We were expecting a house full of guests. The occasion? My eldest daughter’s confirmation. With 18 people coming to town to celebrate, we knew we were going to have to do some entertaining.

Our original plan was to say the heck with frugality and take everyone out to eat at our new favorite restaurant in town. But then fate stepped in–the restaurant refused our reservation. Their reason? They don’t take reservations so that they can keep tables available for walk-in diners. (Hmm, turn away 18 confirmed paying customers in hopes that you’ll get on-the-fly folks who happen to be hungry? I realize I live in a tourist town with heavy foot traffic on weekends, but that seems like an awful business plan to me.)

OK, so on to plan B–have everyone back at our house, and bring in food to save us the effort of cooking. But when we got the catering menus from two local places, we just about had a sticker-shock heart attack: $50 for a tray of ziti? $45 for a fruit tray? Um, I don’t think so.

So, on to plan C–buy what we need to feed everyone as if we’d actually catered it, and hopefully we would come out ahead financially in the end.

And we did.

For $200 we put together four or so trays of cold cuts, rolls and cheeses, along with a gigantic fruit salad, a large cake (purchased for $20 at the supermarket), enough soda to drown a soccer team, and two cases of wine. In addition, my husband made three huge trays of ziti, and we served two of them that day. We still have another tray in the freezer, which we could use for dinner one night this week, and plenty of rolls for making lunches. While the cold cuts ran out last week, the blocks of cheese are still going strong. In fact, with this past weekend’s heat wave, I had fruit salad, cheese and crackers (and a glass of white wine) for dinner one night–all courtesy of the leftovers from our entertaining menu.

And this was all for $200 or a little over $11 per person. We never could have gotten away with such a cheap affair if we’d gone out. Sure, making all of the food took time and effort on our part. But it was quite satisfying when people complimented us on the meal to be able to say “This is homemade” rather than “We ordered in.”

So the next time you need to entertain the troops and you’re tempted to throw caution and frugality to the wind, take a page from our playbook and make the time to cater it yourself. Your bottom line (and your belly) will thank you.

One of the lessons my frugal mother taught me was never to throw anything away or put a dish in the dishwasher until you were sure that a container was absolutely, positively empty. That meant scraping bowls with rubber spatulas to make sure I’d gotten every last drop of something I’d cooked–and was now serving–or adding a little bit of water to a soap dispenser so I could go just a few more days without having to buy a replacement.

Turns out I’m not the only frugal person who uses creative tricks to make sure everything I own is good to the last drop. That said, here is a collection of 7 ideas about how other folks make stuff last longer–and you can, too.

1. “A tube of moisturizer will stop dispensing (for lack of a better word) even though there is still some product left in the tube. Today I cut the tube in half…there is enough cream left in there for two or even three more applications. Not a lot of money saved, but a few pennies that will eventually add up. You can do the same thing with tooth paste.” (Dee Dee Bowman, author of  The Complete Idiot’s Guide to Vegetable Gardening)
2. “Currently, I have a bottle of foundation on its side on my vanity with a Q-tip nearby to get the last bits of makeup off the side of the glass.” (Linda Carlson, Parenting Press)
3. “I throw a dash of red wine (or white) into pasta sauce bottles to get the last bits out, plus it deepens the flavor.” (Krista Fabregas, SmartLiving Companies)
4. “I turn the liquid laundry detergent bottles on their top for a few minutes when they’re almost empty. Everything drains into the cap. Screw it off carefully and usually there’s enough for one more load.  Say you have a big family and use about a bottle a month – that’s an extra 12 loads a year you get.” (David Wayne, Columbus State Community College in Columbus, Ohio)
5. “I put my dry clean items in the dryer on a light cycle after spraying the underarms with Febreze and some perfume to get them to last longer between cleanings.” (Beth Dunn, Social Climbers)
6. “One thing my mom taught me to do was after I wash clothes, just fluff them in the dryer and then hang them to dry. I didn’t think it made a big difference, but the facts don’t lie: a friend and I bought the same jeans on sale one weekend, and within 8 months his were faded. Mine went strong for years. Fluffing and hanging has given me clothes that last much longer than they used to.” (Sid Savara)
7. “Instead of expensive non-stick cooking sprays, I use butter wrappers to grease baking pans. Also, I save onion skins, potato peelings and other kitchen ‘trash’ in a freezer bag. When the bag is full, simmer the stuff in salted water for about an hour to make a veggie broth.” (Lara Starr, co-author of The Frugal Foodie Cookbook)

Thanks to these great tips, I’ll never look at a (seemingly) empty tube of toothpaste the same way again.

I’m afraid that some of the people who’ve found their way to this blog did so because they are out of work and need to learn how to live more on less. I know that getting a job in the current economy is probably one of the most challenging tasks a professional person has to deal with, and I can only imagine the obstacles college seniors are going to face.

That’s why I’ve dedicated today’s Suddenly Frugal blog posting to job interviewing and networking tips. While these were designed for graduating college seniors, courtesy of Stevenson University in Maryland, they really are applicable to anyone who is looking for a job. That said, here are those 5 tips:

1. Ditch Facebook, get LinkedIn. Develop a network of contacts that can open doors for you. As a graduate (or soon to be one), think professional networking — not just social. Sign up for LinkedIn, a business-oriented social networking site. Most of the out-of-work people I know have been securing job interviews through LinkedIn. It really does work.
2. Make finding a job a daily routine. When you don’t have a job, guess what your full-time job is? Finding a job. Remember: opportunity no longer comes knocking on your door (or dorm wall). You have to go out and seek it. Develop and execute a regular, organized routine of job searching, sending resumes, and follow-up communications with potential employers.
3. Talk to people you know to start networking. When made aware of your career goals, talents, and job search, they can network for you within their own professional circles. Heck, I found myself networking inside a dugout this weekend during a softball scrimmage (parents versus kids–I hit a home run, by the way), when I discovered one of the dad’s of my daughter’s teammate hires writers from time to time.
4. Practice interviewing. Like, have you heard yourself talk, dude? First impressions count. Your ability to articulate your experience and professional goals intelligently counts even more. Always make your first impression a positive one. Practice answering commonly asked interview questions. Role-play with family, friends, or a career counselor to get into the habit of interviewing.
5. Highlight beyond-the-classroom experiences that prepare you for work. Today’s recruiters look for the collegiate experiences that have shaped you as a new, emerging professional. Internships, study abroad, service learning, and student leadership roles provide an experiential education and preparation for the world of work. Be prepared to articulate the value of your outside-the-classroom learning. This advice applies to stay-at-home moms who are returning to the workforce, too. For example, if you’re a parent who is seeking a corporate job, you should highlight on your resume or in any interviews how volunteering helped you to develop skills you could use in the corporate world.

I hope this advice helps you to avoid subsisting on ramen noodles, and rice and beans forever.

I admit it–sometimes I procrastinate. Usually this involves grocery shopping or putting away the laundry, but never anything work related. How else could I get a book offer in January and hand it in eight weeks later? This week I’ve been trying to tackle my many magazine assignments and hand them in early, too. Why? Because it frees up time to market myself more. And to be successfully self-employed, you have to spend 20% of your time marketing.

Here’s another area where I do not procrastinate: my taxes. It’s not because I expect to get a refund each year and want to get it faster–heck if you listen to my “No New Spending Recap” podcast, you know that this year, I owe taxes. And like ripping off a Band-Aid (R) or a strip of hair-removing wax, I’d like to get that pain over with as fast as possible.

If by any chance you tend to leave doing and/or mailing your taxes to the last minute, here are five tax-related tips that, hopefully, you can take to the bank, courtesy of Turbo Tax:

1. You have until the April 15 tax deadline to contribute to an IRA for the previous tax year. (With our tax bill, I’ve got no cash left over for an IRA contribution this year. Bummer.)
2. Don’t forget to include charitable contributions made in 2008. Even mileage to and from volunteering is deductible. (I find that jotting down my deductible mileage daily in my online calendar helps me to keep track of all of that.)
3. You don’t have to wait in line at the post office will all of the other procrastinators. If you’re not using a tax professional, you can go online to prepare and e-file taxes up to the 11th hour. If you are using a tax professional, he/she can file electronically on your behalf.
4. Getting a refund? You can get your money in as little as 8 days when you select to receive it via direct deposit. Just make sure that the IRS has all of the routing codes for your bank account.
5. Not going to make the April 15 deadline? File for an extension. Remember, while this gives you an extra 6 months to file (to Oct. 15 2009), this is not an automatic extension on any taxes you owe. For those you must make the April 15 deadline or risk facing penalties and interest.

Here’s a fun sidebar to this procrastinating theme: Turbo Tax came up with the Top 10 Tax-Procrastination Cities. Do you live here?

1. San Francisco, Calif.
2. Houston, Texas
3. New York, N.Y.
4. Chicago, Ill.
5. San Diego, Calif.
6. Phoenix, Ariz.
7. Seattle, Wash.
8. Los Angeles, Calif.
9. Dallas, Texas
10. Las Vegas, Nev.