Frugal Newsletters

Today is Frugal Friday at Biblical Womanhood. When you are done reading her go back to their site for may more frugal ideas.

I like to see what other people are doing and how they are saving money. It gives me ideas for things that may fit into my lifestyle. My husband and I are on a limited budget like most people and we all can learn from others.

I subscribe to a few newsletters that give me ideas. No, I do not use them all the time, but there are often things that I can pick out that I can do to help the budget.

One of them is The Dollar Stretcher Newsletter. There are ideas as well as links that will help.

Another is Saving Advice. They have a blog I subscribe to as well as a newsletter. Check out the site.

I also try to read faithfully as many of the frugal friday posts and other blogs that help with saving and amending my ways to help be more Frugal.

Some odd ways to save

It is Friday again and time for us to share our frugal ways through Biblical Womanhood.

This week I want to pass on a few simple things I do to save money.

First there is gas. The price of it is enough to make you want to forget about a car, yet we all need one. Besides the guides to tell you to keep tires inflated, drive slower etc, I have another way I save at the pump.
Check your area and see if you have any stations that use the National Payment Card way to pay. Here, there are some stations (they are few) where you can pay with your driver's license. You go online and sign up and then you are able to use your driver's license like a debit card. It saves .10 a gallon at our station.


Another trick I found I do has to do with the slow hot water at this time of year. It does not get that cold in Texas, but we do get cold. My water heater is far from the kitchen so hot water gets left in the pipes to get cold. Then, when you want a little hot water, you need to run it forever and then it gets cold again. Now, for small jobs, I use the microwave. We pay for our water and pay for the electricity to heat it, so if I only need a little it is only a few seconds in the microwave. One place I found I was really wasting the water was getting a warm wash cloth to wash the baby's face. Now I wet the wash cloth and throw it in the microwave for a few seconds and I have a warm wash cloth in seconds instead of minutes and there is no water and electricity waste.

The last one for today has to do with my cats. I realize I am not the most frugal person when it comes to feeding them, but maybe there are others like me. I give both dry and canned food to them. One cat is old and can't eat the dry well, so she needs the canned. I was buying the smaller cans (not the tiny cans, but the smaller ones) and then splitting it for two cats. Now I buy the Friskies large cans and pay less than the two a day of the others and get 3 meals or more for three cats out of a can. (Remember I mix with dry). It saves money and they are still fed and happy.

For more frugal ideas, go to Biblical Womanhood.

Bargain Books

Books, Books, Books. My husband and I both seem to collect books. I am embarrassed to tell you how many book shelves we have full; computer books, cookbooks, Bibles, study books, concordances, humor, how to, biography, craft, sewing and so forth.

We trade books on paperbackswap.com and get more at thrift stores and used book stores. Our favorite stores are the Half Price Books stores.

At Half Price Books you can find great deals on books, some even new. They have all different categories like the full price stores, but the books are used, overstock, discontinued or just bargain books. They have a clearance corner that is even cheaper. Last time we went my husband spent $6.00. He came out with 6 books, one new that was marked $150. plus others that were used or just older. We figured he had almost $400. in his hands. $6.00 spent!

Another thing they do is buy your books and give you cash for them. Sometimes they do not pay well, if they know they can't resell it for much, but sometimes there are surprises. I have heard people talking by the table where you make the exchange and was encouraged enough to give it a try our selves. We have just gone through our shelves to see what we can take down there and sell.

I also found another section in the store that had great bargains; the Children's Section! There are books, games, puzzles, crafts and toys. All are priced much cheaper than you would find anywhere else and I found myself getting some good bargains for some grand kids.

Check out Half Price Books if you can find one. Check out Biblical Womanhood for more frugal ideas.

A Penny Saved

My husband calls me tight. He means it lovingly but I prefer frugal. He is a spender, money in money out, money out even if it is not in has been his motto until I came along. He is fascinated by how I can save my money, get things cheap or free and have the patience to wait for what I want.

He told me that he has seen few people like me and wondered how my mind works that I can wait and manage to get things like I do. I thought maybe I would try to put it out in writing so that others can see how I do things.

I have never tried to do this before, so this will be something of a challenge to try to write my thinking!

1. We each get a small allowance that is ours to spend as we will. I save mine and plan for what I want to do with it. I almost never just spend it unless we are out of money and a necessity at the same time, then I will use it for household items to get us through. Otherwise I set myself a goal for what I want or need and set the money aside till I can get it.
2. I never pay full price for anything unless it is medicine, milk, bread etc. Everything gets marked down somewhere and eventually you will stumble on it. I was saving for a webcam and figured I would need about $50 for a decent one. When I had saved about $40 I started looking when I was in a place that sold them. On the way home from the hospital my husband stopped at Best Buy and said for me to go in and just see what they had. Well, there was one, regular price $59.95 on clearance for $32.95. I got it! He laughed and said the tight one did it again.
3. For things I do not need to have new I try yard sales, thrift shops and freecycle, all others wait for sales.
4. I have two jars and I put pennies in one and other change in the other. You would be surprised at how fast it can add up.
5. I take peoples stuff. No, not steal, but if someone offers and I can use it I take it. I talk to people that I know come across things and let them know what I am looking for. We needed a bigger table, we found one at a yard sale, but it was still a bit small for all the family when they came. We were in a Good Will store and I saw a small table there. However, I also saw a stack of leaves the same color. I went over to it and found this small table opens up to about 13 feet long and has 5 leaves to make it any size in between! I looked for a price, I found 99.99;59.99 and 29.99 on it and each of the leaves. I asked the person and was told it was 29.99! We took it home! However, we had no chairs for it. I found one at a thrift shop, 3 more like it at a yard sale and one of these people that I let know I needed some found 4 more in a storage shed that she rents out and the people just left there! Again, my husband had some words to say about my being tight!
6. If you set goals you will not waste as much of your money. I say as much because we all find ways to waste some. A good sale but it was not what we needed, that meal out just because we were lazy etc. I know we can still do better on the budget.
7. Set a goal of patience and not buying full price. Play a game with yourself to see how cheap you can get a quality item for without going out of what you can afford. I do this with food as well as other things.
   
8. Be flexible. Give some in what you want and you will find great ways to save money and get what you need.
   

I know I am cheap, tight, frugal at many things, I like it that way and can live without having the most expensive whatever. I am flexible and can live with something that is not exactly what I would buy if money were no option. Then again, the way I am I would probably still never pay full price!

For more frugal ideas see Biblical Womanhood.

Sewing Savings

I am a sew-er and have sewn since I was in 8th grade. Being the oldest of eight kids if I did not sew I had nothing new to wear. My older cousin passed down to me and from there it went down the family. Back then you could buy fabric for .25 a yard at the Grants store. (Yikes, I am aging myself). Patterns were .10 to .25 a piece. So clothes were fairly cheap to make. ( No!! I am not THAT old!!)

Today patterns are expensive and so is fabric, so it pays to hunt in different places and do some adjusting to the way we use patterns and fabric.

For patterns I hunt out the cheapest sales. Joann fabrics often has sales on certain days. You will need to fight the crowd, but it is worth it if you need a new pattern. I also have bought patterns on eBay or Sewingpatterns.com

Two other places I find patterns are yard sales and thrift shops. Look them over, but for a dime or quarter you can usually figure out a facing if it is missing. Over the years I have also traded patterns with someone else that sews, borrowed patterns or used a ready made outfit that I liked, but was not in good shape, and made my own pattern. (Remember to add the seam allowance!)

You can also save money by cutting out the fabric without cutting into the pattern. Patterns today are made with many sizes on one pattern. If you cut the pattern you ruin it for using other sizes. I fold the pattern and cut under it. I use the lines in the pattern but my scissors are under the pattern instead of on top of it. I then always have use of all sizes of the pattern. This came in handy last Easter when I was making 11 granddaughter dresses of varying sizes!

Now for fabric. I buy on eBay, yard sales and from discount shelves. I also have friends that sew and they know when they want to part with some fabric they can call. EBay may not seem like a good place to us who sew, we like to feel the fabric and decide. However, I have purchased some great fabric for great prices for dresses, a nursery, blankets and other things. If you need something odd it is a good place to look to get it cheap. We had a "Spring Chicken" birthday party for my mom and I was able to find two different chicken patterned fabric that was "quilt type" for a quillow and did not pay that much for either piece.

This week I went to a yard sale at a friends and she was selling tons of fabric for .25 to1.00 a yard. I bought 3 yard of a VIP fabric for .75! I went to a thrift shop and bought a nice heavy homespun type fabric, excellent quality, $1.50 for 5.5 yards. I will be using it for my tablecloth.

Another way I have saved money for fabric is rather odd to some. There are plenty of huge size dresses in yard sales and thrift shops. Do you know how much fabric is in one of those dresses? Some of them are really nice fabric that would make a cute little child's outfit. I have used those, as well as "scraps" of fabric. Pieces people think are too small, but for a child a skirt with different color pockets and a shirt from another small piece works great!

Hunt around! The savings are there, just have a good place to store them till you need them! For more money saving ideas check out Biblical Womanhood!

OOPS — I saved some money

We all like to save money and try to get the bargains, or make things stretch. This week I have been looking at a few things that I do to help out the budget. First, our HEB food store marks down meats in the early morning. If you get there really early you can usually get a good choice for little money. Some days are better than others. I have bought enough meat, including shrimp, for 2 weeks and spent $14. I also look for other mark downs. I bought a big bag of bananas for 1.99 yesterday. They are over ripe, perfect for banana bread. I am now baking all the banana bread up and will freeze most of it for a later time.

My husband makes our soap. When the bars get too small for the shower he throws them in his shaving cup and uses them to shave with by damping them before his shower and then using his shaving brush lathers it up and he has shaving cream!

Another savings place is Home Depot or Lowes. I have been wanting to do some painting and when my husband went there today to get something from work I wandered over to the paint section. Both stores sell OOPS paint, usually Home Depot is cheaper. I bought 2 gal cans of Glidden paint for $10 ($5 each) and 2 quarts for $1 each. You need to be flexible with the color, but we have bought a 5 gallon bucket for $15 in the past. If a color is too dark you can mix it with a lighter that will go (white or off white for example) and paint away!!

For more frugal ideas, return to Biblical Womanhood.