FBN Roundup- Unemployed Edition
My last day of work is tomorrow and then I’ll be unemployed. Law school resumes next week though so I won’t have too long of a break. Here are some of my favorite posts this week from the Frugal Blog Network and beyond.
“The Joy of Buying Properly” from Antishay Ventenne. She bought a new motorcycle and details how she bought it properly. I’ll probably be buying a new car next year and I’ll follow a similar process. Wait for a good deal and pay cash.
Frugal Babe tells us how she saved almost $70 by checking her receipt. This is something you should always do, especially when you’re making a large purchase.
Not Made of Money tells us how to “Make Money from Your Trash“. Simple and good advice for reducing your clutter and making a little money as well.
Almost Frugal launches a new blog Almost Frugal Food. Her new site is chock full of recipes and frugal food ideas.
In keeping with the frugal food theme I’d like to share the Frugal Recipe thread at WiseBread and a new ebook “Frugal Food & Fitness” from Squawkfox. Whether you’re on food stamps or just looking to stretch your food budget these are some great resources on how to eat healthy and cheap.
Lastly, I’ll toot my own horn and mention that I was included in a list of the Top 100 Simple Living Blogs at Organicasm. Although I don’t consider my blog a simple living blog I guess simple living is a side effect of my frugality.
How to See Movies Cheaply or Even Free
I love movies and watch a lot of them. Here is how I manage to do it on the cheap.
For DVDs I mainly use Redbox which I have posted about before. Now it is an even better deal. When you sign up for their SMS alert system they will send you a free promo code every Monday. This month they are also sending free promo codes on Wednesday. Since the codes are good for each credit card you have I sometimes rent two movies using different cards and then have one to watch on Monday and one to watch on Tuesday. As long as I remember to return them before 9pm the rentals are free. Luckily, I have a Redbox that is only a three-minute walk away. We also have a $5 Netflix subscription to allow us to watch movies that aren’t available on Redbox. Our cost per movie for Netflix and Redbox together is well under a dollar and even under 50 cents if we watch more movies than usual.
The other new thing I discovered this year is seeing movies cheaply by taking advantage of store promotions. I’ve been taking advantage of these all summer and I haven’t had to pay full price -full price means full matinee price,of course- for me and my GF’s movie tickets yet. An example is on this Slickdeals thread. If you buy 4 Axe body wash or spray at Walgreen’s you get 2 movie tickets free. The cost would be a little less than $7 making your movie tickets less than $3.50 each. And you get to use the product as well. I wouldn’t normally use Axe but I will to take advantage of this deal. If you can get a deal like this for a product you already use then it is like getting the movie tickets for free. I just go to Slickdeals once a week or so and do a search on the word “movie” to see what promos are available. I shouldn’t have to pay full price for a movie ticket for a long time.
Running a Marathon On the Cheap
Over at My Money Blog, Jonathan did a post about an Affordable Bucket List. One item on his list was running a marathon which he listed the cost of as being from free to $$$. Many commenters replied that running a marathon was very expensive and couldn’t be done cheaply much less for free. As I stated before in my post Keeping Hobbies Inexpensive people are taking something simple and making it more complicated and expensive than necessary.
I’ve run four marathons and haven’t spent a fortune to run them. Registration fees are usually the item I spend the most money on. You can easily save money on these by running in smaller races. An example close to me is the Heart of America marathon which has a $25 entry fee. You can use the Marathon Guide to find inexpensive marathons in your area. You can also often save money on race fees by registering early.
The next big expense is shoes. I usually spend only about $30 on my running shoes. Many people think you can’t possibly get quality shoes for that price but I disagree. I’ve run four marathons and have never had any knee, ankle, or feet problems despite being about twenty pounds overweight. The trick here is to buy shoes that were originally more expensive and have been marked down to about $30. When I lived in Nevada I bought my shoes at Big 5 Sporting Goods which usually had a good selection. I bought my last pair of shoes here in Kansas City at Off Broadway shoes. I try to purchase a brand that I’ve used before and had good results with such as New Balance. You can find New Balance shoes cheap online here. They had New Balance running shoes for under $30 when I checked this morning.
The last expense would be running apparel. You don’t really need to spend anything on this. You can run in an old pair of gym shorts and a t-shirt. Running shorts will be more comfortable though and help prevent chafing. My solution for cheap running shorts is to buy swim trunks when they go on clearance at the end of the season. This is what I’m currently using and they work fine and the cost was about $5.
Those are the only things you need to spend any money on to run a marathon. I’m not counting food since you have to eat anyway. There is no need to buy any gels or special foods. Since I’ve always been overweight when training for marathons I didn’t feel a need to buy any extra food at all. The key to running a marathon on the cheap is the same one to doing many things on the cheap-keep it simple.
FBN Roundup- Quit My Job Edition
I’ve only got one more week of work and then I’ll be officially jobless. One week after that law school starts, I won’t have lots of free time for long. Here are my favorite posts from the Frugal Blog Network and beyond this week.
“Give Linens a New Lease On Life” from Almost Frugal. This is a good idea and I might try it someday if my cheapness overcomes my laziness.
“In Defense of Expensive Shoes” from Antishay Ventenne. Sometimes better quality can be worth the extra expense. I don’t really see a need to have so many shoes though.
“A Hydroponic Garden” from Frugal Babe. I once knew a guy with a hydroponic garden, he didn’t use it grow spinach though. I might grow a garden of the non-hydroponic variety next year.
“Storing Your Financial Documents” from Not Made of Money. I seem to accumulate these things. It is good to know what I can get rid of.
“Class Warfare and The Simple Dollar” from The Simple Dollar. I’ve got some thoughts on this and I’ll post about it this week.
“How to Create Your Own Online Store” from Gather Little by Little. I’m looking to increase my online income and I’m probably going to try this out.
That is all for this week. Thanks again to everyone who commented after I was robbed and left suggestions for income ideas.
Brainstorming Income Ideas
Since I’m soon going to be unemployed I need to replace my job income. Towards that end I decided to brainstorm ten ways to make more money. These are the first ten ways I came up. Not all of them are good ideas but I just wanted to think of some ways to increase my income. I’d love to hear any ideas you have about making money also.
1. Get another job- This is the most obvious idea. It is going to be a fallback for now because I really want to make money from my own business and want to be free from any schedules.
2. Sell plasma- This could be done whenever I felt like it. I probably won’t do it though because there isn’t a collection center close to me and I think there are other things I could do that would have a better return.
3. Increase my blog income- This is easier said then done. Several things I could do to possibly increase my income are add adsense to this blog, add other affilliate programs, post more often, promote my blog, and change the design. There are many more things than that but that is a good start.
4. Launch more web sites- I won’t be launching any more blogs. I can barely keep the two I have updated. There are some other sites I want to launch. I have several domain names and have being doing research on PPC and keywords and such. I just need to get the sites launched.
5. Write articles for Associated Content- This isn’t a big moneymaker but I like to write and this would be a good place for articles that aren’t appropriate for my blogs. I can also publish and be paid for articles that I later make in to blog posts.
6. Other writing- I’m sure there are other places online that pay you for writing I just need to do some research and find out what they are. Also I could submit articles to offline publications.
7. Tutor- My LSAT score is high enough to qualify me to tutor but the one test prep company I applied to didn’t hire me. I’d prefer to do this on my own but am not sure how to go about it. I need to develop some tutoring skills. I have the knowledge but am not good at imparting it to a student.
8. Be a Guinea Pig- I’ve done many medical studies in the past and made good money from them. I need to call the local clinics and see if they have outpatient studies I could do while in school.
9. Surveys, Mystery Shopping, etc- I could also look to increase the little things I do for extra money now. This isn’t a very good option though because there are a limited amount of opportunities available and most of them don’t pay much for the time invested.
10. Sell stuff- I don’t own much but it would be helpul to sell a few things before I move at the end of September. What I really need to sell is the few hundred comic books I have in storage at my mom’s house. The vast majority of these books were bought at cover price or less and I got my value out of them when I read them. There really isn’t much point to keeping them now but I’ve delayed doing so out of laziness and a belief that I should be able to sell them for more than what they would fetch on Ebay. I need to research whether an Ebay store or some other way would be the best way to sell them.
Money Saving Ebook Saving from MoneySavingMom
I am a regular reader of MoneySavingMom and her advice has saved me money. This is as a bachelor that doesn’t spend much anyway. Those of you who have families could save a lot more. Her site is a valuable source of information on how to save money on groceries and other household purchases. She has gathered this information into several ebooks. Today only she is having a huge sale–over $100 worth of money-saving ebooks, homemaking helps, and encouragement for only $5.97. This ebook package includes the ecourse Supermarket Savings 101–this course alone is worth much more than $5.97 and will teach you how to drastically reduce your grocery bill. Click Here! to find out more about this huge sale. This price is going up tomorrow so get this money-saving ebook package at a ridiculously low price while you can.
Replacing a Lost or Stolen Phone Cheaply
When you need to replace a phone before your cell service contract is up the price for a new phone can be quite steep. As many of you pointed out Ebay is a great place to find a replacement phone and the price is much cheaper than buying one from the cell company. You just need to be sure that the phone you buy works on your cellular network. An even cheaper option is to find a friend or family member who has an old phone they no longer use and are willing to give to you. After a little asking around I found three different people with old Sprint phone they were willing to give to me. My new phone is an older model but it gets the job done and the price was right. It will get me through to the end of my contract and I can get a new phone for cheap then if I want to do so. With all the cheap phones available I can’t recommend getting the phone replacement plan the cellular companies sell unless you have an expensive phone and are unwilling to downgrade to a cheaper model if your phone is lost or stolen before the end of your contract. Even if your phone isn’t lost or stolen you might want to take advantage of a used phone online to upgrade from your current phone.
I found the activation process to be very easy. My experience was with Sprint but I would think other companies would have a similar process. I just called customer service and read them the ESN off the back of the phone and my phone was activated within a few minutes. You can also activate your phone online. Sprint has a step-by-step tutorial with pictures on how to activate a new phone. If you can follow simple directions you shouldn’t have any problem activating your phone online. The process is so easy I’m considering buying a fancier used phone and upgrading before my contract is up.
New Frugal Blog Network Member and Festival Links
I’d like to announce the newest member of the Frugal Blog Network,Kelly of Almost Frugal. Kelly is an American living in a small city in the French Alps with her three kids, three cats, and one French husband. And a mountain of debt (~€60,000) that they’re trying to dig their way out of, one centime at a time.
Also,the latest edition of the Festival of Frugality is being hosted by fellow Frugal Blog Network member Antishay Ventenne. It includes my post on “Stuff“. The Carnival of Personal Finance is being hosted this week at Taking Charge. I’m pre-posting this since I’m on a road trip through Thursday so I can’t make any picks. Go ahead and check out the Carnival and the Festival and make your own picks.
Weekly Roundup-Introductory Edition
This first edition of the Weekly Roundup includes my favorite posts from the Frugal Blog Network this week and others from across the blogosphere.
Using Health Reimbursement Plans to Reduce Medical Expenses from Not Made of Money. My employer doesn’t offer such a plan and I don’t make enough to make a HSA beneficial to me but if I did I would definitely take advantage of this type of plan.
Life Moves On, and We’re Back in Business from Antishay Ventenne. After taking a break from her blog after successfully paying off her debt Shanti is back with a vengeance.
Making It Work from Frugal Babe. This post shows that with a little improvisation more frugal opportunities are available to you.
Is it Possible to be Frugal in America? from Frugal Bachelor. Puts an interesting perspective on how frugal we really are.
How to live in a caravan and save up for a house from Find Financial Freedom. Since I’m thinking of living in a van this article was interesting to me.
Introducing the Frugal Blog Network
There are a lot of blogger networks popping up and since I wasn’t invited to join any of them I decided to start my own. The Frugal Blog Network is a group of three other frugal bloggers and myself. Our goal is to increase the quality of our content and the viewership of our blogs.
You should check out the other member sites but I’ll include a brief introduction of the member sites here.
- Antishay Ventenne: Is a young Seattle resident who recently became debt free. You can learn a lot more about her at her About Me page.
- Frugal Babe: Is a married twenty-something living in the suburbs of an anonymous city. Learn more about her at her About Me page.
- Not Made of Money: Is a blog by a husband and wife team who live on one income. Visit their About Me page to learn more.
- Tight Fisted Miser: Since you’re here you should already know who I am. I’m a 40 year old law student living in Kansas City,MO.
We will operate like most other networks with weekly roundups and occasional group writing projects. We’re also looking to add a couple more members. If you have an established blog that at least somewhat pertains to frugality and would like to join send me an email.
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Frugal Blog Network
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