Comments on: No Time for Frugality: Cutting Financial Corners with No Time Investment

By: Chris B

Chris B — Tue, 04 Aug 2009 02:20:29 +0000

Yes, people are usually lazy when it comes to getting involved with smarter spending. Re: Eating Healthy — it’s often more expensive to eat a healthy meal in the short-term (i.e. I can feed my family a lot cheaper at McDonald’s than if I fed them the good stuff). However, like air-sealing your home, the up-front cost outweighs the long-term term medical bills (just looking for the link….)

By: Frugal Vet Tech

Frugal Vet Tech — Sun, 06 Jul 2008 20:47:31 +0000

The one struggle I have is with the television subscription. My husband is adament about ESPN and Fox News. I would like to do away with the 85.00 a month television billing but my husband does not budge. Any suggestions? Nancy

@Nancy (#12): Is there a fewer-channel package you can get and then “add-on” ESPN & Fox News? Or perhaps you could call the cable company (and competing cable companies) and see if there’s some way they could give you just those two channels. If that doesn’t work, you may just have to spend the money every month. There are things I’d like to spend less money on each month but Husband doesn’t want to. Sometimes it’s just not worth the fight (provided spending that extra money every month doesn’t make you unable to pay things like your mortgage or rent). Good luck!

By: Sherry

Sherry — Tue, 01 Jul 2008 17:24:48 +0000

I used bill pay for almost a year, at a cost of $7/month. I sat down and figured out which bills I was actually paying with it and then cancelled the bill pay. I realized that I drive by my utilities, cable/internet and cell phone places every day and could easily drop off my bills at their outside collection boxes (don’t even need to leave the car). The other bills I was using the account for had auto-pay option available for free so I signed up and added a recurring reminder to my email account so that I would remember to subtract that amount from my checking account. Sure this only saves me $84/year, but that’s my heat bill for a month. My point is, take a look at what you’re paying for the service and determine if it’s worth the convenience.

By: Lenore

Lenore — Tue, 01 Jul 2008 11:16:10 +0000

Great article, Trent. I’d love to see a list of fun and frugal “retail therapy” alternatives. I’ve come a long way in battling shopping addiction, but it still seems like most ideas for getting out of the house entail some kind of purchase or exposure to tempting merchandise. Staying home to save gas and money is fine most of the time, but I feel like life will pass me by if I don’t get out more. I know I was able to find plenty of cheap thrills in my teen and college years, but I seem to have unlearned how to entertain myself. Maybe you could ask your readers how they amuse themselves for free or very little cash. You’ve mentioned playing bridge before, and that’s something I never would have thought about. What other things do you do alone or with friends that cost next to nothing?

By: Macinac

Macinac — Tue, 01 Jul 2008 04:48:39 +0000

Don’t air condition. My house has none. When it gets too hot we sleep in the basement. Once this is set up there is no extra time needed. At bedtime we just go to a different room from the usual one.

By: TJ

TJ — Mon, 30 Jun 2008 20:40:06 +0000

On the thermostat I have a question. My husband’s friends work at in the heating and airconditioning business. They say not to have too big of a gap with your program, or your furnace or AC will use more power working really hard to cool down or heat up when you want. So we’ve tried to keep it within 6 degrees. I’d really love to know if anyone has some good data on the savings. (If someone does, my email is on my blog, I’d love to hear from you.)

By: Debbie

Debbie — Mon, 30 Jun 2008 16:07:03 +0000

I call my library’s website, my personal Amazon.com! When I see a book, I would like to read, I check the library website and order it and have it sent to the library nearest my home.
I also get large print books for a woman I visit in a nursing home.
I have also discovered their books on CD collection.

I do make donations to the library’s new building fund as I feel I save so much by not buying books.

By: Nancy

Nancy — Mon, 30 Jun 2008 15:16:23 +0000

Scott Page – try the Leanne Ely’s Saving Dinner.com website for recipes and plans for freezing meals.

By: kevin

kevin — Mon, 30 Jun 2008 14:50:24 +0000

What? No mention of CFL’s? :)

By: Steven

Steven — Mon, 30 Jun 2008 12:26:58 +0000

I removed TV from my life about 10 years ago and have no regrets. Not only have I saved money on not having a cable bill, I have been able to put that time to better use – like reading, for instance.

I just read if you watch 2 hours of TV a night starting at the age of 21, and living to age 78, you have watched TV for 24 hours per day, 7 days per week, for 4 years and 9 months of your life.

Time is too precious to waste it.

By: K

Mon, 30 Jun 2008 12:12:02 +0000

Neal,

Check out this site:
http://finance.yahoo.com/family-home/article/105319/Cut-the-Cable-With-Cheap-Digital-TV-Boxes

Digital TV boxes connect in between your TV and your antenna and get all major networks plus a few additional channels. They cost between $50-$60, but you can go to http://www.dtv2009.gov to get a $40 coupon (up to 2 per person). The picture is excellent. We get 8 channels right now. You may get more or less depending on where you are, but keep in mind that the stations don’t have to broadcast full power until Feb 17, 2009, so if you try now and don’t get too many, you may want to try again later.

If you have a newer TV, the digital tuner is built in so you don’t need a separate device. Also, many DVD recorders have them built in as well.

By: David

David — Mon, 30 Jun 2008 09:36:27 +0000

In an otherwise lowfat diet (say 10% calories from fat), is there a particular reason that skim milk is healthier?

By: Scott Page

Scott Page — Mon, 30 Jun 2008 03:33:53 +0000

I seriously love this website, its one of the few blogs I read regularly.

Does anyone have a good site where you can get recipes for meals that can be frozen? I have started making all my lunches the sunday before and then freezing them. Some of things I have made (fried rice, spaghetti) turn out well, but some other dishes just taste horrible after being reheated.

By: jason

jason — Mon, 30 Jun 2008 01:25:17 +0000

I have used T-Mobile pay as you go for a couple of years–if you buy a 1000 minute card it works out to 10 cents a minute. It seems the best of the plans because they don’t have daily fees or anything (although they do charge a minimum of 2 minutes per call). I hate talking on the phone, so I only spent about 3000 minutes a year, ~25 bucks a month. The problem with pay as you go is when you are stuck on hold or in customer service limbo, your minutes are burning up.

I recently bought a Cisco cordless internet phone for about 30 bucks and a one year skype-out plan for a little over 20. Now I can make all the outgoing calls I want from my house without incurring any additional costs. This will drop my cell phone minutes down to 1000 a year or so (they expire after a year anyways). So far, I’m very happy with the setup–except I have to fire up my computer if I want to make a call, and incoming calls still go through my cell phone. I usually have my computer turned off on a power strip to avoid phantom load.

As far as internet goes, I have cable internet only, and re-negotiated my contract down to 30 bucks a month (from 55)for a year by telling them that I was planning on switching to DSL. I use a roof mount antenna and get all of the over the air channels for free in high def. This probably wouldn’t work for rural folks though.

By: Paul

Paul — Mon, 30 Jun 2008 00:41:39 +0000

I have one to add.

Drop your cell phone when the contract comes up and get a pre-paid one instead. If you don’t use that many minutes anyway, it’s way cheaper. I pay $39.99 for 400 minutes and the phone I have doubles that automatically for me (it was a free bounus feature when I bought the phone)which gives me 800 minutes for $40. That lasts me around 6-8 months. Far better than what I was paying for Verizon ($50/month).

Also, rabbit ears and a digital convertor are not the same thing. If you wish to cancel your cable you will need a good set of rabbit ears (I have the amplified kind that plug into the wall) and in Feb. of 2009 you will also need the convertor box because tv stations are going to broadcast all digital signals. Some newer TV’s will not need a convertor. Check out http://www.dtv2009.gov for more info and to see if your tv needs a convertor box.

By: nuveena

nuveena — Sun, 29 Jun 2008 19:30:48 +0000

I must be an odd duck because I can wander around a store for entertainment’s sake and walk out the door empty handed.

I think one misconception people have about time spent being frugal is that it’s just that; and investment. Some of the frugal concepts I invested the time in a couple of months ago are now starting to pay off and I’m actually saving time (and money). Some things I thought would be time consuming actually were not and other things that did take a few minutes of my time to do, were worth the time I spent doing them.

I agree with Jules. I think people say they don’t have time to do something, they mean they don’t want to go through the trouble. of doing it.

By: Jenzer

Jenzer — Sun, 29 Jun 2008 18:18:09 +0000

Under “Eat a better diet,” I’d add “develop a new appreciation for simple, wholesome foods that require little or no prep time” — things like nonfat cottage cheese, hard-boiled eggs, hand-held fruit in season like apples, peaches, plums, etc.

Back when I commuted two hours a day, I’d often be crunched for time in the morning and would use that as an excuse to hit the McDonald’s drive-thru for an Egg McMuffin. Then one morning I timed how long it would take to put together a peanut butter and jelly sandwich on whole wheat bread to take with me on the road. PB&J: four minutes. McD’s: seven minutes. There went my excuse!

By: Sara

Sara — Sun, 29 Jun 2008 17:54:34 +0000

Yep, with the exception of couponing (which is time-consuming for the first few go-rounds) and comparison shopping (but if you’re being frugal are you really buying a whole heck of a lot?), being frugal is a time-saver in almost every case.

That’s one thing I love about frugality: it (sometimes) gives laziness a good name.

By: Nancy

Nancy — Sun, 29 Jun 2008 17:38:37 +0000

I remember when Amy author of TIGHTWAD GAZETTE(one on your recommended reading list) was featured in Parade Weekly introducing her newsletter – the insert that comes with the Sunday newspaper. Ever since then, I have been incorporating frugal practices.

By: Marisa

Marisa — Sun, 29 Jun 2008 16:57:09 +0000

Hey, Trent – What’s your recommendation for high-speed internet? I pay for a combined IP voice/ cable/ high-speed internet, but I HATE the company I have to use in this city. Their billing is always weird, they never manage to charge me correctly, and their customer service is terrible. I’d love to drop their cable package, but since I use their high-speed internet service, it’s easier just to use all three.

What’s your take?