Thriftism

You've heard it all before-- "turn down your thermostat and save a bunch of money", but typically the person telling you this lives in an ice box and you're just not prepared to give up comfort to save a few bucks. There are some bloggers who will tell you to wear a hat and coat in your house to capitalize on savings... I am not one of them. You don't need to freeze to save money, but you should be turning your thermostat down. Still don't believe me? Keep reading to see how much you can save this year. The Data Depending on the climate you live in, your savings can range from 1.5-5% per degree you turn down your thermostat. Obviously, the colder your climate, the more you will save by keeping the temperature lower. Energy.gov states that you can save as much as 10% on your energy bill by turning down the thermostat as little as 7 degrees for 8 hours a day. Meanwhile, the Agricultural Engineering Department from Purdue University has put the figure ...

If you're already shopping at Walmart, the phone app is a must have. While shopping in stores, it saves quite a bit of time usually spent searching. The app will tell you the aisle your item is located in or if it is out of  stock. This definitely helps me if I'm looking for something new (like puff pastry for our cranberry brie bites, who knew it wasn't with the pie crusts?). It also has this great feature called "Savings Catcher". You do need to sign up for an account to use this feature. It compares prices of all items you purchased with other stores in the area. If there is a cheaper price elsewhere, you get money back in the form of a prepaid card or for use on walmart pay. Here's how to use it. Download the walmart app and save your receipt.  Tap the savings catcher icon and then hit the orange "Add a Walmart Receipt" button. Scan the bottom of your receipt. You can then see a digital version of your receipt. Plus once the...

So you have to travel for work? Maybe you're a truck driver or construction worker, or maybe you just have to drive a lot for work. Fast food or gas station food can get spends and while $5 or $10 a meal might not seem like much when you're buying food, it can add up fast. If you eat out every day just for lunch you could be saving close to $2000 a year by bringing your own lunch. That could be a nice getaway or part of a kitchen remodel. Now add in that if you're on the road a lot you are probably buying more than just lunch and the amount you can save keeps climbing. Let's now also assume you get paid per diem. You know, that extra money they give you to buy food. Why not spend a lot less and take the rest of that money to the bank?? Now you are saving hot original $2000 plus an extra $20-$50 a day depending on where you're working and what per diem is. With that kind of money, you could afford a total kitchen remodel or a week at sandals. What are your dreams w...

Summer is here, let the grilling commence! Not only does it seem that everything tastes better coming from the grill, it is also a great way to keep your home cooler reducing the need for air conditioning. Don't be fooled either by the commercials showing steak, burgers, and hotdogs being grilled. The grill is much more versatile than that, but we will start with an easy and delicious grilled potato recipe. Grilled Potatoes What you'll need: Potatoes (typically 1/person) Onions (1/3 ratio with potatoes) Garlic (1 Clove/Cup Potatoes) Butter/Margarine (1 Tbsp/Cup Potatoes) Lawry's Seasoning Salt (To Taste-Try not to overdo the salt) Tin Foil Cutting Board Knife Grill Hearty Appetite (or you could always have leftovers) Begin by chopping then onions and potatoes to bite size pieces Continue by laying out tin foil. Cut a piece long enough to hold everything you've cut up without bursting or create a few tinfoil packages. Then...

Are gas coupons worth it? YES! The number one argument I hear is that you don't really save that much for all the hassle you go through to use a coupon. That is pure laziness talking. How often do you buy gas? Whether it's once a week or once a month, those savings can really add up--Think of getting a free tank of gas every year. Or maybe hit up the dollar menu once a week since we don't eat out much while following a tight budget. Possibly it still doesn't sound like much, but those little savings (gas, groceries, survey earnings,etc) are really what keep my budget alive some months. When you're set on saving or paying off loans, a couple dollars goes a long way. Gas coupons are awesome because they are fairly easy to come by as well. Coupons really aren't that difficult to use and walking into the gas station, well that can be an excuse to move around a bit. No one gets enough walking in these days anyway. :) I've listed a few places that you can obtain...

Budget! Budget! Budget! I always have to watch what I'm spending on things to make sure we can still afford to go on our big trip every year and to keep socking away money into savings for the future. This means I jump at the chance to get something, or anything, for free. Samples are amazing and they can have some pretty good ones too. Just last week I got a 7 week supply of Align probiotics. That's over $40 in savings. While most samples are not nearly this high in value, every little bit helps. There are a couple of sites I follow to find out about samples: Sampleaday and Freebiesfrenzy . They send you an email every day listing the samples available. Free things vary from stickers to coffee mugs to food, you just have to keep your eyes open for the really good ones. I found a few good samples offered today: Free PediaSure after rebate @ pediasure.com Huggies Diapers and Natural Care Wipes   2 Lipton Ice Tea K-Cups and $0.75 coupon  There are quite a...

I've come to realize that there are only so many ways to make extra money while holding down a full-time job. I don't always know what time I'll get off work which pretty much rules out getting a second part-time job. I have a few friends that do this and I don't know how they have the energy to keep up with it. I feel dead by the end of most days and couldn't imagine losing another 3 hours of sleep most nights. I used to donate plasma, but the last time I went in they suddenly decided my veins were now too small. So I started looking into participating in a study.  There a lots quite a few different companies that run medical studies around the country. We have two located in my area- Novum and Axis. Axis hadn't yet opened when I was looking which left me with Novum. From what I've seen so far they do a ton of dermatology tests, meaning no blood draws. Not that blood draws are the worst thing in the world, but I wouldn't pick to do them if I di...

Spring has sprung and it's time to be thinking about beginning your garden. A garden is a great way to save money. Vegetables are not cheap at the store and fresh vegetables, the ones that taste way better, are even more expensive. This isn't even taking into account if you want organic produce, but creating your own organic vegetables isn't too hard. Besides saving money, have a garden also encourages healthier eating by providing loads of vegetables (and fruits if you plant them). Believe me, you're more likely to eat the vegetables if you already have them and you know that you'll just throw them away otherwise. Finally, gardening is a great hobby to have. It's the perfect excuse to get outside and enjoy the summer rather than getting caught up on inside work.  You'll get lots of fresh air and get out of the nightly habit of watching TV or other sedentary activities. If you're really not into vegetables, try having a flower garden. Having a ya...

Just earned $20 on Mysurvey.com and am only 100 points short of another $10. I'm also less than $1 away from being able to redeem my inboxdollars money ($30). For those of you thinking taking surveys isn't worthwhile, how can an easy $30 not be worth your while? I'm hoping to catch up on some of my other survey sites later today as well so I might be able to make even more today after I catch up on cleaning and other not so fun chores. The best part of the morning was that some of my surveys had trailers that I had to watch and I was able to complete the baby hat I was knitting- double bonus! I had a goal of earning an extra $10/week with surveys. This isn't a lot of money obviously, but it definitely adds up. If nothing else, you can use it to eat out a little more often or by the end of the year take a short trip. Vegas anyone? That's almost always under $500/person. Anyway, today I more than doubled my weekly goal and didn't even account for surveys I took ...

Book on tapes may be a thing of the past, however, audio books still prove quite popular. I know I have close to 100 on my iPod for those long drives or to help drown out the noise at work. Do I pay the premium price for these audio books? Of course not! There are actually hundreds of books available for FREE online. Granted, these are classics or if not a classic a fairly old book. My favorite site to find books of every genre and language is librivox.org. This is a legitimate site and does not infringe on copyrights. All the books are in the public domain. I have used this to "read" a lot of the classics that I have never found time to actually sit down and read like Moby Dick, Great Expectations, or Les Miserables to name a few. Keep an open mind to the older novels, they are really quite good. This is a great way to be well read without the time of reading or the expense of buying the books. Another option if you can't stand the thought of listening to a b...

Part 2 - The Process In this post we will detail our approach to the soap crafting process. The recipe we used is simple and easy to follow, listed below in no particular order are the ingredients. 2 oz - Lye 16 oz - Olive Oil 6 oz - Water Begin by gathering some necessary tools, you will need; Scale - Preferably accurate to the 0.01 oz but we made do with a shipping scale only accurate to 0.1 oz Thermometer - Working range of 100F to 150F, 2 thermometers are ideal  Bowl - Used to mix the lye/water solution, be careful as the lye can etch glass products PPE - Personal Protective Equipment, lye is caustic and can cause skin irritation and blindness if contacted on your eyes, rubber gloves and safety goggles people Kettle/Pot - Used to heat the olive oil and mixing vessel Wand Blender - Used to accelerate the saponification process by emulsifying the oil, lye, and water Soap Mold - We used a silicon 2 oz bar mold, if usin...

Our First Experiment with Homemade Soap Part 1 In the constant battle of budgeting, one is always looking for places to save money as well as potentially turn that savings into an income stream. We have selected the lowly household item, soap, as our next area to improve on. This was done for a number reasons; Soap is simple and used everyday. People have been making it for thousands of years, most recipes go like this - Lipids (Fat or Oil), Hydroxide Salts (Lye, Sodium Hydroxide, is most commonly used for its availability), Water, Extras (Anything else you want to add, fragrance, color, abrasives) Store markups on soap products are quite high when compared to the value of materials used to make it. A lucrative market currently exists on sites like Ebay and Etsy for speciality homemade soaps. Homemade soap is better for your skin. We selected a basic soap recipe for our first batch as a sample trial before getting too creative. This recipe includes; extra virgin olive oil, lye...

Canned Beans Vs. Bagged (Dry) Beans Canned beans are convenient. They are already cooked and waiting to be used. However, they also are quite a bit more expensive and having soaring levels of sodium. You can cut down on the sodium by rinsing the canned beans, but why go through this effort when you can buy cheaper beans that have no added sodium. Dry beans are between $1-$2/pound at a typical grocery store, and can be as low as $0.55 when buying in bulk at a store like Sam's Club. While the grocery store cost might seem more expensive than the $0.70/can you can spend for ready to eat beans, but the quantities are hugely different. 1 can of beans gives you less than two cups of beans. One pound of dried beans gives you about 6 cups cooked. That means by buying dried beans you could be saving a minimum of $0.50/bag compared to buying cans. Depending on the type of bean, lentil, etc. you are buying this amount can increase quite a bit. It may not seem like much...

This post is a continuation of the previous post Hobby Grain Milling in which some of the ideal characteristics of a good grain mill were described. Our topic for today is the actual milling/grinding process. The first step is to aquire your feedstock or whole grains, these can be essentially any seed grain but a few of my favorites are red wheat, rice, black beans, and corn. I recommend purchasing at least 10 lbs of grain before doing any milling to minimize clean up efforts and produce a good quantity of flour. Chickpea (Garbonzo Bean) Flour Begin by loading the hopper on your mill and set the clearance on the grinder head. The clearance or gap between the grinding disks essentially controls the final quality of the flour as well as the efficiency of the mill. Your initial clearance will vary by grain type but I recommend an initial setting of approximately half the diameter of the selected grain.  This ...

Hello All, I received a hobby grain mill for my birthday recently and got to test it out this last weekend. This post will hopefully be one of many as I experiment with grinding my own grain flour. With any luck you will be able to pick up a few pointers and benefiting from this healthy option.         Grain Mill with Rice THE MILL:Obviously the most important piece of equipment in this operation, and subsequently will have the most influence on the quality of your grain flour. A grain mill can range in price from tens to hundreds of dollars, be hand/human powered or even equipped with an electric motor. My grain mill is one of the cheaper models made and can be found on Ebay for around $25 - $30. Unless you already have experience with grinding your own grain flour or wish to use the flour on a commercial level, I would strongly recommend you purchase the cheapest cast iron hand powered mill available. A fe...

This year my birthday celebration started early and lasted quite a bit longer than one day. I started signing up for every restaurant club that I could find which resulting in receiving a multitude of offers for my birthday this year. I live in the Midwest so these offers might not be good everywhere/restaurants might be not located everywhere, but this should give everyone an idea of just how much free food you can get just for having a birthday. Thursday: Supper at Moe's: Burrito, Drink, Chips, & Salsa  $2.04 After Tax -- This definitely feeds 2 people. We were stuffed when we walked out of the restaurant. The coupon they email you is good for a week or two after you click on the link. Hint: You can wait to click on the link for a couple weeks after your birthday to make it last even longer! Full Price Value: ~$9.91 After Tax (9.18 before) Saved: $7.87 Friday (Birthday): The following places must be visited on your actual birthday. Grand...