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Posted
Aug 08 2008, 03:42 PM
by
Karen Datko
Rating:
"Not the Jet Set" is sorely tempted on the way to work by perfectly useable things people have left out by their trash cans. But what are the rules for Dumpster-diving? Do you need to be sneaky? How do you handle shame? We did some research and found a handy post at Sueann's NWPR Blog, plus photos of her remarkable finds, including brand new KitchenAid food processor attachments. (Her finds don't include food; she hasn't become a freegan.) "Dumpster divers have rules," Sueann Ramella wrote. Here are some we gleaned from her post and from other sources:
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Posted
Aug 01 2008, 04:53 PM
by
Karen Datko
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For every letter of the alphabet, Kelly at Almost Frugal has a matching frugal idea. Of course, "B" is for budgets, "L" is for leftovers, "V" is for vinegar (which has become our favorite cleaner), and "W" is for water, but not the bottled kind. "J" is reserved for the notorious Joneses. "Sure, maybe your neighbors have a nice car and take a ton of long weekend trips, but how are they paying for it?" Kelly asks. "You don't know." Kelly's well-written post, "The ABCs of frugality: 26 key frugal concepts," is a goldmine of thrifty-living ideas.
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Posted
Jul 24 2008, 03:04 PM
by
Karen Datko
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Many people are feeling the need to de-clutter, so why not make it a game? David Michael Bruno at guynameddave created the 100 Thing Challenge. He plans to reduce his personal stuff to 100 items by Nov. 12 and then live with only those things for one full year. The rules are kind of loose. It's his challenge, Dave says, so "I get to set the rules and decide when a rule can be stretched or outright broken." But generally, personal stuff doesn't include household items used by the whole family. He's also exempting memorabilia that can't be replaced, books, tools and his beloved Marklin Z gauge train collection.
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Posted
Jul 21 2008, 01:28 PM
by
Karen Datko
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One luxury you can cut when costs for essentials are rising is your cable or satellite TV service. But how can you still watch your favorite shows? David at My Two Dollars presents "35 ways to watch television without cable or satellite," and he's not just talking rabbit ears. After Option No. 1, an antenna, the rest are Web sites. Readers provided more suggestions, so the list is now up to 42 possibilities.
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Posted
Jul 21 2008, 05:04 AM
by
Karen Datko
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This post comes from J.D. Roth at partner blog Get Rich Slowly. You've been watching Craigslist for a good deal on a hedge trimmer, but you just aren't having any luck. By the time you find a good listing, it's been up for an hour and the HedgeHog XR is long gone. You could sit and refresh the farm+garden category constantly, but that's a waste of time. (Besides, what would your boss think?) Fortunately, there's a better way. Did you know it's also possible to watch Craigslist searches via RSS feed?
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Posted
Jul 11 2008, 10:05 AM
by
Karen Datko
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You don't have to travel to Eastern Kentucky to find rusting carcasses of cars and appliances that were pushed over the hill or into the creek. People who disrespect the land abound wherever you go. But that area of the country (and, we suspect, many others) is inadvertently undergoing beautification because scrap metal now commands pretty prices, a newspaper story says. People are finding there's much cash to be made from the junk in them thar hills.
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Posted
Jun 19 2008, 06:03 AM
by
Karen Datko
This post comes from Xin Lu at partner blog Wise Bread. My husband and I often search online for fixes for our electronics problems because if a gadget is out of warranty it often costs quite a bit to get it fixed. When we find a solution that is not hard to implement, we figure we might as well try it. We have been able to fix many things, including computers and handhelds. Lately my husband's Nintendo DS Lite has been giving him problems. Namely, the shoulder buttons at the top of the portable gaming console have been sporadically unresponsive. He has been using my DS, and he was thinking of buying a new one. However, today he found a great low-tech fix on the Internet that saved us more than $100.
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Posted
Jun 05 2008, 04:55 AM
by
Karen Datko
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This post comes from Xin Lu at partner blog Wise Bread. Once upon a time I sold a lot of stuff on eBay and Amazon, and I always needed envelopes, boxes and padding. The cost of these shipping supplies can really add up when you mail more than 1,000 things per year, so I looked into how to cut down my shipping costs. Here are some of the ways you can get supplies for free and lower your business overhead.
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Posted
May 30 2008, 07:31 AM
by
Karen Datko
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This post comes from Trent Hamm at partner blog The Simple Dollar. Recently, my wife and I kicked around the idea of installing a clothesline in our backyard. We both grew up in the country and we both had clotheslines for drying clothes in the spring, summer and fall. A quick cost analysis. An average dryer load costs about 30 to 40 cents to dry, so we'll give it an average of 35 cents a load. Given the installation cost of the clothesline we investigated (about $30, all told), we could recoup the cost of drying the clothes with about 89 loads, and after that it's gravy.
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Posted
May 14 2008, 06:01 AM
by
Karen Datko
Rating:
We have to save vicariously through the superstars of drugstore shopping. The closest stores like CVS and Walgreens are 110 miles away. Bloggers at sites like The Centsible Sawyer, Mommy Making Money and Money Saving Mom are buying toiletries, diapers and other necessities for a teeny fraction of what they normally cost. Cathy at Chief Family Officer, a superstar-in-training, has dubbed their use of coupons, rebates and other store discounts "The Drugstore Game." As these champions of saving might say, the proof is in the free pudding.
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