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Posted
Aug 26 2008, 12:58 PM
by
Karen Datko
Rating:
Money Blog: Smart Spending Blog - MSN Money
"Captain Frugal" may be a crazy Brit, but he's familiar with that quaint U.S. custom of recycling old toilets as outdoor planters. That, and using old bathtubs as lawn art -- "You can put it next to the toilet!" he observes -- are among his "10 of the strangest things people do to save money" at the Money Saving Blog. As he says, "Some people do some pretty weird things to save the green."
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Posted
Jul 22 2008, 02:53 PM
by
Karen Datko
Rating:
Money Blog: Smart Spending Blog - MSN Money
It's a shame it took us so long to find the Frugal Bachelor. Such depth of thought. Such an eye for the ladies. He writes unlike anyone we've read in the personal-finance blogosphere. In several posts, he mused about whether it's actually possible to be frugal in supersized America, and whether frugality and technology are mutually exclusive. In another, he considered where to eat based on the waitresses' qualities, and we're not talking about how often they refill his water glass. In yet another, he decided that rum would be the thing to hoard if civilization were teetering on the brink. He said: "Some historians even credit alcohol (beer) as the motivation for establishment of human civilization. It's true; look it up."
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Posted
Jul 14 2008, 02:05 PM
by
Karen Datko
Rating:
Money Blog: Smart Spending Blog - MSN Money
With American icon Budweiser becoming a foreign-owned brew, and the cost of hops and other ingredients driving beer prices up, maybe it's time to get downright domestic about beer. Honestly, folks, it's not that difficult to make beer at home, as Lise notes in a two-part post at Frugal in the Fruitlands. We used to do it -- and were amazed at the quality of our results. Some upfront investment is required for carboys, fermentation locks, bottles and some other equipment -- but you may be able to find them on Freecycle. You can also have your friends save their beer bottles, Lise says.
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Posted
Jun 26 2008, 01:37 PM
by
Karen Datko
Rating:
Money Blog: Smart Spending Blog - MSN Money
Frugal Babe has boiled water, made both oatmeal and rice, baked biscuits and reheated lasagne in her new-to-her solar oven/cooker. Pretty impressive, no? Next she's going to bake a chocolate cake. We've been reading about solar ovens and wondered if they really work. In her post and the comments that followed, Frugal Babe answers a lot of questions about them. For instance, does solar cooking take more time? Just a little bit more with the one she bought, she writes. Hers gets to 350 or 400 degrees quickly and stays there if the oven's position is changed every half-hour as the sun moves.
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Posted
May 07 2008, 10:48 AM
by
Donna Freedman
Rating:
Money Blog: Smart Spending Blog - MSN Money
We're in awe of the way "HollyM" does lunch. This thrifty reader starts by cooking big batches of soups, stews, stuffed peppers, lasagna, casseroles, enchiladas and other goodies -- all of it made with on-sale ingredients. The entrees get frozen in individual servings because variety is the spice of lunch.
"No boredom. Lunches ready to grab. Saves time/energy/money."
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Posted
May 07 2008, 10:34 AM
by
Donna Freedman
Money Blog: Smart Spending Blog - MSN Money
Having raised eight kids, reader "SGW" can make a little bit of meat go a long way. She would buy a chicken on sale and make a huge pot of soup -- but they didn't eat the chicken itself, just the broth with vegetables. Then SGW would cut up the bird and freeze it in one-cup portions.
"Yep, I make chicken enchiladas, chicken chow mein, chicken salads, you name it for a family of 10 using only one cup of chicken each meal."
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Posted
May 07 2008, 10:00 AM
by
Donna Freedman
Rating:
Money Blog: Smart Spending Blog - MSN Money
"Frugal-Cook" doesn't skimp on ingredients. Check her shopping cart and you'll find stuff like shallots, fennel, olive oil and fresh herbs. Yet she spends only about $500 a month to feed her family of five-going-on-six -- the mom of three is expecting again -- even though she lives in spendy Chicago.
Frugal-Cook bases her meal plans on weekly grocery specials, viewing the ads online at http://www.centsible.net/groceries.shtml. She also hits smaller markets in ethnic neighborhoods. Then she cooks one and only one type of cuisine per week.
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Posted
Mar 03 2008, 10:03 AM
by
Donna Freedman
Rating:
Money Blog: Smart Spending Blog - MSN Money
Crunch time: Exams are approaching, two final projects are due, and I am still fairly shaky on certain fine points of Spanish grammar.
That's why on Saturday I filled the slow cooker with great northern beans, ham scraps, chopped onion and grated carrot. I stirred up a pan of cornbread and settled down to read Hélène Cixous. By midafternoon, I had five or six nights' worth of dinners in the fridge.
I refer to this as "one-pot glop" nutrition. Some days you don't have time to wonder what you'll fix for supper. Leftovers rule, and one-pot leftovers reign supreme.
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Posted
Dec 14 2007, 12:08 PM
by
Karen Datko
Rating:
Money Blog: Smart Spending Blog - MSN Money
If CC Christiansen has picked through your trash, chances are she knows your dirty little secrets: that you threw away the holiday cookies a friend lovingly baked because you're watching your waistline (expand), or that you were too lazy to return or donate the jacket you bought and decided you didn't like. It's in your trash, with the tags still on. CC writes about lessons she's learned about human behavior from Dumpster-diving at a post at The Dollar Stretcher.
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Posted
Dec 13 2007, 04:09 PM
by
Karen Datko
Money Blog: Smart Spending Blog - MSN Money
If you make a coffee cake, the cost of the ingredients in one slice is just 8 cents. How do we know this? Sense to Save has prepared a recipe cost calculator. File this away under "cool tools." In an example, she demonstrates how to figure out the cost of ingredients for tacos for two people. It's only $2.47. That doesn't include the cost of using the stove or your labor. (In our case, it's free. No one is paying us to be a chef.) She also provides her weekly dinner menus and the cost of each.
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