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Posted
Sep 25 2009, 10:33 AM
by
Donna Freedman
Rating:
Money Blog: Smart Spending Blog - MSN Money
Inside a neighborhood newspaper recently I found a coupon section with the headline, "Frugal is hip. It's OK to clip."
Hip? Suddenly I'm hip? For years people debated my sanity, sometimes openly, because I shopped thrift stores, used coupons, made soup stock from chicken bones. Turns out I was just a bit early to a party that others have finally deemed cool enough to attend.
At various times in recent history it has also been hip to wear shoulder pads, cook with oat bran and turn rocks into pets. I don't want frugality to be hip. I want it to last.
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Posted
Sep 18 2009, 09:14 AM
by
Donna Freedman
Rating:
Money Blog: Smart Spending Blog - MSN Money
I know I'm late to the dance here, but I finally understand why people love The Freecycle Network so much. You can give or get, de-cluttering your life or filling some basic needs at no cost.
No matter how odd the item, you can probably unload it. Earlier this week I gave away a half-pint of keys.
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Posted
Sep 11 2009, 01:06 PM
by
Donna Freedman
Rating:
Money Blog: Smart Spending Blog - MSN Money
A few weeks ago I went out to gather blackberries. Something told me to leave by the back door rather than the front. I've learned to listen to these impulses, so into the alley I went.
Half a block away, I found the reason why.
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Posted
Sep 04 2009, 08:55 AM
by
Donna Freedman
Rating:
Money Blog: Smart Spending Blog - MSN Money
You never know how much stuff you have until you need to move it 1,500 miles. Just ask my daughter and son-in-law, who are heading to Phoenix, Arizona. Although they sold some items online, staged a yard sale, donated many other belongings to charity thrift shops and gave lots of things to friends, they still couldn't fit everything into a 6x7x8-foot moving cube.
I don't suppose anyone out there could use seven dozen plastic hangers and some ice cube trays?
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Posted
Aug 28 2009, 06:20 AM
by
Donna Freedman
Rating:
Money Blog: Smart Spending Blog - MSN Money
Over at partner blog Wise Bread, writer W.C. Porter has proposed the "Boring Challenge." Porter suggests changing a habit for one week to see how much money you can save. Making the replacement habit "boring" makes it simple, he says.
In his case it was taking a lunch instead of eating at a restaurant -- "boring" because it was the same lunch every day. And it was simple, so simple that Porter kept going. After three years, he'd saved $2,000.
The Boring Challenge kind of describes my life, although I don't think of it as particularly boring. I'd call it the "Who Cares? It Works!" Challenge.
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Posted
Aug 18 2009, 03:55 PM
by
Donna Freedman
Rating:
Money Blog: Smart Spending Blog - MSN Money
I'm giving away my car at the end of August and making a conscious decision not to replace it. For now, anyway.
The decision isn't inspired by frugality or carbon-footprint concern so much as sheer curiosity: What would life without a car be like?
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Posted
Jul 02 2009, 10:15 AM
by
Donna Freedman
Rating:
Money Blog: Smart Spending Blog - MSN Money
A friend of mine pours leftover coffee into ice-cube trays. The caffeinated cubes make first-rate iced coffee because they chill the beverage without diluting it.
That got me thinking about other ways to use ice cube trays -- and no, Jell-O shots don't count.
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Posted
Jun 19 2009, 09:08 AM
by
Donna Freedman
Rating:
Money Blog: Smart Spending Blog - MSN Money
Want to save a bunch on groceries? Make this the official "Clean Out the Cupboards and Freezer Month." Smart Spending message board reader "mdwilson" does it each June and it pays off big-time.
Not only does she save at least a couple of hundred bucks, she gets rid of the mystery meat.
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Posted
Jun 09 2009, 06:27 PM
by
Donna Freedman
Rating:
Money Blog: Smart Spending Blog - MSN Money
Recently I opened a new checking account to get free money from the bank. Since I had the option to give the account a name I called it "Home," as in "a home of my own."
Did that really make a difference?
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Posted
May 01 2009, 08:34 AM
by
Donna Freedman
Rating:
Money Blog: Smart Spending Blog - MSN Money
Got coupons? Maybe not. Maybe your local paper includes few or no Sunday inserts. Maybe you're feeling so squeezed by the economic downturn that you can't afford new printer cartridges -- or for that matter, a Sunday paper.
Stephanie Nelson of CouponMom.com suggests a way to get free coupons. It takes very little work and is paying off for one of Nelson's co-workers.
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