We've been coping with reduced income lately. I get out all the grocery store flyers that come in the free newspapers and go over them, typically there's two stores that are close together, that will seem to have the best or reasonable deals. I make a list of stuff to get that's on sale in them and that's my grocery list... with maybe some basics added, which I buy the store brand of. We've been living off maybe $100 in groceries a month for the last few months.

Beware of Costco and bulk food stores, you are typically not actually saving money there, compared to buying the big packages of store brand stuff. There's very few items you can actually save decent amounts of money on. However, in terms of value when replacing small appliances etc, you can find good quality stuff for cheaper in Costco etc.

Beware also of the "false" economy pack, some large packages are more expensive per unit fill than the smaller packages. For some reason ketchup always seems to be like this, it's cheaper overall to buy the 1L store brand than the 1.5L, cheese slices I have to watch too, sometimes the 48 pack is more than double the price of the 24 packs. On the other hand, the saving is often huge on larger packs, $2 gets you a kilogram of rice, 50c more gets you 2 kilograms, and a dollar more gets you a 5kg bag.

I always visit the marked down and reduced sections, never had a problem buying marked down meat, but I don't buy the stuff that looks or smells funky. Stick it in the freezer as soon as I get home and use it the day I get it out. I am always careful to cook it thoroughly.

Crock pot cooking is quite economical, 6 hours of 100W is 0.6KWh, compare that to having a 2.5KW oven on for 45 mins, or even cooking on the stove top in a couple of pots with two 1.5KW rings. Yes those do cycle according to the thermostat, but overall I think it works out good. However, it's also economical with food, throw in cheap meat, carrots, onions, diced broccoli stalks or the good limp bits of any other veggies, dash of nutmeg, teaspoon of poultry seasoning, couple of spoons of flour, fill with water and it makes a hearty nourishing stew. 6 servings usually, we usually freeze 2 in margarine tubs for quick microwave dinners. "Chili" is simple, ground meat, over night soaked beans, 50c on sale pasta sauce, onions, I like peas and carrots in mine, seasoning... again 6 servings or so of damn good food.

If you're on the chicken thighs/quarters for 99c a pound diet, and can't even stretch to the store brand shake and bake, put flour, onion salt and poultry seasoning in a 2lb margarine tub, shake them up in that and bake.

You can buy "going limp" greenstuffs off the reduced rack and just chop it all up, put it in cup sized packages in the freezer, and the crockpot meal is as simple as picking out 4 packages, throwing them in the crockpot and forgetting about them for a few hours.

Reusing packaging. I wash out all margarine tubs and reuse them for saving and freezing food in. They last quite well, then they finally go to the recycling box when they get warped, scratched cracked or stained. Bread bags, I shake the crumbs out and re-use them once for wrapping opened packages of bacon, cheese etc. You can wash plastic bags if you so desire, for freezing veggies you can buy some nice heavy duty thick freezer bags and wash them out a few times, I personally wouldn't re-use bags for meat though. I have a 8 or 9 year old roll of saran wrap (cling wrap) kind of stuff. I paid $7 for a catering roll.... and I'm still using the damn thing, box disintegrated a couple of years ago. I know other people are probably using about the same amount as me and needing a $1 or so package every month or so, so it pays for itself in a year easily. Yeah it's made from non-renewable resources, but it is very thin stuff, thinner than bags, and means you can buy the huge packages of ground beef or chops etc and split it up easily when you get home, and a layer of clingfilm is generally less plastics than individually trayed and heavy duty wrapped smaller packages of meat would use.

Home remedies, don't buy tylenol, buy acetominophen, don't buy advil buy ibuprofen... store brand generics, also there are huge savings in larger packs on those, you sometimes see bottles of 100 right next to the blister packs of 10 for only double the price. Store them real carefully if you have kids of course. Usually if you see a brand name remedy like Benylin or something, you can read the medicinal ingredients and match them to a half price generic a foot or two away on the shelf.

Dollar and 99c stores can give you huge deals, but can also cost you money if you're not wary. For example, you can go through a dollar store can opener every couple of months, or go spend $3 on one at a department store that will last years. (Look in the thrift stores for a "Swing-a-way" opener, you'll probably get it for 25c or 50c, clean it up and it will be the best opener you ever had) A few items in those stores can be found in regular stores for 59-89c they're priced up to a dollar. Then there's dollar store sized packs of things, like 100 sandwich bags or coffee filters for $1 when the grocery stores have 200 packs for between 1.29 and 1.59. However, you can still get some great deals. The best kinds of those stores to find are those that are more independant and buy anything they can get in skid loads and bulk lots that they can price for a dollar. This is opposed to the larger chains which have everything made to be priced at a dollar. Those that buy "whatever" have huge deals, for instance, I was getting a listerine equivalent mouthwash for $1 a litre until they ran out. That would normally be a $2.99+ store brand listerine equivalent.

Oh, another false economy I find is store brand and dollar store dish soap. It's too thin, you need half a cup or so of it to get your dishes clean, with regular Sunlight, you need about a teaspoon full. I guess you have to be careful, sometimes the name brand pays off sometimes it doesn't. Was looking at a name brand "double roll" TP the other day, 12 rolls for $5 or the generic 24 rolls for $5. Now, this name brand claimed you could use a 3rd less (okay, like the rest of the people in my house will ACTUALLY be careful) due to being thicker or something, but looked at the number of sheets on the roll, 200, compared to 240 on the generic brand. So, there was nearly a third less paper to start with and it comes nowhere near being a "double" roll.

Beware also of stores that use "get you inside" sale items but really have everyday basics priced pretty high, one example store here has seemingly good sales (which are always quantity limited, to like 2 or 4 GRRRRR) and then you realise the bread is 30c a loaf more, the eggs are 25c more, the sugar is 50c more......

anyway, that's all I can think of right now.

Just an update here:

We've been more or less satisfied with the over the air stations this last month, but we also just upgraded to a DTV tuner/recorder combo and it is working out great. No more monthly bill except for Netflix and electricity, yet we still get the basic FOX, ABC, NBC, CBS, and 4 different PBS channels in a crystal clear picture and audio. And incidentally, those channels cover about 90% of what we watch anyway.

I HIGHLY recommend going to the DTV standard for anybody putting it off to the last minute. The quality kicks the snot out of anything you'll receive over SD satellite or cable. Don't wait for the government coupon ($40 off an as yet unavailable standalone DTV tuner) if you intend to purchase a DVD recorder any time soon, as you can get the combination of the two for just over $100 if you are willing to accept a refurbished model. (Essentially you get a DVD recorder with the DTV tuner thrown in for virtually no cost.)

Snax- how does the DTV reception compare to the regular signal reception?

I live about 60 miles from several of my "local" TV stations and so I use the amplified rabbit ear type antenna and I experience "ghosting" sometimes (picture loses color and is very grainy).

I am worried that the DTV receiver won't be able to give me any picture at all in these situations.

When you try to pull in a distant station with your new DTV setup- does it come in just as clear?

It's really like night and day on the quality and reception for us. All of the digital channels come in perfectly, but I'm fairly certain every station is within 15 miles of here. (We are in a valley surrounded by hills with the transmitters on them.)

The downside to DTV however is that you either have a picture and sound or you don't. There's no watching or listening to anything through static. This also makes getting the rabbit ears into the right position for everything a bit of a challenge.

I was afraid of that- It sounds like I'll lose a few stations next year when they finalize the changeover.

By the way, noticing something with my house that might help other people with the winter heat.... my north wall isn't the coldest....

My neighbour is on the north side and has white siding, combined with some snow cover on the ground, this works as a right angle reflector for any winter sunshine. It seems my brick north wall gains a reasonable amount of heat from this on sunny winter days. In addition, a short fence between the driveways, gets snow built up against it either from shovelling or drifting, which usually approximates a parabolic reflector, so sun is reflected off that also. I can feel the warmth on my face when I stand in front of the window in the upstairs hallway, which area can feel quite toasty on some sunny days. This effect doesn't seem to happen so much in summer thankfully, due to less reflectance off the driveway and also the angles of the sun being different.

If you have siding, and insulation on your north wall, you might not gain much reflected heat through the wall. However, reflective radiative heat might be introduced through any windows... so if you have snow and open area to the north of your house, you might try something like this... tie a rope to the bottom of the windowsill or middle of the frame of a north facing window, and using enough length to put you somewhere that will see morning or afternoon sunshine, tie a board or something to the end of the rope there, and use that radius to sculpt snowbanks, so they reflect towards that window. If you felt like it I guess, you could peg up a silver tarp at a suitable distance to reflect solar energy onto that side of the house.

Anyway, this effect might be saving me a couple of bucks in heat, I can certainly feel it working on sunnier days.

I shower at the gym. Keeps me in the habit of exercising too. Besides, it takes a lot of energy to heat up water!

Never thought of that one. Even if I were too lazy to work out, that would be a great cheapskate maneuver. ;)

Word, poop at work, shower at the gym. Now, where do we find food?

Cattail roots for carbs, dandelion greens and evergreen shoots for veggies, fresh roadkill for protein.....

maybe minor, but for a movie junkie like myself it was awesome. We canceled our cable completely, in favor of a netflix subscription. $70 + on cable vs. $18 for netflix, plus free shipping and we've got a steady flow of eyecandy around that we *want* to watch, rather than 300 channels of crap and advertisements.

also, gardening has helped. We're vegetarians, and growing our own food is tastier, cheaper and a heck of a lot more satisfying. Compost all our kitchen goodies = less trash.

I discoverd one other way for me to save a little bit at least through the warmer part of the year: I just shaved my head.

This is not the first time I have shaved my head, and in fact, it's the first time I've gone 6 months in the last 5 years where I have not shaved it. At any rate, in my air conditioned house of 72F on a 92F day, I was still sweating my butt off after a long day out working in the heat and sun, so I decided it was time to do something about it. The end result is that I almost instantly went from uncomfortably warm with long mop of hair to completely comfortable. I could feel a significant temperature difference on my scalp and was able to reject the urge to reach for the thermostat.

Bonus: No more shampoo and shorter showers. In our house we go through at least $20 worth of shampoo a month, and me shaving my head will knock down about a 1/4 of that. Plus I literally spend a good 1-2 minutes less in the shower because a complete simple handsoaping of the scalp and rinsing takes less than 30 seconds.

It's not much really, but I'm happier for it and saving at least $5/month for the change. I would have thrown in the cost reduction for haircuts, but the truth is that I haven't had one until yesterday, since the last time I shaved my head 7 months ago.

Snax,

i think you under estimate yourself. besides, even if it were only $5, imagine saving that much for every change made.

also, with higher gas prices affecting the cost of goods and services, eliminating any consumer spending is an added bonus!

I'm having trouble convincing the rest of the family to shave their heads too. ;)

Shaving your head is a great way to save some dough. :) I started shaving mine with a razor about 7 years ago, but the excessive wear my hard head brought on upon those expensive triple blade razors made it a little cost prohibitive after a few months. ;) I chose to let it grow out a little more and just buzzed it off with some clippers instead. Not a bad deal, I spend $15 on a pair of clippers versus the same on one haircut and just do myself once a month. An average bottle of shampoo can last me several months with as little hair as I have.

I've gone through 4 sets of clippers now due to wear and my lack of proper maintenance but I'm still in the good compated to having to spend $15 a month on a haircut over the years.

I've also switched to the generic 3-blade disposables for shaving now, do just as good of a job and for a lot less. I tend to use them until it hurts or the little lubrication strip falls off. :D

Okay, so shaving...Mach3 cartridges last forever on my uncommonly tough beard + sensitive skin combination. When they're worn they feel and shave like a brand new cheap razor, so I don't change them unless I have some reason to be ridiculously smooth.

Once a week, as a luxury, I shave with a straight razor. Mine has replacable blades, but the old-fashioned kind that you have to strop is certainly a great deal -- it never needs the blade replaced.

These days, I mostly shave with a Braun PocketGo electric. It costs $16 and comes with two AA batteries, which power it for many weeks (of course, I use Ni-Mh rechargables, which also last seemingly forever in it). It has a built-in cover that flips closed to protect the foil, and a little brush stored in it that I never use because I just blow or rinse it. It's totally waterproof. I've been shaving with it on weekdays for at least 6 months and have not had it wear down at all, unlike a $200 Braun rechargable self-cleaning unit I have that needs a new $35 head/foil every six months. Most importantly, it can handle my beard, leaving me smoother than the expensive one. It's the "miracle 100mpg carburetor" of shavers, except it really exists, really works, and is available in your local drug store.

https://a1061.g.akamai.net/7/1061/541...che/322767.jpg

i use slim twin. if you clean and dry, even a disposable, it will last for many extra shaves.

got that tip from a Clark Howard listener.

I actually don't 'shave' my head with a blade, but just go as short as my $15 clippers allow. I use the same clippers for my beard 90% of the time.

the beard is a good point. I grew one for the first time this past year as a New Years's resolution :D ..I hate shaving anyway, and with the beard I went a good 4 months without needing razors. It got a bit too warm come the spring so I shaved it off, but I think I'm gonna grow a winter beard every year from now on.

Plus, it makes my l'il daughter giggle when I tickle her feet with it. Added bonus :)

just found out my youngest child has been "hypermiling" in the shower by using shampoo and conditioner together.:thumbup:

the middle one, some time ago, put a grill block on her Bratz doll car.

and my oldest is doing a paper on fuel efficient cars.

with three girls, some might consider me a breeder, but at least my litter is conservation aware!

Besides the greenie-weenie stuff I've listed in another thread, well...

I buy the highest quality product I can reasonably afford for items that I know I want to keep long term. The up front cost may seem to make me a big spender, but in the long term I save money because I do not need to replace a cheaper lower quality piece of Chinese crap on a fairly regular basis.

I have overpaid montly on my fixed rate mortgage for so long that I can now reasonably pay off my house even though it still has another 17 years left on the note (it started as a 30 note). The wife and I are contemplating this at the current moment.

Invested like a mofo from the time I was in my mid-20's and couldn't afford it, but did it anyway. Not technically stretching a dollar, but my pool of dollars, while stretched, is a lot larger than my neighbors' so economic downturns don't affect us as much as them.

Use coupons whenever possible. Excepting emergency purchases, which don't happen often if you're aware of the condition of your "things", we try to only buy things when they are on sale and only after thoroughly researching the market. Yes, in fact we do in fact do charts and spreadsheets on major purchases, why do you ask? :)

Only buy what I can afford, and avoid using credit. While I will use a credit card, the balance is paid off when the bill arrives, which keeps me from paying interest. With money-back cards it comes out to be something of a modest return that actually ends up lowering the cost of the product(s) I purchased on them.

Re-prioritized our lives and learned that what we *want* is not necessarily what we *need*. This is a big one and goes a long way towards ensuring economic security. This isn't to say we don't buy nice things from time to time, however, we are not active participants in the "buy the latest and greatest, keep up with the Joneses" game. If our television works fine we don't rush out to buy the large screen flat television of our dreams even if we have spare cash laying around. If our appliances work fine we don't replace them until they break (our washer/dryer combo has been chugging along quite well for 15 years now for example, and our stove is only one year younger than that).

Purchased a home we could afford and approached it as buying a home to live in instead of as an "investment". Homes as "investments" is a horrible arrangement if you live in one longer than 5 or 10 years. If you're not in and out in a year or two you're not going to make money, so don't be sold on the "approach your home as an investment!" scam if you're going to live in it long term. Anywho, since we purchased a home under our own guidelines of what we wanted, and not under the running theory of "this is how much you can afford!" that the home lenders tried to con us into, we could easily afford to pay down on the home principal on a regular basis, and we never had to stretch our dollar in order to be able to make a house payment. Sounds like common sense, but as the housing "crisis" is demonstrating, it's something that wasn't quite so common the last 20 years or so.

Folks just starting out down the path, take my advice and follow the lead here, these kinds of steps have kept us from having to worry about detailing the minute details of life in order to keep from going in hock. Most of it is common sense, it just requires discipline. On this site however, willpower amongst the membership shouldn't be an issue. :)

For the record my wife and I both came from families that would be classified as lower middle class to working poor. I was solidly middle class until my parents divorced when I was 9 or so, she was the granddaughter of poor German immigrant farmers eking out a living working in dirt. Point being there is no reason anybody planning a life together has to settle for their lot simply because they came from modest means. Plan it out and acquire discipline early and you'll not have to worry about economic downturns as much as folks who don't.

and just like their grandfather did to me, they will have to finance their own car when the time comes, if they choose to have one. they better be good at hypermiling!

My idol!

We do small things. I unscrewed all the lights in the bathroom but 2. We use small space heaters and turn the central heat down. We bundle up for bed, except when we're creating our own heat. : )

We stay in rooms that have natural light from the sun. The apartment runs East to West so we hang on on the Eastern side in the morning and the Western side at night. When the sun goes down it's time to go to bed.

I get old produce at a posh market. Old to them is still really nice to me.

I quit using the cafeteria at work. I take my own lunch.

Cars are paid for now. Do have a credit card with a 0% interest rate for the life of the balance (I was poor during school). They hate me for that and will jack up the interest if I ever miss a payment.

I put padding in all the wall sockets and squirted insulation where it felt cold. Towels, blinds, and drapes on and around the windows. The place is rented so we aren't going to put in new windows for the landlord at our expense. Rolled up blankets on the floor near the sliding glass window. Put a huge sheet of insulation in front of the fireplace because the cheap old thing just let cold air come flying down, even when closed. Pushed the sofa up against the insulation, and put towels underneath the sofa.

We eat a lot of rice. Good rice. Koshihikari. But it's $28 for about 2 mos of food. We also eat tofu and veggies. The wife makes baby food from the same, just cuts everything really small.

I do some things that might seem wasteful, but increase my productivity. I have my shirts cleaned at the local laundry. I work at a law firm and I charge insane sums of money. It makes no sense to spend 1/2 every morning with my daughter trying to get my attention when I can drop off 5 shirts every week for $1.25 each. That half hour I get back gets spent making money, or playing with my daughter. Either way, it's worth it.

MA4T

That's just basic economic utility theory and proper prioritizing in action. :thumbup:

It's all about what your time is worth. Personally, if I can bank double time pay at work, I work as much of it as I can stand. Likewise, pay at only time and a half is more of a time sacrifice than I can normally justify, with putting in the normal 40 something I only do because it's what I have to do to get from A to B. Translation: My free time is worth more to me than my regular wage beyond the regular work week, but I sell out for twice as much. ;)

With babies having different needs than adults, has that diet been reviewed by a pediatrician?

Yeah, we saved a ton because my wife nurses our daughter. But she has to eat more to make up for milk production. And, yes, it was very good for me as the daddy because I didn't have to get up.

Besides, at 18 months she has had 1 slight fever (knock on wood). She is in the 75th percentile in height and 25th percentile in weight. She has more energy than we can keep up with, and she is incredibly happy and well-adjusted.

I could start a thread on things you can do with kids. Our apartment has poor insulation, so I just bite the bullet and keep the heat on. We still use blinds and drapes, though. I'm not going to pay to upgrade their property, especially since upgrades mean you lose your deposit.

In the car, I bundle up and don't use the heater. It's usually 20 when I drive to work.

Oh, one huge thing I thought I'd never be able to do. I eat leftovers. My wife makes baby food from tofu, rice, and veggies. So anything our daughter does not eat, I eat. I had a half bowl of rice tonight after work, and some fish my wife cooked earlier for us. Then I ate cheerios and assorted pieces of leftovers. I don't even mind, and we're saving big time.

Definitely. She even told my wife to take a break every once in a while. But my wife is amazing. She is a stay at home mother, and every waking moment is devoted to our daughter. That's just a Japanese mother.

Also, after nearly 2 decades of infertility, we had all the time in the world to research parenting.

So we're really in to it. It's not just something we thought of one day. We really put a lot of thought and time in to it. Besides, researching home made baby food is a breeze after doing patent research.

MA4T

Re: Stretching the shrinking dollar
 

the brake and clutch pedal pads were worn on the outer edges such that if my feet(shoes) were even slightly wet they would slide off when being depressed. well, cheap is what i am, so i switched them instead of buying new ones--they grab like new now.

only save a few bucks but...

Re: Stretching the shrinking dollar
 

I had a similar problem last year. The rubber cover on the clutch pedal wore down and fell off, so I went to the local Pick-N-Pull and found a donor car with good rubber covers. The guy at the checkout counter just let me have them free. It only cost me the $2 entry fee and time, but the time spend walking outside in the sun was good exercise so it was time well spent.

Re: Stretching the shrinking dollar
 

haha i love doing that, go in looking for something but end up with nothing, cant leave empty handed! ALWAYS some little screw or those odd light bulbs and fuses (i never need to buy another fuse again haha) or odd plastic chunk.

I think ive updated my base model work truck to the highest interior package for maybe $200 haha (seats center console, overhead console, pannels, kick pannel, odds and ends...

saving money, well once i got all the stuff ive always wanted (not crazy amounts but needed a better computer and flat screen) ive really just been saving what i can and investing it. shop at aldis (trader joes, discount membership free places) making my own furniture instead of buying that Vietnamese made crap (may not be as fancy but built 80X stronger, could support my car with my coffee table minus the table glass) buy things on discount (tv stand was originally $250 marked down to $50)

other than that i try to drive reasonable (i have to sadly admit my leadfoot is coming out again because i do have money with my new job) and my huge distaste for the moron drivers around here is getting higher daily (5/6 days a week that i work i almost get into an accident in a 3 mile drive)

still try to combine trips if possible and do consider going to one store thats right there VS driving a mile away in the city to save 20 cents. do try to use the interstate thru town to commute vs the what seems like 80 stop lights the non interstate way. (why retards go 45 in a marked 55 but really 65 zone when it rains i will never know)

trying to find mods for my vehicles that will up the torque at the lower rpms (ups mpg...)

got a plain jane apartment thats only 425 month instead of spending 550-690 a month for one in a better location (altho the location on mine is actually VERY nice and secluded) and fancier stuff, but really who am i to impress haha. keeping the waterheater temp low, furnace at 68 air at 74, windows as much as possible. id leave the shades open during the day but not with the ground level apartment im in...

im also running a test by unplugging everything i dont use daily to see how it affects my bills, already learned going from 68 to 69-70* heat raised the bill about $10:eek: NOW i understand when my dad would flip when someone messed with the thermostat at home hahaha:D

gonna look into the laundrymat idea instead of paying $2.50 for wash and dry using the apartment complex's stuff (small washers, barely fit a level basket of clothes in them)

already replaced every light but 2 in my apartment with the 13W twisties (2 i did not replace are a water heater closet and hallway light that i never use)

Re: Stretching the shrinking dollar
 

I had some 1/4" thick foam insulation that's lined with aluminum foil on both sides left over from insulating my garage ceiling, so today I cut a piece and wrapped my water heater with it to help reflect the heat loss back toward the water heater tank. I also turned the thermostat down on the water heater. I don't know how much because the stupid thermostat doesn't have the temperature on it, just hot, A, B, C, and very hot. It was previously set on B, either when it was installed or by the previous owners and I cut it back to the setting that said hot. It just didn't make sense to me to take a bath and have to run cold water along with the hot to cool down water I've already paid to heat, hopefully I have it where I can run a tub of hot water and never have to touch the cold. I found at my previous home if I had the water heater set at 120* it was almost perfect for running nothing but hot water and it's also much safer in preventing scalding, especially if you have young children or elderly living with you. I've also got some of the radiant barrier left that I had placed under my new metal roof and am planning on building a sun block for the central air unit and lining the inside and outside of the sun block with the aluminum radiant barrier. I'm also planning to cover the black insulation on the freon line with the aluminum radiant barrier to help eliminate cooling loss in the freon line. I figure if the unit and freon line are in a cooler environment it will be more efficient.

Just like many of the others who have posted previously I buy in bulk when items are on sale. I shop the price of 99+% of the items I buy. I don't just decide I want something and run out and buy it, if I want something I check the price at different places when I'm there, then when I've found the best price I go buy it. Lately I've been buying more items on line than ever before in my life, because I can get a better deal even after paying shipping. I think I still have 20+ cases of oil in the garage that I bought at different times when it would be on sale back before the price of motor oil went through the roof and I don't think I paid more than $1. a quart for any of it and I know several cases of it was bought at a stores grand opening at 2 quarts/$1., so I have $6. a case in it and now you can't even buy 2 quarts of cheap oil for $6. I also do probably somewhere between 98 and 100% of my own mechanical work and maintenance on my cars, lawn mowers, motorcycle, and home.

For the younger members, learn to control your spending habits while you are young, it will pay off for your future. I got injured 11 years ago when I was 40 years old and it left me disabled, but because I learned to control my spending habits when I was young, my family was able to continue to live comfortably during the 5 years from the time I got injured until I was finally approved for disability. We just moved in Oct. 2010, I bought our new home with cash, we haven't sold our other house yet, but it's not hurting us because we don't try to live above our income level. Many of you are probably thinking I must have had an excellent education and a high paying job, but the truth is I have a high school education and was working for a construction company as a carpenter when I became disabled. All my success was from listening and learning from my parents on how to save, control my spending habit and making safe sound investments. I'm not intending on this sounding like I'm bragging, just trying to get a point across about being able to be successful even if you don't have a lot of education or a high paying job just by using some common sense.

Re: Stretching the shrinking dollar
 

You might want to keep the water temperature at 125F since at 122F and below, some nasty bacteria can grow inside of the water heater but at like 125F you should be good.
https://www.osha.gov/dts/osta/otm/legionnaires/faq.html

Re: Stretching the shrinking dollar
 

As far as washing clothes, I work as a mechanic and get dirty as hell all the time so having super bright whites and things like that are of no concern to me. In one wash load probably once a week. I'll throw in everything; shirts, paints, colors, whites, socks ( my one towel I use for the entire week). and I'll also use maybe half of the soap that can fit in that measuring cup. Put it on for only like 6 minutes on cold/cold and they come out clean...

no LAN line, esp. if you have a cell phone

netflix instead of cable

some people say there isn't a difference in DSL over comcast.....

costco rocks!

I cut my own hair.

Re: Stretching the shrinking dollar
 

I think you meant land line, not LAN line. A LAN line is something different. Anyway I agree...I wish I could get DSL, then I wouldn't have to get this stupid package "deal" from the cable monopoly. The land line only ever has telemarketers.

You might want to wash your towel more often (well, have a few to use and wash once a week), it's cheaper than a skin infection that's tough to get rid of...and far more pleasant.

Re: Stretching the shrinking dollar
 

Fordman,

That is basically it in a nutshell and you have nailed it.
Listen , learn and use common sense (which is not as common as it should be either).
It amazes me the number of people who never seem to get those points but at lest the posters on here have so that is a good start.

Peter.

Re: Stretching the shrinking dollar
 

We've got a Monitor vented kerosene heater we use for heat in our home (1400 SF). The burn chamber is going to need to be rebuilt this spring for the first time since we've owned it (16 years). The high temperature gaskets that will be needed if bought through a Monitor dealer would have cost me between $50-$100 and a new burn mat would have been between $25-$50. I went to McMaster-Carr web site and searched for high temperature material to make the gaskets out of and high temperature cloth for making burn mats myself. I was able to buy a 16"X10' roll of gasket material rated at 1200F, enough to last me 5 lifetimes and a 1'X3' piece of high temperature fabric rated at 1800F, enough to make 27 burn mats out of all for under $50 including shipping. The heater is very efficient, so far this winter (mild winter) I've used less than 60 gallons of kerosene to heat our home. In the 16 years we've owned it we've never used more than 150 gallons in a year. At $4 a gallon that's less than $240 since mid Oct. 2011 for heating. When we first got the heater, kerosene was only about $ .70 a gallon and we'd heat on less than $100 worth for the whole winter. Last winter my neighbor said his electric bill for 1 month was over $300. using an electric furnace which is what was in our house when we bought it. Our house is also larger than the neighbors. I still have the electric furnace to fall back on if I ever have a problem with the Monitor. I just bought a used Monitor heater last week for $550 including shipping from CA to KY for my son to use in his 1000 SF home instead of the electric heat pump. Even though the heater was about 8 years old it's probably seen very little use since it was used in the San Diego, CA area and the temperature there seldom gets below frost temperature. $550 was less than 1/2 the cost of a new Monitor. I received the heater yesterday and hooked it up in place of mine to make sure it works OK prior to cutting a hole in my son's wall for the vent pipe. So far it's working great.

Another great investment is a freezer. We watch for sales on meats and other frozen foods. Often when hamburger is on sale we will buy 25-50 pounds at a time to last us until it's on sale again. Same with roasts, pork chops and steaks. A couple years ago T bone steak was on sale for $4.99/pound, we bought several pounds brought it home and vacuum sealed it, what's still in the freezer is as good as the day we bought it.

Re: Stretching the shrinking dollar
 

If you are like me and one of your cars is an oil burner, save the oil you drain from your other cars at oil change and use it for topping off oil in the oil burner. I've been doing this for over 100K miles in my '88 Escort and it's still going.

If the '88 Escort Pony ever wears out I'm going to strip all the good parts off of it prior to sending it to the junk yard and store them in the garage to use on my '88 Escort GL. I also buy lifetime warranty parts (when available) for my cars when something wears out, then regardless of how many times it wears out in the future the parts cost me nothing. My '88 Escort Pony (518,500 miles) has lifetime front/rear brakes, tie rod ends, ball joints, clutch, pressure plate, throw out bearing, steering rack, front/rear struts, water pump, fuel pump, ignition module, right/left front axles and probably other parts that I can't think of right now. Boy, I bet Auto Zone will be glad to see that car wear out. I've already put new brakes and rebuilt the front end several times and replaced the water pump, fuel pump, struts and ignition module a couple times each and it's probably about due to replace the axles and clutch again. If only someone would start selling lifetime tires!!

Most nights while watching television we only have one light on in the house unless we go into another room for something. The light we use while watching television in the living room has a 1 watt LED bulb, it doesn't give a lot of light, but gives enough light to see how to get around. All the other lights are 13 watt CFL's. We also use 1/4 watt LED night lights so we can see how to get around if we have to get up during the night after going to bed.

Re: Stretching the shrinking dollar
 

I changed light bulbs long before Algore....because I'm cheap.

Then I remembered...I am an American.
I lived ten years in Ethiopia. I no longer chose to live that way.

Re: Stretching the shrinking dollar
 

it looks like the LED light bulbs i bought have already paid for themselves...according to my recent utility bill...https://www.gassavers.org/showthread.php?t=13897