spending

Extreme frugality: Holiday deal-stacking.

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It’s a bit late to bring this up – sorry about that – but stacking holiday discounts is the name of the game at this time of year. That’s how DF and I got a free leaf blower and string trimmer. (Well, theoretically free. More on that later.)

A few weeks back, he noticed that Ace Hardware was offering a skookum deal on those two yard tools in a combo pack, along with batteries and a charging kit. The cost was $229, which is a good price in Anchorage.

Then he noticed Ace was offering a bonus $10 gift card if you bought a $50 gift card. When he mentioned it to me, I pointed out that we also had:

  • A $15 reward on the Ace Hardware app (based on previous purchases)
  • Some cash in the washing machine fund*
  • A bunch of scrip from rewards apps and programs

Why not combine them all and see how it shook down?

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Extreme frugality: Egg substitutes.

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We lucked into repack eggs at $1.99 a dozen last week – the best price I’ve seen for quite a while. Nationwide, the average* cost of a dozen eggs is about $3.59, according to government research.

Back in February, we were paying $7.69 per dozen** – and these were just ordinary eggs, rather than the fancier kinds. I’d blocked the actual price tag. That’s when we got serious about egg substitutes.

For the uninitiated, “repack” eggs are created by combining eggs from various boxes. Ever open a carton to check before buying and found a cracked egg, or more than one? Dairy department managers remove the busted cackleberries and put their unbroken brethren into new boxes; where we live, those boxes are marked “Grade B.” Maybe the B stands for “broken.”

As a result, we get a mix of white eggs, brown eggs, Eggland’s Best (which have little red “EB” tattoos), extra-large and regular. Maybe some are even organic. All we know is that they’re $1.99, whereas large eggs are currently $2.79 and extra-large are $3.19.

Even at a reduced price, we’re looking to stretch the grocery bill any way we can. For us, that means egg substitutes.

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Do we need a little less Christmas?

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santa-claus-for-christmas_w128(Happy Throwback Tuesday! It should be “Throwback Thursday,” but I’m in charge here. This Christmas article originally ran on Dec. 27, 2012, and I believe its message is still relevant. In these inflationary times, it might be more relevant than ever.)

A reader responded to “I’m dreaming of a stripped-down Christmas” with a description of her 7-year-old’s Yuletide experience:

“There are so many gifts from extended family, it actually stresses him out to open them – usually there’s a good one in the first two or three and he wants to stop and play with it, not have it taken away and have to open 10 more things.

“It looks like ingratitude, and that’s a little of it – we’re lucky to already have everything we need and most of what we want, so he’s not that into new stuff – but it’s mostly sheer overwhelm at being the center of attention and having so many people around and then having to switch focus every moment.”

I saw a bit of that myself on Tuesday as I watched a young child open a massive pile of presents. He was a little stressed and cranky by the time he was through. In fact, he had to be coaxed into opening the last few packages.

When my oldest great-nephew was a toddler he was well-nigh buried in loot on Christmas morning. At one point he was nearly in tears, saying “No more!”

No more. Would that have happened when you were small?

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This isn’t your grandparents’ recession.

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Image by Ingrid Felix Victoria from Pixabay

(Happy Throwback Thursday! Given recent inflation rates, and some pundits’ responses to the very real struggles that some people face, I thought this post needed re-saying. It first ran on April 25, 2011; a version of the piece, written by me, originally appeared on MSN Money’s Smart Spending blog.)

When the going gets tough, it’s tempting to invoke our grandparents and their tribulations during the Great Depression.

I’m about to commit cultural heresy: A lot of their advice wouldn’t help us.

My paternal grandparents, who were 17 and 18 when they married in 1935 and had a baby the next year, knew an awful lot about living on an awful little. They’d make most of us modern frugalists look like Rockefellers.

But allow me to point out an irritating fact: The world was different then. When you look at our grandparents’ lives in context, you’ll see that it was easier to manage on relatively little. Not more comfortable, or more fun – just easier.

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No- or low-spend February: How did it work for you?

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Week 4 of the no- or low-spend February has come and gone – long gone, sorry about that – and what I suspected was true: Most of the readers of this site are already frugal. But just about all of us need a reminder now and then to spend intentionally. Even diehard frugalists can backslide.

During the no- or low-spend February, I was:

Not tempted to buy clothes, because I dislike shopping.

Not needing to buy books; instead, I went to the library (or to our own bookshelves) for reading material. I also chipped away at a backlog built up courtesy of the Amazon First Reads program, in which Amazon Prime members get a free e-book (sometimes two) each month. (As an Amazon affiliate, I may receive a small fee for items bought through my links.)

Able to hit the movies without paying cash, thanks to discounted gift cards I bought last December. I stretched those cards further by going on pay-one-price Tuesday and using my Cinemark Movie Club membership to get 25% off refreshments; it also brings the ticket cost down to $5.

Staying home due to lousy weather. We had snow, then a chinook brought in warm temps and rain, then cold temps that froze all the melt into peaks and valleys, then lots more snow, and just blech blech blech. Although I have wonderful Icebug shoes and the car has studded tires, I just did not feel like setting out across the frozen wastes. If I’m home, I have no opportunity to spend.

Focusing on  no- or low-spend February. Although I technically could have spent money, I had a specific reason not to do so. Taking a sharper look at how (and why) we’re spending is good for us, and good for our financial goals.

Here are a few takeaways, based on your actions over the past month.

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No/low-spend February: Week 3.

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I’m running a little behind on the no- or low-spend February updates. Sorry about that. Sure am enjoying everyone’s frugal hacking, though. Shall we begin?

A reader named Ruby trimmed her own hair, to extend the current cut a little longer before her next salon visit. My own recent version of that: I let the beautician-school student cut my hair a little shorter than I’m accustomed to, in order to go longer between trips. 

Ruby has been hanging up her work clothes and smoothing out any wrinkles, which means she can wear them again another day. Doing so means just one load of laundry per week, which saves not just time but also the cost of detergent, water and utilities.

She also noticed a small rip in her husband’s suede house slippers, so she mended it with thread a neighbor once gave her – and that neighbor had inherited the thread from her grandmother. Now her husband’s slippers have a little history behind them, and kudos to Ruby for dealing with the problem while it was still small. 

Ruby reports that her freezer “continues to provide wonderful dividends.” Frozen strawberries (and canned peaches) went into baked oatmeal. Homemade pizza was brightened by chopped red and yellow bell peppers. 

She combined more of those peppers, along with frozen cherry tomatoes, canned organic mushrooms (left over from pizza night), fresh onions and on-sale-plus-coupon sausage to make a skillet meal served with rice. And for bonus frugal points: Ruby turned leftovers into brown bag lunches.

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The frugal sybarite.

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(As promised during this no- or low-spend February, I have run a Throwback Thursday post to encourage frugal pursuits. This week’s choice is designed to remind us to take care of ourselves – without breaking the bank. The piece originally ran on July 15, 2015.)

Some habits that I consider opulent would make other people sneer. To each her own, I suppose. Myself, I happen to think taking a long, hot bath with a good book in (dry) hand is a tremendous luxury – especially if there’s a glass of iced tea or a Diet Coke handy.

(Hint: Even if the soft drink is already cold, put it in the freezer for 15 minutes or so before you run the bath. The contrast of the hot-as-you-can-stand water and the icy beverage is delightful.)

Hanging our laundry to dry in the sun leads to another luxury: falling asleep surrounded by the fragrance of the sun and the wind. Some people would say the sun has no odor. I beg to differ.

DF and I sometimes joke about being “frugal sybarites.” The fact is, a sumptuous lifestyle doesn’t necessarily require a lot of dollar signs.

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Low/no-spend February: Week 1.

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It’s been a quiet week in Lake DebtBeGone* – which also happened to be the first week of the no- or low-spend February challenge. It was fairly easy to manage because I barely went anywhere. Since I don’t shop much online, it was pretty easy to avoid spending.

Not that I avoided it entirely. Tuesday, Feb. 1 was “Senior Tuesday” at Fred Meyer, a hot date for DF and me. That’s where the “low-spend” part comes in: Pretty much everything we bought either had an extra 10 percent off because it was a store brand, or because we had a coupon, or both. We found some screamin’ deals on meat, paying $2.49 a pound for 91 percent lean ground sirloin, $2.87 for a pound of breakfast sausage (DF eats meat and eggs before heading off to ski) and $1.92 for a pound of organic ground beef (manager’s special/store coupon/Senior Day trifecta).

Those prices may not sound rock-bottom to you, but we live in the home of the Alaska Gouge and we were just delighted.

On the way to the checkout line, we saw frozen turkey breast for 99 cents a pound. Grabbed one of those, too, and today it made the most marvelous midday meal – and it was frugal to boot:

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Join us for a no- or low-spend February.

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The first time I suggested this, back in 2019, it was simply a no-spend February. Given the current economy, I propose to make things more inclusive with a “no- or low-spend February.” This welcomes everyone, including those who might have reasons why they can’t just quit  buying.

Besides, this exercise doesn’t mean “stop buying anything at all for 28 days.” Of course you can still put gas in the car or fresh produce in the fridge.

As I said back in 2019, a no-spend month is really more of a “spend-super-intentionally month” – and I’m confident that readers of this site are up to that challenge.

Some of you already have to spend super-intentionally, all year round, due to issues like underemployment, health conditions, family financial crises or, lately, inflation. Other readers spend carefully in order to meet specific goals: minimalism, sustainable living, giving to causes they believe in, early retirement and the like.

Whatever your reasons for being careful with your dough: Who’s in for a no- or low-spend February?

It’s pretty simple. Instead of spending the way you normally do, you interrogate your purchases: 

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