frugal hacks

Free health screenings at Sam’s on Saturday.

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Got health insurance? If not, you can get some free testing this Saturday at any Sam’s Club location that has a pharmacy. From 11 a.m. to 3 p.m., both members and non-members can take advantage of: Total cholesterol test Blood pressure reading Vision screening Glucose test Body mass index screening Oral health questionnaire “Dental tablets,” … Read more

A graveyard of reading.

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th-2I went dumpster wading again today at the recycling center. In the mixed paper bin I spied half a dozen like-new comic books sitting atop magazines and flattened cereal boxes.

Although melting snow was dripping down from the top of the bin, these books were dry and clean. Of course I took them, and gave them to my nephew.

He doesn’t care where I got them. In fact, he’s still stoked about the 1,000-piece jigsaw puzzle I found earlier this week in the same bin.

Guess where I’m doing my Christmas shopping? (Kidding! Maybe.)

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Wedding bill blues.

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thQuick question: Would you spend almost three-fourths of your annual income on one party?

Yeah, me neither. But some people will spend that much – or more – on their nuptials.While researching a wedding article for MSN Money Frugal Nation, I learned that:

  • The average wedding cost $28,427.
  • The average income for a U.S. resident is $39,959.

Do the math.

Incidentally, that average wedding price does not include the cost of a honeymoon.

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Slash your grocery bill with this free webinar.

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thWant to cut your food bill? Jump-start the process with the “Grocery Couponing 101” webinar, jointly sponsored by Savings.com and LearnVest.

The free program, designed to reduce your supermarket spending by up to 50%,   takes place from 8 to 9 p.m. Eastern on Thursday, April 4. Presenters are Andrea Deckard of SavingsLifestyle.com, Lauren Greutman of I Am That Lady and Ellen Derrick, a certified financial planner with LearnVest.

Just how much can you learn in an hour? So glad you asked.

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Free allergy screenings at Sam’s Club on Saturday.

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thWhen I was a kid I felt sorry for people with “hay fever,” the catch-all name for seasonal allergies. Those greatly magnified images of pollen on the Contac commercials gave me the creeps: Imagine all that pointy-edged stuff digging its way into your nose and eyes! (It didn’t occur to me that I’d inhaled the same li’l monsters.)

A few years ago I discovered that you can develop seasonal allergies after childhood. Lucky me.

So if you’ve noticed sniffles, itchy eyes and raw throat in the springtime but figured it was just an end-of-winter cold you couldn’t shake, you might have developed allergies as well. You can find out for free on Saturday, March 9 if you live near a Sam’s Club with a pharmacy.

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Does frugality have to hurt?

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thI’ve been mulling over a comment left on yesterday’s post, “Beware false economies,” which included examples of frugality that could actually cost someone money, health or reputation. A reader posting as “ImJuniperNow” said these examples confirmed that “people believe ‘frugal’ or living within or below one’s means equals doing without.

My immediate reply: “Good point! Just as some people believe that dieting or exercise must be unpleasant if it’s to be effective.”

After some reflection I believe it’s more than the “no pain, no gain” mentality. The attitude is more one of crime and punishment:

If you gain weight, you are bad and must suffer in order to take it off.

If you don’t have enough money in this Land of Opportunity, you are less than worthy and must endure privation. That is, until you can get another line of credit.

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Beware false economies.

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th-1While preparing to write “Craziest ways to save a buck,” today’s post over at my day job, I was by turns amused and a little disturbed by what young people consider “crazy” frugality.

The post was based on a contest offered by DoSomething.org. Students 25 and under are invited to send in their wildest money-saving tips. The prize is a $4,000 scholarship, so send any students you know over there to enter.

But is getting books and CDs from the library now considered nutty behavior? What about locking up a debit card, using coupons, carrying a water bottle, eating leftovers or doing laundry at a relative’s house – any of those sound wacky to you?

Worse than that, though, were the false economies. For example, more than a few students said they brought home condiment packets and napkins from restaurants to save money. But if you’re broke, what are you doing in restaurants? How much did you spend in order to get a few cents’ worth of free taco sauce?

Or how about some of these:

 

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Busting cheap airfare myths.

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thPlanning to hit the beaches on spring break or take your kids to a theme park during school vacation? Better buy those tickets soon. A new study from CheapAir.com indicates that the lowest prices can be found about seven weeks out.

The study also addresses questions like “When’s the best time to buy a ticket for Thanksgiving?” and “Is Tuesday night really the best time of the week to buy a ticket?”

The answer to the second question, by the way, is “no.”

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Some things are worth the cost.

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thApparently I was out of my mind when I booked my recent trip to the East Coast. My return schedule last Friday was Philly-Chicago and then Chicago-Anchorage. The option of flying directly to Anchorage vs. a stopover in Seattle or Salt Lake City felt like a grand piece of luck.

And it would have been, if the flight had left on the same day. However, it left at 9:30 a.m. on Saturday.

I wanted to do a series of forehead-plants into the drywall. Instead I sighed, shrugged and started looking for a semi-affordable hotel near O’Hare.

The old me would have done those forehead-plants.

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5 frugal trashcan hacks.

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First USEME trashcan sighting in Ramoji Film City © by vincelaconte

When I lived in Seattle my under-sink trashcan was quite small. I could get away with this for several reasons: I lived alone, cooked frugally and took enthusiastic advantage of the city’s single-stream recycling program. Generally it took a week or more for the can to fill up.

Being an illegitimus frugalis, I never bought a single kitchen trashcan liner. Why should I, when plastic shopping bags were so ubiquitous? Even though I toted at least one reusable bag everywhere I went, the plastics had a way of accumulating:

I picked them up while walking home. (Once I also picked up some free ice cream this way.) 

People gave me things inside shopping bags.

Sometimes I bought so much (usually from the used-bread, used-meat or dented-can bins that the order wouldn’t fit in my cloth bag, so I’d have to accept an additional plastic one.

I gleaned them while on vacation. My relatives tend to use plastic with happy abandon. Folded-up bags take up practically no room in a carry-on.

Thus I always had at least a few dozen bags on hand. That is, until Seattle’s ban on plastic shopping bags took effect in July 2012.

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