Thought you might be interested in how I’m quoted in a Christian Science Monitor story on frugal family living, which is coming out tomorrow; it’s already online today. Too bad they mention me and part of how we made our transformation to frugal living, but not the blog. Bummer.
I’ve got a full plate to deal with in the next five days–and that’s not even including the food we’ll be eating on Thanksgiving itself.
My husband and I are redoing our daughters’ bathroom, starting today (Wednesday) and working straight through Sunday with a short break for dinner on Thursday. We’ve got to take the walls down to studs, demolish the tile wall (they tiles are fall off of the walls), redo the tub, and more. There is a leak in the bathroom, and we need to deal with this problem now before it becomes a major disaster. So though I would love to be taking advantage of Black Friday sales in the next few days, I’m going to be up to my elbows in grout and who knows what else.
That means that until next Monday, when I post again, here is my virtual yule log (like the New York TV station WPIX used to run during the holidays when I was a kid). This should keep you feeling warm and fuzzy in the interim.
In the meantime, post a comment and let me know what topics you’d like to have me tackle in December. The survey I’ve been running this month ends on Sunday, so please feel free to add any ideas on what I can do to make this blog better and more valuable to you.
I am very thankful for your loyal readership, and it’s been my honor to bring you my ideas, via the blog, for the past year and a half. Thank you for sticking around.
Considering that 271 million turkeys will be raised this year–and many millions of them will end up on our Thanksgiving tables (sorry vegetarians and vegans, if that stat upsets you), you can only imagine how many dishes Americans will be washing come Thursday. I mean, even if you just washed one dish per turkey per household–and I know that there will be way more than one dish dirtied per Thanksgiving meal–that’s millions of dishes that have got to get clean.
Given all of that dish-washing that’s bound to occur on Thursday night, I thought it was a good time to remind you, dear readers, of the most eco-friendly and cost-conscious way to wash your Thanksgiving dishes. And that would be in the dishwasher.
Most people think the opposite is true. But check this out: some of today’s newer, more efficient dishwashers use as little as five gallons of water for the entire dishwasher load. On the other hand, says the American Water Works Association, when you wash dishes by hand, the average person uses 20 gallons of water.
Of course the key to making sure that your dishes come out of the dishwasher all clean is to position them properly for optimal cleaning, as this Woman’s Day article describes. This positioning is key so that you don’t have to rewash the dishes by hand and defeat the purpose of using the dishwasher in the first place.
Some people might think that using disposable items for Thanksgiving would be a great way to save water. But you’ve got to think of the waste you’ll be creating for this easy-out from washing dishes.
Remember: Americans increase their trash output by 25 percent at the holidays. Just check out these trashy statistics from Earth 911 on all that–it’s sure to turn your stomach. So while using disposable plates might save your house from using water, the trash you create is going to come out on the other end in a landfill.
Possibly the only exception to this rule would be to serve your Thanksgiving dinner on disposable plates that are also compostable. However, if you’re looking to save money on your Thanksgiving meal, buying all-new, compostable plates probably won’t work for your budget.
But maybe you can add these plates to your Christmas wish list?!
As you know some of the holiday’s biggest shopping days are almost here. They are:
* Black Friday, the day after Thanksgiving, a day when traditionally retailers’ profits finally went into the “black” (from the red) because so many people came out to shop.
* Cyber Monday, the Monday after Thanksgiving when most people return to work–and log on to do the lion’s share of their online shopping. It’s the Black Friday (or Monday) of the cyber world.
While most reports say that retailers have already started slashing prices as a way of drawing shoppers into the stores, there are still big bargains to be had this Friday and next Monday. That’s why I’m offering up these four tips for making the most of Black Friday and Cyber Monday–that is, with green and frugal living in mind. Here goes.
1. Be like Santa and make a list
We’ve talked in the past about how making a list helps you to stay on track when food shopping and meal planning. Well, the same thinking applies to holiday shopping. Here’s what should be on your holiday shopping list:
2. Check prices before your hit the stores
There are websites now that let you preview the Black Friday circulars online before they even show up in your mailbox or inside your newspaper. Log on to check them out so that you have a more realistic sense of what things will actually cost this year, says financial expert Clarky “Debt Diva” Davis.
3. Beat the early birds by doing pre-shopping reconnaissance
My husband and daughter thrive on getting up and getting to the stores by 5 a.m. on Black Friday morning. (It’s the only morning I can get her up that early.) However, Consumer World suggests that people thinking of doing the early-bird shopping thing should do some pre-shopping scouting on the Wednesday before Thanksgiving. This way you can learn a store’s layout ahead of time and then act in a more targeted manner when the doors open the day after Thanksgiving, though some stores like KB Toys are opening at midnight.
4. Cyber Monday deals make actually start on Black Friday
Just as brick-and-mortar retailers got a jump on Black Friday deals, so, too, are some e-tailers. If you log on Black Friday, you just might find some awesome early Cyber Monday deals, such as free shipping. However, the National Retail Federation is predicting that online shoppers will still find tons of deals on Monday, December 1st aka Cyber Monday. Best of all: you’ll save your own gas by shopping online.
This year I was determined to decorate my house for the holidays without spending a dime. I figured, hey, I live on an acre of land and have plenty of public parks near to me–I should have no problem finding greenery and other “natural” items that I can use to transform my house from ho-hum to festive (not Festivus, mind you). And inside the house, I’ve got plenty of containers, candles and ribbon (thank you, Freecyle) that I can use to pretty up my decorations. So as long as I have no problem tapping my inner Martha Stewart, I should be good to go.
And I was.
Because I had two media interviews this week about green-and-frugal holidays–one for a TV syndicate called NewsProNet and the other for the Philadelphia Inquirer–my house had to be fully decked out in holiday regalia by this past Monday when the TV crew showed up at my house; the newspaper sent a reporter and photographer over two days later. I’ve never had to decorate under duress before, but I’m really pleased with the results.
Below are photos of three decorations I came up with that I think any one of you could pull off on your own, in your own home. These are all green and frugal, and completely doable. Let me know what you think.
I was just riffing on decorating when I started stacking these clementines and pine cones in a hurricane lamp I found in my dining room hutch. Not only do I think that the orange color looks amazing, but also I love the contrast in textures with the smooth clementine skin and the bumpy pine cones. This could easily become my go-to Thanksgiving or other winter celebration centerpiece.
While these pine boughs look completely fake–and most people that come into my living room think that they are–they are 100% natural. I used pruning shears to cut them off of the evergreen bushes we have growing out back. I cut 8-10 branches, each about 2-feet long, then secured them together with leftover twisty-ties. I wrapped the twisty-tie in a ribbon, then clustered three Christmas ornaments in the center to complete the look. OK, so props go to my husband for the clustered ornament idea, but I’m taking credit for everything else.
More pine cones! This decoration actually includes parts from two direct-selling “home” parties I’d attended in the past. The iron container holding the pine cones and the candle came from Southern Living at Home. This has been the most versatile little container. (I have a bigger one, too.) It’s held soap in the powder room, salt and pepper shakers when we were eating outside and house keys when it was once sitting on the table inside our foyer. Now the candle was something I’d “won” at a PartyLite candle party, I think. Whatever. This burgundy candle smells like cinnamon spice and just makes the whole dining room (where this container is) evoke the feeling (and scents) of the holidays. Yum.
Earlier this week I went food shopping. Since I’ve been making an effort to meal plan for my family, four things have begun to occur before I head out to the store.
1. I keep a grocery list on the refrigerator. On it I write the items we’ve just run out of and need to replace. I encourage my family members to add to the list as necessary.
2. Each week I write out our meal-planning menu–nothing fancy, just a list of things we could have for dinner.
3. On Wednesday when the supermarket circular arrives in the mail, I go through it and compare it with my grocery list. If there are items that are on sale–like last week’s drumsticks for $.99 a pound–I plan to stock up by stocking my freezer.
4. Before heading out the door to the supermarket, I pull out all of the coupons from the past Sunday’s paper–and any others I’ve been stockpiling–and compare them with not only my grocery shopping list but also with what is available on sale at the supermarket that day.
Then, I grab my reusable shopping bags, a clickable pen (so I can click it on at the store when I need to cross something off the list and then click it off when I’m done, so I don’t risk drawing on myself–one of my hazards) and I’m off.
Yesterday’s food shopping was a record-setting event–for two reasons. First, I was in and out of the store in less than an hour, and I was there to do a full food shopping. And second, I got out of the store with spending $128.00 only.
For the longest time I was averaging, at the very minimum, $180 a week for groceries. More often it was closer to $200 or $225, which meant that we were spending more than $800 a month on groceries. I knew that if I did a better job with planning, I could bring that number down. And it looks like in November, I will have succeeded.
Not only has meal planning helped, but so has the notion of buying packaged items when they’re on sale and when I have a coupon only.
Case in point: yesterday I stocked up on crescent rolls. We use them for a makeshift version of pain au chocolat, if I’m making a breakfast pizza for dinner, or if we just want to have dinner rolls with our meal. This week my store had both the Pillsbury version of crescent rolls on sale along with the store-brand version. But I had a coupon for the Pillsbury brand, which when doubled would give me $.70 off the purchase. I did some quick math in the refrigerator aisle and figured out that while the store-brand version, on sale, was $1.50 per package, with my coupon and the sale price combined, the Pillsbury version was $1.43 per package. I’m sure you can guess which brand I purchased.
Additionally, because I’d been stocking up on meat products when they were on sale (such as the aforementioned drumsticks), I didn’t need to buy any meat this week. And considering none of the meat that my kids like was on sale, that added up to a huge savings.
Finally, someone had once suggested to me that I try to skip a week of grocery shopping to cut down on my grocery shopping bills. At first I thought this idea was ridiculous, because I figured that the week I went back to the store, I’d spend twice as much. I soon learned otherwise.
Here’s how November has played out so far:
Week 1: Skipped a full grocery shopping but needed just a few things to pad the cabinet. Spent $14.
Week 2: Back to full grocery shopping; spent $236
Week 3 (this week): Full grocery shopping based on what we needed; spent $128.
This adds up to $378 spent on groceries so far this month.
Next week is Thanksgiving, and I’m not hosting it, so I will likely be able to get away with a minimal grocery shopping again. So if I’ve figured things right, we might be able to keep our grocery expenses below $500 this month. That would be amazing considering how much I used to spend on groceries. Plus, because of my commitment to meal planning, we have been able to sit down and enjoy dinner together nearly every night this month–save for evenings when the kids need to go to soccer or basketball practice. But soccer ends this week, meaning we can enjoy more dinners together without rushing around.
That’s why this week I’m giving the Suddenly Frugal Seal of Approval to meal planning. Without it I wouldn’t have been so successful in making feeding my family as frugal as possible.
How about you? How has meal planning helped your bottom line?
If you’re looking for a cheap and green gift to make at home this holiday season, check out this link to A Year of CrockPotting. It shows you how to turn old candles into new gifts, via your CrockPot. I’m going to have to give this a try!
A Year of CrockPotting: How to Make Candles in the CrockPot
Right now I’m organizing a holiday shopping, fundraising event at my daughters’ middle school. Besides bringing in crafters and artisans, our parent-teacher group (kind of like the PTA but without the red tape) is going to be selling what we call “spirit wear” as an additional fundraiser at the event. One of the ideas that I’d suggested at our last PTG meeting was ordering up stainless water bottles, with our school’s logo printed on them, and selling them as suggested holiday gifts for kids. After some brainstorming we decided that in addition to the stainless steel bottles (which I still need to order, note to self) we would also create and sell reusable shopping bags. We’re going to promote both as green gifts that benefit the school.
While a stainless steel water bottle or a reusable shopping tote may not seem like a sexy gift to give this holiday season, it is for sure a green one. And as our countdown to a green-and-frugal holiday season progresses, here’s something I’m going to suggest you consider–adding at least one green element to your gift-giving or gift-buying this year.
Maybe you can take a page from my holiday wrapping from last year. That was when I packaged all of my gifts in reusable shopping bags. I adorned each bag with a ribbon and a jingle bell to create a festive package where the wrapping itself was part of the gift. I’ve got some of those bags still leftover so I might use them again for wrapping this year.
I’m sure you’ve seen these reusable bags at nearly every store where you do your shopping. Most of these bags retail for about $.99, which is truly a bargain. Some of the prettiest reusable bags I’ve seen are on sale at SuperFresh, part of the A&P family. The bags I gave last year were pretty much utilitarian–black and made from recycled soda bottles. But I kept a few for myself and, man, are they useful.
Another way you can consider going green with your gifts is giving everyone on your gift list a reusable water bottle. For kids, you can fun-up the gift by stuffing it like stocking, by filling it with all kinds of goodies; if you’re Jewish, load it up with Chanukay gelt.
There are plenty of reusable water bottles to choose from–including the aforementioned stainless steel ones. I just got some from an Arkansas company called Cynergreen, and I just love my stainless steel bottle–especially the way it keeps my water cold and tasty. Another company debuting some cool reusable water bottles this year are the folks at Thermos, known for their, well, Thermos containers (remember taking hot soup to school in your Thermos? I do). These are BPA-free and come in fun colors–blue, pink, green and purple. They’re also dishwasher safe and impact resistant. Thermos also makes a stainless steel version of the reusable water bottle. I wouldn’t be surprised if a number of these ended up under a tree–or by a menorah–this year.
So wouldn’t that be an easy change to make this year–adding one or two green elements to your holiday giving? I doubt it will add much to your budget.
Think about how much waste you’ll be able to keep out of the trash by not have wrapping paper to deal with (thanks to the reusable bags)? Or what about all of the plastic water bottles you’ll help to keep out of landfills by giving someone a reusable bottle so he/she doesn’t have to rely on disposable water bottles anymore?
Do you think these ideas are doable? What other ways might you green your gift buying and giving this year? I’d love to hear your ideas.
With Thanksgiving just a bit over a week away, now is the perfect time to think about how you might add some green to your Thanksgiving celebrations. Making it affordable during these uncertain economic times isn’t such a bad idea either. Here are 8 ways you can accomplish both.
1. Buy local whenever possible
Whether you’re serving turkey or tofurkey next Thursday, you’ll do your local community right if you try to take a locavore approach to Thanksgiving. Visit Local Harvest or Consumer Union’s Eat Well Guide to find still-open farmer’s markets or local farms that sell direct to consumers. When you buy locally, you can feel confident that you’re getting a fresher product that hasn’t burned thousands of oil miles to get to your table. (Too bad they don’t grow clementines in Pennsylvania; I know I’m going to be Jones-ing for them this year.)
2. Choose organics if you can
With the way grocery costs have been going up, making the choice for organics is no longer for the rich and famous only. Sure, you’ll pay a bit more but not so much so that you can’t consider adding a few organic elements into your Thanksgiving-day meal.
3. Purchase in-season produce
“In season root vegetables like broccoli, cauliflower, cabbage and brussel sprouts are not only full of cancer-fighting compounds,” says Sophie Uliano of Gorgeously Green, “but are their freshest this time of year.” She’s right about them being in season–the last few weeks of my CSA had my reusable shopping bags filled with all of the veggies mentioned above, plus sweet potatoes. Yum.
4. Have your dinner during daylight
A great way to cut your electric bills during the holiday is try to do most of your celebrating during daylight hours. True, it does get dark earlier now, but if you serve Thanksgiving as lunch, you can probably get away without turning on any lights. And that will for sure be good for your budget.
5. Use reusable everything
I know too many people who like to take the easy way out when serving Thanksgiving, and serve on plates and platters that they can throw away. Considering that Americans’ trash output increases by 25 percent at the holidays, I can’t imagine consciously adding to the extra 25 million tons that adds up to each year. Scary. At the same time store any leftovers in reusable containers that you can put in the dishwasher (not the trash) once they’re empty.
6. Start composting (if you aren’t doing so already)
Speaking of trash a terrific way to cut down on yours is to begin composting your food scraps. Thanksgiving is a perfect time to get started because you’re going to have so much food anyway. Why fill a trash bag when you can fill a compost bin? Check out Freecycle or your local state university’s co-op extension program for free or low-cost composters.
7. Keep the heat on low
If you’re going to be spending the day in the kitchen, you will be warm enough. And if your home is filled with lots of people, everyone will be plenty warm. For these reasons you don’t need to turn the heat up too much, even if it is cold outside. Just like keeping the lights off during Thanksgiving will save you energy (and money), so will keeping the thermostat at a lower number. For example, if you would normally set the heat at 70 degrees, try 68 degrees. Those two degrees can save you two percent on your heating bills.
8. Make it a pot luck
A great way for you, the host, to save money is not to have all of the cooking responsbilities fall on your sole shoulders. Instead of slaving away in the kitchen, make your Thanksgiving a pot luck. Assign people the job of bringing appetizers, sides and dessert, and have your primary job be cooking the main course. Not only will this save you money, but if you only have to use your oven to cook one dish, you’ll use less energy in the long run.
Do you have additional ideas for making your Thanksgiving green and affordable? Let me know.
Today starts the Lean Green Family’s countdown to a green-and-frugal holiday season. In the next few weeks I’ll be writing about specific topics as they relate to the November and December holidays, starting tomorrow with Thanksgiving. You might think of Thanksgiving has being brown and orange, but I’ll share ideas with you on how to make it green and budget friendly.
Some of the other topics I plan to cover include:
* Wrapping presents so you don’t hurt Mother Earth
* Meal-planning with the environment–and your budget–in mind
* Green-and-frugal decorating
I’ll have ample opportunities to think about what topics I’m going to cover–specifically today and Wednesday. That’s when two separate media outlets are coming to my home to interview me about having an eco-friendly holiday. One is an on-camera, TV interview (I’ll let you know when it broadcasts); the other is a print interview, with a photo shoot, for a major daily newspaper (I’ll let you know when that goes live).
Of course what this means is that this past weekend (and this morning as well), we’ve been racing to get our home holiday-ready, even though we’d just barely put away the Halloween decorations. But that’s what you get when you work with and contribute to the media.
Now excuse me while I go trim my tree…
Normally, I don’t post on the weekend, but I couldn’t let America Recycles Day (today, November 15th!) pass us by without acknowledging it. This event, created by the National Recycling Coalition in 2005, is supposed to remind Americans of the importance of recycling and provide a refresher course on the do’s and don’ts of recycling.
I couldn’t help but think of the importance of recycling two weeks ago, when two new sets of phone books showed up on my door step. (Actually, they showed up in plastic bags at the base of my driveway. I’ve already reused the plastic bags for cleaning up after my dog.)
I’d written in the past (actually, almost exactly one year ago) about my frustration at not being able to opt-out of receiving phone books so I can stop the phone books from showing up at my home. I also wrote about what great kindling phone books make, in case you’re wondering what you can do with your extra phone books, especially since not all recyclers take them.
Instead of just burning up this time about phone books, I decided to do some investigating about how one might go about either opting out of phone book delivery and/or figuring out the most efficient way to ensure that phone books get recycled.
For starters, I guess the best way to avoid getting phone books is to cut your landline all together. (They don’t send phone books to wireless customers, do they?) Considering we went down to one phone line only this summer–and there is only one phone number for us listed in the phone book–I’m not quite sure why we received two phone books. Nonetheless, I’m sure that many of my friends who don’t even have landlines don’t have this phone book problem.
Next, if cutting the landline isn’t in your plans, you can find out if you have local options for recycling phone books. I know, for example, that the Abitibi Paper Retriever dumpsters that our school district uses to collect recyclable paper and fund-raise for the schools does not accept phone books–it says so right on the outside of the dumpster. But I believe my curbside recycling program does.
You can also see if there are any local promotions going on that involve phone book recycling. I just found out about a Maryland program called “Recycle As You Shop,” which the Yellow Pages Association partially sponsors. It encourages residents to recycle phone books when they visit certain stores; in response, they’ll get a discount coupon to that store.
Speaking of the Yellow Pages, they have a search box on the Yellowpages.com website on how and where to recycle phone books. Since this site is affiliated with Keep America Beautiful (KAB), it will bring up the nearest KAB location that can take your phone books off of your hands for you. Or you can try a search on Earth 911, which will bring up actual recycling centers that take phone books.
A blogger over at Radiant Ideas recently wrote that she was able to call her local phone company and tell them that she didn’t want phone books anymore–but she doesn’t know yet if the request has stuck. “Most directories have an 800 number on the inside cover or within the 1st 2-3 pages that say, ‘To order a directory, call…’,” she told me in an email. “Just call that number and ask to be removed from their distribution list.”
I’ve got to be honest with you–the phone company doesn’t make it easy for you to find out which number to call to opt-out. Even with her specific advice, I searched in vain for a phone number to call but I found nothing.
A blogger at CommonCraft had some better luck–he found some real phone numbers people can call to stop phone book delivery through various phone companies nationwide; another person started a Facebook petition group called Stop the Drop to achieve the same. Even a professional organizer has gotten in on this idea. (Obviously this notion of unwanted phone books has touched a nerve with a lot of people.)
When I approached the company Idearc, which publishes my local phone book, they directed me to a “recycling” page that included lots of information on how phone books are made from recycled content and how you can put your phone book out with your curbside recycling if you no longer want or need it. There didn’t seem to be any useful information on this page, about opting-out of phone books, until I gave this paragraph a closer look:
A ha. Could this be the holy grail number I’ve been looking for, kind of hidden in code, which will allow me to state my preferences to “access information through Superpages.com” and therefore stop receiving printed phone books? I’ll have to give this number a ring on Monday and see what happens.
Look, don’t get me wrong. I’m not against phone books per se–I still have fond memories of how a phone book at my grandparents’ house became my makeshift booster seat at the dinner table when I was very young. And there are times that I’ll leaf through a paper phone book the way I might leaf through a dictionary or an atlas–to fill the time and maybe uncover some useful information. What I’d like to see change, though, is the blanket distribution of phone books to households that clearly don’t want or need them. I hope that this post helps to serve as a wake-up call to the phone companies and the companies that print phone books.
Earlier this week I posted about the notion of being frugal vs. being a spendthrift vs. being a tightwad or a cheapskate. Many of you posted comments to let us know that, like me, you fall happily into the frugal category, but some of you are still struggling to give up your spendthrift ways. In fact, one reader posted this question in the comment box, which I thought was such a good question that I turned it into today’s blog posting:
Q: I’m trying to work towards frugal, but I’d honestly rather keep being a spendthrift than become a tightwad. This is something I’ve been thinking about a lot lately, as I read more and more frugality bloggers–how do you avoid becoming miserly when you focus so much on saving money?
A: I don’t think you have to jump right from spendthrift to tightwad, just as I wouldn’t suggest that you make a major change in your habits all at once. This will surely lead to resentment on your part and, most likely, failure in your attempt to adopt more frugal ways. Instead, I would suggest that you ease yourself into ways you can save money so that over time, you can comfortably go from spendthrift to frugal without feeling too much pain.
Here are some ways you can do that.
* Make an effort to meal plan
I can’t stress enough how important meal planning is to saving money. On its most basic level, when you meal plan and know what you’re having for breakfast, lunch and dinner–and you stock your kitchen accordingly–you will be less tempted to eat out. Once you start cooking at home, you’ll start saving. Sure, your grocery bills will go up–that’s to be expected. But I’ll bet that soon enough, you’ll see your restaurant spending going down.
* Don’t go shopping when you’re bored
We used to call this “shopper-tainment,” and it’s something we got in the habit of doing when we lived in Michigan. You see, in Michigan it’s pretty much winter eight months of the year, and you can cross-country ski and sled only so much. On days when we couldn’t figure out what to do with ourselves, we went to Target or the mall. Bad habit to get into and one we brought with us when we moved back East. If you find yourself driving to the mall or walking around downtown, just because you’ve got nothing better to do, find something else you can fill your time with. This isn’t to say that you can’t ever go shopping for the pleasure of it, but try to limit it to when you actually need something. Or ease yourself out of “shopper-tainment” by going less frequently or consciously buying fewer and fewer things when you go out. Remember, acquiring more “stuff” isn’t very green either. Hopefully, soon enough you’ll have gotten rid of your desire to shop as your hobby.
* See what regular expenses you can get rid of
When we decided to live more frugally, one of the first things we did was go through our regular bills and see what we could do without in order to start saving money. Initially, I got rid of my online subscription to WeightWatchers.com, because I just wasn’t using it anymore. We asked our kids to each give up an online gaming site that we were paying $5 a month for them to use but, frankly, they weren’t using. About six months later, we sat down again and reviewed our bills to see if there was any other fat we could cut from our spending budget. This time around we decided to stop subscribing to HBO (once the Sopranos and The Wire were over), which saved about $20 a month. We did, however, keep our Tivo and Comcast on Demand subscriptions. Another cut we could make was to the second landline in the house, which I used for business purposes. Since I was using my cell phone most of the time, why bother paying for that second line just for the convenience? Cutting that landline added up to $750 in savings a year. And as I mentioned in that earlier post on frugal, spendthrift or tightwad, we saved up to pay off our car, so we could free up $400 a month.
These are three simple things that you can do to become more frugal. Let me know if these make sense and, if you end up adopting any of these changes, how they’re working out for you.
I’m not quite sure what I did before I discovered Freecycle and its offshoot groups, like “Recycle It.” Wait, yes I do–when I had stuff to get rid of and which I couldn’t donate to charity, I either threw it out or tried in vain to sell it on eBay. When I needed something, I never thought outside of the Big Box store–I just went shopping and bought more stuff.
But along the way to this green-and-frugal lifestyle, someone told me about Freecycle, and I decided to give it a try.
At first I was a bit nervous about joining my local Freecycle list–what kind of freaks would I be dealing with when giving away or getting items? But quickly I realized that, like most groups, there were some off-beat personalities, but overall mostly everyone I’ve dealt with has been super nice, friendly and generous.
If you’re not familiar with Freecycle, here’s the basic concept: since many people want to keep their unwanted items out of the waste stream, they choose to recycle them (really reuse or repurpose them) by giving them away for free to others. Freecycle works both ways–people can post when they’re giving away items, and people can post when they want items. I wrote a piece a few months ago about Freecycle etiquette, which can help people become familiar with the protocol involved.
Just this week I put Freecycle to good use–for getting rid of something I no longer needed and acquiring something I did.
What was I getting rid of? A half-used bag of dry dog food, a brand that my vet recommended but which my dog rejected. Rather than toss the remaining food (which was not cheap, thank you very much), I decided to put an offer up on Freecycle. The first person to respond was a women who fosters dogs. Perfect.
And what did I need? Ribbons, all kinds of ribbons. As I was thinking ahead towards the holidays, I realized that I was going to need a lot of ribbons and string and yarn for various projects around the house, including decorating and wrapping presents. I thought I’d give a “wanted” shout out to my local group to see if anyone had any ribbon I could take off their hands. Turns out a women who works about 20 minutes away had three big shoeboxes filled with spools of ribbon that she’d been holding on to for years. She was more than happy to give them to me for free. Terrific.
In addition to these two examples, here are other things I’ve given away and gotten via Freecycle:
* Moving boxes (gave away)
* Bubble wrap (gave away)
* Computer desks (gave away)
* Plants for my garden (received)
For anyone who is budget- and/or eco-conscious, Freecycle is the way to go. That’s why this week I’m giving the Suddenly Frugal Seal of Approval to Freecycle. (FYI, this link will tell you how you can find a Freecycle group that’s nearest to you.)
I’ve written a number of times already about how I subscribe to the FlyLady way of “keeping house.” One of things I love about FlyLady is that each month she focuses on developing a new habit. One month it was making the bed every day, another month it was not letting your laundry turn in “Mount Washmore.” And this month, she is focusing on meal planning.
I feel like I’m already ahead of the game because I started meal planning in earnest a few months ago. But given that the holidays are coming up–and many of us could be entertaining (and feeding) more people than usual–now more than ever you need meal planning to keep your food shopping on budget and to ensure that no food you’ve bought goes to waste.
Here are 3 things for you to keep in mind.
1. Shop via the supermarket circular
For those who are used to meal planning based on what’s on sale at the supermarket, this is a no brainer. You take time to look through the circular and then you plan your meals accordingly. If it’s not on sale, you don’t get it. And sometimes what you would like to serve your family isn’t on sale, and you need to deal with it and figure out what you can serve that is on sale. But enough about that. Next time you pick up a supermarket circular, don’t just think about the next week’s meals–think ahead to Thanksgiving and Christmas.
Are there items on sale that you’re going to need for your family meal? Will you be doing a lot of baking five weeks from now? If you find baking supplies on sale, don’t wait until December to get them–buy them now. Case in point: my supermarket had Ghihardelli chocolate chips on sale this week ($2/bag versus the usual $3.50/bag) and cake mix ($10 for 10 boxes) so I stocked up. Now when I get a memo home from school that I need to make chocolate chip cookies or cupcakes for a class party, I won’t have to rush to the store and pay full price for baking supplies. You can stock up on other items that will last until December, such as canned or frozen vegetables, or loaves of bread (stick them in the freezer).
2. Meal planning doesn’t have to be a big production
For the longest time I assumed that people who meal-planned laid out each meal like a restaurant lays out a four-course meal. In other words they would have details down to the last ingredient for appetizers through dessert. Now while it’s important to make sure that you have ingredients you need on hand, you don’t have to freak yourself out each week by making elaborate meal plans. Instead, you can treat meal planning like you do your weekly shopping list.
In my house, for example, I have a notepad on a magnet that is stuck to my refrigerator door. As we run out of items, we jot down what we need to get the next time I go food shopping. Well, these days I’ve got a second list going, and it is simply a list of what I could potentially serve for dinner, based on what I was able to buy at the supermarket this week.
I went food shopping yesterday, and here’s what I’ve got on the list:
* Grilled chicken sandwiches and potatoes (We had this last night.)
* Pasta with salad and/or turkey meatballs or chicken parmigiana
* Chicken drumsticks in the CrockPot with rice
* Quesadillas
* Breakfast 4 Dinner
* Chicken stir-fry
* DIY pizza
See how easy that is? And I’ve got all of the information I need to walk into the kitchen and make dinner. I haven’t committed myself to which day I’ll serve what but at least I won’t be standing at the fridge, starving at 5:00, wondering, “What the heck am I going to feed my family tonight?”
3. Check your calendar and stick to your plan
I know how easy it is to come home after a long day of work and kids’ sports and other commitments and just want to call the local pizza joint. Trust me, in my old spendthrift days, that was my common fallback plan. But if you can plan ahead, based on what kind of day you’re going to have, you can still plan to cook at home so that you save money and don’t waste food.
Today, for example, we have a jam-packed afternoon, with about an hour’s window of free time to eat dinner together. That’s why at 7:00 a.m. this morning I was prepping chicken drumsticks for the CrockPot so that they could cook all day and be ready for dinner in that hour of free time between 5:00 and 6:00 p.m. I’ll cook some rice in the microwave and may open a can of corn, too, and in 15 minutes flat, dinner will be on the table. This is why it’s so critical to check your calendar each day so that you can stick to your meal plans.
Let me know how you make the power of meal planning work for you.
I was chatting with some folks the other day, trying to pick their brains about the best place and price for getting a Wii. Like so many other families, we’ve decided to get this gaming system for our kids–and a Wii Fit for me–for Christmas. And like so many other families, I imagine, will be doing, we are making this our one big present for the holidays and that’s it. It’s our attempt not to let the grinch steal Christmas while still staying in the black.
While many of the women gave me great advice–check out Costco, have you looked on eBay, things like that–one of the women made a snarky comment that really caught me off guard: “Gee, I should try to be your kind of frugal,” she said to me. “It would raise my standard of living.”
Huh?
I think she must have me confused with a spendthrift. I guess it’s her assumption that if you’re living frugally, you can’t possibly be doing something like buying a Ninetendo Wii. But she would be wrong.
The reason that we can afford to get this present this year is because we’ve cut back enough to save up the money to buy it–painfree and debtfree. I think that’s the part this person has missed.
On the other hand I have a friend who would never consider buying her daughters a Wii–and she calls herself frugal like I do. However, I think that this woman is actually a tightwad or a cheapskate. While she lives well and is always nicely dressed, I know that it pains her to spend money on anything. She relies on Freecycle for nearly everything she needs, she’s an avid gardener and canner, and I can’t remember the last time she got in her car–she hates to spend money filling the tank.
I couldn’t help but think about this friend–and myself–when I came across a survey from Wharton Business School that asked, “Are you a tightwad, frugal or a spendthrift?” In surveying 13,000 Americans about these three “labels,” they determined that people who fit into one of these categories have very different personality traits. (I’d referenced this study once before in an earlier post on grocery shopping in a more affordable manner.)Here are some of their findings:
* Tightwad
According to this study, which created its own “spendthrift-tightwad” scale, tightwads are defined as people “who feel intense pain at the prospect of spending money, and therefore tend to spend less than they would ideally like to spend.” In fact, tightwads, which some call cheapskates, tend to underspend on many things and therefore always feel as if they’re living at a disadvantage or like they’re missing out on something. That doesn’t sound like much fun.
* Frugal
Frugal folks take great pleasure in saving money and will spend when they know they are getting the best bang for their buck. The Wharton study showed that frugal people tend to be the happiest of the three. “The more frugal you are, the happier you are,” says the study’s authors.
* Spendthrift
Spendthrifts “feel insufficient amounts of pain at the prospect of spending and therefore tend to spend more than they would ideally like to spend.” Because of their out-of-control spending, spendthrifts carry a great amount of guilt, which makes them feel unhappy.
Having once lived my life as a spendthrift, with more debt than I knew what to do with, I can tell you first hand that I am much happier now that I’m living a frugal life. I feel like I’m in control of my spending, how I feed my family and what I’m able to save each month.
I mean, my husband and I made a conscious effort to cut back on our spending in the past year because of various goals we had. One of them was to pay off our car so we could free up $400 a month. In 10 months time, we saved up the $20,000 and in August we sent a check to the bank that held the car loan. Now we have a little more financial flexibility because of the $400 we don’t have to send in car payments anymore, which is why we can afford to spend money on a Wii.
I’m frugal and I’m proud. What about you? Based on the description above, which category do you fit into–frugal, spendthrift or tightwad–and why? I’d love to hear your thoughts.
I just learned how to edit video in iMovie on my MacBook. So this weekend I took some footage from a satellite media tour I’d done for Earth Day this past year, and put together this short segment where I talk about cutting down on paper usage. I’m also using this segment to submit myself for another hosting job–I found out about a new show that’s focusing on how going green can save you green. Let me know what you think.
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LsCzqXfGS2w&hl=en&fs=1]
Black Friday is three weeks from today, though you’d never know it. Been to any stores lately? I’ll bet you that they’re fully decked out in Christmas and other holiday decorations. Heck, I ran to the supermarket on Election Day and found employees at the local shopping center affixing giant wreaths and candy canes to the lamp posts. In addition, I read in the news that K-Mart was starting its Black Friday promotions today. It’s no wonder: retailers are quietly freaking out about lower-than-expected holiday spending.
There is one bright spot on the retail horizon–gift cards.
According to the National Retail Federation’s (NRF) 2008 Holiday Consumer Intentions and Actions Survey, consumers will have gift cards on their gift-giving brains once again this year. More than half (53.8%) of shoppers last year put gift cards on their list, and that number has increased slightly this year (54.9%). So you can expect that you are either going to be giving or receiving some gift cards this year.
I’ve said before how much I enjoy giving and receiving gift cards. While some people think that they are impersonal and the same as giving cash, I think they can be wonderfully personal–especially if you give a gift card to a retailer the recipient likes. Because when you do, you’ve given that recipient carte blanche to go on a shopping spree, courtesy of you. Plus, if you’ve got finicky shoppers on your list (read: my tween and teenage daughters), what they like today will change tomorrow. So unless you want to give the gift of having to return something, you might as well stick with a gift card.
In addition, I like to think of gift cards as a green gift, in that they come with minimal packaging. Also, some gift cards are biodegradable, such as the ones that Target offered last year. (If they have them this year, too, I’m totally buying a bunch for people.)
That same NRF survey asked why people like myself choose to give gift cards. Some of the results seem pretty accurate, based on my own opinions and experiences:
*gift cards allow the recipient to select their own gift (25.4%)
*gift cards are easier and faster to buy than traditional gifts (12.6%)
*gift cards help them stick to their budget (5.7%)
*gift recipients won’t have to deal with returning unwanted merchandise (5.1%)
The survey also found that some gift-card buyers end up making that purchase because of retailer incentives. I can tell you that’s very true. Recently, we splurged and enjoyed our first meal out at a restaurant in a long time. We went to my husband’s favorite place–Ted’s Montana Grill. While we were there we noticed a table card about a promotion that Ted’s was running: if you spent $100 in gift cards, you would get a $25 gift card for free. Bam, that would take care of much of our holiday shopping for friends and family nearby, and it would allow us to spend $100 on $125 worth of gifts. I’ve heard of other local restaurants offering similar deals
Now it isn’t all rainbows and butterflies for gift cards across the retail spectrum. Here are some reasons why people won’t be buying gift cards this year, according to that same NRF survey:
* gift cards are impersonal (22.7%)
* they would rather stretch their dollar by buying merchandise on sale (10.9%)
* they do not want to buy a card with expiration dates or added fees (9.8%)
* they don’t know which gift card a person would want (7.7%)
* they are worried the gift recipient will lose the gift card (3.9%)
* they are worried the retailer will go out of business (3.1%)
The last concern turned out to be very true for people who bought gift cards last year from The Sharper Image, which declared bankruptcy after Christmas and stopped honoring gift cards, and certain chain restaurants, like Don Pablos, which simply shut its doors and went out of business all together in less than 24 hours. (Some customers were able to get cash refunds for worthless gift cards.)
If you’re like me, you are probably seriously considering giving gift cards once again this holiday season. So with Black Friday right around the corner, I thought you might find the following 5 Tips for Buying Gift Cards (based on an NRF tip sheet on the same subject) helpful:
1. Know the difference between retailer and bank-issued gift cards.
Shoppers should be aware that there are big differences between store-issued and bank-issued gift cards. According to NRF, none of the gift cards from the nation’s 25 largest retailers (including Costco, CVS and Target) have expiration dates and 84% have no fees. On the other hand, gift cards from banks, malls or credit-card companies are more likely to have fine-print rules you need to read.
2. Buy gift cards from reputable retailers.
To ensure that a recipient receives the card’s full value, shoppers should only buy gift cards from reputable retailers (not online auction sites). Gift cards sold through online auction sites are more likely to be counterfeit or obtained fraudulently.
3. Spend your gift card, don’t save it.
While most retail-issued gift cards do not have expiration dates, some retailers may deduct a “service fee” from gift cards that are unused a year or so after purchase. In other words, the longer you hold on to a gift card, the smaller the value on the card can become. That’s why creating and keeping a gift card wallet with you at all times will help ensure you get the full value out of all of your gift cards.
4. Personalize your gift card.
When giving a gift card, make the gift card more personal by packaging it with other small items you know a person would like. Enclose a movie theater gift card with candy and popcorn, or add a pair of earrings with a gift card for a clothing retailer. Personalize the gift even more by buying a gift card from a retailer that allows shoppers to design their own cards with personal messages and photos. One such online retailer is Cardways, which lets you upload your photos to gift cards, sort of like how Stamps.com lets you use your own photos to create one-of-a-kind (and legit) postage stamps.
5. Keep your receipt.
Some retailers are able to reissue a lost gift card if consumers have kept the original purchase receipt. I find that enclosing the receipt, sort of like a gift receipt, is helpful if you’ve bought a gift card off of one of those gift-card kiosks you find in supermarkets and drugstores. Because the cashier is supposed to have activated the gift card when you bought it, enclosing the receipt with the gift card will allow the recipient a back-up plan should the card end up not activated. (Unfortunately, that back-up plan is going back to the original retailer where you purchased the gift card, with the receipt, so that the store can activate it for real.)
If you’re interested, I’ll try to write again about gift cards–especially how they make for excellent teacher gifts. Post a comment to let me know your interest.
Dear Readers:
Today, I have posted a survey on the top right hand corner of the blog home page. It asks you about your favorite regular features on the blog. It’s important for me to know what you like, what you don’t like and what you’d like to see more of. This survey will be live for the month of November, and I hope you’ll take it. It shouldn’t take more than a minute to complete.
I’ve added an “other” option to the survey so you can tell me about a new regular feature you would be interested in seeing me add to this blog. You’ll notice that is says “Other: Please post comment.” You can post a comment on this post or another in the near future to let me know what “other” means to you. Maybe there’s a regular feature on another blog that you read that you’d like to see me add here. Perhaps you’ve asked yourself many times, “Why doesn’t Leah cover X.” Well, let me know what X is and I’ll see about adding that to The Lean Green Family (formerly Suddenly Future) soon.
Thanks for taking the survey.
Perhaps my love of cardigan sweaters began when I professed my commitment to preppy dressing, thanks to The Official Preppy Handbook. Whereas my high school classmates would don jean jackets and sweatshirts on chilly school days, you could usually count on me to have on a cardigan of some kind. This love of cardigans continued into college, my work days and my current life as a wife, mother and writer. In fact, as I’m writing this blog posting, I’m wearing a Tommy Hilfiger argyle sweater (bought on sale at the outlets).
Now that I’ve embraced green-and-frugal living, I’ve come to realize how important cardigan sweaters (or any sweater, for that matter) can be. That’s because during cold winter months, you might be tempted to turn up the thermostat when the going gets cold. But we green-and-frugal folks know that for every degree of heat we do not add to the thermostat, we can save one percent on our heating costs. Lower the thermostat to five degrees less than you would normally set it in the winter, and you can expect to cut your heating costs by five percent.
That’s why this week, I’m giving my Suddenly Frugal Seal of Approval to cardigan sweaters. I don’t care which brand you wear or what style sweater you choose. The idea is that as we go into the cold-weather months here in the United States, you may be tempted to continue dressing like it’s late summer and just to crank up the heat to keep warm. Don’t. Instead, put on a cardigan (or other kind) of sweater, and keep your thermostat at a conservative number to keep your heating costs down. Remember, the less energy you use to heat your home, the fewer CO2 emissions you’ll be contributing to the atmosphere. And you’ll look pretty darn smart wearing a cardigan, if I do say so myself.
Dear Readers:
Now that the election is over, I want to apologize for dragging any political controversy into my blog. My job here is to provide you with usable information on living green and frugally. While I’d like to be able to tie topics into something timely that’s going on in the news, my preference is to do so without showing too much of a bias.
I’m afraid that in my recent post on frugal shopping, I may have crossed a line, and for that, I’m sorry. John McCain’s humble and gracious concession speech last night left me thinking that I owed it to you, my 10,000+ monthly readers, to stick to my blog’s path and keep politics out of things. I should have been more like Stephanie, the Crock Pot Lady, who did an excellent job of being non partisan while still being timely–by printing Crock-Pot recipes for John McCain ribs and Barack Obama chili.
With that in mind, I have edited the 5 Ways to be a Frugal Shopper thread, the one that raised so much ire and controversy, to include basic shopping information only–no political jabs. I hope that any readers who may have considered quitting my blog will consider staying instead. And to those who unsubscribed, I hope one day you will come back. Thank you for your continued readership and support.
Leah Ingram
November 5, 2008
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