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 same quality. It all depends on the vendor. Seeking out that $5 vendor and developing a plan to find a better deal and a backup vendor is key to frugal success, not to mention, profitability.

A quick-and-easy way to do this with your household economy in mind, is to take a look at your grocery receipts over a couple of weeks—and circle the ten most expensive items on each.

Maybe they’re the same? (At my house the most expensive items were consistently beer, laundry detergent, dishwasher detergent, and pull-ups).

Beer is a bit of a sacred cow. I’m afraid my dear husband isn’t about to let me tinker with more frugal solutions to that at this time. (honey, home brewing is trendy!), The others were easy targets. I switched from our favorite laundry detergent which was about $15/mo to a home-made version at just over $2 a year. Dishwasher detergent I now cut 50-50 with washing soda, and the pull-ups are getting replaced with cloth diapers. Talk about savings—between those changes I’m saving about $32 a month.

Consider other “vendors” to your household. Where do you spend money that you could re-source? Here’s a few starting places:
1. Food
2. Cell phone provider
3. Cable TV provider
4. Pharmacy
5. Medical insurance
6. Auto Insurance
7. Home Insurance
8. Banking: Debt and Investments—are you getting the best bang for your buck?

This post is part of a series I’ve entitled “Frugal August” and is inspired by (though not copied from) the book The Complete Tightwad Gazetteby Amy Dacyczyn. My tips are meant to build on hers, but generally are not duplications.

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 eating out—there’s a discount for that. If you’re a senior ask for a discount. If you’re a student, ask for a discount.

When I was in college I was broke. Really, really broke. A symphony was playing in Seattle’s new Benaroya hall, which I desperately wanted to see, but tickets were $55.

I called up and asked about discounts—last minute tickets, volunteer discounts, anything? They told me that actually, it’s a repeat performance—one that plays on three nights, so the seats usually reserved for season ticket holders were available to students for $5 to 15, I just had to bring my student ID.

My college even had a class called “I’d like to use the media lab, please” or something like that for one credit. Non-students could enroll for one credit and gain access to the fitness center, library, media center, music center and student discounts galore. Students enrolled with a certian number of credits (I cannot recall how many) also got a free bus pass, they just had to go ask for it.

Food for thought.

This post is part of a series I’ve entitled “Frugal August” and is inspired by (though not copied from) the book The Complete Tightwad Gazetteby Amy Dacyczyn. My tips are meant to build on hers, but generally are not duplications.

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 try to find a new gasket (usually solving the problem for under $1.)

Hands-down the best “repair” investment ever is having shoes re-heeled or re-soled. For ladies who wear pumps, you’ve likely tossed a few pairs in need of that little thingy that attaches on the bottom of a heel—or the plastic wore off until just the nail was left.

You can purchase new “lifts” for very cheap and install them yourself (pliers to remove the old one, hammer and adhesive to install the new one, snips if you need to re-size it). If you can find a cobbler, this is a procedure totally worth leaving to a pro. My vice is very high-quality shoes (purchased new usually, but at an outlet store). All of my shoes have lasted at least five years with heavy wear, but the pumps show wear the fastest. A good cobbler will shine and repair the shoes, and re-stretch them into a more comfortable fit all for under $10 a pair.

I took in several pairs of older shoes that I thought might be on their “last legs” and discovered that I could get several more years of wear out of them after a professional polish and a re-heel job. (Hint: Some shoes have a lifetime warranty on the soles–I think that Doc Martens and Red Wing both carry this warranty, so the repair may be free)

You can attempt to repair sneakers yourself at home, by inserting a piece of rubber inside when the soles begin to wear out, or super-gluing the uppers back to the soles when they begin to loosen—but. A product called “ShoeGoo” also works. This is for your lawn-mowing shoes, not your triathlon shoes. Athletes, please be good to your feet.

This post is part of a series I’ve entitled “Frugal August” and is inspired by (though not copied from) the book The Complete Tightwad Gazetteby Amy Dacyczyn. My tips are meant to build on hers, but generally are not duplications.

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