Category Archives: Frugality

Maybe I was being a little too frugal

I think I went a little overboard with my frugality. I know, it’s hard to believe that’s possible, but hear me out.

Last week, I made the decision to join a gym. For the record, I went with the 12-month commitment at $20 a month. Because we were already paying for the membership, I didn’t want to put any extra money toward my exercise budget. Even though I was primarily jogging, I didn’t want to spend money on new sneakers. So I pulled out the old pair I’ve had for 9 years.

My feet were killing me after every work out. At first I chocked it up to being out of shape. You’re supposed to be sore at first, right?

It was particularly painful Thursday night, though. I found myself limping on my way home. When I finally took off my shoes — excuse me for being too graphic — I found that my ratty old sneakers had drawn blood. Ouch.

When Tony saw what had happened, he was angry with me. “I thought frugality was about making smart choices with your money, not depriving yourself to the point of physical pain.”

He’s right. The frugal choice would have been to shop around and find a good deal on a good pair of running shoes. I shouldn’t be spending hundreds of dollars on sneakers, but I also shouldn’t be working out with old shoes that tear up my feet and threaten damage to my knees and other joints because they don’t offer proper support.

Last night, Tony and I went to several shoe stores. We found a reasonably priced pair of running shoes on clearance for $40 and used some of the Christmas money that I was going to put toward my gym membership to pay for them.

I was concerned about investing too much in working out because I was afraid of not sticking to it. Tony made a good point, though. Even if I don’t stick to it, a good pair of sneakers is a good investment. Most importantly, it’s an investment we can afford right now.

Avoiding the pressure to have fun (and spend money)

photo by yoniamir

As much as I love the holidays, I breathe a sigh of relief when Christmas is over. This year I managed to escape the pressure to spend a ton of money on gifts and entertaining. Instead, I found frugal alternatives to extravagant shopping to show the people I love that I care.

Now comes the pressure of New Year’s Eve.

The older I get, the less pressure I feel. But there was a time when all of my friends were heading out to fancy, expensive parties to ring in the new year. All dressed up in new clothes, they’d drop $50 a person on tickets to these parties or head out for expensive nights on the town at fancy restaurants.

One year in college, Tony and I gave in to the pressure. We packed some party clothes and headed to the city with some friends. I have no idea what we spent after travel costs, hotel, food, and a night on the town, but I know it was a lot. The worst part was that we were pretty miserable the whole time. It was freezing, and every place in the city was charging $50-$100 just to walk in the door. We ended up going back to the hotel at 9 p.m. and watching the ball drop in our pajamas … something we easily could have done at home for free.

I know many of my readers will be celebrating the new year with young children this year, so you may not be feeling this pressure. If you are feeling pressure, though, my advice is to resist it!

Instead host a small get together or a movie night. You’ll have plenty of time to go out on the town in the coming year if that’s what you want to do — and you’ll spend a fraction of what you’d spend on New Year’s Eve.

Two years ago, Tony and I stayed home in our pajamas and enjoyed a 24-hour “Seinfeld” marathon. We made a lovely dinner, and toasted to the new year at midnight. It was the most fun I’ve ever had on New Year’s Eve, and it cost practically nothing.

What’s your favorite frugal New Year’s Eve activity?

Taking advantage of after Christmas sales today? Not so fast.

I’ve never been a fan of Black Friday. Instead, I wait until all the holiday hubbub is over to find the best deals.

It’s no secret that there are usually a ton of sales this time of year. Stores that overstocked for the holidays are trying to make room for new inventory by dropping their prices.

However, I generally avoid big ticket items in the days after Christmas. Why? I’ve found that prices fall even further in the bleak retail month of February. You may see sales on big ticket items right after Christmas, but the prices are nowhere near rock bottom. Retailers are counting on post-Christmas shoppers with gift cards to spend.

If you’re planning on dropping a big chuck of change, even if it is holiday gift money you’re spending, do yourself a favor and wait a couple months.

Smaller electronics and appliances that were overstocked for Christmas like DVD players, computers, and small kitchen appliances are likely to have big discounts this week. If you’ve been in the market for these items, now may be the best time to buy. Make sure you do your homework, though. Just because the deal looks good doesn’t mean it’s the best deal out there.

And don’t forget, now is definitely the time to shop for the holidays next year. We didn’t buy any holiday decorations this year, because we bought them last year at drastically lower prices (about 75% off). Then we threw them into storage to use this Christmas.

Look for holiday decorations, greeting cards, scented candles, artificial trees if it’s time to replace yours, and other holiday items that retailers are practically giving away. Now is also the best time to pick up calendars for next year. But hurry! The best items never stay in stock for long after the holidays are over.

Guest post: Cook an elegant meal for 6 for $30

This is a guest post from Chris Ambrose. His cooking and entertaining blog, This Guy Cooks, is full of great tips for entertaining and cooking gourmet meals on a budget. If you’re struggling to come up with last minute meal ideas for Christmas or New Year’s, this great menu could be your solution.

First I would like to thank Karen for letting me guest blog on her site over the holidays. I know that this has been a tough Christmas financially for lots of people this year. With all the doom and gloom out there about the economy, just about all of my friends and family are tightening the old belt over the holidays.

As Karen wrote in one of her previous posts, the holidays are supposed to be about being with your friends and loved ones and the wonderful memories that come from those times. In my family, it’s not Christmas without my Mom’s sticky buns. Both my sister and I are in our early 30s, and to be totally honest that’s all we really care about. I have no idea what I got for Christmas when I was 8, but I can tell you that we didn’t have sticky buns that year because Mom burned them.

While things are a bit tight for everyone this holiday season, please don’t pass up on to spending time with your friends and family because you think you can’t afford it. I have come up with a elegant dinner menu for 6 people that you should be able to do for under $30. Hopefully this helps you continue to have those wonderful memories and experiences over a great meal.

Dinner Menu

Roasted Pork Loin with an Apricot Glaze

Roasted Sweet Potatoes and Onions

Spinach Salad with Mandarin Oranges and a Honey Mustard Dressing

Vanilla Ice Cream with Caramel Sauce

Sweet Potatoes

Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Peel and cut 2 large sweet potatoes into 1 inch cubes. Slice a half of a onion into roughly quarter inch slices. Toss the onion and sweet potatoes with salt and pepper, cumin, red chili powder, a dried herb of your choice (rosemary goes nicely). Place on a cookie sheet or roasting pan and put in the oven for 45 minutes to an hour until the sweet potatoes have finished cooking and are soft to the touch.

Pork Roast

Mix together a dry rub for your pork loin (about 3 lbs. roast) consisting of salt, pepper, dried oregano, and cumin (remember with cumin a little goes a long way!).

Heat a tablespoon of olive oil over medium high heat in a skillet (love to use my 12″ case iron pan for this). Place the spice rubbed pork loin in the skillet and brown on all sides.

Once it’s browned on all sides, place it in the oven for about an hour or until you have an internal temp of 150 degrees.

For the glaze, take about a half a cup of apricot jam (peach also works well), and heat it in the microwave or on the stovetop. After the pork has been in for 30 minutes, brush the pork with the jam. Repeat this again after you take the pork out of the oven. Once the pork is finished let it rest for 10 minutes before carving it.

Salad

For this salad I normally just get a bag of pre-washed baby spinach and a can of mandarin oranges in light syrup. For the dressing just whisk together Dijon mustard, olive oil, red wine vinegar, and honey.

Dessert

This is just a simple dessert. Pour a caramel sauce over a good quality vanilla ice cream. Feel free buy the sauce at the store or go ahead and make your own. It’s pretty easy.

Wine

I think that a Syrah would stand up nicely to the pork and fruit flavors of this dish. One of my favorite value Syrah blends is the 2006 Penfolds Kanooga Hill Shiraz/Cab blend. You can normally pick it up for about $7.99.

Check out Chris’s blog for more recipes & entertaining tips!

Hitting the road for the holidays

I’m headed home to Indiana tonight to see my family for the first time in 6 months. Yay!

This is my first real bloggy break since I started “Living Well on Less” five months ago. I’m feeling a little anxious about taking so much time off, but you won’t forget about me, will you? :)

I planned on having a post scheduled for every day that I’m gone. Ha. That didn’t happen. Holiday stress and travel plans kept me from planning ahead that far. I did manage to get something scheduled every other day, though, so I hope you’ll stop by over the next couple weeks.

While I won’t have time to post, I will have Internet access, so I’ll be popping on once a day or so to moderate comments, etc.

I hope everyone has a happy and healthy holiday. See you next year!

Start your after Christmas shopping today

Many of you are probably eagerly anticipating the great after Christmas deals this year. You may not have to wait until December 26 to get started, though.

Today is the deadline for most online retailers to ship items by Christmas. Even though the holiday is a few days away, online after Christmas sales will start tomorrow.

Most people are already done Christmas shopping (especially online), and they won’t start shopping for post-holiday deals until this weekend. Get a head start online in the next few days before all the best stuff is sold out!

Remember, though, only shop the deals if there’s something you genuinely need. You’re not saving anything if you’re only buying it because it’s on sale!

Preparing for a frugal holiday road trip

photo by munzer

I can’t believe we’re hitting the road in less than a week! I’m so excited to see friends and family for the first time in 6 months, but I’m rushing to finish last minute preparations for what will be a pretty big trip.

We’ll be traveling a total of 2,000 miles in 12 days on a shoestring budget. Here are some of things we’re doing to keep our costs low.

We’re driving ourselves.

Plane tickets are more expensive than ever. Even when gas prices were higher, driving was still the most economical option for us. We drive a small, fuel efficient car in good condition, so even when gas prices were $4 a gallon, our total costs would have been about $350 round trip. That’s about the cost of a single plane ticket. With current gas prices, we’ll probably only spend about $200.

We’re bringing the dog.

Boarding him for a week and half would have easily added $200 to our total travel costs. Instead, we’re loading him into the backseat and bringing him with us.

We’re packing snacks.

We have healthy snacks like fruit, raisins, and granola to help us save money on expensive (and unhealthy) food on the road.

We booked our hotel room in advance.

The trip will take about 12 hours of driving. Add to that extra stops for bathroom breaks and dog walking, and we’ll probably be driving for a total of 14 hours each way. To make the trip easier on us and our hyperactive dog, we’re splitting it up into two legs. We’ll drive half of the distance Tuesday night, stop to sleep, then finish the trip bright and early on Christmas Eve.

I booked a room for us at the halfway point at a cheap, dog-friendly hotel. When I booked the room two months ago, Hotel Club was offering a $25 discount off already discounted prices. We paid only $65 for a night at a moderately rated travel hotel. According to reviews, it’s clean and comfortable. They also don’t charge extra for pets.

Most importantly, we don’t risk spending a fortune for an overpriced room just because we’re exhausted and tired of driving. The room is prepaid, and we know exactly where we’ll stop for the night.

We had the car checked out.

With a tight schedule and cold temperatures, we didn’t want to take any chances on car trouble. So we took some money from our car maintenance fund for an oil change, tire rotation, and inspection to make sure everything is in good working order.

We’re prepared for emergencies.

There’s always a possibility for car problems, bad weather, and other mishaps. To ensure our safety, we’re packing extra blankets, food, water, cash, a spare tire, and jumper cables. We also have a membership to AAA, so we can call roadside assistance if we need a tow or other assistance.

Thanks to some advance planning, it’s shaping up to be a pretty stress free road trip. Hopefully the dog will cooperate. I’ll let you know how it turns out! :)

Focus on the memories — not the money

photo by kspeterson

Last year at this time, our financial situation was pretty bleak. I was working two jobs — a part time retail job and a temporary office job that paid well but only lasted until the end of February. Though we had some extra money coming in, we were saving aggressively because we didn’t know how long our savings would have to last.

We were also away from family. I couldn’t take time off work and we couldn’t afford to travel, so we stayed here, 800-miles from our families.

At the beginning of the season, I was dreading Christmas. I imagined us alone in our apartment with no family, no gifts, no decorations and only sadness.

We looked at our budget and decided we could afford to spend $100 on Christmas. In the past, we had gone overboard on gift shopping for each other. I had come to associate Christmas with fancy gifts and extravagant meals. I couldn’t imagine recreating Christmas with so little money to spend.

We were surprised, though. Finding practical frugal gifts was a fun challenge. I aggressively shopped sales to find little things to put under the tree. I used creativity to come up with ideas. I reassessed our priorities and shopped only for things that I knew Tony wanted and would use.

We had fun putting up our old decorations and fashioning new homemade ones.

Christmas Day we dined on cheap Chinese food and caught a half-priced matinee at the movies.

Instead of focusing on how little we had, we made the most of every dollar and every moment.

Remember: Gifts don’t last, but memories do.

The most important lesson we learned last year was that gifts really don’t make or break Christmas. Shopping is fun if you can afford it, but the best part of last Christmas is the memory.

Twenty years from now we won’t have any of the gifts that we gave to each other. No matter how much you spend on it, stuff doesn’t last forever. After 24 Christmases I can only remember a handful of gifts. Many of them didn’t even last a year. What I remember is the time spent with family and the traditions that cost very little or nothing at all.

Keep that in mind if you’re struggling this year. Even if there’s no room in your budget for gifts, focus on the memories.

Make this Christmas a happy memory. Cherish the good moments and remember that the bad won’t last forever. Remind yourself that “stuff” is fleeting.

If you focus on the negative, then all you’ll remember is the sadness. Instead, focus on the memories you want to keep forever.

If you told me last October that our $100 Christmas would be the best we ever had, I wouldn’t have believed you. A year later, I know that I’ll always cherish the memory of last Christmas not in spite of our struggles but because of them.

I confess, I’m not always frugal

Every month I’m learning more about saving and frugality. I freely admit, though, that I’m not as frugal as I could be. Not by a long shot. There are plenty of choices that I make that aren’t the most frugal, but I continue to make them anyway. Some of them are out of convenience, others compromise. Some are simply weaknesses that I’m continually trying to improve on. Here are my worst offenses:

Paper towels

I use dish rags and cloths for a lot of things, but sometimes I just want a paper towel for particularly tough messes. I don’t like keeping dirty or wet rags around the kitchen, so if I was going to switch to completely reusable rags, I’d be washing them constantly. Sometimes it’s just easier to use a paper towel. Of course, I use coupons to buy them, I always look for sales, and I try to keep my use to a minimum. That’s my frugal compromise.

Cable television

We don’t spend a lot of money on entertainment or meals out. The compromise? We spring for cable television with DVR. It’s expensive at about $60 a month, but it certainly makes it easier to stay home instead of going out and spending money.

Brand Names

For most things, I don’t mind buying the generic version to save money. But there are some items (including paper towels, dog food, laundry detergent and shampoo) that I spring for the brand name. In my experimentation, I’ve discovered that I really can tell a difference. Most of the time I can’t tell a difference between brand names and their generic counterparts, but if there’s a considerable quality difference, then I’ll spend a little more for the better product.

Food

The grocery store has always been our top weakness. We’ve worked really hard to cut our grocery spending down from $80-$90 a week to about $55-$60 a week. I wanted to cut it to $40 a week, but I found it to be too much of a struggle. So to make things easy on us, I decided to cut myself some slack. Somehow we still manage to go over budget on food every month, so this is definitely an area that I continue to work on. But I’ve stopped being quite so hard on myself about our failures. Every week is a learning experience.

I’m still working on doing better, and I continue to improve. But there are some things (like cable and paper towels) that I may never give up. Frugality is as much about compromise as it is about saving, so I try to keep a balance.

Do you have any frugal weaknesses?