Frugal Weekend Projects

Set up Google Calendar for yourself and add in the dates that your bills are due along with reminders. It'll make it so much easier to stay on top of things.

Gather up all that loose change you have accumulating in those cubby holes all over the house and find a place that does free coin counting. I went through a box of coins that hadn't been emptied since my college days and came up with $100 in just quarters and dimes alone!

Think ahead for frugal gift-giving ideas. I picked up knitting from knittinghelp.com in my spare time, and now I have a couple of simple scarves for Christmas presents.

Pick a Frugal Home Winterization project to do.

Enjoy the weekend!

Saving energy... by skipping the clothes dryer?

Lately, I've been seeing a lot of green sites advising people to line-dry clothes to save on energy because your average clothes dryer is a major energy waster.

From Tip The Planet:

Air drying your washing instead of putting it in the dryer is a great way to save energy. It uses no electricity or fuel, and requires little if any equipment.

But is this really feasible in the average household? I live outside of Chicago, where today's high temperature was only 54° F. I can't imagine myself hanging clothing outside to dry in winter.

Turns out that I don't need to go to those extremes just yet. Like with any lifestyle change, it's best to start out with baby steps. For me, the first step was to start line-drying cleaning rags instead of tossing them in the dryer. It was easier than I thought. I just folded them in half and hung them up on a towel bar, with one or two extras folded neatly on top of washer because I ran out of room. Even on a cold day without heat, they dried overnight.

I still can't imagine line-drying all my clothes, but I also don't see the point on wasting electricity to dry rags. The next step is seeing if I can rig a clothesline in my bathroom, because I don't see the point of throwing socks and undies in the dryer either.

Sticking To Your Food Budget

I've been a little short on new recipes this week, because all the ones I've been testing just don't seem to be ready for publication. My other goal was not to go running to the grocery store until I finish everything I bought in my last trip. After a few days of trying to perfect my breakfast burritos and quesadillas, I was getting bored with my meal options. And, oddly enough, I was craving the one thing I hadn't bought last week: fresh fruit.

So yesterday I made a quick trip to Whole Foods with my $5 off coupon and picked up fresh fruit and fresh veggies. It was a gloomy day, and I was drawn to the ones with bright colors, like strawberries, pomegranates, red and green peppers, and zucchini. In a way, it makes sense that I was craving those foods, since they do provide some of the vitamin and nutrients I may have been missing. Plus, after the coupon, I only spent about $24, so it didn't hurt my budget too much. I could have done worse, like ordering take-out when I had resolved not to.

Tip: Where You Can Cut Back To Save Money

Before trying to figure out how to save some extra money, I was stopping at McDonald's for breakfast every morning. Why? It started out when I started thinking of breakfast as a treat for getting out of the house on time. Over time, "rewarding" myself started to add up. $4.30 per day, estimating that I was going there at least 4 days a week, added up to an estimated $69 a month. It probably got worse when I started "rewarding" myself for not sleeping in on my days off.

I finally managed to break the habit by going out and buying a package of Egg Beaters and a pack of tortillas (both on sale) to make my own breakfast burritos. Now that extra money is staying in my bank account, where I can invest it towards something else.

Are Coupon Users Cheapskates?

The Consumerist reported on a study that other shoppers tend to look unfavorably on coupon users, according to a study.

Researchers proposed that the reason for the coupon-hating is "the modern consumer tends to prize status and luxury over thrift."

I was kind of thrown by this one. Just today, I stocked up at the grocery store and combined coupons with sales to save $23 on my groceries. I was so excited to see that total come down. That is an extra $23 in my bank account that I can use on something else I need. That's money in my pocket. In fact, as I left the store, I noticed that people were leaving the self-checkouts without picking up their store coupons that print up with their receipts, and I wondered how people could just throw money away like that.

I didn't always use coupons. It's something that I started doing recently as my paychecks got smaller and smaller. Obviously, as the economy worsens, more people are going to be in the same boat as me.

If you're worried about what others are thinking of you as you redeem your grocery coupons, do what you can to minimize your check-out time, as waiting in line seems to be everyone's pet peeve. I pull my coupons as I make my shopping list, keep them paper clipped to my list in store, and the ones that don't get used get put away before I get in line. It took longer to bag my groceries today than it did to scan my coupons.

Also, be careful with those printable coupons. You can trust the ones from Smart Source or Coupons.com (which you see in the sidebar on my blog). A lot of times, they're the same coupons that come in the Sunday paper. My local Target takes them without a problem, and one of their cashiers even tells me when there's a good coupon on their website. At my local Jewel, they sometimes call a manager over, so I stopped using the printables there. At my local Whole Foods, I haven't had problems, but then again, I know the cashiers. And I've heard horror stories about Wal-mart refusing coupons, so I avoid it. Your mileage may vary, but as you get better at using coupons, you'll find out for yourself how to best save time while saving money.

Frugality Binge, Or How I Beat The Cycle Of Always Eating Out

A few months back, when things were not going well and I had an urgent need to cut back on spending, I went to rather extreme measures to save on food costs.

Ramen noodles.

I'd heard stories about people who were starting to serve ramen one night a week to cut back on grocery bills. I took it one step further, bought a 6-pack of ramen and a can of Spam, and challenged myself to make that my dinner for the next week.

Yes, I really thought I was nuts at first, but I felt a lot better walking out of the grocery store after paying less than $5 for a week of dinners. And really, ramen noodles were fast and easy to make even when I got home late, and they weren't so bad. The Spam was a little harder to get used to until I found that if you pan-fried it before serving, it didn't look so much like you were eating Spam. I also had a bag of frozen veggies in the freezer that help liven up ramen noodles after day 3.

After a week of keeping ramen noodles around for quick dinners, I happily picked up more and experimented with adding different proteins (sausage, chicken, tofu and yes, Spam) and different veggies so it was still a different meal each night. The money I save by not running out and getting take-out went to much better uses.

Granted, I'm single and not cooking for anyone else, so I'm sure ramen noodle night won't work for every family. But it taught me that a little bit of creativity helped me forget that I'm cutting back. It also helped me break the eating-out habit.