Gifts That Make a Difference (Carole)

You'll remember a couple of weeks ago, I wrote about being able to spend your money on fun adventures occasionally, because you are usually frugal.

Well, right now I'm writing this post in the beautiful country of Honduras.  My husband, 14 year old son and I have been blessed to be part of a group of 100 doctors and dentists and their older children who have provided medical care and dental work for about 450 young men and women who could never afford it otherwise.  It has been a life-changing experience for all of us.  This is another reason to be frugal: so you can help others.  Possibly it's the best reason.

We've talked about being part of a group like this for over 20 years, and finally were able to make it a reality.  I hope one day each of you has an experience like this in your lives.  This has been a Thanksgiving we will never forget.  In fact, we hope to participate again next year.

It's been a busy 10 days of wonderful service where we truly received more than we gave.  In that same mode, I'm sharing a great post from Get Rich Slowly of truly thoughtful and helpful (and frugal) gifts that can be given during the holiday season.

I hope you enjoy these ideas as much as I did.   

Christmas Gifts That Make a Difference

Grandma probably doesn’t want another scented candle, but she could very well use a ride to the store. Your underemployed nephew would likely prefer a little help filling the pantry instead of a jokey T-shirt. And the sister who’s staying home with her kids may not be able to afford any extras just now. Instead of dropping $40 on a sweater, why not put that money toward a membership to the local museum?

You’ve still got a few weeks to think about Christmas gifts. Make this the year when you pick presents that actually help. I’ve put together a list of items that save the recipient money or fill a specific need. Prices range from as little as $5 to upwards of $50 or more — and some of the suggestions will cost you little except time. . .Read The Article Here

Budgeting Software Giveaway (Carole)

With the holidays just around the corner, we thought it would be fun to have a week full of giveaways!

Today's giveaway is Dave Ramsey's Personal Finance Software, version 5.4.1  -- It appears to work exclusively on a PC, so if you win our random drawing and own a Mac, we'll choose something else for your prize.

On to the topic for the day. . .

Did you know that the average American family spends $935 on Christmas gifts each year?  Considering most families have no savings and live on the very edge of their monthly incomes, this amount typically gets charged to a credit card.  Of course, we frugal folks hate even the idea of putting nearly $1000 on a credit card at the end of each year.  What a terrible way to ring in the new year!


To help us all escape this terrible fate, please take a moment to share with everyone how you and yours keep to your budget through the highly commercialized holiday season.   Even though many of us are frugal, frugal, frugal, we are more than happy to learn a new trick or two.  In fact, it's the reason we love this blog!!

Price Matching (Janssen)

Every week my mailbox is full of fliers from the various grocery stores and drugstores in my area, each proclaiming multiple items on huge sale (these are loss leaders, intended to lure you into the store where, hopefully, you will then buy a lot of non-sale items).

You could spend a lot of time driving around to each different store or you can ask one store to price match. If your store does price match, you can simply show them the mailer or ad and they'll give you the same product for the sale price.

All your shopping, with the best sales, in one store. Hard to argue with that.

Wal-Mart is particularly well known for price matching. I must admit that I cannot deal with shopping at Wal-Mart (invariably, I end up wishing to tear out my hair when there is only a single cashier for an entire Super Wal-Mart or I cannot find the products I want or the parking is horrendous), but it almost certainly would be the very cheapest way for me to do my grocery shopping as they would price match the sales from all three of the other local grocery stores in my area.

Other big chains that price match include Target, Staples, Best Buy, Toys R Us, Circuit City, Lowe's, Sears, and Office Max. It's particularly handy if specials are going on at stores that are not particularly close to you - you can save yourself money AND gas.  

And this isn't just for groceries or school supplies. When we bought our mattress a few weeks ago, the store price matched a mattress from a competitor, which brought the price down $150. Not to mention free delivery. 

Oh, I love price matching.

Eating On a Dollar A Day (Carole & Janssen)

I'm out in Boston with Janssen and her sweet new baby.  Plus her little family is days away from a move across the country.  We're a bit busy, to say the least!  So, rather than writing a post today, we're sharing a very interesting Time Magazine article, and the accompanying  blog, about 2 people who are feeding themselves on $1 per day.  Maybe a bit extreme, but it will get you thinking about your own food budget in a whole new way!

You'll quickly notice that they eat vegan.  

Time Magazine Article
http://www.dollaradaybook.com/blog 


Hope you're having a happy, happy day!!

Are You an Underbuyer or an Overbuyer? (Carole)

Currently, I'm reading  The Happiness Project by Gretchen Rubin.  Have any of you read it?  Read it if you get a chance.  It will make you laugh -- and think.

Even though Gretchen is a Yale trained lawyer (whoa!), she is also a pretty ordinary wife with two little girls.  One day she came to the realization that even though "the days were long -- the years were short" and she was not really enjoying her daily life as much as she thought she should!  You too??   After tons and tons of some pretty highbrow (and some lowbrow) reading, she embarked on a year-long "project" to find more happiness in her daily life.  I won't give away her many many insights (told in a very readable style), but I will share one interesting concept relating to money that you might find useful from Chapter 7.   Here's what she has to say, When I began to pay attention to people's relationship to money, I recognized two different approaches to buying: 'underbuying' and 'overbuying.'  I am an underbuyer, I delay making purchases or buy as little as possible. . .I often consider buying an item, then decide, 'I'll get this some other time' or  'Maybe we don't really need this.'  As an underbuyer, I often feel stressed because I don't have the things I need.  I make a lot of late-night runs to the drugstore.  I'm surrounded with things that are shabby, don't really work, or aren't exactly suitable.  


She goes on to say, I gaze in wonder at the antics of my overbuyer friends.  Overbuyers often lay in huge supplies of slow-use things like shampoo or cough medicine.  They make a lot of purchases before they go on a trip or celebrate a holiday.  They throw things away -- milk, medicine, even cans of soup -- because they've hit their expiration date.  Like me, overbuyers feel stressed.  They're oppressed by the . . . the clutter and waste often created by their overbuying.


Gretchen eventually recognizes that there must be a happy medium and that it probably lives more in the camp of the Overbuyer:  I knew that I'd be happier if I made a mindful effort to thwart my underbuying impulse and instead worked to buy what I needed.  For instance, I ended my just-in-time policy for restocking toilet paper. . .As Samuel Johnson remarked, 'To live in perpetual want of little things is a state, not indeed of torture, but of constant vexation. . . I realized that the paradoxical consequence of being an underbuyer was that I had to shop MORE OFTEN, while buying extras meant fewer trips to the cash register.  I bought batteries, Band-Aids, lightbulbs, diapers -- things I knew we would need eventually.  


Do you recognize yourself in any of this??  Are you an Overbuyer or an Underbuyer??  I have been a life-long sad, sniveling underbuyer -- just ask my girls.  Constantly out of vacuum bags, light bulbs, tooth paste, pepperoni, chocolate chips (well, I might be short of this last one for a very different reason than not buying them).  And the list goes on and on.  On the other hand, living in a galaxy far far away, I have a lovely friend who is a very wise Overbuyer.  She keeps an entire box of  paper (filled with a dozen reams!) nestled safely near her printer.  She purchases charming birthday cards 20-30 at a time and even has ten spare deodorants in her bathroom closet!  She is prepared, prepared, prepared -- and smells good too!  I've always wanted to be like her, but could never quite figure out before what the difference was between us.  Mystery solved.

I'd love to hear how you buy and if it really makes you happy.