Living Well On A Shoestring:)

[Hopefloats]

I like to share tips. This comes from Yankee Magazine's Living Well On A Shoestring. I think these ideas are fun to share. So from time to time, I may post some of these ideas. Maybe we can all learn something and save a little money too!

Spending Less At The Grocery Store.
(remember, I did not write these!..

Find Five You Can Live Without.
Here is a quick way to add up yearly savings. Pick out a few products that you regularly buy at the grocery store that aren't necessities. Then eliminate them from your shopping list. Multiply the saved weekly cost by 52 (weeks in a year) to calculate your annual savings. For example, let's say you buy two packages of cookies every week and that each package costs $1.89 . Eliminate just one of those packages from your shopping list, and you'll save $98.28 in a year. Now add to that package of cookies four other items that you can live without each week, and watch your savings grow.

Bonus idea: If you really love a product, write to the manufacturer expressing your devotion and brand loyalty. You may receive a reply----along with a bunch of coupons

Hopefloats

[PlanoTexican]

I am a Displaced Mainer living in Texas, for over 26 years now. I still appreciate and practice New England frugality. I just can’t help myself (grin).

Thanks for the tips. Hint, your writing to companies with complements tip works with Frito Lay!

I still read Downeast Magazine. Have you ever seen it?

[CarolD]

Interesting...Thanks!

My favorite frugal tip....Pay cash.

I write checks for the monthy expenses then use 'real money'

There is something about seeing the actual $$$'s flowing out that deters me from over spending.

[best]

ummm Hope... they don't call them shoestrings, they are called Thongs..

Opps! Sorry I thought you were talking about bathing suits.

[Hopefloats]

Hey Piano..Mr. Hope gets that magazine, I do believe. NOW you know I have to go and check. I have not read it, or at least today my "mental-pause" mind tells me I have not..lol

Best....Imagine the title of THAT book. Living Well On A Thong! I don't know why, but that just makes me giggle.

I am so darn frugal. I hate paying full price for anything. I will IF I have to, but how I love getting things on sale
Hope
OH and Carol...paying cash is what we do 99 percent of the time. It does help to actually see that flow of money. I like that

[Gabe]

Originally Posted by Hopefloats

Living Well On A Thong!

I'm not going there.
Nope, I'm not.
Uh-uh, no way.
But you know what I'd say if I did.

[best]

Living Well On A Thong!

There is a book that men take to the beach in the summer time.
The book is called ... A Thong and a Prayer

It is a self help book for getting over rejection *LOL*

*not a real book*

[Gobi]

Check your receipt before you leave the grocery store. Around here anyway, the grocery stores all have a correct-price policy, meaning, if the prices scans incorrectly, you get it free. We shop early on the first day of the sale week, when the computers haven't always found the errors yet. I recently got a bottle of the new ALL Small and Mighty detergent free that way (I love that stuff, btw. Highly recommend). By far, most weeks I get at least one thing free. It's gotten to be a game with dh and I (we both like to grocery shop, so much so that our second date was to a grocery store) to see who can get the most stuff free on an order.

[PlanoTexican]

Went to Sam’s Club and bought a container of baking powder. It weights 3.75 pounds. It was a good deal though.

Lets see, its just my wife and I at home since our son is in the Navy and is now married.

But we do most of our cooking at home. So if we live on cake and biscuits we should see a real savings in about 5-10 years.

Oh, but wait, my wife tells me that baking powder has a fairly short shelf life.

I wonder how our dog and cats will like living on cake and biscuits.

I guess we could also add pancakes to our menu. I saw big bottles of pancake syrup bundled in twos at Sam’s when I was there. That’s bound to be another money saver.

I told you I just can’t help it!

[CarolD]

Carried by QVC for about $20

Item # V 10148 000 000

You get 3 plastic balls of 'magic' pellets.

Each does 60 washes...no fabric softener or dryer sheets needed.

As they become less effective I use 2 or 3 thus stretching the amount of washes.

I have used them for over 10 years...works great!

[equus]

I reckon treating it as an adventure helps! In the last few months I've learned to stand in the crowd around the meat van and wait with the immigrants, old folk and tose who've always been poor. Types of meat, cuts, etc are offered for sale in turn, it's loaded into the scale and a price given - you put your hand up if you want it. Good meat, half or a quarter of supermarket price, but you have to wait, without impatience, just stand and wait. You pass money forward through the crowd and your purchase is passed back - there never seems to be trouble.

So I can wait and yawp about my cold hands, get cross that he NEVER seems to get round top the lamb chops, get miffed that if I leave for a break no doubt he will do them then. I tried that and it didn't make me a happy bunny. Or I can stand and watch this incredible sight, hear languages that sound like Africa, Asia, and Russia, see an old Jamaican woman laugh and laugh a joke with the seller. I can dream of what I would do with each kind and cut of meat - tell myself if I learn that I won't have to wait so long for lamb chops!! I watch the money go through from hand to hand, through languages and colours but still exchanged for the right meat.

Until I had no money to buy what I wanted to cook I never stood there - all the times I've been to that market I never knew what i could see and feel. I think I'm richer now. At the very least I know how to pluck and gut my poultry!!

Christmas pressy time and the hobby of second hand sales becomes a mission - 50p here £1 there, slowly the pressy's for giving grow, now they are a mountain full of stuff picked from tons and tons of stuff because X will love it, it'll make Y wet themself laughing. I've never looked forward so much to giving the pressy's, I've never had so much to give till this year.

I'm finding pleasure and I think that matters the most because we've a mountain of debt to repay. I'm actually glad for it, I feel so much, more connected to the past, what I eat, wear, and so much else has become something I'm gratefull for, a lucky find, good quality, a result of my effort not taken for granted.

I'm less sure how I will re-adjust when we do have money again.

[CarolD]

Dang....I was in a rush when I posted the washing info.

They are called..."Wash It Plus"

[Hopefloats]

I love this And Ms. Gabe...OH yes, I can read that "busy" mind of yours! lol I will "pay" you to post your thoughts
(he-he)
Hope
thanks everyone for sharing....