Category Archives: Frugality

Frugal Activities

Wealth Tip #3: Be Cheap, Don't Show Off

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Frugal is a new word I started hearing in the last 5 years. Before that word became popular, frugal people were lumped together will people that were mostly called cheap.

And this brings me back to my rich friend Jay (I mentioned him in Wealth Tip #2).  Now, you might think since he is worth over 7 million dollars, that he would have the best of everything… but he doesn’t!

 Perhaps you might hear about his fancy vacations, after all, he’s been to the following places:

  1. Alaska cruise
  2. Mexico
  3. Hawaii
  4. Ireland
  5. Las Vegas

What you don’t realize is that he gets most of those vacations from rewards via his credit cards, or through prizes offered from suppliers for buying their product.  Even when he is on vacation, Jay and his spouse buys cheap, and even stocks the refrigerator at the resorts they stay in.  Yes, during vacation he will play golf, but usually it’s at a cheaper course (golfing is an activity he has picked up during the last 10 years).

He does have newer cars, but they are domestic SUVs that are used for his job.  Even though they are typically bought new, he’ll hold onto them for at least 5 years.

Does he tips well?  Not really, usually if he likes the service he’ll tip 15%, but if the service is crummy, expect either a 10 or 5% tip (in cases where the service is really bad, no tip at all, but this is rare).

With as cheap as he is with everything, you’d expect him to be cheap with charity too, right?  Wrong, he give over 10% of his gross wages to the church, and is generous with his family and friends.  Ironically, while he is giving thousands away, sometimes his jeans will have holes in them (albeit small ones and in good taste).

When he does eat out, it’s usually one of the cheaper meals on the menu.  I’ve never seen him eat a porterhouse, or New York Stripe steak.

So, what have I learned by observing his spending behavior?  Being Cheap (or really frugal), is part of the wealth building equation…  My friend has increased his lifestyle a little more over the years, but he still lives more frugally than my poorer friends. 

If he can do it, then so can I!

Lemons to Lemonade Series #2 – How To Stop Drinking Pop

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A year ago, I use to drink at least 4 cans of pop (coke, soda, soda pop or whatever you call it) a day.  And to make matters worse, at least 2 of those pops, were bought from vending machines.  So, that means I would spend at least $1.75 a day for something that doesn’t help my health and while costing little still adds up to $12.25 a week.  

no pop

So I stopped drinking pop, and decided to drink the filtered water at work instead.  That worked out well, at least for a week.  After growing up with pop, milk, coffee, tea and lemonade, just plain ole water just didn’t statisfy my taste buds anymore.  So what was a poor pop addict like me to do?  

Well I chose to go with the single flavored packets for bottled water packages (both Lipton and Wyler):  

 The Lipton packets run 10 for $2.00, but I only add 1/2 a packet per water mix, so it only cost me .10 cents per serving.  The Wyler Pink Lemonade is even better, it’s only $1.00 for 8 packets so it only cost me .04 cents per serving.  So on a typical day, using these only cost me  about .60 cents. or $4.20 a week.  These are much healthier than soda pop drinks.  

Yes, I know that this is a small way to reduce cost, but it’s also a healthier way to go than just carbonated sugar water.  

Do I occassionally still drink pop?  Yes, of course I do, but now it’s maybe a can a week or every other week.

Borrowing Laptops From The Library?

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I can’t believe that my local Library is actually offering to let people borrow Laptops!  How awesome is that!

Borrowing laptops

Apparently, some local company donated all of their old laptops to the library since they bought new ones.  What a great idea for a company to do!  Merry Christmas local library users!

I won’t be borrowing one myself (plus I’m sure they’ll be in great demand).  But if I were to borrow one, the first thing I would do is go out and buy a cheap jump drive (you can now get a 4G drive for less than $20).  I would use the jump drive for anything I do with the laptop because once you return the laptop to the library, everything you saved goes back too.  If you save to the jump drive, you can save your stuff (I know obvious, right…).

I wonder if the library will let people check out the laptops for a period greater that 2 weeks?  I would imagine so.

Where I work, we are constantly upgrading our user computers.  With the latest batch, they are scrapping computers that have CPU that run at speeds of 3G.  So the computers they are throwing out are faster than most of my computers at home.

Computers have truly become commodities!

I have to wonder what else some of the other libraries let people borrow?

Frugal Puzzles, fixing small things can be fun!!!

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Hamster wheel

Fixing small thinks is oftentimes fun and can save a few dollars the frugal way.

My son’s hamster wheel was very noise. The spinning grinding sound of the hamster running in it started waking my son at night. I thought about pitching it, but I know that the hamster is healthier since he uses it. So, I thought about buying a new wheel. So I fired up my good friend Mr. Google.com, and typed in the following search words “Cheap hamster wheel”. Mr. Google.com answered by displaying that depending on the type of model, they run anywhere from $7 to $20.  So I thought it was time to put on my thinking cap and figure out this frugal puzzle.

I thought, hmm, it’s effectively broke, so I’ll tinker with it… after all, I’m going to throw it away anyway. So that’s what I did, I took it apart. I then started thinking about the reason it was so noisy. Then it dawned on me… using oil or some other kind of lubricant might make the noise stop.

I didn’t want to use real oil, that seemed like a bad idea! So I took a small dab of Vaseline (any type of petroleum jelly will do), and coated the stem that the wheel rode on. I then slid the wheel back on the stem and gave it a spin. Viola! No noise, the problem was solved!

Not much of a puzzle other than figuring out how to get it apart. Still, I was proud of myself for saving the money, not to mention the green aspect of not throwing the wheel away.

Beaming with confidence from fixing the hamster wheel, I started thinking of other ways I could use petroleum jelly. Then I remembered my old “lamp light warped” alarm clock. The buttons on the time setting piece was not longer popping back up after pressing it. So, a few day later, during a football game (Arizona Cardinalsand some other team), I started taking it apart. I unscrewed the cover, and surprise, the plastic pieces fell out (I should know better, but I was distracted by the game). After I figured out how the pieces went back in, I gave each button a small lining of Vaseline on the inside edge of the buttons, and the hole they went through. Yes! This worked perfectly!

Overall the alarm clock was more like a puzzle than the hamster wheel. I probably saved $20 on it. I do know that super cheap ones go for about $10. It was kind of fun figuring it out! I even took the opportunity to make it educational too! I called in both my son and daughter and explained the electronics. This mini puzzle took me about 30 minutes to do (although the football game really took it’s toll on my time efficiency with this one).

Even though my savings was only $30, I had fun doing it and actually proud that I didn’t just toss it in the garbage (Go GREEN!!!)!

Before throwing something away… see if you can figure out a way to fix it or somehow manage to get a few more years out of it somehow.

 

The environment thanks you in advance! 😉