Due to issues with our wireless router, I am currently in the market for a lengthy and affordable ethernet cable so that I can work online on a laptop while Madoline does her artwork (as can be seen in our CafePress Shop) on our desktop computer.

Prior to leaving to run errands today, I checked Amazon.com’s pricing for ethernet cables so that I might pop into the local Radio Shack on my way home to compare prices. I wasn’t in Radio Shack for more than a couple of minutes before I was on my way out again as it was immediately apparent that their prices were 3 times what I would pay for comparable products online.

As I reached the door, the shopkeeper addressed me in the fashion typical of solicitous shopkeepers, and the following conversation ensued:

Shopkeeper: Did you find what you were looking for?

Me: Yes, I was just checking the prices on ethernet cables.

Shopkeeper: What length cable do you need?

Me: 100 ft.*

Shopkeeper: And?

Me: Well, they’re three time as much as I can get them for online.

Shopkeeper: Quality!

Me: Yes, well, the quality on Amazon is quite good.

Shopkeeper: Oh.

Me: Thanks, though.

Shopkeeper: OK.

*So I can work from my smaller and therefore warmer room during the winter.

I left feeling a little sorry for these local, brick-and-mortar businesses. Even when times are good, they have a hard time keeping up with the vastly discounted online stores. And now that times are bad, they must suffer even more. And as we live in a remote area, prices here were already higher than most cities.

Being a small business owner myself (albeit online) and experiencing first hand the strain on business brought on by the poor economy, it seems a bit traitorous that I am not supporting the small local business, and instead going to the lowest bidder.

But I also cannot justify nor really afford an expenditure of $60.00 on an ethernet cable when I can get a 100 ft. no-name ethernet cable for $20 including shipping or 2 Belkin 50 ft. ethernet cables for $24 and with a gift certificate (so no out-of-pocket expense for me) on Amazon because I feel sorry for the local store. After all, I have think about my mortgage, food and utility bills.

As for the question of quality, Radio Shack’s cable may be better than the $20 one on Amazon, but judging by the user reviews for the less expensive product, I am fairly certain that it would serve my purpose adequately.

Of course, the most preferred scenario would be to figure out how to get the Wireless router working so that I won’t need to have a 100′ cable running across the house. So good luck to me. And to all the little guys out there.

Perhaps if and when the economy picks up and money is no longer an object, I’ll be able to help support local businesses more. If they’re still around, that is.

Related posts:

• Interesting Reads From Fellow Personal Finance Bloggers #11
• Lottery Tickets: Worthy Investment or Waste of Money?
• Language Lesson ~ Finance: A Fine Word
• Tips for Staying Healthy This Winter
• Five Ways to Make Some Extra Income on the Side

The 2009 Entertainment Book – Great Savings on Dining, Shopping, Travel, Attractions, Movie Tickets & More!

I don’t often blog about sales, but this is one I couldn’t let slip by because it is such a good deal. My parents used to buy the Entertainment Book every year when I was a kid living in Hawaii, and I used to love this book. I remember afternoons lying on my stomach on the living room floor browsing this book for coupons for my favorite restaurants and attractions, namely McDonald’s and movie tickets. My bargain hunting days go way back.

Just using a few of the coupons pays back the cost of the book, which is currently on sale at 50% off and shipping is very reasonable at $2.79 per book.

The Entertainment Book, for those who aren’t familiar with it, is a book loaded with coupons for all sorts of local businesses and products in your area. The coupons and deals include savings for every day things as well as special occasions and outings:

• Groceries
• Dry Cleaning
• Auto Care & Repair
• Portrait Studios (JC Penny, Target, etc.)
• Fine Dinging (Ethnic and nice restaurants)
• Casual Dining (Tony Roma’s, IHOP, Pizza, etc.)
• Fast Food (McDonald’s, Subway, Domino’s, Wendy’s, Del Taco, etc.)
• Movie Tickets
• Museums
• Recreation (Golf, Mini Golf, Family Fun Centers, etc.)
• Sporting Events
• Attractions
• Travel (Car Rental, Hotels & Airline)
• and many more.

Entertainment® Book

There are $1000s in local savings in every book. To use your Entertainment Book Discounts, just present your coupon to a participating business. Save up to 50% and get 2-for-1 deals at top restaurants, shops, attractions, sporting events and more.

Membership Card

Every Entertainment Book comes with a complimentary membership card. Simply present your card at select fine dine restaurants, hotels, and car rentals to enjoy even more savings!

Register Your Card and Get Even More Savings Online

In addition to Entertainment Book coupons, you’ll find members-only online deals and exclusive discounts on Entertainment.com. You can also print coupons right from your computer when you want it!

• Print new 50% and 2-for-1 dining discounts – only available online!
• Get Repeat Savings – Find a place you like? Now you can go back to save again & again at select merchants.
• Enjoy $1,000s in travel savings. Hotels, car rentals, airlines & new package deals.
• Get cheap tickets for movies, sporting events, concerts & more.
• Save on restaurant gift cards & certificates for popular restaurants nationwide.
• Shop online & save with hundreds of new offers from top online retailers.
• Find all the savings in your neighborhood with easy searching, maps & directions.
• Save with ServiceMagic! Pre-screened and neighbor-rated home service professionals.

The Entertainment Book is available for almost 200 cities around the U.S. and Canada. Prices and coupons vary a little depending on your locality. A few examples of the current sale prices with a few cities/localities:

If you like going out, shopping, eating out, going to the movies, etc. this book can save you a lot of money. Click here to 50% off the Entertainment Book now. This is a limited time offer, so if you want one, order it now.

Related posts:

• Free and Frugal Things to Do in Los Angeles
• Festival of Frugality #152: Affected by Recession Edition
• Car Trouble: Watch Out for Those Pesky Wabbits
• Slowing Down Makes Sense: Drive Safely, Save More Than Money
• Insurance Matters: The Cost of Complacency

Originally posted 2009-03-04 06:00:03.

Productivity

• Check out one of my earlier posts Save Hundreds with Open Source Software for a list of open source applications with short descriptions of their functions and links to the websites for free downloads. These are not free trials but completely free programs that stay free and upgrade for free.
• Google Calendar is a handy online calendar that can send alerts to you by email or pop-up reminders. The program allows you to share your calendar with friends and family who also use Google Calendar so you can coordinate schedules with each other.

Computer Protection

• ZoneAlarm Free Firewall can filter all traffic in and out of your computer. The most secure setting will warn you of even legitimate access to the internet and of every attempt by a program installed on your computer to access the internet to check for updates, etc.
• ZoneAlarm Spy Blocker Toolbar protects you from spyware while surfing the net.
• McAfee SiteAdvisor warns you of bad sites and has profiles for each tested site with details on downloads, spam email count, and user reviews. It also shows the safety rating for web search results with a small icon next to each link: green for safe, red for unsafe, yellow for caution, and gray for untested (you can submit a test request for gray sites).
  

Communication

• Skype allows you to make free computer to computer video and voice calls, and calls to phones for a small charge. We use the free computer to computer calls to talk to our overseas relatives
• If you use Hotmail, you can also use Windows Live Messenger for voice and video chat sessions with your contacts. You can also send mobile text messages to contacts in your address book.
• Gmail is my favorite free web based email program because, not only does it give you ever increasing storage (6.76 GBs as of this writing and counting), but it lets you forward your email to a desktop email client such as Outlook or Thunderbird. If you access your mail online, it has a nice filtering tool to help you sort your mail and also has a built in chat program, Google Talk, that allows you to chat with your online contacts without having to download anything.

Entertainment

• Hulu has an ever growing collection of new and old television programs and movies which you can watch for free online with a very reasonable amount of advertisements. The commercial breaks are shorter than you would have to sit through (15 or 30 secs) when watching a show on TV. For some newer shows, only the last 5 or 6 episodes are available, but there are also full seasons and full series of episodes for some shows.
• Network channels all have websites that let you watch the last 5 or 6 episodes of their current shows online. Here is a list of links to the home pages:
  • NBC
  • ABC
  • FOX
  • ABC Family
  • Sci Fi
• SHOUTcast is a free internet radio site that has a large selection of genres and stations and good sound quality.
• Joost is a player that allows you to watch thousands of TV shows and movies on your computer.

Reference

• Wikipedia. If you’ve performed a web search on the net, you’ve probably already stumbled across Wikipedia, which is a free, open encyclopedia that anyone can edit. It may or may not be 100% accurate, but it is convenient and has a great collection of articles and images on just about any topic, person or place including cities, actors and operas. Wikipedia is available in English, French, Spanish, German, Japanese, Polish, Russian, Portuguese, Dutch and Italian. (Time Saving Tip: To search for something straight from your Google toolbar or search, just type the keyword and the word “wiki”, i.e. “horse wiki” and the link to the entry will most likely show up first in your search result.)
• High Beam Encyclopedia is a collation of articles from Britannica, Oxford University Press, Columbia Encyclopedia as well as other published newspaper and magazine articles.
• Google Translate provides fair (though not the greatest) translations for 23 languages. It can translate typed/pasted in sections or entire webpages. This allows you to make use of websites you otherwise might not understand or save you time where you already know the language but take longer to read. It also has a dictionary for looking up words from those 23 languages.
• Reference.com has links to a host of reference tools including atlases, almanacs, a dictionary, thesaurus, literature and more. (Time Saving Tip: To look up a definition of a word, for example, “antithesis”, type “definition antithesis” in your search window. To look up synonyms (thesaurus) of the word “simile”, type “synonym simile”, and the search results will link you to the page of the entry.)
• The Gutenberg Project is a digital library of works that have fallen into public domain through expired copyright. The library includes fiction and non-fiction literature, audiobooks, sheet music and more.
• Google Calculator is a handy tool that lets you type in a formula or question in your search window and it will calculate and show you the answer. For example: type “1+5″ in your search bar and it will give you “1 + 5 = 6″. It can multiply, divide, add, subtract as well as calculate units of measurement such as miles, kilometers, megabytes, grams, degrees, pi, currency exchange rates and much more. Check out this great Google Calculator Demo at the Learn Google Search blog.

Free Downloads

• Download.com has a large collection of safe, free and trusted software downloads with editor and user reviews.
• Softpedia also has a large collection of downloads.
• Mozilla, home of the Firefox browser has a large number of great open source software including web browsers, html editors, email and calendar programs. Be sure to also check out the list of Mozilla-Based Applications which include other interesting and useful programs.
• Firefox Browser Add-ons: If there is a function you wish your Firefox browser could perform, chances are someone has already had the same thought and created an add-on for it.
• Google Pack includes the following (you can select which items you want):
  • Google Earth: a map program that lets you look at satellite, terrain and street level images. Includes driving directions and businesses
  • Norton Security Scan for viruses
  • Google Desktop to help organize your files, pictures and web history
  • Mozilla Firefox Browser with Google Toolbar
  • Adobe Reader
  • Skype
  • Star Office word processing, spread sheet, presentation and other office programs
  • Google Toolbar for Internet Explorer (helps block pop-ups)
  • Spyware Doctor (starter edition)
  • Picasa for editing and organizing your photos
  • Google Photos Screensaver to create slideshows with your photos
  • Google Talk for chatting online or by voice and sharing files
  • Real Player for playing media and transferring music to iPods or other players

Shopping

• Amazon.com is our favorite shopping site for almost everything we can’t get at our local grocery and drug stores. The Free Super Saver Shipping for orders over $25 allows you to spend your money on things rather than shipping charges. We also have the Chase Amazon Visa Card that gives us 3 points for every dollar spent at Amazon.com and 1 point everywhere else, and a $25 gift certificate when we reach 2,500 points.
• We occasionally shop at Overstock.com when the price is considerably less than can be had from Amazon. In our experience, their service is just as good, if not better, than Amazon’s due to the online customer service chat and faster shipping time, because Amazon’s free shipping takes an additional 4-5 business days before leaving their warehouse. They offer flat $2.95 shipping on all orders, and cheaper media shipping for 1 or 2 media item (books, music and DVDs).

Related Posts

• Save Hundreds with Open Source Software
• The Frugal Literate’s Guide to Affordable Reading
• Public Domain Music: Music You Already Own
  

Related posts:

• June 2008 Finance and Frugality Blog Carnivals
• Welcome MSN Money Central Smart Spending Readers!
• Under the Weather – Recommended Reading
• Festival of Frugality #140: The Frugal Quotes Edition
• Ludwig & Wolfgang

Originally posted 2008-05-26 12:33:47.

My suggestions are divided into the following subsections:

• Summer Hobbies – activities with lasting benefits and meaning
  
• Summer Studies – develop skills that will be useful in life
  
• Summer To-Do’s – a few ways to get your life or home in order
  
• Summer Fitness – ways to keep cool and stay fit
  
• Summer Pet Bonding – make your pet happy and you healthy

Summer Hobbies

Here are some ideas for catching up on tasks that may have been neglected during the year.

• Write in your journal
  Write about your past year, what’s on your mind, who and what you like and dislike, your daydreams, anything. In future years you will be glad you did it and also amused by your younger self. You think you will always remember what happened when, but as time goes by, memories do fade and become forgotten. (Trust me, I’m speaking from experience and I’m not yet 30 and have a memory better than most.)
• Make a family video
  Go around the house and take a video of your family going about its regular business. You will be glad for the memories one day.
• Scrapbook
  Organize family photos, report cards, birthday cards, artwork, concert programs and other keepsakes from the past year into a scrapbook.
• Reading
  Reading (even fun fiction) can help improve your mind, vocabulary, grammar and writing skills. If you go to the library, you can read in an air-conditioned environment without having to pay for the air-conditioning or the books.

Summer Studies

Yes, summer should be fun, but there’s no reason it can’t be both fun and productive.

• Learn a new language
  The benefits of learning languages are endless. Learning a new language can help you to:
  • Get ahead in your career
  • Make new friends from different parts of the world. When you show an interest in someone’s language or culture, they are often appreciative and take an interest in you in return.
  • Improve your English (or first language)
• Learn to play a musical instrument
  Music enhances the mind in many ways. Studies have shown that children who study music at an early age do better in school than those who don’t. Aside from that, it is also just plain fun.
• Learn to sew
  Sewing is a very useful skill to have regardless of your gender. You can learn to mend clothes, make your own clothes and other things for your house, which can save you a lot of money. Older and more skilled children can even make their own clothes for the coming school year. Check out one of our earlier articles for more info: Save Money by Sewing Your Own Clothes.
• Take a computer class
  Learn to type properly, use a spreadsheet or database, design websites, make presentations, etc. Most jobs these days involve computer use, so knowing as much as you can about computers might help you get a higher salary.

Summer To-Do’s

A few suggestions for improving life at home and getting ahead on the coming year.

• Get a head start on your Christmas shopping
  This could save you time and money because you can shop at your leisure and take advantage of summer sales. Leaving your shopping to the last minute usually costs more because you are up against a deadline and usually have fewer options.
• Sort through your stuff
  Go through your clothes and things and prune out those you no longer want or need. You could donate the things you no longer need or hold a garage or yard sale and make some money to put into your college or retirement savings.
• Re-arrange your room or home
  Re-arranging your room or home can have a positive impact on your life. A change can be uplifting and produce an overall feeling of well-being and accomplishment, renew your energy and increase productivity.
• Clean out your computer
  Ideally you would do this several times a year, but if you use the internet and download a lot of things, it’s a good idea to clean out your computer on a regular basis. If there are programs you don’t use, uninstall them. If there are files that you no longer need, delete them. Clean your registry if you’ve had the computer for a while. Keeping your hard drive from getting too full will extend its life.

Summer Fitness

A few suggestions for staying cool and healthy this summer.

• Mall Walking
  Walking in an indoor, air-conditioned mall is a great way to get exercise away from the heat and smog, and you can also save on sunscreen. You can even window-shop during your walks, but if you think you might get too tempted, leave your money and credit card at home.
• Swimming in an indoor pool
  Swimming is another low-impact exercise (safer than running) which increases endurance, muscle and cardiovascular strength. Try to swim in an indoor pool whenever possible or wait until early evening to avoid sunburn.
• Ice Skating
  Not only does it let you get away from the heat, but it’s a good low-impact and aerobic exercise which will help strengthen your bones and cardiovascular system. Taking some lessons and learning to skate properly can be worth the money.

Summer Pet Bonding

If you have a pet, spend some quality time together. Not only will you make your pet very happy, he/she will help make you healthier. (How Pets Help People)

• Take your dog to obedience school
  Obedience school is good for socializing and teaching discipline. There is nothing wrong with repeating obedience school for fun and refreshing both your memories.
• Teach your dog new tricks
  There are lots of fun tricks you can teach your dog: beg, spin (in both directions), roll, speak, catch a ball or frisbee, etc. You can also teach your dog to be helpful around the house: closing the door or brining you something you dropped. Dogs enjoy feeling helpful and learning new things can keep mature dogs’ minds sharp.
• Take your dog for long evening strolls or hikes
  If going hiking, be sure to take another person along, bring lots of water and plastic bags, and make sure your dog’s feet are protected from rough terrain. For your dog’s and other hikers’ safety, never let him off-leash on a hiking trail.
• Enter your dog in a 4th of July costume contest
  Make a fun costume for your dog and enter a costume contest or parade. (Sorry, for the self-promotion, but if you don’t want to make your own costume, check out some of our patriotic dog clothing and costumes at Franga Designs.)

Well, I hope some of these suggestions prove helpful in making your summer both fun and productive. Vas-y t’amuser!

Related posts:

• June 2008 Finance and Frugality Blog Carnivals
• Under the Weather – Recommended Reading
• No-Air Conditioning Summer Part 1 – How It Started: No-Heat Winters
• Language Lesson ~ Frugality is a Virtue
• Frugal Thermodymics Part I: Limiting Sources of Heat in the Home

Originally posted 2008-06-09 05:28:43.

Amazon.com is one of our favorites sources for saving not only on books and movies, but groceries and household things as well. We have been shopping on Amazon since 2001 and have never had a bad experience. Whenever we need to buy anything for our home or business, Amazon is the first place I check because they usually have one of the best prices around and an established track record with us.

Amazon has a program called Subscribe & Save which we began using last year for regular purchases of Splenda (No Calorie Sweetener) which costs about $10 a bag at our local grocery store, but comes at $6 a bag with this program. At first I was a little hesitant to get into any sort of purchasing commitment, but any reservations were soon put to rest.

Subscribe & Save is available for hundreds of products, mostly dry groceries and regular household things like cleaners, paper towels, toilet paper and the like. Most or all of Subscribe and Save products come in bulk, discounted packs and can be identified by subscription options box located under the Add to Shopping Cart button to the right of a product listing.

Amazon Subscribe & Save Program Features and Benefits

• No contracts

  You can unsubscribe at any time

• Extra 15% off

  That’s an extra 15% off the already discounted regular Amazon pricing. Note: You need to click on a product listing to see the discounted price.
  

• Save Time and Gas

  By having your regular household necessities delivered to your front door, you won’t have to spend time and gas to go the store to restock them.

• Free Shipping

  On all subscription orders even under $25.

• Fast Shipping

  Unlike regular orders with their Super Saver Shipping that often take an additional 4-5 business days to ship out, Subscribe and Save orders usually ship within a day of the order date and arrive in 2-3 days.

• Flexible Subscription Terms

  When you sign up, you can select to have the product shipped to you every 1 month, 2 months, 3 months or 6 months. You can adjust the intervals as you use your products and find out how long it takes you to use up a shipment.

• Email Reminders and Notifications

  They will send you an email reminder to let you know when a subscription order is coming up. If you’re ready for your next shipment, do nothing and it will be processed and shipped to you.

• Skip or Postpone Shipments

  If you still have plenty of an item in stock when they send you an email about an upcoming shipment, all you have to do is log-in to your account and select “Skip this shipment” and you won’t be charged. You can also choose when you want your next shipment sent.

• Pay Per Order

  They only charge your account (you select your preferred payment method when you subscribe) when they process and ship your order.

• Cancel Anytime

  If you no longer need the service, just log-in to your account and cancel your subscription.

Depending on where you live and your local prices, some of the products may cost a little more than you would pay in stores like Walmart or on sale at grocery stores, but if you live far away from discount/warehouse stores or if your local prices are quite high, this program can save you time, money and gas. Also, a lot of these items are brand name items, so the quality is good for the price you pay.

If you haven’t tried this program already, I would highly recommend it.

Related posts:

• Festival of Frugality #152: Affected by Recession Edition
• Pay Bills Online and Save
• Pay Bills Online and Save (Re-Post)
• Save Money, Make Money 30-Day Challenge @ iVillage
• Gifts Cards Could Be a Blessing This Christmas

Tiny leaks and evaporation put a constant drain on your resources. As discussed in our previous post, From Pennies One Million Dollars Grow, a few cents saved here and there can add up to be a significant amount. Here we offer 101 suggestions for plugging expenditures in various aspects of your life – around the house, in your personal care, transportation, recreation and more. Most of these ideas we currently use or have applied in the past.

101 Drops in the Bucket

Saving on Utilities

• Minimize electricity use during peak hours (weekdays during work hours). Do laundry, use hot water, etc. in the evenings.
• Cook enough for several meals at once.
• Turn off the tap when brushing your teeth.
• Turn off shower when shampooing and soaping.
• Work or read in the same room with family members or roommates to consolidate light usage.
• Take advantage of natural daylight to get your work done. Sleep when it’s dark, get up as soon as it is light (before sunrise).
• Hold off on personal phone calls that can wait until evenings and weekends when rates are lower or free.
• Wash things on the lawn to water the grass at the same time.
• Water the lawn or garden in the early morning or after sundown. Skip watering on windy days.
• Use curtains to keep your house cool in summer and warm in winter.
• Keep thermostat lower in the winter and wear extra layers.
• Don’t separate colors in your laundry; instead, hand wash items that bleed. This way, you can reduce the number of loads. Saves water, electricity and soap.
• Keep thermostat as high as can be tolerated in summer without harming your pets, antiques and musical instruments.
• Drink lots of cold water to keep cool and reduce need for air conditioning.
• Turn off air conditioning in late afternoon, open doors and windows and turn on fans.
• Using ceiling fans in summer and winter (reverse directions to push warm air down).
• For laundry, set a shorter dryer time. It’s better to have to do a touch up instead of using unnecessary gas or electricity. You’d be surprised how little time some clothing need to dry. If taken out still warm, damp things can still air dry quite quickly.
• Cancel cable, purchase a few DVDs a month (which cost less than cable and leave you with an asset) and watch current shows online at Hulu or network channel websites.

Saving on Food and Health

• Eat smaller portions to avoid waste and overindulgence.
• Eat foods of substance that hold you over longer (i.e. proteins).
• Take baking soda instead of over-the-counter antacids (unless you have other health conditions that are affected by sodium intake).
• Put away leftover food immediately to prevent spoilage.
• Do not overfill refrigerator as food goes bad faster due to poor air circulation.
• Do house and yard work for exercise.
• Get an exercise bike for $150-$200 or pedal exerciser for under $20 and some hand weights instead of a gym membership.
• Water down juice to reduce caloric and sugar intake as well as make the juice last longer.
• Make a pot of tea with a teabag instead of just one cup.
• Opt for stainless steel silverware and cookware without plastic parts as they last indefinitely.
• Use a hand whisk instead of electric egg beater to burn calories and save money.
• When baking – cakes, casseroles, etc. – use a cookie sheet instead of aluminum foil to cover the pan or casserole dish.
• Combine a box of Jell-O with a pack of unflavored Knox Gelatin for lower sugar content and cost.
• Buy quart-size yogurt instead of individual serving cups. They often cost $2.00 per container and save a lot.
• (Cont. from #78) When finished with the yogurt, save the container for storing food, cut fruits and leftovers, or use for various projects around the house such as mixing paint.
• Bring treats home. For example:
• (Example 1 for #80) Instead of going out for ice cream, buy a gallon and a pack of cones and enjoy several ice cream cones at the same cost.
• (Example 2 for #80) Instead of ordering delivery pizza, bring home a frozen pizza. The most deluxe frozen pizza such as Freschetta still costs a lot less than delivery plus tip.
• If you cannot decide between a low-carb and low-fat diet, low-fat is usually cheaper.

Saving on Household

• Use old clothing to make rags, pillows, blankets and pet beds.
• Use a home dry cleaning kit instead of a professional dry cleaner.
• Use less laundry detergent unless your clothes are very dirty to extend the life of your clothing.
• Turn clothing inside-out when washing to preserve the appearance.
• Use rubbing alcohol to sanitize doorknobs, exercise equipment, refrigerator handles, etc.
• Hold the insecticide. When you see an ant or other little bug, wipe it away with a soapy sponge and discourage further visits by cleaning thoroughly and caulking any cracks and entry points.
• Use rubbing alcohol to kill insects such as ants, spiders, gnats, silverfish.
• Use vinegar to kill tougher and larger insects. Vinegar in a spray bottle is also the best and cleanest fly swatter.
• Use vinegar in place of more expensive cleaners.
• When the oven is on, set dishes or other items to dry on top of or near the oven (keep safety in mind).
• Repaint or varnish furniture you already own for a new look or to give it second life.
• If throwing or cutting up old clothes, salvage buttons, zippers, drawstrings, bows and re-usable trims for mending other clothing.
• Rinse dishes before soaping to save dish detergent.
• When doing dishes, put the dirtiest at the bottom so that soap and water can run over them while you’re washing other easier dishes first.
• If you dry your hands or face on a paper towel, set it aside for cleaning floors and other things.
• Use cold water to clean on hot days to prevent getting overheated and save electricity or gas.
• Follow the The Life Stages of a Dish Sponge not only for sponges, but towels, clothing and anything else that applies.
• Use plastic shopping bags instead of buying trash bags. The small size will also encourage you to take the garbage out more often.
• Use small holiday buckets that can be purchased half-price (around 25¢-50¢) after a holiday for trash cans/waste baskets or cleaning buckets. These small buckets can be set on the counter near the kitchen sink to keep dogs out of the trash.
• Water down dish and hand soap. You often pump out more than you need.
• Learn to perform minor repairs around your home such as lighting a pilot light, replacing a thermocouple, etc. (We once saved $70 by changing the thermocouple on our water heater ourselves instead of calling a repairman.)
• Redye color-worn clothing to give a second life. Fabric dyes can be purchased in the laundry section.
• To save your septic system, instead of pouring cooking oils down the drain, pour them into empty glass or plastic bottles, close tightly and throw away.
• To extend the life of your septic system and reduce frequency of pumping, throw toilet paper in a trash can lined with shopping bags (and take it out everyday).
• Instead of replacing your pillow, launder in hot water and dry on thoroughly on high heat (to kill dust mites). You can even cut one seam open, fluff the material by hand, and sew it shut. No one will notice if your stitching is untidy. Consider a pillow cover if you suffer from allergies.
• Use pillow and mattress covers to prolong the life of your bedding and facilitate easier cleaning especially if you have pets or children.
• Use a push reel lawn mower. It is cheaper to buy, efficient to store, requires no fuel, has fewer parts to maintain and repair, and provides for refreshing and fun exercise.
• Use a wind-up clock instead of a battery or electric clock.

Saving on Personal Care

• Opt for a low maintenance and shorter hair style to save on shampoo and hair products.
• Make bar soap last longer by unwrapping and letting it dry for about a week before using it. (You could set it in your closet during this time to make things smell fresh.)
• In personal grooming, wherever practical, pluck instead of wax as a one-time purchase of a good pair of tweezers lasts for years.
• While using a facial scrub, exfoliate your hands (and maybe even your elbows) before rinsing off.
• Accept free samples of products that you use and would purchase – soap, deodorant, shampoo, lotions, etc. – so long as it doesn’t require you to pay money or register for some sort of membership. A sample is usually enough for several uses and can put off need to purchase them.
• Dry your hair naturally to save electricity, heat damage to hair, and sweating. In cooler weather, wear a small towel, scarf, or flannel cap until hair is almost completely dry.
• Curl your hair without electricity. Cut rectangular strips from an old t-shirt, roll up sections of damp hair and tie in a knot. This method has been used for many centuries and gives a very charming style of curl. Mousse can be applied before curling if desired.
• Keep good quality ribbons from gift wrap and packaging (such as for candy, food, and cosmetics) and use these as hair ties for securing the ends of braids, tying a bow over a plain rubber band, or stitching hair styles on your head (with a blunt needle).

Saving on Hobbies, Recreation and Entertainment

• If there are 2 or more of you, wait for the DVD release of a film instead of going to the theater, especially if you like to watch a film more than once. The purchase of 1 DVD is less than the cost of 2 movie tickets.
• Buy DVDs instead of renting. You may see fewer films in a year, but will have assets to reuse or resell.
• If you have a piano, consider learning to tune it yourself, which can save about $160 a year. The one-time purchase of a good tuning kit and manual is about $110. Tools could be had for less, but good tools will better prevent damage. Refer to: Tuning Your Own Piano: A Skill With Many Unexpected Benefits
• Use the library to borrow books, audiobooks and music and rent movies for $1-$2 a week. See The Library Card: Your Other “Rewards Credit Card” for more ways your library can save you money.
• Buy a small potted Christmas tree instead of a large “dead” one. When Christmas is over, plant it in your yard to increase your property value or keep it for next year.
• If you need paper for crafts and projects, request paper at the grocery store checkout. We used to use paper bags for testing clothing sewing patterns. Horse feed bags are great for patterns, too.
• Use reading as a frugal leisure activity that will improve your writing, grammar, and vocabulary which is advantages in all walks of life. The Frugal Literate’s Guide to Affordable Reading.
• Stop paying for classes, lessons, and activities if you or your children do not attend, practice, or enjoy them enough. A break might revive motivation or provide a chance to discover new interests and talents.

Saving on Shopping

• Shop online whenever possible and take advantage of free and low shipping costs to save gas and time.
• When shopping, always check unit prices. Don’t be deceived by packaging size.
• Don’t buy junk food if you’ll regret it eating it.
• Use cash back rewards credit cards wherever and whenever you can.
• Try to limit purchases to things of lasting value such as books, classic literature, reference books, classical music, conservative fashions and acoustic instruments instead of electric.
• Purchase furniture made of real wood and not laminate or particle board. If items contain particle board, at least make sure the framing is constructed of solid wood. Particle boards will bow, causing shelves to collapse, and swell and become permanently damaged when wet.
• Choose latex and rubber toys for your dogs. They outlast plush toys by several years and are more sanitary.

Saving on Miscellaneous

• Use online postage printing and carrier pickup for mailing packages.
• Turn of wrist watches when not wearing them to save the battery.
• Pick up all loose change.
• Use open source software.
• Resist pressure from peers and solicitors to donate to causes you do not feel strongly for or cannot afford.
• Close your bank account and open a credit union account with higher dividends, no minimum balance, unlimited free teller visits and checks, and fee-free accounts. Why Credit Unions Instead of Banks
• Choose credit cards with no annual fees. You could be spending or earning interest on that money.

Saving on Transportation

• Walk wherever and whenever you can.
• Consolidate errands.
• Plan your route to avoid left turns when driving.
• When driving, take your foot off the gas when anticipating a stop ahead.
• Park in the first vacant space you find.
• Plan downhill routes to and from your destinations.

Hurrah! We made it!

Related posts:

• Our Fourpence Worth has moved. Please update your feed readers.
• Interesting Reads from Fellow Personal Finance Bloggers #9
• Pecuniarities (Our Fourpence Worth) 1 Year Anniversary
• Interesting Reads From Fellow Personal Finance Bloggers #11
• Put Your Brain Where Your Money Is: Think to Save

This month’s Group Writing Project is about Personal Experiences with Loans, so we’ll tell the story of our first, somewhat disastrous experience with loans, of how we got in trouble and rectified the situation.

In May 2003, when we moved from Hawaii, we lived in a tiny garage apartment in Hayward, CA (more about this in Our Family Financial History). After a few harrowing experiences of walking as long as 3-4 hours through the dodgy neighborhoods to run errands, we decided we needed to buy a car ASAP.

Not knowing the first thing about buying a car or obtaining a loan, we set out on foot on Memorial Day 2003 and walked several miles to the car shopping district. The first used car salesman we spoke to asked us about our credit history, of which he had none. He told us we wouldn’t be able to buy a car without credit history and made some suggestions that we buy some jewelry on financing to build credit. Well, we needed a car then, not a year after owning jewelry we didn’t need, so on we went.

At the next used car lot we stopped at, a young salesman hurried out to speak to us. I can’t quite recall what was said in the conversation except perhaps that we were looking to buy a used car. Before we knew it, we had been whisked off in one of the used cars and driven over to the KIA dealership a block down the road and seated at a table with 2 car salesmen.

Again, they began by asking about our credit. We told them we had no previous credit history, but they went ahead and pulled our credit and came back shaking their heads and tsk-tsking about it, saying it would be really hard for us to buy a car. But good news was that I had an Old Navy credit card account (which I had never used), so I could actually get a loan – at an interest rate 24% APR. It was the only way, they said, that we could get a car.

We believed what they said and settled on a used 1999 Sephia LS, which was listed at $7,000, with a monthly payment of $230 (about $190 of which turned out to be interest) for 36 months. I didn’t like it, but by this time, we had been there for hours, were famished and really just wanted to get out of there. We also felt that we had to get a car that day, because we were too tired to walk all the way back home in that hot weather, and we couldn’t go on walking to buy groceries (Hayward is a scary place and our experience with public transportation there hadn’t been good).

So we finally gave in, put a down payment of $1,500 and took the “deal,” which upon later examination of our loan documents and after licensing and taxes (another $1,500) would have us paying a total of $11,300 for a not-so-great used car. We also made the mistake of not planning ahead and looking into auto insurance, so we had to take the dealership’s deal for insurance until we could get our own.

After we bought the car and spoke to our cousin, who had lots of advice for what we “shouldn’t have done” after the fact, we decided that we would do our best to pay off the loan as quickly as possible. The one good thing about this awful loan was that there was no pre-payment penalty. So we made our monthly payments and saved as much money as possible. By the beginning of June 2004, after 13 monthly payments, we had saved up enough to pay off the remaining balance of about $4,300.

By paying the loan off 2 years early, the final amount we ended up paying for the car was around $8,800. So we were able to save about $2,500. It was a mistake to go car shopping armed with no knowledge, but we did learn from our mistake and you can be sure we will never make the same mistake again. We’ve decided that next time we need to buy a car, we’ll order a new one from Cars Direct and pay in cash.

* * *

About the PF Bloggers Group Writing Project

The Personal Finance Bloggers Network currently consists of 7 active personal finance and frugal living blogs. The Group Writing Project is a monthly project wherein each blog will write a post on a pre-determined topic and publish it on the same day of each month. Be sure to visit the PF Bloggers Group Writing Project page for the others!

Extended Group Writing Project Invitation

If you are a blogger, we would like to invite you to write your own post on this topic and submit it for listing with our entries on our Group Writing Project pages. Please visit the following page for details on how to participate in our Extended Group Writing Project.

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Related posts:

• Interesting Reads from Fellow Personal Finance Bloggers #9
• Interesting Reads from Fellow Personal Finance Bloggers #8
• Poorest Time of Our Lives
• Insurance Matters: The Cost of Complacency
• Falling Off Your Financial Horse: If You’ve Never Fallen Off a Horse, You Just Haven’t Ridden Enough

All activities listed below are FREE of admission charges unless otherwise noted (some activities are free on particular days or at particular times of day). Those that are not free cost $5 or less per person. Parking fees are noted whenever possible. Depending on the distance and number of persons in your group, public transit may or may not be less expensive. Check out an earlier post I wrote on How to Save Gas and Time by Using Google Maps, which includes tips on looking up public transportation directions and fares.

General & Sight-Seeing

The Grove Fountain Photo credit: r3m3dy

Our favorite frugal activity was walking malls and pretty places to both sight-see and get some exercise. Here are some of our favorite places to walk. Note that even though these include shopping centers, you do not need to shop in order to enjoy the scenery and atmosphere!

• Santa Monica 3rd Street Promenade

  Grab a drink or ice cream cone and just enjoy the scenery and street performers. Check out Santa Monica Pier while you’re there. You don’t have to spend money on the rides, just enjoy the scenery, have a look at the famous carousel built in 1916.

  More information: Santa Monica 3rd Street Promenade

• The Grove

  A very pretty outdoor mall with cute buildings and a park-like setting with fountains and outdoor seating. Includes free events such as Movies in the Park, Girls Night Out, Music in the Park, etc.

  More information: The Grove

• Farmers Market

  

  The Farmers Market isn’t only a place to shop for groceries, but they host free events all year round including a Summer Music Series; Family Fun with music, arts & crafts; Fall Festival with marching band, petting zoo, pig races, etc.; Holiday Festivities including music, Menorah lighting, caroling and a toy soldier band; Mardi Gras with Cajun bands, mask making, etc.; and the Gilmore Heritage Auto Show featuring more than 100 vintage and classic cars. (Photo credit: andy castro)

  More information: Farmers Market Events

• Downtown Burbank

  “Come Out and Dance” with live bands with free dance lessons, fine arts festivals, Halloween trick-or-treat, Holiday Cheer and more in Downtown Burbank.

  More information: Events in Downtown Burbank

Entertainment

• The Hollywood Bowl Museum

  The Hollywood Bowl is the world’s largest natural amphitheater which has hosted symphonies, opera, jazz, ballet, presidential addresses, rock concerts, etc. The grounds are open to the public to during the day to see the amphitheater. During the summer months, the Bowl offers rehearsals every Tuesday, Thursday & Friday, from 9 AM to noon. Admission to the rehearsals is free. The Hollywood Bowl museum is open to the public during the day year-round, and nights before concerts.

  More information: The Hollywood Bowl

• TV Studio Audience

  Attend a TV show or sitcom taping as studio audience. Tickets are free, but you may be there until midnight. A great way to see your favorite stars live and an episode of your favorite show before everybody else.

  More information and tickets: TV Tickets, Audience Unlimited

Universal Studios Hollywood

• Film Screenings

  Before films are released, they are often screened to audiences for input. Los Angeles, being the film capitol of the world, is full of films waiting to be screened. However, this one is more based on opportunity striking, because you often need to be invited. We used to go to the malls a lot, sometimes for shopping and sometimes just to walk, and perhaps 1 out of 4 times, we were approached by people looking for film screening audiences. After the film, you are asked to fill out a questionnaire of what you thought of the movie, and you might be selected to stay behind with a small group to answer questions and provide more feedback.

  More information: Tips for How to Attend a Free Movie Screening

• Universal City Walk Summer Block Party

  Free entertainment and movies at Universal Studios City Walk (no admission fee) seven nights a week during the summer. But to save on parking, you will want to find free or low-cost parking elsewhere and walk up to the City Walk.

  More information: Universal Studios City Walk

• Grand Performances

  Grand Performances presents free performing arts that reflect the best of global culture and inspire community among the diverse peoples of Los Angeles.

  More information: Grand Performances at California Plaza

Outdoor Activities

• Night Hikes at Griffith Park

  The Sierra Club leads free 2-hour hikes open to the public to view nightlife and birds. They encourage you to bring binoculars to better see the wildlife.

  More information: Night Hikes

• L.A. Mountains

  Several parks that have free group hikes through several canyons and ranches. Some have a $1-$5 parking fee, but the hikes are free.

  More information: L.A. Mountains Hikes and Events Calendars

Art & Culture

The Getty Villa

It is recommended that you check with each institution regarding admission and parking fees prior to visiting as the information may change.

• The Getty Center

  “The Getty Center presents the Getty’s collection of Western art from the Middle Ages to the present against a backdrop of dramatic architecture, tranquil gardens, and breathtaking views.” Admission is Free, but parking is $8.

  More information: The Getty Center

• The Getty Villa

  The Getty Villa, located in Malibu, is an educational center and museum dedicated to the study of the arts and cultures of ancient Greece, Rome, and Etruria.

  More information: The Getty Center

• Skirball Cutural Center

  A great cultural and historical museum which offers free admissions on Thursdays and other free events such as film screenings. We once attended a great exhibit on Albert Einstein here.

  More information: The Skirball Cultural Center

• Los Angeles County Museum of Art (LACMA)

  The largest arm museum in the western United States. On the second Tuesday of each month, general admission to the permanent galleries and non-ticketed exhibitions is free to all. After 5 pm, you may pay what you wish. Evening special: Vehicles entering the 6th Street parking garage after 7 pm park for free.

  More information: Los Angeles County Museum of Art (LACMA)

• Los Angeles Public Library

  This is one of our favorite places in the world – a 5-story building full of books. Aside from books, it is also a center of art and architecture with its distinctive sphinxes and rooftop pyramids. Docent guided tours are available daily. Parking is $1 Flat Rate for cars entering after 3PM, and on Saturdays and Sundays.

  More information: Los Angeles Public Library Tours

Educational

• Travel Town Museum

  A combination transportation museum and recreation center located at the L.A. Zoo. Has a miniature train ride tour of the perimeter of the museum for a small fee. Picnic tables and barbecue facilities are available on a first come, first serve basis. Admission is free, parking available on Museum premises.

  More information: Travel Town Museum

• Griffith Observatory

  Located at Griffith Park, Griffith Observatory’s grounds, exhibits, and telescopes are open and free to the public each day the building is open. The Observatory also offers programs, special events, and public star parties.

  More information: Griffith Observatory

Griffith Observatory

• California Science Center

  “The California Science Center offers fun and informative permanent exhibits presented in interactive worlds. Through hands-on experiences in our galleries, you’ll learn about human inventions and innovations, the life processes of living things and more.” Admission to permanent exhibits is free, additional charge for IMAX and special exhbitions. Parking is $6.

  More information: California Science Center

• Los Angeles Fire Department Historical Society – Hollywood Museum 27

  Museuem and exhibit of firefighting history dating back to the 1880s including a library and learning center on fire and life safety for both children and adults.

  More information: LAFD Historical Society

• Barnes and Noble Storytime

  Barnes and Noble bookstore offers storytime for children, toddlers, and beginning readers. This is a nationwide program. Check the events calendar for the schedule of the store closest to you.

  More information: Barnes and Noble Store Events Calendar

• Santa Monica Pier Aquarium

  Exhibits and public programs to educate kids and families about the ocean, its animal and plant life. Children under 12 enter free, adults pay a suggested admission of $5 ($2 minimum).

  More information: Santa Monica Pier, Santa Monica Pier Aquarium

Sources for More Free Events and Frugal Activities in the Los Angeles Area

• This week in … Guides to events such as concerts, movies, hikes and other activities in the area (some free, some not)
  
  • Burbank
  • Santa Monica
  • Pacific Palisades
  • Beverly Hills
  • Malibu
  • East San Fernando Valley (Encino, Sherman Oaks, Studio City & surrounding)
  • West San Fernando Valley (Calabasas, Woodland Hills, Tarzana & surrounding)
  • Southern California

• Los Angeles Department of Parks and Recreation
  Guide of activities, programs and classes offered through the parks and recreations. Some may be free and some for a fee.
• Parents Connect Activity Calendar – Los Angeles
• Eye Spy L.A. Free Things to Do in Los Angeles
  

Related posts:

• Pecuniarities (Our Fourpence Worth) 1 Year Anniversary
• Insurance Matters: The Cost of Complacency
• Festival of Frugality #140: The Frugal Quotes Edition
• Our Financial Lent: Giving up Chocolate and Ice Cream for a Month to Save $14
• Basics for the Young, Single and Frugal

A necessity is an item/service that you simply cannot do without in your everyday life and that is vital to your survival and situation.

A luxury is anything that is not a necessity.

A few examples of necessities (or necessary expenditures) would be:

• Food
• Rent/mortgage
• Auto insurance
• Home insurance
• Health insurance
• Gas
• Auto Maintenance
• Utilities: electricity, gas and phone

Of course these are not the only necessities in the world, and it’s different for everyone, but when you really think about it, true necessities are actually quite few in number, and many things that you think you need are in fact not that necessary.

A few common examples of luxuries would be:

• Entertainment – movies (at the theater, renting, or buying), music and/or books
• Cable or satellite
• Toys and games (video or non-video)
• More than one home phone line
• More than one computer (even one computer could be considered a luxury in dire circumstances)
• High speed internet service

Even in one of the main necessities, food, there are luxuries that aren’t necessary. Necessary foods are foods that are vital for your health and continued existence. These are usually basic foods and staples that fill out your food pyramid and keep you in good health. Any food that is not vital to your health and survival should be regarded as a luxury.

A few examples of luxury foods when grocery shopping would be:

• Chips and other junk food
• Cookies and other sweets
• Gourmet cheeses
• Alcoholic drinks
• Soda and other bottled beverages
• Bakery goods
• Specialty breads i.e. foccacia
• Seasonal and tropical fruits
• Fancy meats (i.e. steaks)
• Pre-prepared and packaged foods (sandwiches, salads, sushi, cut fruit, etc.)

I say “should be regarded as a luxury” because I think it is important to understand and appreciate the difference. I am not saying that your life should be completely stripped of all pleasures and comforts, but when you are purchasing a new DVD or CD, it is important to be aware that what you are purchasing is a luxury item.

So, the first step in trying to figure out how to cut your expenditures is to go through your regular purchases (including services) and distinguish all luxuries from necessities. Luxuries should not be regarded as “forbidden” because it could turn into an obsession (the desirability might be blown out of proportion), but be aware that by choosing not to purchase these items, you are gaining an advantage.

Related posts:

• Pecuniary Links & Pecuniarities Update ~ July 2009 #1
• Simple Solutions to Staying Out of Debt
• Frugal Christmas: Skipping the Tree and Presents This Year
• Financial Lent: A Frugal Fast to See What You Can Live Without
• Carnival of Pecuniary Delights No. 24: Friends Edition

Originally posted 2008-04-25 00:59:12.

As I’ve mentioned before, I am a big fan of Amazon.com, which is the first place I check when I need to buy anything — household things, dry groceries, personal care items, craft supplies, carpentry tools and — my favorite things to shop for — movies. If you are also an Amazon shopper, you may know that they are currently holding a big DVD sale.

Being a an avid movie watcher, I naturally took advantage of the sale and bought a couple of DVDs, one of which was Music and Lyrics for $6.49 becuase Hugh Grant is one of my favorite actors. I thought I’d gotten a pretty good deal at $6.49 until a few days later when I discovered an Amazon price history tracker called CamelCamelCamel.

Out of curiosity, I looked up the movies I had just ordered to see how much I had saved. To my slightly unpleasant surprise, I saw that while I did get The Jane Austen Book Club at the lowest price it’s been at in 5 months ($10.49), I actually got Music and Lyrics at the highest it’s been in the same time frame. It would appear that Amazon raised the price of this DVD and threw it in with the Sale DVDs in the hopes of making customers think that they were getting a better deal, when in actuality this item had been priced at $4.99, $5.49 and $5.99 at different points between last November and the end of April.

Despite this little deception, Amazon is still my favorite place to shop because its prices are still competitive. But I have learned my lesson about doing my research to make sure the item they say is on sale really is.

CamelCamelCamel Amazon Price History Tracker

CamelCamelCamel is a site that allows you to check the price history of products sold at Amazon. It shows you a history of price changes, the lowest, highest and average price for that product, as well as a graph for visual comparison.

How to Track Amazon Prices with CamelCamelCamel

1. Sign up for an account (free).
2. Start searching for products you want or import a wish list of items you want to track.
3. Enter a price under “I wish to be notified when the price is ___ or less.”
4. You’ll receive an email when the price falls to or below your set price.

You can subscribe to an RSS feed that will alert you when the price of a product you are tracking falls below the parameters you have set.

Click on the image to view full size

CamelCamelCamel Firefox Add-on

As it’s a bit of a hassle to have to go to the CamelCamelCamel site to check every product you’re looking at (I find that this site’s search function is a little slow), so they have a handy little Firefox add-on that lets you view an item’s price history right on the Amazon product page. You need to first install the Greasemonkey add-on from the Firefox site which will then enable you to run the Amazon price tracking script.

Click on the image to view full size

I’m very wary of installing plug-ins and scripts because having too many slows down my browsing speed, but I’ve tried this script on both my computers and neither seems to be slower for having it, and it makes it much easier to see if it’s the right time to buy something or if an item “on sale” really is on sale. The add-on also puts a “track this product” button on the Amazon page so you can start tracking it without having to search for it on the CamelCamelCamel site.

Good bargain hunting!

Related posts:

• Finance Blog Carnivals of Late
• Falling Off Your Financial Horse: If You’ve Never Fallen Off a Horse, You Just Haven’t Ridden Enough
• Our Favorite Sources for Affordable Fabrics
• Fast & Frugal Recipe: Super Easy Pizza
• Honestly Frugal: the Ethics of Saving Money

One day after grocery shopping, when I was returning my shopping cart to the collection area at the front of the parking lot, an older gentleman who was parked next to me happened to be doing the same thing. As we returned our carts together, he made a comment about how we were being good citizens and it occurred to me then that we were being more than good citizens but also good customers, and more importantly, smart customers.

By returning our shopping carts to the collection area, we can help the store save money because their employees won’t have to spend hours chasing down shopping carts around the large parking lot. By reducing the need for employees to do this, they can better spend their time inside cleaning the store, organizing merchandise and helping customers  — all things that can only contribute to a pleasanter shopping experience for us customers because:

• Store cleanliness = healthier, more comfortable shopping
• Store organization = we can quickly/easily find what we need
• Efficient customer service = we save time and are happy

But returning carts isn’t the only way to help the store, and therefore you, save money.

Help Businesses Keep Costs Down to Save You Money

Business don’t enjoy raising prices because they know it makes customers unhappy and they can potentially lose business to competitors. But they also cannot operate if they lose money. These days, businesses are raising prices left and right; almost every time I go to the supermarket, it seems the prices are a little higher than before.

So, in order to slow down or prevent ever-rising prices, we as consumers should do all we can to help businesses keep costs down to avoid the need for them to raise prices.

Grocery Stores

1. Browse refrigerated items with the doors closed and only open the doors if/when you need to read the back of packages or to take what you need.
2. Take only as many produce bags and ties as needed for the amount of produce you’re buying. I sometimes don’t take twist ties and just tie knots on the bags if I can.
3. Return items to the shelf where you got them if you change your mind.
4. Put refrigerated items back in a refrigerator if you change your mind so they don’t spoil and have to be thrown out.
5. Take care with produce. Take fruits and vegetables out of piles carefully so you don’t spill or bruise surrounding items.
6. Don’t set shopping baskets on top of produce. (I’ve actually seen someone do this on a pile of apples which horrified me because, not only did it bruise the apples, but the basket had previously been set on the floor.)

Restaurants

Take only what you need. This goes for:

1. Paper goods – napkins, utensils, cups, lids, straws, etc.
2. Condiments – ketchup, salt, pepper, sauces, etc.
3. Soft drink refills

General

1. Handle merchandise with respect so you don’t damage it and make it unsaleable. Treat items as you would if it were yours and set or hang things back where you took them.
2. Pick it up merchandise fallen on the floor and set it some place where it can’t be kicked, trodden and damaged.
3. Stand away from doorways to talk to someone or to look for or put things in your purse so you don’t let air-conditioned air out.

Doing theses things only take a few seconds, but can make a significant difference in a business’s operating costs if every consumer took the time and consideration. Not only should we be rewarded with better service (remember, employees are human and will treat you better if you’re respectful), but hopefully less or slower inflation of prices.

Previous “It Saves to Be Nice” articles:

• It Saves to Be Nice Part 1: It’s Business But It’s Also Personal
• It Saves to Be Nice Part 2: How to Be a Nice Customer
• It Saves to Be Nice Part 3: How Being Nice Pays Off

Related posts:

• Giveaways Ending Soon! And Hosting 2 Blog Carnivals Next Week
• It Saves to Be Nice Part 2: How to Be a Nice Customer
• Interesting Reads from Fellow Personal Finance Bloggers #10
• It Saves to Be Nice Part 3: How Being Nice Pays Off
• It Saves to Be Nice Part 1: It’s Business But It’s Also Personal

Life is too short to sleep on low thread-count sheets.

- Leah Stussy

I came across this thought-provoking quote the other night while looking up quotes for my Tumblr page (where I am collecting sayings I come across or that describe my mood on a particular day) and thought it would make a great topic for a blog post.

This quote addresses the frugal-liver’s age-old dilemma of price versus quality. Oftentimes, we are so used to saving money that we automatically go for what costs the least. But with experience, we learn that there is a price to pay for low-priced things. And that price is quality.

So most of us learn to balance price and quality and learn when it is prudent to pinch pennies, and when it’s not. The question of thread-count, however, had never really crossed my mind. In the past several years, whenever shopping for bed linens, we’ve always stuck to the Mainstay and Martha Stewart section of the department and picked out the most affordable (but attractive) sets.

When we moved to California from Hawaii (where we reluctantly disposed of our 12 year old childhood mattresses), in the name of frugality, instead of buying mattresses we opted for a foam mattress top pad wrapped inside a comforter. This “mattress” was set on top of a pallet we constructed of slats of pine boards spaced 4 inches apart and fitted into our bed frames. We were quite pleased with ourselves for having solved our mattress dilemma for a mere $30 per person.

As you can no doubt guess, this isn’t the most comfortable set up for an optimal night’s sleep. After a while, our “mattresses” began to sink between the slats, which can sometimes make for uncomfortable sleeping. (This arrangement is, however, very convenient if you move a lot as it is light and easily disassembled for DIY moving.) As we have accumulated comforters over the years, I have added an extra layer around my foam pad, and when the slats begin to feel very prominent, I lift up my “mattress” and give it a little fluffing to revive it.

While we never meant for this arrangement to be permanent, we have slept in this fashion for over 5 years now. I have complained more than once about this slightly uncomfortable arrangement over the years and talked of buying a real mattress. But I always come to the same conclusion: that we have done with it for x years and are doing just fine, so why spend all the money and go through the hassle of shopping for, purchasing and arranging delivery of actual mattresses?

I wrote a post several months ago titled Early to bed and early to makes a man [or woman] healthy, wealthy and wise wherein I talked about the effects of a good night’s sleep on one’s productivity and health. So this quote got me thinking that perhaps spending more on higher quality bedding that promotes better rest could enhance and improve one’s quality of life, work and health.

For example, think about the last time you slept in a nice hotel bed with a firm mattress, fluffy pillows and crisp, heavy linens and how relaxing and restful it was to lie and sleep on it. If every night’s sleep at home could be like that, imagine how much better you could feel, and as a result be more productive and feel better throughout the day.

I’m not saying that I’m going right out and buy myself some fancy Cloud 9 (or whatever they’re called) mattress, 900 thread-count sheets and feather pillows. But the next time I shop for bedding, I will consider the possibility that spending a little more for quality might pay for itself by giving me a better night’s sleep so that I can be optimally rested and alert for a good day’s work each day.

How about you? What are your thoughts on the quality of sleep and its effects on your productivity? Would you justify spending more on bedding in the hopes of being able to work better and earn more? Or forget it and just stick with the double shot of espresso for breakfast?

Related posts:

• Interesting Reads From Fellow Personal Finance Bloggers #11
• Pay Bills Online and Save (Re-Post)
• Free Printable Templates: Mini Wall Street Journal Carrier Gift Bags
• Yes, Dogs Can Catch Colds … and it’s Messy
• Is “Simple Living” Just Another Term for “Giving Up?”

Favors for Nice Customers

Here are some examples of our experience in dealing with customers in our business where we, as a business, decided to do one of our customers a favor in return for niceness on their part.

Example #1

We have a customer who has ordered costumes from us for her Great Dane twice before. She is always very friendly and polite in her emails, always saying “please” and “thank you,” never demanding or expecting special treatment, and we often exchange little personal updates on ourselves and our dogs. For this Halloween, she decided to dress her dog up as “Lipstick on a Pig” and asked us to make her a set of custom pig ears and tail. We invoiced her for the ears and tail, and after she paid, she realized that she had forgotten about feet. Because she is a good customer and we have a friendly relationship with her, we decided to throw in some matching pig’s feet for free. This made her really happy (we received an enthusiastically grateful email) which made us happy as well.

Example #2

We have another customer who orders very elaborate costumes from us every year. She competes in dog costume contests and always emails us to tell us when she wins and sends us pictures of her dogs wearing our costumes, which we never tire of seeing. She always asks how we are and sends us holiday greetings, and even mails us custom Christmas cards of her dogs wearing our costumes. Because she is such a nice customer, we often charge her a little less for her custom items than we otherwise might.

Good Consumer Experiences

Here are a few anecdotes from our past where businesses were particularly nice to us for having developed some sort of rapport with them. We didn’t do anything but be friendly to them – saying hello, saying thank you, etc. and they did us little favors and gave us savings in return.

Example #1

One year when we went to visit relatives in Taiwan, our cousins took us shopping at the night-market. In Taiwan, people aren’t as open and friendly toward strangers as many people are in the States. For example, it is common for us here to say “hello” to someone whom we don’t know but whose eyes we happen to meet at the supermarket. People don’t do this in Taiwan. We were browsing a stand run by a Middle-Eastern man. Because we are in the habit of doing so, we said “hello” to him and spoke to him as we normally do here in the States. He ended up giving us a discount without our even asking (haggling is a common practice at the Taiwanese night markets), saying we were all foreigners and should be nice to each other.

Example #2

In Madoline’s senior year in college and my first year working, we would sometimes eat at a small Chinese restaurant at the shopping center near our house. The restaurant owner was a nice, friendly guy and I would often chat with him when paying our bill. One time, because we were on a diet and trying to cut calories, we ordered one item to share. The restaurant owner, perhaps thinking we weren’t eating enough or maybe thinking we couldn’t afford more food (but we really were on a diet), brought us a free plate of won ton, telling us to take a break from our diet for the night and continue it tomorrow.

* * *

Now, we’re not saying you should butter up business people in the hopes of getting free things or discounts, but being friendly doesn’t cost anything and people who appreciate your courtesy will be more apt to be courteous and generous to you in return.

Related posts:

• It Saves to Be Nice Part 4: How to Save Money by Helping Businesses Keep Operating Costs Down
• It Saves to Be Nice Part 2: How to Be a Nice Customer
• It Saves to Be Nice Part 1: It’s Business But It’s Also Personal
• Interesting Reads from Fellow Personal Finance Bloggers #10
• Giveaways Ending Soon! And Hosting 2 Blog Carnivals Next Week

Food safety practices should actually apply all year round, but in summer and any time of warm weather, regular precautions might not be enough. For example, you might be able to leave food unrefrigerated for several hours in February without seeing any major effects, but the same practice may not work for you in August when the environment is warmer and bacteria multiply faster. Also, just because you can’t see any change, it doesn’t mean it’s not there.

Everyone knows that food goes bad, but it occurs to me that the average person might not be privy to all the specific details. Madoline and I worked in the very non-glamourous industry of food services for about 10 months in 2003 (more details in Our Family Financial History). When first hired, we had to go through food safety training and learned a lot of things that we otherwise may never have known had we not happened to get jobs in the industry.

Practicing safe food handling and storage will not only save you money by preventing food waste from spoiling, but more importantly, it will protect your family’s health. For some of you, it might be common sense, but my experience with the general public and relatives is that these are things the average person is simply not aware of. I won’t go into detail about bacteria and all that fun stuff; this is just a basic introduction to food safety.

Hand-Washing

These hand-washing practices should apply everywhere, not just in the kitchen, and especially when using the restroom – and even more importantly, when using a public restroom.

• Before handling food – be it preparing, eating or storing – wash your hands.
• Wash your hands in hot water and with an anti-bacterial soap.
• When finished washing your hands, do not use your hands to turn off the tap. Whatever bacteria was on your hands (and the hands of every other person who used the sink before you) is also on the faucet handle.
  • When in your own home and you are able to control the cleanliness of the facilities, this may not be as vital as opposed to a public facility. When at home, I often use my wrist or forearm to turn off the tap after washing my hands.
  • When in public, use the paper towel with which you dry your hands to turn off the tap – after drying your hands on it. Yes, it leaves the water running for a few seconds longer, but it keeps your hands germ-free. I also use the same paper towel to open restroom exit doors before disposing of it. This may seem overly paranoid, but you never know when you’re in public what other people have touched and left on a door handle or faucet for you to pick up (and later ingest).
• If using a towel, make sure the hand-drying towel is clean and used only for hand-drying. Change them frequently as damp towels in warm weather can mildew quickly. If using paper towels, make sure the paper towel roll is clean – hasn’t fallen on the floor, isn’t often handled when hands are dirty or used for cleaning around the house.

Some people may call this behavior paranoid or obsessive-compulsive, but it is important to be aware that bacteria is transferred by touching. This is an important factor when it comes to safe food handling. When working in food services, we were taught that if your hands touch anything that has not been sanitized, they are dirty and must be washed again before handling food.

Food Preparation & Storage

• When preparing hot food, it should be heated to above 170° F (77° C). If you don’t have a food thermometer, a good way make sure it is sufficiently hot would be to heat to boiling point, which is 212° F (100° C).
• Try not to leave hot food sitting out for longer than 2 hours.
• Try to keep hot food above 140° F (60° C) if not being consumed within 2 hours to keep bacteria from multiplying too fast.
• Cold foods and meats should be stored at temperatures below 40° F (60° C).
• After 2 hours, store the food in the refrigerator.
• Always wash your hands before and after handling raw meat, poultry, fish and dairy.
• Use an anti-bacterial dish detergent – at least for items used in preparing meats.

We’ve probably all left food out for more than 2 hours and have never gotten sick from eating it. I myself have done it and still do it sometimes, despite knowing the rules. But I feel is important to be aware of the correct practices and keep them in mind when dealing with food.

And remember that bacteria multiply faster in warm environments. So try to take more precautions than you usually would when handling and storing foods in warm weather. Teach your family the importance of good hand-washing and food safety habits. For the whole family to be healthy, it is important for each member to do his or her part.

One Last Tidbit – Grocery Shopping Carts

Shopping carts are one of the germiest things to be found in public. According to an article on ABC New, shopping cart handles have more germs than a public restroom. People touch it after handling food and money; kids stand or sit in them and teethe on them; food, raw meat juices and milk leak in them; birds poo on them in the parking lot; etc. It seems grocery stores have become more aware of cleanliness issues in recent years and some now offer sanitizing wipes for shopping carts.

When we lived in L.A. there was only one store in our neighborhood that offered cleansing wipes for shopping carts. Their prices were higher, but we often opted to shop there just because of it. If your grocery store doesn’t offer sanitation wipes, suggest it to the manager. Our local grocery store offers them and I always wipe down my shopping cart upon entering. The amount of black gunk that comes off it really quite frightening.

These were just a few basics garnered from from memory of training I received 5 years ago. For more information on food safety, visit FoodSafety.gov.

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• Tips for Staying Healthy This Winter
• Fast & Frugal Recipe: Chilled Noodles With Peanut Sauce
• Interesting Reads From Fellow Personal Finance Bloggers #13
• 101 Ways to Save Money in Your Everyday Life
• Homemade Noodles: a Surprisingly Delicious and Versatile Frugal Food

f this is your first time here, please have a look around and consider subscribing to our RSS feed. Be sure to also check out

Madoline and I have a fondness for history and all things old, so the theme for today’s carnival is “Old Money.” While credit cards, online banking and checks are great modern commodities, they just don’t have the charm of good, old fashioned money – in other words, cash. We hope you enjoy this tour through United States Treasury history and the art to be found in currencies of the past.

1934 $100,000 USD Bill (Woodrow Wilson)

Editor’s Picks

• PT presents 9 Tips For Going To One Income.
• Twenties Money Magazine presents My College Sold Me Out.
• Toni presents Happy with What We Don’t Have.
• The Investor presents How a boring broker will make you richer.
• Karen presents Spending money can save your money.

1918 $10,000 USD Bill (Salmon P. Chase)

Frugality & Saving Money

• FIRE Getters presents Top 5 Freebie Websites!
• Amy Hobbs presents How to turn three slices of turkey into brunch.
• Ryan Suenaga presents Can a GPS Pay for Itself?
• Wilfrid presents Air Leak Detection – Leak Testing – Leak Stopping.
• Grey presents Making the CFL Switch.

1918 $5,000 USD Bill (James Madison)

Shopping

• Pamela Grundy presents Best Buy Coupons, Promotions and Savings.
• mbhunter presents If you love Amazon, you’ll really love Amazon Prime.
• Amy L. presents Getting a Good Deal on Your Car Insurance.
• Tom Tessin presents The Secrets to Cheap Airline Tickets.
• Aryn presents New Strategies for Using Double Coupons.
• APFB presents Four Items to Buy Used.
• Madison presents Free Money From the U.S. Mint.

1928 $1,000 USD Bill (Grover Cleveland)

Money Management

• Ariel Ozick presents 3 Dumb Ways to Waste Your Money.
• Todd presents Budgeting Games (Finance Games #6).
• Curt presents Avoiding the Most Common Financial Mistakes.
• GBlogger presents My Personal Finance One Step, Two Step.
• Nickel presents A Peek Inside Our FNBO Direct Online Savings Account.

1928 $500 USD Bill (William McKinley)

Debt & Credit

• Silicon Valley Blogger presents Best Cash Back Credit Cards: Your Rewards For Spending.
• Mr Credit Card presents What to Do When Your Credit Card Debt Has Been Charged Off?
• Andy presents Too expensive to file for bankruptcy.
• CreditAddict presents No Fee 0% Balance Transfer Credit Card Offers.
• DMH presents 0% Balance Transfer Credit Card Offers.

1880 $100 USD Bill (Abraham Lincoln)

Economy

• Tejvan presents Why Boom and Busts are common in Housing Markets.
• Livingalmostlarge presents Perfection Guaranteed.
• RC presents Do Government Bailouts and Payouts Mean Higher Taxes in the Future?

1891 $50 USD Bill (Edward Everett)

Career

• Heather Johnson presents Guest Post: When Should You Quit Your Job?
• VH presents A$king and re¢eiving.
• Dorian Wales presents No Salvation from Productivity Improvements: The Failed 35 Hour Work Week Experiment and Work-Life Balance Examined.
• Kevin Surbaugh presents Making 401(k)’s Part of Your Job Hunt.

1905 $20 USD Bill (George Washington)

Investing

• Dividends4Life presents The MMA Rate Mystery Solved.
• Writers Coin presents Adding to the Mock Portfolio.
• Kevin presents Rebalanced My Roth 401k.
• Dividend Growth Investor presents Year-to-Date changes in Dividend Aristocrats’ annual payments to shareholders.
• The Financial Blogger presents Shifting Your Investments According To Your Tax Rate.
• RothIRA presents Roth IRA for Teenagers.
• Sandy Naidu presents Behavioral Finance – Investor Psychology – Behavioral Finance Stock Market Investment.
• FMF presents Using Your Health Savings Account as a “Super Roth” Investment Vehicle.
• Zach Scheidt presents MasterCard Incorporated (MA) – Growth Slowing.

1901 $10 USD Bill (Meriwether Lewis & William Clark)

Book Reviews

• Clare Kierans presents Money is What You Trade Your Life Energy For.
• Jim presents 547 Ways to be Fuel Smart by Roger Albright.

1886 $5 USD Bill (Ulysses S. Grant)

Other

• Steward presents A Frugal Shopping Tip That Leaves Everyone Smiling.
• J. Money presents 3 Things you should always keep in your wallet/purse/clip.
• Raymond presents How To Generate Valid Credit Card Numbers.
• Jamie presents Custom Wallet Giveaway from TheTrendySpot.com.
• Mr. Banker presents ABA Routing Codes to Link Online Accounts Together.

1862 First official $1 Bill of the United States (Salmon P. Chase)

This concludes the 26th Edition of the Money Hacks Carnival. Submit your blog article to the next edition of Money Hacks Carnival using our carnival submission form. Past posts and future hosts can be found on our blog carnival index page.

Technorati tags: money hacks carnival, blog carnival.

Related posts:

• Finance Blog Carnivals of Late
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• Hosting Festival of Frugality and Money Hacks Carnival Next Week
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I am also hosting the Money Hacks Carnival tomorrow, so be sure and check back for more great reads! If this is your first time here, please look around and consider subscribing to our RSS feed.

Now on with the carnival!

(AP Photo/Mark J. Terrill)

Editor’s Picks

• Silicon Valley Blogger presents Lost Money: How Money Drains Add Up To $175,000 In 10 Years.
• MoneyNing presents Frugally and Happily Back to School 9 Different Ways.
• Kevin Brink presents “Sale” Can Sometimes be Just Another Four Letter Word.
• ISPF presents 10 Tips to Get Anyone into the Habit of Cooking at Home (Even if You Have Never Stepped into the Kitchen Before).
• Savingadvice presents Reached Financial Independence. Now What?

The Frugal Lifestyle

• David presents 25 Frugal Ways To Reuse Everyday Household Items.
• Kate presents Time Well Spent.
• HowToMe presents How To Make a Washing Stick to Pamper Ones’ Hands.
• RC presents Making the Conscious Choice to Get By With Less.
• Anna presents Not by Bread Alone.
• Kacie presents Frivolous or frugal to outsource tasks?

(AP Photo/Itsuo Inouye)

Frugal Family Activities

• Joanne presents Make Stuff Your Kids Can Play With.
• K presents Five Frugal Toys Using Food.
• Aryn presents 10 Frugal Anniversary Ideas (That Are Also Romantic).
• Ryan Suenaga presents Frugal, Fun, and Healthy: Five Outdoor Activities.
• DJ presents Camping on a Dime.
• Faron Benoit presents 10 Cheap Date Night Ideas.

Saving on Food: Groceries, Cooking & Dining

• Tiffanie presents 13 tips on how to maximize grocery shopping.
• FIRE Getters presents Top 5 Ways To Trim Our Grocery Bills!
• Jamie McIntosh presents Save Money With Organic Produce.
• Grey presents 5 Breakfast Ideas for Brown Rice.
• Todd presents Save 20% On Restaurant Meals.
• Adam Berry presents The Frugal Approach to Cooking.
• Megan presents Saving the Economy by Dieting?

(AP Photo/Mark Baker)

Shopping Tips: Sales and Coupons

• Karen presents Does a tax holiday really equal savings?
• Erin Gifford presents 5 Ways to Save Money While Shopping Online.
• Briana presents Surviving the Checkout Lane with your coupons is a breeze if you arm yourself with knowledge.
• Amy Hobbs presents Coupon Myths Debunked.
• Lisa Spinelli presents Six Money Saving Websites With Ongoing Big Fat Deals.

Spending and Budgeting

• Emily Starbuck Gerson presents Young British couple has ‘credit crunch wedding.’
• Rich Leverage presents How to Avoid Nickel and Diming Your Way to the Poorhouse.
• KCLau presents How a medium family can retire comfortably (Real Life Case Study).

(AP Photo/Mark J. Terrill)

Back to School Saving Tips

• Kris presents If I Had Known Then: Food and Financial Advice for the College-Bound (Also, a Story).
• Tom Tessin presents Shopping Tips for College Students.
• Madison presents Back to School Savings Challenge.
• Ben presents College Dorm Room Decor Ideas – How to Decorate Your Dorm on a Budget.
• squawkfox presents Printable Dorm Room Essentials Checklist.

Saving on Transportation

• Jim presents 547 Ways to be Fuel Smart by Roger Albright.
• Steve Faber presents Top 12 Cars With the Best Gas Mileage That are Actually Fun to Drive.
• Steward presents Bike Commuting Is Tough on the Tush.
• Curt presents How to Minimize Your Automobile Total Cost of Ownership.
• Penny Nickel presents The true costs of driving– how much could you save on transportation?
• Pamela Grundy presents Unbelievable Car Rental Deal! Thanks Alamo!

(AP Photo/Mark J. Terrill)

Personal Financial Journeys (Stories)

• Amanda Milne presents You Can Have Frugality and Quality of Life.
• NtJS presents What Is: The Smartest Advice You Ever Got – Mrs. NtJS’s Turn.
• The Happy Rock presents The little things…starting to trim the budget.
• APFB presents A Lifelong Money Lesson.

Miscellaneous Savings Tips

• J. Savings presents Avoid Overdraft Fees by Tying your Checking to your C/C.
• Chief Family Officer presents Money Saving Tip: Check the address for recurrent online payments.
• Amy presents 13 Uses for Vinegar.
• Shaula presents Finding Free WiFi.
• Livingalmostlarge presents Frugal Tip – Use CC to buy Gas.
• Randy presents 12 Free and Fantastic Windows Applications.
• Abby Freedman presents How to get something for nothing.
• Joseph presents Saving Money At Garage And Yard Sales.

(AP Photo/David J. Phillip)

Other

• Michael Geoffrey presents What Do You Believe About Money?
• Dorian Wales presents How to Invest Wisely In a Bear Market?
• Sandy Naidu presents Emergency Fund Savings – Emergency Fund Tips.
• Nina Smith presents Five Things Not Worth Repairing.
• Kevin presents Should You Invest in Visa? A 5 Month Update.
• Michael Cintolo presents In sickness and health (insurance).
• VH presents Is the Layoff Boom about to Fall?

(AP Photo)

That concludes this edition. Submit your blog article to the next edition of Festival of Frugality using our carnival submission form. Past posts and future hosts can be found on our blog carnival index page.

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Related posts:

• Festival of Frugality #152: Affected by Recession Edition
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Our Favorite Sources for Discount Fabrics

• Walmart
  Some Walmart stores have discontinued their fabrics departments, but if a store in your area has not done so, it is the best source for affordable fabrics. While they carry many “fiber content unknown” fabrics, they also have many good quality fabrics suitable for clothing in the $1.00-$2.00 per yard price range. When some of their pricier fabrics run low on the bolt, they often lower the price to $1.00-$2.00 to clear it out – usually with between 1-3 yards left on the bolt, which is ample for making a regular sized outfit. Even the “fiber content unknown” fabrics can be used for some projects such as home decoration and miscellaneous crafts.
• Jo-Ann Stores
  The physical Jo-Ann stores, especially the superstores, carry a huge selection of fabrics for all sorts of purposes – clothing, costuming, upholstery and crafts. While regular prices are often in the $3.00+ range, they often have large sections of quality fabrics on clearance for $1.00-$2.00 per yard. Joann.com often has free shipping promotions for orders $35 and above; just do a search on RetailMeNot.com for a coupon code.
• Fabric.com
  Our preferred online fabric supplier is Fabric.com. They carry a wide range of fabrics at reasonable prices, and often have a lot of good fabrics on sale or clearance from as low as $1.50 per yard and up. Be sure to check their clearance category frequently and check out the Fabric.com Coupon Corner for current promotions. We have ordered from them several times and been pleased with the quality of the products as well as the service. Their warehouse is located in Georgia, so shipping via UPS usually takes a week to the West Coast, and we usually receive our orders within 9-10 days of our order. (Prices quoted in our original article Save Money by Sewing Your Own Clothes were obtained from this site.) Fabric.com also offers free shipping on orders $35 and above.
• Jo-Ann.com
  Joann.com carries a variety of craft supplies and fabrics, though I find their online selection of fabrics limited and not as well priced. However, they sometimes do have very good sales on fabrics with prices as low as $2.00 per yard. Their sale fabrics often sell-out very quickly, so you have to act quickly when you see them. They also frequently offer Free Shipping promotions for orders over $35, but they can be a little slow to ship. (We once waited over 2 weeks for them to ship an order.)

New source (added October 4, 2009):

• Hancock Fabrics
  We have yet to purchase from Hancock Fabrics, but it seems like a reputable company and they have good prices and offer free shipping on orders $75 and up.

We haven’t purchased as much fabric lately as we have stocked up a lot of fabrics over the past few years. When purchasing fabrics, it is best wait to buy them on sale as it is rarely an urgent matter. With fabrics, when you see a good deal for a fabric you have a plan for and are certain to use, then snap it up before it is gone, because it most certainly will be gone very quickly. Just don’t snap up every bit of fabric that catches your eye. If you can’t think of a good use for it in the immediate or near future, or if you already have a lot of fabric sitting around waiting to be used, then it is best to let it go.

Related posts:

• The Frugal Literate’s Guide to Affordable Reading
• Patchwork Berets from Fabric Scraps
• The Frugal Art
• Elegant French Memo Board from Thrift Shop Picture Frame
• Frugal Thermodymics Part I: Limiting Sources of Heat in the Home

Reading is one of the most frugal hobbies in existence, and is something, in my opinion, that everyone should do. Not only is it entertaining, but it can be beneficial and educational in many ways. In fact, reading is (along with watching period films based on classic literature) Madoline’s and my favorite hobby, and when we’re not working we can often be found with a book in front of us, even while eating.

The virtues of reading (even light-hearted, entertaining fiction) are as follows:

• Subconsciously improves your knowledge of language, grammar and writing
• Acquisition of vocabulary through example in context
• Expands your horizons and knowledge of people and the world
• Teaches a sense of perspective and the ability to see more than one side of a situation
• Improves overall reading comprehension skills and better prepare you for life
  • Good reading and writing skills are essential for success in career and business
  • The ability to better read and understand contracts, terms and conditions (such as credit card terms) helps you to be a more conscientious consumer
  • Proper writing and spelling is a necessity if you want to be taken seriously whether it be in letters, on message boards, your own website or blog, etc.

So now that I’ve convinced you of the virtues of reading, here are some tips for reading on a budget (or ) and sources for affordable reading. While we try to borrow from the library as much as possible, we do sometimes purchase books.

A few reasons we purchase books are:

• Collecting
  Book collecting is just as rewarding a hobby as stamp or coin collecting. Some people collect for fun, and others for profit. We personally love books so much that we would rather keep old and rare books than sell them.
• Reading more than once
  We have favorite books and series that we often read more than once (sometimes once a year) and feel it worthwhile to purchase and collect them.
• Study and reference
  Madoline is currently studying in preparation for graduate school, so we often purchase reference and related materials that will be useful both now and later.
• Home library
  We live in a remote area without much to do and our local library can be rather lacking in some areas, so if there is a book we are sure of liking and re-reading, we sometimes purchase it. Also, if you live a frugal lifestyle and often opt to stay home instead of going out and spending money, it’s sometimes nice to have a handy library to pick from when in need of some entertainment or activity.

You don’t have to purchase new books to fill your collection or library. In fact, we often prefer to purchase used books just because they’re more comfortable to read. When we read a new book, we always feel the need to keep it pristine and hate seeing them get dinged or creased. But with used books, we don’t have that problem, and can read in total comfort (after wiping it over with rubbing alcohol). There are many sources for very affordable books, as low as 10-25 cents per book, which I will share below. I will start with the most preferred (frugal) sources and work my way down.

Continue on for a list of affordable reading resources.

1. Libraries

Every city, county and/or state has a public library system. You’ve already paid for the resources offered by the library, so you might as well use it. Most library systems these days are very up-to-date and offer the latest bestsellers and new releases. For more on the benefits of libraries, refer to my post .

2. e-Books

I personally prefer physical books that I can carry around and read in bed or a comfy chair, but for those who don’t mind reading on the computer, e-Books are very easily available from a variety of sources these days. Most free e-Books are classics and other works that have entered into the public domain as a result of expired copyright, but libraries often offer free access to thousands of new release and bestsellers in e-book and audio-book formats through their websites. A couple of good sources for free e-Books are:

• Project Gutenberg
• Book Glutton

3. Library and Friends of the Library Book Sales

Most libraries have a Friends of the Library group that collects donated books and organizes regular sales to raise funds for the library. These book sales often sell old, used, like-new and sometimes even new books for incredible prices, often at 10 to 25 cents for a paperback, 50 cents for softcover trade paperbacks, and $1.00 for hardbacks. These types of sales in metropolitan areas such as Los Angeles are especially plentiful in current bestsellers in new condition. They usually occur once a month in most areas, but even when there isn’t a sale, many libraries have a cart or shelf near the entrance where you can pick up books and deposit the money into a collection box.

The Book Sale Finder website is a great place to search for and sign up for notifications of book sales in your area.

4. Thrift Stores

Thrift stores such as Goodwill and Salvation Army usually have a book section with decent prices. They’re not as good as the library sales, but cheaper than most other used book stores, with prices between 50 cents for smaller children’s books to $2.00 – $3.00 for other books.

You can search for thrift stores near you at The Thrift Shopper.com.

5. Used Books Online

My favorite online source for used books is abebooks.com. Prices start at $1.00, even for some new books, and there is a vast selection from booksellers all over the world. The sellers that sell on this site also sell on other used book sites such as Amazon Marketplace, but at AbeBooks, the combined shipping rates for additional books from the same seller are sometimes better, as it would seem that AbeBooks allows the sellers to set their own rates for additional books, while the other sites set a flat rate. Some sellers on AbeBooks offer combined shipping rates of only $1.50-$2.00 per additional book (within the United States), while most other sites charge between $3.00-$3.99 per additional book.

	Author Title Keyword ISBN

6. New Books Online

If you can’t find a book used or free from the library and must buy it new, then I’d say go with Amazon or Overstock.com. I recently learned that many people are not aware that Overstock.com carries books and movies. In fact, Overstock.com actually often has better prices than Amazon even when you add shipping charges, but Amazon has a wider selection, competitive pricing and free shipping on orders over $25.00.

• Books on Amazon.com
• Books on Overstock.com

Related posts:

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• Under the Weather – Recommended Reading
• Pecuniarities (Our Fourpence Worth) 1 Year Anniversary
• Interesting Reads from Fellow Personal Finance Bloggers #10
• My Favorite Money and Time Saving Websites

Every Little Bit Adds Up

First I will remind you, as I mentioned in my first official post “,” that every little bit adds up and makes difference in the long run. While one small action seems insignificant in the long scheme of things, if frequently repeated, it will have a long-term impact whether good or bad.

I will use smoking as an example: smoking a single cigarette may not harm you, but smoking cigarettes on a regular basis over the course of many years will significantly impact your health (even if not visible to the eye, there is a consequence.) Likewise, all things we do, no matter how small, will have a consequence of some sort. So now to my point.

As I said above, staying home is one of the best and easiest ways to save money. And again, as mentioned above, this is not about going out for special activities, but rather everyday activities and the importance of consolidating errands and activities because every single time you leave your house, whether or not you physically “spend” money, you are in fact spending money. I will start with the most obvious.

Driving is More than Gas

When you drive, you’re spending more than the cost of gas by putting wear and tear on your car. The IRS (for our foreign readers, this is the Internal Revenue Service, the United States government’s department of taxation) has determined a mileage allowance rate of 48.5¢ per mile for business purposes for the 2007 tax year. While tax-wise, this allowance only applies to business owners who use their vehicles in the course of business, it takes into account the cost of gas, wear and tear and maintenance on the vehicle. So a simple 1-mile one way trip (2-mile round trip) to the store has a cost value of $0.97.

Cost Begins with Use

There are many other ways you spend money by going out. These are in the number of things we need and use in order to go out. Everything costs money; just because you’ve already paid for something doesn’t mean that it is now “free” or “without cost.” A good example of this concept is, once again, the IRS. When a business purchases inventory or supplies, it cannot deduct the cost of those items until after those items have been sold or used.

For example, a business owner purchases a case of paper clips in May 2006. He only uses half the case of paper clips by the end of his tax year in December 2006. When he files his 2006 taxes, he can only deduct the cost of the half case of paper clips that he used in 2006. Only after he has used up the 2nd half of his case of paper clips in 2007 can he deduct the cost of those clips. This is an example of the theory that actual expenditure does not end with the purchase of an item, but with the use of it.

Being Presentable

Every time you go out, you must put on clothing that are presentable in public. These clothes are often nicer and more valuable than your regular home clothes. Though it is not always immediately visible, each time you wear your nice clothes, they get some … well … wear. That’s why they call it “wearing” clothes, is it not? Each wearing decreases the value and shortens the life of the garment, taking you that much closer to having to buy (or make) a replacement. This especially includes shoes, which suffer the most wear and tear.

After you wear your clothes, they will need to be washed. Not only does washing cause additional wear on the clothes, but it is accompanied by further expenditures in water use, detergent, and for many, electricity or gas for drying, anti-static dryer sheets, fabric softeners, etc.

Being presentable also often entails use of cosmetics (for women) and hair products – hair spray, mousse, gel, etc (men and women). For women who use make-up before going out, there is the cost of the make-up and all the other products used along with the make-up (toners, lotions, etc.). Every time you use these things, you are in theory, spending or “using” money.

Time is Money

It may be trite, but it is true, especially if you are self-employed or simply make a little extra money blogging. Think of the time spent in traffic or standing in line at the store for the purpose of buying a few items. You could have done some work or written an article that could potentially make money.

Unexpected Expenditures

Oftentimes when we go out for one purpose, we are often sidetracked and end up at originally unplanned places (perhaps attracted by a “ONE DAY SALE” sign at a favorite store) and making unplanned purchases (“Buy One Get One Free” even though you hadn’t even planned on buying One at all). It is true that had you never gone out that day, you might have missed out on a great bargain, but had you not ventured out of doors at all, you would be none-the-wiser and the richer for it. If you go out 3 times a week as opposed to once a week, the possibility (and probability) of unplanned expenditures is multiplied by 3.

I am not saying that you should never go out and starve to death when you run out of groceries. The point I hope I have made is that every outing costs money and that one of the easiest ways to save money is by consolidating all your errands into one outing. This requires some planning and organizing, but is by no means difficult. Following are a few tips to get you started.

Tips for Saving Time and Money by Consolidating

• Groceries
  It is not necessary to shop for groceries every few days or even every week. Try to cut back to every 2-3 weeks, or even better, once a month. This requires some planning and adjustment to get the quantities right, but can save you a lot of time and money. (Check back soon for tips on shopping for groceries once a month.)
• Banking
  Yes, the sooner you deposit that paycheck in the bank, the sooner you begin earning interest. But, if the cost of making a special run to the bank (driving & time) exceeds the amount of interest you will earn, might it not be better to wait a few days until you have more reasons for going out?
• Post Office
  Save trips to the post office by keeping some stamps on hand. I like the Forever stamps that can still be used when postage rates go up. Consider using online shipping for mailing parcels. (Check back soon for information on how you can save time and money by using online shipping options.) Also, refer to my article “” and learn how you can possibly save $60 a year by not mailing your bills.
• Returning Library Books
  If you have a library book due on a day when you don’t have any other errands scheduled, you can renew the book by calling the library or logging onto the library website, and delay the trip to the library until you have another reason to go out.
• Shop Online
  Consider buying more online (from reputable and established businesses, of course). Online prices are often lower than in-store prices even including shipping, so you save time, money, and gas.

Again, it can take time and planning to get used to this idea, but you will soon begin to see how much money and time you save by waiting a few days to take care of all your business at once. This does not mean you should become a hermit and never leave the house. It is important to still go out for practical and social reasons (and work), but hopefully you will now be more aware of the cost behind every activity and therefore be even more successful in your frugal lifestyle.

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• Thank you!
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• Finance and Frugality Blog Carnivals: Week of Unexpected Delays
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• Basics for the Young, Single and Frugal

Software

• Open Office
  The Open Office Suite is similar to the Microsoft Office Suite. There is a word processor (Writer), spreadsheet (Calc), drawing (Draw), database (Base), presentation (Impress). There’s even a math program for doing math calculations, but I don’t really understand or have much need for it. You have a choice of installing all the programs or just the ones that you need – i.e. we just use Writer, Calc and Draw. While Open Office is not quite as fancy and aesthetically pleasing as the Microsoft programs, they are more than capable of most everyday and business tasks. We use the Calc program for accounting and taxes, Draw for drafting patterns for our dog clothing designs, and Writer for letters, invoices, coupons, etc.
• Thunderbird
  For email, I recommend Thunderbird, which is a great alternative to the Microsoft Outlook email program. Like Outlook, it has filtering, junk mail control, etc. You can install the calendar add-on Lightning if you need/want it. The Sunbird calendar program is also available as a separate program if you don’t use Thunderbird or prefer not to use add-ons.
• Foxit
  Foxit is a pdf reader similar to Adobe Acrobat Reader with annotation features such as highlighting, drawing graphics and typing text, and conversion to plain text.
• Filezilla
  Filezilla is a nice and easy to use FTP program. I use it for working on my Zen Cart and Wordpress sites, which is much easier than uploading through my webhosting browser ftp.
• The GIMP
  The GIMP is a graphics program and a Photoshop alternative of sorts. This program isn’t as advanced as Photoshop, but is probably competent enough for the average casual user for basic photo touch-ups or graphics. (We use Adobe Photshop Elements for our business graphics and photos.)

Browsers

• Firefox
  I think this browser has surpassed Internet Explorer in popularity by now and you’ve probably either heard of it or already use it. We have been using Firefox for almost 4 years now and it is our primary browser. It is much faster than IE, and while I have found that it’s not as fast as SeaMonkey or Opera, the number of available add-ons enable you to customize it is so many ways that the convenience surpasses the downside of slightly slower (but still very decent) browsing speed.
  
• SeaMonkey (Mozilla)
  SeaMonkey is an all-in-one internet suite that comes with browser, HTML editor, mail and news client and chat applications, and other web development tools. As mentioned above, I have found the SeaMonkey browser to be faster than Firefox. The main reason I downloaded SeaMonkey was because I had need of a good WYSIWYG (What You See Is What You Get) HTML editor, and the SeaMonkey one has worked very well for the occasional webpage design. I’ve also used the mail client in the past and found it quite decent.
• Opera
  I downloaded Opera mainly for webmastering purposes to make sure all my websites are displaying properly. A lot of people have said that Opera is the fastest browser, but I’ve found it to be about the same as, if not a little slower, than SeaMonkey. It’s a very nice-looking browser however, with a very convenient “speed-dial” page for quick access of your frequent online haunts.

Web Development

• WordPress
  This is the php program I use to manage this site. You can pretty much see for yourself what it does, but I will add that it is a wonderfully clever and very easy to use program. There are scores of plug-ins you can install to add additional functions and features. Download it for free at WordPress.org.
• Zen Cart
  I use the Zen Cart php shopping cart for our Franga Designs website where we sell pet clothing and costumes. As with WordPress, there are hundreds of modules you can install to add additional features to your store.
• OsCommerce
  OsCommerce is another php shopping cart script similar to Zen Cart. I personally like Zen Cart better and found it to be less buggy than osCommerce. However, there are many people who use osCommerce.

Operating Systems

• Ubuntu
  Ubuntu is a linux-based operating system that comes with pretty much anything you need: web browsers, office applications, instant messaging, games, media players and graphics applications. There are a myriad other applications that you can easily install through the control panel. To a non-linux user, it may look a little foreign at first and take some getting used to, but it works just as well as Windows and best of all it’s free. Just go to the Ubuntu website to download it or you can request a free CD to be sent to you completely free of charge.

For the most part, we still use Windows XP as it came free and pre-installed with our current computer, but we have an Ubuntu CD on hand for when Windows acts up, which inevitably happens once in a while, so we can still handle our business affairs.

A good place to start looking for free software is Softpedia where you can search for, download and try various types of programs (some are free, but some are not). I highly recommend that you always do a little research on the web to find out more about a program before downloading and installing it.

For more information on open source and free software:
GNU Operating System
Open Source Iniative

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