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Posted
Aug 29 2008, 09:33 AM
by
Donna Freedman
Rating:
Last night I bought a plane ticket to New Jersey for the holidays. I'll stay about a week so I can work at my dad's annual New Year's Eve country line dance party: help set up tables, take care of the food, refill the cooler with soda and bottled water, and pitch in to clean up afterwards.
Here's the kicker: I don't particularly like country music. In fact, I listen exclusively to KING-FM, Seattle's classical station. Nor am I going to South Jersey in December because it's beautiful there at that time of year. I'm visiting to spend time with my dad, my younger brother and other loved ones while I have the chance.
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Posted
Aug 27 2008, 09:28 AM
by
Donna Freedman
Rating:
It's tough to be frugal in your 20s, according to a Smart Spending message board reader posting as "byebyestudentloans." Your peers seem to spend most of their time in malls, restaurants and nightclubs. And you?
"I'm brown-bagging my lunch, limiting my driving, work a full-time and part-time job," says the reader, who contributes to a 401(k) and has two other financial goals: pay off student loans and save to build a home. And all in the next two years.
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Posted
Aug 11 2008, 09:17 AM
by
Donna Freedman
Rating:
A time-honored coupon strategy is to put aside the cash equivalent of whatever you saved. If you use two 50-cents-off coupons for peanut butter, put a dollar in a jar when you get home. Every so often, you put the "extra" money toward a specific goal, such as paying consumer debt, creating an emergency fund or saving for a down payment on a place of your own.
A dollar here and a dollar there definitely add up; ask the woman who saved $1,100 with coupons in a single year. But if you're not a coupon user, try this: Pay yourself for frugal hacks. Not only do you save money with the initial cost-conscious behavior, you get to keep the "coupon" savings in cash.
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Posted
Aug 06 2008, 12:52 AM
by
Donna Freedman
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Want to get a roll of paper towels for 39 cents? Hit the auto supply store. Shocked at how expensive canned fruit has gotten? The drugstore might have an alternative. In the market for deeply discounted coffee, trash bags or toilet paper? Visit an office supply place.
These are some examples of the deals you can get if you stop thinking that foodstuffs and sundries can be purchased only in supermarkets. With the costs of basic foods continuing to rise, it really can pay to break out of the grocery gulag.
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Posted
Aug 04 2008, 12:06 AM
by
Donna Freedman
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On Friday I visited Office Depot for school backpacks at the killer price of $2.99. Along with other loss-leader school supplies, they'll be donated to a local social services agency. At the checkout, I handed over a "20% off all backpacks" coupon from an Office Depot mailer. The cash register wouldn't accept the coupon. "These are already on sale so the coupon won't work," the salesclerk said.
I noted, politely, that the coupon did not say "not good on sale-priced items." The cashier tried again. No dice. "It's not letting it go through," she said, and waited. I got the distinct impression she wanted me to say, "Oh, that's OK." But I wasn't going to say that, because my belief is that a store should honor its published offers.
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Posted
Aug 01 2008, 01:11 AM
by
Donna Freedman
Rating:
Gas is expensive and food is going higher and higher. I'm not talking about today -- I'm flashing back to my teenage years. Times were tight between 1974 and 1976, when I ran the household for my father and younger brother. I remember how quickly the grocery money evaporated even though I made all our meals, desserts and snacks from scratch. Gasoline was not only costly but rationed during what was widely referred to as the "energy crisis."
People combined errands and stayed home a lot more. They cut back on nonessential foodstuffs, did without entertainment and new clothes, and generally tried to make their dollars go further. But this austerity didn't last. The age of conspicuous consumption cranked up in the 1980s, and cars seemed to get bigger each year. More than a few times I've said to myself, or to others, "Have we learned nothing from the '70s?"
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Posted
Jul 28 2008, 09:40 AM
by
Donna Freedman
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The past few days would have gone a lot more smoothly if I'd listened to MSN Money columnist Liz Pulliam Weston regarding the wisdom of those economic stimulus gift card promotions. For weeks I'd been mulling over the pros and cons of those cards, which are sold in $300 increments and come with a 10% bonus.
Liz thinks it's a punk idea (more on that below), yet I decided to go ahead. This move seemed cursed from the get-go (much more on that below), yet the experience reinforced a basic Smart Spending credo: Always keep your receipts.
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Posted
Jul 11 2008, 11:59 AM
by
Donna Freedman
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My favorite yard sale story of all time comes from my friend Meghan Pembleton, sister to an inveterate garage saler. At one such event Meghan's nephew, a preschooler, took a small toy from the "free" box. The sale's host said, "Those are free, honey."
The child gave the garage sale response he'd heard so often from his mom: "Would you take a quarter?"
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Posted
Jul 09 2008, 12:01 AM
by
Donna Freedman
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Yesterday I was thinking about "hypermilers," those folks who go to great lengths to squeeze maximum mileage from their cars. While of course I strive for the best mileage possible, I don't hypermile -- with my car, that is. As a frugalist, I hypermile my whole life.
Meal plans, shopping, entertainment, transportation, utility usage, gift-giving -- all are done with an eye toward achieving maximum bang for the buck.
Plenty of you are right there with me, if posts on the Smart Spending message board and the comments about my articles are any indication.
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Posted
Jul 07 2008, 12:34 AM
by
Donna Freedman
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It can take years for a big Hollywood movie to get approved, let alone filmed. That's why I think that the parallels between "Kit Kittredge: An American Girl" and our current economic situation are probably coincidental.
Foreclosures. Job loss. Hungry people lining up for food handouts. Families who can't make ends meet no matter how hard they work. But enough about today; let's talk about the Great Depression, the setting for "Kit Kittredge."
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