The Tightwad

Sorry I haven’t written in a few days, I’ve been really busy!!!  Here is my tip for today:

I have to admit, at times, I am really unorganized and I have found that it sometimes costs me a lot of money!!!  One of the pitfalls of being unorganized is sometimes having to re-buy what you have lost.  The most frustrating part is when you find the item you re-bought a month later!!!  Wouldn’t it have been cheaper to just not have lost the item in the first place???  It may be difficult for some to get organized (the really organizationally challenged like me) but it will help you save some dough.  I would suggest taking one area at a time and de-clutter and get it really organized and then move on to a new area.  To save money on organizational tools, reuse things you have like baskets and bins to store things in.  I use cute little pails to put my pens and pencils in.  I’ve even seen people use cereal boxes and make magazine holders out of them.  Use what you have and get yourself organized and you will probably save money in the long run. 

If you are really in a pinch and need to save some money in your budget, try shopping in your own pantry first.  Many people have things stocked up and sometimes do not even know what they have in their pantry.  Go through all the food you have stocked up in both your pantry and freezer and figure out what you have.  Go through your cookbooks and see what dishes you have all the ingredients.  Make a list of these and put them on a menu for the week or for the month depending how many dishes you have the ingredients.  Next, figure out food (in your cookbooks) that you have part of the ingredients and you can cheaply buy the rest of the ingredients.  Now put these on your menu and make a shopping list of only these items that you need to finish the menu.

Go here for more Tightwad Tuesday posts!

Should you always be frugal?  My answer is yes and no.  You should always try to get the best deal for your money, such as use coupons, search out sales, and comparison shop, but I don’t think you should always trade quality (unless it really doesn’t matter) and you should NEVER trade safety. An example of this is I use artificial sweetener in my coffee.  I had been buying the name brand stuff and decided I really needed to save money, so I switched to store brand.  Well, the store brand was gritty. YUCK!!! I really don’t want to drink grit with my coffee.  So I switched back to the name brand stuff, but of course I try to use coupons and sales whenever I can to help offset the cost.  Another example is on safety.  When buying a mini van we could have saved some money by going with another maker, but the one we choose had a MUCH higher safety rating and we felt the extra money was worth it.  But of course that shouldn’t stop you from trying to get a good deal on it.  We still went to a couple of dealerships and negotiated with them to get a better price.  This is one of the benefits of being frugal, if you try hard to save money where you can, you will have the money for the times when it is important to pay more.

The first thing you need to do when considering a goal, is decide whether it is realistic or not.  Such as, if you really wanted a $400,000 car, and you only make $50,000 a year, it probably will not happen.  It may be a dream, but it’s not really a realistic goal at least not in the near future.  But say you make $50,000 a year and you really want a large screen television.  Now, that can be a realistic goal.  The first thing to decide is if you are in a financial position to save for it.  Are all your bills paid off and do you have a little extra left over each month after you take care of your needs?  If you are in a lot of debt, you need to take care of that first before you consider spending on a want.  Once you are ready to start saving, you need to be patient.  Don’t rush out and buy the first television you see and put it on your credit card.  This way of thinking will not get you ahead financially.  Do your research, find out what type of television you want.  There are a lot of different types of televisions with many different types of features.  Research to find out what you want.  Compare prices.  There is a wide range of prices on televisions, try to find the best bargain for your money.  Keep track of the prices.  At different times of the year, the prices can be considerably different with the results saving you hundreds of dollars.  Only buy your television after you have done your research and after you have saved your money, so you don’t have to use your credit cards.

Homeschooling is near and dear to my heart.  I have been homeschooling for over 6 six years now and do not regret it at all.  The only problem is, if you aren’t careful it can get pretty darn expensive.  There are some simple ways to help save money while homeschooling.

1)      Use the library often!!!  This is probably my biggest money saver.

2)      Buy materials used.  If you have to buy them, it’s better to buy them cheap!

3)      Search the internet for worksheets, information, lapbooks , and notebooking pages.  There are so many things you can get free from the internet.

4)      Use literature, unit studies, lapbooking and notebooking for a large chunk of your schooling.  By getting books out of the library and either lapbooking them, notebooking them, or doing a unit study, you can save a lot of money over complete curriculum packages and your child will probably enjoy it more.

These are just a few ways that you can save a lot of money with homeschooling.

Using recycled material (aka: junk) to create art work for your home and for your crafts is a great way to not only save money, but to also do something good for the Earth.  There are many things you can do with recycled materials.  I have seen cereal boxes turned into magazine holders, cans turned into pencil holders, paper bags turned into scrapbooks , CDs turned into coasters, calendar pictures hung as pictures after the calendar has been used and old books turned into works of art (altered books).  A coat of paint can spruce up almost anything.  Here is an article on making paper bag scrapbooks: How to Make a Paper Bag Scrapbook and here is a article about Recycled Crafts: How to Think Like a Crafty Recycler .

For more Tightwad Tuesday posts, go to this blog .

Saving money is about choices and deciding what are your priorities.  There are some really simple ways to save money.

1. Buy used when it does not really matter, then you are more likely to have the money for something new when it does matter to you.  Example:  Our boys are needing new beds.  I do not really feel comfortable using used mattresses from another household, but new beds are expensive.  So to save money, our youngest son will be using the bed frame and mattress (that had been new for our older boy), so we only have to buy a box spring for our little guy because his older brother’s box spring is tore up.  Our oldest son is going to get a bed frame from his cousins’ and so we only have to buy a mattress and box spring for him.  Because we are saving by using free bed frames, we can swing the money for the mattresses.
2. Instead of going to a first run movie theater, go when it gets to a cheap theater, or even better yet, wait until the movie comes out on video.  It is a lot cheaper for a family to sit down in front of a video and pop your own popcorn, than it is to go to the theater.
3. Do not go to coffee shops (unless it is a real special treat), learn to make your own gourmet coffee.
4. Avoid going out to eat often, it is a lot cheaper to eat at home.
5. Use the library instead of buying a book.

Sometimes it’s simple changes like these that can make a big impact in your budget.

Click here to go to Tightwad Tuesday.

Now days the Sunday newspaper is not the only place to get grocery store coupons.  A newer way to get grocery store coupons is to print them out on your computer.  Yep, that is all you have to do.  Yes, this is legal and yes, most stores will accept them.  Of course, you may want to try just one or two at first to make sure your store does not have any problem with accepting them.  Do not however, make photocopies of the printed coupons, that would be illegal.  The printed coupons each print up with a barcode.  You will probably have to download a special program for your computer to put the barcode on, but this download is free.  There is also usually a limit on how many coupons that you can print out.  Here are a few sites you can get these coupons from.

http://coupons.smartsource.com/

http://couponbar.coupons.com/

http://www.coupons.com

http://www.upons.com

A hobby of mine is scrapbooking, but scrapbooking can get quite expensive.  I have learned some ways to save money, so I can enjoy this fun hobby.  Mainly, I buy most of my supplies in bulk.  Take for instance patterned paper, normally one sheet costs $.60.  I usually wait until a pad of 180 pieces of patterned paper is on sale for $9.99, which makes each piece only $.06. I get my cardstock this way also.  Some companies have started bundling stickers, die cuts and other embellishments and selling them in bulk.  I get these sometimes from Jo-Ann Fabrics and use their 40% coupon with it, to get an even better price.  I buy my tools for scrapbooking from Jo-Ann Fabrics, Michaels, or Hobby Lobby and either wait until they are on a 40% or 50% sale or I use one of their 40% coupons.  I almost never buy them for regular price. 

Going to coffee shops is a great way to waste a lot of money.  Consider if you spend just $3.00 on your coffee (of course, some are more than that!).  Spending $3.00 a day during the work week, every week of the month, every month of the year will add up to $720 (or $780 if your counting 52 weeks) a year in coffee.  If you do this for just 5 years, your looking at $3600 (or $3900 when counting it at 52 weeks) in coffee!!! YIKES!!! Now, I know not everyone spends on coffee shops that regularly, but they do it often enough for it to take a decent chunk out of their budget.  A simple way to save money is to cutout going to coffee shops and making your coffee at home.  You can also search the internet for recipes for gourmet coffees.