I buy what I can used. I don’t usually buy used shoes. I never buy used socks or underwear. I seldom buy used computers. Other than that, it’s all fair game. I have a good relationship with a little children’s consignment shop down the street—a great source for kids’ clothes/toys. My all-time favorite sources are [...]

If your household was a manufacturing plant, you’d be “sourcing” to the nth degree. This means finding the best vendor for your supplies, but most especially for your keystone supplies. In my businesses, I need toner and paper—but most especially, legal paper, which varies wildly from $5 a ream to $12 a ream for the [...]

Day 13: Make gifts We’ve taken to making gifts lately. Not simply because it’s frugal but also because we can put some serious effort into what we’re giving our loved ones. Last Christmas we gave our loved ones holiday-themed spa baskets with “Candy cane” and “Christmas Tree” scented bath salts and a decadent home-made peppermint [...]

I keep my AAA card with my debit card and always present both at once. Half of the time I get a blank befuddled stare (no m’aam, this is not ID) and half of the time I get a discount. That second half is good enough for me. Trips to the zoo, prescription refills, or [...]

You can’t beat rice. Fast-cooking, versatile, and almost universally-liked. We make rice in big batches because the leftovers are just as good. Here’s a few uses for this wonderful food. 1. A base for stir-fry2. In soups in place of noodles3. As a “mash” for breakfast with milk and cinnamon4. Rice pudding with a custard [...]

Before tossing something broken, try to fix it. There’s a great book called “How to fix almost anything” that I had for a long time. We mend worn clothes (except socks). We use epoxy, super-glue, and paper clips to mend all sorts of things. Before replacing any malfunctioning plumbing item, we take it apart and [...]

Here in the Seattle area, we’ve seen record temps for the summer. My neighborhood reached 108 degrees (an all-time high) in late July. For an area with an average summer temp of just 76, that’s impressive and most of us just weren’t prepared. Here’s a few tricks I’ve learned that have helped cool down our [...]

If you have a personal printer (either ink or toner) at home, I’m sure that like me, you hate replacing the cartridges on the thing. So much expense, just to have some Web site’s banner advertisement print on a separate page all by itself in full color. Argh! Unless you do extremely high-quality, image-intense work, [...]

Coupons aren’t just for the bricks-and-mortar I’m more prone to buy something from an online store if it’s on sale, or used (think Ebay), but here’s a tip my sister taught me about online shopping: Just after you’ve filled up your online cart, google the name of the store you want to buy from and [...]

Maybe it’s living within a few miles of a Ball plant, or maybe it’s sentimental memories of my grandmother’s pickled beets and my great grandmother’s English Relish, but even though I’m not a canner, I LOVE mason jars. They’re the perfect organizer. They’re durable, transparent and timeless. You can put flowers in them for a [...]