Tilted Frugality - Page 4 - Tilted Forum Project Discussion Community

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.

YouTube - Jeffrey the Butcher's Money Saving Tips

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!!

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

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!!

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

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

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.

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:

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.

03-18-2009, 08:30 AM	#121 (permalink)
Cynthetiq Tilted Cat Head Administrator Location: Manhattan, NY	Yes, I think that one can live off lots less in certain parts of the country. We'd have to COLA scale it. __________________ I don't care if you are black, white, purple, green, Chinese, Japanese, Korean, hippie, cop, bum, admin, user, English, Irish, French, Catholic, Protestant, Jewish, Buddhist, Muslim, indian, cowboy, tall, short, fat, skinny, emo, punk, mod, rocker, straight, gay, lesbian, jock, nerd, geek, Democrat, Republican, Libertarian, Independent, driver, pedestrian, or bicyclist, either you're an asshole or you're not. What's the best nation in the world? DO-NATION!

05-22-2009, 08:23 AM	#125 (permalink)
genuinegirly Eat your vegetables Super Moderator Location: Arabidopsis-ville	Ooo awesome trick, thanks Xerxys! __________________ "Sometimes I have to remember that things are brought to me for a reason, either for my own lessons or for the benefit of others." Cynthetiq "violence is no more or less real than non-violence." roachboy

05-24-2009, 12:36 PM	#127 (permalink)
Xerxys Junkie Location: My head.	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!! Last edited by Xerxys; 05-24-2009 at 12:40 PM..

01-27-2010, 09:10 AM	#132 (permalink)
Grasshopper Green ...is a comical chap Location: Where morons reign supreme	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. __________________ "They say that patriotism is the last refuge to which a scoundrel clings; steal a little and they throw you in jail, steal a lot and they make you king" Formerly Medusa

01-28-2010, 06:43 AM	#134 (permalink)
Baraka_Guru warrior bodhisattva Super Moderator Location: East-central Canada	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). __________________ Knowing that death is certain and that the time of death is uncertain, what's the most important thing? —Bhikkhuni Pema Chödrön Humankind cannot bear very much reality. —From "Burnt Norton," Four Quartets (1936), T. S. Eliot

05-22-2009, 08:20 AM	#124 (permalink)
Xerxys Junkie Location: My head.	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.

05-24-2009, 11:19 AM	#126 (permalink)
Corneo Insane	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.

06-21-2009, 08:46 PM	#128 (permalink)
Xerxys Junkie Location: My head.	Hey guys ... S&K Mens Wear coupon ... Go nuts!!

01-26-2010, 08:27 PM	#131 (permalink)
ASU2003 immoral minority Location: Back in Ohio	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.

01-27-2010, 10:06 AM	#133 (permalink)
Xerxys Junkie Location: My head.	Youguyz'reallfreeks! There is NO way in hell I am living in a house less than 70 degrees at a given time.

01-28-2010, 10:38 AM	#136 (permalink)
ASU2003 immoral minority Location: Back in Ohio	(Or you could just not drink the stuff and save even more)

01-28-2010, 02:05 PM	#137 (permalink)
Baraka_Guru warrior bodhisattva Super Moderator Location: East-central Canada	We're frugal, not destitute.... __________________ Knowing that death is certain and that the time of death is uncertain, what's the most important thing? —Bhikkhuni Pema Chödrön Humankind cannot bear very much reality. —From "Burnt Norton," Four Quartets (1936), T. S. Eliot

01-28-2010, 03:36 PM	#138 (permalink)
hunnychile Alien Anthropologist Location: Between Boredom and Nirvana	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. __________________ "I need compassion, understanding and chocolate." - NJB

02-11-2010, 12:02 PM	#140 (permalink)
Baraka_Guru warrior bodhisattva Super Moderator Location: East-central Canada	Starbucks does burn their coffee. I prefer Second Cup or Timothy's World Coffee. __________________ Knowing that death is certain and that the time of death is uncertain, what's the most important thing? —Bhikkhuni Pema Chödrön Humankind cannot bear very much reality. —From "Burnt Norton," Four Quartets (1936), T. S. Eliot

05-19-2010, 02:55 PM	#141 (permalink)
Xerxys Junkie Location: My head.	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.

05-22-2010, 07:00 PM	#142 (permalink)
NoSoup Non-Rookie Location: Green Bay, WI	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 __________________ I have an aura of reliability and good judgement. Just in case you were wondering...

07-02-2010, 07:35 PM	#144 (permalink)
raging moderate Insane Location: Whatever house my keys can get me into	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 __________________ These are the good old days... formerly Murp0434

07-02-2010, 09:17 PM	#145 (permalink)
Jetée The Reforms Location: Rarely, if ever, here or there, but always in transition	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: 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. __________________ As human beings, our greatness lies not so much in being able to remake the world (that is the myth of the Atomic Age) as in being able to remake ourselves. —Mohandas K. Gandhi

07-03-2010, 03:26 AM	#146 (permalink)
genuinegirly Eat your vegetables Super Moderator Location: Arabidopsis-ville	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. __________________ "Sometimes I have to remember that things are brought to me for a reason, either for my own lessons or for the benefit of others." Cynthetiq "violence is no more or less real than non-violence." roachboy

03-20-2011, 12:28 PM	#147 (permalink)
snowy Kick Ass Kunoichi Location: Oregon	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). __________________ If I am not better, at least I am different. --Jean-Jacques Rousseau

06-05-2011, 09:38 AM	#148 (permalink)
chinese crested Insane Location: hampshire	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.

06-13-2011, 06:46 PM	#149 (permalink)
emoevo Upright	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! __________________ One day our cell tilted forum projects will be charged automatically with sound waves. Or is that even possible?

06-17-2011, 01:28 AM	#150 (permalink)
chinese crested Insane Location: hampshire	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.

06-26-2011, 12:15 PM	#151 (permalink)
snowy Kick Ass Kunoichi Location: Oregon	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. __________________ If I am not better, at least I am different. --Jean-Jacques Rousseau

06-27-2011, 05:00 AM	#152 (permalink)
genuinegirly Eat your vegetables Super Moderator Location: Arabidopsis-ville	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. __________________ "Sometimes I have to remember that things are brought to me for a reason, either for my own lessons or for the benefit of others." Cynthetiq "violence is no more or less real than non-violence." roachboy Last edited by genuinegirly; 06-27-2011 at 05:02 AM..

06-28-2011, 11:04 AM	#153 (permalink)
chinese crested Insane Location: hampshire	cheap coke is cheaper than toilet cleaner for cleaning the toilet

07-01-2011, 10:25 AM	#154 (permalink)
genuinegirly Eat your vegetables Super Moderator Location: Arabidopsis-ville	When purchasing fast food someplace unfamiliar, always say you want it to-go. In some cities, there are more taxes for dine-in purchases. __________________ "Sometimes I have to remember that things are brought to me for a reason, either for my own lessons or for the benefit of others." Cynthetiq "violence is no more or less real than non-violence." roachboy

07-06-2011, 07:25 AM	#156 (permalink)
snowy Kick Ass Kunoichi Location: Oregon	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. __________________ If I am not better, at least I am different. --Jean-Jacques Rousseau