Category Archives: Frugality

Frugal Activities

My Frugal Apartment

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A real Bachelor's pad

 

Back when I was in college, many times I had to live with 3 other roommates in small 2 story houses.  We had great times, since 2 of the friends I grew up with, so we were like brothers already.  My problem was that my friends were rowdy and had a lot of parties, both on the week days and ends. 

My solution to this problem was to start searching for a new place to live.  I looked around, and after looking at too many places that were asking too much, at least for what I could afford, I stumbled upon a super cheap apartment that was only $200!  The area was a good area, so at first, I thought it was a typo.  Turns out it wasn’t though, but the catch was that it was a bachelor’s pad.  After seeing it I understood way…  But I took it!  I even gave it a nickname: “My Shoebox”, and so this is where I lived for the next 2 years. 

This place “My Shoebox” was basically 1 small room “12 x 15” with a walk in closet “4 x 6” and 1 refrigerator, and 1 small bathroom with a tight shower.  The building had a very classy old look about it.  In the lobby, there was a very old style small elevator, and the heating was done by and old radiator?  It was great!  I was able to get my studying done, and I would finally have privacy for the first time ever! 

Now, this might now sounds like such a great deal to most of you, to me it was fantastic!  If you’re willing to settle for a little less space, you really can find some spectacular deals out there! 

What I Have Learned To Date From Blogging!

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First, I’ve learned that blogging isn’t as easy as I thought it would be. Yeah, I could blog about my driving home or having lunch at this and that restaurant. I could blog like blogging was traditionally… an online diary. But instead, I decided to follow my passion for personal finance and blog about that topic

Why?

Well for one, I find that personal finance blogs are interesting, and I wanted to create such a creation. It’s not being a book author, but kind of close, and I think that that in itself is pretty cool.

Blogging and reading fellow pf blogger’s sites helps me to keep my focus on my own personal finance strategy.

The world is expanding for me. I joined a few clubs, but it’s the Yakezie Challenge that has really been mind blowing. The group includes some incredible talented pf bloggers out there! Both the old stalwarts and the saplings, have some incredible content!

International Blogs, I read blogs such as the monevator.com and www.canadianfinanceblog.com both site offer a unique insites of their country from their eyes. It’s very cool to be learning about each of their countries.

Secondly, I’ve learned that there are more than one way to get to a solution.  It’s kind of like mixing colors to create the color green.  So while I may have slowly added all colors in perfect proportions, another blogger may choose to add 1 of the colors more quickly and in more quantity, then later get the proportions correct to make the same color green.  And then you have other bloggers that choose to go with a different shade of green altogether.

Part of blogging is self discovery, I’ve learned a lot about how I think, what I believe in and the end goals that I want to accomplish.

Blogging is also providing me a rought draft for how to get there.

Thanks for the great ride,

MR – Don

Lemons to Lemonade – Junk Mail Revenge!

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Mail, mail everywhere

I use to hate getting junk and snail mail every day. 

It’s very rare that a day goes by without us getting some form of mail in our mailbox.  It’s possible to contact each mailer of junk mail and request that they stop sending you the junk mail and they have to, but that won’t totally stop it…  And besides, there are other type of mail that you get in your mailbox that isn’t junk mail, like various types of bills and banking/checking/investing account statements, etc… 

So I decided at the beginning of this year to see if I could put a spin on this mail waste in some way that it might benefit me!  Surprisingly, I was able to, especially for the back of the envelopes!  

Here are a few of my uses and suggestions: 

  • Use them to jot down ideas for blog topics (my favorite use).  They are the perfect scratchpad for brainstorming .
  • If you use a knife to open them, you can use them for holding coupons (I don’t do this yet, but I would if I did).
  • During research for investments, jot down the company and ticker, current price, dividend, and date of the stock.  Put then in a pile to be reviewed when making investment decisions.
  • Use the envelopes to keep score when we play games like yahtzee, greed and certain card games!
  • For the similarly sized envelopes, I keep a few in a small stack in the drawer by the phone and use them to take messages on.
  • After doing the suggestions above, use the envelopes as part of your garden compost pile, if you do gardening.  While it won’t add up to much, it will complete the cycle (as in recycling) and is very green!  Make sure you don’t include any envelopes that has a plastic see through window!

The main idea is that the back of the envelopes has a plain white surface, perfect for jotting something down on! 

While reusing envelopes may seem small and trite and not worth it, I say “Why not“? 

You are doing the environment good by not sending the envelopes directly to the junkyard, and squeezing an extra use out of something that is effectively trash! 

Can you think of additional uses for your junk mail (or junk mail envelopes)?  If so, please respond!  I’m always looking for better ways to use them!  Humorous responses are welcome too! 🙂

-D

My Frugal First Talent Show

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In our grade school (kindergartner’s thru 4th graders), we have an annual talent show that I attended for the first time.

Talent Show

What was the reasons I waited until this year?

My 6 year old daughter participated in the event this year!  She was suppose to do a hula hoop show, while a song played for 3 minutes.  So I was expecting a interesting but somewhat mundane hula hoop routine.  I was very surprised when she started out as I expected, but then she started doing jumps and then started moving around (pseudo dancing).  The audience clapped at the jumps, but the dancing and moving around floored everybody (especially me).  I was filming her on a camcorder, and actually had to look at her, messing up the frame for a few seconds. Later, I asked my wife if that was part of the rehearsals they were practicing, and she said no (I think she was surprised too). I was very proud, but really I was more amazed than anything else (this is rare for me)!

After my daughter’s 3 minutes spectacular show, I thought everything else would be lame (and there were a few mediocre performances), but I was pleasantly surprise with most of the acts.  There were two 4th grade girls that nailed the Hannah Montana (most of the girls sang these) songs they performed.  In my opinion, there were 3 standouts (my daughter being one of them of course ;)).

So why am I posting this?

Yes I’m proud of my daughter, but really this is a great form of entertainment!  It’s free and you are supporting your community in spirit and financially if you buy a bag of popcorn 😉

I got especially lucky, because one of the 4th grade girls did two performance that would have rivaled Hannah Montana herself.  The girl (named Katie) did a performance that was performed so well, that people almost stood up (I know I almost did).

I imagine that not all talent shows were as good as the one I went to last night, but it’s entertaining anyway, and occasionally, you’ll get to see that big diamond shine a little more brightly than the other jewels (nobody was rough last night…).

So this is my frugal tip for some free entertainment.  It only happens a few times a year, so check it out if you get the chance!

You might be amazed by some of the performances…  I know I was!