That Frugal Thing You Do

[Bongleur]

>I sow my socks when they have holes instead of buying new ones

If you sow a black one next to a white one, does it grow argyle?

[red5]

- Use a reel mower and mow myself

- Use rabbit ears (no cable), use trac phone (no landline or smart phone).

- If people aren't wearing sweaters then it is to warm in the house. Seriously, I set the downstairs to 55 to 58 most days and the upstairs to 63 or 64. Warm air rises so I prefer to spend time up there.

- I don't turn the shower all the way up (water pressure), thus there is less water coming out. I think I save water this way and I dont have to turn it as much to the hot side in order to have hot water.

- Vinegar and baking soda are marvelous cleaning agents

- My growing family only knows what a small two door car is like (10 years old). When it goes then we'll get a used 4 door.

- I use cash rewards credit card for everything and pay it off in full.

- A costco membership cost me 55 bucks a year. We go through 3 gallons of milk a week, which saves us at least $1.50 compared to walmart. This alone more than pays for the membership over the course of a year. Add in all the other savings and we save a lot of money. We are very careful only to buy what we need.

- Speaking of Costco, I keep a running excel sheet comparing food prices with Walmart. Since they are close to each other we shop both stores and buy what is cheaper within each store.

- As a note, we bought 10 or 12 boxes of Life when it was on a ridiculous sale. Haven't bought cereal in 3 months.

- Use only cold water in washing machine. Only dry clothes outside.

- Reuse sons sandwhich baggies from school lunch. Either they get cleaned or they get used to pick up dog poo on walks (those ones don't reused!).

- Brownbag all lunches to work. Son brings lunch to school.

- Very rarely buy books. Utilize used book sales (and that is even iffy), mostly use library.

- Try to take our own family portrait instead of hiring professional (which has to be approved by wife )

- Wife cuts hair for kids and I.

- Received like 18 free CFL's from power company.

- The road and living room is my gym

- Netflix instead of movie theatre

- When visiting family we make the 18 hour drive in one day rather than 2 days so we save cost of hotel (of course we'd never compromise safety)

- Don't pay more than .28 for an investment. Average is .13.

- Don't use the heat dry setting on dish washer. Instead, open the door and let the dishes sit over night.

- Turn off oven 5 minutes or so before item is finished.

- Never ever buy bottled water.

- Try to only buy used furniture (except couches, mattresses, etc). Sandpaper and stain will do wonders.

- I do spend money, just carefully. I'll take the kids to the local minor league ball game instead of an MLB game. We go to the smaller local zoo instead of the big state zoo.

I'm sure I could put a few more down but I can't think of any more at the moment. I am in part frugal because I want to be and in part because I have to be. I try to focus on experiences rather than materials which I feel benefits the kids much more. I try not to be cheap either (I'll turn up the heat if we have company, for example), but my wife does think I go overboard .

[VictoriaF]

>I sow my socks when they have holes instead of buying new ones

If you sow a black one next to a white one, does it grow argyle?

If you sow socks next to wild oats you can then wear them in bed.

Victoria

[Fallible]

>I sow my socks when they have holes instead of buying new ones

If you sow a black one next to a white one, does it grow argyle?

If you sow socks next to wild oats you can then wear them in bed.

Victoria

Y'all should win an award for these one liners - but an award of what? (I probably shouldn't ask...)

[VictoriaF]

>I sow my socks when they have holes instead of buying new ones

If you sow a black one next to a white one, does it grow argyle?

If you sow socks next to wild oats you can then wear them in bed.

Victoria

Y'all should win an award for these one liners - but an award of what? (I probably shouldn't ask...)

An award of socks with holes, of course .

Victoria

[lightheir]

- Use a reel mower and mow myself

- Use rabbit ears (no cable), use trac phone (no landline or smart phone).

- If people aren't wearing sweaters then it is to warm in the house. Seriously, I set the downstairs to 55 to 58 most days and the upstairs to 63 or 64. Warm air rises so I prefer to spend time up there.

- I don't turn the shower all the way up (water pressure), thus there is less water coming out. I think I save water this way and I dont have to turn it as much to the hot side in order to have hot water.

- Vinegar and baking soda are marvelous cleaning agents

- My growing family only knows what a small two door car is like (10 years old). When it goes then we'll get a used 4 door.

- I use cash rewards credit card for everything and pay it off in full.

- A costco membership cost me 55 bucks a year. We go through 3 gallons of milk a week, which saves us at least $1.50 compared to walmart. This alone more than pays for the membership over the course of a year. Add in all the other savings and we save a lot of money. We are very careful only to buy what we need.

- Speaking of Costco, I keep a running excel sheet comparing food prices with Walmart. Since they are close to each other we shop both stores and buy what is cheaper within each store.

- As a note, we bought 10 or 12 boxes of Life when it was on a ridiculous sale. Haven't bought cereal in 3 months.

- Use only cold water in washing machine. Only dry clothes outside.

- Reuse sons sandwhich baggies from school lunch. Either they get cleaned or they get used to pick up dog poo on walks (those ones don't reused!).

- Brownbag all lunches to work. Son brings lunch to school.

- Very rarely buy books. Utilize used book sales (and that is even iffy), mostly use library.

- Try to take our own family portrait instead of hiring professional (which has to be approved by wife )

- Wife cuts hair for kids and I.

- Received like 18 free CFL's from power company.

- The road and living room is my gym

- Netflix instead of movie theatre

- When visiting family we make the 18 hour drive in one day rather than 2 days so we save cost of hotel (of course we'd never compromise safety)

- Don't pay more than .28 for an investment. Average is .13.

- Don't use the heat dry setting on dish washer. Instead, open the door and let the dishes sit over night.

- Turn off oven 5 minutes or so before item is finished.

- Never ever buy bottled water.

- Try to only buy used furniture (except couches, mattresses, etc). Sandpaper and stain will do wonders.

- I do spend money, just carefully. I'll take the kids to the local minor league ball game instead of an MLB game. We go to the smaller local zoo instead of the big state zoo.

I'm sure I could put a few more down but I can't think of any more at the moment. I am in part frugal because I want to be and in part because I have to be. I try to focus on experiences rather than materials which I feel benefits the kids much more. I try not to be cheap either (I'll turn up the heat if we have company, for example), but my wife does think I go overboard .

Wow. I'm getting tired just reading and thinking about this!

Drying clothes only outside is pretty serious for frugality!

[Fallible]

>I sow my socks when they have holes instead of buying new ones

If you sow a black one next to a white one, does it grow argyle?

If you sow socks next to wild oats you can then wear them in bed.

Victoria

Y'all should win an award for these one liners - but an award of what? (I probably shouldn't ask...)

An award of socks with holes, of course .

Victoria

This being about frugality, just the holes.

[travellight]

red5- I do about half to 2/3 of what you do but you really take it to the limit, man! You really got me with the excel spread sheet comparing walmart to costco prices.

[Nicolas]

I roast my own coffee beans that I buy green for between $2.50 to $4.00 a lb., depending on variety. The quality is as good or better than gourmet whole bean coffee that you might buy at Starbucks or elsewhere for $15/lb. and up. I never drink coffee that's over a week old (since roasting). I generally have up to several hundred lbs. of green on hand. As a side benefit I can ride out the periodic Brazilian crop failures. When kept in the green state, coffee beans will last for years without degradation. After roasting, quality begins degrading in about six or seven days.

Most people drink stale coffee, they have no idea how long it's been on the store shelf, it may have been months. They've never tasted fresh-roasted coffee so they remain in ignorance. Remember the first time you tasted just-picked garden tomatoes, and what a revelation that was vs. store or canned? It's like that when you drink coffee that you've roasted yourself. It's a revelation. I never buy roasted coffee anymore, only green.

I roast and drink about a pound a week, and I roast about a pound every two to three weeks of decaf for my wife (yes, you can get green decaf beans), so the savings really add up over time.

In the ten years that I've been doing this I must've saved hundreds (dare I say thousands?) over the price of roasted gourmet coffee.

[thomasbayarea]

Put 2 inch clear bubble wrap for insulation on the windows. Cheap, quick and efficient.

Where do you buy 2 inch bubble wrap?

[Mrs.Feeley]

I roast my own coffee beans that I buy green for between $2.50 to $4.00 a lb., depending on variety. The quality is as good or better than gourmet whole bean coffee that you might buy at Starbucks or elsewhere for $15/lb. and up. I never drink coffee that's over a week old (since roasting). I generally have up to several hundred lbs. of green on hand. As a side benefit I can ride out the periodic Brazilian crop failures. When kept in the green state, coffee beans will last for years without degradation. After roasting, quality begins degrading in about six or seven days.

Most people drink stale coffee, they have no idea how long it's been on the store shelf, it may have been months. They've never tasted fresh-roasted coffee so they remain in ignorance. Remember the first time you tasted just-picked garden tomatoes, and what a revelation that was vs. store or canned? It's like that when you drink coffee that you've roasted yourself. It's a revelation. I never buy roasted coffee anymore, only green.

I roast and drink about a pound a week, and I roast about a pound every two to three weeks of decaf for my wife (yes, you can get green decaf beans), so the savings really add up over time.

In the ten years that I've been doing this I must've saved hundreds (dare I say thousands?) over the price of roasted gourmet coffee.

What type of roaster do you have?

I've considered doing this for a long time but what little research I've done into roasters has seemed overwhelming and the decent roasters uber-pricey.

[red5]

red5- I do about half to 2/3 of what you do but you really take it to the limit, man! You really got me with the excel spread sheet comparing walmart to costco prices.

Well in all fairness I have been lazy with the excel sheet lately. We just got the Costco membership a few months ago and at first we did not know which prices were better. Now we have a good idea of what to buy there and what not to buy there so I think the excel sheet will soon be deleted.

[atfish]

What type of roaster do you have?

I've considered doing this for a long time but what little research I've done into roasters has seemed overwhelming and the decent roasters uber-pricey.[/quote]

Some people use hot air popcorn poppers to roast coffee.

[crowd79]

Buy greeting cards at your local dollar store for $1 a piece, or even 2/$1 at some stores like Dollar Tree. Spending $3, $4, $5 up to $10 for some of those fancy ones at Hallmark, etc, is totally ridiculous IMO.

[Boglenaut]

Buy greeting cards at your local dollar store for $1 a piece, or even 2/$1 at some stores like Dollar Tree. Spending $3, $4, $5 up to $10 for some of those fancy ones at Hallmark, etc, is totally ridiculous IMO.

When my son was 3, he was obsessed with balloons. Those $1 helium ballons at Dollar Tree were great. They were $4.50 elsewhere.

[Nicolas]

What type of roaster do you have?

I've considered doing this for a long time but what little research I've done into roasters has seemed overwhelming and the decent roasters uber-pricey.

For the first nine years I used hot air popcorn poppers that I bought at Goodwill stores for $2.99 each. When one would conk out, I'd buy another. (They lasted a long time, but once in a while they would wear out). Basically I had almost zero dollars invested in this hobby. I would try to find the Poppery II popper made by WestBend, they were best. But you can only roast about 1/2 cup of green beans at a time, so it would take me five roastings at 5 to 7 minutes each to roast a week's worth. Lately, a friend showed me how to build my own higher-capacity roaster, made from a Stir-Crazy popcorn popper ($25), a spring-form ring ($1 at Goodwill), a bolt, a few nuts, and washers from the hardware store to replace the plastic shaft of the popper (which would melt otherwise), and a $40 convection oven placed on top to supply the heat, total about $70 to $75. With this setup I can roast a week's worth at once. I would not buy one of the ready-made home roasters. They're too expensive and would just break. You can do this for $2.99 and a supply of green beans. Just make sure the popper has air vents in the side of the chamber, not the bottom. You can find demos on youtube.

[Sam I Am]

My mail-order pharmacy sends me reams of printed material on whatever drug I've ordered. They print on one side, and use heavy bond paper. So, lots of my print jobs go on their paper. I can't get them to stop sending me the material over and over, every time I order. Must be some law they are following.

And, to really save on your books, buy used and resell, all on Amazon. A couple of times I have actually bought, and resold at a higher price.

Setting up a seller's account on Amazon is easy, and you can even print off postage for only a few cents above postage value at your seller's account. That way you don't need to run to the post office to mail. Amazon makes it all very simple. I buy padded book sized mailers in bulk on-line for about 25 cents each, and also labels for printing postage.

One of my pet peeves is seeing an envelope with way too much postage. So I have postage in many values, and a postage scale, so I can always use exact postage. Sorry USPS, I'm not going to overpay even to help you with your deficit!

BTW, the "forever stamp" price increases one cent on January 27, 2013. You can lock in immediate savings of 2.22%, or even more perhaps if you buy enough stamps to cover a few years. I certainly don't think the price will go down anytime soon. We are buying a bunch mainly for Christmas cards.

Yeah, I know the savings are pretty slim!

Sam I Am

[bigmarley4]

I've stopped buying books altogether. I use the public library ebooks that can be downloaded to Kindle, and when not available I get a physical book from the library. As a voracious reader this has saved me $100's/yr.

For music, I use Spotify premium at $9/month instead of buying MP3's. Another big money saver for me as I love new music and would get 2 or 3 albums a month.

bigM

[Sam I Am]

Buy greeting cards at your local dollar store for $1 a piece, or even 2/$1 at some stores like Dollar Tree. Spending $3, $4, $5 up to $10 for some of those fancy ones at Hallmark, etc, is totally ridiculous IMO.

We buy a box of 30 all occasion cards for about $15 at BJs shopping club. Cards are very nice, especially for about 50 cents each.

The box of cards even came with a planner, so you could keep track of all your special days.

Sam I Am

[Mrs.Feeley]

What type of roaster do you have?

I've considered doing this for a long time but what little research I've done into roasters has seemed overwhelming and the decent roasters uber-pricey.

For the first nine years I used hot air popcorn poppers that I bought at Goodwill stores for $2.99 each. When one would conk out, I'd buy another. (They lasted a long time, but once in a while they would wear out). Basically I had almost zero dollars invested in this hobby. I would try to find the Poppery II popper made by WestBend, they were best. But you can only roast about 1/2 cup of green beans at a time, so it would take me five roastings at 5 to 7 minutes each to roast a week's worth. Lately, a friend showed me how to build my own higher-capacity roaster, made from a Stir-Crazy popcorn popper ($25), a spring-form ring ($1 at Goodwill), a bolt, a few nuts, and washers from the hardware store to replace the plastic shaft of the popper (which would melt otherwise), and a $40 convection oven placed on top to supply the heat, total about $70 to $75. With this setup I can roast a week's worth at once. I would not buy one of the ready-made home roasters. They're too expensive and would just break. You can do this for $2.99 and a supply of green beans. Just make sure the popper has air vents in the side of the chamber, not the bottom. You can find demos on youtube.

Thanks for the tip about the Stir-Crazy/roaster. I'll give that some thought. We have a Stir-Crazy that's about to be retired as the plastic dome is currently held together by duct tape, and not too well. Although popcorn flying through the house does provide frugal exercise for the dogs.

Funny you should mention the Poppery II. We had one. I gave a lot of thought to using it as a roaster but most of what I read on Sweet Maria's and in the old usenet coffee-lovers group seemed to point toward the fact that it would need to be rewired to make it hotter, or else I would 1) waste a lot of coffee beans trying to roast them at low temperature and 2) waste a lot of time trying to find coffee beans that would roast properly at low temps. Since I have an aversion to rewiring appliances especially to make them hotter, I gave it away on Freecycle before I burned down the house and wasted money on lots of green partially-roasted coffee beans. Maybe that was a rash and alarmist thing to do.

But I plan to look into the Stir-Crazy-as-roaster. And I thank you for the tip. From the pics I've seen it looks like that would roast a little more efficiently than a hot-air popper.

[Teetlebaum]

Body donation. At least that's what my instructions are, but it's always possible that after my demise my admirers will finally appear and insist on displaying my remains in a mausoleum dominating the city square.

[jridger2011]

Some frugal things:

- commercial quality clothing steamer to steam sweaters and coats, only dry clean when there is a stain or otherwise soiled, or when suits need pressing
- packing lunch, bringing water
- only order 1 drink while having dinner out, unless special occasion
- when something breaks, fix it until cost exceeds 50%-75% of purchase price
- plan meals and food shopping based on weekly specials
- used books and video games

[Nicolas]

What type of roaster do you have?

I've considered doing this for a long time but what little research I've done into roasters has seemed overwhelming and the decent roasters uber-pricey.

For the first nine years I used hot air popcorn poppers that I bought at Goodwill stores for $2.99 each. When one would conk out, I'd buy another. (They lasted a long time, but once in a while they would wear out). Basically I had almost zero dollars invested in this hobby. I would try to find the Poppery II popper made by WestBend, they were best. But you can only roast about 1/2 cup of green beans at a time, so it would take me five roastings at 5 to 7 minutes each to roast a week's worth. Lately, a friend showed me how to build my own higher-capacity roaster, made from a Stir-Crazy popcorn popper ($25), a spring-form ring ($1 at Goodwill), a bolt, a few nuts, and washers from the hardware store to replace the plastic shaft of the popper (which would melt otherwise), and a $40 convection oven placed on top to supply the heat, total about $70 to $75. With this setup I can roast a week's worth at once. I would not buy one of the ready-made home roasters. They're too expensive and would just break. You can do this for $2.99 and a supply of green beans. Just make sure the popper has air vents in the side of the chamber, not the bottom. You can find demos on youtube.

Thanks for the tip about the Stir-Crazy/roaster. I'll give that some thought. We have a Stir-Crazy that's about to be retired as the plastic dome is currently held together by duct tape, and not too well. Although popcorn flying through the house does provide frugal exercise for the dogs.

Funny you should mention the Poppery II. We had one. I gave a lot of thought to using it as a roaster but most of what I read on Sweet Maria's and in the old usenet coffee-lovers group seemed to point toward the fact that it would need to be rewired to make it hotter, or else I would 1) waste a lot of coffee beans trying to roast them at low temperature and 2) waste a lot of time trying to find coffee beans that would roast properly at low temps. Since I have an aversion to rewiring appliances especially to make them hotter, I gave it away on Freecycle before I burned down the house and wasted money on lots of green partially-roasted coffee beans. Maybe that was a rash and alarmist thing to do.

But I plan to look into the Stir-Crazy-as-roaster. And I thank you for the tip. From the pics I've seen it looks like that would roast a little more efficiently than a hot-air popper.

You don't need to rewire or do anything invasively or otherwise to get a Poppery II to roast nice coffee. Like I said, I used them for nine years and never modified them in any way. What you've been reading are the musings of enthusiastic hobbyists talking about tweaking their machines. In no sense does anyone need to do this to be able to roast nice coffee.

[Juniormint]

Saw this posted on slickdeals and plan on giving it a try. If you have the Chase Freedom card with the rotating 5% categories for the months that we have gas as a reward category. You can buy the gas gift cards and get the 5% cash back on that as well. So basically, you buy $200 worth of gift cards, get the 5% cash back and use the gift cards for gas when the categories are different.

[mickeyd]

So basically, you buy $200 worth of gift cards, get the 5% cash back and use the gift cards for gas when the categories are different.

Let us know how that works out. Almost seems too simple.

[hsv_climber]

So basically, you buy $200 worth of gift cards, get the 5% cash back and use the gift cards for gas when the categories are different.

Let us know how that works out. Almost seems to simple.

Chase has and will use the right of closing a credit card for "perk abuse". However, $200 * 0.05 = $10 will be ignored by Chase and won't be worth anyone's time to do it either.

[atfish]

Buy whole milk and water it down to 2% or 1%, etc. Usually the stores around here charge about the same for whole or 2% milk.

[Default User BR]

Buy whole milk and water it down to 2% or 1%, etc. Usually the stores around here charge about the same for whole or 2% milk.

2% is not watered-down whole. To get the same fat content, you'd have to mix about 3 quarts of water per gallon. The result would probably not be palatable to most people.


Brian

[Boglenaut]

Buy whole milk and water it down to 2% or 1%, etc. Usually the stores around here charge about the same for whole or 2% milk.

2% is not watered-down whole. To get the same fat content, you'd have to mix about 3 quarts of water per gallon. The result would probably not be palatable to most people.


Brian

I agree it doesn't seem correct. That would imply Fat-Free milk is water.

[mrspremise]

For me I think it's less about specific things that you do rather than a mindset. Well before the recession, I was always doing occasional cost comparisons and was very active in trying to find the best deals I could on things I wanted. I'm a frequenter of deal forums (though I have to remind myself not to buy things just because they're a "good deal". I check craigslist for all sorts of things first (but I always check to going price of the item). I rarely check out online or go to a restaurant without looking for a coupon first. I do price and quality comparisons for all sizable purchases. I do the cost/oz comparison at the grocery store and try out store brands to see if I can tell a difference. I ask myself "If my husband an I are both ordering a quarter mufaletta, is it better to just order a half, or a whole and have leftovers?" For things that aren't one time purchases, but recurring services, I'm getting much better about "auditing" my expenses from time to time and shopping around than I used to be. Anything that can wait (clothes, electronics, etc) waits until there's a good sale. Things that can't wait as well (food), I still stock up when there are good deals or structure my produce/meat selections around what's on sale.

The interesting thing is because it's a mindset to do a comparison/research, rather than a habit to buy the cheapest thing or not buy things period, is I've found it's adapted to my circumstances better. As I have started to get increasingly more money and a lot less time (18 month old, anyone?), it's relatively easy to factor in a higher time value than I used to. I can allow myself non-frugal choices, but I do it by answering the question "it is worth it to me?" which definitely changes with resources and lifestyle. The trick I find is not always to compare like with like, but opportunity cost. "Yes, this cocktail is much more than if I made it at home. Do I want it as much as I want desert? A movie ticket? An mp3 album?" The answer is normally no, but sometimes the answer is yes.

[VictoriaF]

Body donation.

Before or after?

Victoria

[Faith20879]

Before or after?

[Riverstwo]

I buy all my clothes at Goodwill or Salvation Army.
I fish and hunt for food and have a garden
I cook mostly at home
Yard sales

[reggiesimpson]

I buy all my clothes at Goodwill or Salvation Army.
I fish and hunt for food and have a garden
I cook mostly at home
Yard sales

+1 Just bought 2 terrific jackets at the local Thrift Shop. London Fog! Hardly used and very warm $7 and $6 ( and 50% off cuz it was Monday!).

[Fallible]

I buy all my clothes at Goodwill or Salvation Army.
I fish and hunt for food and have a garden
I cook mostly at home
Yard sales

+1 Just bought 2 terrific jackets at the local Thrift Shop. London Fog! Hardly used and very warm $7 and $6 ( and 50% off cuz it was Monday!).

Those are definitely terrific buys, but I can top them. I still wear a London Fog trench coat and a jacket bought in the late '80s. Still in style (though if they weren't I'd still wear them). Only problem is I've gained weight since I bought them and can't wear heavy clothing like sweaters under them. Of course I could just lose weight...

[Random Poster]

+1 Just bought 2 terrific jackets at the local Thrift Shop. London Fog! Hardly used and very warm $7 and $6 ( and 50% off cuz it was Monday!).

I wonder if the 50% on Monday promotion was a nationwide event? The Goodwill that I visted in Montana on President's Day was running a 50% sale as well.

Never before in my life have I waited in line for a Goodwill store to open, and never before in my life have I seen a line about 25 people deep waiting for a Goodwill store to open.

[interplanetjanet]

I have a beautiful red full length wool coat that was in almost new condition I picked up at a thrift some years ago - they were running various promotions ("everything red on Tuesdays is 70% off") and I ended up getting it for $4. I still think it was the best clothing bargain of my life.

I love thrift stores, they're like a treasure hunt. A good portion of my work wardrobe was assembled from them over the years, some clothes with the tags still on.

One thing that shopping at thrifts really helped me with was understanding how clothing can safely be laundered, considering only the method of construction and the materials (and not the "care" tag). I'm not a big believer in dry cleaning for most things, but a "dry clean only" tag no longer scares me off. I've had success with careful conventional laundering of about 90% of the "dry clean" articles of clothing I've found over the years, and the few blouses that were ruined I only paid $3-4/ea for. I can live with that.

[reggiesimpson]

Funny occurance at our local thrift store recently. I was looking through the clothing and came across a terrific looking green sweater. I said to myself i could use a good looking green sweater so i put it up against my chest a saw that it was a smidge to small.........rats! I then took notice of the emblem on the front and it looked familiar? Yup, it was the same sweater i had donated months ago!
I put it back on the rack.

[Jordana]

As to inexpensive greeting cards, my mother gave my sister and I a box of nice quality greeting cards for different occasions, a few years ago from Costco. The cards looked "unique" and "upscale". My brother and sister-in-law just had a baby and went the family went over, my sister-in-law said that I and my sister had given gifts with the same card. She said the card was nice but she wondered how we had found the same card. Everyone said..."Oh the box of cards from Costco." So much for appearing original, unique or upscale.

[Sam I Am]

Body donation. At least that's what my instructions are, but it's always possible that after my demise my admirers will finally appear and insist on displaying my remains in a mausoleum dominating the city square.

My MIL is signed up with MedCure. All we have to do is give them a ring when she passes. After they are finished with her body, they will cremate her and send her ashes back to the family. She wants her ashes buried in her father's grave.

She arranged everything herself, and all her family supports her wishes. Or, at least no one has said anything about it.

http://medcure.org/

My family is the burying kind, so this wouldn't work for me.

Sam I Am

[Sam I Am]

As to inexpensive greeting cards, my mother gave my sister and I a box of nice quality greeting cards for different occasions, a few years ago from Costco. The cards looked "unique" and "upscale". My brother and sister-in-law just had a baby and went the family went over, my sister-in-law said that I and my sister had given gifts with the same card. She said the card was nice but she wondered how we had found the same card. Everyone said..."Oh the box of cards from Costco." So much for appearing original, unique or upscale.

One of my bosses had an even better Idea. He and his brothers mailed the same cards back and forth to each other each year! He was a pretty cheap boss, so I'm sure he enjoyed the idea, greatly.

Sam I Am

[Stevee]

Coffeemaking- I inherited a Keurig machine. I love it, but those K-cups are rather expensive (I'd guess roughly $0.75 each).
I could buy a reusable K-strainer (permanent K-cup) but why bother? I simply remove the used coffee from a used K-cup, fill it with any ground coffee lying around, cover with foil and voila - recycled K-cup ready for duty!

[Olds33]

I continue to drive my 1989 Buick Century which I bought used in 1999. And this is all in Minnesota where the winters are not gentle on cars.

[gvsucavie03]

I've read a couple of older threads from years back and thought it would be fun to pose this question again... what are some of the frugal things you do?

1. Shop at Goodwill - GREAT bargains in a college town; sometimes new name-brand items for super cheap!
2. Use a cash envelope system for groceries, gas, entertainment and clothes
3. Collect spare change to use for birthday parties/gifts
4. Drive under 65mph on highways to save gas
5. Use a discount card purchased at a hockey fundraiser - lots of 10-25% off deals!
6. Purchase double-minute Tracfone cards instead of monthly cell phone contract
7. Brownbag, sometimes for dinner, too if I'm working late
8. Coupon, coupon, coupon
9. bought a '99 explorer with 210k miles that runs fine
10. Read library books instead of buying them
11. Avoid eating out
12. Read my neighbor's magazine issues after he's done with them

[reggiesimpson]

Lower the thermostat.

[gvsucavie03]

Lower the thermostat.

Where's the blankets??:happy

[cheese_breath]

3a... Throw spare change in a big coffee can and deposit in my savings account when the can gets full. Feels like new money.

[Stonebr]

Lower the thermostat.

Where's the blankets??:happy

and your honey...?

[reggiesimpson]

Lower the thermostat.

Where's the blankets??:happy

and your honey...?

Sweaters.
Looks like lots of BH live in colder climates!

[chaz]

Read library books.