I’ve been dealing with this issue for a long time now. I work primarily in the art, mostly for non-profits. If you like money, this is not the career for you. But I do have to say, I’d much rather enjoy myself for the 40 or so hours a week that I work, than be sitting behind a desk mindlessly working for people I have no emotional investment in.
However, this does of course mean that I am poor. I’m not destitute, I have a roof over my head, food in the pantry, and water to shower with, but I’m not flush with cash by any stretch of the imagination. I don’t go on lots of vacations, or buy lots of clothes. I don’t eat in expensive restaurants and I don’t buy swanky cars.

So the question here is, how do I stay on a low budget, but avoid getting cranky over everything I can’t have? Here are the three main ways in which I swallow my pride and go cheaper without sacrificing happiness.

Thrift Stores

I go clothes shopping every couple of months. My budget when I go is $50 and I usually don’t spend that. I did a little research and found a thrift store not too far from me that must be where all of the suburban moms take everything they couldn’t be bothered to take the tag off of. Thrift stores are actually pretty picky about what they will sell. I find almost completely new or totally new clothing all the time. The selection is huge and varied. I usually end up spending about $38 and come away with six or seven items. My last trip, I bought a dress and six tops for $38. The time before that was a pair of jeans, two skirts, and five shirts, also for $38. I come home with new clothes and I haven’t blown my budget in any way. When I’m done with these items, I take them to a local consignment store and usually make most of my money back.

Eating Out

I do eat out with my friends here and there, but as a general rule, I order the least expensive item on the menu. I limit myself to one drink, and I almost never order dessert. Ordering appetizers is a great way to keep the price down and not feel left out. Because most appetizers are designed to be shared, you’ll find that in most places the portion size rivals that of a main course.
If I bought a drink, no dessert for me for sure. That’s my specific rule. Usually if I get dessert, I try and split it with someone else. This makes sense both in calories and in cost.

Used Cars

My car gets me from A to B. I drive a 1996 Toyota Corolla and it never breaks down. I bought it for $1300 cash more than two years ago. There isn’t really a secret here other than a lack of pride. It also costs me much less to insure my paid off older car. For me, I understand that I don’t spend that much time in my car as a whole, so I just make do with the cheaper one. My significant others 2005 Ford Focus seems to break down often, and I don’t envy his car payment. If you are lucky and you look carefully, you can save yourself a lot of money by toning down your transportation.

How about you? What have you toned down in order to cut costs, but not give up happiness?

For a long time, I hoarded the books that I read. I also kept all of my textbooks, picked up free books when I saw them, and bought inexpensive books at yard sales and in used bookstores. After moving a few times, I realized that I was lugging around all of these books that I had already read, didn’t love that much, would never read again, and would likely not lend to anyone. I decided it was time for a major purge.

The first step was to separate out the books I wanted to keep. If I had absolutely loved the book and I thought I would want to read it again, or perhaps loan it to a friend, I let it keep it’s little home on my one bookshelf. Then I pulled out all of the books that I had picked up that I had not actually read. This was a great learning experience because I ended up having about 65 books that I hadn’t read but wanted to.

The remaining books would then be sold.

Selling Books Online

There are two major places to sell books on the Internet; www.half.com and www.amazon.com. Both are great options. With Amazon, you can’t really do a big bulk listing; you can only enter one book at a time, though I believe more people use this method to buy used books. Half.com does allow you to enter bulk items and the uploading process is faster, though I don’t feel as though you get quite the exposure that you want. Both stores do give you a shipping credit. This is especially good for textbooks, though I have offloaded many paperbacks this way too. You can certainly list your inventory on both sites, in the hopes of better exposure, but do be careful to keep track of your inventory in case you sell out on one site and then accidentally sell the same book on the other.

Used Book Stores

In some areas, you might be lucky enough to find a used bookstore that actually does purchase books. Most of the time, you’ll just find stores that will offer you a store credit, or trade. For used bookstores that do actually offer cash, most of the time they will be looking for newer textbooks and paperbacks. Older textbooks that have new editions out or hard covers that have since been released in paperback are usually not their priority. Often you’ll be offered a higher amount in store credit or a smaller percentage in cash. Honestly, you will probably be offered very little cash, but if you have books that simply haven’t sold online and you’ve given it a while, or your rent happens to be due, it can certainly be worth trying.

Paperback Swap

If you’d rather just trade in your library, www.Paperbackswap.com is for you. You list the books you with to part with, and then other people can request that you send them that book. Once they receive it, you then get a “credit” that you can spend on the site to request a book from another swapper. The benefit of this is that you can essentially stop purchasing books and all you are paying for is the cost of Media Mail shipping, which is less than $3. It can take a week or so for a book to reach you, but the inventory of books is quite huge. If you’ve got a few books that you just can’t seem to sell, you could also post them on there and see if you can end up trading them out for a more sellable item.

Got any other creative ideas of how to turn your books into cash?

What I quickly realized, though, was that with the amount of samples available out there today you can practically eliminate having to purchase items completely, and you can certainly avoid wasting money on a product that turns out to not work or not be what you expected. Samples can also be a blessing if you do run out of something random and want to avoid a special trip to the store.

The most common samples that you can find are the bath and beauty kind. Moisturizer, shampoo, conditioner and toothpaste are offered pretty regularly. Then you can end up finding cereal, address labels, teeth whitening products, sweetener, flavored drinks, laundry detergent and all kinds of other things. Samples take a while to arrive generally, but if I can use it I send off for it. When it comes time to travel, or if I’m out of something, the first thing I do is check my sample stash.

I generally avoid sending off for anything that might require me to create an account on a site or add to my Facebook profile. There are so many other opportunities out there that I’m happy to miss a few to avoid going to more difficult lengths to obtain them. In most cases, there is a box they are hoping you’ll check to sign up for their mailing list. I simply always leave this blank and then I don’t have to worry about receiving junk emails.
Samples are usually listed as taking 4-6 weeks to arrive on your doorstep, but I’ve found that it’s usually more like 10 days. I’m at a point where I request samples so often that I usually have a new one in the mailbox every other day.

Often when you request a sample, the company will also include with them coupons for money off the product and sometimes other similar products in the line. This is an added bonus because if you do like the product you can go ahead and pick it up at a cheaper rate, and as it is a manufacturers coupon you can also take it to any store.
The two best places that I have found to obtain samples are:

Absurdly Cool is a sample website that updates several times a day when new samples and other freebies are found available. It’s usually only worth it to look as far as three days in the past, as samples expire or “sell out”.

Hey It’s Free is more of a blog that also posts several times a day. As they have an RSS Feed, I just have that plugged into my Google Reader and go from there whenever I wish to fill something out.

So do you already look for samples? What is the best thing you’ve found or your favorite sampling location?

Here are some easy substitutes that won’t cost you a fortune or take much of your time, and often they are much more natural than your pricey brand choices!

Eye Makeup Remover

Most specific eye make up removers will set you back $6-$10 or more for a little bottle, and they’ll often leave your eyes feeling a tad peculiar. So skip that all together and spend $2.99 on a bottle of baby shampoo. Wet a cotton ball, put a little shampoo on it, and rub it over your eyes – then rinse if you need to. Because of the no tears formula, you won’t have trouble with watery eyes, and your eyes will feel much cleaner!

Bath Salts

Bath salts can get very pricey. You can pay anywhere from $5 all the way up to $25 or more for a smallish tub of bath salts. Most of the time, when you check out the ingredients, you really aren’t paying for much more than packaging and fragrance. Epsom Salts will cost you about $1.49 for 1lb or more. You can open up the container and sprinkle over a couple of drops of essential oils if you would like a fragrance, or even a few drops of your favorite perfume. The Epsom Salts will help your muscle to relax and also help ease aches, strains and bruises.

Hot Oil Hair Treatment

If you have dry or damaged hair, you might be used to picking up some super pricey deep conditioning hair treatments. Instead of this, though, just get some light olive oil (not extra virgin, just regular). Take a cup of the olive oil, mix in two tablespoons or dried rosemary, and then let it sit in a cool dark place for two weeks. Then, you can warm a little up, comb it through your hair, let it sit, and then shampoo it out. This treatment costs pennies and works just as well as the super fancy stuff, while being wonderfully natural.

Body Scrub

Body Scrub is very simple to make if you understand the ingredients that you need to look for. The key to a good body scrub is to use a very light and nourishing oil as the base. Sweet Almond oil honestly works the best. Mix 1/8 cup Sweet Almond Oil with 1/2 cup of light brown sugar and 1/8 cup medium grain cornmeal. This will create a great exfoliating scrub that will also nourish your skin wonderfully.

Clothing Refresher

I personally don’t like how Febreze and other clothing and fabric refreshers smell. It might just be me, but I feel like I’m covering up odor instead of neutralizing it. There is, however, a really easy way of neutralizing odors. Mix 1 part vodka with 1 part water in a spray bottle, and spritz liberally on the item you wish to freshen. The vodka will eliminate the odor and dry clear with no residue or strange smell.

What other nifty tricks do you know of? What other items would you like to see recipes for so that you can replace the store bought with the frugal?

I didn’t realize until recently how much eating fish and other seafood is really helping my budget. I buy shrimp, salmon and tilapia. Probably four meals a week contain one of these because it’s a great way to eat healthy and save money. I buy the shrimp that you have to peel but do not have heads. I get about 60 frozen shrimp for $4.29 at my grocery store. That is about four servings, so that’s my primary protein for just over $1 a meal. Then I buy salmon, frozen, for $10. I get four big fillets in that package which can actually be split in half, so again, 8 servings at just over $1 a piece. Now the Tilapia, that’s another $10 a bag, and another 8 fillets or so. With a well-stocked herb and spice cabinet, you can do so much with just these nice base proteins. Any of these can defrost in water in about 15 minutes, or can be left in the fridge for the day. Mix them with rice and vegetables, maybe some stir fry sauce or a mix of spices on the seafood and you have simple and good food.

Budget Friendly Seafood Dinners

Shrimp and Spinach Wrap

Ingredients:

• 10 Raw Shrimp (defrosted)
• 1 Flour Tortilla or Wrap
• 1/2 Cup Fresh Spinach
• 1 Small Tomato
• 4 Tbsp Plain Non-Fat Yoghurt
• Grilling Spices

Take any kinds of grilling spices you like, or just use salt and pepper. Spray a non-stick pan with Pam, or use a small amount of olive oil. Coat the shrimp in the spices an sauté for 6 or 7 minutes until cooked.
Dice the fresh tomato into small piece. Smear the yoghurt over the tortilla, then add the spinach, tomato and shrimp. Roll up and enjoy!

Grilled Salmon with Potatoes and Veggies

• Salmon Fillet (defrosted)
• Butter, Salt and Pepper
• 1 large or 2 small potatoes (yukon gold is best)
• 1/2 Cup or more frozen peas and corn

Poke the potatoes all over with a fork, then rub them with butter and sprinkle with salt and pepper. Place them in the microwave for 7 minutes. Meanwhile, put veggies in a pan on the stove and cover with water. Bring to the boil and simmer.

Put a small amount of butter or olive oil in a pan. Sprinkle salmon fillets with salt and pepper and then saute in the hot pan for about 3 minutes or more each side.
Strain the veggies, put everything on a pretty plate and eat.

Fish Fry Tilapia

• Tilapia Fillet (defrosted)
• Fish Fry Seasoning
• 1 Cup Salad or Veggies
• 3/4 Cup Cooked Rice

Fish fry mix is wonderful. It’s seasoned well, not as unhealthy as you think, and very inexpensive. If you buy a pack of it, you’re only going to use a couple of tablespoons and you can keep the extra in a jar with your other seasoning.

Coat the tilapia on either side with the fish fry mix. Spray or add a little oil on a pan and get the pan super hot. Add the fillet to the pan and cook, turning it over every minutes or so until it looks cooked and a little crispy. Usually 6-8 minutes. Eat with salad or mixed veggies, and rice with salt and pepper.

Well, if you haven’t actually gone ahead and switched to low energy lights and appliances, definitely put them on the list. But if you have and you need some fresh idea, here are a few things that you might have actually missed. These are small tricks, but over time they add up to great savings. My English grandmother used to always say “Look after the pennies and the pounds will take care of themselves”.

Energy Savings

Brick Your Toilet

Most toilets tanks are pretty large. When the toilet is flushed, all the water from the tank is emptied out and honestly, you don’t always need quite that much. A very easy way to go ahead and prevent as much water being used is to put a brick in your toilet tank. This removes the need for the volume of water equivalent to the brick, thereby saving you on your water and sewer bill.

Unplug Your Battery Charger

It’s so easy to just leave your phone charger or your battery charger in all the time. Just pop something in to recharge and it’s good to go. It’s true that while those are in their dormant states, they don’t use a lot of energy, but it’s still a small trickle especially if the charger has it’s own little LED light so you can conveniently find it again.

Play with your Thermostat

If you’re lucky enough to have a thermostat that controls zones of your house, make sure you go ahead and use it! If not, then try keeping your house about three or four degrees warmer in the summer and go ahead and use a ceiling fan or a stand alone fan in the room that you are in to knock off those few degrees. This prevents you from cooling your entire dwelling when you’re sleeping, or watching tv.

Don’t Dump Water Down the Sink

Do you have a tendency to empty half drunk glasses of water down the sink? What about ice? Instead, use that water to water your house plants, or throw on the garden, or even throw it in the washing machine in preparation for the next load. My houseplants are watered almost exclusively in this particular fashion!

Household Shortcuts

Less Detergent

When doing laundry, your clothes will retain a small amount of laundry detergent every time you wash them. To save a little money and stress your detergent for longer, go ahead and use a a quarter less detergent, or just half every other wash or so. You can also water your detergent down to create the same effect.

Recycle, Recycle

Recycling is not only much more environmentally responsible, but the act of doing so can help in little ways. In our house, when we started avidly recycling, we realized that we were taking out our trash about a third of the time, meaning that we were saving two or three trash bags a week.

Dishcloths over Paper

Dishcloths are great for mopping up spills, can be thrown in with your regular laundry, and last for a very very long time. Ditch your paper towel habit and save your money.

Tupperware over Ziplocks

I’m the worst offender in the ziplock world. I often find myself reaching for my handy dandy plastic baggies when pretty much everything can fit into one of the numerous tupperware containers that I own. Go ahead and make your tupperware easy to get to, then hide your ziplocks somewhere inconvenient so that you can try to break this habit.

Don’t Forget!

Don’t forget that these little things take time to add up but it’s well worth the minimal effort that they take! Happy saving.

So then, you can imagine my surprise and embarrassment when I was informed of the Wachovia Way2Save account. I realized that it’s actually pretty darn good – and not from my favorite banks. I left Wachovia many years ago after a bout of Overdraft fees and awful customer service, and I’ve openly slandered them to people who have asked my opinion on their banking options. But now I’ve found out that they might have finally gotten something right!

The Way2Save account is not for the huge saver. It’s for the little people trying to sock away some money slowly and without taking too much out of their day to day budget. It’s new, it’s nifty, and here’s how it works:

If you use your Wachovia Check Card, $1 is automatically transferred over to your Savings account. The same deal occurs when you pay an online bill. You can also set up a monthly deposit up to $100 to go in to the account. This may not seem like a way to save a whole bunch of money, but here is the kicker. This account has a 5% interest rate. That is, in short, quite ridiculous in these times. It’s hard to get a savings account anywhere over 3% unless you are putting away thousands of dollars. To add a cherry on top of this, Wachovia is also giving a 5% bonus for the first year of savings and to add sprinkles, this account also gives you Overdraft protection on your regular Wachovia account. This means that instead of incurring a $35 fee and bouncing something if you go overdrawn, you get charged a $10 fee and the needed funds are automatically pulled from your savings account.

Now, I’m not saying that you should go and open a Wachovia account today just to go and get this account. I still think that ING Direct is much better organized, user friendly, and stable… but if you already bank with Wachovia I would go ahead and pick up one of these nifty little accounts for the Overdraft protection alone. It’s a great way to sock a few dollars a month away with minimum impact and maximum return.

I’m greatly hoping that other banks look at this account idea and decide to offer similar products because it is terribly attractive. True, you can’t put away tons and tons of money, but it’s definitely a great way to get new savers started with small savings for high returns.