Frugal Hacks » guest posts

Tips for Moms to Reduce Expenses

guest — Sat, 10 Oct 2009 16:00:30 +0000

Moms are most often the bill-payer, grocery shopper, budget monitor, and chef, so we need to learn how to scale back whenever and wherever possible. By following these basic and easy tips, moms can greatly reduce their monthly expenses. Many of these areas we take for granted every day and don’t give second thought about – but with a little more consideration, these are all areas that you could reduce your expenses:

Breakfast at Home

Make your own coffee and breakfast in the morning; don’t buy it. Spending $6 every morning at McDonalds or Starbucks doesn’t sound like much but that equals $2,190 a year…per person. This may require splurging on a coffee maker with a timer, but all that’s required of you is the water, coffee and filter the night before. Some fancy models have permanent filters– no paper filters needed- and some offer insulated travel mugs for your convenience.

Lunch at Work or School

Pack your own lunch with drinks and don’t buy them everyday. If you are spending $10 or more every work day for lunch, drinks and snacks, that racks up a whopping $2,700 a year. Just think of all the deli meats, wheat bread, and fresh fruit that can buy! This includes dad and the kids’ lunches; insulated lunch boxes are sold everywhere in designs to please everyone, even dad.

Transportation

Inner city or suburb residents can change their mode of transportation; consider carpooling, bus, subway, walking, or scooter.

Dinners

Plan dinners a week in advance. Put your slow cooker and microwave to good use. For small families or singles, a toaster over uses considerably less electric than a conventional oven. Take a Sunday afternoon doing nothing but semi-preparing for that week’s meals, such as chopping vegetables or frying burger. You can save even more time, money, and sanity by preparing some meals to freeze. Moms, you should also consider serving your kids Koolaid instead of those sugar-laden, ten-percent-juice-drinks. You’ll save money and your kids’ teeth.

Reduce Your Heat

Turn down heat, buy some slippers, put on your hoodie, and then keep your heat below 74 degrees Fahrenheit and the air conditioning above 77 degrees Fahrenheit.

Reconsider Cable Television

Choose the smallest satellite or cable package. Reassess how much TV you actually watch and you may decide to cancel all together. Why spend $60 a month on something you seldom use when you can save $720 a year?

Remember the Library

Utilize your local library – where else can you rent a movie for a week, free of charge?

Get Rid of Junk

Reorganize, have a yard sale, then use the cash to pay bills.

Stop Paying for Unnecessary Electricity

Unplug what’s not in use – charges, printers, radios, electronic games. These items all pull electricity even when turned off if you leave them plugged in. Try plugging things into a power strip and hitting the “off” button whenever you're not using them.

Debbie Dragon is a freelance writer providing articles for Billeater.com, a site that helps its readers save money, with unique money saving tips and tricks for your busy lifestyle.

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Ways to get free food

guest — Wed, 30 Sep 2009 11:51:03 +0000

a guest post from the Frugal Fraulein

Being the Frugal Fraulein that I am, the word free gives me tingles. This is my favorite time of year. The gardens are calling to be harvested, the trees are laden with fruit, the fish are moving up the streams and the deer and elk are fattening up in orchards and berry thickets. I hear the sound of plink, plink, plink in my head while I have visions of full canning jars filled with free food.
Did you pick up on the word free? Yes, this time of year there is free food everywhere I look. I happen to be among the 9.7% officially unemployed but no boo hoo hoo from me. I have stored food as a way of life for years and live simply.
Let me share with you some ways to get free food.

Be observant. All year I keep my eyes open for fruit trees and easy access berry thickets on the side of the road and in yards. It is fairly simple to tell which homes are probably not picking their fruit because it is still hanging on the trees. If the tree sits in a yard, I stop and knock on the door and politely ask if I might pick some fruit in exchange for either leaving some picked fruit on their doorstep or bringing back some canned items. I have never had anyone say no to me in all the years I have done this. Right now I am watching a plum, apple, Bartlett pear, Asian pear, crab apple and elderberry trees for the right moment to pick. I have already picked all sorts of wild berries and blue berries. In the Pacific Northwest if you do not pick free blackberries there is something wrong with you!
My supplies are always in the car. I have a couple of “pickers on a stick” and tubs for large fruit and stainless steel bowls, zip lockable bags, hand held pruners and hand wipes for berries. A picker on a stick is simple to make. A bleach bottle is cut and bolted to a broom handle. This tool allows you to reach higher and pull the fruit off the tree without having it fall and get bruised. Two Christmas’s ago a commercially produced fruit picker was given to me which I also like. I also have a hands free container which is a coffee can that has a wire coat hanger that hooks over the top of my pants.

I always clean up the area where I pick as a service to the homeowner and rake up the drops and deposit them on their compost pile. There are a few homes that actually look forward to my annual visit. I don’t know why they don’t seem to want any canned items but I don’t argue because that is more for me. They just don’t know what they are missing! All for free.

Put the word out. Tell everyone you know you are willing and very happy to take their year end produce. Towards the end of the season some folks are tired of zucchini boats, cabbage that might have some brown leaves or slug trails, too many tomatoes or cucumbers or can’t bear the thought of picking any more beans. I volunteer to clean out the garden and take home the left over produce. I put up signs, let church going friends know, club members, post signs on Craigslist and at supermarkets and am not bashful about putting the word out that I will take garden leftovers. All for free.
Make an exchange. This year I offered to advertise for a fellow with a produce stand near my home in exchange for produce. He called me when he had leftovers and I was able to either get them free or at a very low price. Daily these guys have to throw away perfectly good food. You are doing them a favor by cutting their disposal costs. This arrangement can be made with your local produce man as well. I have known people who said they were picking up produce for their chickens when they were really talking about kids, the human kind. All for free.
Gleaning. A friend of mine who happens to be a member of the L.D.S. church invited me to join a group of ladies that glean a corn farm annually. I thought I was bold taking two plastic tubs with me but to my surprise these ladies showed up with pickup trucks! It seems the farmer picks two to three times a season and the last of the corn is not worth his effort. Some is small but most was perfect. It is always an adventure to travel down the tall aisles of corn stalks looking for leftover ears of corn and smelling the sweet smell and hearing the fall crickets and birds chirping. We have always done this activity late in the day so the sun is setting and fall is in the air. Since my first experience I have picked corn, cucumbers and pumpkins as gleaning activities. Most often a percentage is brought to the local Food Bank so others are benefiting as well. All for free.
Barter. This year I bartered my canning experience for fresh tuna fish. A local fisherman brought 60 pounds of fish ready to go and I did the canning. Yes, it was labor intensive and time consuming but I now have jars of the most delicious tuna in my food storage that is not comparable to that stuff in the can from the supermarket. I also barter fresh salmon from a neighbor in exchange for babysitting and some extra camping equipment I had. The salmon is usually eaten fresh but I have canned it before. One year the local Native American Tribal caught more salmon than the market could handle and they put out the word to come and get it. I brought home about 15 very large salmon and canned it. This year I have posted ads for hunters to can meat in exchange for a percentage of the bounty. All for free.
Learn to forage. Take a class on foraging in your local area to learn which local plants are edible. Once you have a knowledge base of what is out there, you can go out and pick, pick, pick. Items can be canned, dehydrated or made into tinctures for healing nutritional purposes. This year I am picking wild elderberries to make a tincture. Elderberry tincture is good for the flu and since we are in a swine flu alert it is a great additive to anyone’s medical kit. I have foraged fiddleheads, many types of greens, mint, leaves for tea, wild onions, Oregon grapes, berries, mushrooms. All for free.

Are you getting the idea? Are you inspired? All of you who smart enough to be ants and not grasshoppers do not have to have huge reserves of cash to do food storage. Just be frugal, bold, and polite. Please follow my blog at http://frugalcanning.blogspot.com for more tips and articles on frugality.

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Bread Crumbs

DeputyHeadmistress — Fri, 29 May 2009 11:46:31 +0000

A friend wrote to ask if she could make bread crumbs even though she didn't have a food processor. Yes!!

I put dry bread in the blender. I have also put very dry bread (dried out in the oven if I need to) in a plastic bag and rolled it into crumbs with a rolling pin.

Where do I get the dried bread? I keep odds and ends of any old 'bread' items in my freezer. This can be, but it is not limited to: corn bread, sliced bread, biscuits, crackers, the last bit of chips in a bag, cereals that aren't too sweet- these all go into a sealed container (jar, bag, or plastic food saver) in the freezer.

Then, whenever I need bread crumbs or have a big enough batch of odds and ends to make it worth my time, I blend them and season them as desired and add them to the recipe. You can toast them in a skillet over a low fire with a bit of oil and herbs and spices for added flavor.

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How to Cut Costs, Even With Children Around

guest — Wed, 18 Mar 2009 21:52:09 +0000

If you belong to the DINK (double income, no kids for those in the dark) category, you’re likely to be envied by those parents with kids who’re trying really hard to provide a good life for themselves and their offspring. It’s an uphill task, no doubt, one that’s not made any easier with the rising cost of anything and everything that’s necessary for life. But there are ways to cut costs and save money, even with kids around, if you’re really willing to make the effort. Here’s what you need to do when you’re trying to manage kids, money and a household, and still come out with your sanity intact at the end of the day:

Talk to your kids about money: You need to get the message across about the importance of being frugal, about why they can’t have everything they want, especially if you’re a single parent or if both you and your spouse are working really hard and still finding it difficult to make ends meet. It is going to be hard, but you must remember that it’s never too early to start educating your children about the value of money and the necessity to save and put aside something for a rainy day. Most importantly, you need to make them understand that credit cards are not magic wands that can be waved as and when you need money, and that they’re in fact tricky objects that need to be used with care if you don’t want to find yourself neck-deep in debt.
Lead by example: Your kids are not going to heed the “we need to cut down on expenses” pep talk if you go around using your credit card in an irresponsible manner and splurging on salon visits, new clothes, shoes or anything else that’s not food or basic necessities. You need to show your children the way to live, you need to lead by example to get the to develop healthy money habits from the time they’re old enough to understand that it doesn’t grow on trees and that they cannot have all that their heart desires.
Encourage healthy and inexpensive hobbies: Get your kids to spend their free time usefully and in a way that does not cost money – instead of hanging out at the mall with their friends and spending money on movies and snacks, they could all watch a DVD at home with homemade eatables and healthier drinks; or they could spend time at the library checking out books that they like; they could also take up a sport that helps them keep fit and allows them to bond with friends; and they could make presents for friends and relatives instead of buying them during Christmas and birthdays.
Teach them to be responsible for themselves: Once your kids are old enough, encourage them to find part-time jobs that allow them to earn money after school and on weekends. Not only do they get to spend their free time in a useful manner, they also learn the value of money more quickly and are less reluctant to spend it when it comes out of their own pockets.

This post was contributed by Courtney Phillips, who writes about the best university for accounting. She welcomes your feedback at CourtneyPhillips80 at gmail.com

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Amazingly simple

Pc3 — Sun, 08 Mar 2009 02:20:15 +0000

HT The Pear Budget Blog

I posted this recently in the comment thread for "How about a dose of personal responsibility?" earlier this week. Since I'm still chuckling over it I thought I'd repost here. Enjoy!

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How about a dose of personal responsibility?

Pc3 — Tue, 03 Mar 2009 12:02:43 +0000

I heard an interesting report about the economy Friday morning on the way to work. It was on Morning Edition on NPR.

The entire story is found here and is titled Taxpayer Beware: Bank Bailout Will Hurt

David Beim, a former banker who is now a professor at the Columbia Business School, has something to say for people who want to pin this whole thing on the banks.

He has a chart illustrating how much debt American citizens owe, how much we all owe — with our mortgages and credit cards — compared with the economy as a whole. For most of American history, that consumer debt level represented less than 50 percent of the total U.S. economy, as measured by gross domestic product.

And then …

"From 2000 to 2008, it's almost a hockey stick. It just goes dramatically upward," Beim says. "It hits 100 percent of GDP. That is to say, currently, consumers owe $13 trillion when GDP is $13 trillion. That is a ton."

This has happened before. The chart shows two peaks when consumer debt levels equaled the GDP: One occurred in 2007, the other in 1929.

And that scares Beim.

"That chart is the most striking piece of evidence that I have that what is happening to us is something that goes way beyond toxic assets in banks. It's something that has little to do with the mechanics of mortgage securitization, or ethics on Wall Street, or anything else," Beim says. "It says: The problem is us. The problem is not the banks, greedy though they may be, overpaid though they may be. The problem is us."

I don't agree with a lot of what the guys in the article are espousing but they sure have that one point correct. WE as a people have caused this collapse. Living on debt. Living beyond our means.

The current "crisis" is nothing more than the note being called on a national scale.

Agree or disagree? If you agree what are you doing to revitalize the economy by getting out of debt?

If you disagree why?

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Are you teaching frugality or just being broke?

Pc3 — Tue, 24 Feb 2009 20:20:22 +0000

Pc3 is the husband of KimC and the father of 9 children. He blogs occasionally with the rest of the family at Life in a Shoe.

As I think through frugality from a father's point of view, one concern that I have is whether I'm communicating good stewardship to my children or if I just look cheap. Do my children understand that we're forgoing purchases self-consciously, or do they think we're being capricious in what we choose to spend money on?

One of the ways that I believe you raise children who refuse to live frugally is constantly telling them you don't have any money while you're indulging your own small pleasures. A meal at Burger King, a soda at the gas station, or even a pack of gum is - I think - enough to broadcast a message to your kids that says, "We're not broke. Dad's just cheap."

One of the ways that Kim and I have tried to mitigate this in the past has been to self-consciously say things like, "We're not spending money on that right now," or "That wouldn't be a good use of our money right now," instead of saying we can't afford it.

I have two questions for you. I want to know what you think.

Do you think it's important to communicate self-conscious frugality to your family instead of stinginess?

How do you do it?

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Need Some Extra Cash?

kimc — Wed, 19 Nov 2008 16:29:29 +0000

a guest post by Shelly at The Happy Toddler

Need Some Extra Cash?

Who doesn’t? I recently decided to organize my living room entertainment center and wondered “Why do I still have all these CD’s?” We are in the age of the iPod and do you really still listen to those CD’s you’ve had since high school?
If you decide, like I did, that you can get by without those nostalgic reminders of your younger years, you can sell your CD’s and get some cash for your holiday shopping – not to mention some much needed storage space.
First, you need to figure out where to sell the CD’s. A few years ago I would have just headed to the nearest Wherehouse or other CD store, but look around and you won’t see any of those stores anymore. There are, however, many places to sell used CD’s online. Some of the websites offer more money20than others – the ones where you can get the most money for your CD’s will give you credit or trade. One of them you can even use the credit for an iPod. This would be great if anyone on your holiday list would like a DVD or iPod. Many of the websites also offer to pay for shipping if you reach a certain threshold dollar amount.
I chose to go through SecondSpin.com because I wanted cash and they were in California where I live, so the shipping is less. They pay a set media mail rate for shipping for different quantities of CD’s. I found that the shipping rate they paid covered about 75% of the shipping cost from my address. Knowing that you have to cover some of the shipping charges should be incentive to do some research to find the closest location to your house.
After you find the place you want to sell your CD’s, the rest is easy – just follow directions on the website, send them in, and wait for your check. You will find that some of the CD’s aren’t worth more than $1 or may have broken covers – these you can save for your next yard sale. Here are some websites, I’m sure there are many more out there.

Now I need to work on those DVD’s that we never watch… I’m Shelly from The Happy Toddler, where I blog about frugal ideas for your entertaining your little ones

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Being on the same page financially

guest — Mon, 22 Sep 2008 19:45:39 +0000

a guest post by The Frugal Husband

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My wife and I recently celebrated our first anniversary! Knowing that finances can be a major problem in marriages, we decided that we would talk a lot about our finances before we got married. It was helpful to sit down and talk openly and honestly about where we were financially. At first we were very concerned about how to handle our finances (I had debt, she had none). Through many trials (disagreements, unexpected expenses, and job issues) we have come to a neat intersection on frugal living. Although we came from different financial backgrounds, we believe that it is possible to get on the same page financially and that it is essential for a firm foundation in marriage. We have a theme verse from the Bible (Gal 5:13 "but through love serve one another") that defines our marriage and has become the key on our journey:Communication is fundamental. This is common sense. If you cannot talk about money, you will never get on the same page. It takes clear communication to set up a budget together and to decide on financial decisions that affect you both. The quicker you do this, the easier things will be. Also, the goal is not to be in total agreement on everything or to get your way, but to respect one another and be able to compromise for the best of both of you.

Trust one another. I believe you have to trust your spouse with money. We have laid a foundation that we trust each other with small purchases and we talk about any big purchases. The money we make individually is ours corporately and we trust one another that we will not misuse it. Since we are united in money, any decision we make is going to affect both of us. I'm not there to control how my wife spends money, I trust her that she will be wise.

Setting goals together. My wife and I have set goals to become completely debt free and to save for a home. That means that we are making big sacrifices today for greater satisfaction tomorrow. If you have the same goals, then you both will seek ways to be frugal.

Seeking each other's knowledge. There are some areas that my wife has expertise in that I have no clue about, and likewise with my knowledge. We seek each other on those areas and it becomes an opportunity for us to both share our thoughts.

I honestly feel that in my marriage money should not become a huge issue. Money will come and go, but a relationship cannot. Whether we have a lot or a little, our relationship is always more valuable than money. By practicing our service of love to one another, money becomes less of an issue in our lives.

Roger is the Frugal Husband who authors Ourfrugallife. He and his wife explore the art of spending money wisely for the glory of God.

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Saving Money on Magazines

guest — Wed, 27 Aug 2008 12:59:48 +0000

guest post by Northern Cheapskate

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Saving Money on Magazines

A couple of years ago I ordered some curtains from from JCPenney for my house. When I placed my order, they offered me a subscription to three different magazines for the low cost of $5.

I took them up on the offer because I liked the price and I enjoyed the magazines. The hitch is that the offer is connected to an automatic renewal system. Each year, my credit card gets charged $20 per subscription.

Being the Northern Cheapskate... I realize that there must be a better way. So I've cancelled the automatic renewal and come up with some ways to save money on magazine subscriptions.

Look online. Many magazines will highlight key articles and features on their websites. Be sure to check them out. You may find that you don't need to subscribe at all!

Borrow magazines from the library. Libraries carry both mainstream and unique magazines that you can borrow for free. I love to check out cooking magazines and find new recipes.

Trade magazines with friends. My husband and I are news junkies and we subscribe to Newsweek. Our friends subscribe to Time. Each week, we swap our magazines after we're done reading them. It's like getting two magazines for the price of one!

Extend your subscription. As mentioned before, we enjoy Newsweek. We recently opted to purchase a four-year subscription because the price worked out to just 45 cents an issue! Sometimes it pays to call the magazine and ask if they can cut you a deal.

Check for member discounts. Are you a teacher or student or a member of a union? Sometimes you can get discounts on magazines through your membership in various organizations.

Shop online. Visit websites like Magazines.com, MagazineLine.com, and ValueMags to get great prices on magazines. Some of these places are 80 percent or more off the cover price!

Ask for magazines as gifts. People like giving gifts they know you'll enjoy all year. And many magazines offer a deal where if you renew your subscription you can give someone a free subscription.

Check out AdPerk. For watching a few videos (advertising) you can earn FREE magazine subscriptions. This is a great option if you're super cash-strapped because all you need is a computer and some time.

It is possible to enjoy reading magazines on a frugal budget. It just takes a little research.

Nurture Your Frugal Nature. Visit Northern Cheapskate today!

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