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genuinegirly 03-06-2009 06:53 AM
It's fun living walking-distance from a thrift store. In Berkeley we lived less than a block away from a Goodwill - I'd frequently walk through on the way home from classes.

If you're not horrified at Wal-Mart, or just like free things... Wal-Mart online has free samples of select items. You get to pick out what samples you want and order them specifically. The freebies change periodically. Here's a link:
Walmart.com - Free Samples & Trials: Free Samples

braisler 03-06-2009 07:41 AM
Quote:
17. Make sure you are paying the least for quality service as possible. Do you have cable? See if DirecTV is cheaper. Have you compared your insurance company's rates with those of other companies? Have you thought about switching from a regular phone company to a voice-over-IP system like Vonage? What about your cell phone plan?
That one tweaked my brain cells on the issue of phones. I'll add a bit to the content. Not only did we switch to Vonage a few years ago, but we 'downgraded' within their service as well. They don't advertise it as much, but they have a cheaper 500 minutes per month plan for $15 instead of their unlimited $25/month plan. We started out with the unlimited, but monitored our usage for 3-4 months. I found out that the highest that we went during that time was 300 minutes or so. Switching to the 500 minutes plan immediately saved $120/year.

We aren't heavy cell phone users, so we each (wife and I) got a phone and account through Virgin. No contract, pay for minutes as you go with no expiration. The minimum is paying up for $15 worth of minutes every 3 months if you set it up on an automated plan. Neither of us ever burns through all of our minutes since the phones are mostly for quick convenience calls when we are away from the house. So that is $60 per YEAR for cell phone service for each phone. I know lots and lots of people who pay more than $60 per month for cell phone service. Even if you cut one of your cell phones (assuming you are in a couple) down to a pay as you go plan, the savings can add up.

phathom 03-07-2009 01:53 AM
This is really great advice, I already do most of this stuff, but it opened my eyes to a few more I could do.

Here's a couple that should be added too.

# Spend a couple extra $ and switch to CCFL (energy saving) light bulbs for the lights in the house you use most, these put out the same, if not brighter light and take a fraction of the energy. The extra $2-3 per bulb you buy will easily pay for itself within the first month, if not the first couple months of use and save you money after that, they last longer too, which means less replacements.

# Choose the stores you go to, around here stores like Whole Foods, Safeway, Fred Meyer, QFC, and New Seasons are prominent, however shopping at stores like Winco or Wal-Mart even when buying name brand foods will save you up to 20-30% on your grocery bill every trip that can add up pretty quickly. They even did a news story on it a couple years ago that proved it while purchasing identical items. You get even better deals when you purchase generic brands at these stores versus their name brand equivalents. For a quick example I took a shopping trip today and the name brand of green beans was $1.17 a can, the OTHER brand was a $0.85 a can, and the GENERIC brand was $.055 a can, over a 50% savings on the exact same vegetable prepared the exact same way. Also Dollar Stores are great for most products, get familiar with your local dollar store and learn what you can get there for cheaper than the discount stores and make 2 trips instead of one, it will be well worth it. Just in hand sanitizer alone for the 3 bottles of it alone saves us $10/month by buying from the dollar store at $1/bottle to $4/bottle at the discount store.

Cynthetiq 03-08-2009 09:21 AM
I have found that CCFLs have not lasted any longer than regular incandescent bulbs. As far as energy usage, that's a bit more up in the air.

something that came across my monitors this morning

Quote:
View: Five Frugality Hacks Straight Out of the Great Depression
Source: wisebread
posted with the TFP thread generator

Five Frugality Hacks Straight Out of the Great Depression
Posted January 8, 2009 - 09:33 by Thursday Bram

Filed Under: Frugal Living
FDR Memorial

During the Great Depression, simple frugality was the only way to get by. There was a saying that everyone lived by: "Use it up, wear it out, make it do or do without." There's a lot we can learn about frugality just by looking at how folks managed during the Great Depression — and those old-fashioned ways are starting to come in handy again as we all face this financial crisis.

1. Go In Together: If you can pool your money with someone else, you have more buying power. In many cases, that means you can get something cheaper. For instance if you can buy food in bulk, it's less expensive. If you need a tool or something else that you won't need every day, you can often go in together with someone else that needs the same thing, effectively halving the cost.

2. Do It Yourself: Pretty much anything is cheaper if you do it yourself, from home repair to cooking meals. Of course, the trade off is time, but if you have the time, it's worthwhile to learn to do as much as you can for yourself. I've been working on this one myself — I still probably shouldn't be trusted with any car repairs, but I no longer have to call someone in to do some of my minor home repairs.

3. Barter: Just because you don't have cash for a certain expense doesn't mean that you can't cover that cost. Instead, you can barter. Trade your skills for someone else's — maybe you need a babysitter and your favorite babysitter needs a professional haircut (or whatever your specialty happens to be). You can work out a deal where you both get you want without having to bring cash into the matter.

4. Go to the Source: Buying anything from its source is cheaper — food is especially so. If you can purchase from a farmer or through a farmer's market, you often pay less for your food because there is no middle man getting a cut of the cost. Prices are even better if you can become your own source — if you grow your own garden, the cost of your food can be minimal.

5. Reuse: We're used to throwing away all sorts of things that can be easily reused. From packaging materials to broken items, there's almost always some way that you can repair, reuse or repurpose anything that you're planning on sending to the dumpster. Clothing is a key example — it can often be repaired, handed down, altered, made into a quilt or even used as rags. There's rarely clothing that really ought to be thrown away.

There are far more approaches to frugality that were crucial not so long ago. There's plenty of room in the comments if you'd like to add your own.

NoSoup 03-08-2009 05:23 PM
Quote:
18. Refinance your auto loans, mortgages, and other debts every 6 months to a year. You can lower your interest rate, as your credit improves, and your monthly payment, as your balance decreases. You save money this way, and you spend money for a shorter period of time. The key, however, is to keep making the same monthly payment even if it decreases along with your interest rate. That will help you pay your vehicle off even faster and help you save quite a bit more money.
I would actually recommend NOT doing this. There are significant costs associated with refinancing your home - even your automobile. I'm not trying to give the impression that you shouldn't refinance if there is a significant drop in rate, but make sure it is going to be worth the costs associated with refinancing.... Paying $3,000 in closing costs to refinance your house every six months to a year won't get you very far...

Tully Mars 03-08-2009 05:56 PM
Quote:
Originally Posted by NoSoup (Post 2606171)
I would actually recommend NOT doing this. There are significant costs associated with refinancing your home - even your automobile. I'm not trying to give the impression that you shouldn't refinance if there is a significant drop in rate, but make sure it is going to be worth the costs associated with refinancing.... Paying $3,000 in closing costs to refinance your house every six months to a year won't get you very far...
I agree I would never do any of this. I'd say drive a vehicle you can buy outright or take public transits until you can pay cash. Loans and leases are a suckers bet usually. As for the mortgage, you're right closing costs make it a bad deal unless the interest drops several points. Doing it every six month is freaking insane. What's it going to do? Pay you interest at some point?

Cynthetiq 03-08-2009 06:06 PM
oddly enough this is back from Feb 2007.... I didn't realize that there was something about refinancing, but that was a point of saving money back in those days. Though you are right refi can be costly. I honestly hate the roll up into the mortgage because well people think it's "free"

ngdawg 03-08-2009 06:47 PM
That's the boat we're in now-bank wants 9.5%, raising our ARM $300 a month at the same time I lost my job, so in essence, we lost $1500 a month but our mortgage is $2100. Refinancing would have upped the loan amount, although we would have dropped 4 points, bringing the payments to under $1800; problem is, adding closing costs to the balance made our loan to value ratio too close and we ended up being denied by the underwriters after being approved by the lender. :(

We all know how I feel about CFL bulbs...

I recently got a different phone plan that dropped the monthly bill at least $50. Verizon doesn't advertise it, but they have a family plan that is all inclusive for $99.99 for the first two cell phones, $9.99 each after that. Unlimited texting in and out of network, which is where the savings are when you have teenagers.:thumbsup:

hunnychile 03-09-2009 02:47 PM
Quote:
Originally Posted by genuinegirly (Post 2601751)
Wait a second... what in the world... have you spent any real time in Berkeley? There's a reason why they don't have free bikes sitting around. Have you seen the bicycle skeletons littered around campus? Free bikes would be picked for parts, stolen, or destroyed. There's little respect for public property in that city.
When did Berkeley become such an ugly uncommitted cesspool? :eek: Free bikes "Bikes To Share" could be a great way to heal & promote the whole Berkeley vibe - in a big positive way, if someone wanted to launch a Better & Greener Berkeley! I find your response is true but just so flipping sad that I can hardly BELIEVE it!

C'mon people, are you (or rather others around you) so stuck in the shadows & muck that no one around there could launch a movement like the one I've proposed?? Shocking on so many levels... Meanwhile I'm in NE Ohio trying to create jobs with insurance for hundreds of the unemployed uneducated laborors. Could you or Anyone else try to save CAL Berkeley by sharing this international idea around CAL Berk and maybe see if people might try to turn on to it?
Guess I've dropped the "glove" in a way... Hey, when did CAL Berkeley get so flipping COLD and uncosmic and uncaring???

/still in shock!!!!?/ OMG... this is so freakin' unreal.....Someone Needs To Do It. Forward this or find some Bike Shop that will help. Please, for the sake of our future in this 2009 World.

Cynthetiq 03-11-2009 05:24 AM
hunnychile, maybe you should start it. why wait for someone else to make the world the way you want it to be?

Today's item is really interesting... It's VERY frugal and very much the tightest articleI've seen. The article says one thing that has always been a part of my modes, you can't make more money but you can spend less money which is just like making more money.

So this week, I want to go to the movies. It really pisses me off to pay $12 to go to the movies in Manhattan, so I rarely go to paid movies. I get free screenings all the time but that's another story. So instead of ADDing to my outgo of cash, I've made food for most of the week, and thus removed a couple nights out of dinner. I'm also taking those left overs for lunch. Net effect, the cost of going to the movies will be offset by not spending on going out. This normally is the way that one can apply savings as the person in the article.

Quote:
View: Extreme cheapskates: Tightwads revel in frugality
Source: AP
posted with the TFP thread generator

Extreme cheapskates: Tightwads revel in frugality
Mar 10, 4:46 PM EDT

Extreme cheapskates: Tightwads revel in frugality

By ANNE D'INNOCENZIO
AP Retail Writer

NEW YORK (AP) -- Amy VanDeventer has always been a cheapskate. The recession is taking her to new extremes.

Before the economy tanked, she was still wearing maternity clothes from her last pregnancy, clipping coupons and using hand-me-downs to dress her daughters, ages 2 and 3. Now, she's salvaging bagel scraps left on their plates for pizza toppings and cutting lotion bottles in half so she can scrape out the last drops.

"I was already cheap," said VanDeventer, a 36-year-old mortgage loan underwriter from Broomfield, Colo. "Now I am neurotic about it."

If you thought those cheapskate friends and relatives couldn't pinch pennies any tighter, think again. The recession is making tightwads like VanDeventer cut back even more. They're going way beyond sharpening their coupon scissors, replacing already cheap store-brand fabric softener with vinegar and even making their own detergent. VanDeventer was drying her hair in front of a fan after her portable hair dryer broke - until her friends bought her a new one.

The recession is radically changing behavior among many different types of people, from the Wall Street bankers who are now waltzing into Wal-Mart for the first time to buy their groceries to teens who are now thumbing through the piles of status jeans at secondhand shops to save money. And experts say that such behavior could linger long after the economy recovers.

What surprises frugality bloggers is that many cheapskates such as VanDeventer haven't lost their jobs and are not in danger of losing their homes. Many have stashed a good chunk of cash away. But the economic uncertainty is catapulting them to new levels of thriftiness.

"I do it out of fear because I would rather put that money in the bank or purchase something we really need," said VanDeventer, who now saves about 50 percent of her take-home pay, up from 25 percent before the recession began more than a year ago.

The trend is disturbing for merchants, who are already reeling from the sharp pullback by spenders. Such extreme miserly behavior could only worsen the decline in consumer spending.

"Frugal people are now looking at more ways not to spend money," said Lynnae McCoy, who runs a blog called beingfrugal.net, which attracts seasoned penny pinchers. In January, her site received 110,000 hits, up 30 percent from a year ago. What intrigued McCoy was the interest among frugal folks to save even more money by making their own detergent and other household goods.

Elizabeth Schomburg, a credit counselor from Roscoe, Ill., is now replacing store brand softener with vinegar in her laundry. The 31-year-old, who used to comb the 80 percent off sales racks, said she has stopped doing any "recreational buying."

"I am questioning every single purchase," she said.

She's also not stockpiling discounted groceries because she wants to limit how much money she puts out for each trip to the supermarket. That kind of behavior is showing up in fourth-quarter results at companies including foodmaker H.J. Heinz Co., whose sales suffered as consumers are cleaning out their cupboards before buying new items.

Jeff Yeager, author of The Ultimate Cheapskate's Roadmap to True Riches, sees a silver lining to the economic downturn.

"Whatever you do to simplify your life is a good thing," Yeager said. A self-proclaimed cheapskate, he has spent no more than $100 over the past five years on clothing for himself and won't throw anything out until it literally falls apart.

But he's found ways to cut back even more now, such as eating more lentils - which are cheap and nutritious - and biking more to save gasoline. His mantra for buying food? Buy not what you want, but what's affordable at the time.

Unlike many big spenders during the boom years, he says he and other cheapskates are "sleeping easy" these days.

They're also getting some respect from the spenders, who even just a few months ago mocked their thrifty ways.

"My friends used to laugh at me," said Jodi Furman, referring to her obsession with 70 percent off sales and her knack for saving money with coupons.

They're not laughing now. The mother of three from Lake Worth, Fla., parlayed her knowledge into a blog called neverpayretailagain.net last fall. The blog helps shoppers save money on fashionable clothing and healthy food.

"If you can't make more money, then you can spend less - and that's the equivalent of making more money," Furman said.

While she doesn't scrape pizza crumbs or make her own detergent, Furman said she's "laser-focused" when it comes to saving on groceries. She's saving 60 percent to 70 percent off her grocery bills. On a recent trip to Winn-Dixie, she scooped up $63.50 worth of groceries for $16.45. She picked up a box of TLC Cereal bars, regularly priced at $3.99, for $1 - it was on sale for $3 but she used a $2 coupon. She got a $3.99 package of Equal sweetener for free - combining a coupon with the sale price.

Many people are embracing the new challenge of squeezing the most value out of every last penny. Who knew you could make household products such as detergent? McCoy says it's not hard: mix Borax with a half bar of soap, baking soda and its relative washing soda, which cuts grease and can be found in the laundry areas of many supermarkets.

"If you have vinegar, Dawn soap and baking soda, you can pretty much make any cleaning product," McCoy said.

ngdawg 03-11-2009 07:42 AM
I have always been a coupon clipper; I've had my little box of coupons with me for 20 years. I get kinda disappointed if I don't see at least 20% off the bill and I always try to stay under $100-I go about once every 10 days. I found that while one store was giving 2c for every bag you bring and use, another was giving 5c. I bring 4 large bags with me all the time and the store that gives 5c per bag also has better prices overall, so instead of going around the corner, I drive the 5 miles. So far it's paying off in lower grocery bills.
Both my spouse and I are curb hunters. He picks up discarded wood for projects and I look for furniture or things for the house. Yesterday I picked up over 60 bricks that someone had listed in Craigslist so that we can put in our sidewalk-it will be entirely made up of used brick. Some of my curb finds are shelving, a desk (friend found it next to a dumpster and it's gorgeous), we've had lawnmowers as well that the spouse took and fixed; we have an industrial air compressor, a drum sander, a serving platter and an old wire egg basket and an oak and iron park bench , all curbside specials. The spouse makes mirrors out of old windows-all found on curbs or in dumpsters. With about $10 in wood and mirrors and about 5 hours worth of work, we sell them for at least $75 each. We have 3 boxes of wood flooring he picked up-don't know what we're going to do with it but it was free!

snowy 03-11-2009 07:59 AM
I actually really want to make my own laundry detergent. I'm ashamed to say I got a recipe for it off of the Duggar family's website. The Jim Bob & Michelle Duggar Family

One thing I've learned to do cheaply in the last year is clean. You can clean almost anything with boiling water, concentrated dish soap, baking soda, and elbow grease. Bleach, Borax, and washing soda are all cheap to have on hand for cleaning various things--bleach for the toilet, Borax as a laundry booster and carpet freshener (don't use around pets, though it is also good for getting fleas out of carpet), and washing soda for removing limescale and soap scum. Use worn-out shirts and cut up old towels for rags. One thing to splash out on is gloves--the Playtex gloves last a lot longer than any store brand I've come across.

Manufacturers' websites with tips on how to use Super Washing Soda, Borax, and Arm and Hammer Baking Soda:

Usage Tips Super Washing Soda
http://www.dialcorp.com/documents/borax.pdf
ARM & HAMMER® Baking Soda - Tour Our House

Cynthetiq 03-11-2009 08:10 AM
One of my girlfriends used to make her own cleaners, I had forgotten about that. They made homemade soap, windex, laundry detergent.

Yes, most of the time it's about elbow grease and not the solvent.

genuinegirly 03-17-2009 08:19 AM
Here's an applicable story!

Quote:
Cheapskate has tips for saving $20,000 a year
(CNN) -- Jeff Yeager says the economic downturn is an opportunity for people to simplify their lives and be content with less.

The author of "The Ultimate Cheapskate's Road Map to True Riches" has some ideas for saving $20,000 to $30,000 a year. The savings don't necessarily require sacrifices, he says, but rather choices that can lead to greater happiness.

Yeager talked with Heidi Collins on Tuesday on "CNN Newsroom." A transcript of their conversation follows.

Heidi Collins: How did you become a cheapskate, if you will?

Jeff Yeager: Well, you know, I'm about 50 years old. I grew up in the Midwest, and back then, spending money was really a last resort. We led sort of a simpler life, and I think, in a lot of ways, happier, Heidi. And that's really what I write about is, maybe there's a silver lining to this economic downturn. Maybe we can simplify our lives, be content with less and actually enjoy life more.

Collins: All right. As a fellow Midwesterner, I share your cheapskate thoughts already.

Yeager: You are a sister of the cheaphood. I knew it, Heidi.

Collins: Well, hey. I do wonder, though, as you've gone through this process, if you will, if you become the ultimate cheapskate, are you noticing now a lot more people kind of joining your club?

Yeager: You know, they are. And again, I don't really talk about a life of sacrifice. I talk about a life of choices and how, in many instances, less can be more.

You know, in this economy, we hear a lot of stories about how to get more stuff for 20 percent less. I'm not saying that's unimportant. But maybe we're missing the real point. The secret to the time is being content with less.

Collins: OK. Wow. I like the way you talk. All right, so let's get to these five things, because that's what everybody really wants to hear about. Specifically, what they can do. And again, this is in order to save 20,000 to $30,000 a year. Really?

Yeager: If these things apply to your family.

Collins: OK.

Yeager: And they are -- let me say in advance -- these are some fairly radical changes. But, again, it's probably not about sacrifice. It's about changing your life and maybe in the end being happier.

Collins: OK. Well, very good. First thing you say, give up your cell phone.

Yeager: Give up the cellulite life. I will use myself as a poster child. You know, I have a fairly successful career, a very happy life. I've never owned a cell phone, and nothing awful has ever happened.

Collins: Now, wait a minute. I've got to push back for a second, because a lot of people will tell you you can be happier with a cell phone because you're out of the office and you're with your family more, still able to still do business.

Yeager: We can debate all that, but 10 or 15 years ago, none of us had it, and nothing awful happened. It seemed to me we were really quite happy. Average cell phone plan costs about $100 a month. There's an interesting article in the recent Christian Science Monitor that shows the actual cost of using a cell phone could be more than $3 a minute by time you factor in unused minutes and so on.

Collins: Wow. All right. You say you might not need that second car and certainly not the third?

Yeager: Americans own about 2½ cars per family. Can you give up one? The Auto Club says it costs about, on average, $1 a mile to drive a car by the time you factor in the cost of the car, depreciation and so on. So, you could easily be talking about $5,000 to $10,000 savings by sharing the remaining car that you have, using public transportation and so on.

Collins: OK. Give up meals prepared outside your home. Quit going out for meals no matter what, if it's just a salad or a fancy fancy dinner?

Yeager: More than 40 percent of the average American family household food budget is spent on meals prepared outside the home. You can cut that by 80 percent by cooking those same meals at home and you know, maybe recapture some family time around the dinner table.

Collins: Yes, there would be people who would argue with you about that, though, too, because our culture is just so socially oriented to food. Every dinner, every business meeting, every lunch.

Yeager: We're too busy to cook because we're too busy earning the money to spend it by dining out.

Collins: Yes, yes. All right, you also say quit shopping for new clothes.

Yeager: Yes. Here again, it's what's good for your pocketbook and good for the environment. Less than 2 percent of clothes that we throw away in America are worn out. The average family spends about $1,800 on clothing. Certainly most of us have more than enough stuff in our closet that we could go six months, even a year without buying new clothes.

Collins: Yes, and then maybe just get it tailored or updated or something. Accessorize, I don't know, right?

Yeager: And again, less than 2 percent of the clothes we throw away are worn out. That's a waste of the Earth's resources.

Collins: All right. And finally, give up college room and board. You want the kids to live at home forever?

Yeager: This is a big one, you know? Back in my day, if you have a child in school, consider having them live at home while they go to school. It's been a huge generational shift.

Back in my days, lots of people, including myself, lived at home when we went to college. Therefore, we didn't take out any college student loans. Now, of course, most kids go away to school, take out student loans. When they graduate, what do they do? They move back home with mom and dad! Let's skip the money step!

Cynthetiq 03-17-2009 08:35 AM
Wonderful!!!!

I'm not replacing my t-shirts until they are so threadbare that they literally fall apart. Now I don't wear those shirts outside of the house. They make adequate house shirts for just slumming around the house. I haven't bought new ones since 1997 and the shirts I have slated for replacing them are $5 from Uniqlo. I had largely paid nothing for most of those shirts since they were corporate swag. The ones that I did buy were about $6. Figure the cost of owning over the time was pennies.

the idea of ditching the cellphone is so radical, but I'd consider it if we're rather crunched. I'd rather have my land line than a cellphone.

genuinegirly 03-17-2009 11:05 AM
Do you have perfectly good clothes that are just sitting around? Why don't you plan a new-to-you clothing swap? Clothing swaps are a pleasant alternative to purchasing new. Get a bunch of friends together. Have each person bring a bag of clothes their family has outgrown. Sort them by size and type. Have fun! Whatever remains at the end of the evening, you can either choose to bring to the next clothing swap or donate to your local thrift store. It's incredibly rewarding and fun to put together new, cute, fun outfits from a bunch of castoffs.

braisler 03-17-2009 11:48 AM
Quote:
Collins: All right. And finally, give up college room and board. You want the kids to live at home forever?

Yeager: This is a big one, you know? Back in my day, if you have a child in school, consider having them live at home while they go to school. It's been a huge generational shift.

Back in my days, lots of people, including myself, lived at home when we went to college. Therefore, we didn't take out any college student loans. Now, of course, most kids go away to school, take out student loans. When they graduate, what do they do? They move back home with mom and dad! Let's skip the money step!
This interview section assumes that the family already lives in a college town, or that the student is attending a school that is nearby to the family home. Not everyone can live at home.. but everyone does have a choice about how they live at college. This article got me thinking about how I started out in college a few years ago. I'll be the first to admit that my solution may not work for everyone, but it certainly worked for me.

I bought my own house when I was 19 and in college. I knew that I was going to be there for a minimum of 3 years, maybe as much as 7 with professional school, so the timing was right to figure on an increase in property value. But even without that, I knew that I was looking at paying $250-$350 for a bedroom in a rental unit. I figured that if I could get a 3 bedroom or larger house with a mortgage under $1000, then I'd be in good shape renting the other bedrooms out to other students and paying the difference myself. Building equity, plus property value, even if I didn't have the place fully rented all the time.

I ended up buying a 4/2 1900 s.f. house 3 miles from campus in a residential/student neighborhood. I bought it at $67k. I did borrow $3700 from my mom for the closing costs, and my stepdad co-signed the loan for me since banks, even back then, didn't want to write a mortgage for an unemployed college student (Yes, I recognize that not everyone has this option). My monthly PITI was $700 or so. I immediately found 2 renters, a third followed after 4 months. For most of the time that I lived in that house, I had more money coming in each month from rent than was going out for the mortgage.

I did set aside money for home repairs. I learned a lot about how to do things for myself. Basic electric and plumbing to start, tile laying, landscape, minor remodeling by the time I was done. The time there was not without difficulties. I had to act as a live-in landlord to kids that were my own age. I even had to evict one of them (though thankfully not through legal channels).

I ended up staying in that house after I graduated with my B.S., through 3 years of work for the University, and another 4 years of graduate school as well. All told, I was there for 11 years, which was considerably longer than I thought that I would be. We ended up selling that house for $169k and walked away with over $100k in profit. My renters had helped me pay down my principal on the house to under $60k at that point.

Looking back, the decision to buy that house was one of the most significant financial and personal growth events that shaped my life as it is today. I advocate that any student who knows that they are going to be in a college town for at least a 4 year college stint at least consider the advantages of owning a house or townhome.

genuinegirly 03-17-2009 04:30 PM
Now there's an incredible way to build credit and make money while getting through school. Crazy personal growth you must have experienced during that time. Thank you for sharing this tip!

Cynthetiq 03-17-2009 07:12 PM
Watch the video: Family of five thrives on $35k 3:37
The Economides family shares how they make ends meet on $35,000 a year.

this is an important thing... listen to what these people say.

Quote:
View: One Frugal Family
Source: Homeeconomiser
posted with the TFP thread generator

One Frugal Family
Good Morning America
April 27, 2004

This was our first national interview. It was a wonderful experience for the kids - four of them came with us (John - our eldest had to work).

Charlie Gibson conducted the interview, Claire Alpert was our wonderful hostess /producer and Mary Pflum produced the video segment.

Below is the article that appeared on ABC's website - we've edited it to correct some minor inaccuracies and mis-spellings.

One Frugal Family

How the Cheapest Family in America Saves Cash

Economides family Annette Steve Roy Joseph Abbey Becky the cheapest family in americaWith gas and grocery prices soaring, Americans could learn from one Arizona family that has been beating the high cost of living for years.

Rising gas prices have been all over the news, but you might not know that your groceries are getting much more expensive as well, with the cost of staples such as milk, butter and eggs skyrocketing. In March, a gallon of milk cost $2.79 on average, compared with $2.66 last March. Butter averaged $3.47 a pound, compared with $3 last year. And, this year, eggs will set you back $1.63 for a dozen, compared with $1.21 last year.

Annette and Steve Economides, and their five children, ages 10 to 21, have mastered the art of living on the cheap. Their mission: to maintain a reputation they've proudly earned — or maybe saved — the old-fashioned way. The Arizona clan says it's proud to be one of America's cheapest family.

"We started out our marriage with so little money that we decided we were going to live within our means," said Annette Economides. "From day one, we were not going to accrue any kind of debt, of any kind."

The Economides say careful planning allowed them to pay off their first house in just nine years, even though their family income averaged just $33,000 a year. Their second home is nearly paid off as well.

Steve Economides, who calls himself the family's "cheap economizing officer," is a freelance graphic artist. He and his wife runs the family business, HomeEconomiser, a Web site and newsletter dedicated to helping people live within their means.

The Economides spend $350 a month on food and cleaning products, feeding seven mouths for 30 days.

Careful Planning How do they do it?

Step one: Careful planning. The Economides make a grocery list and check it three times before heading to the store.

"These women that are at the grocery store every day, three times a week, are spending gobs of money on food that they don't need to be spending," said Annette Economides.

"It takes a little bit of time to sit down and plan a menu. But you eat better, you save more money, and it creates less stress in your life."

Step two, they say, is using coupons, and having them clipped, filed and ready for action when they arrive at the store.

The family goes to the store with walkie-talkies and scours for bargains. On one recent trip, Steve asked his wife over the walkie-talkie: "Vidalia or yellow onions?"

"Oh, get the vidalia," came the reply.

Step three is a carefully coordinated in-store check for last-minute deals on the shelves.

"Buy one, get two free," Annette said, reading from a coupon for brownie mix. "So you now have three boxes. And I have a coupon for another dollar off. All three for $1.19!"

Step four of the family's money-saving plan involves having a lot of freezer space. Whatever the family cannot consume right away can be purchased and saved for a later day.

"One day a month the family all cooks meals," Annette said. "And we put away anywhere from 13 to 17 meals in a freezer."

No Plastic

Step five is to avoid credit cards — and their costly interest payments. The couple has never used a credit card in 22 years of marriage.

Their advice to other families, which they offer both in seminars and on their Web site, is make a plan and stick to it. First, figure out how much you need to pay your monthly expenses.

Right now, we take anything that we earn over and above what our monthly budget (to us, budget means what we set aside in advance for every anticipated expense - in 19 various subcategories in our checkbook - see our June 04 issue for a detailed article describing our budgeting process) and split it into three. One third goes into a house fund, to cover any house emergencies. One third goes into a 'fun' account, for vacations, and one third for our family goes to charity, but for other families can go to mutual funds or other kinds of savings."
I'm going to say one simple simple thing to those that are trying to live frugally. You won't do it right away. This like anything takes time and practice. Be patient. Keep working at it. Little by little, you'll get there.

ngdawg 03-18-2009 08:14 AM
Interesting coincidence that their last name is Economides....

Sounds like the name of the god of frugality. :D

Except for credit cards, we do what they say they're doing. My monthly bill for groceries is under $300 for the four of us. I clip coupons, buy only what's on sale and always check the damaged goods shelf.
I pay the mortgage rounding the figure up either to the next dollar or the next $10, depending on our situation. I use water and utilities sparingly-not flushing every pee time, washing dishes with the water off, only running full loads of wash. We hang our clothes to dry, not use the dryer except to fluff, our thermostat is at a constant 61 and the only things that use electricity constantly are the clocks, the fridge and freezer. Computers, lights, even chargers are all off when not in use.

I buy my clothes off clearance racks and my jeans are Walmart brand-the only reason I've even bought any clothes at all is weight gain, otherwise I'm still wearing stuff that's years old (not using a dryer on them keeps them new looking).
I cut my kids' hair-if they want a pro to do it, they have to pay for it. I get a haircut maybe 3 times a year.


Problem is, we live in New Jersey......making $60k a year for a family of four is like making $25k a year in Kentucky. Insurances and taxes eat up everything; 15% of the spouse's weekly pay is for health insurance; our car insurance, which is the cheapest in the state, runs $1400+ a year(kids don't drive yet); our property taxes are 1/10 of our annual income and we get a break there.

We just had a family birthday party for the twins and I managed to get all the food for under $60, including having to make the cake myself. The kids were shocked and thrilled that we gave them each $40 as their gifts-I took it out of our savings.

I would dare that family to come to the east coast and still live on $35k a year. I also would ask if that's before or after taxes, because that $60k we have is before-when we file income tax, our taxable income falls to about half and I'm amazed we haven't lost our house on that. ( I just decided I'm going to say we live on $30k a year now, not $60k)

Cynthetiq 03-18-2009 08:30 AM
Yes, I think that one can live off lots less in certain parts of the country. We'd have to COLA scale it.

Cynthetiq 03-31-2009 01:50 PM
Quote:
View: Want to Save Money? Carry Around $100 Bills
Source: Time
posted with the TFP thread generator

Want to Save Money? Carry Around $100 Bills
Friday, Mar. 27, 2009
Want to Save Money? Carry Around $100 Bills
By Sean Gregory

For shoppers in today's economy, there's just too much temptation out there. Sure, your pockets are tight. But there are clearance sales in every store and deep discounts down every aisle. So how do you stop yourself from spending — especially when you know that during this awful downturn, you should be saving every last penny?

Just arm yourself with $100 bills.

According to a new study to be published in the Journal of Consumer Research, shoppers are less likely to spend their dough if they are carrying cash in large denominations. This so-called denomination effect can be a powerful predictor of consumer spending habits. Through a series of experiments, the study shows that if people have an equivalent amount of money, say $100, the folks with a Ben Franklin in their pockets might not part with it, while those carrying Andrew Jacksons and George Washingtons more easily give up the cash. (See the worst business deals of 2008.)

What's driving the denomination effect? First off, some consumers see large bills as more sacrosanct than a bunch of chump change. "People tend to overvalue bigger bills," says Joydeep Srivastava, a marketing professor at the University of Maryland's Robert H. Smith School of Business and a co-author of the study. "There's a psychological cost associated with spending a $100 bill that's not there with spending smaller bills." We tend to isolate the cash in our minds. Each $20 is a separate, less valuable entity than that single $100 bill. So it's easier to part with five of those twenties than with a single precious hundred in our pockets.

Further, consumers fear that once they break that large bill, they won't be able to stop spending the rest. "Once that barrier is passed, it's like a dam gets broken," says Srivastava. "And we've found that when people decide to spend, they'll spend more with the bigger bill than with the smaller bill." Researchers have labeled this phenomenon the "what the hell" effect: "I've broken the hundred; it's gone from my wallet. What the hell, I may as well blow off the rest." So consumers, afraid that the "what the hell" effect will drain their wallets, hold on to those large denominations. (See pictures of expensive things that money can buy.)

For example, in one experiment, the researchers gave 89 undergraduate business-school students from the University of California, Berkeley, and the University of Maryland a dollar. They told the students they could keep the money or use it to buy candy. About half the students were given a dollar bill, while the other half were given four quarters. Only 26% of the students who got the bill spent the money, while 63% of the students given quarters bought some candy. However, once they decided to spend, the students with the paper made bigger purchases. (See Real Simple's saving and budgeting tips.)

The "what the hell" effect even crosses the Pacific. The researchers ran a similar test in China that yielded comparable results. They gave 150 housewives 100 yuan that they could either save or use to buy soap, shampoo, bedding and pots and pans. Half the women received the 100 yuan in a single bill, while the other half got it in the form of a 50-yuan bill, two 20-yuan notes and a 10-yuan bill. More than 90% of the women who received the smaller bills spent the money. Meanwhile, just 80% of the women given a single note spent the money. But among those in both groups who used their cash, the small-bill half spent an average of 56.76 yuan, while the large-bill half spent 67.67 yuan.

Since shoppers with bigger bills are less likely to make purchases, frugal consumers can carry hundreds as a form of self-control. From a recession-fighting perspective, however, self-control is Satan. The U.S. government is desperate for consumers to start spending again. So maybe the Obama Administration is approaching the economic stimulus the wrong way. Forget about tax cuts and grants to state governments. Just give people a bunch of $1 bills.
I totally forgot about this trick.

I do carry a single $100 bill in my pocket. I have a few $100 bill stashed in the apartment. I can easily spend the $100 on something that I'm yearning for or even the other bills to help make it a large purchase.

But here's the thing, I don't want to break the $100 unless I absolutely have to. Once it gets broken, the 1s, 5s, 10s, 20s, all seem to flitter away really quickly.

I've had the $100 in my wallet for 3 years now, and the rest also for about 3 years.

Cynthetiq 04-29-2009 10:28 AM
one of the butchers I try to visit in the neighborhood. He's really nice man, gives away a ton of advice and food, if you buy $25 he gives you a pound or two of chicken leg quarters...he gives some advice on cheaper cuts of meat.


seems to be that it also conincided with NYTimes article on cheaper cuts of meat.

Quote:
View: It May Be Cheap, but It’s Also Tasty
Source: Nytimes
posted with the TFP thread generator

It May Be Cheap, but It’s Also Tasty
April 29, 2009
It May Be Cheap, but It’s Also Tasty
By JANE SIGAL

MOST people don’t look for adventure in supermarket meat bins. But those cuts with baffling names and alluring prices fascinate me.

Beef chuck deckle, $1.99 a pound! Beef chuck seven-bone steak, $2.69!

The mystery of these cuts’ labels, I learned, was what kept down their price. With the right techniques, a lot of unfamiliar meats in the supermarket can be more delicious than more expensive cuts.

So who needs lamb rib chops for $11.99 a pound when loin chops are more tender and only $8.99?

Beef chuck deckle — not to be confused with the grillable deckle of the rib-eye — is one term for the meat that lies on top of the ribs. It looks like a cross between flank steak and skirt steak, a flattened millefeuille of muscle and fat. I had no idea what to do with it, so I braised it.

I seared the meat and spread the top with sharp mustard and thyme leaves. I poured red wine around it, set it on the lowest heat and waited.

After four hours, two hours past when a normal pot roast would be fork-tender, the deckle yielded. When thinly sliced and soaked in pan juices, it was tender and succulent. The mustard had melted into the meat, offering a pungent contrast. I will never look at brisket again.

For $3.99 a pound at a supermarket near my home on Long Island, boneless pork top loin, cut from the shoulder end of the loin, was much quicker. After barely an hour of pot-roasting it was as juicy as shoulder, but it sliced neatly and was as delicate-tasting as veal.

What other glorious, inexpensive discoveries were there?

Sal Miranda, who owned two butcher shops for 20 years before becoming a meat manager at my local King Kullen supermarket, introduced me to top blade steak, taken from below the shoulder of the cow. It has a line of gristle running through the middle, he said, but it’s a juicy grilling steak and for $4.49 a pound, a bargain.

But while he could tell me what to buy, he might not be able to tell me what to do with it.

“I’m not much of a cook,” he said.

Many professional cooks, though, have been using these cuts even if they rarely step into a supermarket.

“The low cut’s the belle of the ball,” said Gabrielle Hamilton, the chef and owner at Prune in the East Village.

But the new popularity of some off-cuts like pork belly, oxtail and lamb shank has jacked up their prices, and chefs are now seeking other value meats, including pork blade steak, beef neck and lamb shoulder steak.

Ms. Hamilton’s menu has lamb blade chops, a cut she got to know before she owned her own restaurant, when she didn’t have much money. It was an economic choice, not an aesthetic one. Lamb blade chops, cut across the shoulder blade, sell for $4.49 a pound at the supermarket. They offer big flavor and a satisfying chew. Ms. Hamilton especially loves the little marrow bone in the center, and the button of meat that pops out when it’s cooked.

Isn’t it cheeky to serve a tough cut at a restaurant?

“It is a little unfriendly,” Ms. Hamilton said. “We’re not the friendliest restaurant, are we? Sometimes I buy one back because a customer says, ‘I can’t eat this,’ and that’s fine.”

A blade chop is supermarket fare, she said, so it doesn’t make sense to etherealize it. She grills the chop until almost medium — you can’t serve lamb blade rare. Then she serves it with green rice beans, very small dried beans that look like plump grains of pale green rice, or orzo, mixed with a tangy, eggy avgolemono sauce. A crisp, briny fried grape leaf is the final garnish.

At A16 and SPQR in San Francisco, Nate Appleman, the chef and an owner, uses beef tri-tip, taken from the sirloin, which goes for $5.99 a pound at the supermarket. For a staff meal, Mr. Appleman marinates thin slices in a blend of yogurt and fiery harissa paste — he uses a whole tube of it. The tender skewers of charred meat have a complex, mysterious heat.

Mike Price, the chef and owner of Market Table in the West Village, buys meat from Pat LaFrieda Wholesale Meat Purveyors, but often gets the more affordable cuts that could be found in the supermarket, like lamb loin chops. They cost less because a blade of bone cuts through them, but he gives them the pricey-sounding name “lamb T-bone.”

“It’s more like a real porterhouse with a filet mignon on one side and loin on the other,” he said. “I sell a ton of these things.”

In Seattle, Maria Hines, the chef and owner of Tilth, grills lamb T-bone after slathering it with mustard and mustard seeds. Operating an organic neighborhood restaurant, Ms. Hines tries to use bargain cuts creatively.

“I also want cooks who don’t have a bunch of money to come in and try some dishes,” she said.

Lachlan Mackinnon-Patterson, the chef and an owner of Frasca Food and Wine in Boulder, Colo., orders whole pork sirloins, from the top of the leg, from a local farmer. He roasts them, then lets them rest in a bath of olive oil simmered with crushed garlic, herbs, lemon slices and roasted chicken wings, which adds fresh flavor to the meat and keeps it moist. While home cooks might not get a whole pork sirloin, they could use Mr. Mackinnon-Patterson’s technique with pork sirloin chops from the supermarket for $3.49 a pound.

Some chefs are discovering modest cuts by breaking down whole animals and using all the parts.

One of the leftover cuts from the in-house butchering at Roberta’s in Bushwick, Brooklyn, is beef eye round. Carlo Mirarchi, the chef and an owner, uses it to make his own bresaola, cured beef, which he serves with arugula and parmigiano. For home cooks, Mr. Mirarchi suggested searing the $3.99-a-pound supermarket eye round and marinating it overnight in red wine, rosemary, sage and black pepper. Then it can be roasted rare and sliced, cold, as thin as possible for sandwiches.

Like these chefs, shoppers can work with whole sections of beef or pork to save money. Jim Zola, meat coordinator for the Northeast region at Whole Foods, said that when there’s a meat sale, shoppers can buy a whole pork loin, for example, and have the butcher cut it into a pork loin for roasting and pork chops and country-style ribs for grilling. Most supermarkets offer these “custom cuts.” (You can freeze what you don’t use immediately.)

The meat cooler at Western Beef, a warehouse chain with 26 stores in New York and New Jersey, has an enormous variety of packaged meats stacked on aisles of shelves. The chain is offering 18-to-22-pound whole boneless shoulders of beef for $2.49 a pound. The butcher there will cut it for free into shoulder steaks, London broil and boneless top chuck steak for grilling or broiling, cross rib roast for roasting, and beef stew and ground beef.

Even more conventional supermarkets let you special order certain cuts. I could order a whole pork sirloin like the one Mr. Mackinnon-Patterson roasts and confits in Boulder.

Many supermarket meat cutters can be extremely helpful. Steve Cole, a butcher in Wickford, R.I., at the small supermarket chain Dave’s Marketplace, sometimes walks customers through the meat case and writes them recipes. Mr. Cole used to work as a line cook at Twin Oaks restaurant in Cranston, a Rhode Island institution.

“And if I don’t know something, there are 10 chefs 20 feet away who can help me,” he said. “We’ve got a lot of people here who got burnt out in restaurants.”

Xerxys 05-22-2009 08:20 AM
So, I just bought some parts for my car and I gots ta mention ... when buying ANYTHING online ... once you find the right price ... go google, and type in "::>>store name here<<:: coupon". You will always get at least a 5% off coupon like I did for parts for my car.

genuinegirly 05-22-2009 08:23 AM
Ooo awesome trick, thanks Xerxys!

Corneo 05-24-2009 11:19 AM
I use mint.com to track my expenses and its free. All you have to do is enter your online bank login and password. The website is legitimate and doesn't sell your information. It's been rated highly on money magazine. You can set up a budget and track it monthly; it even will email you alerts when you over spend or your bill payment date is approaching.

Xerxys 05-24-2009 12:36 PM
Nice one Corneo, but I don't think I'll indulge. For those of you who think that if they will stare at another spreadsheet, they're gonna die, I use Notepad to track my expenses. Once I have all the months savings and bills tallied and taken care of, I can export it to money and delete the notepad. It takes 10 seconds to do the last step!! :D

Xerxys 06-21-2009 08:46 PM
Hey guys ... S&K Mens Wear coupon ... Go nuts!!

Cynthetiq 08-09-2009 05:50 AM
Quote:
Originally Posted by Xerxys (Post 2639883)
Nice one Corneo, but I don't think I'll indulge. For those of you who think that if they will stare at another spreadsheet, they're gonna die, I use Notepad to track my expenses. Once I have all the months savings and bills tallied and taken care of, I can export it to money and delete the notepad. It takes 10 seconds to do the last step!! :D
The important thing is that you track what you spend.

While I don't keep track of everything on a spreedsheet or a notepad, I do see everything (98%) of it in our monthly credit card statement. I pay for just about everything with a rewards card this includes small payments under $2. Now we currently have 4 frequent flyer round trip tickets business class for anywhere around the world.

I recently found this blog. It's quite informative...

The Non-Consumer Advocate

genuinegirly 01-26-2010 02:13 PM
Here's an interesting idea: Voluntarily living without heat.
I think I'm too much of a wimp for it, but it seems to work for some people:

Quote:
Chilled by Choice
By PENELOPE GREEN
SERIOUS cold, Justen Ladda said, is when the sponge in the kitchen sink feels like wood or the toothpaste freezes or the refrigerator turns itself off, as it did one particularly frigid day last winter. Not that Mr. Ladda, a 56-year-old sculptor who has lived heat-free in his Lower East Side loft for three decades, is bothered by such extremes. “Winter comes and goes,” he’ll tell you blithely, adjusting his black wool scarf and watch cap. (Along with fingerless gloves, long underwear and felt slippers, they are part of Mr. Ladda’s at-home uniform when the mercury dips.)

Mr. Ladda, whose work is in the permanent collection of the Museum of Modern Art, decided long ago to live without central heating. Proper temperature control, you see, would require insulating his wooden ceiling, and ruining its fine acoustics. “I know this sounds really lame, but I listen to a lot of music and it just sounds better,” he said. Also, the rent on his unimproved live-work loft is only $300, well below many people’s winter utility bills.

But beyond thrift and acoustics, what is perhaps most notable about Mr. Ladda’s chilly interior is that like, say, tepee-dwelling Mongolian reindeer herders, or perhaps some very rugged environmentalists, Mr. Ladda has come to thrive in the cold.

As Americans across the country wrestle with spouses and their thermostats over how low to go — as they join contests like Freeze Yer Buns, now in its third year, a challenge posed by Deanna Duke, a Seattle-based environmental blogger who calls herself the Crunchy Chicken, to lower the thermostat to around 55 degrees, or follow the lead of the Maine couple trying to live comfortably in a furnace-free house and blogging about it in their Cold House Journal — there are those who are living nearly without heat by choice, and doing just fine, thank you very much. Indeed, 55 degrees would qualify as sauna conditions for Mr. Ladda and others whose interiors hover around the 30- or 40-degree mark in deep winter.

Many belong to that hardy genus Artista domestica, a group unusually skilled at foraging in urban frontiers, and long-known for sacrificing “normal” creature comforts in favor of other boons like low overhead and capacious, atmospheric habitats. Why they stick it out, and how they cope, are object lessons in creative adaptation fueled by thrift, environmentalism and a commitment to unique real estate. (Denial and long underwear help, too.)

Take Jake Dibeler, a 21-year-old performance artist living in an unheated warehouse in Baltimore with five roommates and two cats. There are concrete walls, floor-to-ceiling windows and hangar-like ceilings, “which means that even if it gets warm outside,” Mr. Dibeler said, “it still takes about a month for our apartment to catch up.”

The rent is $2,200, split six ways, and it’s all worth it, he continued, because there’s a huge stage he and his friends can perform on, “a dream come true in my own home.” Space heaters are expensive and, anyway, a placebo at best, he said, but Mr. Dibeler and his friends have built a yurt in the center of the living room, “or part of a yurt, really, the frame part, which we cover with sheets and line with afghans, and then we drag the cats in. At times, we all get frustrated and pine for a real home with heat and lower ceilings. Then we remember how wonderful it is to be living with five other best friends and making art and how it will get warm eventually. We just have to suck it up and wear a bunch of layers, even if it means looking like an Olsen twin.”

Attitude, not clothing, is what thaws Daniel McCloskey and his roommates in Pittsburgh. Last year, Mr. McCloskey, 22, bought two poorly insulated turn-of-the century clapboard houses for $41,000 in the Lawrenceville neighborhood there, and turned them into a writer’s retreat he named the Cyberpunk Apocalypse Writer’s Co-op. It’s sort of like Yaddo or MacDowell — “like where?” he asked when this reporter made the comparison — but without all the amenities (maid service, picnic basket lunches or sufficient heat).

Mr. McCloskey offers monthlong residencies to emerging writers, which is to say a free room in the house at the back. There is a furnace, but his finances are low and mostly it stays off. (Mr. McCloskey, who is writing a novel, last worked as a parking attendant and a poster salesman.) A wood stove in the kitchen area can bring the temperature there up to about 50 degrees, Mr. McCloskey said, if he sees fit to fire it up. Wood is expensive, too; he relies on windfalls, like dead trees from a friend who was clearing land nearby. Electric pipe heaters keep the water supply from freezing, but not the visiting artists.

“We had an author named Terence Hawkins do a reading last month,” Mr. McCloskey recalled. “I tried to get the wood stove going, but he was just sitting there shivering. I think his opening lines were: ‘Hello, I am Terence Hawkins. I am the elderly man in a tweed jacket, and if I am shivering it is only because I am cold.’ ”

Mr. McCloskey warms himself up by spending time in coffee shops, he said — “an hour will do it” — and by maintaining an upbeat demeanor. Doesn’t his girlfriend, with whom he shares a drafty attic room, get grumpy?

“What makes her grumpy is using resources,” he said. “We’re all about staying positive.”

JOE AHEARN, 23, who lives with four roommates in a Queens warehouse (rent: $3,000), uses a space heater in his bedroom (there are five bedrooms and a basement), but the bathroom and the main living area “are pretty much a lost cause,” he said. Showering between November and March is a challenge. A music promoter whose company is called Sleep When Dead, he hosts shows in his house five out of seven nights, which raises the temperature a good 10 or 20 degrees, or so it seems. “Human beings are remarkably efficient space heaters,” Mr. Ahearn said, and he basks in the damp, warm fug that remains after a performance. Still, his most successful cold-abatement strategy has been romantic: last year he had a girlfriend, and spent most nights at her house.

Then there are those who seek out the cold for its clarifying effects. Winifred Gallagher, a behavioral science writer who lives in a warm town house on the Upper West Side, makes monthly winter pilgrimages to a century-old, “very primitive” former one-room schoolhouse in Long Eddy, N.Y. There is no water when the temperature is below freezing (she hauls it from a stream), but there is a wood-burning stove.

If it’s 20 degrees outside, as it was last week, it might be 15 indoors, so Ms. Gallagher will stoke the fire and go for a long walk; when she returns, the room can be 50 degrees, and 60 by bedtime, though it slides precipitously toward freezing as she sleeps. “The main reason why I do these winter trips,” she said, “is that when your house is 15 degrees, the only problem you have is getting warm. Focusing on survival is right up there with a Zen retreat when it comes to clearing the mind.”

And anyway, she pointed out, “we didn’t evolve to sit on a chair in a temperature-controlled environment staring at a screen all day.”

How cold is too cold? With the right equipment, humans can endure enormous temperature dips. Dr. Peter Hackett, director of the Institute for Altitude Medicine in Telluride, Colo., and a veteran expeditioner to Mount Everest and other frigid peaks, has recorded minus 50 degree temperatures outside his tent on a climb of Mount McKinley in Alaska. “It’s extremely unpleasant,” he said, but certainly survivable, albeit with the right gear: long underwear, layers of fleece, and down or synthetic puff jackets.

“Our best responses are behavioral — building a fire, putting on more clothes. But for those who choose not to heat their homes or who live in extremely cold environments, there are some physiological changes that occur,” he said, ticking them off. “Thyroid function goes up, creating more body heat, and metabolism changes, too, causing you to burn more fuel, fat especially, which generates a bit more heat.”

There are increased “vasodilations in the extremities,” he added, recorded in people who work outside. “But these adaptations are not that impressive. They are fairly limited, compared to the physiological changes we go through in adapting to altitude or the heat. Ten days of heat training for an athlete can be very effective, whereas a week of cold training doesn’t do much of anything.”

Tell that to Janet Smith, an engineer and landscape designer living in nearby Ridgway, Colo. Ms. Smith, 53, inhabits a one-room rubble-stone house built in 1894, one of three buildings she bought in 2001 for $149,000. Poetically lovely, they are also impossible to fill with heat, presenting Ms. Smith with a living choice she has embraced with gusto, throwing open windows and doors year-round, and using her own body as a solar panel when the sun shines.

“The best thing about living in a non-isothermal house” — isothermal means “constant in temperature” — “is that you’re able to walk from indoors to out of doors all the time,” she said. “What limits us is only our fear of the cold.”

At 7,000 feet, Ridgway offers some seriously scary weather, “five months of full-on winter where there is snow on the ground,” she said, with temperatures well below zero. Ms. Smith’s house is typically 10 degrees higher; she can warm herself beside her wood-burning stove, but the heat it generates goes right out the wood-slat roof.

While Ms. Smith may seem preternaturally rugged, she said anyone could live in the extremes she inhabits; it’s just a matter of the right clothing (she would like to design a line of indoor rough wear). “I don’t think people know how to dress for the cold, and that’s the first issue. What’s right for ski wear is not right for living indoors.”

She likes her LaCrosse boots and fleece pants, but the sleeves of her down jacket get in her way when she’s washing dishes, and make an annoying swishing noise, she said. (Like some other heat-eschewing folks, Ms. Smith keeps her pipes from freezing by letting the faucets drip, 15 to 30 drips a minute; any more than that causes an ice buildup and the dishes freeze in the sink. She has also rigged her toilet to run constantly.)

“My stone buildings are so beautiful, I love living in them,” she said. “There’s a whole aesthetic of living close to natural materials.”

Friends do worry, she admitted, and some romantic partners haven’t been hardy enough. Dinner parties are out, too, “but I’ve never been much of an entertainer,” she said.

Still, she added, “I’m the one, when the electricity goes out, who can keep going. We shouldn’t have to disrupt our lives because our houses are cold. I think it scares people, too. People don’t want to relate to me living in the cold.”

Mr. Ladda on the Lower East Side doesn’t entertain, either, but he occasionally has overnight guests.

“I had Japanese friends here once,” he said. “And when they left, they bowed and said solemnly, ‘We are very sorry you have to live this way.’ ”

ASU2003 01-26-2010 08:27 PM
My house is 52 right now, but no heat at all? Maybe if I lived in southern Arizona...

I can live without AC in the summer in AZ, I guess if you prepare for it you could handle under 20 F temps ok.

Grasshopper Green 01-27-2010 09:10 AM
For 2 years when hubby and I lived with my mom in eastern NC, we only ran the heat 2-3 hours a day...and that brought the house up to a toasty 50ish. Her house was over a hundred years old and had no insulation to speak of. Running the heater 24/7 only brought the house up to 60 degrees or so, but then the electricity bill was more than the rent was, so we ran it briefly out of necessity. No heat at night. We became good friends with electric blankets, extra layers, and beanies. Thankfully the winters were short and it only got really cold for a couple of months. We also had no A/C in the summer, which sucked far worse than no heat.

It wasn't fun, but we did it. I could do it again if I had to, but I certainly wouldn't choose to.

Xerxys 01-27-2010 10:06 AM
Youguyz'reallfreeks!

There is NO way in hell I am living in a house less than 70 degrees at a given time.

Baraka_Guru 01-28-2010 06:43 AM
I don't think I've touched on this yet in the thread, but to continue on the path of the DIYer (do-it-yourselfer), I have been reaping the benefits of working at home and saving money while I'm at it.

The example I want to share is making your own tea vs. buying it at a cafe "on the go."

I purchased some loose leaf sencha at a specialty shop. It's good quality, but it still brews as low as $0.30 a cup. Compare that to Starbucks, where I think they charge as much as $1.50. But I double infuse my leaves, and so I'm down to $0.15 a cup. Compared to $1.50? It's ten times more expensive to go grab a tea at the cafe vs. making it at home (or at work).

So if you have the facilities, consider making the switch to a DIY mentality. You could argue that it's more work to make it yourself, but it's not really that much more work when you think about it. And you could also say that it's nice to go out for a break and grab a coffee or tea. Yeah, but you could always bring a travel mug of your own brew with you and go for a walk.

If you grab 2 or 3 coffees or teas a day, it adds up quickly, especially when you know it's as much as ten times more expensive (we'll say at least five times more).

snowy 01-28-2010 08:34 AM
Quote:
Originally Posted by Baraka_Guru (Post 2752786)
I don't think I've touched on this yet in the thread, but to continue on the path of the DIYer (do-it-yourselfer), I have been reaping the benefits of working at home and saving money while I'm at it.

The example I want to share is making your own tea vs. buying it at a cafe "on the go."

I purchased some loose leaf sencha at a specialty shop. It's good quality, but it still brews as low as $0.30 a cup. Compare that to Starbucks, where I think they charge as much as $1.50. But I double infuse my leaves, and so I'm down to $0.15 a cup. Compared to $1.50? It's ten times more expensive to go grab a tea at the cafe vs. making it at home (or at work).

So if you have the facilities, consider making the switch to a DIY mentality. You could argue that it's more work to make it yourself, but it's not really that much more work when you think about it. And you could also say that it's nice to go out for a break and grab a coffee or tea. Yeah, but you could always bring a travel mug of your own brew with you and go for a walk.

If you grab 2 or 3 coffees or teas a day, it adds up quickly, especially when you know it's as much as ten times more expensive (we'll say at least five times more).
Calculating it out, my morning coffee is $0.16 a 5-oz cup, so about $0.48 for a 15-oz cup (comparable to what I would get while out and about). Waaay cheaper, and I don't buy bad/cheap coffee--my coffee is whole bean, organic, fair trade, and locally roasted.

The same cup of coffee will run you about $1.75 at most coffee places around town; admittedly, there it will also be organic, fair trade, and possibly locally roasted, depending on where you go. But a savings of $1.25 or so per cup is pretty significant, and you're right, it does add up.

ASU2003 01-28-2010 10:38 AM
(Or you could just not drink the stuff and save even more) :)

Baraka_Guru 01-28-2010 02:05 PM
We're frugal, not destitute.... :)

hunnychile 01-28-2010 03:36 PM
This is one of the Best Threads Ever (IMHO) and I'm always glad when new posts appear here. A huge money saver for me & the Hub was to quit buying & drinking Soda Pop. And it's been easier on the recycling AND our waistlines. Even my dentist said that he has noticed our teeth look better and are healthier! No need for paying to get whiteners either. SO, yep...lots of pluses here.

I re-use all the free smaller plastic bags I get from the grocery store. I bag yucky trash every day or so and take it to the garbage can in my garage on my way to my car. I have spent little on the Large expensive trash bags this way (though I still have them) and my kitchen area is always fresher smelling.

Lemme think of more and I'll add those. Oh, yes...we hardly ever buy and cook red meat these days. The savings is quite noticeable and my tummy seems happier.

**I envy those of you who have room for gardens and grow some of your food!** That is truly wonderful & healthier.

Thanks for doing that.

LOVE how this post feels like the Original TFP remaining... Good stuff.

Lindy 02-11-2010 10:46 AM
Quote:
Originally Posted by Baraka_Guru (Post 2752786)
I don't think I've touched on this yet in the thread, but to continue on the path of the DIYer (do-it-yourselfer), I have been reaping the benefits of working at home and saving money while I'm at it.

The example I want to share is making your own tea vs. buying it at a cafe "on the go."

I purchased some loose leaf sencha at a specialty shop. It's good quality, but it still brews as low as $0.30 a cup. Compare that to Starbucks, where I think they charge as much as $1.50. But I double infuse my leaves, and so I'm down to $0.15 a cup. Compared to $1.50? It's ten times more expensive to go grab a tea at the cafe vs. making it at home (or at work).

So if you have the facilities, consider making the switch to a DIY mentality. You could argue that it's more work to make it yourself, but it's not really that much more work when you think about it. And you could also say that it's nice to go out for a break and grab a coffee or tea. Yeah, but you could always bring a travel mug of your own brew with you and go for a walk.

If you grab 2 or 3 coffees or teas a day, it adds up quickly, especially when you know it's as much as ten times more expensive (we'll say at least five times more).
As you say, this applies to coffee as well as tea. I drink coffee all day long. If I brew my own, I can buy a medium roast coffee that I like. I like coffee strong, but I guess I'm just a lowbrow, 'cause Starbucks always tastes burnt to me.:thumbsdown: I brew my own coffee at home and work both.
If you drink soda, it probably goes without saying that this idea would also apply to soda. The groceries sometimes have 12-pack or 2 liter bottles really cheap.
Probably goes for beer, wine, and liquor, as well, but for me that's more of a go out social kind of thing. I rarely drink alcohol at home.

Lindy
When I'm on the road, I buy coffee at one of the ubiquitous McDonalds or Burger King drive thrus. It's fast, inexpensive, and I like the coffee better than Starbucks anyway.:)

Baraka_Guru 02-11-2010 12:02 PM
Starbucks does burn their coffee. I prefer Second Cup or Timothy's World Coffee.

Xerxys 05-19-2010 02:55 PM
One more time, always google for coupons when purchasing anything online.

I'd also like to give bigups to two of my favorite parts dealers. One of which is Certifit and my favorite Rock Auto. My car needed 2 inner and one outer tie rod, 4 rotors and 4 brake pads (rear and front). I got all these at rockauto for a total of $209.10 after a coupon brought it down to $189.90. Just 1 component would have cost me that much at any given repair shop.

They're very good to work with.

NoSoup 05-22-2010 07:00 PM
I saw a fellow at work today with this, and I thought I'd just throw it out there - it's a make your own soda dealeo - obviously, pays out big time over long term (particularly if you drink a lot of soda) but it's a bit pricey (He said around $200) for all the up front costs (including getting the bags of name brand soda syrup.

Sodastream | Turn Water Into Fresh Sparkling Water And Soda

genuinegirly 05-23-2010 07:49 AM
An interesting article about a cheap way to travel Europe:
A Walk From Vienna to Budapest - NYTimes.com
Quote:
May 23, 2010
Frugal Europe, on Foot
By MATT GROSS

ONCE upon a time, a young man went for a walk. It was December 1933, and an 18-year-old Englishman named Patrick Leigh Fermor put on a pair of hobnail boots and a secondhand greatcoat, gathered up his rucksack and left London on a ship bound for Rotterdam, where he planned to travel 1,400 miles to Istanbul — on foot. He had virtually no money; at best, he’d arrive in, say, Munich to find his mother had sent him £5. But what he did have was an outgoing nature, a sense of adventure, an affinity for languages and a broad network of friends of friends.

“If I lived on bread and cheese and apples,” he later wrote, “jogging along on fifty pounds a year like Lord Durham with a few noughts knocked off, there would even be some cash left over for papers and pencils and an occasional mug of beer. A new life! Freedom! Something to write about!”

Something to write about indeed! The books he produced from the yearlong journey — “A Time of Gifts” and “Between the Woods and the Water” — are gorgeously rendered classics that have led many to call Mr. Leigh Fermor, now 95, Britain’s greatest living travel writer. But to my mind, he’s always had another title: the original Frugal Traveler — the embodiment of that idea that, though a wanderer may be penniless, he doesn’t have to suffer.

And Mr. Leigh Fermor never suffered, thanks to the miracle of human generosity. Peasants gave him baskets of eggs and swigs of raspberry schnapps. Small-town mayors found him beds. The lingering nobility of Europe put him up in their castles, invited him to balls and lent him their horses. When Mr. Leigh Fermor did sleep rough — in hayricks and barns or on the banks of his beloved Danube — he did it by choice, not because (or not merely because) poverty required it. He knew, even at 18, that the world is an experience to be savored in all its multifarious incarnations.

Could a young person (is 35 still young?) with strong legs and little money find the same spirit of hospitality that Mr. Leigh Fermor encountered some 76 years ago? At the end of March, I set out to find the answer. With only two weeks free, my plan was to walk from Vienna to Budapest, a 180-mile route that would connect the old poles of the Austro-Hungarian Empire and track Mr. Leigh Fermor’s trail as closely as possible, taking me along the Danube to Bratislava, the Slovakian capital, and across the plains of Slovakia south to Hungary — through three countries whose languages, cultures and histories could not be more different, or more intertwined.

It was tempting, the day I arrived in Vienna, to just walk east from the airport, but I couldn’t completely skip the Austrian capital, where Mr. Leigh Fermor had spent three weeks among the “crooked lanes” and “facades of broken pediment and tiered shutter.” And so I followed his lead, going into the imperial crypt, where the grandest members of the Hapsburg family lay entombed in elaborate sarcophagi, and into the museums, although I shied away from the most famous in favor of oddities like the International Esperanto Museum. And I luxuriated in storied places like Cafe Alt Wien and Cafe Bendl.

But after two nights in Vienna, I was restless. So I crossed the Danube, put on my 45-pound pack and took off down the Donauradweg, a well-kept biking trail that runs from the river’s source to its mouth at the Black Sea. To my right, the Danube, more green than blue, sparkled in the cool sunlight, and I encountered fishermen tending their rods, elderly sunbathers, nordic hikers poling along and cyclists speeding in both directions.

This first day, I figured, I’d take it easy and do only 15 miles. Ideally, I’d need to hit 18 miles a day — about six hours of walking — to reach my goal. It seemed reasonable, especially with the terrain so uniformly flat. The path, sometimes dirt, sometimes paved, would often stretch so far and straight that I couldn’t imagine I’d ever reach the end, and then I’d finally hit a slight turn and face the same thing: an art-school lesson in perspective, complete with the first low foothills of the Carpathians at the vanishing point — and a scampering rabbit to remind me this was no still life.

Even with such straightforward terrain, there were snags. An attempted shortcut through a fuel depot left me with minor scratches and an extra three miles. But such mistakes have a way of turning out for the best. Had I stayed on the trail, I would have never crossed paths, two hours later, at the edge of Donau-Auen National Park, with Jean-Marc and Marie, newlywed French cyclists who stopped to say hello when they saw a lone hiker in the middle of nowhere. They were taking an extended honeymoon: a two-year bicycle journey from their home in Paris — to Japan!

“Do you know where you’re staying tonight?” I asked. They didn’t. I told them to meet me at Orth an der Donau, a small Austrian town a couple of miles farther down the Danube, where I had arranged for a place to stay via CouchSurfing.org. Maybe, I said, my host could find them somewhere to pitch their tent.

THE host, Roland Hauser, whom we met in front of Orth’s impressive castle, did better than that. He invited them home to his dreamland of soft beds and hot showers. Roland, 26, had traveled from California to Southeast Asia to New Zealand, and his German-accented English was peppered with words like “sí” and “bueno.” That evening, we cooked spaghetti Bolognese, nibbled Südtirolean ham and drank big bottles of beer. I went to sleep marveling at our extraordinary, Fermorian luck.

In the morning, after coffee, I threw out my underwear. This was a strategy to lighten my load — bring old undies and get rid of them day by day. Frankly, I should have done that with everything, as the pack was needlessly heavy. Along with two weeks’ worth of shirts, I had an ultralight down jacket, a waterproof shell and rain pants. A tent and sleeping bag. One pair of jeans and lightweight canvas shoes to change into at day’s end; nothing worse than walking 20 miles and spending the evening in the same clothes. And I packed Mr. Leigh Fermor’s books and Claudio Magris’s “Danube,” which I never had time to read. And my computer and camera gear — work necessities, alas.

When I set off, I was wearing my typical walking outfit: khaki pants by a company in Portland, Ore., called Nau; waterproof running sneakers by Lafuma; good socks (as important as good shoes); and a long-sleeved cotton shirt.

The walk began well. My feet were tender, but the flatness of the Marchfelddamm, a high berm that doubled as biking path and flood deterrent, ensured that I wasn’t struggling. This was the heart of the Donau-Auen National Park: forests of thin trees broken by occasional streams flowing to the Danube. At first, I appreciated the play of light on the water and between the trunks, but hour after plodding hour of unchanging scenery soon became mind-numbing, and I simply marched, putting one foot in front of the other and watching for kilometer markers. It would be 13 miles before I could stop for lunch, and another 10 before I reached my day’s goal: Bratislava.

But there’s a funny thing about long walks. With patience, all those steps add up, and by 2 p.m., I’d crossed a bridge over the Danube and settled into a cafe in the stately town of Hainburg, where an open-faced baguette pizza and glass of beer gave me the courage to face the miles ahead. And soon I found myself trudging along the shoulder of the small highway with cars flying past — and missing the monotonous near-silence of the forest.

Not far off, I could see Bratislava’s hilltop castle — in Mr. Leigh Fermor’s era, a burned-out wreck worked by prostitutes but in the 1950s rebuilt as a stately white-and-red palace — and it teased me with its apparent nearness. Still, I had far to go, past a derelict border post, and through three miles of snaking bike paths, before I crossed the Danube again and was in the heart of Bratislava’s old town, all cobblestones and tile roofs and sidewalk cafes.

After checking into the Hotel Kyjev — a 1970s tower turned budget boutique — I checked myself out: I wasn’t sore, out of breath or even tired. I did have blisters on my feet, but they were easily treated: puncture, drain, clean, bandage. My ankles, however, were terribly swollen, the peroneal tendons in particular, a result (I think) of how my body mechanics had altered with the weight on my back. I popped some ibuprofren, took a shower, then hobbled outside for dinner.

It was the Friday during Passover, and like any wandering Jew, I wanted a Sabbath meal. And thanks to Chabad, the Hasidic Jewish outreach organization, I got one, at the home of the transplanted American rabbi Baruch Myers. He was only too willing to share his food (cucumber salad, gefilte fish), his friendship and his family, including a battalion of adorable children who cheerily walked me through the Passover story.

It wasn’t just this heartfelt welcome that got to me; it was the very existence of a Jewish community in Bratislava. Back in his day, Mr. Leigh Fermor wrote, the Jews “were numerous enough to give a pronounced character to the town.” No longer. The Holocaust had reduced the Jewish population to, in Rabbi Myers’s estimate, 1,000 people. There was a synagogue, a few kosher restaurants, a Jewish museum and even a pension, but few visitors today would see in Bratislava a Jewish-inflected city.

On Saturday, partly inspired by the rabbi and partly because of my feet, I rested and contemplated the future. I had walked 40 miles so far, and if my ankles were any indication, there was no way I’d make the remaining 140. Unless ... If I took a train a short way — say, 15 miles northeast — I could certainly walk another 10 miles. I’d be breaking my rules, but those rules were arbitrary.

And so I caught an 8-euro taxi to the central station, paid 1.18 euros for a ticket and boarded a train that took its time trundling through Bratislava’s outskirts. Frankly, I was glad I hadn’t had to walk through the urban sprawl, and when I arrived in Senec, a summer resort town on a lake, I ate a magnificent lunch of pork terrine, leg of lamb, roasted potatoes and white wine for 9 euros at the Hotel Koliba’s rustic restaurant. Then it was time to get walking.

The windswept shores of Slnecne Lake turned into a lonely road next to a graffitied fence bounding farmland, and then that turned into Reca, a village so small I have no memory of it. All I remember is being buffeted by gusts from across the plains, and then crossing a tiny stream into Velky Grob, a village of neat postwar homes with tiled facades and backyard grapevines.

It was late afternoon, and my ankles were screaming. The map I had saved on my iPhone put the next town 15 miles farther east. I needed to rest — but where? As I marched down the sidewalk, I spotted a man and woman about my age, walking their little dog. In my best Slovak, I asked, “Where is a campground?” They stared at me, confounded, then the woman — Katarina Synakova, I would later learn — said in English, “Where are you from?”

Fifteen minutes later, I was sitting across a kitchen table from Katarina’s grandfather, drinking his homemade white wine and eating confections that Katarina’s sister-in-law had just baked. Katarina’s cousins joined us. Both spoke English; one was studying in Trieste and had brought her Lebanese boyfriend home for Easter. Soon the kitchen was a riot of English, Italian, Slovak and Hungarian, with French, German and Arabic thrown in. I went to sleep early — partly to give the family some privacy. In the morning, Katarina’s father gave me a flask of 1978-vintage brandy, and I walked into the chilly rain.

From Velky Grob, I marched 15 miles down trash-strewn roads and across desolate farmland, my shoes caked with mud, arriving in Sered, a gray town I instantly hated. It was Easter Monday, and everything in Sered and the entire country, it seemed, was closed except for one cafe, where a customer drove me two miles to an open pension. Why? An American had helped him find a hotel in Rio de Janeiro, and now he could return the kindness.

The next day, the pension’s owner gave me a lift a few miles to Strkovec, an estate where Mr. Leigh Fermor had stayed with Baron Philip Schey, one of his books’ most colorful characters. Now it was a home for developmentally disabled adults, and the director welcomed me into her office, phoned her university-student daughter to come translate, showed me the grounds and fed me lunch. She even offered me a bed for the night, but I declined: I needed to walk — it was becoming a compulsion.

Though walking hurt, it was also easy. Left foot, right foot, left foot, right foot. The weight of the pack disappeared, and the next two hours took me down the highway, past a weather-worn shrine, along a wooded river, then to a train that rolled 23 miles south to Nove Zamky, where a firefighter strolling the willow-shaded riverbanks with his children escorted me to the Hotel Korzo and apologized for not putting me up.

Why, I often thought as I walked, would anyone do this? I got a partial answer the next day when, after I’d taken a train 20 miles south from Nove Zamky to Gbelce, the landscape changed. Gone was the flat tedium. Instead, unbusy roads swerved gently up and around low hills studded with fruit trees yet to blossom. After two hours of walking, I rested near mud flats where waterfowl lurked, then walked two more hours, through the town of Kamenny Most, to Nana, a suburban town where I bought homemade red wine and three speckled apples that gave me enough energy to walk one more hour down to the Danube and over a bridge into Esztergom.

At last, I had reached Hungary, and Budapest lay just 40 miles away. Two days’ walk, if my ankles didn’t rebel.

First, however, I had to tear myself away from Esztergom, the most beautiful town since Vienna. The town’s monumental basilica, its copper-green dome encircled by pillars, was everywhere visible from its hilltop perch — “dramatic, mysterious, as improbable as a mirage,” Mr. Leigh Fermor wrote — and its beauty trickled down into the ocher walls, red roofs and pink flowering trees of the city. I needed a full day to soak in the atmosphere (and to rest) before I felt ready to leave.

When I set off down the riverside biking path that morning, I had an aching suspicion that the day’s walk — 15 miles to Visegrad — might be my last. My ankles were swollen but not too painful, and throughout the morning I enjoyed the scenery: the small mountains through which the Danube snaked before turning due south. But after three hours, I noticed, my ankles had become lightning rods of agony. I arrived in Visegrad in midafternoon and pitched my tent (for the first time) at a roadside campground, knowing that tomorrow, after visiting Visegrad’s mountaintop castle, where Hungary’s royal crown had once been sheltered, I’d board a bus for Budapest.

And so my stroll came to a premature end. For 90 minutes the next afternoon, I rode along with a few dozen other commuters to Budapest, grateful that I hadn’t had to walk through the suburban doldrums and looking forward to enjoying the fruits of urban civilization (coffee, art, mass transit). Was I disappointed I hadn’t walked the whole way? Not really. I’d covered 110 miles on foot, and seen things no bus or train traveler could have.

One memory stood out: Across the water from a Hungarian town called Szob, I had stopped for lunch. A thick tree near the bank had a crook just my size, and nestled within it I picnicked on radishes, spicy sausage, challah and the homemade wine from Nana. I watched the river. A barge ferried a truck over, then returned bearing cars and cyclists. The warm sun filtered through the leaves. I swigged more wine and, exactly as Mr. Leigh Fermor once had, “I lay deep in one of those protracted moments of rapture which scatter this journey like asterisks.”

But then the compulsion took hold. I eased out of the tree and hurried off across fallow farmland. It was almost 3 o’clock, I had miles ahead of me, and I didn’t want to be late.

IF YOU GO

GETTING THERE

Because of a tight schedule, I flew into Vienna and out of Budapest, which might cost more than simple round-trip fares from Kennedy Airport to Vienna (which, according to a recent Web search, started at about $1,000 with one stop and about $1,500 nonstop in mid-June). A one-way train trip back to Vienna from Budapest starts at 19 euros, or about $24 at $1.25 to the euro, via OBB, the Austrian railways (oebb.at).

PLANNING

Figuring out Patrick Leigh Fermor’s route was a challenge: the maps of Austria, Slovakia and Hungary have changed a lot since the 1930s, and the names of some places have changed completely. But to my surprise Google Maps knew history. For example, when I searched for Kobolkut, where Mr. Leigh Fermor spent a night in 1934, it turned up the Slovakian town of Gbelce.

Still, when I arrived in Vienna, I bought a detailed map (9.95 euros) at Freytag & Berndt (Kohlmarkt 9; 43-1-5338-6850; freytagberndt.at), then left it on a rock the second day of my journey. Honestly, I didn’t miss it. To access Google Maps, I used my iPhone, and to avoid roaming charges, I loaded a day’s route when I had Wi-Fi and zoomed in to every step. The phone would cache the data for use when I no longer had Wi-Fi.

SLEEPING

In cities, I stayed in hotels: in Vienna, the sunny, cozy Hotel and Pension Arpi (Kochgasse 15/9; 43-1-405-0033; hotelarpi.com); in Bratislava, Slovakia, the Hotel Kyjev (Rajska 2; 421-259-64-22-13; hotelkyjev.com); in Nove Zamky, Slovakia, the Hotel Korzo (Rakocziho 12; 421-35-6408-932; www.hotelkorzonz.sk); and in Budapest, the jazzy Cotton House Hotel (Jokai utca 26; 36-1-354-2600; cottonhouse.hu).

Most good-size towns have at least one affordable pension. Near Sered, I stayed at the clean and modern Mlyn (Dolna Streda 211; 421-31-7893-095; penzionmlyn.sk), and in Esztergom, Hungary, I had a huge room at Alabardos Panzio (49 Bajcsy-Zsilinszky Street; 36-33-312-640; alabardospanzio.hu).

Often, I wished I’d left my tent and sleeping bag at home, but they helped in two ways: If I really needed (or wanted), I could camp, and carrying the tent made me appear self-sufficient. Many of my hosts might not have been so spontaneously generous had I not looked prepared to go it alone. When I did finally pitch my tent, it was at a campground connected to the Hotel Honti in Visegrad, Hungary (36-26-398-120; ohm.hotelhonti.hu).

EATING AND DRINKING

Whenever possible, I bought bread, sausage, cheese, fruit and wine from local markets, but I did sit down on occasion at the following places:

Cafe Alt Wien (Bäckerstrasse 9; 43-1 5125222) in Vienna.

Cafe Bendl (Landesgerichtsstrasse 6; 43- 6-766263682 ; bendl.wordpress.com) in Vienna.

Verne Cafe (Hviezdoslavovo nam; 18, 421-2-54430514) in Bratislava.

Hotel Koliba (421-2-2020-0101; hotelkoliba.sk) in Senec, Slovakia.

Koleves, (Dob utca 26; 36-6-20-213-5999; koleves.com) in Budapest.

Alexandra Bookhouse (39 Andrassy utca; 36-1 48-48-000) in Budapest.

SIGHTS

When I wasn’t walking, I actually managed to see a few things along the way:

Kaisergruft (Tegetthoffstrasse 2; kaisergruft.at), Habsburg burial sites in Vienna. Admission 5 euros.

International Esperanto Museum (Palais Mollard, Herrengasse 9; 43-1-534-10-730; onb.ac.at/esperantomuseum) in Vienna. Admission 3 euros.

Galeria Umenia (Bjornsonova 3226/1; 421-35-640-8440-1-2; galerianz.sk), an art gallery in Nove Zamky. Admission 1.32 euros.

Hungarian National Gallery (Buda Palace; 36-20-4397-325, Magyar Nemzeti Galéria) in Budapest. Admission: 900 Hungarian forints, or $4.25 at 211 forints to the dollar.

raging moderate 07-02-2010 07:35 PM
When i traveled through western europe a few years ago, my budget was 40 euro a day (for everything - food, lodging, fun). and it wasn't really that hard. i stayed in hostels, ate pasta and etc. from grocery stores, routinely pooled money with other travelers to buy nicer food from grocers and liquor, met up with people at the hostel common rooms who led me to great local bars and fantastic house parties, and on top of it all still went out during the day to see the sights and museums and etc. Public transportation is wonderful and cheap. Two hours after eating, 90% of meals are forgotten anyway, so might as well just eat something cheap and healthy or healthy-ish. fast food and regular dining out is wasteful.

when at home I like to do the various things mentioned above, plus my two-cents is simple: live within your means, and never use credit for anything. ever. credit is not worth it. if you really want it, save up for it and it'll all be worth it. the only debt i think is at all reasonable is a mortgage, and even there it better not be more than 25% of your take-home pay or you will be payment poor and still poor.

I don't have CC's or any other credit b/c I always keep an emergency fund on hand of at least 1000$ for unforeseen expenses. that is how you avoid credit cards for "emergencies." Plus, a little planning ahead and foresight will prevent an awful lot of "emergency" spending. as has been mentioned before, certain things will run out or need replacing, so plan for it. you're going to have to do your brakes periodically, your A/C will fail at some point, you will need to do routine maintenance on your house or car. so plan for them and life will be better. /soapbox

Jetée 07-02-2010 09:17 PM
Hah. I was just pinging around the idea in my head to start a topic of "Post things that cost less than a dollar, (1 Euro) and detail its overall value", then I come across this thread.

I'm sure I have a few articles in my notes that deal with household economics, but it might take me days to find them.

Here is something else, though:

http://27.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_ku...w4ueo1_500.jpg
As winter’s cold creeps in, we all revel in the little things to keep cozy.
The Natural Wave is ceramic plate that fits over an old school radiator.
The heated plate keeps your drinks and snacks warm without having to
use additional power and energy like a microwave or oven. Pretty
ingenious and if anything, it makes those old rusty radiators look a lot better.

genuinegirly 07-03-2010 03:26 AM
I just finished planning our trip out to Montana. We're leaving in a couple of weeks. All along the route I've been able to find campgrounds in national forests that range from $0 (free) to $6/night. We'll be pitching our tent in beautiful places all along the way at minimal expense. Add that to the fact that we'll be making the journey in a diesel that gets ~50 mpg, and we'll make it a cheap trip indeed.

snowy 03-20-2011 12:28 PM
Bump.

Frugal tip: After making large batches of tomato sauce, use whatever is left over in your Dutch oven or saucepot as a base for making a batch of soup. I just made a kickass minestrone using the remnants of some homemade pizza sauce (after I used said pizza sauce for making 2 pizzas and froze some sauce for later).

chinese crested 06-05-2011 09:38 AM
car washer jets blocked - dont try poking a pin down, use the air hose at the garage to blast any obstruction. I guess if you do it now and then it should prevent clogging and give a longer life to the parts.
Been given unwanted hand lotion moisturiser stuff? Dont give it to the charity shop, feed your wood with it - um - as in timber.
Got a dog? Make its treat -
Liver cake recipie -
Blend one pound of liver with half a bulb of garlic and one or two eggs.
Pour this gloop into half a pound of flour (other way round smoke comes out of blender)
Bake in a greased and floured cake tin, or individual cake tray as you would a cake - until the knife comes out clean. Dice it and bag it. Keeps for 6 days in fridge or you can freeze it down.
Dogs Birthday? Decorate with primula - you can use the tubed cheese to write with.

emoevo 06-13-2011 06:46 PM
Can't do the bike thing here either. Everything is an hour away! But I do buy in bulk to save me gas money by less trips. Also internet purchases are delivered to the door by the USPS still. Don't know about next year though, I hear they are struggling. No more 50 cent letters to Alaska, I suppose. I hear they are considering charging by the mile!

chinese crested 06-17-2011 01:28 AM
You can still grow plants if you have a windowsill - I have a wall mounted (means I shoved it over an old bent nail on the fence) upside down hanging tomato plant thingy.
Back to frugal. Ex Mother in law told me when she was a gal in Norway, they would throw fresh snow on the floor and sweep it out with brooms - said its good for lifting dirt out of carpets - it sticks to the snow. I should imagine the children might like to be helping with that one.

snowy 06-26-2011 12:15 PM
I needed to clean my coffee pot today. It is something I try to do every couple of months, usually right after I buy a new gallon of white vinegar. Not wanting to waste the vinegar/water mix I'd just run through the coffeepot, I decided to use the hot liquid to mop my floors. I just poured a little bit from the coffeepot onto the floor and mopped it up with my microfiber mop. Voila, clean coffeepot, clean floor, and I used the vinegar twice.

genuinegirly 06-27-2011 05:00 AM
Our water is so hard, I usually filter the vinegar with a tea strainer to remove chunks of calcium and run it through the coffee maker 2 or 3 times. That used vinegar is also great for shining up stainless steel and pewter - I usually attack my coffee maker, teapot, sink, and pewter fruit bowl with the same vinegar. It is also excellent for getting hard water deposits off from shower walls. Put it into a spray bottle, grab a scrubby sponge, and you're set.

chinese crested 06-28-2011 11:04 AM
cheap coke is cheaper than toilet cleaner for cleaning the toilet

genuinegirly 07-01-2011 10:25 AM
When purchasing fast food someplace unfamiliar, always say you want it to-go. In some cities, there are more taxes for dine-in purchases.

genuinegirly 07-06-2011 06:13 AM
Here are some tips on saving from a CNN Money article: 7 ways to save on everyday expenses - Faster, better, cheaper: Ways to save (1) - CNNMoney

Quote:
7 ways to save on everyday expenses

A better way to cut your property tax
Wayne Seifert
Age: 62

In 2008, the county raised my property taxes an exorbitant amount, so I made an appeal to lower them. I looked at the houses that had been sold within a five-mile radius and the home values were not supporting the tax assessment, so I did a first-level appeal with the tax assessor in my area. I showed her the hard data and she realized that my home had been over-assessed. Through presenting facts, I was able to lower the assessment by $60,000, a nearly 20% decrease. That saves $237 a year.
A cheaper way to stay on vacation
Bruce Ahrendt
Age: 56

When traveling, I can usually get much better accommodations (such as a fully-furnished condo) at choice spots by renting directly from the owners. I've used both VRBO and FlipKey with great success. You can usually get a really good feel for what you might be getting by checking the reviews and it's half the price of a hotel. We vacation at least once a year and we usually do a week to two weeks at a shot, so we're saving several hundred dollars and we're getting much nicer places.

A cheaper way to landscape Michelle Waldman
Age: 34

Many people hire outsiders to do yard work, landscaping and cleaning, but we save money by doing chores on the weekends and getting tools and materials from Craigslist. My husband built a retaining wall in the yard with paver stones from Craigslist. It turned out really well -- the neighbors even thought we had a professional do it. And those paver stones can be expensive. If you add it all up, we saved about a thousand dollars -- just on yard work.

A better way to cut car insurance
John McRory
Age: 57

With my boys away at college, I contacted my car insurance company and I asked the agent what the rates were in Albany, where my sons go to school. The auto insurance rates were much cheaper than here where I lived, so I explained that they had their cars there nine months out of the year and they got a lower rate. They each saved a few hundred dollars that way.

A faster way to donate money
Denis Bekaert
Age: 68

For the last few years, we have made our charitable donations in appreciated stocks. It's simply a matter of transferring the stock from your account to theirs. This eliminates the capital gains tax and allows us to either increase our effective giving or at least avoid paying additional taxes. We give about $10,000 to our church and other charities so we save pretty close to $1,000.

A cheaper way to trade stocks online
Bill Hanousek
Age: 66

I have a TD Ameritrade account and am an active trader. I simply called and asked for a lower commission rate. All I said was how about a break on the commission? They won't call you and say 'Hey would you like a discount on this?' Bottom line...call and ask! I saved about $2 a trade and that's a couple of hundred bucks over the course of the year.

A cheaper way to buy big items Mike O'Brien

Age: 36

I am amazed at the frequency with which I can get a discount by simply asking -- at least 50% of the time I get some savings. I went to a big-box retail store and bought a TV. Since it was a pretty big purchase I figured why not ask? The manager came over and agreed to knock off 10% and throw in some cables. Just by asking I saved about $120.

snowy 07-06-2011 07:25 AM
I saved some money at the farmer's market recently on accident, and it made me realize it's probably something I should try more often. I went to buy some strawberries, and they were 3 pints for $8. We buy tokens at the market using our debit card instead of using cash, and it turned out that what I thought was 8 tokens was 7 tokens. I said nevermind, I'll just take two, but because it was so close to closing, the berry stand gave me the 3 pints for 7 tokens.

Lesson: Show up right as the market is getting ready to close, and say, oh, I am down to my last (insert $ here), and maybe they'll give it to you for that price. It's an easy way to dicker without actually dickering (for those of us who do not like to haggle or dicker). Goodness knows they don't want to take home produce like berries--they would rather sell them for less than not sell them at all.


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