Frugal Mania

This was a question I had to ask myself when I decided to complete my Bachelor’s degree through my college’s distance learning program. The distance learning program was more expensive than it’s equivilant traditional program.

For me, the answer was easy. Pay an overwhelming amount for childcare or pay an incredible amount for my degree? I chose to pay for the degree.

Now, by “paying” for the degree I don’t imply that the degree is not earned. I simply mean that you pay for the convenience of distance learning.

For the person who has other responsibilities such as a job or a family (or both in many cases) paying extra to earn a degree online is worth it.

Please be careful, however, when you consider getting your degree via distance learning. Some times degree programs online do not lead to a career in the field if there is licensure to consider. When choosing a school, make sure that you will be eligible to apply for licensure in your state if your choosen occupation requires you to be licensed.

Do some research and find out from online education graduates just how their job search went and if they were successful in finding the job they wanted.

Make sure that the online education option will always be worth it!

Are you looking for some encouragement in paying off credit card bills, a mortgage or some other debt? Check out debt reduction tickers from ticker factory.

You can find cheap vitamins at your local mass merchandiser. The problem is that the vitamins are synthetic.

Buying Flintstones for your children? They contain food dyes and are also not whole food derived.

When it comes to health, sometimes frugality has to take a break.

Check out these products at vitacost (my favorite place to purchase vitamins):

Rainbow Light Multivitamin Powder (children from age 4 can use this, too. Check out this for children under four.)

Want the kiddos to take Cod Liver Oil? Try Children’s DHA from Nordic Naturals.

My oldest son started Kindergarten last year and within two weeks the birthday party invites began. For the first half of the school year I took him to every single party and spent between $15-20 on a unique gift for each birthday boy or girl. Seven parties later I decided that there must be a frugal way to make sure each child received a gift that they enjoyed without spending as much as I’d been spending.

I decided on a few things that would be better than a new toy which would be quickly forgotten or possibly even a duplicate. Anyway, how did I know that the child would even like the toy? Many times my son would give me suggestions based on what he liked instead of what his friend liked.

Here are a few ideas I’ve used for birthday gifts since:

–Ice cream store gift certificates. Five dollars in ice cream gift certificates is plenty for the child and a parent to have a fun trip to the ice cream for a cone with the works.

–books! (Remember those book clubs I told you about?) Children need to read more anyway. Buy age appropriate books for them to enjoy over and over.

–art/craft supplies. Not just coloring books, folks. Check out Hobby Lobby or the craft section of other discount sections. There are fun objects to paint, beaded jewelry to make, purses or canvas bags to decorate, etc.

–movie tickets. If there is a new children’s movie out at the time, this is a great gift idea!

Check out ebay for great deals on some of the ideas above. Buy things ahead of time (don’t forget wrapping paper or gift bags) so that you don’t have to make a last minute run to the store on the day of the party. Don’t feel bad about giving the same gifts over and over in the same year. At least one child won’t be upset that another child received a “better” gift.

This is why I don’t take my three shopping with me. This was so hilarious. Instead of throwing the cards out, she sold them on eBay for way more than she paid for them. This is one smart momma!

If you love books like I do you’ve probably spent plenty of time browsing titles at your favorite books stores. If you are frugal like I am, you’ve probably only bought books from the clearance shelves of your favorite book stores.

If you don’t already know about online book clubs, check them out. For the partially frugal person good deals can be found through sites like Doubleday, Smart Reader Rewards, Literary Guild and other sites that specialize in one genre of books or another.

With online book clubs you get a certain number of books for free or for around $1 each. Usually it’s 5-6 books. You pay shipping (which is naturally a ridiculous amount at least twice that of what it takes to send media mail, but when the book is $1 it doesn’t cause too much guilt.). There is sometimes an offer to get another book with your first order for only $5 or so. Sometimes this extra book at a low price counts toward your club commitment.

About that club commitment. It’s really not so bad. Usually it’s around 4 books (purchased at the club price (less than the retail price) because books on clearance or sale do not count toward your commitment) in two years. Some clubs offer free shipping if you spend more than $25 so I suggested purchasing your commitment books together to save money.

If you are part of the clubs online you can cancel any automatic shipments before they are sent to you and never have to worry about returning books that you don’t want.

If you want to pay around $10 per book and never pay for shipping check out Zooba.

After you read the books, sell them on Half.com or Amazon. Speaking of, these two sites are an excellent source of used books for the frugal reader. If you don’t want to deal with automatic shipments or club commitments, check them out!

Don’t forget that textbooks can also be found for cheap on Half.com or Amazon. Tell all of the students you know. There is also available the reselling of textbooks.

Don’t forget your local library. Nothing is more frugal when it comes to books. Remember your library, also, when you are finished reading books you own. Donate them so that others may enjoy them for free.

I agree with this article whole-heartedly.

I make my own coffee at home. Spending money on more than the occasional coffee away from home is a waste.

Cigarettes are not merely financially costly. You haven’t stopped smoking yet? Are you kidding me?!

Alcohol. *yawn* Stay in, have friends over, ditch the bar/club scene. Is that really where you want to find the love of your life? Drink more water.

But not bottled water! Get thee a filter!

Manicures might be worth it, but then you can’t wash your own car without messing up your nails, huh?

Haven’t started brown-bagging it yet? Start today and save!

Pack snacks (healthy ones, mind.) from home for much cheaper than you can buy them from a vending machine.

Stop using credit cards if you can’t pay the entire balance each month. This one is as much of a no-brainer as not smoking should be.

Use those memberships or cancel them.

Yes, it works. Dip a wet toothbrush into baking soda and scrub away. Skip the whitening treatments, which are fine if that’s what you want to splurge on, but not necessary when there is baking soda.

Going green, doing what’s best for our Earth and saving money go well together. I’ve already talked about using natural cleaning supplies like vinegar, baking soda, etc.

I have a few other favorites that help to save us money around here. I don’t use the “heated dry” option my dishwasher. I dry dishes by hand. I try not to use the dishwasher, dryer and washer between the hours of 10am-6pm. This doesn’t work every day, but most days I’m able to get my dishes and laundry done before and after those hours.

Don’t leave computers running. Employ a sleep mode if you don’t want to constantly turn your computer off and on. (If anyone has advice about how to get my wireless adapter to “wake” after my computer has been asleep, I’d really appreciate it. Vista glitch, maybe?)

Compact fluorescent light bulbs! ‘Nough said.

Do you know your net worth?

Check out this link for a net worth calculator.

If you have certain ingredients on hand that you want to use, do an ingredient search at FoodieView. Save money and a save trip to the store.

I opened a new checking account yesterday with Compass Bank. They are offering a free checking account (free first order of checks, free debit card) with additional bonuses (and a free tote bag, too. :P). For free, you can choose from several different bonuses like interest on your checking account balance, cash back for purchases, $25 dollars per year, overdraft fee refund once per year, and other great options. Two options are free; I chose interest on my balance and cash back for purchases. You can choose options for $2.00 per month.

Earn points for visiting advertisers’ sites. It’s easy, there is no catch. MyPoints sends you an email with a link at the bottom to click and earn at least five points. When you buy things online (even from places like Overstock.com and eBay) you get points. It’s not much, but I’m making around $10.00 a month from MyPoints.

If you aren’t opposed to referrals, shoot me an email at allilyn11@yahoo.com and I’ll send you a referral. If you don’t like referrals, go to www.mypoints.com and sign up.

Check out Wikipedia’s VoIP info. If your phone bill is climbing, you have choices.

My husband and I rarely used our home phone and decided to go without a home phone instead of spending over $80 each month for a service we didn’t use. We choose to use our (prepaid) cell phones.

Now you can get bundled services through your phone company or cable company as well as VoIP phone service. Check them all out and you may save yourself some money!

Frugal or not, who wants to waste their time and money buying a product that isn’t good or isn’t right for him or her? If you aren’t aware of epinions.com, check it out. Before buying a product, large or small, see what others have to say about it. See if the products meets your needs and performs well. Don’t waste anymore time or money on products that aren’t helpful to you.

Also, write your own reviews at Epinions.com. You can make extra money!