<$Monday, April 14, 2008$>
Mother's Day Flower Coupons
| The count down is on: only 26 more shopping days till Mother's Day. If you're shopping the Internet for ways to show your mother you love and appreciate her (do we really need a special holiday for that?), that leaves plenty of time to get your orders in. At the Bauhaushold we tend to opt for a semi-frugal mother’s day by spending the most precious thing we have to give: our time. Our mom's tend to love that. Go figure. We're not total cheapskates, though, so our time usually comes with treating them to a nice restaurant and the requisite card and flowers. 1-800-Flowers is making the latter part a little easier and a little more cost-effective this year. In addition to some already discounted sale items, they're also offering the following coupon codes for early bird shoppers:
These could come in especially handy if you're having to celebrate Mother's Day long distance. Flowers are certainly no substitute for the loving presence of the fruit of her labor, but answering her door to a gorgeous bouquet will be a nice reminder that you're thinking of her and appreciating all that she put up with from you over the years. |
<$Tuesday, March 25, 2008$>
Improving credit, investing fear, new used books, and a hiatus
| Things have been busy lately, and they're just getting busier. But here's a quick update before I take an official (as opposed to the unintentional one I've been taking) hiatus for a few days to catch up on stuff. That's about it. The main reason it's been slow here lately is because there hasn't been much to report on the Bauhaushold front, and I haven't had time to explore what's happening elsewhere in the pf blogosphere. Soon, though, I should have plenty to talk about, what with the upcoming house hunt and impending tax rebates and all. But for now, I have lots of work to get done. See you next week. Labels: credit cards, debt reduction, frugality, saving+investing |
<$Monday, February 4, 2008$>
10 more shopping days to prove your love...
| I can't say I was all that surprised to see Valentine's Day displays spring up the day after Christmas, seeing as how this is one of the more consumer-driven holidays in our culture; which, as usual, pretty much misses the point. That is, if the point is to celebrate love and the people in your life, and not to try to quantify how much you love someone based on how much you're willing to spend on them. I was never a huge fan of Valentine's Day. I thought this would change after I met my husband, but we're still both pretty "meh" on the whole subject. We acknowledge it, and use it as an excuse to do something romantic, but (with the exception of last year, when I bought him a wedding band to replace the wedding ring that got lost on our honeymoon, and he took me out to an overpriced pub; but it was our first V-day as married people, so we can be excused) we don't go nuts with the spending. Our favorite Valentine's Day so far is the one after we became officially engaged, when I wrote him a love poem and printed it on a homemade, computer generated card, and he gave me a really sweet love letter. Neither cost a cent (unless you tally up the cost of ink and paper), but nevertheless we were both moved to tears by the mutual gesture. That's why this year I plan to try to top that by sitting down and handwriting a love letter to my husband. If you're like me and you think putting time and energy into your Valentine means more than the money you put into it, then these links might be for you:
One thing I'd ad to that last list: make a night of snuggling on the couch and watching her favorite romantic movies. If my husband would do this instead of grumbling about having to watch chick flicks and then finding something else to go do halfway through the movie, I'd be thrilled. It's one night, guys. It won't kill you. And it's a great way to get her in a mood for romance after the movie's over (If you want to surprise her and you don't know what her favorite movie is, a good bet is anything starring Drew Barrymore that does NOT have "Charlie's" or "Angels" in the title). |
<$Wednesday, January 30, 2008$>
This is why I love the internets.
| In the same vein as yesterday's post about free online image editors, there's a great post at Gather Little By Little that lists free open source software--both web based and free downloadable programs. When we get our computer, I don't plan to pay extra for Microsoft Office. With all of the open source programs available these days that are as easy to use as and compatible with MS programs, there's just no reason to. I already do the majority of my writing in Google Docs. I might not even download any programs to my hard drive--I might just save space by using web based programs! Labels: finance+blogs, freebies, frugality, resources, tools |
Do sacrifices alter your personal style?
| I used to love to wear jewelry. Costume jewelry, mainly--I've never been in a position to afford or be gifted with much of the real stuff. In my younger days working in retail, I usually ended up working in the jewelry department, surrounded by cute baubles that I couldn't resist. My jewelry was a big part of my personal style. The old me would have adored some of this wholesale fashion jewelry. But that was back in the days when I didn't think much about my spending, or about putting shiny things on a credit card. The new me hardly wears any jewelry. Other than my wedding ring and a necklace my husband let me pick out for my birthday last year, all I usually wear are a few pairs of inexpensive discount store earrings that I rotate, and often I don't even bother with those. I'm not sure when or why I stopped being a costume jewelry ho. It happened pretty gradually, although I'm sure lack of funds had something to do with it. Being forced into frugal habits had a major impact on my personal style, but I'm sure getting older (and busier) also had something to do with it. Where I used to love trendy outfits, now I wear more classic clothes that won't go out of style. I still have girly phases where I love to dress up and put on makeup, but for the most part I've got a pretty basic beauty routine that lets me get ready for work in fifteen minutes. These things cost less to maintain, too. A lot of jewelry just doesn't fit into that equation. Sometimes, this makes me sad, and I wish I could go back to my girly-girl days of yore. Mostly, though, I'm proud of myself for scaling down and figuring out how to look feminine and stylish while saving a lot of time and money. My new personal style fits in a lot better with my new lifestyle. There's no room here for the old, fashion-conscious, spendy me. Labels: bargains, disclosure, frugality, personal, shopping |
<$Tuesday, January 29, 2008$>
Nature is free.
| *Sponsored post* I used to love to go hiking. I grew up in a wooded area, near some cliffs that surrounded a lake. When I was a kid, my friends and I had all kinds of adventures climbing the rocks, hiking through the woods, building forts and swimming in the lake. I live in that same neighborhood now, but as an adult, I never have the time to revisit all of my childhood hiking trails. Even if I did, the area is so much more developed now than it was then that even if I could find a place to go hiking nearby, I'd probably end up trespassing on somebody's property. It's a shame, because there are a lot of benefits to hiking. It's fun, it provides a great workout, it's a great way to get fresh air and sunshine and get away from the hecticity of twenty-first century life once in a while...and it's free. As I mentioned in yesterday's post on all of my frugal habits, I tend to reuse things for as long as I can. Both my and my husband's school backpacks have been used as overnight bags, carry-on luggage, purses, pet carriers, grocery bags, briefcases, gym bags...you get the idea. One thing they sadly haven't been used for is to tote hiking gear, despite the fact that they're ideal for the task. Whether I just want to tote a bottle of water and a light snack for a long walk, a blanket and picnic supplies for an afternoon hike down to the lake, or a sleeping bag and light camping gear for an extended hike, we've got an old backpack that's up to the task. I have no excuses. Once the weather warms up, I think I'm going to pack myself a picnic, head down to the lake and get reacquainted with my childhood pastime. An entire day's worth of activity and entertainment is almost literally right outside my back door--and it won't cost a thing other than the price of the food I take. You can't beat that with a stick. Labels: disclosure, frugality, healthy living, hobbies, recycling |
<$Monday, January 28, 2008$>
What we're doing right
| My husband and I try to live pretty frugally as we work on digging ourselves out of debt. Sometimes, though, it doesn't feel like enough, and I start to feel guilty for not sacrificing more in our journey to be debt free. Every now and then I need to step back and look at all of the things we are doing to save money. I could keep going, but I think I've made my case. The only area we have left that we could stand to cut back on is our groceries, and that's a work in progress. I am working on it, though, and as I look over this list, I feel pretty good about the steps we've taken to reduce our spending and live below our means. Labels: debt reduction, frugality |
<$Friday, January 25, 2008$>
Furnishing my dream house
 I'm once again hypothetically shopping for my hypothetical future house. I know I really shouldn't, since it will only lead to temptation to get spendy after we move. Really, we plan to make the most of the furniture we've already got, and fill any gaps with Craigslist and thrift shop finds. I consider myself to be fairly creative, and once I get a sewing machine, between that and knitting and borrowed ingenuity from Curbly and other web sources, I'm pretty confident I'll be able to make our new house look like a cozy home without breaking the bank.One thing we do need to replace, though, is our bed. Our bed--actually, our entire fashion bed group, is a matching set of antique hand-me-ups that came to me only after a few years of rough treatment at the hands of my then teenage sister. It's all pretty battered, and not in that stylishly distressed way. I never use the vanity table, anyway, since when I'm not getting dressed at the gym I usually do so in the bathroom, and the chest-of-drawers isn't big enough for the two of us. Neither, really, is my full-size bed, with its broken foot board and aging mattress. So one thing I keep shopping around for to get an idea of how much money I need to save up is a quality bed. I figure once we get a new bed, we'll have it for at least a decade, so to me it's well worth it to shell out for something as sturdy and durable as it is comfortable. I really like the looks of these platform beds; right now they're on sale at prices that wouldn't kill us. It's doubtful that they still will be when we move, but we're not in a huge hurry. We can wait until they go on sale again, even if we have to sleep on our mattress on the floor for a while. Actually, a lot of the prices at Home and Bedroom look pretty reasonable. I'm going to have to bookmark this site for the future and remember to come back to it when we're ready to actually buy new furniture. Their Hillsdale Furniture collections include some gorgeous beds that I might consider if we decide to go with a more traditional look, and those prices aren't making me cringe, either. Once we get our 2007 taxes done, we'll finish our mortgage application and, hopefully, start shopping for a house. Our goal is to be in our own place by this summer. The thought of it is both scary and exhilarating, and despite the scary, I can't wait. This sort of web-window-shopping for good furniture and decorating bargains and dreaming about what I want my new home to look like helps me to wait patiently until it all become a reality. It can be agonizing to wait, but sometimes the best part of waiting is the anticipation and imagining what it will be like when the time finally comes. Labels: bargains, disclosure, frugality, house-hunt, shopping |
<$Thursday, January 24, 2008$>
Just say no to McMansions
| Stop the Ride lists thirteen reasons "Smaller Is Better" when it comes to buying a house. This is advice I'd heard before, and it's advice we intend to heed when we shop for our new home. We don't really need that much room, especially for a starter home. We have so much junk that we plan to get rid of before we move. I really want to de-clutter and simplify my home life. I think having a small home will force us to be ruthless in letting go of our stuff. Not to mention the lower energy bills... just go read the list. All of my reasons are already over there. Labels: finance+blogs, frugality, goals, house-hunt |
<$Tuesday, January 22, 2008$>
Frugal Post Script
| One more link: Small Cents posted a list of 25 frugal things she does while she's paying off her student loans. They're not all about food, and they're not all stuff I can do (that breastfeeding thing is kind of outside my ability for the moment), but there's a lot of good ideas there. Labels: finance+blogs, frugality |
How to be a Frugal Foodie
| That title is a bit misleading, because I don't really know how to be a frugal foodie. That's something I'm still trying to learn. I worry a lot about our food spending. We're spending a little less now than the last time I complained about it, but we've still got a ridiculously large food budget for just two people. I've realized something, though: as long as we've got the basics covered and we're well-fed, we're happy. Sure, we enjoy going out every now and then, and we like stuff as much as the next consumer; but for the most part, we're homebodies who are easily entertained. Homebodies, and foodies. Food is entertainment for us. When I remember that, I feel a lot better about our grocery bills. Even so, we could stand to cut down on our grocery bill. I'm sure this will become easier to do once we have a kitchen in which to cook our own healthy meals, but in the mean time, I'm constantly on the lookout for frugal food advice and money-saving grocery tips, such as you'll find at the links below: Some of this stuff I already do, and some of it's just impractical for the way I live right now. But there's also some stuff in there that's new to me that I'm willing to try. For now, though, since we've already run through our entire grocery budget for the pay period and we still have sixteen days to go (I know, right?!!!), I'm going to challenge us both to be creative about making the food we already have stretch as far as possible. I'm sure if we put our heads together and get creative, we can enjoy the food we have without spending much more. I hope. |
Good Deals on Dental Care
| *Sponsored Post* My husband hasn't been to the dentist in years. He knows he needs to go get his teeth cleaned and checked, and that he'll probably have cavities that need to be dealt with. He also needs to eventually have his wisdom teeth removed. So when the open enrollment period for my employer's benefits came around at the end of 2007, I enrolled him in the company's dental plan. I didn't like it; at $35 per paycheck--$70 per month--that seemed kind of steep to me, especially when a month's worth of premiums would almost cover the cost of a cleaning. But not knowing what kind of work he'll need done to his teeth, and not wanting to be caught with our pants down if he needed something major, we bit the bullet and signed him up anyway. That's what I get for not doing my research first. Instead of expensive insurance that only pays a percentage of most procedures anyway, we probably should have checked into discount dental plans. These are different from dental insurance in that instead of premiums and copay, you simply pay a one time annual fee to receive steeply discounted services for the entire year. Annual fees run as low as $79.95 for individuals--that's a heck of a bargain compared to my $75 monthly premium--and $129.95 for entire families, regardless of how many children you have. That particular dental plan also covers prescriptions, vision and chiropractic care, and includes three extra months of coverage for the first year. It's pretty frustrating to find out about this after we committed to a year of expensive insurance, let me tell you. I'm bookmarking this site, and when open enrollment comes back around for 2009, we're going to seriously consider switching over to this. Labels: bargains, disclosure, frugality, healthy living, insurance, PPP |
<$Thursday, January 17, 2008$>
Blog Review: Conscious Spending
| I discovered Conscious Spending yesterday through one of my blog networks. I like its focus on eco-friendly shopping and businesses that support good causes. There are a lot of ideas and resources here geared toward creating responsible consumers. Of course, I'm trying to get away from the consumer mind-set, and some of the things linked here don't fit my meager budget--like these reusable shopping bags that are to-die-for and I want one so badly--but overall, this blog is about making wise spending decisions, and isn't that what frugality is all about? Labels: blog-recs, charity, frugality, green, healthy living, spending |
<$Wednesday, January 16, 2008$>
Green Light
| *Sponsored post* I love the fact that going green and being environmentally conscious fits in so well with being frugal. So many things that are better for the environment are also better for my bank account. LED lights are a pretty good example of this. Inexpensive to begin with, this decorative rope light burns cooler, uses less energy and lasts longer than decorative incandescent light strings--better for the planet, better for my bank account. It's pretty awesome the way those two things tend to go hand-in-hand. Now if only I could get my mom to switch. She uses white incandescent Christmas lights to illuminate the top of her kitchen cabinets and all of the knick-knacks she keeps up there. I like the idea, but once I get my own house I plan to duplicate it using warm white LED rope lights. So far my attempts to get my mom to change out ANY of her light bulbs have met with nothing but failure. My bet is that once my husband and I get settled in our own house and we can compare energy bills, Mom will finally come around. Labels: disclosure, frugality, green, PPP |
<$Monday, January 14, 2008$>
Affordable Prescriptions: DrugDelivery.ca
| *Sponsored Post* With all of the medications I've been taking since I started seeing a doctor regularly again--not to mention my two trips to the emergency room and subsequent prescriptions late last year--I'm so very grateful that I have good health insurance. Between antibiotics, painkillers, allergy medication and thyroid pills, I'd be spending a monthly fortune on medication otherwise. Actually, the truth is that I wouldn't be having any of these things treated because I wouldn't be able to afford it. As it is, I pay nothing for my prescriptions as long as I get generic. That's about as good as it gets right there. There are plenty of people in this country who aren't so fortunate. My mom had to be taken to the hospital with a ruptured blood vessel last year because she couldn't afford her high-priced blood pressure medication--and she actually had insurance. There are hundreds of thousands in this country who don't even have insurance to offset the cost of medication. No wonder people look to Canada and Mexico to provide affordable medication. If you're one of those people, you'll likely be interested in this Online Canadian Pharmacy, a reputable site that can not only deliver mail-order prescriptions but can also connect you to great drug discounts at pharmacies world-wide. Even if you can afford to pay for your medication, why pay more than you have to? You can shop here for the best deals to save some money and make your health easier to fit into your budget. Labels: disclosure, frugality, healthy living, PPP |
<$Wednesday, October 10, 2007$>
The food thing, debt progress, and breathing freely once again
| Wow. I sure didn't mean to go another entire week without posting, but things got kinda hectic around here. The good news is, I've got a lot of overtime coming to me on my next paycheck, which should help us get back on top of things, so YAY! With our emergency savings fully funded again, I'm feeling much better about life, the universe and everything. Including our food spending. Between utilizing coupons and store fliers and a little restraint, I've managed to cut it back to a more respectable level, and Husband and I are finally on the same page about extra treats coming out of our personal allowances once the food fund has run dry. But I've also lightened up a bit about it all. We're foodies. Food = entertainment for us, and it's not like we spend much on other entertainment avenues--Netflix and the extremely occasional, must be seen on a big screen movie outing are pretty much our only non-food (and I count alcohol as part of the food expenses) entertainment. We really don't get out much, especially since the fall semester started. Besides that, Husband has special dietary needs, and we're both health-conscious enough to make many "cheap" food options off-limits. Realizing all of this has helped me feel better about the fact that what we spend on food for just the two of us is more than what some families of four get by on. I think we've figured out a balance between knowing what's worth shelling out for, where we can skimp, and knowing what the rules are for handling the budget that we can both be comfortable with for the time being. In debt news, applying my blog revenue to my credit card via weekly payments is proving a lot more productive at knocking down the debt than just tacking $50 or $100 on to the minimum payment was. My blogs don't really bring in that much on a weekly basis, but it's added up to reduce my debt this last month by about $100 more than it would have been reduced otherwise. So that's a method I'm liking and sticking to. All in all, things are looking up. The financial aid check was a huge help, and after several relatively small paychecks (thanks to short pay periods and a lack of overtime) in a row we've got some larger ones to look forward to again. If we can just be careful with our holiday spending, we ought to start pulling ahead for the rest of the year. After a couple of months of living paycheck-to-paycheck and treading water, it feels great to finally be making some headway again. Labels: credit cards, frugality, money management, personal, spending |
<$Friday, September 14, 2007$>
Of course, Buffy was anything BUT frugal with all those leather pants...
| If you read me over at Sparkle Motion, then you know I'm a huge Buffy fan. So when I come across an article titled 11 Things Buffy Taught Me About Frugality And Simplicity, I've got to give a shout-out, natch. |
<$Wednesday, August 29, 2007$>
The Food Problem - Link Roundup
| I'm a bit muzzy-headed this morning. Not sure if I overdid my workout, or didn't get enough sleep, or if the Benadryl I took at bedtime didn't wear off completely, or some combination of the above, but I was pretty woozy there for a while. I'm better now, except for the brain-fog that's refusing to lift. So please forgive any incoherence or errors in this post. At any rate, as you know if you've been reading this space, I'm trying to tighten up our food spending, because we've begun to spend way too much on food for just two people, and we simply can't keep going on that way. I've been doing some online digging for solutions, and in the process I rounded up some links to some pretty good info. But before I share them, here's some background. Our Situation We rent the upstairs half of my mom's house. Our "kitchen" consists of a mini-fridge, a microwave, and the recent addition of an indoor grill. We have access to my mom's kitchen and are able to store a few things in her refrigerator, but a lot of people live in that house; the kitchen is usually pretty crowded and not at all an enjoyable place in which to cook, and real estate in the freezer is at a premium. In short: the standard advice to cook meals and freeze them for later just doesn't work for us. We don't get to do a lot of cooking, which means we rely a lot on pre-packaged meals. Which in turn means that we get really bored and downright depressed with our options and tend to relieve our boredom with fast food. Bad us. Also, buying in bulk is not an option, since we don't have any room to store anything extra. What We're Doing Right A lot of the standard food-budget advice is stuff we already do. I never go grocery shopping without a list, for one thing, and I almost never deviate from it. I usually have a snack before I go so that I'm not tempted by every little yummy-looking thing I see. I rarely splurge on lattes and mainly drink the free drip coffee at my office, and keep a bag of grounds at home for the weekends. We're not snobs, and we already buy generic or store-brands when possible. We do the bulk of our shopping at the Super Wal-Mart, which, much as I loathe going there for many and varied reasons, consistently has the best prices, even if they don't have the greatest selection. What We Could Do Better Planning. We don't do nearly enough of this. Usually, right before I go shopping my husband and I both think of the things we typically eat that we're out of, and make a list. We don't really plan out our week. I keep a stash of convenience foods at my office to eat throughout the week, and when grocery time comes I automatically restock everything. Planning our meals would probably not only force us to think about our spending, but keep us from falling into the rut that leads to boredom and the fast food fix. Communicating. We're really lousy at this part. We're both so determined not to let finances be a source of conflict in our marriage that sometimes I simply avoid the topic with my husband, which is counterproductive, I know. I need to be better at keeping him informed on what our spending limits are, and at pointing out when something on his list is simply too expensive. Keeping track. My current budgeting method is basically to start with the amount of my paycheck, subtract all of the bills that are due that half of the month, subtract a comfortable amount to go into savings, and then divvy up the rest into a blanket "Grocery Fund" and separate-but-equal personal spending allowances for my husband and myself. After that, apart from keeping track of how much money is left in the fund, I don't really track where it goes. Also, the Grocery Fund covers food, drinks, and certain OTC medications that we both take. Personal care products, health supplements and other non-food items that we don't share come out of our allowances. I think I need to start breaking down the grocery budget into categories and include room for these last items. That might mean we have to make due with smaller allowances, but if we're not having to spend them on vitamins and hair product, that shouldn't be a big deal. Now to the links. Advice Like I said, much of the advice in these articles simply doesn't apply to our situation; but that doesn't mean there's not good stuff in there. GRS has a great post on Healthy Food on an Unhealthy Budget. The comment section is chock-full of both good advice and links to more good resources. Yet more can be found at this Lifehacker article that backtracks the original post. Oprah's web site (yeah, I know) has a good article challenging the notion that healthy eating is expensive. This ABC News article is full of pretty standard, but still good, advice, as is this article from ClubMom. Money Savers For those who are able to cook, The Healthy Hillbilly Housewife has a lot of healthy, budget-friendly recipes. Frugal Cuisine is more focused on frugal than on healthy, but her cost-effective Chinese-influenced recipes might be just the thing we need to add some much needed variety to our diet. OrganicCoupons.org gathers up a lot of good health food coupon resources. Grocery Coupon Guide is also a good starting place for finding coupons and other money saving offers for a wide variety of things. We shop a lot (too much) at Wild Oats, so I signed up for their newsletter to receive in-store coupons and be alerted to sales. Mambo Sprouts has a good selection of printable organic grocery coupons. I mentioned this one earlier, but Coupon Mom is another good coupon resource. I like that they have a list specific to Wal-Mart. I haven't seen anything on there yet that covers the things we normally buy, but I'm still keeping my eye on it, just in case. I think I have enough info now to develop a strategy. Hopefully, through better budgeting, planning, and taking advantage of the coupons and resources listed here, beginning next payday I'll be able to reduce our grocery spending while still providing us with a sufficient variety of healthy foods. I'll let you know how it goes. If you have any tips or ideas for us that might be better suited to our situation, I'd love to hear about it in the comments. Labels: frugality, healthy living, money management, spending |
<$Friday, August 24, 2007$>
Gaming the System
| I took off work yesterday for Husband's birthday. It was a pretty nice day for us both, for being low-key and low-budget. I was originally going to take him out to breakfast before his classes, but he decided he'd rather sleep in and spend the money on pizza that evening, so that's what we did. We couldn't find any specials or coupons to take advantage of, but it was his birthday, so we went ahead and made the splurge. I also picked him up an inexpensive-but-delicious birthday mini-cake from the Wal-Mart bakery. It was the perfect size--enough for us each to have a generous slice, and then it was gone, never to taunt us with its high-calorie numminess again. That's the last food splurge for us until our anniversary next month. We're still trying to get a handle on this food spending thing in a way that will let us both feel satisfied and eat healthfully while not spending a small fortune on food every month. Cutting out fast food is the most obvious answer, but we also spend a LOT on groceries. GRS has an article on The Grocery Game, but according to his commenters, this is best suited to larger families and isn't much good for individuals or couples who, like us, like to eat very specific foods and buy as much organic as possible. There's also Coupon Mom, which, unlike the Grocery Game, is free. I think I'll try her out and see if I can't at least save us some money on our non-food groceries. I actually used to be pretty good at the coupon game, combining online coupon sites with double-coupon days to almost double my grocery budget. But after we changed our eating habits (for the most part), I realized that coupons just tempted me to buy things that I wouldn't have bought otherwise, so I quit using them. There's got to be some kind of compromise. I'll be trying Coupon Mom out, and also looking around for coupons and specials on organics and things we actually buy. I'll keep y'all posted on the results. Labels: frugality, healthy living, money management, spending |
<$Tuesday, August 21, 2007$>
Homemade Cool
| Simply Thrifty, a neat frugality blog I just discovered via Get Rich Slowly, has compiled a couple of nifty-cool lists of 100 Things You Can Make Yourself and 100 MORE Things You Can Make Yourself. There are many things on the list that are just flat-out impractical, or that are too expensive and/or time-consuming to bother with. But there are also plenty of things on there that I have made myself, and several more things I'd like to try. There's enough there to keep my crafty hands busy for a good long while. Labels: frugality |
<$Tuesday, August 14, 2007$>
A review, and a giveaway: Bridal Bargains: Secrets to throwing a fantastic wedding on a realistic budget
| First, the review: Note: I originally wrote this article for Associated Content, but they rejected it on the grounds that they don't accept book reviews "unless they are consumer- or service-related"... which, this book is both consumer- and service-related, so... all righty, then. I'll just post it here instead.  When my husband and I started planning our wedding, I entertained champagne wishes and caviar dreams as big as any other bride's; but once we started pricing our dream wedding, reality bit. If we wanted to have a wedding without amassing mountains of debt, we would either have to push the date back a year or three, or be willing to scale back our expectations. Neither of us being a fan of the waiting, we opted for the latter.Still, I was as determined to have a memorable wedding as I was to save money, and I thought there must be a book out there that would help me do both. I was right. Bridal Bargains* stood out like a bright beacon of hope among the stodgy tomes on wedding etiquette and planning calendars that filled the bookstore shelves. Offering way more than budget-saving DIY tips, Bridal Bargains is a thorough, and thoroughly researched, consumer guide to the wedding industry. If you have ever planned or are currently planning a wedding, then you know that their are few other industries that overwhelm you with as many choices and rules as does the wedding industry. Bridal Bargains is like a best friend who takes you by the hand and guides you through it all step by step, reassuring you along the way that everything is going to be okay. The authors, Denise and Alan Fields, were once themselves a young engaged couple with a wedding to plan who wanted to get through it without spending a fortune or falling prey to industry sharks. When their search for a guidebook to this whole wedding business came up short, they decided to write it themselves. They devoted years to researching the industry, "mystery shopping" stores and services, interviewing real-life couples who've been there as well as wedding planners and industry insiders. The result is a comprehensive survival guide to wedding planning that actually comes with a money back guarantee: if the advice contained therein fails to save you at least $500 on your wedding, the authors promise a full refund on the price of the book. The book is divided into sixteen chapters, each one covering a different aspect of the wedding industry. Each chapter not only lists shopping resources and bargain-hunting ideas, but also weighs the pros and cons of each, and includes consumer warnings and real-world testimonials. There is also a special section covering Canadian vendors, a guide to handling wedding day emergencies, a budget-planning worksheet, and a comprehensive directory of vendors' phone numbers and web addresses. The book even has a companion web site at BridalBargainsBook.com, complete with an active message board where brides-to-be can commune and swap advice. Of course, no book with "bargains" in the title would be complete without creative suggestions for saving money, and this book has plenty. Some of my favorites include: That's just a few of the ideas contained in this book, many of which served as a launching point for brainstorming my own ideas. Combining the advice in this book with my own creativity and DIY skills, I was able to accomplish my goal. We had a beautiful wedding for a mere $3,000, less than one-sixth of the more than $18,000 price tag attached that's typically attached to weddings in my region. Apart from saving me thousands, the best thing this book did for me was to help me relax and focus on what was important. It debunked the myths that bridal magazines and their web counterparts like to promote that had me panicking. This book let me know that various orders didn't have to be placed as far in advance as those sites led me to believe, nor did they have to cost nearly as much. It also helped me to focus my budget on the things that were most important to my husband and me, allowing us to personalize our wedding in a way that made it truly special. Bridal Bargains was my constant companion throughout the planning of my wedding, and I can't imagine putting together a wedding in today's economy without it. Now the giveaway:  I have in my little hand my own copy of the 7th edition of Bridal Bargains, and I'm looking to find it a good home. Despite being my constant companion while I was planning my own wedding last year, it's still in good condition. Not only did it help me save thousands, but it also helped me stay sane. I can't recommend this book enough to anyone who has a wedding to plan or help plan, be they bride, groom, mother-of-the-bride, maid of honor, or bride's second cousin who got roped in to help make favors. If you or anyone you know falls into this category and would find this book helpful and would like a chance to win my copy, just leave a comment here to enter. That's it. A link back here from your own blog will get you two more chances, in addition to your comment here (giving you a maximum total of three chances to win), so be sure to let me know if you linked me; but no linkback is necessary to enter. You have until this Thursday at noon (Central time) to enter. After the deadline, I'll assign a number to each entry, and then I'll use Random.org to randomly select the winner, who will then be notified via a new entry here in this blog. Good luck, and happy commenting. *Affiliate link |
<$Wednesday, July 18, 2007$>
When Freebies Kill!!!
| Okay, that subject line's a tetch overdramatic; but it got your attention, didn't it? Euh. I'm not dead, but I'm sitting here bloated and miserable. There was a big client meeting today at the office, and that meant food, and lots of it. The trouble here is that my healthy eating mindset, which I'd finally managed to make my default setting, can be automatically overridden by my frugal and thrifty mindset, which simply won't allow me to pass up free food. "It's okay that the cherry cheese danish isn't on your Zone diet," says Frugal Brain. "Eat this now and that's one less breakfast you'll have to buy in your entire lifetime. And hey, look, breakfast burritos! Those have protein. Better have one of those, too." And that was just breakfast. Then came the Rib Crib bus, bringing with it the oh, so delicious smoked brisket and carb-loaded sides by which I brought about my current state of misery. "I'm not hungry," Health Brain said. "It's free!" snapped back Frugal Brain. "Shut up and eat!" And then, there was cobbler. *dies* Clearly, I have issues. One of those issues is that I need to convince Frugal Brain that it's okay to pass up things that aren't really good for me--be they unhealthy foods, activities I won't really enjoy, items that will only add useless clutter--even when they're free. These things may not cost money, but they definitely cost in other areas; in this case, both my physical and emotional well-being are paying for it. Not only do I feel physically miserable, but now Health Brain has tons of guilt. Tomorrow's another free food day. I think Frugal Brain has learned her lesson. Tomorrow I expect she'll show a little more restraint. Labels: frugality, healthy living, personal |
<$Tuesday, July 10, 2007$>
Mom Reviews
| I'm not a mom (regardless of how much I think care of my high-maintenance pets should qualify me for mom-hood), but even so, MomReviews is a blog after my own heart. This stay-at-home mom of three uses her spare time -- what little there is of it, I'm sure -- constantly on the look-out for bargains and freebies, which she's happy to share with her readers along with product reviews. Seems like a pretty good resource for the frugal parent. Or pet-parent. |
<$Monday, July 9, 2007$>
Frugal Knitting: Yarn Bargains Can Lead To Great Gifts
| First things first: my post on Financial Housecleaning made the list in this week's Carnival of Personal Finance, hosted this week by Broke-Ass Student. ~~~ Over at Get Rich Slowly, Mrs. J.D. guest-blogged about How To Escape the Gift Trap and listed several solutions for the gift-giver on a budget. This topic has a lot of relevance for me right now, because I'm working on planning out my gift list and budget for the rest of the year. Yes, I'm planning my Christmas list in July. No, I'm not really one of those people--at least, not typically. But my solution to coming up with gifts that fit my budget that my giftees actually appreciate (or at least claim to...) is to knit for them. It doesn't always save money--knitting can be a pretty expensive hobby. It does, however, allow me to enjoy one of my favorite pastimes while creating something beautiful for someone else's lasting enjoyment. Although, that doesn't mean I can't do that and save money. By shopping around, I can find bargains on yarn, tools and notions that allow me to work with quality materials on a Red Heart budget. Today, for instance, I needed to shop for materials for a sweater I'm planning to knit for my sister. If I simply bought the luxe yarn specified in the pattern, at $8.95 a ball, the sweater would end up costing me over $160! I love my sister, but, as if! Instead, I did a little shopping around and found a comparable yarn for only $2.49 per ball, which will bring the total sweater cost (minus notions) to just under $45. Still more than I would normally spend on my sister (or she on me), but like I said, it also feeds my habit, and this particular birthday gift doubles as a congratulatory new baby present as well. I still get to work with a high-quality yarn, and better still, my choice is machine washable, which I know will mean much, much more to my sister than the brand name of the yarn. What second-time-mommies have time to hand wash their delicate fabrics, anyway? Of course, considering it took me about four months to knit my husband's Christmas sweater (which I naively waited until October to begin), and considering I've still got a whole list of Christmas knitting to do once this sweater's out of the way, I'd better get started. In July. But at least I won't get caught in the middle of the Christmas rush this year. Do you have any hobbies that can double as gifting alternatives? If so, I'd love to hear about them in the comments. |