves $180 a year by taking advantage of her city’s low-usage rate. Definitely worth checking to see if your city offers a program like this.

Economic Crunch offers tips for cheap eats at work. Lunches out are a drain on your wallet and your health. These are some great tips for avoiding it.

Financial Tales shares a fun story about teaching young people the value of frugality by explaining how much their monthly Starbucks expense could grow if invested.

Higher Education Weblog offers a lengthy list of tips for cutting discretionary expenses. This is a great place to start if you’re just getting into frugality.

Monroe on a Budget shares frugal living tasks you can do while waiting for your kids at dance class. It’s always a good idea to be productive, right?

Miss Thrifty offers a glowing endorsement for Freecycle. I’ve never tried it, but this post certainly makes me want to.

Think Your Way to Wealth shares some great tips for saving money on pet expenses. Pets can definitely be expensive, and these are some practical ideas for cutting the costs.

Frugal Fu passes along a link to the $2 challenge, which asks the question, “Could you eat on $2 a day?”

Saving Advice offers tips on how to live like a “freegan” — someone who only pays for things when he absolutely can’t find a way to get them free. There are tips in here for everyone, even if you’re not that extreme.

FIRE Finance provides a practical guide for generic prescription drugs. I honestly don’t understand why anyone would buy the pricier brand name drugs if there’s a generic available.

Financial Wellness Project writes about 6 lessons from a frugal past. I think we’ve all developed our frugal habits from past experiences, whether they were positive or negative.

Engineer a Debt Free Life finds enough food to make 29 meals just by going through the pantry. Amazing what you’ll find in there once you start organizing.

Nature Mom’s Blog shares a review and thoughts on the book, “America’s Cheapest Family.” I haven’t read the book yet, but it looks like it’s full of helpful tips.

Home

Master Your Card presents the benefits of renting. People are in such a hurry to buy a home, but I agree with this post. There are some great benefits to renting until you can afford to buy a home the right way.

Condo Blues shares a handy tip for making moth repelling lavendar sachets. These natural pest repellants are frugal, easy, and environmentally friendly.

Passive Family Income offers tips for decorating with tropical plants the frugal way. Plants really are an inexpensive way to beautify your home. If only I could keep them alive!

On a Quest to be Debt Free shares some ideas for frugal, easy bedroom makeovers. I could definitely use some help with this myself!

Funny about Money shares tips for winter gardening. I’ve had some bad luck with gardening in the past, but maybe these tips will help me out!

Frugal Pursuit is also thinking gardening. She shares her own frugal tips for autumn gardening.

HowToMe shares a delicious recipe for banana cake “so good it doesn’t even need frosting.” Yum!

Budgeting, Saving, and Investing

Budgets are Sexy asks, “Do you feel guilty for using your emergency fund?” I would definitely be hesitant to move money from my emergency fund, but that’s what it’s there for, right?

Raag Vamdatt shares a guide for auto sweep facility investing for higher-interest savings. Seems like a great way to earn a higher interest on your liquid savings.

Shark Investor offers timeless tips for successful investing even in a down economy.

Career

Free Money Finance discusses the importance of job interview preparation and practice. You can never be too prepared for a job interview, especially in this economy.

Debt

FruGal asks, “Is there such a thing as good debt?” Personally, I think there’s only bad debt (credit cards, etc.) and tolerable debt (such as mortgages). But I’d rather avoid debt all together.

Ask Mr. Credit Card reviews “The Complete Guide to Credit Repair.” Seems like a good read for those in need of help with bad credit.

Miscellaneous Money Matters

Living Almost Large explores the pros and cons of contracts. I agree with this post; as long as both parties understand the terms of the contract, then it’s not necessarily a bad thing. But it can certainly be a hassle.

I hope you all enjoyed Festival of Frugality #149! If your post was included, please remember to link back within the next week.

Happy Halloween!

Reduce your energy costs this fall with these tools

Photo by lollyknit

With the weather turning colder, high heating costs are on everyone’s minds, especially this year with energy costs higher than ever and the economy struggling.

The obvious frugal hacks are sweaters, socks, and low thermostat settings. Personally, I love chilly temperatures. There’s nothing cozier than snuggling under a blanket with some hot cocoa or tea bundled up in my warmest clothes. I gladly keep my thermostat at 60 degrees all year.

But keeping the thermostat low isn’t enough if your home isn’t energy efficient. How can you be sure you’re as efficient as possible when it comes to energy consumption? Here are some handy tools to help determine your energy rating.

• This fun, Halloween-themed Google energy tool shows you the frightening amount of money you could be spending on unnecessary energy expenses.

• Give yourself a home energy audit. Determine how efficient your home is, and how much you could save with upgrades.

• Find out how much your appliances cost or compare the cost of regular lightbulbs to CFLs with these calculators.

• Finally, if you’re looking to make changes, the U.S. Department of Energy offers tips at their website to cut energy consumption (and costs) for everything from winter heating to fuel costs.

Now is the time to make your home more energy efficient if you want to save money all winter. Don’t wait until the temperature falls below 0 to start saving money!

Menu Plan Monday & Grocery Round Up – 10/25-10/31

We really tried to keep our grocery costs to a minimum this week. As we approach the end of the month, it’s looking like we’re going to be a bit over budget, mostly due to some meals out when we were traveling the first weekend in October. We tried to minimize the overage by keeping costs low this final week in the month.

Overall we did really well. Our total was about $56, but then the cashier informed me that I had earned enough rewards points to take an additional $5 off my total. I don’t completely understand their rewards program yet, but $5 off sounded great to me, especially this week. So our actual total was $51. That should help us stick closer to our budget.

And now for this week’s menu plan. We’re craving hearty fall foods since the weather has finally cooled off.

Sunday: Chicken and dumplings
Monday: Spinach pesto & angel hair pasta (We’re just going to serve the pesto over pasta instead of serving it over chicken as the recipe suggests)
Tuesday: Sandwiches/leftovers
Wednesday: Three-bean vegetarian chili
Thursday: Baked potatoes with broccoli and cheese
Friday: Homemade pizza

We can’t wait to try out our new knives tonight when we’re chopping all the veggies for the chicken and dumplings!

Check out more menu plans at OrgJunkie!

Saying “yes” to an extravagant purchase for a great price

In August, Tony and I spotted a deal on cookware that was almost too good to be true. Originally priced at $200, the set was 50% off. We’d been looking for cookware for some months, and the amount of cooking we do would have made it a great investment. But we walked away from it to avoid blowing our first successful budget. In hindsight, I think we made the right choice.

Today, we stopped in at the Linens ‘n Things liquidation sale. I wasn’t expecting to find anything great. Last time we were in there, I wasn’t impressed. In my opinion, their prices were so inflated in the first place that even on sale they were still too expensive. But some weeks have passed, and the prices have been lowered even more.

The shelves were almost completely empty today. For the most part, I wasn’t impressed with what was left. Until I wandered over to the knives.

We have a knife set that we received as a Christmas gift a couple years ago. Unfortunately, the knives haven’t aged well. Some of the handles are even starting to rust. We rarely use them anymore.

Instead, we use a Chef’s knife that I bought Tony for Christmas last year. It was a fantastic deal at $25. It’s been a great knife, but it’s starting to dull. Though it’s a wonderful knife for what we paid, Tony has always wanted a high-quality knife set.

Today on the bottom shelf of the locked cabinet, we found a J.A. Henckels knife set marked down from $160 to $100. It was marked down an additional 20% off the liquidated price because it was missing the kitchen shears.

For $80, we got an extremely high-quality knife set including a Chef’s knife, paring knife, serrated utility knife, santoku knife, honing steel, and wooden storage block.

We decided a while ago that we wouldn’t buy a big knife set. Though our previous set had 10 knives, we never used most of them. Instead, we decided to buy a small set with just the knives we need so we could afford higher quality knives. This new set includes all the knives we use and none of the unnecessary knives that we won’t. Because they’re top quality they’ll last us for years.

The best part? Tony used $50 he received as a birthday gift last month to cover most of the cost. Since we never included that $50 in our regular budget, we’re only paying $30 out of our regular budget for these knives. To me, this is the kind of deal that’s too good to pass up.

If there’s a Linens ‘n Things closing in your area, I recommend you check out the deals. Even if you’ve already been there and you weren’t impressed, now might be the time to take advantage of lower prices as they try to clear out the store.

Just make sure you only purchase items you really need. Even an extreme clearance price is too high if you don’t need the item.

A fabulous, frugal (free!) date

Tonight, Tony and I wanted to get out of the house, but our budget is pretty tight this month. Armed with some coupons, we headed out to have some fun without spending any money.

First, we headed to the mall where I redeemed a coupon for a free pair of underwear from Victoria’s Secret. Honestly, I haven’t made a charge on the card in probably close to a year (other an $2 and some change to buy some mascara purchased with a $10 off coupon. Long story short, I had to use the card to redeem the coupon). They just keep sending me coupons for free stuff. It’s a-ok with me! I rarely have to spend a dime to redeem the coupons, and when I do it’s just a dollar or two for some underwear, makeup, or lotion. Fine by me.

I also planned to redeem a coupon for a free diffusor starter set from Bath and Body Works that’s been floating around the frugal blogosphere. I first saw it at BeCentsAble, I think (linked above). Unfortunately, when I clicked on the link to print the coupon today, I got a message that said the offer was expired. Bummer, especially since the coupon wasn’t supposed to expire until next month! Lesson learned – from now on I’ll print the coupons right away when I see something good!

Finally, we stopped by Barnes and Noble where we browsed some books and redeemed this coupon for a free coffee at the Barnes and Noble Starbucks cafe that I picked up at Nothern Cheapskate and Sense to Save.

We had a great night, and we didn’t spend a single cent! I love frugal dates. :)

TGIF Link Round Up: Finally Fall Edition

It’s been awhile since I did a round-up! First we were out of town, then celebrating my birthday, and last weekend I was just being lazy. I’ll be hosting next week’s Festival of Frugality (yikes), so I wanted to make sure I was current on my reader and in the loop in the frugal blogosphere!

With the temperature FINALLY cooling off, I’m ready for a weekend of fun fall activities. We’re carving pumpkins, making cider, and celebrating the fact that the air conditioner has finally shut off for good this year. I’m looking forward to seeing our electric bill cut in half for the next few months!

And now on to the round up!

  • Kelly at Almost Frugal shared some great frugal pet tips. This is a topic close to my heart. I think it’s important for people to recognize that a pet is a big financial commitment, but like all other things in life, there’s definitely a frugal way to do it!
  • Kacie at Sense to Save wrote a fun post on varying degrees of frugality. I guess it all depends on how extreme you want to be! I usually find myself somewhere in the middle of the scale.

I hope you all enjoy a beautiful fall weekend! Happy Friday!