My Old Man: Frugal, Cheap, or Just Strange?

August 31, 2007 · Filed Under , · 22 Comments 

My Dad The Great Golfer!I have to preface this by saying my Dad grew up on a farm in Nebraska with no running water. I think they did have electricity when he got a bit older.  Here are some of his conservation techniques:

  • He puts a brick in the back of the toilet tank so he does not waste water when flushing.
  • He puts a five gallon bucket in the shower and when it gets filled he uses the water in the bucket to water his garden. (I am not kidding!!!)
  • He gets in the shower and then turns the water on. Once he is wet, he turns the water off, soaps up, then turns the water back on to rinse off. I don’t think he has had a warm shower since 1986.
  • As a kid, I can remember him constantly going around the house turning off light switches that were not being used by anyone. Funny thing is, I find myself doing this now when my kids leave the lights on.
  • He has a wood burning stove and the furnace is NEVER to be turned on. He will sit in his living room and read the paper with a heavy sweatshirt on during the winter. When my sister and I would say “it is cold in here”, his response never changed, “Cold? Are you really cold? I think it is nice in here”.
  • He will not throw food away. I have seen him cut mold off cheese then slice some for his sandwich. He is a human garbage disposal and claims that “everything always tastes great”.
  • We had some pigs on a small farm that I grew up on, and my Dad would get old bread from a local bakery to feed the hogs. Without fail, at least one of the loaves of bread would end up in our pantry. I could tell because the packaging always had a big black line drawn through it.

So what do you think? Frugal, cheap, strange, or perhaps a man whose vision has yet to be fully recognized? Looking forward to your comments.

Here are some online coupons that are clearly just Frugal in nature:

  • American Eagle Outfitters.com – Save 20% OFF your entire online order – View My American Eagle coupons page.
  • Lands’ End.com – Save 20% OFF your ENTIRE order + FREE Shipping on $50 or more – View My Lands’ End coupons page.
  • Old Navy.com – Save 15% OFF your $50+ order -OR- 20% OFF your $75+ order – View My Old Navy coupons page.

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Blog Post Review Day, Vol. I

August 29, 2007 · Filed Under · 4 Comments 

dollarsign.jpgHere is some great reading, mainly because it focuses on posts that were not written by me, but rather by some very talented bloggers. :-) This is a new section dedicated to blogs and blog posts that I discovered this week and found to be either creative or interesting, Most have to do with money saving tips and frugality. (2 of my favorite topics!) Drum roll please……

1- Are You Falling Into These 4 Frugality Traps? posted at Personal Finance Blog – This is a great post on the value of thinking of frugality in terms of the future. Example, is it better to spend more on a product now if it will last you longer. My wife and I always have this conversation when it come to things like which washing machine to buy or what we should spend on clothing for the kids.

2- Going Green and Frugal posted at Unclaimed Money – Nice concise article on the words “going green” and their connotation is much more popular than the term “frugal”. Truth is both words should mean practically the same thing.

3- Cheap clothes aren’t always a value posted at Clever Dude – Good post on the benefits of not skimping on clothing. I have noticed this as well. When I spend a little more my clothes wear a lot longer. But I agree with Clever Dude, use Outlets and coupons so you can get better quality but not have to pay full retail price.

4- Don’t Break Your Budget Buying Baby Stuff posted at Raising4Boys.com – written by Dad, this post is well written and explores the idea of not paying top dollar for new baby clothes, toys and gear, but rather using flea markets and garage sales to pick up gently used stuff. I agree with him that this is smart, especially because babies are not typically to hard on their stuff. (That changes as they get older!)

5- Having A Second Child? Seven Frugal Tips For Getting Ready posted at The Simple Dollar – boy, I wish I had read this post a couple years ago before our second child was born. Great advice and tips on how to get you and your house ready for the big addition to the family. Preparing lots of food in advance is the tip I would really recommend!

6- Things to use in a pinch when travelling posted at Fabulously Broke In The City – Very clever advice on things you can take advantage of that will save you money on your next trip or vacation. Also has some great advice on what to use in case you forget things like shampoo, toothpaste, etc. Good stuff!

7- Save $$ – Grocery Shopping Tactics posted at What Works For Us – 15 quick tips on how to save money at the grocery store. I have found #15, never shop hungry, to be really true. If I shop when I am hungry I tend to come home with Fruity Pebbles cereal and a bunch of Butterfinger bars. (No Joke!)

8- 17 Cheap Ways To Keep Cool And Survive A Heat Wave posted at The Digerati Life – It has been over 100 degrees here in Redding, California so a few of these 17 tips I have used already. Crazy picture of a dude hanging out of his high-rise apartment to install a window A/C as well!

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7 Ways To Reduce Monthly Costs Right NOW!

August 27, 2007 · Filed Under · 7 Comments 
  1. Vending MachineLower your Cable or Satellite subscription package. I have done this in the past and it can easily reduce your bill by $10 to $15 a month. Do you really need Hallmark Channel and Discovery Channel Kids?
  2. Vending Machines. Don’t use them. Habit of a drink and snack at work everyday from the vending machine can cost you up to $2.50 a day or $50 a month. Instead, buy what you like at Costco and bring some in every week and leave them in your desk for your snack.
  3. Memberships. Do you have a gym membership or DVD membership that you don’t use regularly. If so, analyze them to determine if you are getting your money’s worth, if not, give them the axe.
  4. Coffee. Do you drive through your local Starbucks or Dutch Bros. every morning or your way to work to grab a Non-Fat Vanilla Venti Latte, with a sprinkle of nutmeg? At about $3.50 a drink, that will cost you around $70 per month. Instead, brew your own and use a stainless steel travelers mug to take it with you. But make sure to treat yourself to Starbucks on occasion!
  5. Eat In. Eating meals out either for lunch while at work or for dinner are significantly more expensive than cooking your own dinner or brown bagging it to work. Consider only eating out once or twice a week and see if you notice a difference on your credit card statement or bank balance.
  6. Don’t Grocery Shop Hungry. Your stomach can talk you into buying a bunch of food you don’t need. Be careful!
  7. Ask For a Lower Credit Card Interest Rate. If you have no late payments and a steady payment record many credit card companies will lower your interest rate if you call and ask them. They have done this for me on several different occasions. The worst thing that can happen is they say no. Try it!
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Top 10 Frugal Living Blogs

August 27, 2007 · Filed Under , · 13 Comments 

Frugal Blogs - Save MoneyMy wife is a stay-at-home mom and we have 3 children ranging from 5 years old to 3 months, so I have a little experience with living on a tight budget! Over the past year or so I have found some frugal living blogs that have some great advice and I have taken a lot of information from them and used it in my own life. I thought it was about time I sat down and put pen to paper (or fingers to keys) and talked about my ten favorite frugal living blogs that I visit often. Please let me know if you have any other great blogs that belong on this list and I will add another section. So here we go……

1- A Frugal Living Blog by a Frugal Guy - This guy’s blog is a no-nonsense approach to the benefits of living a frugal life. I have taken a lot of advice from him. I like the fact that he preaches the advantages of living a frugal life by choice and thus being able to pursue your financial goals much more aggressively. He has a great sense of humor as well, one of my favorite posts had to do with this huge pork shoulder that he bought and was trying to figure what to do with it. Good stuff!

2- Wise Bread - Their motto is “Living Large On A Small Budget” and they have great posts and advice on not only frugal living but also financial advice and career advice. The post on ‘Frugal Things My Mom Does’ made me laugh out loud. Never pay for ketchup again baby!

3- Frugal For Live - ”Experience Life, By Living a Simple, Frugal Life”. Dawn has created an excellent frugal living resource. I particularly enjoy her writing style and her recent post “Many Uses For Towels” is hilarious, I had no idea a towel could be used for so much, although I use old towels in the garage for MANY, MANY things. Well done Dawn.

4- Frugal Simplicity- Cindy at Frugal Simplicity writes about frugal living ideas, money saving tips, and budgeting tips. She always writes in a way that just makes sense and she really has a knack when it comes to getting her point across. For example, she recently did a post on ‘How To Conserve Water and Save Money‘ where she clearly explains the costs associated with a leaky toilet and recommends ways to avoid this stinky situation. (Sorry I could not resist)

5- SavingAdvice.com Blog - The folks at SavingAdvice.com have put together a blog of with a ton of useful frugal living articles and content. I visit them often because they have a couple writers that write for them all the time and then they have guest contributors that do excellent work as well. A post that I bookmarked and I know that my wife and I will use is called ‘Ten Ways to Save on Birthday Parties‘ by Shannon Christman. The article gives great advice like choosing a free location like a park to host the party as well as having the party mid-afternoon so you only have to serve cake and not a meal. I like that one!

6- Money, Matters, and More Musings - This blog delves deeply into the topic of frugality as well as other stuff and always has posts that capture my attention and keep me reading! For example, the post titled Motivation For Frugality – It Is Not Always About The Money talks about the idea of being frugal when we are not really intending to be. Like when we walk because driving is such a hassle and would actually take more time. Interesting points and things I had not thought about before.

7- Pat Veretto’s Frugal Living Blog- Pat says that “living frugally is a daily, hands-on affair”. Boy ain’t that the truth Pat! This blog is full of really good frugality advice. Pat really has some excellent advice on how to save money in the kitchen and with household chores and cleaning. Good common sense stuff.

8- Thrifty Mommy - With a name like Thrifty Mommy it immediately captured my attention when I found this blog a while back. I visit often for the coupons as well as the ‘list’ post which include things like Frugal Challenge Saturday – 30 Great tips to get out of debt and Top 10 Ways to Keep the Kids Busy While You’re Working. This blog is written by the talented writers Kelly Saunders and Karen Weideman. Well done.

9- Frugal Underground- Written by a lady named Sarah Lewis, Frugal Underground is chalked full of frugal living tips and money saving advice. Recent posts that I thought were well done include her Frugal Wedding Tips and the advantages of Buying In Bulk. (I love Costco, but remember to only buy what you came for!)  But what I like best about her blog is her personal writing style and you can tell she really has a passion for what she is writing about. I also found it refreshing that she actually asked her readers what frugal topics interested them.

10- I’ve Paid For This Twice Already - Great blog name, it goes back to the idea that anything you bought with your credit card you have probably paid for already due to those outrageous interest charges. Very clever. The lady who writes this blog is a married mom with 2 kids and she blogs about frugality, credit cards, and budgeting to name a few categories. I find the blog to be very informative because she really is an advocate to the idea of being a much happier, healthier person if you get your finances in order and try to get out of debt, particularly credit card debt. The key being not spending more than we earn each month. Easier said then done, but this blog gives you a lot of practical advice on how to make that a reality.

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Top 5 Reasons Why I Will Not Shop At Wal-Mart!

August 22, 2007 · Filed Under , · 2 Comments 

Purell Hand SanitizerWithout further ado, here are my 5 top reasons why I will never shop at Wal-Mart again. Drumroll Please……

5- At least 37 checkout aisles and only 3 white lights are on.

4- Aisles so narrow 2 shopping carts cannot pass each other without swapping paint.

3- Ask employee where something is and end up wandering around for 15 minutes aimlessly looking.

2- Always feel like I need a bath in Purell Hand Sanitizer upon exiting.

1- And the number one reason why I will never shop at Wal-Mart again, I buy 6 items and end up with 5 plastic bags!

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5 Easy Tips When Using Online Coupons

August 22, 2007 · Filed Under , · 1 Comment 

rather_dollarsign.jpg1- Find The Coupon. Along with Rather-Be-Shopping.com, there are dozens of other good online coupon websites you can use. Also, if all else fails, go to Google.com and enter “#store name# coupons” and that will usually bring more great results.

2- Enter The Coupon. This can get a little tricky as each online retailer is different when it comes to where to enter the coupon code. Typically, you will enter your coupon in a box on the billing or shopping basket page. Look for a box called Coupon Code, Promotional Code, Discount Code, or any variation of these.

3- Did The Coupon Work? About to finalize your online order…..WAIT! It is amazing to me how many emails I get from people that finalize their order and failed to check if the coupon actually worked. Make sure they took the greenbacks off your order! Once you finalize the purchase it becomes much harder to try and call or email the store to see if they can take your discount off manually.

4- Worried About Security? Here is a Handy Security Tip: Always check the url (web address) at checkout to make sure it changes from http:// to https://. But perhaps the best way to insure your purchase is secure is to buy from a reputable store that has a good track record of customer service and secure transactions.

5- Print, Baby, Print. The last step is to make sure you print out your receipt for your records. In my experience, it is very rare that you will need your receipt on hand but it would be very useful if something goes awry with your order.

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Back-To-School Bargain Tips

August 21, 2007 · Filed Under , · 2 Comments 

school.jpgIt was a proud day for me yesterday, I took my 5 year old to his first day of Kindergarten. He clenched my hand with all his might as we parked and walked across the parking lot to his new classroom. You could tell it was a hard morning for him and he would have been happy to run to the hills to escape his new environment. He held it together and had a great first day and met a lot of new friends. I think the hardest part for him will be getting use to going every single day where his pre-school was just 3 days a week.

My wife and I learned some new back-to school shopping tips that I want to share. I know this post may be a month late but perhaps there are still some back-to-school procrastinators out there. So here are the 3 big shopping tips we learned:

1-Make a List. If you make a list of what your children needs for back-to-school it prevents a lot of frivolous spending on things that your kids really don’t need. Also, if shopping for clothes make a note on your list of all the kids sizes. My wife and I found this to be especially crucial if you have more than one kid, (like us) as it can get kinda confusing trying to keep clothing sizes straight and what items each kid needs for school.

2- Shop Summer Clearance Sales. This tip was given to my wife by a friend who shopped at the Old Navy.com summer clearance sale for her 4 kids. She was able to score some great deals on clothes for the fall. Old Navy clearance sale in particular, often sells at close to 75% off the regular price on kids clothing. She was also able to take advantage of their $5 flat rate shipping and could shop from the convenience of her home which is almost priceless when you have 4 kids. Other retailers that offer excellent summer clearance sales include American Eagle Outfitters.com, JCPenney.com, and Children’s Place.com. Another tip that worked well was keeping an eye on circular ads and only go to that particular store when they have what you need at a sale price. I also have some great American Eagle coupons and Childrens Place coupons right now as well.

3- Use Discount Stores.This may be met with resistance if you have teenagers but they will get over it. Go to stores like Big Lots and The Dollar Store for school supplies like pens, pencils, notebooks, backpacks, and file folders. They have some major bargains on back-to-school stuff starting in early July and usually runs until September. I have noticed that they typically have better deals on school supplies than Wal-Mart and Target and a lot better than stores like Office Depot and Office Max.

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Top 10 Online Shopping Blogs

August 20, 2007 · Filed Under , · 6 Comments 

dollarsign.jpgAs I was researching the idea of adding this blog to my website I looked at a lot of different types of shopping blogs, some were dedicated to product reviews, some to online coupons, some to frugal living ideas, and others offered timely consumer information.  As I did my research, I bookmarked the blogs that I thought were really well done, creative, and added a lot of great content to the subject of shopping online. I was hoping to get to someday write a review of my 10 favorite blogs, and I am proud to say that day has finally come. So here is my list, (in no particular order) hope it helps someone……..

1- Mighty Bargain Hunter - The blog at Mighty Bargain Hunter specializes in Finance, Savings, Spending, and Bargains. I really like this blog because it delves deeply into budgeting and debt. That is, how to stay OUT of debt, which is one of the largest financial problems for U.S. families. I personally spent quite a bit of time reading through this blog and took away a lot of sound advice that I will use for my own family finances. I particularly liked the article on how to make money with an eBay store. I know some people who are doing exactly that and are able to supplement their families income quite a bit.

2- The Bargain Queen - O.K., now the name alone intrigued me on this blog. I thought my wife was the bargain queen! Turns out that nickname belongs to the folks that run this blog. Their motto is “Find Great Bargains…and Your Personal Style”. The Bargain Queen blog stood out to me because they very nicely incorporate the newest fashion trends and styles with bargains and deals. They also offer sound consumer advice on things like how to spot fake merchandise and how to spot eBay scams. Well done blog.

3- Everybody Loves Coupons - Andrew at Everybody Loves Coupons is a lot like me, a father who has an online business specializing in online coupons and helping folks save some money! His blog complements his coupon site nicely and he offers product reviews and coupons with a sense of humor. I really like his blog and I like the fact that he does not take himself to seriously and really tries to make his blog a fun experience.

4- Save.Save.Save - I like blogs that bring a smile to my face and that is exactly what Save.Save.Save did for me. Written by a lady who lives in Melbourne, Australia, she blogs about her amusing shopping adventures and she says it is quite cathartic for her and quite a bit cheaper than therapy. :-)  

5- Thriftychick- The Thriftychick Blog stood out to me because it is incredibly eye appealing. The colors really flow nicely together and made me very relaxed…it was kinda weird. The blog specializes in coupons for mainly women’s clothing, shoes, and accessories. They offer product reviews and coupons for merchants like Ann Taylor, Bluefly.com, Overstock.com and Lane Bryant to name a few.

6- Simply Thrifty - The Simply Thrifty blog is written by a lady named Deborah and her blog is dedicated to living frugally in the modern world. Her blog stuck with my and was bookmarked because of the nature of her writings. She has a very down to earth, easy to read and understand writing style. I really got a kick out of her article 100 Things You Can Make Yourself and I have strong notion to try a few of them. I also like the fact that she is not always about being frugal “all the time”. She recently had a post asking for comments about times when being frugal is not the way to go. She used the example of hosting a party and doing everything yourself. A lot of time is spent setting up and cooking where a catered event would have given her more time to visit with friends and family. In other words, would the extra expense been worth it in this situation? I found her blog very interesting.

7- The Consumerist- Their blog motto is “Shoppers Bite Back”, and essentially what they do is bring to light or further analyze consumer related issues. And they do it with a bit of humor and satire. But the thing about them that I like the most is they give the consumer or customer a voice against larger companies that they might not otherwise have. For example, they often break news like Netflix screwing over heavy users that watch a lot of movies by delaying new DVD mailings.  They also are a great resource for consumers wanting to know how to write an excellent complaint letter. Very entertaing blog.

8- Hey, It’s Free - This list would not be complete if it did not have at least one freebie blog. Hey, It’s Free has a ton of freebies in categories like baby products, food, magazines, children’s books and many more. Worth a look if freebies are your thing. But then again, who does not like something for free.

9- Not Made Of Money - A personal finance blog by a husband and wife. I really like this blog because it is chalked full of practical savings advice that I can put into action today for my family. For example, they have advice on how to save money with coupons, how to teach your kid about being responsible with money, and how to save for your retirement. I really like the article on How We’re Teaching Our Kids About Money and plan on implementing these ideas with my kids.

10- Pro Bargain Hunter - This blog is authored by Yan Bezugliy and I found it be a very straight forward, easy to use site, dedicated to getting consumers a good deal. He specializes in archiving coupons for major retailers, but Yan also blogs about the online shopping industry as a whole. He is a Java programmer as well and has developed a few tools to help you bargain hunt more efficiently. 

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