Is frugal the new cool?
By chris | September 3, 2010
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I can remember back in my younger years, everyone had to have polos and new cars. Back before we had a concept of what money was and how hard it was to make it. Back when all we had to do is ask. Do you remember going shopping with your mom for school clothes? Ever get anything off the sales rack at Belk? I did, I use to think that was a bad thing and that the red pen mark on the tag ment it was bad or maybe someone would see it and ask what’s up with that?
Now I’m proud to say in my adult life I’ve never paid more than $25 for a shirt. I can remember asking my mom for shirts that were $60 and up. If we only knew about Goodwill and consignment stores back then. If we did I’d probably hold my nose up high as I sorted through the clothes. Now paying $3.95 for a used $70 shirt is a great thing. I can spend $25 or less and walk out with a new shirt for every day of the next week.
I can remember my mom clipping coupons back in the day as she still does today. Now that the tables have turned , we too use coupons. I’ve learned frugal is a great descriptive word for a person, cheap is as well.
What do cheap and frugal have in common? Knowledge , and know how. Clipping coupons can save you tons. Shopping at Goodwill has saved me at least $1000 so far in my adult life.
Mom, if you read this I’m sorry for giving you such a hard time when I was younger. You are actually the most frugal person I know. Who else can walk in to CVS with $5 and come out with $50 with of product? You can! This post is dedicated to you mom! I’m frugal because I learned it from you. When money is tight be aware coupons will always get you there.
Frugal is the new cool. The tough economy has opens the eyes of tons of people. More and more people think using coupons is smart, and the only way to shop. If your new to this whole frugal thing, keep reading my blog and I will enlighten you, as I learn the newest ways to save.
Topics: Savings Tips | No Comments »
Old Faithful Car vs New Car
By chris | September 2, 2010
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That’s a question several Americans find themselves asking every day.
To put it quite simple, “CAR PAYMENTS SUCK!!” as do any monthly reoccurring bills. The difference is you can decide your own fate when it comes to a car payment.
If your fortunate enough to own a car right now, consider yourself blessed. No car payment for you, right? Depending on how old your car is, you will come to a cross roads where you will find yourself asking, is this thing really worth fixing? My answer is always going to be YES, at least till I reach the 250,000mile marker. I’m currently at 175,000 miles and I’ve made it a personal goal of mine to see it that far.
By that time I’ll easily have money saved up to pay cash for my next vehicle. I personally will probably try to go for 300,000 miles once I make it to 250,000 miles. Then purchase a used car about 5 years old with about 100,000 miles on it. What’s your thoughts? Do you hate your car payments and wish you could get out of them? Trade in for something you can pay cash for or pay off in 2 years not 5-6! Will you fall into the new car temptation? Are car payments something you can live with out?
Topics: Frugal Living | No Comments »
Charleston Free Room and Entertainment
By chris | August 31, 2010
| We visited the outlets and Bass Pro shop stuck out like a sore thumb. Naturally they would have some comfy flip flops for my poor feet. As we were walking around we were offered an opportunity to visit one of the Blue Green Resort properties, with $100 deposit.
We would get $25 gift card now to spend an the remaining $75 after we sit through a 90min presentation and our hotel would be paid for for the 2 nights we were there. They had several locations, we figured why not, we get our money back. |
We planned on using it for our one year anniversary. Cheap trip to celebrate right? Since it’s was our first and the room was paid for I decided we should splurge and take $500 and really see what we can see and eat what we can eat.
We arrived in Charleston about 8:30 Saturday morning after driving through the night. We stopped at the welcome center for obvious reasons. Jeff, the visitor center employee ask us how would you like to experience the city for free. FREE I replied, he explained that if we would go sit in on a 90 minute presentation about new condos/ time share we would get a choice of a variety of things. We got to choose 3. We were up for anything, it was only 9am so not many things were going on.
Then he scheduled an appointment for 9:30. It was 9 by now and we figure why not? It will help us prepare for our presentation tomorrow, you know the guys that paid for our room.
We arrived at mystic resorts at 9:30, met our salesman and chit chatted for about 30 min. Now it got serious they turned the pressure up, and didn’t like to hear no, after about 3 times saying “no were not interested” my wife spoke up and said look we’ve been here going on 4 hours, give us our gifts and were leaving.
We were so furious when we got out of there. There product sounds good, but not good right now. They just couldn’t understand the words “no thank you” eventually after the 3rd no they finally gave us our gift cards and we high tail out of there.
We finally got out of there and got some lunch. We planned on breakfast. Ha I wish…..
So ask me, what was 4 hours of our time worth?
About $200.00 worth of gifts.
1. Hour horse carriage tour around town.
2. Day passes to a 500 acre plantation.
3. Ghost tour at the old haunted jail.
Was it worth all that? Absolutely not.
But wait we still had to do the same thing again tomorrow, with a different company. We trying to enjoy what was left of our day and night, but in the back of our heads we knew we had to do it all again the next morning.
Morning came and we drug ourselves out of bed and to the Blue Green Resorts presentation. We were prepared to put a muddle on this guy and tell them were not interested from the start. Well 4 more hours we finally got out alive. 2 night hotel stay for 4 hours of terrible conversations, not worth it at all.
We enjoyed the rest of our anniversary , ate some great food and did a lot of sight seeing.
The story of this post, is free never equals free. I like to thank my time is valuable. Our time on our 1st year anniversary was with double or more what my time is usually worth for obvious reasons. I wish I was able to bill them for our time they wasted.
Stay away from the Blue Green resort people and any one else trying to sell you a vacation club membership!!!!!
Learn from our experience
If someone offers you a 3day 2night package, I advise you tell them to keep it. This post was definitely a long one, thanks for hanging around. If you have had a similar experience I’d love to hear about it.
Would I do it again? Absolutely not. Never ever ever….. Were frugally cheap but this 8 hours of our weekend was wasted, please enjoy your vacations don’t spend them in high pressure rooms.
Topics: Entertainment Savings, Frugal Living, Lessons Learned | No Comments »
Resturant Review – Footprints Cafe Lawrenceville, GA
By chris | August 27, 2010
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Tonight we visited the Footprints Cafe in Lawrenceville, GA. Upon arriving, we were greeted and seated very quickly. The restaurant had an island meets modern feel to it. The bar had a full floor to ceiling water fall. Pretty cool. |
We paid $2.00 for a $25 gift certificate, with the requirement we spend $35 + 18% gratuity. Katie and I both ordered a shrimp and chicken pasta mix. It was very spicy, and very filling. The food was absolutely what I expected, pure excellence. The sweet tea was pretty awesome too.
I would definitely recommend this place to anyone. If you can get a gift certificate from restaurant.com I highly recommend it. It saved us over $25. More than 50% including the $2 cost of the gift certificate.
Topics: Entertainment Savings | No Comments »
Why rent movies when you can get them for free. Red box promo code = :)
By chris | August 21, 2010
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Lets face it times are tough. Why pay Blockbuster $5+ to rent a movie when you can pick one up at your local Red Box for FREE. Red Box, has made it convenient and affordable for people to rent movies at a reasonable price. I of coarse have found a way to beat the $1 per day and now we rent movies for free. |
The key to my success is all thanks to Red Box. Each and everytime we decide to rent a movie, I first hit up google and search for “Red Box Promo Codes”. I’ve found
Redbox Insider to be the most reliable source for codes. You should check them out the next time your in the mood to rent a movie
Topics: Entertainment Savings | No Comments »