Eating out for WAY Less - Last Second Deal (Janssen)

Because I like to share a good deal . . .

We've talked about Restaurant.com before (here is Merrick's post about it). Today only, if you use the coupon code "WOW" you'll get 90% off any gift certificate, which means you buy most of the $25 gift certificates for a grand total of $1 (usually they are $10).

Austin has over a hundred restaurants that participate, so I went through and bought 8 for various restaurants - all for a grand total of $9.50. The gift certificates don't expire, either, which means now is a great time to stock up.

And, if $1 isn't cheap enough for you, be sure to go to Restaurant.com through Ebates and you'll get 15% back.

But this deal only goes through midnight tonight (Pacific time), so don't wait around. (It's been extended through Friday at midnight, so go ahead and stock up - just remember to check what the requirements for your gift certificate is; most require you to spend $35 total or order at least two entrees).

Another Way to Save on Travel (Janssen)

We have no travel planned for the next few months and even then it's just to go visit family for Christmas (did I say "just" about my family? There's nowhere I'd rather vacation than in my old high school bedroom or in my in-laws basement).

Either way, travel - imaginary or not - has been on my mind as well as additional ways to save money without ruining your entire vacation by spending it at a crummy hotel eating off the dollar menu at McDonald's.

Have you heard of Groupon? Virtually every major city in the USA participates - you choose your city of choice and then you get a daily email with some deal for that city. Some are for hotel rooms, some are for tourist attractions, some are event tickets, many are for restaurants, and some are for shopping.

Each daily email offers some sort of deal (buy a $50 gift card for a restaurant for $25, or stay in a swanky hotel room for $99 a night, or go skydiving for 40% of the regular cost). As long as a set number of people buy into the deal, everyone who purchased the deal, gets the coupon (if not enough people buy, no one is charged and no one gets the deal - I've never seen a deal not go through, though).

Next time we go on vacation to a major city, I plan to sign up for the Groupon emails for that city several months in advance and start collecting gift certificates for places to visit, eat, and stay, all for a fraction of the original cost. Plus, nearly every place that participates in Groupon is going to be local and interesting, rather than a national chain you could visit at home.

Not to mention the fact that you could pay for your vacation a little at a time over the course of many months instead of coming home to a large credit card bill (that always takes the shine off a vacation for me pretty fast!). 

What Would You Tell a Teenager About Money? (Carole)

A few weeks ago, I was asked to speak about money to the teenaged girls in our church congregation.  Thanks to all of you and your many good comments on this blog since January, I felt like I knew what kind of information would be most interesting and helpful to these girls who are just on the cusp of adulthood.

Here's what we discussed:

1.  Getting a job and saving 50% of what you earn while in your teens.  I also shared with them examples of impressive teenagers I've known through the years and the amounts of money they've been able to save in their bank accounts by the time they graduated from high school.

2.  The cost of tuition at local and out-of-state colleges and universities.  We even took a look at the cost of elite schools like Harvard and Stanford, just so they would know.

3.  Typical salaries of standard jobs:  surgeon, fire fighter, grocery store clerk, pilot, flight attendant, lawyer, school teacher. . .  and what the monthly take-home pay (after federal taxes) would be for each of these jobs.  So. . .is a college education really worth the time and money invested for your particular profession?

4.  How much adult life costs:  housing, groceries, transportation, utilities and insurance.  True to one of my previous examples of teaching children about money, I brought in $3,000 (which is a typical take home salary if you make $50,000/year -- the average salary in Las Vegas) in cash -- in $10 bills.  Together we paid the bills of a typical family in southern Nevada.  Much to their surprise, we ran out of money, long before we ran out of bills.  This was very eye-opening to this lovely group of girls.

5.  How compound interest works.  We walked through how compound interest works in your favor if you're saving money or investing, but how it works against you if you're paying off a loan or a credit card bill.  We also discussed how the length of the loan (or investment) and the interest rate influence your payment (or return) and the total you will pay (or earn) over the lifetime of the loan (or investment).

It was a fun night, and I felt like the girls were right with me.  But I'd love to know what YOU would have said to them?  What do you wish someone had told you at their age?

Homemade Wipes: Part 2 (Merrick)

Two weeks ago we had a guest post by the lovely Britt, of the Skinny Bovine's Kitchen, where she taught us to make homemade wipes.

Have you tried them yet?? I haven't yet, but I'm looking forward to saving tons of money and having some bragging rights about the fact that, you know, I make my own baby wipes.

Well Britt has kindly provided us with some photos of her wipes, which will probably make your project a little easier.




Also, just for your convenience, here are the directions again:

Buy a Rubbermaid, Servin' Saver, 6 cup container. I know you can find them in a 3 pack (with 1 bigger and 1 smaller) but I haven't had much luck finding them by themselves. They are pretty much exactly the shape of 1/2 a roll of paper towels, with a rounded-edge square lid.

The paper towels that fit perfectly (once cut in half with a sharp knife) in them are the regular Bounty ones (not jumbo roll, I buy the 8 pack, makes 16 batches of wipes). I use 1/2 a wipe at a time. Though we recently discovered that the bigger roll Bounty towels that are separated into 1/2 size paper towels work great too if you just tear off a few of the paper towels before you cut them. Then they are already 1/2 sized and you don't have to tear them. (This is my husband's preference). My aunts swear by homemade wipes, but they also say that Bounty is the only brand that really works, so I haven't experimented much there.

To make them: stuff 1/2 a roll of paper towels into your tub. In a bowl, combine 1 1/4 cups water + 1 heaping Tb baby soap (I use the Wal-Mart brand Johnson & Johnsons copy). Pour over the top of the wipes. They probably need an hour to soak all the way through and then you can just pull out the cardboard in the middle and you're good to go.

Thanks for sharing your awesome saving tip, Britt!

Free on Your Birthday (Janssen)

Last week was my birthday. And so, in honor of my big day, we did what I like most - got things for free.

I was inspired by my friend Erin's post about the free birthday food tour of Ann Arbor. The fact that I do not live anywhere near Ann Arbor did not deter me - I would find free food in my city.

And oh, did I ever.

On my birthday, I stopped at Schlotzsky's for my free small sandwich, then drove through Sonic for my free creamslush (delicious). I picked up Bart from work and we went to Firehouse Subs where you can get a free medium sandwich on your birthday if you have ID that verifies that it is indeed your birthday. We split the two sandwiches and the slush and went on our merry, none-the-poorer way. Happy birthday indeed (also, neither of us had ever been to Firehouse before and WOW, it was delicious).

After Bart was done at work, we went to Benihana for dinner because they send a free entree/$30 gift certificate for your birthday. We got the largest sushi combo on the menu that was under $30 and it fed us both - no cost except a nice tip.

I still have my coupons (that are good for another week or so) for a free cone at Maggie Moo's, a free Blizzard at Dairy Queen, free ice cream from Baskin Robbins, a free entree at Kona Grill, a free burger at Fuddruckers, and a free burger at Red Robin.

I also got a coupon for a free ice cream at Cold Stone but tragically all the Cold Stones in the Austin area have closed. The nearest one is some 80 miles away and even I am not dumb enough to drive that far for a free ice cream cone.

If that isn't ENOUGH free stuff for you, here's even more comprehensive lists of places that offer a birthday treat of some sort: Birthday Freebies, Hey It's Free!, and Happy Birthday Deals.

I can't wait for Bart's birthday in the spring. . .

What Would You Do With a Windfall? (Carole)

Many years ago I had a good friend.  She and I lived in the same small town and had children who were just the same ages.  We became exercise partners and often spent entire days at each other's apartments while our children played.  After a year or so, we were both on the verge of buying our first homes.  I was aware that before she was married she had been involved in two accidents and had received two different insurance settlements adding up to a whopping $50,000!  In my mind, they had it made, since we were scrimping and saving to get our own down payment together.

But one day she mentioned that they were going to have to borrow most of their down payment from her parents.  She was unbelievably embarrassed to do so, because now her parents would know that she and her husband had blown the entire amount!   I don't know how they spent all that money.  I do recall they had a ski boat and an old truck to pull it with and their kids had a lot of cool toys, but beyond that I couldn't see where it had all gone.

I've often thought of my friend during these past 25 years.  What COULD they have done with that much money that would have been smart?  In reality, the possibilities were endless, but here are three super frugal choices.

1.  Bury it in their backyard or put it in a safety deposit box.  In 5 years they would still have had their $50,000.

2.  Put it in the bank.  In the mid 1980's an average money market account earned 7.71% (these were the high interest Jimmy Carter years -- great if you had money to invest, horrible if you needed to borrow it) and at the end of five years they would have had over $73,000.

3.  Buy a house.  In the 1980's, $50,000 would have been a hefty down payment on a starter home.

What would you do if you suddenly found yourself with a large amount of money right now?

Saving Tips for Travel (Merrick)

As you know, this week's posts are about saving money while traveling. This subject was a little tough for me because we do most of our penny pinching at home and then do a bit of splurging for our vacations. But despite that, I was able to come up with three ways that we tend to save money on vacations:

1. Restaurant.com: I talked about this in an earlier post, and it sort of relates to Janssen's idea of planning where you eat. It does take a little foresight, planning where you'll be on a given evening during your vacation and choosing something that you hope you'll be in the mood for once your vacation arrives. But those problems aside, it's a great way to save tons of money and try out great restaurants. Especially if you join their email list and get notifications of their 80% off promotions. We've used this several times and have never been disappointed.

2. Rewards Programs: There are lots of travel websites that have rewards programs; the two that we most frequently use are Southwest and Hotels.com. As you probably know with Southwest, you get free flights as your flight points accumulate. With Hotels.com, you get a free night when you book 10 nights through their site. This presents a great opportunity to stay in a really nice hotel, or fly somewhere expensive. It pays to be a loyal customer.

3. Upgrade when you get there: For my husband, Philip, one of the most important things when we travel is the hotel room. However, booking a suite or room with a view is usually pretty expensive. We've found that if we book the cheapest hotel room online, we can upgrade once we get there. If the hotel isn't full, they will often do this for free or for only a few dollars more per night. A great way to save money and get the room you want.

We've said it before, but we'd love to hear more ideas of how you save when you travel!

Saving Tips for Travel (Janssen)

My husband and I both love to travel and come from families that have done a lot of traveling throughout our childhoods and adult lives, so travel has been something of a priority for us from the beginning.

But you also know that I am so ridiculously cheap (my husband would kindly say "frugal"), that I am determined to make our vacations cost as little as possible.

1. Fly Southwest. I wish I was getting paid to say this because I love some free plane tickets, but I'm not. I just really love Southwest. There is no charge to cancel your tickets (even up to the day of), which means you can book your tickets well in advance even if there is a possibility that you'll need to change your dates. When we were going to visit Kayla a few years ago for spring break and her husband suddenly came down with the flu, we canceled our tickets the night before and weren't out a dime.

Also, if the price of the tickets on your flight goes down after you've purchased them, you can get a refund of the difference either by calling in or doing it yourself online.

Not to mention that if they ask for volunteers to be bumped, Southwest offers more money than I've ever seen another airline offer (usually $200-$300 per person, plus the cost of your flight refunded). 

Flying Southwest saves me the stress of worrying that something will make us have to cancel our trip and then be out a lot of money or trying to time my purchase at exactly the right moment to get the best price.

2. Plan where you're going to eat. I am always open to changing my plans and going to a great little restaurant we're passing by, but I find few things as stressful as aimlessly searching for somewhere to eat that will be worth my food dollars. Instead, I do my research at home so that I k now where I want to eat in the areas we'll be in during meal times and know what the prices are. Then I'm not shocked by how much our dinners suddenly cost us.

3. Use Priceline to book a hotel. I've talked about Priceline before and how to bid for a hotel. Since hotels are usually one of the biggest expenses of a trip, saving $100 or more a night can really add up. You can stay in a nice hotel in a good area of town and not pay a fortune to do so. When my parents were here a few weeks ago, I got them a hotel on Priceline for $60 a night. At the front desk, they upgraded to a suite for $5 a night. A large daily breakfast was included. They were 8 minutes from my front door.

4. Stay with friends. This is the kind of thing I wouldn't have loved doing before I married my husband. When we went to San Francisco a few years ago, he suggested that I ask a friend from study abroad if we could stay with her and her husband for two nights (we were planning to stay in a hotel the other two nights downtown). Not only did this save us several hundred dollars, but staying with them ended up being perhaps the highlight of our trip - we loved getting to know them better, going to church with them, and enjoying a few meals together. We treated them to breakfast on morning we left (I still remember those pancakes with a watering mouth) and got them a gift certificate for a store in the city, but it was still considerably cheaper and far more fun to stay with them than in a hotel.

5. Ask someone local about discounts. If anyone had called me up in Boston prior to a trip, I would have told them about the library passes that make it free or significantly cheaper to get into local museums, aquariums, parks, and zoos and been happy to reserve them a few. Most cities have some sort of program for reduced pricing that you just might not know about. If you're a student, be sure to take along your ID so that you can take advantage of student admission at various places. Check if there are certain days or nights that are free or discounted. If you are willing to arrange your schedule around times that are less expensive, you can save yourself a considerable amount of money.

Saving Tips for Travel (Carole)

This week we're going to respond to the request by Diana Banana to tell our favorite tips for saving money while traveling.

First, I've already written about how we fly free with Southwest Airlines by using their credit card through our office.  That is probably the biggest money saver we've ever done.  Check it out and see if it could work for you.

Second, because we live in a big city (and it happens to be a vacation destination) we have often headed downtown to a local hotel for a couple of days -- this works especially well for anniversaries.  Saves us both time and gasoline.  It's kinda' fun to play tourist in your own hometown.  Also, we can usually get a deal on a hotel and many shows because we are locals.  I don't know if that translates to other states, but it would be worth checking into.  Nevada residents can save up to 50% on many shows and hotels.  We also use personal contacts to get reduced hotel room prices or free upgrades and free show tickets.  We've seen Blue Man Group, Lord of the Dance, Mystere, Celine Dion, Lance Burton, Hans Klok, Donny and Marie Osmond, and Penn and Teller all for free because we knew someone who works behind the scenes.  These people usually get a few free tickets every month -- if you ask, they can be yours.

Lastly, the most typical way we save money while traveling, is to eat lunch and dinner from the grocery store rather than at a restaurant.  We have a typical menu for both breakfast and lunch that includes cold cereal, milk, yogurt, bananas, sandwich fixings, chips, juice and cookies.  (All of the perishables are kept cold either in the hotel fridge or in a garbage can filled with ice kept covered in the tub.)  Saving the total cost of both breakfast and lunch each day makes going out for dinner not seem so expensive.  And since we could never be mistaken for "foodies," we tend to choose reasonable establishments for our late meals.

How do stretch your travel dollars??

Homemade Wipes (Guest Post By The Skinny Bovine)

I'm so honored to guest post on my very favorite frugal blog! Thanks, Merrick!

By way of introduction, I'm Britt of The Skinny Bovine's Kitchen, also previously next door neighbors to the Frugal Wives' whose blog we all love so much. I blog about eating healthy on a very tiny budget - hope you stop by! In addition to being food-frugal though, I'm pretty frugal with other things as well since after almost five years of marriage/school and 2 kids my husband is starting his first real job this month! I'm so thankful for what I've learned the past five years and it forever continues to shape my spending, so I'm always looking for other ways to save a buck.

Two of my aunts love and swear by homemade wipes (10 kids between them) and I learned and adapted this recipe from them. I love them because they are much cheaper and much less wasteful than normal wipes. Do you hate using an entire store bought wipe just to make sure baby's bum is clean after a pee-only diaper? No more! Just tear off a piece just big enough to do the job and viola! Clean bum, happy mom, money in your wallet.

Here are your rough directions. Adapt according to your liking!

Buy a Rubbermaid, Servin' Saver, 6 cup container. I know you can find them in a 3 pack (with 1 bigger and 1 smaller) but I haven't had much luck finding them by themselves. They are pretty much exactly the shape of 1/2 a roll of paper towels, with a rounded-edge square lid.

The paper towels that fit perfectly (once cut in half with a sharp knife) in them are the regular Bounty ones (not jumbo roll, I buy the 8 pack, makes 16 batches of wipes). I use 1/2 a wipe at a time. Though we recently discovered that the bigger roll Bounty towels that are separated into 1/2 size paper towels work great too if you just tear off a few of the paper towels before you cut them. Then they are already 1/2 sized and you don't have to tear them. (This is my husband's preference). My aunts swear by homemade wipes, but they also say that Bounty is the only brand that really works, so I haven't experimented much there.

To make them: stuff 1/2 a roll of paper towels into your tub. In a bowl, combine 1 1/4 cups water + 1 heaping Tb baby soap (I use the Wal-Mart brand Johnson & Johnsons copy). Pour over the top of the wipes. They probably need an hour to soak all the way through and then you can just pull out the cardboard in the middle and you're good to go.

Hope you love them as much as I do! Happy wiping!

Small Savings: Media Mail (Janssen)

I ship a lot of books - I sell some books on Amazon, I share books back and forth with a library school friend of mine in Illinois, and I find myself frequently sending books off to friends and family around the country.

Shipping can be heinously expensive and the post office, to my knowledge, doesn't give out coupon codes, so it's rather hard to save much money there.

However, I've discovered that most people don't know about the existence of media mail.

If you're shipping something that is "media" (this includes books, CDs, DVDs, musical scores, etc), you can send it for practically nothing - far less expensive than first class.

In fact, when we moved recently, we packed up all our books, CDs, and movies and shipped them this way because you can send a 50 lb box for $21. That is a good deal.

And when I'm only sending one book? It's lovely that it only costs about $2.

The 10/50/40 System (Merrick)

As long as we're talking about teaching finances to your children, let me tell you a little about what my parents taught me. From several of your comments, it sounds like your parents taught you similarly.

We did the 10/50/40 system:

10% to church tithing
50% into savings
40% for personal spending

Every dollar from babysitting, working at Dad's office, and lemonade stands was divvied up this way.

It's not quite as cut and dry anymore, but as adults, we still try to think in the same way. For us, 10% tithing always comes first, and after that we pay all our bills. Once that is done, I have budgets for groceries and gas, and then try to save 100% of the remaining money. Obviously that doesn't always happen, but that's the goal.

Although I no longer follow the 10/50/40 system meticulously, I fully intend to pass along this system to my children. I think it's a great and very simple way to help your children understand the importance of saving. Especially because that college savings fund could easily be blown on candy if you don't teach them how to save.

What are your saving/spending systems, and what you do currently (or plan to) teach your children?

What I Wish I'd Known (Janssen)

I think my parents did an excellent job teaching me about money and finances growing up, but there are two categories where I felt like I didn't have any frame of reference until I was well into my college career.

1) I had no idea what a reasonable adult job paid. Was $100,000 a year a lot? A little? Could you live a decent life on $15,000 a year? And what kinds of jobs paid good salaries? I mean, I assumed a doctor or a lawyer made pretty good money and a teacher made less, but I didn't know HOW much less or how much was "pretty good money."

2) How much did a house cost? I had no idea until a few years ago what either of the houses we lived in growing up cost or how they related, percentage wise, to my parents' income. I remember seeing signs for neighborhoods that said things like "Houses starting in the $250s" and thinking "well, that can't be two hundred and fifty dollars, but it certainly can't be two hundred and fifty THOUSAND could it?" I was just completely clueless.

What financial information do you wish someone had shared with you?