We have a lot of subscriptions in our household. We pay to subscribe to several magazines (Real Simple, Wired, Portfolio). We are members of our local gym and we have Netflix. We both have cell phones (hers is through her company) and we both have E-ZPasses in our cars. All together we probably have at least a dozen “monthly” services that we pay money for, all of which made sense at the time we subscribed. As our needs and our routines change, some of those services may not longer make much sense.

The idea of subscription optimization and per use cost is very simple. For a month, track how often you use a subscription and calculate the per use cost. If you pay $60 a month for a gym membership and go thirty times a month, that’s a per use cost of $2. Then compare it with the a la carte cost, or how much it would cost if you weren’t a member but still used the service. If it’s cheaper to go a la carte, cancel the subscription.

(click here to continue reading…)

I often wonder what keeps many from grocery shopping with a budget in mind and then sticking to it. I have actually sat down with a friend before who is trying to save money on her grocery bill. We have literally sat at my kitchen table together, gone over the store ad, planned out our meals, made the list, priced out the items and have gone to the store together. Essentially we had the same list – plus or minus a few things, but still with very similar approximate total prices. A few times during our outing we strayed from each other, but in the end, met at the cash register. Once there, her total bill was double what mine was.

(click here to continue reading…)

After writing about how we love making pizza, we’ve learned that we’ve been fools to buy Boboli pizza crusts. In fact, Karen at MSN’s Smart Spending even said we were cheaters! Having learned the error of our ways, we’ve decided that the next time we make pizza we’ll be making our own pizza dough, which appears to be fairly simple.

Oh, I also had a revelation the other day. I was walking through Trader Joe’s (they sell 200 Cone #4 coffee filters for $1.69, cheaper than any other place I know of) when I saw they sold fresh pizza dough for 99 cents. 99 cents! What the heck have I been doing buying Boboli pizza crusts???

(click here to continue reading…)

Hardly a week goes by when a personal finance writer doesn’t take a swing at Starbucks and buying coffee, so why not put it all to rest and do some math to settle it once and for all? I know it’s almost a no-brainer but let’s do the math and see how far ahead you can be if you were to brew your own coffee, whether from grounds or with a single serving coffee pod machine, rather than buying it in the coffeehouse.

(click here to continue reading…)

In today’s economy, it seems everyone is looking for ways to cut back. The problem is, most people don’t know where to start. If you’re looking to cut back, I suggest starting in the kitchen. There are a multitude of ways to save money in the kitchen, and you can tailor how you cut your food budget so it doesn’t impact your lifestyle.

If you eat a lot of convenience foods, you can save time and money by doubling each recipe you cook and freezing half for those busy (or tired) nights. If you are attached to eating meat with every meal, focus on cutting your use of paper products or expensive side dishes. You can save a lot of money by making small changes. You put in minimal effort and get maximum savings! Don’t believe me? Here are 5 things I do to save money in the kitchen, and my family doesn’t even notice. (shhhh! don’t say a word!)

(click here to continue reading…)

Last year, I wrote about how cheap it was to butcher your own chicken. When you buy a chicken at $0.99 a pound, you get about a 50% return on all the cuts you get, not including the leftover bones you can turn into chicken stock. For the last few months, I would just turn the entire chicken into a big chicken noodle soup but now that winter is almost over, we won’t be eating quite as much chicken soup.

So, I got to thinking, why not just schedule a week of chicken meals based around one chicken? We already make each one of these dishes individually, why not just schedule them in a row and just buy a chicken at a time? There is no why not, here’s a perfect five day schedule of meals based on what you can do with one whole chicken. A quick word of advice, my “recipes” are based on memory and hardly have any quantity figures. Ask my wife, I cook like this; I sort of just wing it until it tastes and looks about right. If you don’t like cooking without exact measurements, just take the names of the dishes and use a site like AllRecipes to find a suitable recipe.

(click here to continue reading…)

Sean Callebs will try and he’s documenting the whole experience on CNN. This is a little more realistic than the $1 a day meal experiment, which was more about publicity than reality. What I find most interesting about Callebs’ reports is the insight it gives him and his readers. “… it stinks being hungry when you go to sleep.” (Feb 13th) How many people go to sleep hungry? I probably have only a handful of times in my life and it was mostly because of scheduling, not because I couldn’t afford it. I think that unless you have lived it, you can’t faithfully criticize.

Much like when I talked about living on minimum wage, it’s difficult to understand the lifestyle until you try to live it. For some, the thought of food stamps invokes the image of someone on welfare spending it on cigarettes and alcohol. For others, it’s seeing a bright light when you’re lost in the woods at midnight. Regardless of how you feel about food stamps, the majority of people who get food stamps need them. They’re not living the good life financially, sipping a Mai-tai on the beach; they’re struggling.

I find myself struggling with the idea of handouts because I believe, especially in America, you can, through hard work and determination, succeed regardless of where you start. Food stamps and welfare, while necessary, will give some a reason not to work as hard and I recognize that; but I think you have to accept those who will take advantage of the system if you want to help those who just need a little bit extra to get them over the hump.

What are your thoughts on food stamps and other welfare programs?

(Photo: pengrin)

It’s the thought that counts.

No truer is this line than in the world of Hallmark cards because those babies are expensive. The paradox of Hallmark cards is that you’re trying to be thoughtful but you’re sending something that’s been printed for mass consumption! Please don’t get me wrong, I have nothing against Hallmark or special occasion/greeting cards in general, other than the price, and I feel that sending one beats not sending one; but if you want to stand out, you can do something unique at a fraction of the price.

(click here to continue reading…)

In posting our Valentine’s Day dinner of Homemade Provençal Rack of Lamb, I learned that quite a few of us are quite capable chefs! Sheila of GoVisitHawaii shared her scrumptious meal of lobster tails, chicken, and asparagus. Jon made something similar – “lobster tails, mushroom risotto, asparagus with brie and artichokes as appetizers.” Even Tim made some “romantic ramen.”

So, to celebrate our mutual enjoyment of cooking our own food, I thought I’d throw out another frugal favorite in our household – homemade pizza. To be perfectly honest, we buy Boboli pizza crusts from the store because we don’t have a pizza stone (it’ll cook dough better than a pan, but I’ve heard a pan works well too) and because it’s cooks much faster. However, pizza dough is remarkably easy to make and recipes widely available if you do a little searching.

We grab a package of mozzarella, a can of Don Pepino pizza sauce (look at that guy, how could you not buy that stuff? and each can is enough for two pizzas!), and whichever toppings we’re in the mood for. That will typically include cooked onions, green or red peppers, and either grilled chicken or sauteed hot italian sausage. We throw in some other toppings in there from time to time but those are are staples. It’s about ten minutes of preparation, depending on how quickly you can chop, and another seven to ten minutes of baking time.

I think the next steps for us will be to make the dough ourselves, rather than pay Boboli to make it, and start getting more adventurous with the toppings. Do you have any tips for making your own pizza or any suggestions for crazy toppings to try?

(Photo: kodamakitty, the next time we make pizza, I promise to replace the pic with a “real” one!)

My family lives in a rural area, and we all wear jeans…a lot! My daughter grows fast and my son plays hard, which means we are constantly dealing with the question of what to do with old denim jeans.

Some of our old jeans are in good shape, but too short. Other jeans, those belonging to my son, usually have holes in the knees. Over the years I’ve gotten creative about ways to use my old denim. You can too.

You might be wondering why you’d want to reuse denim in the first place. I’m a big believer in reduce/reuse/recycle. If your jeans are in good shape, you could always donate them to a thrift store. However, if your family is like mine, most of your old denim is not suitable for donation.

(click here to continue reading…)