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Today's Tip

Try Janie’s Top Ten to Save Money, Get Happy

Posted November 20, 2008

The Whiner is always looking for great ideas about spending, saving, working, and staying sane in a crazy economy. Keep ‘em coming.

Our thanks to Janie, a recent commenter, who sent in a list of suggestions that seemed especially intriguing. (While you’re reading it, we’ll sneak out for a quick tango in the kitchen.)

Financially, I have not made it to the high living category.

I make $12/hr and my boyfriend is on welfare, but, I can give you guys some hints on how to have a blast on just a little or no money.

  1. You are not alone in this. Instead of weekends that just extend a numb lifestyle, have a pot luck. Invite your other suffering friends. Make it a weekly event. Make friends with someone outside your usual type of friends and invite them too.
  2. Do you live near a park? Get a bird id book and make that your new winter project. You get a lot more from this than you can ever imagine. Take a child with you. Borrow one.
  3. Do something nice for someone else and don’t tell them or anyone else.
  4. Instead of gym membership fees or yoga class fees, put on your favorite groove tunes and dance for 1/2 an hour in your living room or any other formal and unnecessary room. Invite your friends.
  5. Use this time to break your own rules. (Dance in your living room.) Have morning coffee in bed with 1 rose in a vase on a work day. Put your feet up on the table. Walk around your dwelling naked. Use your imagination.
  6. Check out the dollar store near you for all your gift wrapping needs as well as cleaning products and tacky decorations.
  7. Volunteer at your local library, pet shelter or hospital.
  8. Trade services with your friends. I trade massage for stylish hair cuts. The gist is to focus on finding new pleasures. Be open, explore, and have fun for pete’s sake.
  9. Be a tourist where you live. Do all the free and cheap things available.
  10. Instead of giving THINGS, give an experience. go to a museum with someone as an xmas gift.
  11. Spend a day on the subway getting off at new stops with a new friend.

It is a mental shift and it takes time but it makes life more fun than just numbly paying for THINGS.

My big indulgence is $10.00/lb coffee beans.

The Whiner wants to know: What do you think of Janie’s list? Anything you’d like to add?

read a christmas carol and have a great new year

Reader Comments

  1. Andrea

    Your public library is a treasure chest–go there often!

    Play with your pets. Take your dog for a walk. If you don’t have a dog, take your neighbor’s dog for a walk-the dog and the neighbor will both thank you!

  2. Ellen

    Buy a cheap kitchen timer that plays a tune, and then, every time it goes off, dance with your significant other or kids, or pets in the kitchen. This is a mandatory activity in my house. We own this kitchen timer: http://www.calliopeboutique.com/shopexd.asp?id=428

    Ok – so it costs $18 but I can’t tell you how many fights and bad moods we have dispelled with this activity – much needed in these trying times.

  3. Taylor

    If you have a digital camera and computer, the price of actually taking a photograph is for all intents and purposes free. Form a photo club with friends–set a monthly assignment, see how everyone interprets it. Get together over a potluck dinner and critique each other’s work.

  4. Leah Ingram

    Saw your mention in today’s Times. Very nice.

    I think that something else that you should consider is this: people need to figure out if they are frugal, a spendthrift or a tightwad, and then adjust their budget accordingly.

    Hope you’ll check out my blog The Lean Green Family (formerly Suddenly Frugal). I’ll surely be back to check out yours.

    Leah

  5. Emilie in Minneapolis

    In Minneapolis, if you havea a free public library card, you can “check out a museum.”

    Check it out at:
    http://minneapolis.about.com/od/historylandmarks/a/museumadventure.htm

  6. Eileen

    1. Remove your credit card number from Google “AutoFill.” When shopping online is a little less convenient, you will actually do less of it.
    2. Do not shop out of boredom and do not shop as a way to “reward” yourself. US credit card companies spent years and millions of advertising dollars trying to convince Americans that they “deserved” to buy stuff using credit. They succeeded!
    3. Use up ALL the crap you already have. Most of us have a lot of stuff “stored” which could be used up rather than buying even more.

  7. Ben

    Read supermarket circulars. Design meals based only on what’s in the circular before you leave the house. Cook something you’ve never cooked before, just because it’s on sale. You can make gourmet food for pennies if you look for deals.

  8. Mara

    Here’s a few more tips for what they’re worth:

    I just recently pulled out some perennials and made a vegetable garden. I’m on the west coast, so it only has parsley, thyme, sage and arugula, but in the spring I’ll put in tomatoes and green beans. Even if it doesn’t save a lot of money it gives me a great deal of joy to harvest my own veggies and herbs. Compost your kitchen scraps.

    On the west coast – buy gas early in the morning before it gets warm – you’ll get more gas, less vapor when the temp is still cool.

    Stay in bed longer and read on weekends! Make your coffee and go back to bed with it. Enjoy the sun coming through the window and a good book. You’ll save on heat, and maybe a shopping expedition or two!

  9. Yvonne

    I’ve stocked up on rice and cans of beans and cans of diced or stewed tomatoes. For a very healthy and economical meal, I saute some onions and garlic in a deep pot, add some chunks of inexpensive meat or poultry, then empty a couple of cans of beans (try 2 different kinds — say black beans and garbanzos) and a can of tomatoes into the same pot, add some chili powder, cilantro, onion powder, salt, and whatever other herbs and spices strike your fancy. I let it all stew together for 30-45 minutes or so to evaporate some of the liquid and concentrate the flavors, and serve on rice. It’s delicious, nutrient-rich, healthy — and cheap.

  10. Moira

    Find a good buy on canned or boxed foods that are a little “special” and donate these to a food shelf. Years ago I received a charity box close to the holidays and the inclusion of things like olives (not house brand bulk, not necessities) touched me and encouraged me more than I can explain. Since then, I do this in the manner of the Little Brothers of the Poor who remember that the human spirit needs flowers as well as bread. Do this for someone else. Do it for yourself. It pays off!

  11. Kristen

    You know all those mysterious charges on your phone bill (and if you have one, cable bill)? Ever wondered what they were for, or if you were being overcharged? I recommend reading a book called “Gotcha Capitalism: How Hidden Fees Rip You Off Every Day — and What You Can Do About It,” by Bob Sullivan. The book talks about sneaky fees in credit cards, banks, 401Ks, cell phones, the list goes on. This is a great resource and it will give you some tools to save some real money. Bob Sullivan is a columnist for MSNBC and he also has a blog called “The Red Tape Chronicles”. I can’t recommend this highly enough.

    “The best thing for being sad, is to learn something. That is the only thing that never fails. You may grow old and trembling in your anatomies, you may lie awake at night listening to the disorder of your veins, you may miss your only love, you may see the world about you devastated by evil lunatics, or know your honor trampled in the sewers of baser minds. There is only one thing for it then–to learn. Learn why the world wags and what wags it. That is the only thing which the mind can never exhaust, never alienate, never be tortured by, never fear or distrust, and never dream of regretting. Learning is the thing for you.” –T.H. White

  12. Maria

    When I know I’ll be driving by a thrift store, I round up a bag of things we can live without and donate the contents. We get a receipt used for tax credits. Inside the thrift shop, I look for useful, good quality “new” items, often with original price tags and other identifications still intact, and I stash them for use as presents. I also let neighborhood children “go shopping” in the cupboard filled with these “presents,” assigning appropriate values such as raking leaves, sweeping the porch, ironing pillowcases — and for the really big ticket items, polishing my husband’s shoes.

  13. Mara

    If you really want to save money buy dry beans instead of canned. You can get a pound of dry beans for about $1.00 – and you’ll get about 4 times what you’ll get in a can for the same cost. Just soak them overnight, boil them for 20 minutes (no salt), throw away the water and then use them as you would canned beans.

    Dry lentils, beans and garbanzo beans are healthy and inexpensive. Combined with cheaper cuts of meat in a crock pot you’ll get a healthy, inexpensive and tasty meal.

  14. DFenn

    Guaranteed to make you smile as the Dow does the limbo: The Shiba Inu Puppy Cam. These six little darlings remind you of the simple joys: playing wildly, eating voraciously, sleeping soundly and, of course, curling up with someone you love.

  15. Katherine Savage

    In the past, my preferred way of getting together to catch up with a friend was to meet at a restaurant for lunch. Now we have started taking walks together instead–free, healthy, and still a good way to visit.

  16. marianne evans

    Bake bread. It is easy, cheap and fills the kitchen with a smell that must be hard wired to raise the human endorphin levels. It is also a great gift to bring your host/hostess and is much more impressive than it deserves to be. Start small-get bread cookbook out of the library and make a loaf of ordinary white or hippie whole wheat bread. A food processor or bread machine is nice for mixing dough but not necessary. But, if you have a bread machine gathering dust or can find one for a couple of dollars at a thrift store or garage sale, by all means get it and use it. I’ve graduated to homemade sourdough, a brick lined oven, and Eoropaen style artisan breads that cost $8 a loaf to buy and under a dollar to make. If you are busy working, make the dough in the food processor and stick it in the refrigerator to bake when you get home or use a bread machine with a timer.

  17. John

    Sorry, but the idea of filling the car’s gas tank when it’s cold outside is actually a myth, as the fuel is stored in tanks underground whose the temperature is essentially constant.

    You can definitely save on gas though, with the following:

    - Planning ahead to combine trips and reduce the number of miles driven
    - Taking advantage of all those free shipping offers to avoid driving altogether
    - Cutting back on aggressive driving (how hard you step on the gas makes a big difference)
    - Keeping your tires inflated at the recommended pressure

  18. Patti Niehoff

    I love this list! It’s perfect whether you’re trying to save money or not. My friends and I just decided to exchange silly cards at Christmas instead of presents.

  19. Mark

    Money saving tips

    bike to work

    get a pre-paid cell phone, at T-Mobile you can buy minutes for 10 cents each in blocks of $100 (plus about $8 tax) and they last a year, if you limit you cell phone usage that’s about $9 per month

  20. old teacher

    Love the list–I begun #1 earlier this month, and it’s so rewarding!