Showcase: You! week 6 – win a free book!
Last time I asked for your favorite frugal site.
Moneysaving Mom received votes from Jamie, Dana, and Amy @ The Q Family. Others mentioned Frugal Dad, Get Rich Slowly, Engineer a Debt Free Life, and Refund Cents.
Was your favorite site missing from the list? Add it!
Question of the week:
What was your worst or craziest frugal idea?
Let's hear it: give us your best story! The commentor with the worst/craziest idea will win a free gently used copy of the worst/craziest frugal book I've ever owned, by the tightwad twins, Ann Fox Chodakowski and Susan Fox Wood.
After one look at the cover, my daughter decided that no matter how much money the ladies save in other areas, they spend far too much on makeup.
I think paying $4.99 for this book was my worst frugal idea ever. Check out these tips:
- Use spray adhesive to cover a worn out desk pad and press a towel on top of it. It's the perfect size! While you're at it, hang the towelling as an accent wall covering between the shelves. (huh? glue a towel on my desk to make it look better? that must be one ugly desk.)
- Send Christmas postcards instead of a card that carries the full price of a stamp. (Because some friends and family just aren't special enough to entice us to blow 44 cents all at once.)
- Sand in a stand-up ashtray for inside or outside use is safer from fire and is cleaner and more convenient for the smoker. (A stand-up ashtray also adds a certain "don't care what people think" charm to the living room, don't you think?)
- Paint concrete blocks a bright color and stack with holes in front to organize office supplies, magazines, files. Top the two stacks with a board or door to make a desk. (Who needs Pottery Barn when we can decorate with neon green concrete?)
Leave your worst or craziest idea in the comments to get a shot at winning this classic for yourself. It would look great on a toilet tank converted into an end table.
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9 Responses to “Showcase: You! week 6 – win a free book!”
July 31st, 2008 at 9:49 am
Similar story, but not as bad.
When I first researched paying debt and living frugally I went to the bookstore and bought some books on the subject.
After reading them I went DUH ! Why didn’t I just go borrow them from the library for FREE!
Live and learn. Frugal living is truly a journey, not just a destination.
July 31st, 2008 at 12:17 pm
OH MY GOODNESS. I’m completely flabbergasted by those suggestions. I might have to check this out from the library just for the laugh value.
I’ve never done anything nearly that crazy in the search of frugality. My worst idea so far has been selling used clothes on eBay. I quickly learned that though used clothes come free or cheap, the profit margin is very small. Now I wish I’d started a lemonade stand instead of acquiring a pile of dusty clothes. Ick!
July 31st, 2008 at 2:04 pm
sadly enough, the concrete blocks and paint probably cost more than the cheap office supply and magazine holders they are supposed to replace. beyond just being tacky. lol
July 31st, 2008 at 4:27 pm
I haven’t done anything too crazy, maybe a little dumpster diving but only if I see something good sitting on top and only where I live like an apartment or dorm. I have heard about really nasty stuff like couples sharing and reusing dental floss, ick!!! Unsanitary and plain gross stuff that I would never recommend!
I guess if you’re artistic and a DIY, you can make or recycle alot of stuff into other useable stuff but I’m just not that creative or good at making and repairing things!
July 31st, 2008 at 5:50 pm
Well, this is perhaps not appallingly stupid, but I did get miffed at one frugal gardener experiment this spring:
I folded old newspaper into cups to start some of my plants in, but ended up having to water constantly because the paper wicked the water out of the soil.
Same thing with the recycled egg carton seed starting experiment, though I think it would have worked if I had used styrofoam cartons. (Which I won’t buy, so I guess that’s a no go.)
Anyway, in this case, frugality with an environmentally conscious twist just ended up wasting more water and time and making puny plants.
Se la vie.
July 31st, 2008 at 11:05 pm
Mine’s a c’est la vie, too, Rachel, with plants. I don’t know how many times I’ve bought seed packets with the idea of having a flourishing vegetable garden, and just haven’t managed to get around to doing anything about it. Mice have, though, they’ve loved the seeds I stored so thoughtfully for them in the garage.
When I have planted, it’s usually been in the wrong spot. We live close to the sea, and my one coriander plant that came up following all of the seeds I finally planted, was mown down by either the salt, the wind or the molluscs that every gardener enjoys squishing.
On weird, though, I was travelling interstate by train some years ago, and it was an old carriage with window blinds that were metal anchored at the base. So of course the rotten thing would squeal as the train moved along the track. I was travelling economy, on an overnight trip. Not much joy in snoozing there. What to do, what to do?
Brilliant, but weird idea! Went to the community bathroom at the end of the carriage, borrowed the bar of soap (obviously before the liquid stuff came in, so good for hygiene, yummy!)and rubbed it along either side of the tracks of the blind.
Soap is, after all, mainly grease. Worked a charm.
Dominus tecum
Leonie
Warrnambool
Australia
August 1st, 2008 at 12:48 am
A (former) boss decided that we were all using too much toilet paper. In a cost cutting effort, he assigned us FIVE SQUARES of toilet paper per day. He kept it near his desk, and we had to ASK for our allotment.
I ended up bringing my own and keeping it in my (rather large) purse. But I wonder if he’s ever recovered from the lecture I gave him about messing with a pregnant woman’s restroom privileges.
August 1st, 2008 at 7:47 pm
I have killed many an herb plant in my day. They look so lovely and frugal there at the farmer’s market or nursery.
And they die a horrible death at my hands.
So I sadly turn to McCormick’s overpriced teeny bottles.
August 2nd, 2008 at 2:50 pm
Some things I used to do frugal no longer are practical because times have changed,but here is one done by my roomate and I .We wanted to save toilet paper and had been brought up that you wrapped used sanitary napkins in toilet paper.This was in the 80s’ when they were not sold pre wrapped.We took the old phonebook pages and wrapped them up with them!
The ink I used to get on my hands!
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