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Posted
Jul 01 2008, 04:54 PM
by
Karen Datko
Rating:
Here's a clever budgeting aid from Chris at Cheaperversion: Create a do-not-buy list. "The purpose of a do-not-buy list is to banish the idea of purchasing unneeded items from your monthly budget," Chris writes. Although Chris doesn't spell them out, there seem to be some unwritten rules here: Your list has to contain stuff you really want, but you're also allowed to buy cheaper or better-for-you alternatives, or the same product in smaller amounts. For instance, the top two items on Chris' list are 24-packs of beer (a 12-pack is on his weekend to-buy list) and "high-calorie" cookies (we're assuming cookies "lite" are OK).
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Posted
Jun 30 2008, 05:34 PM
by
Karen Datko
Rating:
We figure lots of folks will be eating tube steak rather than rib-eye on this Fourth of July. If you're having a holiday barbecue, hot dogs aren't the only way to save money. Food savings are on the minds of many personal-finance bloggers as Independence Day nears. We offer a smorgasbord of their thoughts, ranging from cheaper watermelon to hot wings that are free to those whose towns are "hotter than Hell."
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Posted
Jun 26 2008, 03:30 PM
by
Karen Datko
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It goes without saying that whenever personal-finance bloggers write about how much money they saved on shampoo or toilet paper and other mundane stuff, someone thinks -- and sometimes writes -- "Get a life." Why think about -- or take the time to find -- a $1 savings on a tube of toothpaste? As Kevin at No Debt Plan succinctly says in a post called "2 reasons you should care about my toothpaste savings," it's not just about the toothpaste. It's about "your money-spending life."
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Posted
Jun 26 2008, 01:37 PM
by
Karen Datko
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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
Jun 26 2008, 10:51 AM
by
Karen Datko
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"LivingAlmostLarge" at the blog with the same name read an article about how manufacturers of food and sundry items are shrinking the size of their products and charging the same price. She found the proof in her own cupboards. She wrote that "curiosity got the better of me and I started to pull through my cabinets. And Bounty did decrease the roll size. I can say that because I have some from last summer." Bounty isn't the only product that's smaller now.
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Posted
Jun 25 2008, 06:40 PM
by
Karen Datko
Rating:
Driving his pickup is now out of the question since $75 didn't even buy three-quarters of a tank -- and his plan to limit his driving to locations downhill from home has a serious flaw. So Kyle at Rather Be Shopping came up with "Frugality in practice (sorta): 5 great new uses for my truck." No. 1 on the list is "storage, baby!" His pickup has a shell, which makes it perfect for storing the lawn mower and other things you'd normally keep in a shed. Bonus: The gas tank serves as a storage tank for fuel for the mower. (Honestly, folks, complaining about gas prices gets us nowhere, so we might as well have a few laughs.)
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Posted
Jun 25 2008, 04:28 PM
by
Karen Datko
Talk about secondary sources of income, a contest co-hosted by our sister MSN Money writer Liz Pulliam Weston offers the potential of lots of prize money and "not too much fame." All you've got to do is decide to save money and post a video about it at YouTube. Well, it's a little more complicated than that. Let us explain.
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Posted
Jun 25 2008, 12:35 PM
by
Karen Datko
Rating:
You're brown-bagging your lunch, driving less and clipping more coupons, but you're still not cutting expenses enough to compensate for higher gas and food prices. That's a common lament of many of our readers, who often ask, "Isn't there more I can do?" Hopefully you can find some inspiration in "101 ways I saved money this year" by "The Village Idiot" at an entertaining blog called Save, You Fool!
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Posted
Jun 23 2008, 07:00 PM
by
Karen Datko
Rating:
You're a frugal shopper, so part of your emergency fund is a stash of food in your pantry and freezer. But what if you're getting down to the dregs and can't figure out a meal to make from this stuff. Or maybe you have a recipe in mind, but you're lacking two key ingredients. This is when a new recipe search engine, Supercook, becomes your friend. You type in the ingredients you have on hand and the site produces recipes that fit.
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Posted
Jun 20 2008, 02:51 PM
by
Karen Datko
Rating:
Don't bother Jennifer Derrick at Saving Advice with your e-mails about boycotts of Big Oil or a nationwide gas no-purchase day. Those tactics won't work, and she's tired of your complaining. Those e-mails "are both the product of, and perpetuated by, those who would rather complain and look for the easy way out of the oil situation than actually get up and do something about it," she says. Well, Jenn, if you won't let us run our mouths, what would you suggest we do? Change your personal dependence on oil, she says, and you'll have less to kvetch about.
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