Frugality

I have been thinking a lot about this lately. I'm sure that doesn't come as a surprise since I'm sure you've thought about it too. I have always thought of myself as a frugal person, almost bordering on "cheap" at times. That's okay though, it's something I have come to pride myself on. Luckily I married a man who is great at finding the best deals on things we need, and almost better at finding the best deals on things we don't need - "But honey, it's a $1 million TV for only $350,000! Plus you get a $10 gift card!" Now that's a great deal!

Anyway, I would like to make this a place for sharing ideas on how to cut back and save. I understand that there are certain things that some of us are not willing to budge on, but if you're flexible then I'm sure someone somewhere has come up with a way to save on just about everything. So here goes - this is what I do or have done:

- Of course I still use coupons like crazy. It's hard to shop without them although I will admit that it takes a lot of time. I just consider it my hobby! Before we buy anything that we need, I always search to figure out the cheapest way to get it.

- Changed my internet speed to the lowest high speed (isn't that an oxymoron?!) that Cox offers. It's pretty good most of the time, as long as you don't download very often. But forget about watching anything on YouTube, it will take you hours!

- Switched our SRP plan to Time of Use. I did this last summer after my Visiting Teacher who works for SRP told me that they were running a money-back guarantee that you would save in your first 3 months. That has been true, last summer we saved about $35-$40/month on that plan. In the winter we don't save as much (sometimes our bill is like $.40 higher because we're on that plan) but we definitely come out on top. Basically you do all your high energy activities (ie. running the dishwasher, doing laundry, running your AC) during the off-peak hours. On the days that I am not working I turn the AC down to liek 72 deg in the morning. This cools down the house so that at 1 pm when the peak hours start I turn it back up to 80 deg. The temp. slowly rises, but the AC won't kick on until it reaches 80 deg which means the AC unit doesn't run for the majority of peak hours. Come 9 pm when peak hours end, we turn it back down to 78 deg. I'm pretty anal about this and about turning lights on and off and not opening outside doors wide. They do, however, say that even if you keep your thermostat at a constant temp (say 76-78 deg) you will still save money on this plan.

- We have also changed about half of our lightbulbs to CFLs. We got these at Costco when they had a 10 pack for $9. Over the lifetime of the bulbs you're supposed to save a combined $256 (or something like that) in energy costs.

- We did some homework and changed our auto insurance to a company that we trust (not some internet junky Geico or The General company) that gave discounts to BYU alumni. This saved us about $80/month.

- We make it our goal to only go out to eat once a week. We do pretty good, but a lot of times still go out twice. I guess I have justified this since we don't do a lot of other "entertainment" activities.

- I have started trying to fill up when the gas tank is half full. They say that cars get the best gas mileage in the first half of the tank. Experts also recommend filling up in the mornings when it is cooler and not holding the nozzle down all the way which creates more vapor (I'm sure you've all received that email at least twice).

- I have learned to ask if stores will accept their competitor's coupons. Honda took a competitor's coupon for a $14.95 oil change- I don't think I could do it myself for that cheap! Plus he took me to the mall while I was waiting. CVS will take competitor's pharmacy coupons, Fry's and Albertson's will take other pharmacy coupons for a gift card, and will price match. They will also take those $5 off a $20 purchase coupons that come in the mail from Fresh-n-Easy! Because of this, I split up my grocery purchases into $20 increments, that way I always instantly save 25%!

- I am very conscious of recycling. The way I figure it, the less we recycle the more natural resources are used. The more natural resources that are used the more scarce they become. The more scarce they become the more expensive things will be. I figure it's a step I can take so that my children and my children's children don't suffer. (Am I starting to sound like a fanatic?)

- I rinse out my Ziploc bags and reuse them (as long as there wasn't anything gross it in!) My mom said this made me a grandma, but that's okay!

- I have a prescription for prenatal pills that I can get as many refills as I want for a whole year. This is unique since most prescriptions will only let you fill it once a month. As I mentioned before, CVS, Fry's and Albertson's all take other pharmacy's coupons for a free gift card with a new or transferred prescription. I get as many of these as I can (even if I have to go down to the Republic and buy extra Sunday papers to get them) and bounce my prescription back and forth between the pharmacies. Since it is a cheap generic I usually can get it cash price for $4, which means that my insurance doesn't restrict me to only filling it once a month. Tyler laughs at me because I will call and transfer it to another pharmacy a few minutes after picking it up from the pharmacy. I just keep doing this and every time get a $25 gift card for anywhere between $4-$10 depending on the pharmacy. Now keep in mind that some pharmacies will be real sticklers on this and not give you the gift card if you've filled it at that pharmacy before. Mine have been really good about that (knock on wood!). Anyway, I was curious the other day to see how many gift cards I've gotten, so I added up all my pharmacy receipts (which I keep for tax write off) and figured that I've spent $150 on prescriptions, and gotten $450 in gift cards. That's $300 in free groceries!! Like I said, you may not be able to do this with all pharmacies, and definitely not with all prescriptions but just keep in mind that if you're filling a script, check to see if you can get a gift card with it before you pick it up.

- We buy a lot of things on Craigslist. We love it! You can get barely used items that you need at a fraction of the price. We have bought Brooke's crib and changing table, her stroller, Jumperoo, our deep freezer, a convertible car seat for Grandma's car, a food saver, and several other things.

That's all I can think of right now, I'm anxious to see some other ideas so please share!!