Posts marked "Shoestring Spending"

Here’s One Way We Cut Costs (What About You?)

Posted October 23, 2009

Whiner-in-Chief recently went shopping for a new pair of cold-weather boots.

While this wasn’t exactly high on her list of fun ways to spend either her spare change or her spare time, it was a complete necessity, since Offspring #2 absconded with the old pair. (Life as a high school senior apparently doesn’t leave much time for shoe-shopping, unless you happen to live life on a reality television show.)

Fortunately — as has been mentioned and mentioned and mentioned — W-i-C is one of the shortest adults who ever lived. (Good to know that Fellow Whiner Geri is too; we may not see eye-to-eye when it comes to politics, but clearly we’re at eye level when it comes to everything else.)

Result: Whiner-in-Chief just bought her boots in a kids’ store packed with 6 to 10 year olds. True, the noise level left something to be desired. (So did that kid who kept attempting to walk off with her handbag.)

But the price for one very trendy new pair of extremely warm and cozy UGG boots was about one-third what W-i-C would have paid in a store that took care of adults. And they even came with a lollipop.

The Whiner wants to know: What tricks do you keep up your sleeve when it comes to ways to save money, especially on clothing? Are there some items you just won’t buy at today’s prices? Or, really good deals that you’re stocking up on?

The Best Things in Life

Posted September 22, 2009

Yes, sometimes they really are free.

That’s a lesson Whiner-in-Chief re-learned just the other day. When arriving home after a long day of work, she came across a simple, but not unattractive and apparently perfectly functional small bookcase.

Discarded in an alley, it was awaiting pickup by the next day’s trash van. W-i-C walked past it, but then came back for another good look. The bookcase was heavy, but not so very heavy that she could abandon it in good conscience since, after all, who doesn’t need another bookcase?

She arrived home that night with a briefcase in one hand and a bookcase in another. Okay, she staggered home.

Save Money, Water Garden

Posted July 24, 2009

This year’s growing season in New England has been a wet one, wetter than usual, and Mother Nature has come through big-time in the watering department. But we can’t always count on Mother Nature, and we know our friends in Texas and elsewhere are suffering through a very serious drought. It’s always dry somewhere, it seems.

Mulching and composting go a long way toward reducing watering costs, and in the flower garden we lean toward drought tolerant plants. We also use a soaker hose system in most of our beds. We even bought a rain barrel at a great price through a group deal between our town and the manufacturer — it’s been collecting rain water even though we haven’t found the time yet to connect it to our downspout. And our ultimate dreamland fantasy garden would include a state-of-the-art gray-water system.

But one simple thing that helps us cut down on watering is the use of water-absorbing granules. These granules are added to the soil at or below the root level of the plants, and they then absorb water that’s later made available to plants when they need it.

Here’s What We Miss (What About You?)

Posted July 21, 2009

We’re so many months into the EconoMess that we sometimes think we’ve gotten used to living life on a barebones budget. Hearing the news about another friend or two who has lost a job. Or another favorite store that’s closing up shop.

Sometimes we’re even so brainwashed by the daily, depressing grind that we tell ourselves that life on a barebones budget is good, not bad. That our daily activities are so much more meaningful now (yes, you’ve guessed it: we can’t move very far along in this mental direction, because we can’t possibly figure out the logic behind that looney-tunes attitude).

No one will ever convince us that scrimping, saving, sacrificing, and nonstop financial anxieties make anything more meaningful. There are plenty of things we miss and will probably continue to miss for a long time to come. In no particular order, here are some things that come to mind:

The Bottom-Line Benefits of an Older Car

Posted July 1, 2009

Many of us are driving older cars. We’re keeping the old, cheap, and reliable vehicles (aka clunkers) that, not so long ago, some of us might have traded in for the new and shiny. What if the manufacturer becomes extinct? Well, that’s another matter entirely. But we won’t dwell on it right now.

Instead, let’s talk about the downside of the new car market.

The Joys of Restaurant Copycatting

Posted April 28, 2009

The economy stinks. And many of us are are feeling what might best be described as the “restaurant blues.” We can’t afford to eat out or take out the way we used to do. Restaurants are suffering, we know.

But we are too. Aside from the sheer relief of not needing to shop, cook, and clean up after every single meal, there’s the special pleasure of eating meals that we don’t know how to cook. The chance to push our taste buds in new directions. Oh, heck. We’re getting depressed just writing these words.

There is one (tiny) solution though. For all of us who can’t afford our old restaurant habits, we can always try to recreate (or at least, approximate) a favorite dish we’ve encountered along the way. Yes, this can be done. We know. Cost-effectively. Consider two completely wonderful, home-made, restaurant-inspired concoctions we enjoyed this past weekend:

A Taste Test That’s Full of Beans

Posted April 7, 2009

Humble though it might be, the bean is a superstar in our kitchen.

One of the most affordable sources of protein, it’s a nutritional powerhouse — full of folate, potassium, iron, magnesium and, of course, fiber (lots of fiber). Beans are low in fat. And they’ve got a remarkable ability to blend into a wide range of soups, stews, casseroles, pastas, and rice dishes, while transforming (or, do we mean to say “padding”) all kinds of leftovers.

Bean buffs that we are, we’ve been trapped for the past few weeks in a taste test that has sometimes seemed to have no end in sight: The best canned beans at the best price. Fellow Whiners, whenever we’ve felt ready to reach a conclusion we’ve come across another can that cried out to join the competition.

And the Winner of Our Gadget Contest Is …

Posted April 2, 2009

Hats off to Upstater, who waited until the last possible date of EconoWhiner’s “Best-Ever Gadget” Contest to send in a blockbuster entry.

The competition was stiff: We can’t tell you how many times, during the past two weeks, a comment arrived and elicited a response here at EconoWhiner Central along the lines of “nobody’s going to beat that one.”

What a range of possibilities! We were intrigued by the slightly-too-pricey rat zapper (although we’re keeping our fingers crossed that we’ll never need to purchase one). Severely tempted by the purse-sized flashlight (yes, Crayon, we carry one of those around all the time too, and we’re never sorry). The Apple Master and milk frother — yum and more yum.

And then, along came Upstater, who confessed, “I could no more be monogamous about my favorite gadgets than not read novels.” We were hooked.

Roast Chicken 101

Posted March 21, 2009

Let’s take a moment to sing the praises of roast chicken.

Perhaps the ultimate in comfort foods, a simple roaster can rise to so many challenges. It can feed a family for days (two dinners, some brown bag lunches, and the makings of a soup or stock — no problem!). Anchor an impressive, yet cost-effective, dinner party. “Pop” into the oven while even the most frazzled and whiniest of cooks copes with other time-consuming challenges.

A Penny-Pincher’s Guide to Shopping at Thrift Stores

Posted March 16, 2009

Fellow Whiners, meet Nic&Al, a mother-daughter duo who have turned penny-pinching into an art.

Actually, as Nic describes it, spending as little as possible is a “fine art, a science, a religion, and a higher calling. I’m proud to have passed it on to Al in her DNA.” Al agrees with Nic’s assessment, although she adds that their approach to cost savings involves “a little bit of a game and a competition as well — if one of us pays two dollars for something, the other tries to find it for sixty-six cents.”

Nic&Al have been lurking in the shadows of EconoWhiner for some time now, with a particular interest in anything that involves cats. Then we got into an exchange with them one day about the Salvation Army. They had so many priceless stories — and tips for shopping at thrifts — that we begged them to let us schedule an interview and article. Read on for some of the highlights of our chat with Nic&Al: