Money morality: if someone undercharges you, what do you do? I was chomping on a tasty BBQ dinner with five friends when – GASP – the waitress undercharged us. The bill was $20 a head – a fab deal for the meaty meal – because she had failed to add another $11 for the booze. The four of us who split the drinks would have owed another $3.50 per, which includes tax and tip on the beer. “Should we tell the waitress?” I asked.
Frugal cooking and recipes – What I like best about The Frugal Foodie Cookbook is that to make three different recipes I did not need to buy a single ingredient. Not having to go to the store saved me time and money – plus I got delicious food out of my pantry! The authors’ food philosophy is to keep it simple but not necessarily cheap.
Coupon clipping basics – There are five steps to coupon clipping for grocery products, toiletries, and drugstore items. 1. Subscribe to the Sunday newspaper, which is when coupons are distributed. If you don’t want to subscribe, you may live in an area that the three major coupon inserts – RedPlum.com, SmartSource.com, and PGeSaver.com – want to reach. You can inquire directly by signing up on their sites. Online coupons are becoming more prevalent and may replace newspaper coupons someday.
Reader story: Costco prescriptions pay off - A friend who is a savvy bargain hunter and an amazing personal shopper (seriously, I would pay this girl to help me find clothes) recently discovered an incredible deal right below her nose. “I wanted to share this story with you because there are probably a lot of misinformed people out there, like I was prior to last Friday afternoon, and this could potentially save people some serious cash. Where to start? I have IBS…which manifests itself daily if I’m eating anything other than rice or oatmeal, in a very painful call for attention. Because of this, I take (anti-spasmodic) pills to eat pretty much every meal. I had to up my dosage on my own a few months ago because one wasn’t doing the trick–DR is fine with this, but my insurance will only cover 120 pills every 30 days. I take a minimum of 6 pills a day, you do the math.”
Why being a freezer diva is like being a landlord - One of life’s annoyances is that freezers are always three-quarters full when really, they are empty. Don’t know what I mean? Last night I was looking for freezer space for my groceries, and saw pizza sauce, mashed potatoes, cubes of chicken broth…I think. I can’t really tell! Rather than admit defeat I close the door to think. I need to make room, but I can’t toss these indecipherable packages and containers because I have been paying to freeze them all this time. They must be valuable – and edible – if I put them in there! Which brings us to the first law of freezers. The longer an item remains in the freezer the less likely you are to throw it away OR EAT IT.
Lower your grocery bill – 1. Buy a whole chicken on sale and ask the butcher to cut it into 8 pieces for you. You’ll get smaller pieces that you can cook in more dishes than roasting a whole bird. Butchers are often happy to do this, though it’s best to ask when the counter is not busy. I bought two chickens yesterday at $.59/lb. You can’t beat that price when it’s cut up!
17 tips to keep it cheap in Las Vegas – Each morning, before leaving the room, I put all of the unused soap bars, lotion, shampoos and conditioners in my bag. This will force house keeping to restock these items each day they clean the room. Don’t assume that they’ll do it automatically. Policies and procedures are different for each property. Rather than take the chance, remove all doubt by stowing the items out of sight. And on the last day, I also take the box of tissues and the fresh unused roll of toilet paper. I know this sounds like a sleazy thing to do, but technically you are already being charged for these amenities anyway.
Why I don’t bargain hunt on Sept. 11 – This post originally appeared on the Bargain Hunter blog, which I wrote at the LA Daily News. A lot has changed in the past eight years, but when it comes to finding bargains on September 11, I feel the same way I did last year. I cannot do my job. A few years ago I told you why and here’s that story again. Forgive me for not posting any bargains today, the eighth anniversary of the September 11 attacks. Trying to save $3 on a sandwich or find a shoe sale seems silly and out of place today. Instead, I’m going to try to give blood, something I wasn’t able to do that day in New York.
Bargain ethics when it comes to parking tickets - A friend and I grabbed dinner and a beer after going for a swim last night, but when we returned to her car, tucked under the windshield wiper was a parking ticket. Blurg! We had both forgotten to put money in the meter before going to dinner. Perhaps this was karma coming back to bite me in the a– after I declared Tuesday that to avoid parking tickets all one had to do was “put one extra quarter into the meter.” Actually, avoiding fines also requires having the presence of mind to fill the meter.
