Simple Living

Thrifty Thursday: Cereal Alternatives

Posted on July 29, 2010 by Anisa

This week I have a quick Thrifty tip I thought I’d share… alternatives to breakfast cereals.  Most of the cereal you buy in a colorful box is not only not very good for you, since it is highly processed and often contains lots of sugar,  but it is usually very expensive.  A couple of great alternatives that we’ve found are eating whole grains like oatmeal, or for something crunchy, granola, from the bulk bins instead.

Oatmeal is generally .79 cents a pound, sometimes less when it’s on sale, and we usually buy granola in bulk for about $1.99 per pound.  These are very inexpensive compared to prepackaged breakfast cereals, and they are much more versatile.  You can add almost anything to your oatmeal in the morning.  Try berries and cream, cinnamon and brown sugar, maple syrup, milk, honey and almonds, dried cranberries, bananas, apples, lemon juice… you name it.  And oatmeal can be used to make muffins, cookies, breads and more.

Granola comes in many flavors with all kinds of different whole grains, nuts, or dried fruit, or can be made from scratch.  It’s great over yogurt, or in a bowl with milk (like you would eat regular cereal).  It usually holds it’s crunch pretty well, taking a long time before it gets soggy.  It’s much healthier for you than breakfast cereal, and much less expensive.  H loves it like this. He also loves it as part of a home-made trail mix with pretzels and dried fruit.

Categories: Food, Simple Living, Thrift | 2 Comments

Thrifty Thursday: Reusable Produce Bags – for FREE!

Posted on May 13, 2010 by Anisa

Here’s a quick one that occurred to me as I was emptying the mandarin oranges into the fruit bowl last week.  Although I’ve been bringing my own reusable bags to the store for a while, I always cringe at the amount of plastic bags I still use for produce.  Luckily I grabbed the camera and now I can share an easy, no sew, way to have a reusable produce bag!

Step one: Empty your mesh bag of the produce that came with it.

Step two: Cut off the labels, including anything that has a bar code (don’t want your store checkout person to get confused).

Step three: Using an old piece of ribbon (this scrap came from something I was going to throw away anyway) to lace through the mesh around the hole you made to get the oranges out.  Tie the ends together.

Step four: Remember to bring with you to the store do you can reload you new/old bag with new produce that doesn’t roll around the cart all by its self any more!

Categories: Simple Living, Thrift | 3 Comments

Thrifty Thursday: Good Trades

Posted on February 18, 2010 by Anisa

Here’s a quickie this week.  I know I’ve mentioned FreeCycle.org and Craigslist before, plenty of times.  But here are a couple more swapping sites to add to your thrifty lists:

TradeAFavor.com

and

SwapThing.com

Trade a Favor is a Facebook application.  Just add it to your Facebook page, list what favors you are willing to trade for (services, skills, items, etc.) and find a match.  This is a high-tech version of bartering people! 

Swap Thing is very similar.  Sign up is free through the site, and you can trade your things for someone elses things (or services), and you can use cash to offset the differences if your services is more or less valuable than theirs.

Categories: Thrift | 1 Comment

Thrifty Thursday: Be Mine, Valentine!

Posted on February 11, 2010 by Anisa

Looking for the perfect V-day gift?  Consider getting your Sweetheart a certificate for a massage or spa day instead of roses and chocolate.   Roses are marked up nearly 30% or more around the 14th, but spas often offer a 20-30% discount for first time customers.  Can’t skip the flowers?  Go for my favorite… tulips!

Need a great vintage card?  Click the valentine to the right to get FREE vintage valentines you can print yourself. 

Do you like to spend a nice night out to dinner?  If you can put off your celebration for one week, you can hit up Denver.org and see all the amazing meal deals for $52.80 per couple during Denver’s Restaurant week!  This is one of my faves (and I shared this tip last year too), since our anniversary always falls in this week… the 22nd!   Spend some time on the site and you’ll find hotel and B&B deals, and much more.

xoxo

Categories: Thrift | 1 Comment

Thrifty Thursday: Warranties and Repairs

Posted on October 29, 2009 by Anisa

This tip came to me from Genny, former TTT girl and blogger, and oddly at  a time when my other friend, Jenny, was sharing similar events with me. 

Taking advantage of warranties.  Genny recently had an immersion blender stop working.  But instead of throwing it out and buying a new one, she called the company.  For a small fee they shipped her a new part, and the blender was able to be repaired. 

Jenny’s story: someone had bought her daughter a toy for her birthday.  Jenny didn’t get around to putting batteries in it to properly try it out for a couple of months, when she did, she discovered that it didn’t work.  😦  She tried to take it back to the store with the gift receipt she had, but too much time had passed and the store would not take it, and it was no longer stocked there.  They told her to contact the manufacturer.  When she did, the manufacturer (Hasbro) agreed to send her a new toy.  She expressed her that it was a defect in the toy (since the store no longer carried it), and Hasbro agreed to send a similarly valued toy for the appropriate age of her daughter.  At no charge.  She did not have to send anything to them, or pay any shipping. 

And as I write this I realize that I’ve had similar experiences myself.  Once with a part for my pressure cooker, and once I broke one of the crystals on my chandelier in my bedroom.  Both times the makers sent me the pieces I needed for little or no charge. 

So a great way to save money – contact your manufacturers, save those warranties, and make those repairs.  Much less expensive than buying new!

Categories: Thrift | 4 Comments

Handmade Christmas

Posted on October 24, 2009 by Anisa

HandmadeCan I just say that I am so over Christmas.  Not the holiday itself, but I’m over the tons of money spent and agonizing over gifts and superfluous presents that are really simply filler because of the ridiculous pressure of I- have-to-because-they-got-me-something.

Last year was by far the worst Christmas for me in this department.  I am quite happy with what Rick and I and Santa got for H, but aside from that…. it kinda stunk.  H got so many presents that I could not remember who gave him what, mainly from Rick’s family.

We actually went into debt to buy gifts, and Rick and I did not give each other anything.   Thankfully, my family runs much more low-key. They are older and tend to value the time together -and the food- more than the presents.  But it just isn’t enough.  We will never go into debt for Christmas again.  And we’ll never skip giving our spouse a gift again either.

This year we are proposing drawing names to Rick’s side of the family, for the extended relatives (as it stands, we buy gifts for all the aunts and great aunts, uncles and cousins, grandparents and great grandparents, and it’s really too much).  But whether or not the idea gets vetoed, we will be giving hand-made gifts this year.

This summer we made a few things here and there, but now that we’re deep into October, it’s time to get serious.  I went to the fabric store twice this week to get pieces I needed for gifts.  We’re not being strict about hand-made Christmas… we can give store-bought items too, but it’s a goal.  We are going to try to make, sew, cook, bake or otherwise hand make the majority of the presents we give this year.

I’m quite excited about it.  It’s inspiring some of that long-lost creativity I used to have, and I’m actually excited about the gifts we’re giving this year (as opposed to last year when I felt like Ebenezer Scrooge).  I’ll try to keep you updated on the gift making progress as much as I can (some of my readers are receiving the gifts though, so I might have to be vague).  But expect a full report at the end of the year after the gifts have been received.  🙂

Here’s a blog I ran across (actually my friend Annie linked up), and it was quite inspiring too.  What about you?  Do you make anything for Christmas gifts?

Categories: Simple Living, Thrift | 7 Comments

Thrifty Thursday: Eating-Out for Less

Posted on October 8, 2009 by Anisa

Ever heard of Restaurant.com?  This is a great little site that has reviews, menus, websites and makes reservations for all kinds of different local restaurants in every city.  But the best part of the site is this:  you can buy a $25 or $50 gift certificate for only $10-25 bucks!  That’s right… Pay ten bucks, get a $25 gift certificate to eat out.  This is a great way to try new local places, and save some dough doing it. 

Why not buy a gift certificate or two on pay day to save for later on in the month for a date night with the hubby or as a gift for a friend.  🙂  Yum!  I love ways to get treats (like eating out) for less!

Categories: Thrift | Leave a comment

Frugal Friday: Used Books

Posted on October 2, 2009 by Anisa

Oops – didn’t get his posted intime for Thrifty Thursday, so Frugal Friday it is! 

One big time hobby of mine is reading.  I love to read, and of course the cheapest way to do that is with the library.  But I also love to give, loan, pass-on and collect books.  So for me the best think is buying used books. 

There are a lot of ways to get used books.  Englewood has a few used book stores, and there is also always the web.  Amazon.com has almost any imaginable book, and often times it can be found in “like new” condition for a fraction of the cover price.  BarnesandNoble.com has this feature too. 

I usually try to catch the library’s used book sale as well, but my favorite place to get used books is Goodwill (and ARC, DAV, etc.).  Though you may have to do some searching, at Goodwill, the paperbacks are always $.99 and hardcovers are $1.99, unless you go on a day where their colored tag is 50% off. 

Off the top of my head, I can think of more than twenty books that I’ve paid less than $2.00 for.  Some have been quick paperback reads that I have passed on to others, some have been parenting books, hiking guides, or books I’ve needed to complete my childbirth education certification.  I’ve gotten a few novels for Rick and even books as a gift. 

I belong to a book exchange club where every month you pass on a book you’ve enjoyed to another club member.  It great because I get to read a new book each month that I know a friend has enjoyed.  And because I have a great stash of books, I don’t mind the minor investment of passing on a book I bought at the Goodwill (plus I get to keep in touch with friends -some in other states even- in a different and creative way). 

Used books are such a great way to save money and build your reading library.  Books have so much life in them!

Categories: Recommended Reading, Thrift | 4 Comments

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