I absolutely love to read. I don't, however, love the prices of the best-selling novels. Trying to choke down the prices at large chain bookstores is just too much to bear in this economy. Here are some alternatives to paying big bucks for good lit, all while staying current.
Get Creative With Your Book Club
In my book club, we establish our book list for the year in June and begin our meetings in September. We do this for two reasons: one, people read more in the summer and two, if we set up the book list that far in advance, we have time to get creative with how we get our books.
One idea for saving money on books is for each person in the book club to buy one copy of a book (12 months, 12 members, 12 books) and then rotate the books around until everyone has read them. This takes some organization and structure, but it is doable. Another idea is to put all of your books on the wait list at your local library and read them as they come in. Our local library charges fifty cents for holding a new book for you. Not bad when you compare that to the charge of buying a book. A third alternative is to advertise on your social media websites. You would be surprised how many responses you will get to a post that says, "Hey Locals: Does anyone have a copy of the book __________ that I could borrow?" Finally, try book-swapping. On sites like Goodreads.com you trade books with other readers; you just pay the shipping.
The Future Of E-Books
As an English teacher, I may have been one of the last remaining hold outs against ebooks. However, once I gave in and tried it, I was hooked. Buying ebooks costs less than actual paper books. Couple that with online discounts, and you can save a bundle. Also, many libraries are now loaning ebooks. If you are into the classics, or your book club throws in a classic once and a while to make y'all feel "scholarly," keep in mind that most classics are available online for free due to copyright expirations.
The Gift Of A Good Read
Another money saver is allowing others to buy books for you. In lieu of gifts, ask for books or gift cards to bookstores. You can share your wish lists of books on your blogs or social media sites for people to peruse during birthday and holiday seasons. Another fun idea is hosting a book swap. If your friends or family members are avid readers like you, make your next gathering a book-trading event. Rummage through your collections and bring books that you are willing to trade or loan. Everyone can set up a table of their favorite literature and then guests walk around and pick out what they want to read. You can always add stipulations to the party rules such as, books must be current, or books much be enjoyable reads that are recommended, etc.
By adding a little time, energy, and research into how you obtain your books, you can become not only rich in mind but also rich in wallet. Read on and save on, my literary super-savers!
Sunday, May 15, 2011
Installing a Gift Shelf: Saving Money on Gift Giving
If you are anything like me, you are constantly running to the store before a child's birthday party and paying more than you had planned. By the time you add up the cost of the gift (which has to be the latest craze, of course), the card, the gift bag...and multiply that by the number of friends your children have...these parties can become a money pain.
One idea to help with these costs is to install a gift shelf. We keep our gift shelf in the basement, and we stock it with "standards": gifts for toddlers, gifts for kids (boys and girls), gifts for adults, and cards and gift bags for all occasions. All of the gifts for children are popular, but not a fad. If you buy trendy items, chances are they will go out of style before they are needed. All gifts should be bought during off seasons, when on sale, or on clearance. That way, when a party rolls around, your child goes downstairs, picks out a gift that is age appropriate and fits the child having the party, and off you go.
For adult gifts, we have found that keeping the standards of gift cards and wine are the best bet. So if it's a housewarming, going away, or birthday celebration, you will have something appropriate. Gift cards can be earned or purchased for a discount through credit card points, websites such as Swagbucks, and through deals offered by websites such as Groupon or Living Social. Wine can be purchased by the case for a cheaper amount than buying by the bottle, and many liquor stores will allow you to "mix and match" when putting together your case. Cards, gift bags, and tissue paper can be found in bulk at card outlets, and often on clearance at the end of a season.
The gift shelf will not only save you money when shopping for others, but will also save you gas money by reducing how often you run out to the store; a definite plus in our economy today. The only challenges are keeping the kids (and you!) out of the gift shelf, and staying organized. Nothing is a bigger money drain than finding a box full of outdated toys and 25 "happy retirement!" cards years after you set up your shelf! Good luck, happy shopping, and happy saving!
Thursday, April 21, 2011
Our Spring Break Staycation: Saving Money and Still Having Fun
As I watched several of the neighbors packing up and pulling out on Saturday morning, I couldn't help but feel a little bit envious. Spring break was suppose to be the mecca of all things warm, tan, and fun. I was watching the snow fall and the ecstatic neighbor kids waving frantically from their back seats. Something about this scenario just wasn't right. I decided that I might not be able to be warm and tan, but gosh darn it, I was going to make sure that our family had fun. I was going to prove that a staycation was just as much fun as a vacation.
Research The Local Hot Spots
The first thing I did was check out the local news-sites and local mothers' websites. Businesses know that there are many envious, bitter moms out there that are staying home during school vacations. So, many offer deals during school breaks to help out. On my search, I found several helpful ideas such as The Y was offering free swimming all week, local bowling alleys were offering specials, and the public libraries were hosting daily events. The kids were thrilled to have options everyday, and fun, new things to try. Fun? Totally. Free? You betcha. Win-win in my book.
Invite The Locals and Not So Locals
I contacted family from near and far to see who would be up for a mini-trip to our neck of the woods. Our niece and her two children came to visit for three days. It was the perfect amount of time (remember the fish and family rule) and the kids had a ball playing all day and night with their cousins. Fun? Absolutely. Free? Even better.
Do The Opposite of The Ordinary
The best thing about a vacation is doing things that you don't normally do in your day-to-day lives. We had a movie night where we set up air mattresses in the living room and ate popcorn (free from samplestuff.com) and watched new movies that we rented (again free, thanks to SampleStuff). The kids also set up slumber parties in each of their rooms; they loved inviting others into their bedrooms and "hosting" sleep-overs. We also had a dinner tea party, where we dressed up in our favorite, fancy outfits and hats. The real, cloth napkins, and my grandmother's china completed the effect. We invited others to our tea party by connecting via telephone and video phone. It was so special for our children to have a tea party with their great-grandmother who couldn't make the trip in person (even if my son's idea of a "fancy outfit" was dressing up like Anakin Skywalker...). Fun? Most definitely. Free? You get the gist...
At the end of the week, we managed to save money and still have ridiculous amounts of fun. When the neighbors slowly migrated back home from their trips, looking much more tan but not exactly rested, I was out in the yard (sadly, still in the snow) waving and smiling and feeling completely satisfied with our week. What a fun and money saving staycation!
Research The Local Hot Spots
The first thing I did was check out the local news-sites and local mothers' websites. Businesses know that there are many envious, bitter moms out there that are staying home during school vacations. So, many offer deals during school breaks to help out. On my search, I found several helpful ideas such as The Y was offering free swimming all week, local bowling alleys were offering specials, and the public libraries were hosting daily events. The kids were thrilled to have options everyday, and fun, new things to try. Fun? Totally. Free? You betcha. Win-win in my book.
Invite The Locals and Not So Locals
I contacted family from near and far to see who would be up for a mini-trip to our neck of the woods. Our niece and her two children came to visit for three days. It was the perfect amount of time (remember the fish and family rule) and the kids had a ball playing all day and night with their cousins. Fun? Absolutely. Free? Even better.
Do The Opposite of The Ordinary
The best thing about a vacation is doing things that you don't normally do in your day-to-day lives. We had a movie night where we set up air mattresses in the living room and ate popcorn (free from samplestuff.com) and watched new movies that we rented (again free, thanks to SampleStuff). The kids also set up slumber parties in each of their rooms; they loved inviting others into their bedrooms and "hosting" sleep-overs. We also had a dinner tea party, where we dressed up in our favorite, fancy outfits and hats. The real, cloth napkins, and my grandmother's china completed the effect. We invited others to our tea party by connecting via telephone and video phone. It was so special for our children to have a tea party with their great-grandmother who couldn't make the trip in person (even if my son's idea of a "fancy outfit" was dressing up like Anakin Skywalker...). Fun? Most definitely. Free? You get the gist...
At the end of the week, we managed to save money and still have ridiculous amounts of fun. When the neighbors slowly migrated back home from their trips, looking much more tan but not exactly rested, I was out in the yard (sadly, still in the snow) waving and smiling and feeling completely satisfied with our week. What a fun and money saving staycation!
Sunday, April 17, 2011
Sample Stuff
Doing a little horn tootin'! I was just hired by samplestuff.com as a writer to cover money saving tips! So check out the website if you haven't already and be on the lookout for Frugal Diva articles from yours truly! Enjoy!
Save Your Saturdays and Your Money: Digital Yard Sales
If you are anything like me, you are BUSY. Kids, work, and life make doing anything extra an impossible feat. So when my husband said for the umpteenth time that we needed to sell some of the baby furniture taking up space in the basement, I knew I would have to think outside of the box instead of sitting in my front lawn for an entire weekend trying to barter with the neighbors. How could I sell some of our family's unwanted possessions without dedicating time that I don't have? The answer: digital yard sale.
Blog It If You've Got It
The first step to setting up a digital yard sale, is to create a blog. It's the fastest and easiest way to technologically showcase pictures of what you want to sell. Some popular free sites are Blogger and Wordpress. Creating a blog is easier than you think; just follow the step-by-step directions and voila! You are in. Remember, this is a public yard sale; you will be blogging about goods to sell and that's it. Try to keep your private, online journal that chronicles your children's milestones separate from this one.
Next, you need to take pictures of everything you want to sell. You want to take pictures of each item individually, and with a neutral background. Then, you will need to create a new blog entry for each item that you want to sell and include a photo or two and a brief description. So, for example, your post title could be "Highchair" and the body of your post could include one or two clear photos of the chair set up, and a blurb about the age and condition of the highchair.
You will also need to decide how you want people to contact you if they are interested in items. There are usually comment boxes on blogs that could be used for communication, or you can create a new email address for selling purposes only. Whatever your preferred method is, list it on every blog entry.
So, now that we have an awesome blog set up and all of our items ready to sell, how do we get the readership to actually view our sale?
If You Sell It They Will Come
Nowadays, everyone is on a social media site. From Facebook, to Twitter to Tumblr, everyone that we knew from high school, college and beyond is online. It's time to put those connections to good use. Share your blog address with friends online and, since they are your friends, maybe throw in free delivery for locals. You could post a "Deal of the Day" or "Bargain of the Week" and share a photo of the item along with your blog address to see more. People that I am friends with prefer to buy from someone that they know; it's comforting to buy Little Sally's wagon, especially when I know her family, where they live, and I've known Little Sally since birth. People like to buy what they can visualize.
At the end of the day (or week or month) hopefully you have sold a few things. Hopefully you didn't have to waste a beautiful, summer weekend sitting outside of your house trying to convince people that the ticket price, really is the price, and no you are not going to meet them in the middle. Hopefully you've made some room in the basement so that you can start trading some of your digital yard sale items for your friends' digital yard sale items; because you know they loved your tech-savy way of saving time and money and created their own. Good luck and happy selling!
Blog It If You've Got It
The first step to setting up a digital yard sale, is to create a blog. It's the fastest and easiest way to technologically showcase pictures of what you want to sell. Some popular free sites are Blogger and Wordpress. Creating a blog is easier than you think; just follow the step-by-step directions and voila! You are in. Remember, this is a public yard sale; you will be blogging about goods to sell and that's it. Try to keep your private, online journal that chronicles your children's milestones separate from this one.
Next, you need to take pictures of everything you want to sell. You want to take pictures of each item individually, and with a neutral background. Then, you will need to create a new blog entry for each item that you want to sell and include a photo or two and a brief description. So, for example, your post title could be "Highchair" and the body of your post could include one or two clear photos of the chair set up, and a blurb about the age and condition of the highchair.
You will also need to decide how you want people to contact you if they are interested in items. There are usually comment boxes on blogs that could be used for communication, or you can create a new email address for selling purposes only. Whatever your preferred method is, list it on every blog entry.
So, now that we have an awesome blog set up and all of our items ready to sell, how do we get the readership to actually view our sale?
If You Sell It They Will Come
Nowadays, everyone is on a social media site. From Facebook, to Twitter to Tumblr, everyone that we knew from high school, college and beyond is online. It's time to put those connections to good use. Share your blog address with friends online and, since they are your friends, maybe throw in free delivery for locals. You could post a "Deal of the Day" or "Bargain of the Week" and share a photo of the item along with your blog address to see more. People that I am friends with prefer to buy from someone that they know; it's comforting to buy Little Sally's wagon, especially when I know her family, where they live, and I've known Little Sally since birth. People like to buy what they can visualize.
At the end of the day (or week or month) hopefully you have sold a few things. Hopefully you didn't have to waste a beautiful, summer weekend sitting outside of your house trying to convince people that the ticket price, really is the price, and no you are not going to meet them in the middle. Hopefully you've made some room in the basement so that you can start trading some of your digital yard sale items for your friends' digital yard sale items; because you know they loved your tech-savy way of saving time and money and created their own. Good luck and happy selling!
Monday, April 4, 2011
A Tactic for Saving Money at the Grocery Store: Tally as You Go!
I am absolutely dumbfounded every Sunday when I am at the checkout counter at the grocery store. I go into the store with a list, I DO NOT stray from the list! I do not buy silly, frivolous items. Most of the time I buy store brand items and on-sale products. HOW do I over-spend every week??
My weekly goal is to spend one hundred dollars on food. Not a lofty goal for a family of four (and two of those people barely come up to my waist). And every week I spend one hundred and fifty dollars. No matter what changes I make, I am always within five dollars of that dreaded $150.00. That's an extra two hundred dollars a month that I simply do not have. I have a serious tear in my money boat and we are taking in water, fast.
So this week, I went in with a plan. I knew I needed to buy food for breakfast, lunch and snacks for the week, as well as five nights of dinners. I set the goal of $50 for dinner ($10 per night) and $50 for the rest. I then kept a running tally on my grocery list. I rounded up or down using my elementary school logic to have whole numbers. For example, carrots cost 99 cents, so I wrote a "1" next to the word carrots. I then added as I placed items in my cart. When I hit $50 for my breakfast, lunch, and snack total, I knew I needed to make some changes. I put back the applesauce because I knew we had enough at home to last us most of the week, and it would become a priority on next week's list. I could live without the two dollar can of chicken salad; my lunch bag would be just fine with the deli meat that I knew everyone else would eat as well.
There were no surprises when I arrived at the checkout cashier, except for the fact that I actually spent LESS than what my fancy math had told me! The grand total? NINETY SIX DOLLARS! I bought all of the necessities that we needed for the week, I had five, healthy, economical dinners planned out, and I even managed to buy the materials for my daughter's mermaid birthday cake, complete with blue crystalized sugar for the ocean. Wonder if she'll mind if I place a little money boat in her cake? Floating. Not sinking, of course. Score one for the Frugal Family! Tally Ho!
My weekly goal is to spend one hundred dollars on food. Not a lofty goal for a family of four (and two of those people barely come up to my waist). And every week I spend one hundred and fifty dollars. No matter what changes I make, I am always within five dollars of that dreaded $150.00. That's an extra two hundred dollars a month that I simply do not have. I have a serious tear in my money boat and we are taking in water, fast.
So this week, I went in with a plan. I knew I needed to buy food for breakfast, lunch and snacks for the week, as well as five nights of dinners. I set the goal of $50 for dinner ($10 per night) and $50 for the rest. I then kept a running tally on my grocery list. I rounded up or down using my elementary school logic to have whole numbers. For example, carrots cost 99 cents, so I wrote a "1" next to the word carrots. I then added as I placed items in my cart. When I hit $50 for my breakfast, lunch, and snack total, I knew I needed to make some changes. I put back the applesauce because I knew we had enough at home to last us most of the week, and it would become a priority on next week's list. I could live without the two dollar can of chicken salad; my lunch bag would be just fine with the deli meat that I knew everyone else would eat as well.
Introduction to The Frugal Diva
Like many of you, I am living the American dream. I am a middle class, middle-aged, professional woman. I am married with two children. I live in the suburbs. I am also broke.
How did we end up this way? Where did we go wrong? (Yes, I said we; I'm pulling you into this situation with me so I don't feel so alone). We all have our own stories to tell of how we ended up in the money boat with holes, bailing water like our lives depend on it. Yet, we all have one common goal: sealing up the holes and setting sail for financial stability.
The goal of this blog is to share the ways that I have learned to save money. I will try something new at least once a week; if it works, I'll let you know. If it doesn't, I will let you know that too so you don't have to waste your time. I'm also telling you up front, I am frugal; not cheap. I think we are similar in that respect as well. Aren't you glad we found each other?
Spend wisely. Save happily. Let the journey begin.
How did we end up this way? Where did we go wrong? (Yes, I said we; I'm pulling you into this situation with me so I don't feel so alone). We all have our own stories to tell of how we ended up in the money boat with holes, bailing water like our lives depend on it. Yet, we all have one common goal: sealing up the holes and setting sail for financial stability.
The goal of this blog is to share the ways that I have learned to save money. I will try something new at least once a week; if it works, I'll let you know. If it doesn't, I will let you know that too so you don't have to waste your time. I'm also telling you up front, I am frugal; not cheap. I think we are similar in that respect as well. Aren't you glad we found each other?
Spend wisely. Save happily. Let the journey begin.
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