The Simplest Way to Save

I keep getting asked, over and over, what is the single best frugal tactic. Considering so many different lifestyles and needs, there are countless ways to save money and one of them may be the best for you while it won't work at all for someone else.

BUT... since when did I let impossibilities stop me?

Here's what I think is the absolute best tactic ever: Do nothing. Absolutely nothing. Don't go shopping. Don't go anywhere. Don't turn on the TV or snack or do anything to run up your water bill.

In other words, don't consume anything.

I don't mean that you should sit staring out into space with an empty tummy and an empty head. Have a meal, but make it simple and inexpensive. Borrow a book from the library and read. Go outside and watch the birds, the traffic... watch the grass grow. Just don't consume anything that costs money.

Try it. You might actually like it.

Garage Sales: Expensive Hobby

'Tis the season... for garage sales! What frugalite in her right mind would pass up a good garage sale? Well... I know a few. Me, anyway. Ok, so the "right mind" is debatable, but let's not get technical.

To put your mind at ease, I do shop at garage sales, when I need something that could be found there, and when I have time to go without watching the clock.

Garage sale prices need to be pretty good to be worthwhile. It's easy to blow $20 or $30 or more and come home with no more than what we could have bought at the Dollar Store for $5.

Add up the cost of gas, the items bought that didn't fit, weren't the right color, didn't work. Add in the soft drink you treated yourself to because the day was hot.
Multiply that by how many helpers you had. Possibly you can add in the cost of a fast food meal, a newspaper, something you bought that you didn't know you needed until you saw it.

It can get expensive, can't it? Here are a few thoughts that could lower those costs:

Many newspapers are online now, with classified sections and all, so check yours. You can save the cost of a newspaper if you'd have to buy it otherwise.

To help keep the cost of gas under control, make a map of garage sales that seem likely to have what you're looking for and try to stick to the route.

Be prepared before you go by planning lunch or dinner ahead of time. Make it simple and quick.

Take ice water or tea from home. If you don't have an insulated mug, make a nest from newspaper and set it in there.

Making a list of exactly what you need to keep yourself from buying the wrong color or size or style in the excitement of the find.

Garage sales are for saving money, remember?

More Life After About

Wow, I've got a great day going. First, I woke up refreshed after a good night's sleep! That's a miracle in itself... but what really made me happy was an email from Mike Killian. He used to be the Credit/Debt Guide at About, but he just up and disappeared on us awhile back.

He has a web site called Learning Credit and Debt Management and some of his best content is there. One, called "Credit Cards- They're Just Like Drugs" is worth a read even if you don't have a credit card.

I was happy to "meet up" with him again. More proof that there really is life after About.

I'm Down to Eating Cat Food

Did that catch your attention?

Ok, the story: My daughter's roommate's Grandmother loves cats... and she doesn't mind spending money, either. Anyway, she gave the roommate several cans of salmon (the $3 and up kind) for her cat.

They already had a good supply of cat food and of the three girls, my daughter was the only one who would eat canned salmon, so long story short, she brought it to me because she knows how much I love it.

I know it's not frugal to eat it this way, but it was free... so I'm having salmon and crackers. For breakfast, yet.

Hey, who says frugalistas never enjoy life?

And I know it's been said before, but it reminded me that if it weren't for all those money spending people, we'd have a lot harder time being frugal.

Extremely Frugal

Once upon a time, a reporter asked if I were "extremely frugal", "fairly frugal" or "not so frugal".

I had a feeling I'd be disqualified if the answer were "not so frugal", so that was immediately out. The right answer, of course, would have been "extremely frugal", but I wanted to be honest, so I did a little soul searching before answering.

Just what makes a person extremely frugal? What guidelines can we use? Where do we draw the line? And... just what do those terms mean? What is "extremely frugal" and "not so frugal"? (And who knows what "fairly frugal" means? - email me!)

There are some things that go beyond extreme frugality. Being frugal or penny pinching to the point of hurting yourself or somebody else, either physically or mentally, is beyond the reaches of frugality. Call it something else, but it's not frugal. Here's what extremely frugal is not:

• Saving money for the sake of saving money. That's miserly. (Apologies to Jonni McCoy of Miserly Moms fame.) Before we go a step further, remember that 'miserly' comes from the same word as 'miserable'. Remember Silas Marner?
  
  
• Deciding against that piece of clothing that you really do need, and 'making do' with what you have - for no reason other than you're too stingy to pay for it.
  
  
• Not taking care of basic needs - medical care, nutritious food, shelter and a degree of comfort.
  

One woman wrote that her grandmother was extremely frugal because she only heated as much tea water as she needed at one time. Is that extreme?

Colored Bread

Someone mentioned "brown bread," the other day and I was reminded of other colors of bread. I made pink bread one time and another time it was sort of... purple, I guess.

The pink bread was made with wheat flour and milled dehydrated tomatoes - pretty good, too. I added garlic and onion to it, but should have added a little cheese sauce mix.

The purple came from a few beans that I tried to grow which didn't return enough of a harvest to make them worthwhile. I milled them into flour and added it to wheat flour. It wasn't as good as the tomato bread, but we ate it just the same - and as fast, too.

What else can you put in bread? Nuts and seeds, of course. Don't get hung up on sunflower seeds and almonds or walnuts. Try amaranth, caraway, lamb's quarter, or any kind of edible seeds, wild or not. Add oats, either rolled or milled into flour. Cracked wheat, barley and rye. Any vegetable that's been dehydrated to a crisp or hard texture. Sprouts can be added, too.

For the frugal part of this, you can use beans that are too old to cook up well, popcorn that won't pop and some of that squash you enthusiastically dehydrated last year and now can't find a way to use it up. Make "flour" of them and bake some bread.

Want to go a step further? Milled crackers or cracker crumbs. Unwanted pancake mix. Leftover popcorn... you get the idea.

Here are the "rules"

• Don't use much of anything unusual, maybe a quarter to a half cup for a loaf of fluffier stuff like popped popcorn, (chop finely by hand or with a food processor) and less for dense, small seeds.
  
  
• Don't use more than a fourth to a third total of any other flour than wheat without a recipe because some other flours don't have gluten, which is needed for the dough to rise.
  
  
• Go by the feel of the dough instead of a recipe. Some flours and combinations will absorb more liquid than others, so if the dough feels stiff, add a little more liquid.
  

This is not for the faint of heart, nor is it for complete novices at bread baking, but if you've baked bread before and you'd like to try something a little different, why not? Experimentation is how all those great recipes got started, anyway, and you can use food that would othewise be thrown out.

Maybe I should have called it frugal bread, but the color can sometimes be surprising. You can use a combination of things in bread dough, but keep the flavors complimentary. Tomatoes and cheese, rye and dill or corn flour and milled, commercial "bacon" bits are a few that work together well.

Try it. Half the fun of being frugal is in just trying it.

Something Really, Really BIG

If you've surfed around the frugal side of the internet very long, you know of the Dollar Stretcher site. When I was a Guide for About, Dollar Stretcher was considered my "competition."

Now, I don't think there's much real competition among the frugal community, but that's a discussion for another day.

So... if it really was my competition, I'm a traitor.

But I'm not, because all that time, I found inspiration there as well as common sense articles from Gary Foreman and many, many frugalistas around the internet. I don't know how many times I found awesome sites through there that were buried in search engine results.

After saying all of that, this is not about lauding Dollar Stretcher, although I'd gladly do that, but it's about me.

Yep. I'm going there to do something. Something BIG.. ;)

Really.

Can't tell you yet, but watch this space. Or, as they say on TV (do they still say it?) Stay tuned.