I got tired of seeing my grocery bill go up so I decided to consult the experts on what to do. I consider the Tightwad Twins to be experts in frugal living. The twins were cheapskate before having frugal ideas became fashionable. Who am I kidding, being frugal is now a neccesity for all of us. So I consulted the twin’s book Saving Money with the Tightwad Twins: More Than 1000 Practical Tips for Women on a Budget by Ann Fox and Susan Fox. The twins have some very cheap fast recipes. Also eating at home is much cheaper than eating out. Some of these recipes call for a crockpot. You can purchase a good size one for about $20.00. Crockpots are great timesavers.

Vegatable soup - Dump leftover steak or hamburger meat into a crock-pot with 1 can of tomato juice, 2 cans mixed or frozen vegatables, leftover potatoes or 2 cans sliced pototatoes. Cook on low all day.

Easy Potato Soup - Dump canned whole or sliced potatoes in the crock-pot add any cream soup cook on low all day. Add salt too taste.

Homemade chicken noodle Soup - Dump cans of inexpensive chicken noodle soup with cans of chicken in a large pot on the stove. Cook on the stove on low until hot or this can be done in the crock pot on low all day.

I can tell you from personal experience that the cheapest soup, cheapest cut of meat or cheapest indgredients will taste so much better if cooked over a low heat for several hours. It really is amazing what slow cooking can do for cheap ingredients. 

 More cheap, easy recipes next post. Also visit The Frugal Pig and get a great cheap recipe for spaghetti to feed a crowd.

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Tank-less water heaters work on demand - they only heat water when necessary. When a hot water fixture is opened or hot water is required by an appliance, the heater will sense the demand and heat water accordingly. Tank-less water heaters continuously heat the water through a heat exchanger. Instead of wasting energy and money reheating and storing water when it is not needed, tank-less water heaters provide only as much hot water as needed.

Statistics indicate that a water-heater uses approximately 25 percent of all energy consumed by any household. A tank-less water heater may allow a home to use up to 50 percent less energy for heating water. This could save the homeowner signficant dollars. Tank-less water heaters also take up a lot less space than conventional water heaters.

Additionally, tank-less water heaters can last up to 20 years or more which two to three times longer than the conventional water heaters. You also have the comfort of knowing you will never run out of hot water.

According to industry statistics if every conventional water heater were replaced with a tank-less water heater we could save over 290 million gallons of fuel oil per year, 164 million gallons of propane or 6 billion hours of kilowatt electricity.

Tank-less water heaters are more energy efficient which reduces carbon-dioxide emissions. Less carbon-dioxide emissions  reduces green house gases and global warming.

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Have you ever gathered up all your used books and taken them to the used bookstore only to find that they are only worth about $3.00? Well, guess what there is another way to get value from your used books.  I just read about this trading post on the Web for book lovers.

Here is the story. Dianne Denton used to cart stacks of used books to her local book exchange in Chicago, where she only got some loose change for all that work. Her frustration inspired her to launch Novel Action, an online clearinghouse where memebers can send their old books and receive an equal number of used books in return. Or they can bank their “book bucks” for later.

Memebership costs $25.00 a year and customers pay a $4.80 flat-rate shipping charge for up to six pounds of books. The site has a virtual scale on which users can weigh books in their shopping cart. You can keep the books forever if you want or you can trade them back for new ones.

Your books have to be in good condition and can be really outdated. One user said they figured their average cost was about $1.50 per book. If you have been to a used bookstore lately you know you can’t find many books for that price plus with online book exchange you don’t waste any gas driving back and forth.

Here are some more book swapping sites:

www.novelaction.com

www.paperbackswap.com

www.titletrader.com (books, movies and CDs)

www.bookins.com (books and DVDs)

If you are a college student and need to sell back books at the end of the year, there is a better option than selling them back to the school bookstore. Sellbackbooks.com makes it simple, fast and profitable for you to sell books. You don’t want to be stuck with old textbooks on your shelf that you are never going to open again, so get rid of them! SellBackBooks.com makes it easy to sell used college books online for more money than your campus bookstore will pay! You simply enter the books ISBN, click search to see their offer and if you decide to sell to them - they pay the shipping. Couldn’t be easier.

 

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Home Protection

As the economy worsens the crime rate begins to rise. Make sure your home is protected. If you can’t afford an alarm system there are still plenty of things you can do to keep your house safe. Here are some suggestions from our local sheriff’s department:

When traveling,keep your home looking lived-in-by having grass cut, mail and newspapers picked up, and lights turned on and off. Your can purchase inexpensive timers at the hardware store to turn lights on and off. Also, let your neighbors know you are going out of town and your constable, if your subdivision has one that patrols the neighborhood.

All exterior doors of a home should be of metal or solid wood and equipped with a deadbolt door locks with a minimum of a 1-inch throw and a heavy duty strike plate secured with 12-gauge, 3 inch screws.

Install a secondary locking device (window locks) on all windows, which come latches not locks. We have these devices on all our windows and again you can buy them cheap at the hardware store.

Secure gates on fenced yards with padlocks.

Remove all valuables from vehicles and lock doors after exiting.

Install motion sensor lights around your doors so you are not standing in the dark trying to unlock your door.

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Travel For Cheap

As a columnist in our local paper so aptly put “Needing a vacation is not the same as being able to afford one.” So how do you make it affordable. She always has really good tips so here are some of her suggestions with  many cheap travel sites included:

Cheap air travel -Check low-fare airfare sites on a regular basis - Try www.airfarewatchdog.com, www.insideflyer.com, www.seatguru.com.

Be flexible with travel dates if you want to travel cheap so you can take advantage of lower prices for leaving midweek and returning on a Monday or Tuesday.

For auto travel consult AAA’s fuelcostcalculater.com to get an estimated fuel cost for your trip based on the distance you are traveling and the make, model and year of your vehicle. Then you can locate cheap gas by ZIP code at GasBuddy.com

Go to the cheap places - You can actually get a pretty good idea of what you will spend on daily basis by going to www.gsa.gov and looking at per diem rates. If you are going overseas check with U.S. State Department’s Office of Allowances  at www.aoprals.state.gov. For instance, the rate for Washington D.C., between July 1 and Aug. 31 is $64.00 per day for meals and incidentals and $154.00 for hotel before taxes. While the rate for Buenos Aires, the so called Paris of South America has a per day for meals of $81.00 and a lodging rate of $182.00.

Search for discounts on hotel rates - Use www.orbitz.com, www.travelocity.com, www.expedia.com, www.hotwire.com and www.travelzoo.com as well as web sites of hotel chains.

Save on souveniers - Either promise yourself to only buy souveniers for the people on the trip OR buy souveniers and wait until the intended receipient has a birthday or it is a holiday. Someone did this for my daughter and she was thrilled to receive a gift from a foreign country.

Research events in the area you plan to visit - Newspapers in the areas you are planning to visit should maintain a web site listing events (both FREE and $). This will help you develop your entertainment budget.

Finally and I think this is best advice of the whole column, be flexible and spontaneous during your vacation. If everyone is too tired to do another walking tour - let them rest. There is nothing worse than coming back from vacation exhausted. That truly is a waste of money.

See our post Cheap Travel International

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If you want to retire early it is critical that your finances are organized. Effective management of your finances is only possible if you know exactly what you’ve got and how it is performing. One of the frequently asked questions when it comes to organizing your financial paperwork - is what to keep and what to throw away. So here is some good advice from  of Simple Things You Can Do To Improve Your Finances by Ilyce R. Glink.

1. Federal and State Tax Returns - Currently, the IRS may audit you three to six years after you have filed. They can only ask for receipts six years back but if they believe you intentionally hid income or filed a fradulent return, there is not statute of limitations. Glink recommends keeping all tax returns with back up information. If you don’t like Glink’s advice, consult your accountant and ask about a “document retention schedule.”

2.  Investment information - The three things you need to know about your investments are: how much you paid for them, how much you sold them for and what was the annual rate of return while you held them. When you buy or sell an investment, you will recieve something called a confirmation statement - keep this, you will need it later. You also need to keep dividend statements for stocks and mutual funds.

3. Retirement account records and pay check stubs - If you have been making contributions to an IRA these are the records you need to keep until you have withdrawn all funds from the account so that you can prove the amount of the non-taxable portion: Forms 1040, 8606, 1099R, and 5498 for each year that you made a contribution to the IRA (according to the current tax law). Keep pay check stubs until you recieve your W-2 form for the year. This will give you an opportunity to check for errors.

4.  Insurance policies - Keep the original insurance policy and signed contract for as long as you have the policy. Once the insurance is cancelled wait 2 years and then throw away the papers.

5. Trust and other estate planning documents - Keep trust documents and back up documentation as long as the accounts are active.

6. Medical Records - If you don’t have enough medical expenses to deduct  anything from your tax return, you can throw them away after you file the return. If you do claim a medical deduction keep them filed with the tax return as supporting documentation. Also if you have an ongoing medical condition or situation hang on to your records.

7. Credit Card receipts and statements - After you receive your monthly statement, you can throw away your receipts for that month’s purchases UNLESS you are in dispute with the store about the item, may want to return the item or have purchased a warrantly regarding the item.

8. Household Bills and Receipts - Glink says after you record your general household bills you can throw them away except for those for child care and tuition because these might help you qualify for a tax deduction. If you qualify for a deduction keep these receipts with your tax records.

9. Cancelled checks, ATM Receipts, bank statements - Keep copies of your account statements going back six years or possibly forever, Glink says. Again, check with your accountant regarding what their document retention schedule says if you can stand keeping all that paper. Cancelled checks can be discarded after one year unless they relate to tax deductions or capital improvements.

10. Mortgage, home equity loan, second mortgage and property tax records - Mortgage companies will send you a statement listing  the amount of interest you paid that year, and the real estate and insurance premiums paid by the company on your behalf, if they escrow your tax and insurance payments. You need that statement and your property tax bills for income tax preparation. Keep these documents with your tax records for that year.

11. Home purchase/sale and capital improvements - Hold onto these records forever as you may be required to prove at some time how you calculated your profits.

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Are You One of The Hundred Million?

Let me tell you that neglecting a bit of dental care now can add up to big dental expenses in the future! You do not want to sacrifice your health, or possibly suffer pain later, because you cannot find accessible routine dental care now. But over 100 million Americans lack dental coverage, and this stastistic does not get as much press as the equally horrible fact that almost fifty million Americans lack health coverage.

Dental Access

You may look for dental insurance, but premiums are substantial and these plans often come with yearly limits and high deductibles and/or copays for major work. Discount Dental Benefit Programs are more affordable. The have one feature of many dental PPOS, in that they have a network. Sometimes large health or dental insurance companies offer these discount plans as a way to help consumers, who do not have dental insurance, keep costs down. They use these networks to keep their own costs down, and so all charges for procedures are negotiated at a group discount, sometimes as much as 60%!

Discount Dental vs. Dental Insurance

A discount dental plan will not pay your bill, but it will make it easier for you to pay it! Some plans include routine dental care at very reduced rates, or even for free, to keep future costs down and attract new members. You can also find discount work on cosmetic dental, orthodontics, dentures, and other services that many dental insurance policies do not cover.

FIND DISCOUNT DENTAL ONLINE

You can search for a dental discount program right away, by using your zip code. Get a price quote and find available dentists before you enter any personal information! Then if you find a program you like, you can even sign up online!

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If your planning to retire early then you are most likely going to need to really pay close attention to your finances. Here is a tip from the book “50 Simple Things You Can Do To Improve Your Personal Finances.” One way to help get your finances in order is to get them organized in one place. You may want to even purchase a few inexpensive file boxes or a cheap file cabinet. Put everything related to your bank accounts, mutual funds, stocks and bonds and 401K into these file boxes. 

Once you have seen everything you have you can began to organize your actual finances not just the paper they are printed on. The author suggests having one bank for all savings and checking accounts and having one mutual fund company or brokerage firm to manage your investments.

For more information on Early Retirement visit us at Fasthowto.com

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You shop very carefully for all your food and make sure you get the best price. When something doesn’t get eaten and starts to go stale it can really be distressing. But here is a frugal grocery shopping tip - sometimes recipes actually call for stale ingredients. I was first introducted to Bread Pudding when I moved to the south to go to college. Bread Pudding is  a delicous dessert that actually calls for stale bread. Here is a recipe suggestion on how to make bread pudding. This recipe for bread pudding is adapted from The Kosher Creole Cookbook by Mildred L. Covert and Sylvia P. Gerson.

Confederate Bread Pudding

6 to 8 slices stale bread

2 eggs

1/4 cup sugar

1/2 cup raisin

1 pint half and half

1 pint water

1/2 teaspoon cinnamon

1 teaspoon lemon extract

1 cup slightly salted water

Dip slices of stale bread in salted water until soft. Drain and place in a bowl, adding well beaten eggs, sugar and raisins.

Scald half and half combined with water, add cinnamon and lemon extract and blend. Pour over bread and fill greased pudding dish with mixture.

Set in a pan of hot water and bake in 350 degree oven for 45 minutes. Serves 6

The cookbook includes an additonal recipe for the bread pudding topping. Here is the adapted recipe for bread pudding topping.

Honey Sauce

1/3  cup butter

3 egg yolks

1 tablespoon honey

1 cup sugar

1/3 cup boiling water

Cream butter and sugar. Add slightly beaten egg yolks and water and cook over very low flame until mixture thickens. Remove from flame and add honey. Serve over bread pudding. Makes 1/2 cup.

Other uses for stale bread:

Use for french toast (you can freeze the bread and take it out later when you want to make french toast). I just beat a few eggs and about a quarter cup of milk (or half and half) and soak the bread. Then just put a little butter in the pan and fry the bread in it. Top with powdered sugar and syrup.

Use for bread crumbs - (you can freeze it and make the crumbs at a later time) tear bread into smaller pieces and process in food processor until you have the desired size bread crumbs

Use for homemade croutons - Butter or put olive oil  mixed with herbs on bread slices, cut into cubes and bake in a 350 degree oven until dry and crisp (about 45 minutes) Let cool and store in an airtight container. Use within a week or freeze up to six months.

Use to feed the birds as Mary Poppins says.

Also visit us at Fasthowto.com and find out how to Make Quick Homemade Pizza

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Is Your Grocery Bill Stressing You Out?

My grocery bill has gone from yellow alert to downright alarming. It is more and more challenging to stick to a limited budget while trying to feed a family health food.

Coupons?

The old advice of clipping coupons can be useful if you can find coupons for the things you would buy anyway. That’s always been my problem with the coupon clipping strategy. Coupons tend to be for processed foods, and not the healthy fresh food I like to base my meals on. Oh, I am not above putting a bag of chips or a frozen pizza in my basket, but that is not all I want to buy!

Shopping Sales

The strategy of looking for the food that is on sale tends to work out better, and that has been demonstrated by people testing it. Now I am not the type to drive to several different stores to find the best prices, because that just takes too much time, and hey… time is money too! But you can plan your meals around the specials at the store you always visit anyway.

For instance I found low fat ground beef for sale at my local store. It was in a big pack with enough for 3 family meals. But the solution was to take it home, and then split it out into 3 freezer bags. That way, I had the ground beef for spaghetti, tacos, and burgers. Because of this special, I was able to provide 3 healthy and pleasant meals for my family of 4 people, and I did it for under $10 a meal.

We got some of the ideas for this post from these articles: Frugal Grocery Shopping on FrugalPig.com.

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