Frugal Mania

Making Credit Work For You

Make your credit cards pay you, not the other way around! There are tons of card companies these days that offer ‘pay you back’ incentives – usually one to two percent (1-2%) of your purchases. If you are lucky enough (like I was), you’ll find that even your debit / check card will offer you some sort of rewards program. When I realized that I was already involved in a reward program at my credit union, I was able to redeem the points I had already earned for a $100 VISA gift card, all for doing nothing other than using my debit card like I would have done anyway. If that ain’t a deal, I don’t know one.

If you are like most people, you have more than one credit card. While the most important considerations should always be the interest rate and total debt on your cards, you still owe it to yourself to find out if any of your current credit cards offer cash back or rewards programs. After all, you might be entitled to something you didn’t even know was available!

Give your credit card companies a call – heck, at least this time you won’t have to cringe when you talk to them!

This post is the first in a series on frugal savings. The entire series is catalogued in the “Money” category for easy reference. If you have any questions, comments or suggestions, or if you want to see your favorite frugal tip on Frugal Mania, just leave a comment on any post.

In an effort to share the most frugal information possible in the shortest amount of time (yeah, I’m frugal with that too!), Fridays will henceforth be known as Frugal Fridays, and they will feature my Week in Review. Each week on Fridays here at Frugal Mania, I will share with you the best tips, tricks and ideas from frugal maniacs all over the web.

Festival of Frugality
This week’s festival #125 is hosted by Quest for Four Pillars, and is entitled “Save Some Money If You Are Rich”. It is entirely worth the click if for no other reason than to see the French maid. That’s all I’m sayin’ about that.

The Fine Art of Haggling
Sharon aka The Frugal Dutchess shared a great primer on haggling to get the best deals. Not at yard sales, but at department stores! I can’t wait to try some of these.

Frugal and Green
The Frugal Babe shares ways to be frugal and help save the environment at the same time.

CVS Extra Care Bucks
I can’t tell you how much of a relief it was for me to find Living Almost Large and her post “CVS Extra Care Bucks Explained”. If you shop at CVS, you’ll like it too.

Coffee Grounds
The beautiful Sara Noel of Frugal Village shares several ways to make productive use of that muddy mess left over after you finish your morning pot cup of coffee. There are several ideas here that I had never imagined, and I think about coffee a lot!

That’s it for this week’s Frugal Friday! If you have a frugal tip or a frugal website you’d like to see featured at Frugal Mania, leave me a comment!

A few years ago I found myself in a predicament. I had thawed too much ground beef and it was going to spoil if I didn’t use it. While racking my brain to figure out something that I could make with what I had on hand, I realized that I had everything I needed for a hearty pasta fagioli soup. ever since, it has been a staple food in my home. My Italian partner walks around with a grin every time I make it, so my hunch is that it should be pretty popular around your house too.

Michael’s Simple, Cheap Pasta Fagioli

THE INGREDIENTS

• 1 lb ground beef
• 1 sm onion, chopped
• 6 C stock
• 1 can spinach (small can)
• 2 carrots, diced
• 3 C navy beans, cooked
• 3 garlic cloves, minced
• 4 roma tomatoes, chopped
• 8 oz shell pasta
• 1 bay leaf
• seasoning to taste

THE PROCESS

1. Pour the stock, spinach (drained), garlic and tomatoes into a large crock pot and cover.
2. Brown the ground beef with onion, drain and add to crock pot.
3. Set crock pot on high, cover and leave it alone for 2-3 hours.
4. Boil pasta & carrots together, drain.
5. Drain navy beans and rinse (if canned).
6. Add pasta and beans to crock pot and set to low heat for 30 minutes.

HEALTH NOTES
Want to try it out but you’re concerned about your health? Try these substitutions:

• If you want to use ground beef, don’t bother buying the expensive lean stuff, just rinse the ground beef and onions thoroughly in a colander after browning them and you will remove just as much fat.
• If you’d rather use something a bit healthier, replace the ground beef with ground turkey or chicken. Both are priced fairly inexpensively.
• Use what you’ve got! Leftover chicken, turkey, beef cut into small pieces will work just as well and get rid of some leftovers in the process.
• To cut down on salt, add a bit of lemon juice to the pot. The citric acid will flavor it and you won’t feel the need to use so much salt.

I just threw this recipe together based on what I had in the cupboard, so it will probably vary the next time I make it, but I wanted to save the recipe nonetheless, since it turned out so well and cost very little.

Here’s an extra for you all, because it isn’t often that restaurants give anything away!

May 15th (today) only, participating McDonald’s restaurants are giving away their Southern Style Chicken with the purchase of a medium or large drink. In the morning, grab a Southern Style Chicken Biscuit, in the afternoon and evening, a Southern Style Chicken Sandwich.

What are you waiting for???

We all know that being a parent can put a serious dent in the plans of even most dedicated frugal maniac, but Erinn at Parenting Children recently made a post on “The Cost of Babies” that was a real eye-opener for me. It made me think seriously about the possibility in this day and age of raising healthy and happy kids without breaking the bank. It is possible, believe it or not.

Here are a few tips that can help you save big bucks on raising your little tykes:

Clothes

• It is a simple fact of life that kids grow out of clothes faster than they wear them out. It shouldn’t surprise you that thrift stores and yard sales almost always have children’s clothes that are still in fantastic shape and you’ll pay a fraction of what they would have cost at retail prices. I find it difficult to understand people’s fixation with “new stuff”, to be honest. I was brought up to believe that so long as I was clean and looked presentable, nothing else mattered. I even had a cheap knock-off version of a Member’s Only jacket when I was in school and it lasted longer than the fashion tragedy itself did. These days my name brand clothes come from a thrift store, and so do all of the clothes I buy for my adorable 1 year old nephew Malachi.
• While on the topic of clothes, there is bound to be someone in your circle of friends, family or church members whose child is just a bit older than yours. Ask them what they do with the clothes their kids outgrow. By the same token, be sure to ask around for families with new babies to pass your clothes on to.
• I’m not even going to get into the diaper debate, but if you use disposables, you really need to join your local Freecycle list. Mine always has people offering coupons for diapers and baby formula.

Toys & Recreation

• Talk to friends, family and neighbors with children about exchanging toys from time-to-time. It won’t cost you anything and your kids will be happy to have toys that are new to them.
• Arrange play dates at the park or even at your home, and make it a pot luck picnic. The kids will have a great time playing, the adults can socialize and you’ll save money by bringing the food yourself.
• What kid doesn’t like Disney? Heck, I’m almost 36 years old and I still have to have a tissue handy when I watch Bambi! I can sing every note from the Aladdin soundtrack, too. I recently found a way that You can get three Disney movies for $1.99 each and get free shipping to boot! Don’t believe me? See for yourself!

If I get enough comments, I’ll share some more frugal with children ideas, including my recipes for homemade baby food.

Author’s Note: Wow, it seems as though I am on a food kick lately, but I just can’t help myself. Food expenses account for one of the biggest dents in the average budget and I want you to save everywhere you can! This frugal tip has actually been around for hundreds of years, but westerners have only recently caught on.

Technically called “Obento”, the Japanese origin is actually not as glamorous as you might think. It basically means “boxed lunch”. But bento is nothing like what your mother sent with you to school in your Scooby Doo lunchbox. This stuff is art. The Japanese believe that food should be as appealing to the eye as it is to the stomach, and after many years of creating and eating my own bento lunches, I can’t say that I disagree.

Food art is not frugal in and of itself, but with bento, you are controlling portions and making simple foods take on an artistic appearance. Apples become bunnies, cheese and lunch meats become flowers…you really wouldn’t believe everything you can do!

There are websites aplenty that sing the praises of bento, and just as many that offer recipes and preparation tips for beginners and aficianados alike. My favorite, bar none is Lunch in a Box, hosted by Biggie - a work-at-home mother of a preschooler who can do things with food that I can only strive for.

There are thousands of designs for bento boxes sold by all sorts of companies worldwide, but you don’t need to spend a lot of money - or any, for that matter - to start enjoying bento for yourself. When I first started, I simply used a divided Rubbermaid meal storage container. In time, you may want to invest in an honest-to-goodness bento box and if you are curious about where to find one, Ebay has quite a few on sale at all times.

I purchased my first bento box (I know own several) from the host of Bento TV, who also sells bento boxes and accessories on Ebay, as well as having regular videos on her website to help bento beginners hone the craft.

One of these days I will get around to sharing a few of my own bento creations with you, but I am usually so busy eating it that I forget to take pictures!

A lot of people are intimidated by the idea of making their own salad dressing. This recipe illustrates well why so many restaurants use balsamic vinaigrette as their house dressing. It’s simple to make with almost no prep time whatsoever and it stores well if you have leftovers.

Don’t forget it’s also delicious and really easy to do, and from a money standpoint, this recipe costs me pennies to make per batch.

This recipe yields about 1/2 cup, enough for 4 servings

INGREDIENTS
4 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil
6 teaspoons balsamic vinegar
3 teaspoons minced garlic
1/2 teaspoon sugar (I use turbinado or honey when I have them)
1/2 teaspoon cayenne pepper
1/2 teaspoon sea salt

INSTRUCTIONS
Just mix everything together.
Yeah, that’s really all there is to it. Really easy and much less expensive than buying it at the supermarket.

The olive oil is key in this recipe; it has a distinct flavor that will be missed if you make this dressing with another oil. If you’re feeling adventurous, try playing with the spices or adding some freshly chopped herbs. It’s your kitchen, your rules!

One closing note on storage: if you do store leftovers in the fridge, the olive oil is going to separate and solidify. That’s natural and it is perfectly okay to eat. All you need to do is take it out of the refrigerator and let it warm to room temperature for half an hour or so. Then when you are ready to use it, just give it a good shake and you’ll be ready to eat.

Frugal – It isn’t just for breakfast anymore, but it is entirely possible to be frugal and eat a healthy breakfast at the same time. In fact, you will find that you feel better and are more productive if you do eat the first meal of the day in the morning.

• Oatmeal is your friend. Not only is it inexpensive, it has tons of health benefits, including lowering bad cholesterol. It is simple to prepare and doesn’t take much time, either.
• Trent at The Simple Dollar offers several frugal breakfast food options that are cheap and delicious. I especially love the Swiss Breakfast mix.
• There’s nothing quite like homemade pancakes and waffles, but who has the time to prepare the mix, cook them and then eat? One of the most common sense tips I ever discovered was to make a big batch and freeze them. Frozen waffles that you made yourself are healthier and much less expensive than the prepackaged fare offered in the frozen food aisle.
• Elementary Chef has a fantastic recipe for baked oatmeal that you have got to try. DELICIOUS!

Look for more frugal breakfast ideas next week! Have one to share? Send me a comment and it may just find its way into a future post!

In honor of Mother’s Day (which is tomorrow in case you missed the memo), I wanted to offer you some money saving tips for wrapping that gift I know you’ve already bought. I mean…you have got her something already, right? If not, here’s an easy to make gift that any mother would surely love, courtesy of Shelly at Wax & Bubbles. What mom wouldn’t adore lavender hand cream?

Okay, assuming that you have a gift, you need a way to wrap it without overspending, so here are a few of my favorite ideas:

Brown Bag It
One of the easiest ways to wrap a gift is to use a plain brown grocery bag. All you need to do is cut it open along the folds and wrap your gift with the label side facing inward. If you happen to have a roll of brown craft paper (also sometimes called “deli paper”), that will make it even easier.

To personalize your plain brown wrapper, use stencils or freehand some simple designs across the paper and finish it off with a piece of ribbon and a faux flower.

A Tisket, A Tasket
Here’s another great idea – why not place your gift inside a pretty basket? Chances are you have several of them stowed away in a closet somewhere anyway, so why not use them.

Shredded junk mail can be used as filler, and a few small knick-knacks, some ribbon and a glue gun will finish it off perfectly.

It’s Only a Dollar…
If you are just hell bent on spending money, just stop by your local Dollar Store. They always have a good selection of wrapping papers and gift bags and if you’re going to spend money, at least you can be cheap about it!

In my house we eat a lot of chicken, often as much as 5 days a week! Depending on how I buy my poultry, it can prove to be pretty expensive at times. Though I love boneless chicken breasts and chicken tenderloins, they are often the most expensive cuts at the supermarket so I am always on the lookout for cheaper ways to buy chicken. It is the frugal maniac in me, what can I say? Even when I get a great deal, I seem to always be on the lookout for a way to make it even greater.

In most cases, buying whole fryers is the way to go, because there is so little prep involved beforehand it is cheaper pound-for-pound. I know when I was first starting out on my own I didn’t buy them all that much, mainly because I didn’t have the slightest idea how to cut up a whole chicken when I didn’t want to cook the whole thing. If you are in the same boat you can rest easy, because I have found a couple of videos that will help you. I only wish I would have had these years ago!

In these two videos, you are guided on a step-by-step process for quartering a whole chicken:

The videos mentioned this, but I need to reiterate something - don’t toss those chicken bones and carcasses! The inedible bits (including fat, bones, tendons and joints) can be tossed into a crock pot for a few hours yielding cup after glorious cup of delicious chicken stock that you can freeze for later use in soups, stews and other recipes. If you’re feeling particularly adventurous, check out this recipe for Indonesian style Chicken Breasts courtesy of Stephanie over at Elementary Chef. I made it a few days ago and it was a big hit!

Saving Big on Produce

With the price of everything skyrocketing these days, saving money on food is something most of us can’t afford not to do. Here are a few ways you can save big bucks on your produce:

• Grow it Yourself
  This is common sense, really. Spending a few dollars on seedlings can amount to huge savings over the growing season. Susan Walsh at Earthly Garden offered some great information on growing your own vegetables and fruits and yes, you can grow just about any of them in containers. Are you a beginner? There’s a great series on growing that starts at the beginning - seed starting.
• Farmer’s Markets
  Almost every community has a local farmer’s market where you can get fantastic locally grown produce for a fraction of what you’d pay at the supermarket. It tastes better, too.
• Freeze It
  Many produce items will freeze impeccably well. Tomatoes for example, can be cut up and placed in a zipper bag (juice and all) for later use in your soups, stews and sauces. Peppers and onions can be chopped and bagged (together or separately), as can corn, green beans, and quite a few other produce items that you plan to cook with.

You know all that stuff sitting in your garage that you don’t use, don’t want to throw away but just can’t seem to get around to taking to a local charity’s donation center?

I’ve got the perfect solution for you – Freecycle it!

Freecycle is one of the coolest ideas I’ve seen in ages, and as a member myself I can personally attest to how great it works. The entire premise is perfect for frugal types like me. When you visit the website, you can search for the mailing list of the group in your area.

If you need something, you post to the mailing list in your area telling the other members what you need. Likewise if you have something to give away, you can post about that too. The only hard and fast rule is that all items have to be free, though the specific rules for posting to the list may vary depending on your local area, so be sure to read the details that you’ll receive in your welcome email!

If you’re anything like AntiChristy over at Urban Ecoist, you have tons of stuff that would be perfect for Freecycling!

Stop buying expensive, toxic cleaning products!

There is precious little that cannot be easily cleaned with just a handful of items that most people already have. Here are a few ideas to get you started:

• Homemade Window Cleaner (Cost: Pennies)
  Add 2 Tablespoons of vinegar to clean spray bottle (I always reuse mine) and fill will tap water. It won’t be blue, but it also won’t cost you two or three bucks! For particularly dirty glass, you can add a squirt of liquid dish detergent to the bottle.
  
  
• Ditch the Paper Towels (Cost: Free!)
  Paper towels are a waste of money, plain and simple. Keep a collection of old (clean) rags handy, and when you use one, just toss it in the laundry. As for windows, old newspaper does a much better job an doesn’t leave streaks.
  
  
• Homemade Scrubbing Cleanser (Cost: Pennies)
  In a small bowl, mix baking soda, a squirt of liquid dish detergent and water to make a thick paste. Apply with a damp rag. Unlike many commercial products, this cleanser won’t leave the first sign of residue!
  
  
• Antibacterial Cleaner (Cost: Pennies)
  For all of you who buy into the whole “antibacterial” craze, numerous studies have proved that a simple 5% solution of distilled vinegar and water can kill 99% of bacteria and 80% of both mold and mildew.

Ever have a problem with your towels being sour even after a wash? Stephanie at Household Tips offers some great suggestions on how to deal with it.

Frugality isn’t really a leisurely pursuit; it’s more of an obsession.

When you see a penny laying there all lonely in a parking lot, do you pick it up or are you worried what the other shoppers might think? What if that shiny coin were actually a five dollar bill?

“See a penny, pick it up. All day long it brings good luck!”

My granny taught me that catchy little rhyme when I was still shorter than she was, and it was a lesson well learned. I’ve been picking up loose change anytime I see it ever since. And so should you.

I haven’t met many people who don’t have some half hazard method for wrangling their loose change. Some of them just take it out of their pockets and leave it wherever they happen to be at the time. Today we’re going to take the first step in making those cents make sense.

It all starts with a jar.

Find a jar, a cup, or some other sort of container that you don’t need and place it near the spot where you most commonly empty out your pockets. Every time you walk in the door, empty your loose change into your container and leave it alone.

For the next thirty days, you are declaring a moratorium on coin spending. If you break a dollar bill for ninety cents, the dime needs to go into your jar. If you find some spare change when you vacuum under the sofa, jar it. At the end of thirty days, count it. If you have a savings account, deposit it. If you don’t, you need to get one. This is found money, but it isn’t allowed to be spent just yet. We’re building to something here.

A large percentage of the people I meet don’t have a red cent in savings and at least ninety percent of those people are no more than two paychecks away from being destitute. By doing nothing more than saving your pennies for a rainy day, you are steps ahead of ensuring that such a downpour doesn’t wash you down the drain.

Washington Mutual offers a free online savings account that currently earns 3.30% APY (Annual Percentage Yield). Let’s take a look at how your pennies can add up over the course of a year:

For simplicity’s sake, let’s begin with $3.30. Every month you deposit $3.30 (that’s $.11 a day) into a savings account that compounds monthly with a rate of return of 3.30%. At the end of the first year you will have about $43.62 in your savings account. I know that doesn’t sound like much money, but remember we are talking about saving eleven cents a day in this example. What if you saved $1.00 a day? $5.00?

The point here is that you save something. Chances are really good that you are never going to miss the change that you rarely spend anyway and by keeping it all in one place you are making it much easier to save it for your future.

Curious about investing? Rick @ My Stock Winners offers some great inside tips to get you started!

Michael the Frugal Maniac

Welcome, Frugal Maniacs!

I’m so excited I could scream!

Okay, so maybe that’s an overstatement, but I have to tell you that when I was contacted about writing for a website called Frugal Mania my frugal little heart did skip a beat or two. You see, the word frugal has had such a negative connotation for so many years that I guess you could say most people have been hiding in the frugal closet. They keep their frugality under wraps, often even concealing it from their families and closest friends out of the fear of being pegged as cheap.

Congratulations, you frugal few! You can come out of the closet with pride now and no one will make fun of your penny-pinching ways!

Now that the economy is taking a swan dive into the toilet, people are finally realizing just how beneficial frugal living can be. With hundreds of thousands of people across the country living with the threat of losing their homes to foreclosure, you can bet that they’re looking for ways to save a few bucks here and there. When they do, guess who they’ll be coming to? That’s right, you frugal freaks.

Now more than ever, the world needs Frugal Mania!

But enough about them, let’s talk about me.

My name is Michael Nolan and I’ve been living frugal for a hundred years since I was a kid. For those of you doing the math, I’m 35 so that makes it technically about 30 years now. At the tender age of five, I convinced my parents that I could raise chickens and get eggs for free. Sounds cute and ever-so Laura Ingalls of me, doesn’t it? Well before you picture me in pigtails and prairie dresses you should know that I grew up in suburbia and I walked to school not because it was the 1800s but because it was only 3 blocks away from our house.

I got my chickens, and they even produced eggs. At one point I even had a duck named Donald (Gimme a break – I was five!) until he flew out of the kiddie pool I’d set up for him one too many times and my mother made me give him to a guy with a lake on his property.

If you haven’t noticed yet, I love telling stories about my life and lucky for you, that’s exactly how I plan to approach this thing we call frugal living here on Frugal Mania. It is important for you to realize that the best way to learn is to do – reading about being frugal isn’t nearly as beneficial as actually doing it. In other words, get off your frugal butts and use what you learn!

If you ever have a question or a comment about something you’ve read here or elsewhere, please let me know. I encourage reader questions and you never know when something you are curious about might help someone else.

Bookmarks, links, trackbacks and fencepost (or water cooler) conversations about Frugal Mania are all strongly encouraged.

And now that we have all of that out of the way, let’s go crazy you Frugal Maniacs!

Michael the Frugal Maniac