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Posted
Jan 14 2008, 09:05 AM
by
Donna Freedman
Rating:
Money Blog: Smart Spending Blog - MSN Money
Procrastination paid off for me this weekend. On my list of Saturday errands was "transfer prescription to Rite Aid," because that store was offering $20 gift cards to do so. Somehow I never made it over there. And am I glad I didn't: The Sunday paper offered a coupon good for a $30 Rite Aid gift card for transferring a prescription, plus $10 more in scrip for refilling. It was a good weekend for cheapskating. Sale prices plus coupons scored me six months' worth of iron tablets for $5.27 and four pounds of Golden Grain pasta for 88 cents at Bartell Drugs, a local chain. Over at Walgreens, I got 400 Lipton teabags and two large jars of mayo for $5.31 (this price included instant and mail-in rebates). I've heard all the arguments about coupons: They're not cost-effective. They're mostly for junk food. Using them makes you buy things you wouldn't otherwise buy. Sometimes these complaints are valid. But not always. Look, I just bought four months' worth of iced tea for about 86 cents for a month, half a year's doctor-ordered iron pills for about 87 cents a month. If you ask me, those are pretty good deals.
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Posted
Mar 07 2008, 09:18 AM
by
Donna Freedman
Rating:
Money Blog: Smart Spending Blog - MSN Money
I made $15 for filling a prescription last night. That is, the medication cost me a $10 co-pay but I received a $25 gift card for trying a different pharmacy.
This was a Safeway pharmacy, so I had my choice of more than 60 gift cards ranging from bookstores to ice cream to spa treatments. I chose a Safeway card, for future groceries.
Drugstores want your business, and sometimes they're willing to bribe you to get it. Prescription transfers can be a pretty simple way to stretch your dollars.
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Posted
Sep 11 2008, 11:54 PM
by
Donna Freedman
Rating:
Money Blog: Smart Spending Blog - MSN Money
The timer on my stove gets used daily, sometimes three or four times a day. It tells me to check on the pork chops or that the iced tea has steeped long enough. It prompts me to rescue my sheets and towels from the basement laundry room. It reminds me that the Diet Coke that I put in the freezer 15 minutes ago needs to come out.
These reminders are all money-savers. The timer keeps me from wasting food. It prevents soda cans from freezing solid and then exploding -- a waste of Diet Coke and also a real pain to clean up. And I've never lost any linens or clothing to laundry-room thieves.
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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
May 07 2008, 10:59 AM
by
Donna Freedman
Rating:
Money Blog: Smart Spending Blog - MSN Money
If only there were a magic pill that would give us 100 miles per gallon. Well, there isn't. "Frustrated Monk" uses a mix of strategies to get the most bang for the four bucks.
He drives 60 mph even if the speed limit is higher. The reader says that doing this earns him an extra three or four miles per gallon in his three different vehicles. Monk also keeps the car tuned up, checks the tire inflation, uses cruise control (except in hilly areas) and has removed any the junk from the trunk.
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Posted
Jan 21 2009, 08:27 AM
by
Donna Freedman
Rating:
Money Blog: Smart Spending Blog - MSN Money
Prices for recycled materials like cans and cardboard tanked along with the global and U.S. economy, according to an article in The Seattle Times. That explains why I got only $2 for 10 pounds of aluminum cans at my neighborhood recycling plant last weekend.
Only a couple of months ago they were paying 40 cents a pound (about 28 cans). If I lived in one of 11 states with can/bottle deposit laws, I’d have made at least $12.60.
For a $2 payoff, was it worth the effort to recycle? There are a couple of different ways to answer that question.
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Posted
Nov 23 2007, 12:28 PM
by
Donna Freedman
Rating:
Money Blog: Smart Spending Blog - MSN Money
There was plenty of elbow room at a local mall this Black Friday morning. A nearby Walgreens was awfully quiet, too, and clerks were standing around chatting at the Office Depot and Staples that I visited. I got a late start, not leaving the house until sometime after 8 a.m., so maybe I missed the throngs. Or maybe there weren't any. Perhaps the predictions of consumer caution are coming true. Perhaps everyone's waiting for Cyber Monday . Elbow room was fine by me, even though I wasn't buying much. I've purchased gifts from clearance tables and rummage sales throughout the year. Some presents are courtesy of MyPoints and MyCokeRewards . A few folks will get jams (made from free fruit) and cookies (made with loss-leader ingredients). And I admit it: I'm re-gifting a couple of things. Keeping it realistic It's great fun to give gifts, but no fun to spend beyond your means . Well, it may be fun at the time, but your stomach will hurt once the bills arrive. Here are some reader strategies for
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Posted
Dec 25 2008, 11:41 PM
by
Donna Freedman
Rating:
Money Blog: Smart Spending Blog - MSN Money
The toy fire engine that my 2-year-old great-nephew unwrapped yesterday cost me less than $3. That's because I bought it last year, at the after-Christmas clearance sales. If you can handle some crowds, I suggest you too hit the sales.
And there will be crowds: people returning gifts, shoppers hungry for clearance prices, frugalists hunting down discounted wrapping paper, decorations and artificial trees.
You can work these sale prices to your advantage in very specific ways. Here's how:
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Posted
Oct 29 2007, 09:19 AM
by
Donna Freedman
Rating:
Money Blog: Smart Spending Blog - MSN Money
If the Toys “R” Us Big Toy Book is here, can Christmas be far behind?
Well, yeah. Fifty-eight days behind. But face it: No matter how much we whine about too-early holiday marketing, retailers aren't going to change their ways. We're the ones who have to change, i.e. adjust our reactions to the hype.
"Beebegurl," a Smart Spending message board reader, pays no attention to the retail calendar. In a thread called “Christmas Gifts,” she wrote that she shops for her grandkids long before holiday hysteria sets in. This allows her to look around "without pressure and at my own leisure and make a rational decision."
The most rational decision of all? Once she finds the perfect gift, she waits for it to go on sale. "I never ever pay retail for any toy."
Clearly, Beebegurl rocks.
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Posted
Nov 16 2007, 09:52 AM
by
Donna Freedman
Rating:
Money Blog: Smart Spending Blog - MSN Money
Want to save a ton of money and enjoy comfort food to boot? Bake some potatoes in your slow cooker. I did this one recent weekend morning and they were done to a tender turn after two hours on the high setting. The aroma was irresistible, even though I'd had a late breakfast, so I split open one of the smaller spuds, glossed it with butter and sprinkled on some coarse kosher salt. Afterward, I realized this was probably the cheapest snack I've had in ages. At 99 cents for a 10-pound bag, the per-spud price was about 4 cents. The butter cost less than 2 cents (loss-leader price plus coupon). The price of the salt was infinitesimal, since it came from a one-pound box I bought at the dollar store . They can make a cheap supper, too, and involve practically no labor. We know that on some nights, we're more vulnerable to the allure of Thai takeout or the fast-food drive-through – maybe Mondays send us reeling, or Thursdays are crunch days at work. So on those nights, plan a spud supper instead
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