Just got this coupon in my email today. I thought I’d pass it along in case any readers wear contacts.

Do you ever have a hard time finding babysitters? We needed a part time nanny for a couple of years and had a really hard time finding someone willing to work from 5:30 am until 9:30 am every day, but we found SitterCity and found a great part-time nanny who helped us for a really long time. I highly recommend SitterCity, and I just saw that they’ve put on a 15% off the membership cost (which is already quite affordable.).

I hope you’ll check it out if you’re looking for a babysitter–or a baby-sitting job.

Hello all! No, this isn’t an announcement of a new kid in the family–but a new partnership on the Penny-Wi$e Blog.  You might have noticed, the new button on the black navbar above. It reads “coupons.”  This is due to a new partnership with Alex’s Coupons. 

Alex’s Coupons formed in 1999, when proud papa, Todd Martini’s daughter became seriously ill. He started the Web site as a way to make money while his daughter was in her treatments and turned it into a way to raise funds for the Starlight Children’s Foundation. 

Since my family and the Martini family have a common interest in critically-ill children (our family and this Web site actively support causes for HIV/AIDS affected orphans), it seemed like a natural pairing.

Every day there should be new coupons appearing, so be sure to check back frequently, also, you’ll see more if you click through to the site–the feed will just be showing you today’s new coupons.

Thanks for visiting the Penny-Wi$e Family today!

PS: Another $1 dinner coming soon… I was working on one last night, just needing some more pricing info to finalize it.

1st. I’m putting out a call for submissions. I’m planning to do a week of $1 dinners. If I get really ambitious, I may do an entire week of menus for $1 per person. Would love your submission. I’ll gladly include your name, and blog. Please include menu, recipe and cost breakdown.

2nd. If you’re really technically savvy or just an early adopter and like to read blogs on Kindle, Penny-Wise Family is now available there too! I think the charge is $0.99 a month. Sorry about that, I don’t have the option to publish free with Amazon, but if you’d like to read that way, I wanted to make it available to you.

3rd. How interested would readers be in an ebook on specific cost-cutting strategies at home? I’m talking about immediate budget triage followed by budget physical therapy to get it in shape and slowly tune you into being a lean mean frugal machine. The idea has been kicking around in my mind and it sounds like fun, but I’d hate to write it if nobody wants to read it. If you or your friends would like to read something like this, please let me know and let me know what you would want to see in this publication.

As always, I appreciate the your feedback. I also am really pleased with the number of regular readers/emailers/commenters who’ve made it through our transition from Blogger to our own domain name. Thanks for keeping up with the change of address!

More to come soon!

I was at a liquidator store a while back looking for some kids t-shirts for a girl-scout project and ran across a hefty grocery section. Normally, I’m not one to buy expired food, but I recently found a great web site www.stilltasty.com and can figure out the actual “spoilage” date versus the pull dates.

I found a really nice parmesan filled tortellini at the liquidator’s for about thirty cents a pound and picked up several boxes. The colors (tomato and spinach) in the pasta begin to fade after a year on the shelf, but the food is good for several years beyond that.

Cottage cheese can be kept many months beyond the pull date—just invert the container. Nobody knows why this works—it just does.

“Last day” items can be picked up and frozen for later use. Dented cans can be used so long as they aren’t broken or oozing or bulging.

Coffee’s pull-date is really a “for freshness” date. Coffee is a fine post-dated, but may not be as aromatic. (Try microwaving the beans or toasting them in a skillet before grinding).

There are a few things that you should never buy beyond their expiration dates.
Baking mixes mold but you can’t see or smell the mold. Once the mix is cooked, the food item can become quite toxic. Stay away from old baking mixes.

Dented cans can be used provided that the seal is still strong. Never buy a bulging or leaking can. The bulging ones are especially dangerous for food poisoning, but they also can explode!

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.

Garden if you can (garden maintenance is great for kids). If you’re like us, and you can’t garden, try containers for certain items. We have five herb containers on the patio, which also flower. They’re really pretty and their strong smells keep away insects from our patio. Some herbs are very expensive fresh, but wonderfully versatile for cooking. Here’s what we grow:

Mint
Sage
Thyme (three varieties)
Basil
Green Onions
Chives
Marjoram (pretty flowers but I don’t have the faintest idea how to use it).
Catnip
Oregano

A word of advice about herb gardening: Plant mint only in containers and not with anything else. It’s a bit invasive and will choke out the other plants. Also, I wish I’d planted more basil. Our catnip and chives were in the same container. The cat sat on the catnip to eat the chives. Yes, he has really, really bad breath, and the catnip is now dead. I’d estimate our monthly savings at about $7 because we don’t buy thyme and oregano (I dry them and save them up for autumn cooking) and we use the basil and onions all summer long!

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.

Our condo association pays our water bill, but reducing water use is an environmentally sound thing to do, so we try our best anyhow.

Here’s a few ways to reduce water consumption:

1. Upgrade your toilet to a low flow version. Old homes may need as much as 3 gallons per flush to clear the waste through the pipes, but if your home was built after the 1960s, you might be able to upgrade into a 1.5 gallon toilet. Most old toilets require five gallons per flush. You can also try adjusting the screw on the float of your toilet, which is located inside the back cabinet part of the toilet. If you make the float longer, less water will be needed per flush.
2. Water your plants and garden with dishwater or bathwater. (Our plants love this!)
3. Install low-flow showerheads and aerators for your taps. Our utility company sent these to us (with installation kits) for free earlier this year. Adding a low-flow showerhead install in our oldest daughter’s bathroom was a great “dad and daughter” home improvement project—and since our daughter prefers her “rock star” showers, I’m sure this has cut the energy and water consumption dramatically!

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.

Create a wish-list and stick to it. You should never buy anything when pressed.

A friend of mine told me a story recently about spending some time sans refrigerator at home. They kept a couple of ice chests on the back patio and replenished ice until they found a good deal on a good fridge and saved up money for it.

Nothing induces a bad purchase like desperation. We bought a washer this way a few years ago and ended up replacing it 13 months later when it caught fire!

Maintain a wish-list of major purchases that are likely coming down the road. If possible, create a timeline for replacement.

I know my 12-year-old fridge is nearing it’s last, so I’m keeping an eye out for appliances, and noting sales on the calendar (next year’s calendar, as sales are usually scheduled) we hope to replace our ‘fridge next year, but we’re considering selling our home—which means we may not want to replace the fridge just yet.

Before a major purchase check the consumer reports, shop around and try to buy used.

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.

There’s a hard and fast rule about couponing, which differentiates a tightwad from a cheapskate. Truly frugal purchases (by tightwads) are made of only the needed items.

For example—I keep coupons for stores that work on any product. My 20% off at Office Depot recently made a purchase of paper competitive to my regular supplier when they were out.

But a coupon for brand-name diapers is only “good” if it reduces the price of the diapers more than the price of a comparable store brand. I have a few coupons in my coupon box for deodorant. We don’t have a huge brand-loyalty to that particular item, so when we price-compare, we’ll just deduct the thirty cents from that brand before we compare with the others on the shelf.

Coupons only save you money if you’re buying an item you were already going to buy, and if there isn’t a better deal without a coupon.

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.

No, I’m not talking about what you plug in at home—I’m talking about outlet stores. They’re great! You may be able to locate an outlet store for practically anything, but since buying used is usually best—consider what you have to buy new and look for an outlet that way.

I live between a bakery outlet and a beef-jerky outlet. Granted, I don’t buy a lot of beef jerky, but it’s just a good example.

Many dairies have cheese outlets. I buy all underwear for the family new, but have found some excellent outlet stores (one even offers a “bra punch-card”—buy six get one free). There’s a great directory of outlet stores online here: http://www.outletbound.com/cgi-bin/indexob.cgi

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.