frugal hacks

Random observations.

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Instead of writing one long column, I’m doing a handful of random short takes.

Local boys make good: Portugal. The Man took a Grammy for best pop duo/group performance. Still giddy over this, even though I don’t know them. At one point I may have met Eric Howk, the guitarist, because I used to work with his mom.

Point being, it was a band that originated in the Last Frontier and has worked hard since the oughties. It’s great to have something Alaskan other than oil fields and giant cabbages being celebrated nationally (and internationally).

Rock on, guys – and I say that as someone who listens exclusively to the classical music station.

Winter-ish: We got a little snow, and the temperature has dropped below zero at night so it’s sorta-kinda-winter. On the whole, the season has been a disappointment, especially for Nordic skiers and the guys and gals who plow driveways as a side hustle.

Dear Lower 48: Please give back our snow. We miss it.

 

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Picking up money: My 2017 gleanings.

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Another year of picking up money: change amassed from sidewalks, parking lots and the return bins of those Coinstar machines. This year it added up to $8.80.

It’s not as much as I’d hoped for, but a lot more than I’d feared. Sometimes a couple of weeks would pass between finds, and I’d wonder if I’d even manage to get $5 in 2017.

Regular readers know the drill: All year long I glean specie (and occasionally folding green) wherever I find it, and drop the cash into a vase my daughter gave as a gift when she was little. After a dozen months I count it, round it up and send a donation to the Food Bank of Alaska.

Denomination-wise, here’s how it broke down:

  • 17 quarters
  • 31 dimes
  • 10 nickels
  • 95 pennies

This time around, the food bank gets $20.

 

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Where I’ve been.

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To quote a recent headline from my daughter’s website:

Blah.

As in, “I haven’t written much lately and I apologize. But things have been so busy that when I finally stop for the day my mind is, well, pretty blah.”

Can’t focus on brilliant new blog post ideas. Heck, I can barely focus on anything except putting out freelance fires and after that, hanging out with DF for a little while and going to bed.

Maybe it’s the long spell of gray, gray days. Maybe it’s age-related fatigue; where I once could write from morning until the midnight hour, now I just want to get away from the screen after a few hours. Whatever the reason, I just haven’t felt creative enough to write anything.

Yet I hate to have 10 days go by with nothing new up on the site. I miss you guys when I don’t post!

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High food bills? The Grocery Budget Makeover can help.

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Erin Chase, the woman who proved that $5 meals can be  both healthy and appealing (even to kids), is at it again. To promote another session of her five-week “Grocery Budget Makeover” online course, Chase is offering a free video workshop.

The entrepreneur is mom to four boys and also the creator of (among other things) the $5 Dinners concept, a class on Instant Pot cooking and a series of cookbooks. The goal of her Grocery Budget Makeover is to teach consumers how to cut their food spending in half.

Specifically, she wants to “change the way you shop for groceries – forever.”

The free workshop – actually a handful of short videos – is designed to give you a taste (so to speak) of the course.

 

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Can’t get ahead? Try a “savings challenge.”

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th(I’ve decided to re-publish articles now and again in honor of what the kids call Throwback Thursday. Given that some of us can expect higher-than-usual credit card bills in January, these savings options might help.)

Years ago I moderated MSN Money’s Smart Spending message board, on which people would post frugal hacks, recipes and other tips to stretch a buck.

The boards went away some years before the Smart Spending blog did; when that happened, some of the most loyal commenters created an alternative universe.

“Not MSN Money Proboards” is a place for veterans of Smart Spending and other message boards to stay in touch and keep sharing the wealth. Or, rather, the road to wealth. (Edited to add: The Not MSN Money Proboards has morphed into something called Your Money and More, which includes money, lifestyle and other board options.)

One post I checked in on today, “2014 Savings Strategies,” brought up the old custom of “savings challenges.” Those were popular during the worst of the recent recession; you couldn’t swing a virtual cat in the PF blogosphere without running into someone’s post on challenges.

Stuff like:

  • Spare Change Challenge – Every night put all your coins in a jar
  • Dollar Bill Challenge – Like the above, except with paper instead of specie
  • Five-Dollar Bill Challenge – Pretty ambitious, but a little too rich for some bloods
  • Random Number Challenge – Pick a number and every night check the bills in your wallet; if one has a serial number ending in the chosen digit, into the jar it goes

But the Proboards posting also mentioned a couple of new ones.

 

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A life-changing holiday gift: Personal finance books.

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th(Note: This is an update of an article that ran in 2016, with some new books to go along with ones I feel confident re-recommending.)

Some people are into experiences rather than gifts. Physical presents take up space and need to be dusted, whereas a massage or a theater ticket is a one-and-done event.

I suggest that a personal finance book is both a gift and an experience. Sure, it takes up a little space – but it can lead to life-altering changes and literal enrichment. And if you get the Kindle or PDF version, it doesn’t take up any room in your domicile.

When you give the gift of personal finance, you’re giving people tools that can get them out of current money troubles and/or help them build the lives they want. Doesn’t that beat the heck out of a scented candle or a cheese log?

 

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Shopping the office potluck. Plus: Book discounts.

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The following post is based on an excerpt from “Your Playbook For Tough Times, Vol. 2: Needs And Wants Edition.” I’m offering holiday discounts on this book and the first one; see the end of the post for details.

Many years ago I dropped into a different department at my workplace, to ask a question. That section’s holiday potluck was winding down, and the ebullient partygoers invited me to help myself.

My eyes lit upon the nearly empty ham platter. “Has anyone claimed the bone?” I asked.

Apparently no one had. “Go ahead and take it,” I was told. “Do you have a dog?”

“No, but I’ve got a pound of pinto beans and an onion.”

 

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7 ways that Black Friday is like sex.

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Some years back my blogging buddy J. Money ran “10 reasons Black Friday is like sex” on his Budgets Are Sexy blog. I was immediately inspired to comment with some reasons of my own, whereupon he dared me to run them on my own site.

So I did, with an article called “Black Friday and sex” about why the two aren’t alike. Such as:

You won’t be offered coffee and doughnuts.

Finishing early is NOT a plus.

The women generally end up more satisfied than the men.

Revisiting that literary tradition this year – but as reasons that the two are alike. The following material is not suitable for work, and possibly not for anyone afflicted with taste and refinement.

 

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Black Friday 2017: Are you in or out?

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I have given birth to boring. My daughter put up a blog post today that testifies to tedium:

“I check the leaked Friday ads for what the Walgreen’s site-wide discount will be – so that I can buy really exciting stuff like toilet paper and garbage bags.

“Last year, I made a whole Excel spreadsheet to find the best price for loading up on the aforementioned toilet paper and garbage bags, plus hand soap, body wash, a couple of skin-care products and…Ugh, it’s all a boring, boring blur.”

Truth is, my own tastes are fairly plebeian this year. In fact, I have only two things I really want to get:

Butter. It’s $2.29 per pound, limit five, at Fred Meyer. That’s noticeably cheaper even than Costco, and since DF and I are all about the holiday peanut brittle and sea-salt caramels, I plan to limit out on this greasy goodness.

Bedclothes. Sheets are on sale but I’m not sure I’ll get them; will depend on how they feel. I’m more interested in the micro-plush blanket sale, also at Fred Meyer. Right now we’re sleeping under a mass of loosely connected blanket molecules; it’s a machine-crocheted number that’s so old DF can’t remember its exact age. Still warm, but the crocheted holes are turning into gaps in spots so I want to get one of those blankets, which are limited to stock on hand.

Speaking of which: I may or may not go there at 5 a.m. Friday. Yes. On purpose, for a handful of reasons:

 

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Swagbucks fun on Oct. 18 (that’s tomorrow).

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Just a quick post to say that:

Tomorrow (Wednesday, Oct. 18) will bring a Swag Code Extravaganza, and

A spooky new Swagbucks Team Challenge is currently afoot.

As anyone who reads here regularly already knows, this is my favorite rewards program. The points (called “SB”) that I earn pay for:

  • A goodly chunk of my birthday and holiday gifts
  • Dinner out when I visit my daughter and son-in-law
  • Paper products and food items for people in financial tight spots

About that last: I trade in the SB for Amazon gift cards and have the goods sent right to their doors. (Thanks, Amazon Prime!) In fact, I cash in most of my SB for Amazon cards, although recently I traded in for a Hot Topics card for a stylish young relative.

Bonus: You can trade SB for cash money, in the form of PayPal gift cards.

 

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