My Frugal Year

I love free stuff. Free is my favorite four letter word So today is the day you can go to your local department store and take advantage of the latest cosmetics settlement. If you have one of these stores near you, you can go get one free product.
Bergdorf Goodman, Bergner’s, Bloomingdale’s, Boston Store, Carson Pirie Scott, Dillard’s, Gottschalks, Herberger’s, Macy’s, Neiman Marcus, Nordstrom, Parisian, Saks Fifth Avenue or Younkers. Go to the official settlement website to see what the deal is and find the list of available products. I just got back from Macy’s with my “My Insolence Eau de Toilette.” It’s quite delightful…and did I mention free? Go NOW…today, before they run out!

Didn’t spend anything today, so didn’t save anything technically. But not spending is saving in a way. Today’s focus is on the making of the money. I went to work and am working on updating some of my websites. I do have a lot of surveys in my inbox to do, so I’m sure I’ll earn a few dollars there. Currently I’m waiting on checks from a few survey companies. It’s sure great extra cash. Just spend the time you normally would messing around on the internet and do a few surveys. Next thing you know you have checks coming in and money being put in your PayPal account.

It’s a frugal dinner tonight, and one of my favorites – BREAKFAST! Fried egg sandwiches with bacon and cheese and hashbrowns. Yummmmmy!

And how can I let today pass without acknowledging the really important thing that happened today. We have a brand new President. It’s time to for the country to come together to support our new President in the fixing on what’s wrong with this country. We may not all agree on the best ways to do this, but I do believe we can all come together in prayer with good thoughts for President Obama and our great country. It’s an exciting day and I am looking forward to seeing how the growth of this country unfolds. God bless America!

My view at the Democratic National Convention

I love lazy Saturdays, don’t you? It didn’t start out lazy. There was an early board meeting for a non profit group I’m involved with, but the rest of the day was just hanging out with the family. I like days like that. We didn’t go out or do anything really. We were just all at home doing our thing. Reading, playing on the computer, watching a movie. It was nice.

No spending today, which is good since I made the Costco run the other day. Since today was a lazy day that means tomorrow needs to be a productive day. I plan to do some de-cluttering in the basement. It’s my plan to be nice and ready for a good weather weekend to come along and finally do this garage sale I’ve been meaning to do. Garage sales are a great way to get rid of stuff that’s just clogging up your home and to make some nice extra cash. Nice way to beef up the savings account! The only problem is that it’s January in Colorado. This means any given weekend there could be a blizzard or 70 degree weather. Makes it tough to plan. The best I can do is get everything organized with price labels and when the weather cooperates, throw a Craigslist ad up and a few signs and get it done.

So, we’ll see how much I actually get done tomorrow!

Some deals and coupons for today:

Betty Crocker Coupons

Nestle Toll House Coupon

Enter to Win $100 in Grocery Money – Carnation

$10 off at Old Navy – Expires 1/20/09

Being stuck at home will certainly put a damper on spending! My husband had to take the good car today. The “other” car…bless it’s little engine…doesn’t do snow. Seriously. I love my Subaru Forester. That thing gets through anything. The other car is a 1988 Mazda 323 that’s been hit by a garbage truck. It’s not pretty. But my goodness, it’s frugal. Hardly costs anything to run and insure. It’s just these pesky days when he needs the Subaru and it’s snowing, I’m stuck. Luckily I was able to do some work remotely and I have a very understanding boss.

So there’s a frugal topic for you – cars. They can be money-sucking beasts or they can be useful tools that can be used in a frugal manner. I suppose we could replace the old Mazda…but why? It runs. It gets us from point A to point B. It has great gas mileage and doesn’t need premium fuel. Our self-esteem isn’t wrapped up in how cool our vehicles look. Nope, we’re in no hurry to replace it. It’s a rare occurrence that it creates a transportation problem like it did today. 99% of the time, I could drop my husband off at work or the Light Rail station and go on my merry way. So it didn’t turn out to be a big deal. And I couldn’t do anything about the urge to shop.

I guess that’s a good day all around!

Snowy Day in Colorado

And here’s a happy freebie for ya! Get a coupon booklet with $27 in savings for cleaning products!

Again it was a no spending day. I think of this as a good thing. It usually means we’ve got everything we need, which we do for the moment. There will need to be some grocery shopping this week, but nothing major.

I spent the day hanging out with the kids, working on my homework and updating a few of my Squidoo lenses. If you haven’t heard of Squidoo, it’s a great site where you can make your own FREE single page sites on whatever topic strikes your fancy. I currently have 69 lenses. My favorites are on working from home, living frugally and I have a bunch on various Broadway topics. It’s a lot of fun, it’s free, and you can actually make money doing it. Check it out and make your own lens!

Have a terrific week!

Just $3.50 in parking again today. I resisted the urge to go to the thrift store just for the heck of it. There isn’t anything I truly need right at the moment, so it would have just been wasted time, gas and likely money on something I don’t really need. Probably saved myself at least $20 right there!

I did go through some of the clothes in the basement and sorted out what to donate and what to either garage sale or take to the consignment store. Speaking of consignment stores, have you heard about this new law regarding kids products and lead? Apparently it may have a very negative effect on resale of children’s items. From what I read in this article from the Wall Street Journal, it looks to be pretty bad for the resale industry. The new law is to take effect on February 10. Hopefully something will be done to make an exception for thrift stores. No way can they all afford to test every children’s item for lead. Stay tuned for more on this.

Another no spending day. I like these days. No savings, but nothing going out either. That’s a good thing! I will have to put gas in the car tomorrow. I’ll have to see where I can get it cheapest without driving too far. Doesn’t make sense to drive too far to save a few cents.

Does anyone have special plans for your savings this year? I want to have a good size emergency fund, but I also want to be able to get a scooter for my husband. With his job and parking situation, it would save us a couple hundred bucks a month in gas and parking. Have you considered a scooter or do you use one currently? I’d love to hear from you!

This was an easy day.  Didn’t shop, didn’t spend any money.

I just worked in the morning and spent the rest of the day hanging out with the family.  Got a little nap in too, which is always a treat.

Tomorrow I need to work on a grocery list and go through the coupons.  I got some coupons from Costco in the mail, plus the regular coupons from the paper (which I don’t pay for, by the way!)  It’s going to be a tight few months here.  Work is slow and it’s time for belt-tightening.  I’ve been digging into the pantry and my stocks of stuff are low, so I have to find the best deals I can.

Spent: $0

Saved:$0

Transferred to Savings: $0

Total Savings: $10.73