frugal hacks

Do you scrape burned toast?

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While making breakfast I scorched the toast. Automatically I scraped off the Cajun part before smearing  on some butter and homemade jam. Then I started to wonder: How many people would have just thrown it in the trash and started over?

I grew up scraping toast. My family would have considered it wasteful to toss charred chow, given how simple it is to fix.

Recently a thread started up on Not MSN Money, a community formed by so-called “refugees” from MSN Money’s now-defunct message boards. The thread, “What do you do with the heels from bread?,” asked readers whether they use them or toss them.

Guess what the answers were.

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Saturday short takes: Another way to get Amazon.com cards.

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If you don’t already read the Consumerism Commentary personal finance blog, get yourself over there and register. You earn points each time you read an article and leave a comment, or share articles via social media. The points can be exchanged for FABULOUS PRIZES!

Myself, I’m skipping the personal finance books and saving up for the Amazon gift cards:

  • 500 points = $20 card
  • 1,000 points = $50 card
  • 1,750 points = $100 card

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10 financial lessons from ‘True Grit.’

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I’ve been reading and re-reading this wonderful Charles Portis novel since I was a teenager. Mattie Ross is a hell of a protagonist. She’s strong, determined, relentless and, above all, frugal.

Here are 10 things you could learn from her story, courtesy of Mr. Portis and the Coen brothers. And without a single song by Glen Campbell!

1. Negotiate. Mattie convinces Stonehill the stock trader to buy back the four ponies he’d sold to her now-dead father for $25 apiece. (Whether it’s the price of a car or a shirt, you might be able to strike a deal. Doesn’t hurt to ask.)

2. Stand up for your rights. Since her father’s horse was stolen from the stock barn, Mattie asks Stonehill to accept responsibility. He refuses, she persists. (If you think you’re being hosed, say so.)

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We wish you a debt-free Christmas.

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An old friend of mine – call him “Frugalbert Humperdinck” – once riffed on the song “Lonely is a man without love.” Unfamiliar with that late 1960s hit? Sit patiently through this video of Engelbert Humperdinck singing the first verse, in order to get to the chorus that’s about to be parodied:

Christmas bills are scare-ful,

 

But one can be careful.

 

Lovely is a man without loans.

 

Celebrate the season,

 

Keeping things in reason.

 

Lovely is a man without loans.

 

Go in debt, you peasants,

 

Buying toddlers presents.

 

Lovely is a man without loans.

 

Why impugn your credit

 

When they’ll soon forget it?

 

Lovely is a man without loans.

 

(Half-step up for the big finale)

 

Ere to shops I dart off,

 

First I pay the card off.

 

Lovely is a man without loans.

 

I’ll assuage my cravings

 

With January savings.

 

Lovely is a maaaan without loans.

 

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Discounted gift cards: The new coupon?

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That’s how one guy described discounted gift cards — the subject of my current column, “Instant savings on holiday shopping,” over at MSN Money. (Edited to add: That column is no longer available on the MSN Money platform. Read on for the basics.)

These cards become available for various reasons, usually because their owners need the money or because the gift was unsuitable. Resellers like Plastic Jungle or Cardpool make them available to consumers at less than face value.

You can save 3% to 30% (or more) on cards for places you plan to shop for the holidays. There’s an aggregator site called Gift Card Granny that pulls up the best deals from eight different sources.

But these aren’t just for gift-shopping. You can use this “new coupon” to provide consistent discounts for your everyday purchases.

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Yet another frugal travel hack.

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I just bought $40 worth of Mexican food for the equivalent of $16.92. Or rather, I’ve arranged to buy the food in January, when I visit my daughter and son-in-law in Phoenix.

I’ve written before about social buying – the art of getting deep discounts on products and services through the power of bulk buying. In this case it’s $20 gift vouchers to a Scottsdale restaurant for $10 apiece.

Companies like Groupon and Living Social make daily deals available both at hot new businesses and well-established joints that you already love.

There’s no cost to join – and it sure is fun to spend considerably less on:

 

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The Mensa member makes jelly.

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Last week I got permission to pick grapes from a nearby fence. My first batch of jelly turned out a lovely wine-purple color and my apartment smelled like communion.

But it was a lot more work than blackberry jam: You pick, then crush, then simmer, then strain the pulp through a cheesecloth-lined colander, then add sugar and cook.

On Sunday I picked pretty much all the ripe grapes that were left. Yesterday I patiently pulled out the stems, made sure there was a one-to-four ratio of underripe to ripe fruit (I don’t use commercial pectin), washed them, crushed them, simmered them, and poured about half the results into a cloth-lined colander set over a bowl.

The yield was three cups of juice. I scraped out the drained pulp, poured the rest of the simmered grapes into the colander and walked away to do another chore.

And then.

 

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How “salvage” groceries can save your budget.

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Anybody here eat food from the scratch-and-dent grocery?

Anybody here ever heard of the scratch-and-dent grocery?

If not, head over to MSN Money to read my latest Living With Less column. “Save with scratch-and-dent food” explains how salvage stores work and offers tips on buying from discount grocers and the dented-can bin, too. [Edited to add: Since MSN Money changed platforms, the pieces that I wrote are no longer available through conventional channels.]

Maybe the idea skeeves you right out: Eeeewwww, old food! But plenty of it isn’t old.

 

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