Tag Archives: frugal living

The 80/20 Grocery Rule

Okay, so you don’t want to bother clipping coupons, watching sales and hunting down the deals that disappear once you get to the grocery store? You can still save quite a bit of money on your grocery bill if you just follow a simple little rule. Take advantage of the 80/20 rule the next time you are out grocery shopping. Basically, what this means is that you make specific choices for basic food. A full 80 percent of the food in your cart should be of basic form. For example, a bag of carrots would fall into this rule, while … Continue reading →

How to Downsize Your Finances

Downsizing your finances may be necessary if you lose income or find yourself with unexpected expenses. Downsizing can be either temporary or more long term. But one thing is clear, when you downsize, you will give yourself the breathing room you need to get yourself back on track. Downsizing can be a bit traumatic at first. You may be used to a certain way of doing things, and learning a new way can be challenging. But the nice thing about downsizing is that it gives you the time to make the choices you want to make that work for your … Continue reading →

Bartering Resources

Bartering for goods and services, or swapping what you have for what you need is a great way to save money. If you happen to make something or can provide a service, then you have a ready made system that is just ripe for the barter system. First, identify what it is that you have to offer, and then offer it instead of money, the next time you need to purchase something. Where do you start? Well, often you can start with the people you already know: friends, people in your mom’s group or at church, local businesses, etc. Next, … Continue reading →

How Much Should You Spend on Christmas Gifts?

We talk a lot about ways to save money, don’t we? And since we are in the holiday season, we’ll be sharing more ideas that focus on saving money during the holidays. But one thing that I notice is missing in the frugal living posts is an actual guideline about how much, in a dollar amount, that you should be spending on Christmas gifts. We all tend to go a little bit overboard during the holidays, and we figure that we will just cut back on other things later. Each of our families have their own financial limitations when it … Continue reading →

Keeping Your Hands to Yourself May Save You Money

I have been so frustrated with the whole H1N1 Swine Flu issue that has been going on since the spring. I’ve only managed to be able to have one of my children vaccinated, and my own doctor said that it was unlikely that I or my husband would be able to receive vaccinations either, even though I fall into the high risk category. So, needless to say, I have been trying to refrain from touching things as well as teaching my kids to do the same. If you don’t touch the germs it will make it hard for them to … Continue reading →

How to Save Money on Fruit and Vegetables

Plenty of fruit and vegetables should be part of a healthy family diet. But when it cost more to buy a couple of apples than it does to buy a couple of cookies, it is hard to make the best choices. Produce has really gone up in price in the last few years, and I am not even talking about organic produce. It takes skills to be able to provide these healthy items to your family without causing you to go over your budget. Here are some tips on how to save money on fruit and vegetables. Buy in Season … Continue reading →

Clever Reuse Ideas

Reusing what you already have around the house can go a long way to saving your money and your resources. if you can reuse just five thing a month into something wanted or needed, well then you can save quite a bit of money. Reusing items can come in all shapes and forms. The practice just requires a little bit of creativity or the sharing of an interesting idea. Here are some clever ideas that I have come across for reusing common items. Parents Magazine featured a reader tip with a very interesting idea. Kim Neu of Philadelphia, Pa, not … Continue reading →

All About Layaway

Putting items on layaway seem to many to be a quaint tradition of Christmas past, much the same as the bank Christmas Club savings account. With the easy availability of both band and store credit cards, layaway went out of fashion. By did you know that there are still many large stores that offer layaway plans? And a layaway plan may be a great option to help you avoid credit card debt. What is layaway? With layaway, you are able to purchase a product and then pay it off gradually. You don’t actually take possession of the item until it … Continue reading →

Why I Only Spent an Extra $7 Today

In all of the craziness of black friday deals, deals, deals, I confess that I wanted to spend, spend, spend. First there was the Christmas tree. Ours is pretty old and in a very sad state. We thought we might take advantage of the end of the season clearance deals, but by the time the prices got low enough for our budget, the selection was pathetic. So this year, we have been watching the sales and agonizing over the purchase of a shiny new pre-lit Christmas tree. Rather than rushing out to the store right then and there, my husband … Continue reading →

How to Make Food Out of Nothing

I frequently mention in my blog post how most of use waste about 25 percent of the food that we buy. This is a high number of course, but you know what, if you consider all of the additional things that we throw away as not worth anything of value, this number would be much higher. I’m not even talking about leftovers here, although saving those and making them into meals is important. No, today I want to talk about the many meals that we can make out of the “nothing” food that normally gets tossed. Bitten apple Your child … Continue reading →