frugal hacks - Surviving and Thriving

The temporary potentate.

December 9, 2015 by Donna Freedman

This morning I indulged my inner frugal sybarite with a hot, hot soak. Unlike the man in the song below, I don’t limit baths to the end of a tiring day. Sometimes a good dunk is the right solution for mid-morning writer’s block or midday slump.

I pop an already-cold Diet Coke into the freezer for 15 minutes to create little fizzy icebergs or fix myself a glass of iced tea. Then I lower myself into water that’s as hot as I can stand.

Steam floats in the air, my toes crinkle and the cold drink provides a shivery shock, the perfect foil to the boil of the tub. As soon as the water cools even a little I hit the hot-water tap again.

Most of the time I rush from the shower to the day’s chores, or stumble from the shower to the bed. Tub ablutions are relatively rare, which makes them more luxurious.

They’re great attitude adjustments, too, as Flanders and Swann can attest:

I don’t sing in the tub, but I do talk. Yes, really.

What’s your biggest money fear?

November 19, 2015 by Donna Freedman

A whole lot of U.S. residents are scared of outliving their money. According to the American Institute of Certified Public Accountants, 57 percent of clients called it their biggest money fear.

That doesn’t surprise me. Although nearly 8 in 10 full-time workers have some money for retirement, 28 percent of them report that the total value of household savings and investments is less than $1,000 (not including primary residence and defined benefit plans).

Certainly I’ve had my own share of bag-lady dreams, so this topic really resonated when I researched it for a NerdWallet article called “7 steps to deal with our No. 1 money fear.”

Funding a retirement plan can seem daunting, but it’s not something you can put off. Even if your future is decades away, your new best friend compound interest is here right now.

The best cold weather perfume.

November 17, 2015 by Donna Freedman

We’re in a subzero cold snap that should last at least a few more days. The temperature was eight below when I got up and managed to make it only four degrees above the zero-mark before shivering its way back down the thermometer.

But I don’t care (much), because the house smells so good.

After DF had his lunch he filled the five-quart West Bend slow cooker with the contents of the boiling bag, some vegetable cooking water from the freezer and the water left from last night’s boiled potatoes.

(That last included little bits of spud because I got distracted and let them boil perhaps a bit too long.)

This time around the boiling bag contained carrot tops, apple cores, the tough ends of romaine leaves, onion skins, potato peelings and a handful of very small, very green tomatoes from the greenhouse project. Although all of the bigger tomatoes and some of the smaller ones eventually turned red after we brought them indoors, the little ones were stubbornly bright-green and beginning to soften. Thus we sacrificed them to the soup and are already dreaming of next spring.

Adventures in (good) customer service.

January 23, 2016November 6, 2015 by Donna Freedman

So often we encounter lackluster, slipshod or outright lousy customer service. Not today, though.

I’ve had an AT&T Universal Mastercard since 1992. One of the things I appreciate is its connection to the Citi Thank You Rewards program. A perennial frugal hack for me is using credit rewards programs to pay for birthday and Christmas shopping, as well as for restaurant gift cards to treat my hosts when I travel.

Since Christmas is closing in, I checked today to see if I had enough points for a specific gift for my daughter and son-in-law.

Turned out that I needed 14,000 points for the item. I had 12,585 with 1,226 more points waiting to be credited on Nov. 21. In other words, I was 189 points short and the next batch wouldn’t hit my account until Dec. 21 — a little late for ordering the present.

I said, “Oh, well, I’ll give an IOU for the gift and order it on Dec. 22, then. Thanks anyway.”

The customer service rep said, “Let me talk to my supervisor.”

Want to feel better? Run the numbers.

June 16, 2018October 13, 2015 by Donna Freedman

A blogger I know recently hit a run of bum luck, including but not limited to car repairs, house issues, a utility rate hike and medical bills.

Depressing, right? Except that Christina, who writes the Northern Cheapskate website, decided to take a different look at the situation. Specifically, she looked at recent bank statements and her annual credit report.

The sight of paid-off debt and gradually rising balances cheered her and her husband considerably.

“Even though we felt stuck, we were moving – albeit ever so slowly – in the right direction,” she wrote in a post called “The importance of seeing your hard work pay off.”

I strongly recommend running the numbers, for two reasons:

To see where you need to make adjustments/get creative, and
To discern and celebrate any improvement, no matter how small.

Recently I ran my own numbers – and I liked what I saw.

Frugal re-entry.

January 23, 2016October 4, 2015 by Donna Freedman

My trip back from a couple of conferences and family visits took some 17 hours from door to door, thanks to the first plane leaving almost two hours late. Boy, was I ready to be home.

And boy, was I glad that we live only about six minutes from the airport. A guy with whom I chatted during the delay told me he still had to drive to Ninilchik, Alaska, after we landed. That’s more than 180 miles south of Anchorage. All I had to do was look for DF’s car outside the baggage claim area.

Thursday found me somewhat punchy, since long trip + fewer than five hours of sleep = dormant brain cells. But I made it a point to get back on track, money-wise.

Swagbucks fans: Today is $100 Million Day.

September 30, 2015 by Donna Freedman

As regular readers already know, Swagbucks is my favorite rewards program. That’s why I post special offers every so often – and today’s offer, the $100 Million Day, is a good one.

Since I’m currently on the road I was unable to get the post up first thing this morning. Thus by the time you read this the first couple of Swag Codes have already come and gone. But you’ve got a shot at four more before 5 p.m. PDT, and you’ve got until 11:59 p.m. PDT to earn up to 400 extra points (called “SB”) in several other ways.

What ways? So glad you asked.

Frugal nirvana at the thrift shop.

August 17, 2015 by Donna Freedman

Today is National Thrift Store Day, which I’d forgotten. Strictly by coincidence I wound up discussing secondhand shops with my younger great-nephew, who is far more stylish than I.

B waxed rhapsodic while describing the leopard-print winter jacket he recently got at Value Village. Just $8 to be both warm and cool at the same time.

He also recently bought some really high-topped Converse sneakers (think “mid-calf”) there, along with a T-shirt emblazoned with cartoon sushi and a simple summer frock.

(B is a gender non-conforming kid who’s been wearing “girl” clothes full-time for several years, although his older brother explained to me that there’s no such thing as girl clothes or boy clothes.)

He loves the variety as well as the price. Where else is an 8-year-old in Anchorage, Alaska, likely to find affordably priced black Dr Martens boots of shiny patent leather black with pink stitching and laces?

A one-day Swagbucks bonus offer.

August 12, 2015 by Donna Freedman

Readers of this site know that I’m quite fond of the Swagbucks rewards program. I’m happy to report that you can get 500 SB for signing up for Visa Checkout, a digital wallet service. (More on that in a minute.)

To get the extra SB credit, you must sign up today, Wednesday, Aug. 12. And to sweeten the deal, Swagbucks is offering an additional incentive if 100,000 members register. (More on that in a minute, too.)

Here’s how to qualify for the bonus: