Archive for August, 2009

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Freeganism – The Ultimate In Frugality.

So, you think you are frugal? You don’t have anything on these Freegans. According to Wikipedia, Freeganism is an anti-consumerist lifestyle where people employ alternative living strategies based on limited participation in the conventional economy and minimal consumption of resources. Freegans “embrace community, generosity, social concern, freedom, cooperation, and sharing in opposition to a society based on materialism, moral apathy, competition, conformity, and greed.” The lifestyle involves salvaging discarded, unspoiled food from supermarket dumpsters, known as dumpster diving. So…now how frugal do you think you really are?

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Frugal
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Shoppers Putting Back To School Supplies On Layaway.

Well, I didn’t really see this one coming, but times are strange right now. Earlier this month I wrote about making your own layaway plan, but I figured that was for bigger expenses than pencils and paper. But it turns out that times are tougher than some might even be letting on, and families are now putting things like notebooks, magic markers and pencils on layaway plans. From MSNBC:

A record number of shoppers, shut off from credit and short on cash, are relying on Kmart’s layaway program to pay for all of their kids’ school needs, said Tom Aiello, a spokesman for Kmart’s parent Sears Holdings Corp. Layaway allows shoppers to pay over time, interest- free, and pick up their merchandise when it’s paid in full.

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education
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Trying A ‘No Spending’ Weekend.

This coming weekend, I am not going to spend a dime. Especially after all my visitors and exorbitant dining out expenses this month, a weekend without spending could really help my budget out. While I do normally try to watch my spending, even a few bucks every day adds up to a lot at the end of the month! If you have never done it, I highly recommend trying a “No Spending” weekend, where you don’t spend any money on anything other than regular household bills that might happen to be due at the time. This means no movies, no stops for coffee, no meals out, no museum visits — nothing that costs any money. But if you can’t spend any money, what kinds of things can you do by yourself or with your family instead? So many people think you have to spend money in order to have a good time, but that is totally untrue! Here are a few things you can do that cost absolutely nothing:

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Frugal
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Frugal Fire Starters Made At Home.

This will be a short and simple post, but I thought maybe some of you guys might appreciate it. You know how people buy specially-made fire starters for either their home fireplace or for when they go camping? Well, there really is no need to do so, as you probably already have the makings of great fire starters right in your own home — in the dryer lint basket. I have been collecting any and all dryer lint (mainly in the winter, as all summer I hang my clothes outside to save energy and money) in plastic bread bags, and a tightly bound ball of it makes a great starter for any kind of fire. For my fire pit outside, I put wad of the lint at the bottom and cover it with some bigger kindling and then the firewood, and the dryer lint lights up right away and stays lit long enough to get the kindling started. I used to buy little sticks that were basically covered in gasoline, but no more – dryer lint does the job!

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saving
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Blowing The “Eating Out” Budget Out Of The Water.

This month, I absolutely destroyed the budgeted dollar amount for eating out, spending a whopping $327 – with almost a week still left to go before the 1st. Looks like I will be eating peanut butter and jelly sandwiches for a few days! I try to keep the dining out budget to under $100 a month at a maximum, which is about 3 or 4 halfway decent meals each month. But this month I had a friends’ family come visit for 4 days, and then this past weekend I had a good friend from Los Angeles come into town, which meant that I spent a lot more time and money at restaurants than I normally do. I did my best to buy enough groceries for all my visitors, but as it always is when people come to visit you in a new town, you rarely find yourself at home.

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saving
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