Category Archives: Frugality

Frugal Activities

A Perfect Frugal Drive, Maximizing Your Driving Return!

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Yesterday, I had the day of and decided to take a perfect frugal drive.

A “frugal drive” is one that maximizes the return from the drive.  To me, this basically means that instead of just a drive somewhere for just one thing, you maximize the number of things you accomplish on that one drive!

Case in point, the following are the objectives that I accomplished during my 1 driving trip yesterday:

  • Got breakfast at McDonalds.
  • Put air in my front tires for free at a local gas station that was close to McDonalds
  • Went around the block to the local library to drop off 2 videos in the outside bin so that they wouldn’t be late.
  • Drove a little further up the road and stopped to get my haircut.
  • Went to Walmart to get my car oil changed
  • During the wait, I went shopping at Walmart, so I accomplished grocery shopping for the family.
  • While at Walmart, I also picked up a cheap Blue Ray player, since our DVD Player recently broke.
  • Taco Bell messed up my wife’s order the previous day, after calling and identifying the error they made, the said to stop in and they would fix the order for free.  So I did that and got some free food for lunch.
  • Drove to the bank and withdrew some spending cash.
  • Stopped at the gas station and filled up my tank.

How many tasks can you accomplish during 1 driving route?  This might well be my record.  Typically I usually only accomplish 2 or 3 things per drive (not counting the daily drive to work).

-MR

Lemons to Lemonade – Lessons Learned From A Broken Lawnmower

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Well, I pulled the cord on my lawnmower and broke it yet again.  I’ve mentioned  problems with my lawnmower in the past.  I’ve always been able to fix it at a fair price, but now it’s breaking down more frequently. 

The engine is smoking slightly, the deck is rusting, the seals are leaking, the wheels are shot (bearings lost a long time ago).  I’m really thinging about buying a new lawnmower… but next year!

Why next year?

Because it’s a challenge, but with a twist!  If a repair cost more than $20.00 then from this point on, I’m scrapping this lawnmower and going to buy a new one!

Why I’m not scrapping it now is because I’ve learned too much from the lawnmower to do that!  I’ve fixed (or had it fixed) numerous times, I’ve taken the mower apart and thought through my problems.  I’ve see all of my neighbors experience problems with theirs, with the end result having them buying new ones.  I get a strange sense of pride just because mine is still being used, while theirs is in a landfill somewhere (probably leaking oil).  I’m also proud because it’s the green thing to do!

So I’ll tinker with my lawnmower one more year…  It’s hard to get rid of “Mean Green“, since I’ve leaned a lot about fixing things through him.  While he has been a source of frustration, he’s also been a confidence builder.  In our “buy and throw it away” world, rarely do we get opportunities to get your hands dirty and learn about things we don’t know.

I could choose to break down and buy a new one, but I think “Mean Green” has one more year left! 

I wonder if anyone else have a tool or vehicle that they are having a hard time parting with?

-MR

How I Got A Deck Table And Chairs For 25 Percent of The Cost

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Last year, at the end of summer, I bought my wife bought a $200 or $250 table and chairs set for our deck for at total of $50.00

How did she do this? 

Well, she bought the set at the end of the season, and it was the display model.  We usually don’t buy such sets, but for the price it seemed like too good of  a deal to pass up.

So what’s the catch? 

A few of the non-critical screws were missing, and the plastic end feet for the table are missing.  So for the time being, we used felt feet for the table.  this won’t last long, but it will prevent our deck from getting too scratched up.  Eventually I’ll buy some screws and plastic feet that will work with the table.

Both my wife and I enjoy getting bargains on the things we buy.   An example would be the WII pokemon game that we bought my son for his birthday.  He wanted this (at the time) expensive pokemon game, but I just didn’t have the heart to buy a $50.00 game that I knew he wouldn’t play for long.  So instead, I fired up my old friend Mr. eBay and searched for the game.  Surprisingly, all of the new games were still $50.00…  So I found a slightly used one for $12.00.    Which ironically would be about 25% of the in store price of $50.00

While I spent full price for for my son’s DS, I bought a slightly used on from my buddy at work for $50.00.   You might be wondering why I bought a used nintendo DS for my daughter.?.  Well, it’s electronic and I heard that the nintendo DSi was coming out soon at that time.  Technology typically only have a lifespan of perhaps 4 or 5 years, before it becomes obsolute.

I find tha tI have a hard time paying a premiun price from what I think it’s worth.  I’m usually the last to buy technology, because I know that the price repidly drops each year the purchase is prolonged!  This is why we still have CRTs instead of flat screens.

The key is to look for bargains during off seasons times so that you can get the best deal, or buy the product slightly used!

-MR

A Frugal Lunch and Breakfast

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I’ve been frugal since my college days, but one of the few areas that I let lifestyle creep (or lifestyle inflation) expand is my meal costs for breakfast and lunch.  There has been days that I’ve spent over $20 just on breakfast and lunch.  My typical cost are between $7 and  $16.  More often than not though, my normal costs are around $12.

Since I started my Lunch Experiment, I’m more mindful of the cost of breakfast and lunch meals. 

Today, I went back to my Lunch Experiment ways and only paid 60 cents for both my breakfast and lunch…  How is this accomplished?  See the table below:

           
  Qty Meal Cost Total Cost  
  1 Oatmeal (instant) 0.29 0.29  
  2 Eggs 0.08 0.16  
  1 Ramen Noodle package 0.15 0.15  
        $0.60  
           

               

So basically these frugal meals are cost 95% less than my regular non-frugal meals.  I’ve been very happy with the return on my frugal meals!

For the most part the meal is healthy, both the oatmeal and eggs are great!  With the Ramen Noodles?…  I’d have to say no…

So, I’ve decided to go with this meal 2 or 3 times a week.  This will reduce my lunch and breakfast costs, and I should not experience to much harm from the high salt intake (I put salt on my eggs, and the ramen seasoning is loaded with salt).

This is just one way that you can reduce your cost dramatically, as I have done…

Readers:  What additional ways do you reduce your costs?  I figure this is an easy way to save over $50 a week (at least $2,600 a year…) not bad!

-MR