A friend of mine recently took a weekend trip to visit a state she had never been to and stayed with friends for two nights. The accommodations were as good as a top name hotel, the homemade meals delicious, and the hosts gracious. So what’s her problem?
Her hosts paid for EVERYTHING. Breakfast at Starbucks, groceries for meals at home, gasoline for the 2.5-hour drive to see a national monument, and dinner at a restaurant on the way back. They wouldn’t let her pay for ANYTHING.
“How hard do you insist on paying?” she asked me.
“It depends on the circumstances,” I said. “How do you know these people, again?”
She described them as long time family friends.
“Are they the type of people who enjoy paying for everything?” I asked.
“Yes, but we wanted to pay for something, at least symbolically,” she said. “But they wouldn’t let us.”
Now she’s back from vacation and having been treated at every chance she’s not sure what to do.
How do you respond to extremely generous friends?
- Send a gift, for sure! (77.0%, 249 Votes)
- Send a thank you card. (21.0%, 68 Votes)
- You should have tried harder to pay. (1.0%, 3 Votes)
- Just be thankful. (1.0%, 2 Votes)
Total Voters: 322
Loading …If you voted to send a gift, how much would you spend?
Frugal cooking 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:
Bring frugal is about getting the most value from your food. It doesn’t mean using absolutely the least expensive ingredients. You could probably pare your food budget down to pennies if you lived on potatoes and ramen noodles – but would you call that living? Making smart choices about how, when, and where you spend your money will fill your pantry and menus with delicious options.
I tried two recipes (I never got around to the third, no-knead bread) and both turned out great.
I made teriyaki chicken by marinating chunks of raw meat in a broth that took me 10 minutes to put together (soy sauce, sesame oil, white wine, chicken broth, sugar, honey, orange juice and garlic). Instead of simmering the meat in the broth on the stove, as recommended, I skewered the chicken and tossed them on the grill. My friends gobbled them up.
Next I made raisin scones with a cinnamon glaze, above. Scones are super easy to make (combine flour, oats, brown sugar, baking power and soda, salt, butter, and milk). The glaze was a matter of mixing together sugar, milk and cinnamon. Scones freeze well and by cutting the dough into small wedges I made twice as many, about 32 instead of 16.
The 189-page book covers regular meals, party food, kids meals, midnight snacks and thrifty gifts. It’s a relatively small book that is handy to have in the kitchen when your cupboards are full but you’re not sure what to make.
I’m bummed to be giving away this book because I’d like to make a few more recipes. But as per my habit, I’m giving away my review copy to one reader who leaves a comment on this post by Friday! If you don’t win, you can buy the book from Amazon for $10.85. Or check your library.
Money morality: if someone undercharges you…
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.
Nobody said anything.
The person holding the bill shrugged.
Not being one to rock the boat, and being a little greedy, I kept my mouth shut. We paid the bill as is. The waitress went home a little poorer and we went home a little richer.
I still feel uneasy about what we did. I’m sure a few of my friends, if not everyone else at the table, had similar urges to do the right thing. But the group mentality to take advantage of a minor windfall won over the individual suggestion to fess up.
Should I have stood my ground? Or does being undercharged even out the times we don’t notice being overcharged?
What happens when you are undercharged?
Use less gas, learn to drive efficiently
Gas prices are $1.20 less nationwide than they were a year ago, but don’t you wish you could fill up less often?
There’s a newish gadget that offers help. It claims it can increase your miles per gallon by 20 percent on average and by 33 percent on highways.
The device is called a Kiwi and it’s as simple as using an MP3 player – you plug it into your car. It works with all cars (including hybrids and trucks) made in 1996 or later. The Kiwi claims to boost your MPG by:
- teaching you 20 lessons to drive more efficiently (each one gets progressively harder)
- giving you real-time information about how your guzzling habits (it frowns on STOP! GO! STOP!)
As you drive, the Kiwi scores your smoothness, acceleration, deceleration, and drag, from 1 to 100. Kind of like a gas coach.
The device calculates a lot more than most car computers, including how many dollars you’ve saved and spent, and how much gas you’ve used each trip. My car only gives me my average gas consumption and how many miles I have left in my tank.
The Kiwi can also diagnose what is wrong when your “check engine” light goes on, including these 26 problems. The other major benefit of using a Kiwi is that it tells you how much you are reducing your CO2 signature – so you can please your wallet and the planet at the same time.
Now that I’ve gushed about this amazing-sounding device, let’s look at the numbers.
Does the Kiwi really save you money? It’s got a hefty price tag, $90-$300, depending on the model. The site claims it saves the average driver $560 over a year, more for trucks and SUVs.
So technically you could make you money back in six months. I’d love to test one out to let you know for sure how much money can be saved. If the company sends me one I will share my experience!
Don’t believe the hype? Watch Kiwi’s promo video.
Related:
Roundup of tips to cut gas use
AAA’s fuel gauge report (takes you to another site)
Reader story: Costco prescriptions pay off
Tuesday, September 8, 2009
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.
I have been paying out of pocket for this…it’s about $40, which isn’t bad, considering it’s the difference between a great meal and just eating oatmeal 3 times a day. But $40 adds up. My DR suggested I try Costco for the prescription and said 120 pills should run about $30-40. I figured if that was the going rate, I would just be lazy and keep paying CVS. He wrote me a paper prescription anyway, should I ever want to try Costco.
I decided to call Costco, for s—s and giggles, to see how much they charged. The nice Costco pharmacy girl looked it up and said, “Seven twenty-three”.“Excuse me, can you repeat that? I think you just said seven, as in DOLLARS, but I want to make sure you didn’t say seventy?”
Credit card bill of rights takes effect Aug. 20
The Credit Card Act takes effect tomorrow. So how will that affect you? Some of the most important changes…
Creditors must give 45 day advance notice if they are going to raise the interest rate and they cannot raise the interest rate on existing or outstanding balances.
Payments go toward your most expensive balances first.
You have a minimum of 21 days from the day your statement is mailed to pay.
There are no extra fees if you pay your bill by phone, mail, or online.
And that’s just the start! To read a quick list of all the changes, check out this explainer on BillShrink.com, a site that helps consumers find low-cost cell phone plans and credit cards.
A reader named Ann pointed out a trick that warrants special attention. It stands to save us all a lot of money!
Check with your grocery store on their “expired coupons” policy!
I’ve thrown away HUNDREDS in expired coupons, but I just found out (and verified with a store manager) that my local ShopRite in Linden, NJ will honor expired coupons for up to 6 months AFTER the expiration date!
The catch is that they will ONLY honor those coupons which are clipped from the newpaper inserts – NOT the ones you print from your computer (so if you don’t already have one, get a subscription to your Sunday paper…it’s WELL worth the $1.50-$2.00 a week!
What a nice – and financially cheery – surprise! In these tough economic times, we need all the help we can get!
Some of the most unique frugal tips we received at the Frugal Fe$tival were repeat offenders! Readers Iggy, Pauline, Michele and Julie shared some really fantastic ways to save money!
“Used nylons are great for gardens. Tie plants up, use over ripening fruit to keep squirrels from eating, sling under a melon so it doesn’t rest on the ground.” – Iggy
“I make my own laundry soap – inexpensive and really cleans clothes.” – Pauline
“I use the plastic disposable container for fruits we buy in grocery stores as plant holders. The water doesn’t spill on the floor.” – Marie
Tips to save on college textbooks
This is a guest post by Alex, BargainBabe.com’s intern.
It’s time to head back to school, and that means it’s time to beat cost of textbooks. Whether you’re just starting college, or returning for your last year like me, here’s five tips on how to save on textbook expenses.
1. Buy Electronic
Check the distributor’s website and see if you can purchase an electronic copy of the textbook. They save on ink, paper, and transportation, so the cost goes down significantly. I once got a $115 economics textbook for $40. If you can bring it on your laptop to class, then you’re set.
ProTip: E-Book readers like Amazon’s Kindle might be worth the investment if you’re an English major where your “textbooks” are mostly novels. If you already own an iPhone or iPod Touch download the free apps Stanza and Readdle, which offer access to thousands of books typically assigned in English and drama courses. Even if you decide to purchase the physical books, you have an electronic backup.
Downside: If you need the book during tests, you probably won’t be allowed to use your electronic device to access the pages.
The other downside: Limited battery life. Physical books last forever and can take much more abuse than a laptop, though neither of them should be dropped in the water.
Read More…
