Festival of Frugality

One of the best ways to save money on an online purchase is to do a quick search for coupons or coupon codes right before you checkout. Unlike in a store where you’d have to have the coupon with you before you checkout, shopping online means you can abandon your cart for a while to search for a coupon. Fortunately it only takes a few minutes to do some searches to find if there are any active, valid, and available coupon codes for your purchase.

Whenever I do this, my first stop is to RetailMeNot.com. In minutes you can find out whether a coupon code is available for your store, of which they cover 65,000. One of the nice features of RetailMeNot is that visitors can vote as to whether or not a coupon is still valid, so that feedback can be important to know whether or not you should pursue a particular code. The last thing you want is to spend 30 minutes finding another dollar to spend (perhaps for a $10 off $100 code) only to learn the coupon is invalid.

If RetailMeNot comes up empty, do a search with Google. That will yield a treasure trove of coupon sites that might have a valid code you can use. Even if you don’t think a code exists, try looking it up because you never know. Even traditional brick and mortar stores offer coupons, for example Home Depot offers a ton of Home Depot coupons entirely online for free shipping, dollar off, free haul away, etc. I bet you didn’t know they even HAD coupons!

Finally, if you’ve searched half a dozen sites, tried RetailMeNot, and are still not able to find one… it’s possible one doesn’t exist. At this point you need to decide – buy it now or wait for a coupon? If you can wait, it often pays to wait for a sale or some other promotion. If you can’t, it’s time to pull the trigger.

Part of being a frugal-minded person is being able to discern value. Value does not mean you spend the least amount of money possible all the time. It means, in part, that you know when to spend and when spending is not worth it and there is a better alternative.

Food is one of the things that I used to be cheap about and I have learned to become frugal. My family’s nutrition is important to me, and there are times where it seemed easier to grab the processed pre-packaged high calorie/fat things versus really looking at what are frugal alternatives. As my family began to eat healthier, yes we did spend a bit more money of food, but at the same time, we learned how to shop fresh smarter.

Buy in season. Look for sales on produce. Find out what can be frozen (cheese is my favorite thing to freeze!) and what is not (please do not freeze lettuce… just saying). Plan a menu around what is fresh and inexpensive this week. Buying fresh does not need to break the bank – but it may require a little extra effort.

One of the things I have tried to do in my own life is live a life without clutter. I am not very successful at that, but I do make a conscious effort to reduce the amount of things in my life that have no real meaning to me and simply take up space.

One of the ways I accomplish that is by eliminating many of the things that come into our home before they find their own place to be. After the holidays is one of the biggest times that a lot of unnecessary stuff comes to my house to find a home. So I work to find new homes for the things that I don’t want or need.

If your house looks a little overrun – donate what is useful to some but not useful to you. Your home will be a little easier to manage and someone else can use and treasure what you may not.

Holiday times are upon us, and many many people take advantage of the pre-holiday sales. But what about the post-holiday ones?

I am not just talking about sales on Christmas merchandise – but on many many things. My supermarket, for example, stocks a number of things during the holidays that they don’t want hanging around afterwards, even though it is not all holiday-themed. So I can find a great price on anything from toys to cookies to stemware, even if they are not “Christmas” exactly.

If there is something you need – think about where it might not be needed anymore, from a store perspective.

Here is the midwest US, it is cold.  And getting colder, as winter gears up and December rolls on.

As I shudder at my higher heating bills, I also try to create heat where I can find it.  And to me, that means my oven.

NO, I am not using my oven to heat my house.  But when I bake (which I do several times a week as it is), I leave the oven door open after I’m done to let the heat escape into the house.  Actually, I often stand in front of it, because I keep the house on the chilly side.

Do not try and heat your house with your oven or dryer – that doesn’t make sense.  But using a little heat you created anyway…  works for me!

(PS Make sure no children, pets, or silly people get near open appliances.)

I live in an older house that is rather drafty, especially in the winter.  While we’ve taken many measures to make the house more efficient, it still does not retain heat as well as we would like.  Therefore, our natural gas bills in the winter are on the higher side.

My spouse has a much lower tolerance for cold than I do, so our programmable thermostat is a lifesaver.  Instead of keeping the house super warm all night long just so it will be warm when he gets up for work, the thermostat starts gradually warming the house right before he gets up.  Then, once he leaves, it turns down again to the temperature I can tolerate (which, by the way, is 65 F).  The same thing occurs when he gets home from work, and we don’t have to remember to do it ourselves.

Although our winter heating bills may still be high, they’re much lower than the first winter we owned the house.  And getting lower by the day, as I acclimate my spouse to lower temperatures…  :)

A timer is a common household item – it makes sure you don’t burn dinner, after all. But there are more uses for that timer than you may think.

From timing computer use (for adults too, not just kids) to motivating one to tackle put-off tasks (you can do it until the timer goes off, you can do it!), a timer can help you use your time wisely, motivate you, and keep you on track.

And who couldn’t use a little help being on track? I know I can.

It might be the last place you think you need it, but a calculator is one of the handiest tools you can have at the grocery store. From calculating unit cost to comparing apples to oranges (literally), a calculator really helps determine the best bang for your buck.

Divide the total price by the number of ounces to compare different dry goods and brands of the same cereal. Easily add up the number of sheets of different paper towels or toilet paper (don’t forget the ply!). The list goes on and on.

So slip a calculator inside your reusable shopping bag today, and never be without it at the grocery store. One of my bags even has a little zipper pouch to keep it in.

Flexible Spending Accounts, also known as FSAs, are a very useful thing to have.  Through a plan at your workplace, you can put money away each pay period, tax free, towards medical (and dependent care) expenses.  Then when you have an expense, you can pay it out of that fund or get reimbursed for it.

If you have an FSA, make sure you know what’s going on with it.  What dates is it valid for?  Most are Jan 1st to Dec 31st, but plans vary.  How much is left in it?  Do you have a plan for using it up?  These are use it or lose it plans, so if you let the money sit, you’ll lose it – defeating the purpose of the plan.

So make sure you stay aware, stay on top of things, and stay in control – use that FSA the right way!

Or spin, or run, or play, or…

The point is – most of us need to exercise.  So instead of signing up for the nearest gym then guilting yourself into going, find a form of exercise you enjoy.  Spending your money wisely is one of the tenets of frugality.  Maybe you’re interested in the martial arts.  Maybe running is your thing.  Maybe you enjoy kicking the ball around.  Whatever it is, look for opportunities that capture that, instead of signing up for something you hate.

Exercise comes in many forms, after all.  There’s something for everyone!