10 Summer Money Saving Tips

Our favorite Mexican place has either acquired some new decor or they are already decorating for Halloween! Here are some quick, money-saving tips...

1. Stock up on stamps before the price increases on Sunday.
2. I just checked the Target ad for next week and they have some steep discounts on school supplies. Now would be a great time for parents to start stocking up on these items.
3. Ditto early school clothes shopping by hitting up thrift stores, garage sales, checking the sale racks at Walmart and Ross, etc. For new items like shoes, socks, etc, I like sierra.com
4. July is also the time to sign up for/plan to attend free school supply events (here is an example for my local area) for families in need.
5. If I was single (it's hard for a family to do this) and broke, I would get rid of my car and buy a $60 monthly bus pass. You can't even buy a tank of gas for $60 these days!
6. Now is a great time to forage for wild black berries, huckleberries, etc. We went to a casino yesterday that grows champagne grapes and their grapes were ready to pick! Here are other things to forage for in the summer.
7. If you are looking for free or inexpensive ways to keep your kids busy for the rest of the summer, here are a bunch of ideas.
8. One of the best places for kids in our area is the library! Our library system offers free meals, movies, activities, events, etc. for kids all summer long.
9. If you are looking for last-minute vacation ideas, Kayak Explore lets you search a map of the US and world by cheap airline prices.
10. If you can't afford a new computer for your kids (memory prices are sky high these days), consider rehabbing an old or used laptop by installing Linux. It's easy, free, and better than Windows IMHO. Plus it includes a bunch of free software like LibreOffice, VLC, etc.

100 Extreme Money-Saving Tips

I came across this article on how people survived the Great Depression and it brought back memories of my grandparents who were young adults during the Depression. Pretty much everything they did to save money during that time carried with then through the entirety of their lives. Even when financial times were much better, they never changed their money-saving ways; these skills were so ingrained in their everyday behavior that it even rubbed off on me--I still have these habits nearly a century after the Great Depression!

Here are the things that helped them--and me--save money during difficult financial times...

1. Take the bus instead of having a car (this is more time-consuming but can save a fortune!).
2. Walk or ride a bike to do your errands.
3. Car pool to and from work.
4. Try bartering for the things you need.
5. Shop thrift stores, yard sales, etc. to save money on the things you need.
6. Ask for hand-me-down clothes and tell people you will gladly take the things they want to give away.
7. Grow your own food (fruit, veges, chickens, etc).
8. Forage for food.
9. Ask local farmers if you can glean their harvested fields.
10. Hunt and fish for a hobby as well as to fill your freezer.
11. Buy in bulk and preserve (can, pickle, freeze, etc) the food for future use.
12. Repair instead of throwing items out and buying a new ones.
13. Make coffee at home and take it with you in a thermos.
14. Skip restaurants/fast food and always cook at home.
15. If you will be out, take food from home with you to eat.
16. Utilize the free services of your local library system.
17. Use preventive maintenance to make things (furnace, clothing, teeth, etc) last longer.
18. Don't buy an item unless you absolutely need it.
19. Consider alternative ways to acquire items you don't use often (rent, borrow from a friend or neighbor, etc).
20. Use less of an item (shampoo, toothpaste, laundry soap, etc) than the manufacturer recommends (it usually works just as well). I also add water to shampoo to make it stretch.
21. Use washable rags for cleaning instead of disposable paper products.
22. Hang clothes to dry instead of using a dryer.
23. Cut and chop your own firewood if you can heat your home this way.
24. Look for ways to save water/electricity/natural gas in order to lower those bills.
25. Save money on personal care by doing it yourself (nails, haircuts, etc) or go to a beauty school for these highly discounted services.
26. Ditto dental care (go to a dental school instead of a regular dentist).
27. Consider "medical tourism" to Mexico or other countries for highly discounted medications, glasses, dental care, medical care, etc.
28. For vacations, go on day trips instead of far-flung travel, go camping instead of staying in an expensive hotel, drive instead of flying, etc.
29. Use an over-the-air antenna to watch TV instead of having cable or expensive streaming services.
30. Listen to the radio instead of subscription services like Spotify.
31. Use the cheapest phone service you can find. Years ago this would have been a "party line", these days it would be a $15 a month Mint Mobile plan.
32. For extreme folks, skip the cell phone all together and only communicate with people over wifi (at home or at work or use free wifi in public places).
33. Don't let food go to waste--eat leftovers, freeze leftovers for a future meal, turn small bits of meat or vegetables into a soup, use old bread for bread pudding, etc.
34. Add food scraps/coffee grounds/egg shells/etc to your compost pile.
35. DIY as much as possible--watch YouTube for videos on how to fix your home, fix your car, plan your wedding, sew a dress,etc.
36. When you have a problem that requires money to fix, brainstorm several ways to do it the cheapest way possible (instead of having a computer printer that requires expensive ink, I have documents printed out at the library/Office Depot/casino business center instead for about 10 cents a page).
37. Stop bad habits. Drinking, smoking, drugs, gambling, etc are a huge waste of money.
38. Choose cheap hobbies (walking, disc golf, etc) over expensive hobbies (golf, boating, anything to do with horses).
39. Never carry debt. Save your money until you can afford the item instead of paying interest on a loan.
40. Pay cash instead of using credit cards.
41. Avoid subscriptions as much as possible (these can really add up over time).
42. Avoid scams and money-sinks (like time shares, get-rich-quick schemes, MLMs, etc).
43. Skip the gym membership and walk around your neighborhood/mall, work in the yard, do high-intensity cleaning, etc.
44. Pay attention to freebies (free stuff and events listed in the paper/social media, free furniture left on the curb on trash day that you can rehab, free stuff that neighbors want to get ride of when updating their homes, etc).
45. Look for alternate ways to fund your education (scholarships, join the military, skip college and do an apprenticeship, etc).
46. Skip "normal" bills if possible (process your own trash, use solar panels and battery banks to replace all or some of your grid electricity, etc).
47. Drive your car until the wheels fall off (at $50k for a new car these days, we will drive our old car until it dies a permanent death!).
48. Downsize and minimize your home/belongings/social commitments/etc.
49. Volunteer at an event/venue so you can get free entry to the venue/event.
50. Pick a good spouse (this can make a huge difference in your financial well being).
51. If you have a lousy spouse who is a financial/emotional drain, get divorced (usually there is a cost up front but it can save you money in the long run).
52. Raise good kids (this can save you money in the long run and the world will thank you for this).
53. Instead of planting ornamental trees and shrubs, plant fruit trees and berry bushes.
54. Instead of planting flowers, plant vegetables (actually plant some of both!).
55. Think long and hard about having kids or pets (some people skip both based on the extreme financial commitment required).
56. Avoid financial problems of your own making (ie: speeding tickets, parking tickets, not paying off credit cards each month, buying more house/car than you can afford, etc).
57. Don't fall for advertising that makes you buy junk you don't need.
58. Shop around for car and house insurance at each renewal time.
59. Google for discounts that pertain to your situation (student, veteran, senior, first responder, etc).
60. Consider retiring in a foreign country to save money (some people actually do this!).
61. Eat less. Many Americans eat 3000 to 5000 calories a day which is enough for two or three people. Skip snacking, junk food, and eating huge meals.
62. Do meal-prep cooking and put several meals in the freezer for those times when you are tired and feel like ordering food to be delivered.
63. Try dumpster diving (especially around universities at the end of the school year).
64. Find free stuff, rehab/clean up the item, then sell the item on FB/CL.
65. Shop loss leaders at the grocery store every week then build your meals around these items.
66. Eat cheap and healthy (a giant box of oatmeal is $10 at Costco and can make breakfast for months; 25 pound bags of beans or rice can be the base of numerous meals).
67. Consider reusable items over disposable items (plastic sandwich boxes over ziploc bags, dryer balls over dryer sheets, storing food in plastic containers instead of plastic wrap, etc).
68. Buy and hold items for years (ie: buy a car instead of leasing, buy a house and keep it for years instead of renting, etc).
69. Buy items that hold their value (ie: a Honda, guns, gold jewelry, etc).
70. Buy items that last forever (cast iron pans, quality tools, Speed Queen washers, etc).
71. Pay more for quality products with great warranties (Darn Tough socks, Osprey packs, etc).
72. Buy bug spray each season and spray around your house for pests instead of hiring an exterminator.
73. Buy a big Sunday newspaper, use the coupons to save on groceries, then use the newspaper in place of paper towels for draining fish, cleaning windows, etc.
74. Look through your junk mail for money-saving coupons.
75. When you are looking for one-time use items like wedding dresses or prom dresses, check thrift stores or ask to borrow from friends rather than paying retail for these items.
76. Don't increase your standard of living when your paycheck increases.
77. If you want to get out of debt and 'live like no one else', follow Dave Ramsey's Baby Steps.
78. Buy inexpensive items until you know you will use that item everyday (ie: buy a hand mixer for cooking/baking and skip the fancy Kitchen Aid mixer until you know you will use it a lot).
79. If you know you want to buy/upgrade an item, be patient and wait for the item to come on sale; you can save hundreds of dollars this way.
80. Buy an item based on your needs, don't buy "the best" item if you don't need it. I buy mid-range laptops because, while I use them everyday, all I use them for is writing documents and Zoom meetings not big number crunching and video production.
81. Don't loan money. Ever. We give small amounts of money as gifts to people in need but if people need a loan they should go to a bank.
82. Have an emergency fund instead of relying on credit cards for this.
83. Be completely debt free (your emergency fund can cover many more months of an illness or job loss if you don't have house/car/student loan payments to pay).
84. If you must get a mortgage to buy a house, get it for a 15 year term and save a fortune on interest (also buy less house than you can afford rather than the most expensive house you can get a mortgage for).
85. Use apps to save money (at restaurants, at grocery stores,etc).
86. If there is a place the family likes to visit often (zoo, museum, National Park) consider buying an annual pass.
87. Even used cars are expensive these days but a low-mile, high-quality used car will be cheaper than buying a brand new car.
88. Once you have a good-sized emergency fund, consider raising your insurance deductibles to $1000 or more. Also read the policy thoroughly to make sure it doesn't cover things you don't need. 
89. These days we swear by having bidets on each toilets which saves a lot of money on toilet paper (this is much better, IMHO, than using pages from the Sears catalog like they did in my grandparent's day before indoor plumbing!).
90. To save money on heating, dress in layers, wear sox to bed, if you will be watching TV, use a blanket instead of turning up the heat, etc. In my grandparent's day, they would fill a hot water bottle and put it by their feet when they went to bed to stay warm.
91. Although I am pretty much a minimalist, my grandparents saved everything. Buttons, rubber bands, wire, bacon grease, magazines, foil, wrapping paper from gifts...literally everything just in case it could be useful later.
92. Take care of your clothes to make them last longer--remove stains, iron before wearing, sew on a lost button or frayed hem, etc.
93. Reuse containers--years ago every home had a collection of jelly jars used for drinking, these days we use take-home containers from restaurants to give food to the neighbors, pasta sauce jars to store beans, etc.
94. A great compost can be made from chicken droppings, food scraps, leaves, etc. Let cure for many months and it works wonders in the garden.
95. These days literally anything from cooking to gardening to much more can be learned from YouTube while years ago, most information came via word of mouth from friends and neighbors. Use both of these resources to learn things.
96. Many hours of entertainment can be had from board games, card games, picnics in the park, walking in the woods, etc.
97. When cooking, skipping or limiting an expensive item, like making bean chili instead of meat chili, or cutting up a small piece of meat to add to the stew and adding more vegetables, was a common thing back then and now as well.
98. Skip all of the "influencer" stuff like unending hair and face products. Polishing your nails on special occasions is healthier than using chemicals on your nails everyday, false eyelashes are ick, and don't even get me started on GLP-1 drugs that make people look skeletal. Yikes
99. Make your own bottled water/sports drinks/soda by bringing these things from home in an insulated tumbler.
100. Finally, doing without used to be a thing. These days Amazon can deliver literally everything you want or need but years ago this wasn't an option. Sometimes you had to make do or do without.

20 Things to Check Every Year

Note that the picture has nothing at all to do with this post, I just took it this morning on my walk!  Anyway, here are 20 things to check every year that can save you big money!

1. Car insurance.  I usually call around once a year as my car insurance is coming up for renewal just to see if I can find a better deal.  Right now we have our car insurance through Costco and it is a pretty good deal but it always pays to check.
2. House insurance.  Same as above.  We generally bundle our house and car insurance to get an even better deal.  Note, some insurance companies charge a higher price for car insurance and a lower price for house insurance or vice versa so you might have to break out the calculator to figure out the best deal.  Rates will also vary by the size of your deductible, your credit score, where you live, if you have any hazards (like a pool for your home insurance, or drive for Uber when calculating car insurance).
3. Health insurance.  Often times your health insurance is set by your employer but if you are using the public market, check your state health insurance (ACA/Obamacare) because it seems like income qualification rates change every year and even if you didn't qualify last year, you may qualify this year.
4. Cell phone plan.  I used to check cell phone plan rates every year when whatever discount I was getting expired but for the past few years I have been using Mint Mobile and I haven't heard of any other cell plan that is only $15 a month!
5. Food stamps.  Like state health insurance plans, the income needed to qualify for food stamps (SNAP) seems to change yearly too so if you have a change of income or life circumstances, you may find you qualify for food stamps.  It doesn't hurt to check!
6. Free or reduced school lunch.  Similarly, income qualifiers for free or reduced school lunch for your kids can change so it pays to check every year just to see if you qualify.  You may even find that your state is now providing free lunch for all students (my state just started doing this and I think it is an excellent use of our tax money!).
7. WIC.  The Women, Infant, and Children food program is similar to SNAP but it is geared towards pregnant women and women with small children.  Again, program qualifiers change yearly so even if you checked to see if you qualified for this program in previous years, it pays to check every year that you are pregnant or have small children just to see if you qualify.
8. Tax withholding.  This is something you can (and maybe should) change when your life circumstances change or if you are getting a huge tax return back each year and would like to spread that income throughout the year.
9. Your mortgage.  Have you paid enough on your mortgage that you can drop PMI (private mortgage insurance)?  Often times your lender won't remind you to check this.  Are mortgage rates dropping and you could save lots of money by refinancing?  Is your escrow account balancing out each year or do you need to change this?  Many thing effect your mortgage payment (usually principal, interest, and property tax) so any ways you can reduce these things or speed up the payment of the principal, will save you money.
10. Internet and cable TV.  Providers of these services as well as plans can change often so it pays to check and see if you are getting the best deal.  We dropped cable TV all together and now use an over the air antenna but we still need internet so I check for deals on our rate plan each year just to see if we can get a new, better deal to help us save money.
11. Subscriptions.  Do you need all of the subscriptions you currently have or could you cut a few to save money?  Netflix, a gym membership, Costco/Sam's Club, online services...sometimes we have old memberships that are auto-billed that we don't even use anymore so cancelling them could save you money.
12. Prescription medications.  It's a good idea to review your prescription medications annually with your doctor (there may even be some you no longer need) as well as review prices for your prescriptions in order to save money.  I've heard good things about the GoodRx app, non-members can still use Costco and Sam's Club pharmacies to buy their prescriptions, Walmart is also cheap for certain medications and if you are really in a pinch, there are several prescription assistance programs that may be able to help you cover the cost of your prescription meds.
13. Investments.  It is also a good idea to review your investments with your financial advisor every year.  Are you meeting your employer match?  Are you maxing out your ROTH?  Do you need to rebalance your portfolio?  Doing these things annually can ensure you are getting the full benefit of your investing.
14. Credit report.  I pull our credit reports annually just to make sure there is nothing unusual happening with our credit that we don't know about.  I also have a credit freeze on my accounts with all three credit bureaus for added protection.
15. Utility bills.  I check our utility bills each month, note any increase in usage (a good way to see if you have a water leak) and check the flyers that come with these bills for any freebies they are offering (our electric company is now offering free refrigerator and washer replacements!).  By checking the utility company websites you can find help for paying your utility bills if needed, check out the freebies section (I order free shower heads when needed from the water company), and many utility companies offer other discounts (we get a discount for paying our sewer bill annually instead of monthly, and our electric company offers ways to pay an averaged out bill each month over the course of a year instead of being hit with huge summer bills because everyone here uses lots of air conditioning).
16. Home inventory.  Each year hubby gets his cell phone and videos everything in our house.  This is a simple way to document everything we have for insurance purposes in case disaster strikes.  I keep these videos on my computer, backed up on my phone, and backed up on a thumb drive too.
17. Review tax return.  These days we take the standard deduction but in years past when we had a larger income, a business, and a huge amount of deductions, I would review every line of our tax return in order to plan for the following year.  This way I could see what other deductions we could take on both the schedule A and the schedule C the following year and remember to keep my receipts for all of these things so I didn't have to go hunting for receipts a year after we bought something.
18. Payment discounts.  Whenever possible, we get good discounts by paying our bills annually or biannually instead of monthly.  We pay our sewer bill annually, our cell phone bills annually, our insurance bills biannually, and our HOA bill annually, all of which save us money over paying these bills every month.
    
19. Financial planning checklist.  Usually towards the end of the year, we review a few financial planning checklists to see if we are missing anything that could save us money.  Here is an example which is a good reminder of things to do over the course of a year with your finances.
    
20. Finally, I review a list of important documents and make sure we have all of these items in a file in our safe.  I also scan all of these documents so they are backed up on my computer.  Some sample lists here and here. 

 

50 Ways We Make Our Consumables (And Consumer Products) Last A Very Long Time

If there is anything I have learned from our cash-only challenge so far this month, it's that we spend the majority of our money on food and consumables.  While we may make the occasional clothing or tech purchase, it's a given that consumables top the list when it comes to our spending so it only makes sense to save as much money as possible on these items.  This is how we do it...

1. We haven't had to buy paper towels in ages because we buy the ones that are scored into half sheets then cut them in half down the center before we hang them up to make quarter-sized sheets.  Needless to say, this saves a lot of paper towels!  (see photo above)
2. Since I started using a bidet, we haven't bought toilet paper in several months.  A bidet saves A LOT of toilet paper!
3. I don't decorate seasonally anymore.  I used to have a ton of crap to change the décor of our house by the season.  We got rid of all of that stuff when we downsized and now our house looks the same year-round (you can save a lot of money when you don't buy useless crap just to impress people!).
4. We never buy garbage bags, instead I line all of our waste cans with plastic shopping bags from the grocery store (however I am looking at ways to stop using plastic all together).
5. I never use Swiffer products, Lysol wipes, and things like that as bleach water and a rag works just as well.
6. The makeup I use is pretty basic and of the cheaper Cover Girl variety and if we aren't leaving the house for the day, I don't put on makeup at all.  I think I went several months during the pandemic without wearing any makeup at all which saved a lot of money (even cheap makeup is pretty expensive these days!).
7. When I open a new box of dryer sheets, I take them out of the box and cut them in half thus doubling my supply of dryer sheets.
8. I also use a fraction of the "recommended" amount of liquid laundry soap in each load.  Our clothes aren't really dirty so there is no need to use massive amounts of soap--our clothes come out just as clean while using much less soap.  It's the same when using bleach.
9. Similarly I use just a little shampoo not a big glob, and only use a tiny bit of conditioner every few days instead of everyday.
10. I use a small amount of toothpaste (much smaller than the picture of the toothpaste box!) but will happily buy as much floss as necessary since it pays to keep your gums healthy and cavities at bay.
11. When our bath soap gets down to a sliver I "meld" it on to the new bar instead of throwing it out.
12. Since I am no longer working, I rarely wear perfume, cologne, use nail polish, etc.
13. All of our TVs are at least a decade old.  While there are huge sales on bigger and better TVs every week, it doesn't make sense (cents?) to get rid of perfectly good TVs that are big enough for a good viewing experience and still work fine.
14. We buy the majority of our medical kit stuff from the Dollar Store.  Gauze is the same, no matter if you pay $1 for it at the Dollar Store or $5 for it at Target.  However, if I buy ingestible like eye drops or vitamins at the Dollar Store, I read the package to make sure they come from a reputable country like Korea not China.
15. I used to use Garnier Nutrisse hair color but now that it is $10 a box, I switched to a $3 Revlon color which produces the same results.
16. Speaking of hair, hubby cuts my hair a couple times in between professional cuts so I only pay for maybe four haircuts a year (and often use coupons when I do).
17. I do all of my own beauty services at home too--manicures, pedicures, waxing, facials, etc.
18. I like to wear my clothes until they are threadbare then throw them away or use them for rags.  For clothes that I don't want but that are still in good condition, I give them away to people that need them.
19. Speaking of clothes, ALL of my clothes except for sox and underwear come from the Goodwill.  I love wearing already used clothes, it's much cheaper than buying new, and it keeps unwanted clothing out of landfills.
20. I try to use tech items for a few years then pass them along to others.  Some years ago I bought an $800 laptop which I thought was super expensive at the time but I used it for four years then our daughter used it for four years so I definitely think it was worth the money.
21. Speaking of tech, I like to buy tried and true items instead of leading edge items (I didn't buy the original Z Fold cell phone because I was sure it would need a lot of bugs worked out.  I am considering picking up the Z Fold 4--on sale of course--because there have been enough iterations to make it a much better device than the first version).
22. Another way we keep our tech and other items working for a good long time is to make repairs ourselves.  You can find YouTube videos on how to repair nearly everything and you can buy cheap parts on Amazon in order to greatly expand the lifespan of your stuff.  So far I have copied a programmable key fob, repaired a dryer, replaced a keyboard on a laptop, and replaced the battery on a laptop.
23. I buy things like shoes, backpacks, etc. with longevity in mind.  I buy expensive, high-quality shoes which I then wear for years.  I had a pair of Brooks shoes that I paid $80 for that lasted for ten years which makes their actual cost $8 per year!  My Teva sandals have lasted a similarly long time.
24. The carpet in our house is more than ten years old and still looks new.  Between a no-shoes-in-the-house policy, semi-annual shampoos, and using plastic runners in high-traffic areas, we don't have to replace the carpet nearly as often as other people.  I am looking at hardwood floors when the carpet does need to be replaced for even better flooring longevity.
25. I like to keep my eye on the sales websites so I can get deeply discounted prices on things I know we will use eventually like furnace filters (we replace these every six months), batteries (we don't use too many, usually only for our computer mice), bug spray (we do our own spring and fall spraying for beetles and scorpions with Hot Shot), etc.  
26. I hate food waste so we freeze leftovers to eat at a later date when we don't feel like cooking and want a quick meal.
27. Since switching from bottled water to refilling five gallon jugs of water, we have saved a lot of money as well as a lot of plastic waste.
28. Hubby makes his own coffee at home everyday using a $4 drip coffeemaker that we got at the Goodwill--this is much cheaper than using a Keurig (everyone we know uses these) and much much cheaper than hitting up Starbucks everyday.
29. Whenever we leave the house, we bring our own drinks in insulated Contigo travel mugs.
30. If we will be out and about for a while, we usually bring a lunch with us as well (usually sandwiches in reusable plastic containers or fried rice/soup in an insulated tumbler).
31. Instead of using a lot of plastic wrap, we save leftovers, cut onions, etc. in reusable plastic containers.
32. Instead of using aluminum foil to heat up things in the toaster oven, we reuse foil pie pans we got at the Dollar Store--these can last for months!
33. Every six months, we take everything out of our freezers and rotate the items to make sure nothing gets forgotten for years in the back of the freezer.
34. I clean out our refrigerator once a week to ensure nothing gets forgotten in the back of the fridge and is eaten in a timely manner.
35. We often do batch cooking and freeze the results.  It super easy to make 100 lumpia, a huge batch of chili, cups of smoothies and frozen desserts, etc. and freeze the results to use when we want a quick meal or snack.
36. I like to cook as many things from scratch as possible--chili, soups, cookies, etc.  This way I know what is in the product (no fillers, chemicals, etc), it's cheaper (my neighbor pays $5 per cookie at a fancy local bakery!), and it usually tastes better too!
37. Instead of deciding what to have for dinner then going to the store to buy the food to make the meal, I check out the sale ads and build our meals around loss leaders and other sale items.  I hate paying full price for groceries!
38. I generally buy products like laundry soap, dish soap, Windex, and hand soap in huge bulk containers then just refill the smaller containers that we use daily.
39. We also buy meat in bulk when it comes on sale (we got 10 pounds of London Broil for $2.74 a pound yesterday--hubby breaks it down and freezes it in individual portions, this should last him for months!), oats in bulk at Sam's Club (I eat oatmeal every morning for breakfast), huge bags of pancake mix when we know we will be having lots of guests visiting, etc. 
40. One thing I haven't tried yet that I am considering is this idea from Prepper Princess about making your own solar power to run things like computers and TVs on.  We have plenty of sun here and with the way power prices are skyrocketing, this may be a great money-saving idea.
41. Another idea I got from the PP channel is to just not buy things.  While you can save money by being frugal with your consumables, you can save even more money by not buying these items in the first place!
42. Gas is a consumable that we try really hard to conserve.  At least two days a week we stay home and don't drive anywhere.  When we do drive somewhere we usually try to group several errands together in order to save gas.
43. On consumer items that we need but which continue to rise in cost--like cell service, insurance, internet, etc--I regularly call around to different companies in order to get the lowest-priced plans I can find.  Mint Mobile has great prices, we have the lowest price internet plan our local provider offers, etc.
44. For some consumables, I like to use coupons if at all possible.  I don't often find coupons for the basic items we use--like store brand shampoo for hubby instead of the higher priced name brand shampoo which, even with using a coupon, would cost more than the store brand--occasionally I will find a good coupon to use.  
45. I also use other methods for saving money on the items we buy like asking for a rain check for a low-priced grocery item that is on sale but not in stock, asking a nearby store to price-match an item that the store across town has on sale, buying an open-box item instead of a new item, etc.
46. While hubby is a carnivore, I am vegan about 95% of the time.  I think this a healthier way to eat and it is much cheaper to eat beans, whole grains, fruit, and vegetables than lots of meat and dairy. 
47. Speaking of eating, where you shop can make a lot of difference on prices.  We get a lot of our vegetables, for really cheap, at our local Mexican grocery stores.  You would think rice would be cheaper at Asian supermarkets but we have found it to be cheaper at Sam's Club.  The 99 Cent store has great prices on day-old bread and produce. 
48. Hubby likes to watch recipe channels on YouTube and is always up for trying to make something new.  A way we save money with this is by sometimes making substitutions.  For example, one Filipino dish (kare kare) says to use oxtail and honeycomb tripe but both kinds of meat are very expensive.  Instead he will buy a cheaper kind of beef like chuck roast and a cheaper kind of tripe and the recipe usually turns out good anyway.
49. Of course it is a good idea to break any addiction you have to alcohol, smoking, etc, to save money but I find it difficult (impossible?) to shake my addiction to a particular coffee drink at Baskin Robbins.  To save money on this item, I do the survey on the bottom of each receipt to save a dollar of my next drink and do their 'buy eight get one free' punch cards.
50. Finally, we try to follow the 'reduce, reuse, recycle, or do without' thing.  For each item we need to spend money on, we ask ourselves if there is a way to reduce, reuse, or recycle something to meet our needs or if, in fact, we can just do without the item.

10 Ways I Saved Money This Week

First off, it's hot here this week!

In other news, we did quite a few things to save money this week including...

1. I've been looking for a really good 8 inch tablet since the tablet I currently carry with me everywhere is getting a bit old and slow.  While I am not a fan of Apple products at all, they are the only company making high-end 8" tablets so when I saw the iPad mini 6 tablet was $100 off at Best Buy, I decided to pick one up.  I also saw that Target, which is much closer to me than Best Buy, does price matching so not only did I save $100 on my new tablet, I asked for price-matching at my nearby Target and saved the gas I would have used driving across town to Best Buy!
2. Hubby trimmed my hair so I can put off getting a professional haircut for another several weeks.  He often does this since my hair grows so fast but I don't like to pay for a professional cut every month.
3. I used the app on my phone plus the weekly sale flyer for our local grocery store to save more than 50% off the cost of groceries this week.  We pretty much only buy sale items and loss leaders when we shop which saves A LOT of money over paying full price for a bunch of groceries like other shoppers.  Peaches were 99 cents a pound this week so we will have peaches instead of strawberries which weren't on sale this week.  They also had pork chops on sale for 97 cents a pound so hubby stocked up on these as pork is the kind of meat he likes the best (it's used in many Filipino dishes that he cooks).
4. I needed some basic make up so I checked the price for eye liner, brow liner, and powder at Walmart and found the price has really increased so I ordered these items on Amazon and saved more than $10 that way.
5. Our car insurance is up for renewal next month so I called a couple of other companies and found that the company we use now is still the least expensive so I happily paid for six months (we also get a discount for paying our car insurance for six months at a time instead of on a monthly basis).
6. Our internet plan is also coming up for renewal (we got a great discount deal which is set to expire after one year) so I called the internet company to see if we could renew for the same price.  Unfortunately the lady said she couldn't match that price so I am now looking around for other options (we might switch to Verizon or TMobile 5g home services if I can't find a good cable price).
7. We skipped shopping at the Goodwill this week.  Since we ALWAYS find stuff to buy there but we really don't need anything, we try to hit the Goodwill only once or twice per month instead of every week.
   
8. I try to cook at home as much as possible and when we do eat out, it is usually free except for the tip because hubby gets comps from the casinos for playing poker.  This week we had a nice dinner at Saltgrass Steakhouse for the grand total of a $7 tip.  And today I am going to make Olive Garden's Zuppa Toscana for hubby which is much cheaper to make at home than ordering it at a restaurant.
   
9. The bidet is still working great and it saves A LOT of toilet paper!
   
10. For several years we have only drank bottled water as the tap water here is pretty awful but when I realized how much plastic waste we were creating, I decided to try buying the five gallon water jugs that I always see people filling up at the water station in front of the grocery store.  Since doing this a few months ago, we have saved a lot of money AND plastic waste and the water tastes great! I simply put the water into a smaller pitcher we keep in the refrigerator and use this for drinking and to fill up our steel water bottles that we always take with us.  The price to fill up the 5 gallon jugs is only $1.75 and it's really easy to do!

And a few other things...

• Here are some funny and interesting charts.
• The bear cams on YouTube Live are fascinating to watch!
• Finally, here is a great place to find all kinds of frugal tips.
  

10 Money-Saving Links

Here are a bunch of links that can save you some money...

1. A program for cheaper internet for low-income Americans started a couple days ago.  Check it out!
2. Here is a list of free entrance days for the National Parks in 2022.  Add these to your calendar!
3. If you don't want to visit the national parks on free days (when the parks will be mobbed!), check out these other free and reduced-cost National Park passes you may qualify for.
4. Here is a list of 700(!) birthday freebies you can sign up for.
5. Tax season is just around the corner, you can get free tax filing assistance here and here.
6. Scrolling through this site, there are quite a few links for free stuff.
7. And don't forget to check the class action rebate site occasionally to see if you qualify for any rebates.
8. There are also several websites that help you find forgotten money you may be owed.
9. If you didn't pull your free annual credit report last year, it is a good idea to do it now (this helps you fix any problems on it which is especially useful if you intend to buy a house or make any other big purchase this year).
10. Finally, this is a great site for general personal finance news.
    

Things I've Done to Save Money

I was reading Kim's blog and saw this interesting post on things she did to save money.  She's done some pretty interesting things!  While I am not nearly as creative as she is, here are some things we have done/do to save money...

• Leave the car at home and walk/take the bus to do errands and save money/gas.
• Slept in the airport over night when we volunteered to get bumped in order to get a free ticket to use at a later date.
• Took up a collection for a relative's teeth (she needed a full set of dentures and while we have a dentist in the family to do the work for free, we took up a collection from family members to pay for materials and the denture maker's services).
• Coordinated a trade when an employee's mother needed teeth (we traded his carpet installation work with a dentist and a denturist to get free dentures for his mother).
• We've rarely had cable TV unless the package price was cheaper than regular internet price; we use an OTA antenna instead.
• We cut paper towels in quarter-sized sheets; it makes the right size for most uses and saves wasting an entire paper towel.
• We cook a lot of meals at home but when we do eat out, our average price at a restaurant is about $5 each at most (we use coupons and split meals).
• I research discounts for nearly every purchase--senior discounts, locals discounts, military discounts, etc.
• We watch YouTube videos and try to fix things ourselves before calling in a professional (most of the time we can easily fix things with just a video though).
• We rarely spend money on gifts for parties and events, instead we volunteer to help out with the event by baking desserts or cooking for the event.
• One of my first jobs was teaching gymnastics in exchange for free dance lessons.
• We've taken several off-off-season cruises (one went all over the south Pacific for two weeks and cost $250 each!).
• I've tried hanging the laundry outside to dry instead of using the dryer but it comes our crunchy so this was a short-lived experiment.
• I've worked several temp jobs just for the experience and a bit of spending money (my favorite was World Series of Poker, least favorite was Dollar Tree).
• I often have hubby cut my hair and I do my own coloring.  Hubby let me cut his hair once.  Did I mention I have no artistic talent at all?
• We buy all of our clothes (except socks, shoes, and underwear) from the Goodwill.
• We've stayed married for 35 years (a great way to save money; divorce is expensive!).
• I unplug appliances that aren't being used (like the TVs and lamps in the guest rooms, a printer that we rarely use, etc).
• We've picked up several things from the sidewalk on trash day and either used them or resold them.
• I've chosen jobs that come with fringe benefits (like working at a pizza place during college and eating free every day that I worked!).
• I try to use up as much old produce as possible--turning old apples into applesauce or apple pie, making stew or curries out of older vegetables, and making banana bread from old bananas.
• When we host guests (which we do a lot because we live in a tourist destination) we almost always cook at home for them.  Taking people out to dinner is expensive; for the same price we can make several meals for everyone!
• We don't use wipes and Swiffer pads and other disposable items, bleach water and a rag works just as well!

I'm sure there are other odd things we do to save money which have become normalized for us but those are all I can think of at the moment!

101 Ways We Save Money in Retirement

Actually hubby is fully retired and I am retired-ish but still do occasional gig work (but I definitely need to develop some sources of retirement income!).  Here are a bunch of ways we live frugally in retirement:

1. We chose to live in a state with no state income tax.  This works well for us, but it makes sense to look at overall tax burden by state when deciding where to retire.  Note that there are many states that have state income tax yet don't tax various types of retirement income.
2. We bought a newish house at the bottom of the market.  It has now more than doubled in price since the housing market has significantly increased in value over the past decade.  I don't even know how new home buyers afford $300k "starter homes" these days!
3. We used a VA loan (zero down, many closing costs paid by the VA) to buy our house.  We also bought a house for a fraction of the amount we were pre-approved for.  No way did we want a huge house payment when we could live happily in a smaller, less expensive house.
4. We decided to downsize to a smaller house in part because a smaller house is much cheaper to heat, cool, and maintain.  
5. Our house is in an area which has a very low property tax rate as well as a tax cap so property tax can't increase dramatically year over year.  Many of our family members live in New England where their monthly property tax payments cost more than their mortgage payments!
6. I call around each year to get the best rate for house insurance.  We bundle our house insurance with our car insurance to get a better rate and don't have things that would increase the cost of our house insurance like a pool or pit bulls.
7. We live in a neighborhood with an inexpensive HOA.  Unfortunately almost every house in Las Vegas is part of an HOA, fortunately we chose a neighborhood that isn't gated and doesn't have a pool, golf course, or club house which can dramatically increase the monthly HOA cost.
8. Hubby and I share one car which is much cheaper than having two or more cars like we did in years past.  This is easier to do in retirement because we don't have jobs taking us in different directions.
9. We bought a basic car (Honda CRV) with a .9% loan from the dealership on a five year term which we recently paid off in four years.  While I would have loved to have a fancy $50k truck, a good basic car is cheaper, just as reliable, and costs less to maintain and insure.
10. I call around each year to find the lowest-priced car insurance we can find.  I found that the cost for car insurance can vary dramatically from company to company.  We get a discount on this insurance because it is bundled with our home insurance.
11. Speaking of insurance, we lower the cost of our home and auto insurance by having higher deductibles.  Our emergency fund can easily cover these deductibles (which is important, you don't want to have a high deductible you can't cover if you need to make a claim!).
12. We signed up for a property tax exemption provided by our county which cuts the cost of our annual car registration by more than half.  Many counties/cities have such tax exemptions for seniors, vets, low income folks, etc.
13. We get a good price on car maintenance services at a friend's auto shop, keep the car in good working order, and do some of our own maintenance (like changing the air filters) ourselves.
14. We tend not to drive often or far which saves on gas as well as wear and tear on the car (in four years we have only put 34,000 miles on the car!).  I also called and got a rebate on our car insurance when we were under lockdown for covid and staying home all the time.
15. We are safe drivers.  Car insurance is expensive in my city for everyone because drivers here are so awful.  We keep our insurance costs relatively low by driving carefully and not having DUIs/tickets/other violations.  We also have an inexpensive dashcam in our car just in case we ever do get in a wreck.
16. I often walk to do errands like grocery shopping, banking, mailing things, etc.  This saves gas and is good exercise.
17. Fortunately hubby's health insurance is free thanks to the military (he still has a Medicare deduction from his social security) and my health insurance is only $25 a month.  Needless to say, this is ridiculously cheap health insurance compared to the regular health insurance market.  We know several people who can't retire because they would have to pay for their own health insurance, instead of their job paying for it, and the cost would be astronomical!
18. For dental work, we are fortunate that my sister in law is a dentist so if we need major work, she will do it just for the cost of supplies.  But since she lives across the country, I also have a great local dentist who knows I don't have dental insurance so he gives me a no-insurance discount plus an extra discount if I pay cash.  I suppose if we were desperate for dental care we would go to our local university dental school (very cheap procedures done by dental students) or march ourselves down to Los Algodones!
19. We are pretty frugal with our utilities.  Electricity, gas, and water is charged at the rate you use it so we try to be frugal with our use of these services (there are millions of pages online with tips to save on utilities).
20. We pay as many bills annually (HOA) or semi annually (car insurance) as we can in order to get a discount over paying monthly.
21. I check out utility company websites occasionally and see what discounts they offer.  We have got a free energy weatherization service, a rebate on the washer/dryer set we purchased, free shower heads, etc. from these programs in the past.
22. We use an over-the-air antenna to get 50+ free stations on TV instead of paying for cable TV.  Since we live in a city, there are LOTS of OTA TV stations; this may not be the same in rural areas.
23. We have a Netflix subscription which provides more than enough entertainment for us and is much cheaper than cable TV.  
24. We have basic internet.  I would love gigablast internet but the cost is more than $100 per month.  We have a step-up-from-the-bottom internet for $50 a month which works just fine for us.
25. We just switched to Mint for our cell phone service which we are happy with.  We get unlimited calls and texts plus 3gb of internet for $15 each a month which I think is a good deal.
26. We always buy our cell phones from the manufacturer (Samsung) or Best Buy.  We buy our phones on sale and pay in full instead of buying phones we can't afford and need to finance over two years or more.
27. We buy our tech products (tablets, laptops, TV, etc) on sale and we choose products that meet our needs instead of buying top-of-the-line products which do way more than we need.
28. We do a lot of our own home maintenance like changing out plumbing fixtures, and check around with friends for recommendations for inexpensive handyman work when we need it (I didn't want hubby painting the second floor exterior trim so we hired this out to a painter a friend recommended).
29. We do our own yard work.  Fortunately it is pretty minimal but a lot of people we know hire this sort of thing done.  When I got a quote for $200 to trim our palm trees, I went online and learned how to do this myself (our $40 extendable pole saw has paid for itself several times over so far!).
30. We use YouTube to learn how to do many maintenance and repairs which has saved us a boatload of money over the years.  The dealership wanted $90 to change the filters in our car, a YouTube video showed us how to do this and it only cost $20 for the filters!  We bought $10 key blanks on Amazon and had them cut for $10 which saved us $180 over the cost of having the dealership do this.  The list of things we have learned how to do ourselves is endless!
31. We shop sales and buy in bulk when it comes to food.  We buy 50 pounds of rice at a time from the Asian store (we eat a lot of rice!), and get some amazing deals on weekly food purchases by using our local grocery store app.
32. We tend to shop for food and household supplies at the cheapest places (like the Mexican grocery store or 99 Cent store for produce, the Asian grocery store for Asian food, Costco for toilet paper, Walmart for toiletry and household products, etc).
33. We cook almost all of our meals at home.  This is both cheaper and healthier than eating out all the time.  This includes making our meals at home and taking them with us if we will be out for the day so we don't end up eating fast food.
34. We make our own desserts and snacks at home.  I love to bake so this makes it easy but if you have a favorite item at any fast food or popular restaurant, it's guaranteed that there are a bunch of "copy cat" recipes online to show you how to make it yourself at home.
35. I shop online for specific items that I know are cheaper than buying at local stores, like tablet and cell phone covers from Amazon or outdoor gear from SteepAndCheap.
36. I have an Amazon Prime subscription which gives us free shipping, free movies, free books, etc. which I got for $20 off when there was a discount for veterans a while back.
37. I sign up for freebies anywhere I can find them.  Examples here and here.
38. I also look for discounts all the time too, whether it is asking for a locals discount, a veteran's discount, a senior discount, etc.
39. We buy all of our clothes (except for shoes, socks, and underwear which are purchased new at Ross or TJ Maxx) at the Goodwill.  And we only shop on senior sale days which saves even more money!
40. We have a Sam's Club card (which we received as a gift) and occasionally get a Costco card (if the cost will save us more on the items we want to purchase over buying the item at another store).  We tend to buy food in bulk at these places if the price is better than we can find at other stores.
41. We buy all of our home decor and household goods (dishes, furniture like desks and bookcases, etc) at the Goodwill.  I refuse to pay full price for any sort of decor which loses 90% of its value as soon as you walk out of the store with it.  Any time we need something for our house, the first place we look is at the Goodwill!
42. We have inexpensive hobbies.  Hubby bowls on senior leagues (cheaper than evening leagues), I enjoy walking and hiking which is free, occasionally we will swim at the local pool ($1 per person...WAY better than owning our own pool!), etc.
43. We enjoy free events and activities in our city.  Obviously this was much more expansive pre-covid but hopefully things will get back to normal soon.  I did a free CERT class, we often attended free musical events at our local library, we've gone to free lectures, free days at the museum, and enjoyed lots of free casino shows over the years.
44. If we do go to events or activities that cost money, we look for discounts.  This might be discounted tickets for locals, going to a matinee movie instead of an evening movie, or using services like Fill A Seat or House Seats.  I've even volunteered to work at conferences and events in order to get free entry to the rest of the event after my shift was done!
45. We have done things as drastic as cutting each other's hair to save money (and did a good job IMHO).  Although we do like to use $7 haircut coupons that come out occasionally for our local Great Clips.
46. We don't do debt.  No credit card use (unless we pay it off immediately), no payday loans, no buying furniture or electronics on credit, no time shares, etc).
47. We are also minimalist (me more so than hubby) so we don't buy things unless we really need them.  I don't like having junk or clutter laying around!
48. We have an emergency fund which has, on many occasions, saved us from putting a repair or new appliance on our credit cards.
49. We also cash flow/DIY bigger purchases.  When one of the daughters wanted to get married here, we told her we would pay for it as long as it fit in our budget and we could cash flow it (she chose a restaurant we could afford for the reception, DIYed the invitations, etc); the entire event was wonderful!
50. Speaking of money, when people (usually kids, grandkids, or relatives) need money we never loan it to them but offer what we can afford as a gift.  This saves a lot of drama!
51. The kids are all self-supporting and employed.  Needless to say, this saves a lot of money over having kids still living at home.  We weren't able to be nearly as frugal with a house full of kids!
52. We don't have pets.  Obviously this is a personal choice (I can't even see having a dog in Las Vegas when it's too hot to walk them for three months out of the year!).  We have had several dogs over the years which were pretty low-maintenance, but now our friends who have dogs spend money on clothing for them (!?!), doggy day cares, and medical care which rivals human care in price!
53. We do as much as we can online instead of via mail or in person.  Things like banking and paying bills can easily be done online and saves the cost of a trip to the bank or a stamp for mailing.
54. We utilize the library a lot.  Our library is great and offers all kinds of things like community events, a massive amount of e-books that I download to my Kindle for free, free movies/music/magazines, etc.
55. When we travel, I use Google flights to search for the lowest-priced tickets as this site allows you to search by price, by day.  Obviously this is easier to do if your dates for traveling are flexible.  Ditto, in previous years, when I used Travelocity to search for cruises by the price per night.
56. We make our own coffee at home.  I used to have an awful Starbucks (and Baskin Robbins) habit but I have kicked both.  Now hubby has his morning coffee made with our old drip coffee maker and I make my own milkshakes and smoothies at home.  This saves A LOT of money!
57. When we do eat out (with a coupon or other discount of course!), we tend to order one meal and split it (and still end up with leftovers).  We order water to drink instead of soda and skip dessert.  This is a frugal way to have a nice meal while not overeating, plus the meals are so big we don't even miss having expensive soda or dessert with it.
58. We are frugal in the kitchen.  Hubby washes and saves ziploc bags to use when packaging meat in single-serve portions, we cut a roll of paper towels down the middle to give us quarter-sized paper towels (a whole paper towel is generally overkill), even the water from boiling vegetables is used to water the plants!
59. Our house is always organized.  This saves us from buying duplicate items because the item we need, like tape or scissors, were misplaced and can't be found.
60. Our house is always clean.  We don't wear shoes in the house (makes the carpets really dirty; our very light colored carpet still looks like new because we don't wear shoes on it and keep it shampooed every six months or so), spills are cleaned up immediately so they don't leave a stain, and broken things are either fixed, given away, or tossed.
61. We do home maintenance and repairs as needed.  This includes changing the furnace filters regularly, doing annual maintenance on our AC which should have died five years ago but is still going strong, fixing leaky faucets immediately, etc.
62. We don't replace things that aren't broken.  Our TVs are more than ten years old but still work fine so we see no reason to get the newest and biggest TVs.  Our basic computers work just fine, our cell phones are from three generations ago but still work great, and I think our vacuum is going on 20 year old but still works fine (hubby cleans and maintains it regularly). 
63. Our tech use is pretty basic--cell phones, laptops, and a tablet.  We don't use Alexa or other assistants (too intrusive IMHO) and don't pay for apps or software.  When we do get new tech, the old stuff is either sold or given to a kid or grandkid who needs it.
64. Our decor has been the same for ages and it still looks fine IMHO.  I used to redecorate often (including new paint and flooring when the old stuff was just fine), changed the decor with the season, and generally tried to have a "House Beautiful" house.  Needless to say I now find this expensive and wasteful.
65. We are the same with clothes.  I used to have to have the newest fashions, LV and Coach purses, etc.  Now my basic Goodwill clothes and cute Kipling purses (bought on sale of course) suit me just fine.  I think this is easier to do when you don't work and don't have to impress people.
66. Get rid of vices!  Hubby used to smoke three packs a day but quit many years ago.  That alone has saved us a boatload of money.  We don't drink, do drugs (marijuana is legal here), or have other vices that cost money.  Hubby does like to play poker but he has a small allowance for this and if it is gone for the week, he doesn't play any more (fortunately he is a good player and has saved a pretty good-sized bankroll in addition to getting "comps" when he plays for free meals in casino restaurants).
67. When we cook, we usually make big batches of whatever we are making and freeze leftovers in single serve portions.  This is a great way to save on food waste and save money over eating out if we happen to be too busy to cook.
68. We often use food and home baked goods for gifts.  If there is a party, we bring dessert, if we are visiting friends, we bring them food, when people come over, we serve them food.  Good food seems to make everyone happy.
69. When we buy food (almost always on sale, of course) we process it immediately so it doesn't sit in the back of the refrigerator and rot.  Meat (hubby is a carnivore) is cut up and frozen in single-serve sizes, vegetables are cut up and frozen or used right away, fruit is cleaned up and frozen, etc.  I do need to learn how to can and make jam so I can stretch our discount food finds even further.
70. We prepare for disasters.  Slowly.  Fortunately we don't get many disasters in our area but every time we go shopping, we add a small item to our disaster supplies kit whether it is a box of bandaids or a tarp from the $1 store, an extra can or two of soup that is on sale, a packet of batteries, etc.
71. We like to "buy it for life" when possible.  We still use my grandmother's cast iron pan that is more than 50 years old, my backpacks have lifetime warranties, and we happily pay more for long-lasting durable items which save money over buying cheap items that are more likely to break quickly.
72. We have food-producing trees in our back yard.  I wish we had space for a garden, unfortunately our yard is very small and gardening here is pretty challenging.  I think any effort to grow your own food, if you are into this sort of thing, is well worth the effort.
73. We don't answer our phones if we don't know who is calling, don't open our door if it looks like someone is trying to sell something, and have freezes on our credit.  Scams and identity theft are so common these days, we try to do everything we can to avoid getting caught up in any of that.
74. We avoid the usual scammy things: impossible to cancel gym memberships, even more impossible to cancel time shares, payday lenders, rent-to-own places, etc.
75. I try to avoid things that will make me mindlessly shop including going to stores without specific things I need to buy, perusing deals websites, and watching too many tech review videos (I love new tech!).
76. We buy annual memberships for things we enjoy doing like getting a senior Nevada Parks Pass which provides free entry to all of Nevada's parks for $30 and hubby has a senior lifetime membership to the National Parks (it only cost $10 when he bought it several years ago).  Some of our friends buy annual memberships to local museums, kid's play places, etc.
77. We live below our means.  We used to live way beyond our means, assuming that since we were working we could always pay whatever bills we would rack up in the future (note that this rarely works out well even if you are earning a large salary!).  These days, with living on a fixed income, we know exactly how much we can spend and we stay below that amount.
78. We don't buy things that can be rented or borrowed.  I just can't see buying a boat or RV when it is much cheaper and easier to rent these big ticket things but leave the cost and maintenance to someone else.  Specialized tools (except for my beloved pole saw) or other things we rarely use (like a power washer) are also great things to rent instead of buy.
79. We have saved a lot of money by not traveling.  We used to travel several times a year but when hubby's health was unstable, we decided not to travel for a year.  Then two years.  Now with covid there is no traveling this year either.  Fortunately hubby's health has improved, and we have realized that while traveling is OK, staying home is much less hassle and much less expensive. 
80. Speaking of traveling, when we do travel, we now go one-bag only.  Each of us carries everything we need in our carry on on-sized bags so we don't need to pay ridiculous baggage fees.  We also carry snacks and empty water bottles through security and fill them up on the gate side so we don't have to buy water or snacks at the expensive airport stores.
81. We do splurge occasionally.  When my old tablet was on its last leg I went looking for a new tablet.  I researched (excessively), found the tablet I wanted (an expensive one), waited until it went on sale, then found next to the sale price that the store had a returned tablet for an even greater discount.  I picked up the returned tablet and it works great, just like new!
82. We take advantage of opportunities as they come up.  I often learn of deals, discounts, and cool opportunities via social media and regular media so I make note of these great deals and take advantage of them when appropriate.  There might be a lecture by my favorite author, free audience tickets for shows filmed in Vegas, free community events, etc. which we will enjoy if we have time.
83. We use a cash back credit card for our purchases and pay it off each month.  We are careful not to overspend and always pay it at the end of each month then reap the cash-back rewards as they accumulate.
84. Occasionally we will do a no-spend challenge.  This is a great way to save money quickly and it makes us reduce, reuse, recycle, or do without (good lessons to practice anytime!).
85. We use less of products than is called for.  I usually use half the usual amount of laundry soap, half the amount of toothpaste you see used in commercials, mix my shampoo with water...all things that stretch the products but still produce effective results.
86. We have actually done dumpster diving and trash picking in the past.  If we find something useful on the side of the road we will pick it up, clean it up, the use it or sell it on Craigslist.  When I used to work in an office building, entire suites of office furniture would be left by the dumpster when an office closed so we would quickly scoop it up and use it or sell it.
87. We always shop the clearance racks at any stores we go to.  This is a great way to get great products that may be old or closing out, at big discounts.  We do this everywhere from the day-old bread rack at the grocery store to the mis-mixed paint section at Home Depot.
88. Some unusual ways to make or save money which we have done: see if you have unclaimed money, see if you qualify for a class action rebate, and consider these weird ways to make money.
89. I love to make a little extra money by doing temp or gig work.  Every summer (well, until this summer) I have worked a temp job at the World Series of Poker, the census is hiring in our area (I will skip applying this time due to the covid risk), I may apply to work for the elections, and in our city (pre-covid) there are always lots of weekend or week-long jobs at conventions and other events which people can do to make a little extra money.
90. Another money saver we are considering is refinancing our mortgage.  We may do this as the APR is 1% less than we are paying now but we haven't decided if we are moving yet or we may just decide to hammer away at what's left of our mortgage and pay it off as fast as possible (which may save money over paying closing costs to get a cheaper interest rate).
91. All of our banking accounts are free.  A few accounts are through credit unions (free) and one is through the bank that holds our mortgage (also free as long as we have a loan with them).  I can't believe some of the high fees people pay for banking when there are free options out there!
92. I used to make a lot of websites for businesses, now I just have a few for small non profits that I help out.  To save money on this, I buy the domain names through Name Cheap and stopped paying hundreds of dollars in hosting fees by using Blogger for free hosting (I believe Google Pages and GitHub offer similar free hosting).
93. More online things I use to save money: free software, free educational courses, and finding free services for my hobbies (like using FamilySearch for genealogy instead of paying for an Ancestry subscription).
94. We have scaled way back on gift giving.  We used to send birthday and Christmas gifts to all of our siblings and their kids but now with five kids and 13 grandkids of our own, we limit gifts to just our immediate family.  It's still a bit expensive but better than giving gifts to nearly 100 close relatives!
95. Some big investments we are looking at: an on-demand water heater when our current water heater dies, a new AC system (our old one still works but it is already five years past its lifespan), buying a freezer (we currently use freezers in our two refrigerators but an actual freezer would be nice), and while I would love to have solar, it doesn't make financial sense where we live because of the high cost/relatively low return (the power company doesn't pay much for solar here unfortunately).
96. As for coupons, I don't go all out and do the "Coupon Queen" thing but if I see a coupon in our junk mail that we can use (for haircuts, make up, etc) I will cut it out and use it.
97. I think one of the most important ways to stay frugal is to make lists.  I have a list of bills that need to be paid and their due dates (don't want to pay late and get a late fee added to the bill!), a list of food and household goods we are running low on (don't want to forget something then have to make a special trip back to the store because we are completely out!), and a list of "to do" things (don't want to forget birthdays or other tasks that need to get done!).
98. I am forever looking for even more ways to be frugal so occasionally I will visit RedditFrugal, or simply Google "weird ways to save money" or "weird ways to make money" to find some new and unique ways to earn or save money that I haven't come across yet. 
99. Consider "extreme" ways to save money.  Many friends use bidets which saves on the cost of toilet paper (we are still considering whether or not to buy one of these), some people collect condiment packets to use at home (a bit too extreme for us), and the neighbor guy got tired of dealing with dead plants in his yard so he went to the dollar store and bought a bunch of plastic plants to put in his yard!
100. We have been married for decades and this actually saves us money.  Being divorced splits assets, costs double for two separate households, and we encourage each other to be frugal which is an added bonus (hubby is actually more frugal than I am!).  Obviously not everyone gets a choice to remain married but working out problems instead of bailing is a money-saving tip!
101. We always ask each other "how can we do this cheaper?"  And rather than feeling deprived when being so frugal, it is more like a fun challenge.  I guess the most important part of being frugal is your attitude towards it!

We Switched to Mint!

I've been hearing a lot of good things about the Mint cell phone plan but I've been too lazy to switch over.  Finally I added this task to my "to do" list and last week we made the switch.  With TMobile we paid $65 a month for two cell phone lines but with Mint we are now paying $30 a month for two phone lines!

The switch was super easy--just sign up online and they send you a new sim card within a couple days.  Put the card in your phone, register it on their website with your current carrier info, and within minutes we were off of the TMobile plan and on the Mint plan.  I've noticed no change in service (Mint uses TMobile cell towers which is probably why everything seems the same) and I am now happy that we are saving a lot of money with this new service.

I started with their three month pre-paid plan to make sure we liked the service but after three months we will probably do the one-year prepaid plan (I love paying bills annually so I don't need to worry about them for an entire year).  Seems like a great deal to me!

10 Ways We Saved Money Today

It's been a busy (yet financially productive!) day today.  Here are all the ways we saved money today...

1. First we ran hubby's van over to Discount Tires and got the tires rotated for free.  We always buy our tires here because their service is so wonderful!
2. Then I took our trusty pole saw and hacked down a few more dying palm fronds from our trees (see tree above).  When I called the tree guys they wanted $199 PER VISIT to trim these trees...if I had to pay that much every month or so just to lop off some dead palm fronds we would be bankrupt!  The $40 pole saw was a great investment.
3. Next, we have been talking about getting a new stove.  Our old stove still works great but the drawer under the stove was a mess--it wouldn't slide in or slide out and was stuck sideways and was quite an eyesore--so yesterday evening when I was watching YouTube I checked "how to fix drawer under stove and found this video.  The fix seemed pretty simple so we gave it a shot this morning and we didn't even need to buy new parts, one of the drawer slides had fell off so we screwed it back on, and it works perfectly now.  No need for a new stove now :)
4. We have had the SIL's car in the shop for a few days to figure out what problems it has (the car is a 2001 but she loves it and still wants to keep it in tip top shape).  Unfortunately, the bill to fix everything that is wrong with it would be around $2,000 (!); fortunately we have a great relationship with the guys who own the shop so they are both fair with their prices and quite generous (they didn't charge us anything for a multi-hour evaluation of the car!).  We suggested she just drive it until it dies as it still runs fine even though the water pump leaks, the AC is OK and not great, etc.
5. We went to the Palms Casino Buffet for lunch today.  The couple in front of us paid $38 for their two buffets and we paid $2.75.  We did this by using a buy-one, get-one-free coupon, using hubby's player's card (he plays poker so he has a higher rated card which gets bigger discounts at restaurants), using hubby's comp points (earned while playing poker), then paying the remainder of $2.75.
6. We have managed to keep both the air conditioning and the heating systems turned off so far.  The weather has been pretty great over the past few weeks, not too hot and not too cold, and if we need it, we just use a portable fan or small space heater so we don't have to use the whole-house systems.  Hopefully we can keep doing this for at least another month or so in order to save money on heating.
7. I have a Samsung Galaxy Tab S2 tablet which is really old in tablet years (it's from 2015!).  I bought a new tablet a couple months ago but ended up returning it because it was just too big (10" as opposed to the 8" S2).  I just love this smaller-sized tablet but Samsung hasn't released a better 8 inch tablet since then and my tablet has a battery that drains very quickly so I have been looking at all of the 8" tablet options, of which there are very few and none that I like, and so I decided to just try putting a new battery in my old tablet.  I hopped on Amazon and ordered a new battery for my tablet and will see if this $20 investment will add more years of life to it.  Again, the "how to" part of replacing the battery can be found on YouTube.
8. We have been shopping loss leaders like crazy.  We will be hosting about 25 people in a few weeks for the daughter's wedding.  Some people will stay in our guest rooms and the others have booked their time shares/hotel rooms near by, but we will be providing meals for a few days while everyone is here.  We used to have a catering business so cooking for a crowd is no big deal but buying enough food (mostly meat and vegetables for Asian dishes) can get really expensive, really fast.  Each week we pick up any super cheap loss leaders/sale items at the store that we can find and are stockpiling these items until everyone arrives.  There is a huge difference in price between 49 cent a pound chicken legs and buying full-priced chicken, for example.  We also stretch our meals by making a lot of rice and noodle dishes which are mainly a lot of the cheaper item (rice or noodles) with only a little bit of meat and vegetables needed.  I also bake all kinds of inexpensive, but very tasty, desserts.
9. Also last night while watching YouTube, I came across this video on how much it actually costs to work and live like the average American.  This video makes me want to be even more frugal and as financially free as possible.
10. Finally, we are making small home improvements instead of going all out.  On the one hand, I would love to have all new paint and flooring done before everyone comes here in a few weeks but that would be a huge expense on tops of the expenses we will be covering for the wedding.  Instead I will be shampooing the carpets, scrubbing all of the cabinets, and maybe doing a bit of touch-up painting...basically anything to make the house look great if it can be done for very little money.

So Appy

One way I've been saving money these days is by using apps on my cell phone.  There are thousands of apps out there designed to help you save money and while I am probably barely scratching the surface of money-saving app use, there are a handful of apps that I use often that save me about $10+ per week.  These include...

• TMobile Tuesday app.  Since I have TMobile I added this app and check it each Tuesday to see what deals they are offering.  Sometimes there is nothing I really need but other times there are some great deals (like this week's $2 discount at Baskin Robbins which I used to buy an already on sale B & R Blast which made my cost for the drink only $1.24!).
• Little Caesars app.  We don't eat pizza from this restaurant very often but we often buy their $5 pizzas for other people like today when I brought two pizzas to the guys at the shop who keep hubby's and the SIL's old cars running so well; often don't even charge us for the work they do so we always bring them food.  Today I used the Little Caesar's app and got free crazy bread with my order!
• Albertsons app.  This is our local grocery store and each week we use the app to get some great app-only savings.  Today I picked up a couple of 40 ounce bottles of All laundry detergent for only 64 cents each with the app!  
• Charity Miles app.  While this app doesn't save me money, I use it when I walk and it donates a certain amount (a few cents maybe?) per mile to the charity of my choice.  I'm walking anyway so this is a great way to help a non-profit at the same time.
• Starbucks app.  Sometimes I will add money to my Starbucks app and occasionally I will receive Starbucks gift cards which I can add to the app.  Either way, when I use the Starbucks app to buy a drink, I also accrue "points" for free stuff like bakery items and drinks.

This week I will be looking into apps that will actually help me make money which I've heard about but never really considered before.  What your favorite apps to help you save or earn money?

5 Ways I'm Saving Money This Weekend

It's wonderful to be home!  Hospitals are great when you need them but home is always better (and way more relaxing).  This weekend we are saving money by...

1. We got a notice from the HOA that some of the fronds on our palm trees are dead (no kidding, I can see them.  If I never live in an HOA again it will be too soon).  Our trees are getting pretty tall so I don't want either the hubby or I to climb up a ladder and trim them so I called the guy who chopped them down last time but I guess he is no longer in business.  I called around to other tree trimming places and got estimates of $200(!!!) to trim like a dozen limp fronds from our trees.  That was way too much IMHO so I went to Home Depot and got a 14 foot pole saw and trimmed them myself.  Hubby, being the macho guy he is, tried insisting on helping me which I refused (that's all he needs is to pop all of his stitches out!), and while I still need to cut some more dead or dying fronds (which is harder than it looks!), I think this is a great way to save money even if it does take quite a bit more physical effort.
2. Hubby is still recovering--doing well but still feeling like someone sliced open his guts, which they technically did--so we are just staying around the house this weekend so he can continue to rest.  Not only does this save gas but it also saves small expenses that tend to crop up when we are out and about like hitting up the grocery and 99 Cent stores.
3. We are eating all of our meals at home.  This saves a lot of money!  We have plenty of food in the pantry, refrigerator, and freezer so cooking up three meals a day is simple and money saving (plus having leftovers is an added bonus).  It is also much healthier to eat at home instead of at restaurants.
4. When I took my car into the dealership a while back to have the oil changed (the cheapest place for an all synthetic oil change) they said it was time to have the tires rotated.  They wanted to charge about $70(!) to do this so I declined.  I called our local Discount Tire to see how much they would charge to rotate the tires and they said it was free so I ran the car up to get the tires rotated for free but picked up a couple of $5 Little Caesars pizzas as a sort of tip for the guys working in the shop.  It was a win-win for everyone and a great way to save money!
5. I changed out the air intake filters in our house.  We do this a couple of times a year, in the spring and fall, and this really helps extend the life of our HVAC system (I also buy the filters in bulk when they come on sale at Walmart or Costco).

I hope you are all having a wonderful weekend!

Edit:  One more way I just saved money this weekend...I have had a great cell phone plan through TMobile which included three lines of unlimited everything (calling, text, data, hot spot data, international use, etc) which was a wonderful plan, cost wise.  We gave one of the lines to one of the kids and hubby and I use the other lines.  Now the son no longer needs the line since his job provides him a cell phone so I checked TMobile and found that we qualify for their senior phone plan which includes two lines of unlimited everything for only $55 a month so I switched plans and now we are saving $45 a month!

10 Quick Money Tips

Some random money tips...

1. Museum Day Live is Saturday after next; there is still time to get your free museum tickets.
2. This is the last big "tech hype" season of the year.  There have been several new Samsung releases in the past month and Apple announced several new products last week.  Bottom line, there is a lot of cool, new, expensive tech to think about for the upcoming holidays.  On the other hand, there is something to be said for being a late tech adopter.
3. Here's a dream gig: this company will pay you $1000 to drink coffee for a month!
4. An interesting article I recently came across...universities are now housing seniors (as in senior citizens) on campus.  This helps schools earn money and seniors save money so it's kind of a win-win for everyone.
5. Another unusual deal...move to Italy, collect $27,000!
6. We are working on the daughter's upcoming wedding a bit at a time.  So far the venue and minister are set and paid for, and the dinner has been booked.  The SIL set up a Zola account for the couple (some sort of online registry), and no one was excited to do the invitations so I did it myself, literally.  Wedding invitations are ridiculously expensive (I checked several sources, apparently they jack the price up on anything to do with weddings!) so I hopped on the computer, created a nice invitation with Publisher software and a few of their photos, then bought some printer ink (I haven't used my printer in ages since it is cheaper to just print off stuff I need at Office Depot) and printed out 100 color invitations on a nice quality, cream colored paper.  Hubby folded, I did mailing labels, we added stamps, and "ta da" that part is completely finished.  
7. The tablet I put so much effort into finding last month?  It went back to Costco (I love their generous return policy).  I found that I was using it way too much, mostly for ingesting social media stuff like reddit and YouTube, when I really should be doing more productive stuff.  So while I still have my old tablet, I find that I don't use it as much and have come out of my vegetative state to work on things that may become money-earning ventures.
8. On our local grocery store app this week--free eggs!  Not a big deal but free stuff is free stuff.  I make it a point to check the app each week before we go shopping just to make sure we aren't missing any free or deeply discounted stuff.
9. I love reading stories of how people got out of debt.  Usually I can find a good tip or two that I can use myself!
10. Finally, while I am not much for politics, Elizabeth Warren's plan to expand Social Security sounds like a great idea to me.

10 Ways We Saved Money Today

It was a pretty typical day today and like most days, we did quite a few things to save a little extra money with each thing we did...

1. Hubby had a check up with his cardiologist (all is well!).  So for people in the military who have been in 10-15 years and they are thinking they can't hack another few years until they can retire, suck it up and do it!!  We have literally saved over a half million dollars over the past few years with several ER visits, a few invasive cardiac procedures, a boatload of medications, and many many follow-up appointments.  Thanks to the military and free health coverage for life, we haven't had to pay a single dollar for all of this healthcare!
2. Hubby is participating in an annual military bowling tournament this week.  Part of this event is the opportunity to buy a bowling ball for $100.  Every couple of years hubby will buy a new bowling ball through this tournament so instead of ordering a new ball online at the full price of $174.99, he got a brand new ball for $100!
3. When deciding where to get this new ball drilled, we asked the price of drilling at the tournament and they said it would cost $50.  We decided to go downstairs to the bowling center's regular pro shop and found that the price to drill the ball there was only $40 so we saved $10 just by checking both drilling places.
4. Next hubby wanted to try out his new bowling ball, so grabbing the coupon book that one of the major casino groups sent out full of discounts and freebies at the beginning of summer, I pulled out a coupon for two free games of bowling at a local bowling center.  Total cost for bowling, $0!
5. Of course, since we planned to be out and about all day, before we left the house I put our drinks in our insulated drink containers and made a couple of sandwiches and off we went.  Cost of eating out for breakfast and lunch, $0!
6. During our travels today, we needed to get gas.  Besides choosing a cheaper gas station (Arco) we also paid cash which saved 10 cents off per gallon over the cost of using a credit card to pay.
7. Hubby wanted to play poker for a couple of hours this afternoon so he went to one of his favorite poker rooms which not only comps him $1 per hour of play, they also have a free self-serve coffee bar so he could get free coffee and not have to tip a server.
8. In the evening we debated eating dinner at home or eating out.  We decided to eat at the casino buffet and, grabbing the same coupon book that we used earlier, we used a buy one buffet, get one buffet free coupon for dinner.  The dinner cost $16.99 for both of us but we used hubby's comps to cover the cost of the buffet so the cost of dinner was a total of $4 for the tip we left the waiter.
9. While hubby was playing poker, I fired up my tablet and watched YouTube videos.  There are a bajillion videos on multiple streams of income, how to make money online, and other similar topics.  Cost of this education is free, and hopefully I will use some of these things I learned today to make some side income in the future.
10. We make it a habit when we leave the house each morning to turn up the AC to 85 degrees.  This is better than turning the AC completely off, yet it also saves money over leaving the AC at the usual 77 degrees that we set it on when we are home.  This probably only saves pennies per day but savings is savings.