My Frugal Living Tip #14: Make Your Own Seasonings & Spice Mixes

One way I save money is to make my own prepared seasonings and spice mixes. Rather than buying branded seasoning and spice mixes such as McCormick, I spend anywhere from a quarter to a third of the price of prepared mixes by buying the ingredients and mixing my own. There is also the added advantage of fresher mixes.

The internet is filled with many recipes for do-it-yourself mixes. If you don't have the patience to hunt down individual recipes, Cheap Healthy Good Blog has compiled an extensive collection of recipes: Save Money On Seasoning: MYOM (Make Your Own Mix).

Link: Save Money On Seasoning: MYOM (Make Your Own Mix).

Like this article? Read the other entries in my Frugal Living Tips Series.

My Frugal Living Tip #13: Energy Efficiency & Frugality

Energy efficiency is one easy way of being frugal. Whatever your position on climate change may be, energy efficiency also means not wasting money on inefficient appliances and wasteful consumption of energy, i.e., keeping more money in one's pocketbook.

Looking to get started? The US Department of Energy has a useful website, EnergySavers.gov, which has lots of information and tips on saving energy, and therefore saving money.

Link: EnergySavers.gov

Like this article? Read the other entries in my Frugal Living Tips Series.
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Shelf Life & Expiry Dates

How long can you keep milk in the refrigerator? Is it still drinkable or do you have to throw out that milk carton? Can you save money by using products that are past their expiry dates? What do terms such as "sell by," "use by," "best by," really mean? What does a frugal person do with products that happen to be past the "used by," "best by," etc. dates?

Here is a roundup of useful resources to explain the confusing jargon that manufacturers use and the expiry dates of most products:

• Shelf Life Advice
  A very useful site to find out the shelf life of a particular product. Enter product in search box to find out its shelf life and storage information.
  
  
• Food Expiration Dates: What Do They Really Mean? (Yahoo Green)
  
  
• Expiration Dates (OrganizeYourLife.org).
  A near-exhaustive and very useful list of how long you can keep food, household, beauty and cosmetic products.
  


• Do Food Expiry Dates Really Matter? (WebMD.com)
  An informative discussion about the confusing mix of terms used by manufacturers on their products.
  


• The Secret Code of Beer Expiration Dates (Consumerist.com).
  How to decode the mysterious codes that breweries use on to indicate how old your beer is.

My Frugal Living Tip #12: Freezing Your Food

One easy way to extend the lifespan of the food I buy or cook is to freeze them. Freezing is an easy way to keep food for months until you need them. How long should you freeze stuff? Here's a handy checklist from the folks at Real Simple that sets out practical guidelines and time frames for freezing: How Long Will Food Last In The Freezer?

Link: How Long Will Food Last In The Freezer?

Like this article? Read the other entries in my Frugal Living Tips Series.
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My Frugal Living Tip #11: Using FatWallet to search for Coupons, Clearance & Freebies

Keeping track of coupons, clearance deals and freebies can be a challenging and insurmountable task. Rather than googling for them, I find myself heading to FatWallet's forum to check out the latest coupons, clearance offers and free stuff.

How do you find the coupons you want on FatWallet's forum without searching every thread? Here is FatWallet's Official Master Thread of "Official Store Coupons & Clearance" -- where you can find coupons and clearance sales for major retailers and stores, ascertain which coupons are valid and which ones have expired, etc.

If you are looking for freebies, you should visit the Free Stuff section on FatWallet's Forum. If you are a Twitter user, you should also follow the FatWallet's Free Stuff on http://www.twitter.com/freestuffrocks

Links:
FatWallet's Official Master Thread of "Official Store Coupons & Clearance"
FatWallet's Free Stuff (Follow on Twitter)

Like this article? Read the other entries in my Frugal Living Tips Series.
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Outsourcing on the Cheap: Fiverr.com

One of the more intriguing things that I came across in my websurfing is Fiverr.com, where freelancers offer all kinds of services for $5.00. You got it, just $5.00. Anything from technology gigs, writing and translating to business and social marketing, and even crazy and bizarre stuff to goofy stuff.

Many of the services are clearly worth more than $5.00. As I see it, it's a win-win situation: I get something done on a shoe string budget and the service provider gets publicity and experience, as well as cash to tide things over.

Link: Fiverr.com

My Frugal Living Tip #9: Make Your Stuff Last Longer

When people ask me what is my one overriding tip for saving money, I tell them that I try to make my things last as long as possible. When I don't have to spend money replacing broken or worn out stuff, that's money that can be saved or invested.

The challenge that many of us face is how to make stuff last as long as possible. Lifehacker's Top 10 Trips and Tricks For Making Your Stuff Last Longer is a good place to start.

Read the other entries in my Frugal Living Tips Series.

Car Buying Resources

Looking to buy a car? Here's a list of resources for you to consult before stepping foot at a car showroom:

• 10 Ways to Buy A Car Without Getting Ripped Off (OutOfYourRut.com)
  
  
• Car Dealer Scams to Avoid (Forbes). What to watch out for the next time you're in a car dealer's showroom. See also In Pictures: Car Dealer Scams to Avoid and Tech Options To Forgo.
  


• Beat the "Four Square" Dealer Rip Off (Consumerist). A very detailed breakdown of how a car dealership manipulates buyers with the four-square worksheet.


• Showroom Turncoat Comes Clean (Car & Driver Magazine). Learn the tricks that car salesmen use on unsuspecting customers.
  


• Car Dealers' Tricks to Watch Out For (Car & Driver Magazine). More car salesmen's tricks of the trade.
  


• Car Shopping on the Offensive: 8 Aggressive Buying Tactics (Car & Driver Magazine). How to outsmart the car salesman.
  


• Deceptive Car Salesman Tactics For Popular Cars (My Money Blog)


• Fueleconomy.gov - useful site to check out how thirsty your new car is going to be.


• More than you ever wanted to know about buying a car (Broward College) - a Car Buying 101 site. Great for the newbie.


• Car Shopping Generates Many Questions (Washington Post)


• Smart Car Shoppers Ask to See Invoice (Washington Post)
  


• Dealing and Wheeling (Washington Post)


• CarBuyingTips.com


• TrueCar.com


• US News & World Reports' Rankings of Cars & Trucks
  


• 2010 Cars: Where the Deals Are (Kiplinger.com). Kiplinger Magazine's advice for finding deals for cars in 2010.


• Guide to Getting the Best Value (Kiplinger.com). Kiplinger Magazine's rankings of the best values in cars.

My Frugal Living Tip #8: Useful Resources for the Frugal Consumer

Roundup of useful resources for the frugal consumer:

• Amazon.com's Textbooks Trade-In
  No-hassle way of unloading unwanted textbooks and getting some money for it.


• Freecycle.org
  The granddaddy of recycling stuff you no longer need by giving them away to others within your community. Read my earlier blog post about Freecycling.
  


• Kashless.org
  Takes the Freecycle idea one step further to provide a one-stop site for getting free stuff. Besides member submitted offerings, it also aggregates postings from the "free stuff" section of Craigslist and also partners with Recycle Bank to offer a rewards program.
  


• Measy.com
  Excellent one-stop online search tool for researching products before you buy. Allows you to limit by price, brands, needs, etc.
  


• Toolzdo.com
  Allows you to swap, exchange or give away stuff with other folks in your community.
  


• Groupon.com
  Social networking meets bargain hunting. Lets you hunt for deals with a twist: you must find enough friends/strangers to join you in order to meet the deal's minimum number of folks who sign up for it. Great way to make friends, renew friendship and save money in the process.
  

Read the other entries in my Frugal Living Tips Series.

Pottery Barn Unstuffed

As I was weeding my growing collection of old magazines over this Thanksgiving break, I came across an interesting article in the October 2006 issue of Smart Money: Pottery Barn Unstuffed by Smart Money's investigative reporter, Ann Kadet. (Thanks to the power of google search, I discovered that folks have helpfully scanned and uploaded this article online. See links below.)

This article reminds me why I have, and continue to resist buying furniture from Pottery Barn, Restoration Hardware and Crate & Barrel. Are their products worth their high prices? Apparently not.

As Anne Kadet's article Pottery Barn Unstuffed reveals interesting discoveries. A $400 Pottery Barn coffee table has a very thin one-fortieth of an inch veneer. A $900 Crate & Barrel chair has hollow plastic legs, and a $1,200 Crate and Barrel bed has a heart of particle board and is held together by screws.

Links to the Smart Money article:

• Web version
• PDF version
  

You Can't Handle The Truth About Stocks

Over the Thanksgiving break, I was catching up on my backlog of magazine reading. An article in the September 2009 issue of Money Magazine caught my eye: You Can't Handle The Truth About Stocks, which profiles the economist, Zvi Bodie of Boston University School of Management, who argues against conventional financial planning:

"If you need the high return of stocks to reach your goals, then you can't afford to invest in them."

Here are some of his thoughts:

"... The standard models that are used to give investment advice to millions of Americans are fundamentally wrong. We're told that over time, stocks get less risky, but that's bull. Stocks are always risky -- whether in the short or long run. Prices dropped by 37% last year. While improbable, there's nothing to say they couldn't drop by that much again next year or the year before you retire. And diversification doesn't take away that risk. That's why retirement money belongs in truly safe assets whose value won't go down -- not in stocks..."

"... If you look at most online retirement calculators, they make two assumptions: one, that you want to retire at age 65, and two, that people will be able to save only a certain amount -- say 10%. As a result, they spit out risky portfolios to get a higher return. Well, who says we all want to retire at 65 and can save only 10%? What if I retire at 70 or 75? What if I save 30%? Suddenly, you don't need to take so much risk in your portfolio..."

"... notice what they're being told. They're being told that by investing in equities, they are going to get a higher return without extra risk. That's the problem. You have to make a sacrifice somewhere -- whether that means accepting a lower standard of living now, picking a later retirement date, or taking on risk in your portfolio..."

Professor Zvi Bodie echoes what I earlier blogged in April 2009 in a 4-part posting entitled "Frugal Living & Managing Risk" (Part 1, Part 2, Part 3, and Part 4) where I explained why I invest 100% of my 401K in a stable value fund.

As I see it, Americans want to have their cake and eat it. They want to retire in style but do not want to sacrifice, i.e., save, for it. If we only save 5% of our monthly income for our retirement vs. 30%, then we would have to take a lot more risk to have the 5% match up to the 30% savings rate. No wonder we take too much risk with our retirement funds. For me, the answer is clear: a simple and frugal lifestyle, with less stress and blood pressure worrying which direction my retirement savings is heading.

More on Credit Cards

Credit cards have been in the news for the past two weeks. CNN Money has a recent article that credit card satisfaction has hit a new low. I have blogged about my recent frustrations with credit card companies closing my inactive card without notice and lowering my credit on an underused card.

Because of the risks associated with debit cards, I see myself continuing to use credit cards for the foreseeable. For tips and strategies on how I use my credit cards, see: Credit Cards & Frugal Living and Careful Use of Credit Cards (My Frugal Living Tip #2).

On the one hand, if you want to swear off credit cards, you might find Walletpop's 6 ways to destroy a credit card securely very handy.

But if on the other hand, you want to continue using your credit cards, American Public Media's Marketplace (which I listen to daily on my commute home) has its list of 10 purchases not to put on credit cards.

See my other blog postings on credit cards.

A Penny Saved is A Penny Gained #04

Today's roundup of my favorite money-saving tips:

1. I filter my tap water (using Brita filters) instead of buying bottled water.


2. I save on gas by consolidating all my shopping into as few trips as possible. This helps me cuts down on impulse purchases and forces me to plan my meals in advance.


3. I buy generics rather than brand-name drugs (both over-the-counter and prescriptions). Whenver possible, I try to take advantage of the $4-per-prescription/refill generic prescription drugs at Walmart or Target.


4. I replaced my landline with my cellphone.


5. I borrow my DVDs from my neighborhood public library for free instead of paying for DVD rentals from Netflix, Blockbuster or Redbox.


6. I drop my cable subscription in favor of over-the-air broadcast, watching free movies via Hulu.com and boxee.tv and borrowing DVDs from my neighborhood library.


7. I comparison-shop to find the best prices.


8. I mow my own lawn instead of using a lawn mowing service.


9. I plug all my vampire adapters on a power-strip and turn off the master switch when I am not using those appliances.


10. I lower my premiums on my car and homeowners' insurance by raising my deductible.

Read my other blog entries in A Penny Saved Is A Penny Gained Series.

Being Frugal at Fancy Restaurants?

So you want to eat a nice fancy restaurant but don't want to go broke or overpay. Well, you can have your cake and eat it. Lifehacker has two blog posts on this topic. The first, What not to order at fancy restaurants features New York Times columnist Frank Bruni's sagely advice on how to get your money's worth at fancy restaurants. A follow-up blog post features excellent tips from its readers on how to find value at fancy restaurants.

Bon appetit!

How to Save Money When Buying College Textbooks

It's that time of the year again when college begins and there is a mad scramble to buy textbooks for courses. Suffering from first time sticker shock when you look at the astronomical textbooks, whether as a parent of a freshman or a neophyte freshman wandering into the college bookstore for the first time? You're not alone.

Cosumerist has two recent blog postings that you might be interested in. The first post warns you about how textbook publishers are fighting the used book market by pushing high-priced "textbook packets." The second post, College Textbooks: Shop Around, Ask Yor Professor, And Save offers tips and strategies on saving money when buying college textbooks.

Here are my tips for saving money on textbooks, from my own experiences many years ago as a perpetually broke graduate student:

1. If you're on campus, head over to the campus bookstore, look up the textbooks assigned for your courses, take note of the ISBNs, and then hit the web (Amazon, etc) to see whether you can find a used edition at a lower price. In particular, Amazon Marketplace is filled with students flooding the market with textbooks they don't want to keep.
   


2. If it is a bundled package, try e-mailing your professor or TA to find out what exactly is in the bundle, and what you really need for the course.


3. If the current edition is too expensive, you could buy an older edition but check with your professor or TA before doing so. I doubt that there are major changes in Philosophy or Literature textbooks, but you might need the latest information for your engineering or psychology courses.


4. Look up your college bulletin boards, textbook exchanges, etc. There might be students who are looking to sell off their previously used textbooks.

Do You Practice Extreme Couponing?

WCVB TV (Boston) recently featured a mom with extreme coupon skills: Mom Feeds Family For Under $10 A Week

Is it possible? Sure, it is, but it requires discipline, long term planning and flexibility (i.e., no impulse buying, on-the-spur-of-the moment cravings). I've previously blogged about using coupons here and here.

As for me, I use coupons primarily for household items (paper towels, detergents, etc.) and organic food (e.g., Mambo Sprouts, Organic Valley). My own savings from using coupons aren't as high because I avoid those coupons for processed food with artificial additives. Long temr health is more important saving money. I'd rather save on long term health costs in the future. It helps that there are organic food coupons out there. One just have to hunt harder for them.

Happy couponing!

Dealing with Credit Cards

Did you receive letters in the mail from credit card issuers canceling your dormant credit cards, reducing the credit limit or increasing the interest rate? If you did, you're not alone. Many folks received such letters. In my case, Bank of America summarily canceled my dormant AAA credit card, which I haven't used since they took over the MBNA, without informing me. I only found out when I did my routine login of the account (I do this to ensure no charges are posted) and discovered that I couldn't log in. Upon enquiring, I found out that the account was closed for inactivity. American Express sent me a letter raising my APR from a fixed rate to a higher floating rate and Citibank cut my credit limit by 20% on the basis that I only utilize a small percentage of my credit limit.

So what should you do? The New York Times columnist, Ron Lieber discusses the various options that you have in his recent article, Maybe It's Time To Change Credit Cards. You might find useful advice and tips that you could use. As for me, I will continue doing what I've always been doing, paying my balance in full every month and keeping an emergency fund fully funded (it is presently funded at 9-months salary replacement, my target is 12 months) and not using credit cards as an emergency fund.

I have discussed my views on credit card in two earlier blog postings: Credit Cards & Frugal Living and Careful Use of Credit Cards (My Frugal Living Tip #2). At the end of the day, credit cards cannot replace personal savings that you accummulate through disciplined monthly saving. For me, credit cards function best as a float, allowing you to earn interest on money you have to pay your credit card bills in full in a high-yield online savings account. That's the only way for credit cards to work to your advantage. Carrying a balance at high interest rates will turn into a burden that would take years to overcome.

For further reading: More New York Times' articles on credit and debit cards.

Save More At The Supermarket

Looking for tips on saving money at the supermarket? How do you balance your frugal sensibilities with healthy living? Shopsmart has an informative PDF filled with tips and suggestions that you might find useful: Save More At The Supermarket.

Link: Save More At The Supermarket (PDF)

Cleaning Your House The Frugal & Healthy Way

Tired of using strong chemical cleaners that not only make you nauseous but also take a bite out of your pocketbook? Looking for frugal, sensible, natural or homemade alternatives to keeping your house clean? Here are some resources to get you started:

• 7 Ways to Clean With Baking Soda
  


• Household Cleaning Hacks That Save You Money
  


• 30 Household Products Vinegar Can Replace


• Put Citrus Fruit to Work As Household Cleaners
  


• 27 Household Uses For Citrus Fruits
  


• How Baking Soda Took My Bathroom From "Yuck" to Yes!


• Multipurpose Uses for Old Coffee Grounds
  

Happy frugal cleaning!

Choosing Affordable yet Safe Baby Products

Buying baby products isn't for the faint hearted. One gets bombarded with ads for all kinds of gizmos and contraceptions with often unproven claims. Not only that, these gizmos can such the cash from your wallets if you aren't watching. The Consumerist Blog has come out with their latest Guides For Choosing Safe, Affordable Baby Products that you would want to consult before parting with your hard earned cash on baby stuff.