<p>I bought a high-yield bond fund yesterday that has been killed the last couple of months. Up 0.62 percent today. I think that it’s yielding about 12%. Hopefully all of the bad stuff has already defaulted.</p>
<p>northeastmom, I sent you a PM, as I wasn’t sure I was allowed to link to that.</p>
<p>Our local credit union has a huge machine which counts change. You just bring your change in, dump it in the hopper and it counts it for you and gives you a receipt which you then take over to the teller to deposit or get cash. There’s a fee if you’re not a member. I stopped rolling coins after I started using that machine.</p>
<p>I buy expresso coffee from the hispanic grocery at $3.00 a bag (good for two weeks) instead of one grande latte
I bought a bag of rice from the indian grocery store and boil a pot up on sunday and put it in small glad containers in the freezer.
I use and reuse wax paper for sandwiches and also the glad containers.
I water down my juice and milk. I just add 1/3 or less water. I call it milk lite!
I pulled all the cords out of the wall plugs.
I gave up cable and watch the videos on my computer, the download times are better.
I dropped the health club membership and go out side and walk in the park or just up and down the sidewalks.
Signed on to the banks bill payer service for no stamps or envelopes.
All bills that can come paperless and be paid on line are done online.
I shop the resale shops and always try to wear on thing that is resale with one thing thats new. Surprisingly i get complements on both.
I make a grocery list before going shopping for food and i stick to it. This has cut the food bill in HALF. I get better menu plans and better balanced meals.
I always pay more than minimum on a credit card even if it’s only $5. more.
I use cloth bags rather than plastic bags.
I’ve gone from spending $2200 a month to $700 to $900 a month and I can hold this level for 6 months. Then I’m gonna need a new pair of shoes.</p>
<p>got a free freezer so we can fill it up with stuff on sale.
Last night was the first time I had bought stuff for the freezer since August- it was really cool cause even when we had a regular fridge with a freezer- it was so small that you could barely get a pizza box in- but this thing is so big that I went crazy with stuff on sale.
Taking books/clothes to consignment stores.
Listing stuff on craigslist ( like a new vcr/cd recorder that is in the box cause I never could get it to work right)
Sold several pairs of tickets to events that I decided we could no longer afford to attend on StubHub for more than what I paid. 
* way more than what I paid & do I feel guilty? why no*
Walk to the grocery store.
Other than grocery shopping- no shopping.
( ok we did have to spend $66 yesterday for a part to fix the washing machine)
( but we still get the doggie the fancy dog food)
Dinner out is Vietnamese sandwiches ( yummy for $2.50)</p>
<p>^^^“but we still get the doggie the fancy dog food” lol, for us it’s the Hill Science cat food. I refuse to give up my every-other-week cleaning lady, either - she’s my one big indulgence and worth every penny!</p>
<p>We have always paid the credit cards in full, even if we have to dip into savings to do it. We’ve never paid a finance charge. Saves us tons of money. If we can’t afford to pay for it this month, we don’t buy it. </p>
<p>My mom’s best friend and her husband were VERY frugal all their lives. No credit cards. When they travelled, they packed a lunch rather than stopping at a restaurant. Kept cars till they wore out. Public school, state univ for their kids. Now they are retired… and the husband took a lot of their savings out of the stock market (before the crash) and began investing in diamonds and beautiful jewelry. They have a safe deposit box and a vault secured in their house. The wife wears some of the pieces, and they’ve begun giving jewelry to their daughters and granddaughters for special occasions. My parents can’t get over seeing their notoriously frugal friends pull up and the wife is wearing a gorgeous diamond necklace, earrings and a huge sapphire ring. Mom says maybe she should have packed tomato sandwiches for road trips instead of stopping at Cracker Barrel all those years… ha ha.</p>
<p>“I’ve gone from spending $2200 a month to $700 to $900 a month and I can hold this level for 6 months. Then I’m gonna need a new pair of shoes.”</p>
<p>Theresa , you are a rock star at this. I really want to do it too. </p>
<p>The only thing I can’t do is go no cable. My husband and I love our football too much.</p>
<p>My mom’s best friend and her husband were VERY frugal all their lives.</p>
<p>I wish my mom could say that. Her best friend that she has had since high school ( and do I know why?- this woman is nuts), not only has a son who is a dr- ( I feel like my mother is Rhoda Morgensterns ma,- why do I need to hear every conversation that he is a dr? Did she think I forgot? ), but she goes to Vegas or Tahoe or Disney World every other month and then has lunch with my mom when she comes back & my mother will not tell her to Shut. Up., but instead complains to me how depressed it makes her.</p>
<p>But I have CC- free therapy!
another way to save money!
:)</p>
<p>We are blessed to have secure jobs (tenured faculty) and earn in the top 1%. Our investments suck but hopefully with time will repair. </p>
<p>But we both come from financially struggling families so we are ingrained to be frugal. The economic downturn won’t probably change us for that reason.</p>
<p>We keep our cars in good shape and drive them until they drop (and never buy them new).</p>
<p>We bought a house near everything we can walk to and mostly cycle to work which saves on gas, parking, insurance and no need to buy a gym membership.</p>
<p>With food we buy our basics at a discounter in mass quantities, and buy as we need each evening for dinner. Slow cooker foods we can get several meals out of is a favorite.</p>
<p>Our entertainment expenses are mostly reading, watch movies at home, and socializing with friends in our home or theirs.</p>
<p>We buy high quality, classic clothes for work, so they last for many years. I also buy consignment clothes.</p>
<p>We try to buy big stuff but only as truly needed. So our one TV is 15 years old. Our last microwave was 20 years old. The piano is second hand. </p>
<p>Never, ever buy something other than food unless its on sale.</p>
<p>Spouse rides bike to work except when there’s snow on the roads. Also changes oil for the cars. H.S. senior will live at home for first 2 years of college at Flagship State U. (5 miles from home, free bus pass included in tuition/fees).</p>
<ul>
<li>We do not have a land line; cell phones only (4 on a family plan)</li>
<li>My wife and I save a lot of money on gas and commuting… by not working. or I should say, I work in my home.</li>
<li>Our son takes the bus to community college. $1.40 each way to downtown!</li>
</ul>
<p>And the number one thing we did to save money (and save our lives) was to move from NJ to NC.</p>
<p>^^ I am jealous. That is a huge money saver and I wish I could make the same move! sigh…</p>
<p>The piano is second hand</p>
<p>I win- this is exactly like my Piano. 
It is the same one that my mother learned on & it was 2nd hand when she was 11.
[Antique</a> Piano Restoration by Vintage Piano Shop](<a href=“http://www.vintagepianoshop.com/detail.cfm?id=118]Antique”>http://www.vintagepianoshop.com/detail.cfm?id=118)</p>
<p>It makes a great catch-all.</p>
<p>Same as above, only DH got a moose so we have plenty of meat. Bullwinkle joined the already frozen salmon and halibut in the freezer. We will be dragging the freezer to the back deck this weekend so we can unplug it for the duration. 6 months of free freezing!</p>
<p>Unfortunately, we have to heat the house during that time, but we have radiant floor heat and we can keep the thermostat at 60 degrees and be perfectly comfy. </p>
<p>We do tutor children (we have a business license and working from home helps with the taxes), buy off the clearance racks, and aren’t very acquisitive, so we don’t have a hard time. </p>
<p>We do have satellite (come on, we live in Alaska!) and we have a neighbor who comes to clean our house biweekly. We were awarded a 4% raise recently, so we are paying her $20.00 a month more to stimulate the economy. It’s only fair, since she hadn’t raised her rates in 4 years and I am sure she is losing some business. </p>
<p>We both drive decade old cars and keep them in good repair. No one wants to be stranded at 40 below! :o</p>
<p>and best of all? Our DS graduated '08 and is totally self-sufficient (aside from the occasional care package full of cookies).</p>
<p>So, break out the guns and buy a hunting license! Moose stew is excellent! :)</p>
<p>oh, almost forgot - wife and I volunteer at a new soup kitchen. We usually eat there on days we work. We figure if things get worse we can eat there daily.</p>
<p>The day after my S left for college I went room to room and unplugged everything I don’t use. Amazing how much electronic stuff he had plugged in and how much of it was actually “on” in standby mode, all those little green lights are now off. Quit grocery shopping until I had either eaten or tossed everything in the fridge/freezer then unplugged it. (I eat veggie and don’t need refrigeration). My mid Sept - mid Oct. (when I didn’t need lights on mornings and most of the evenings) my electricity bill dropped from the typical $50 -$60 per month down to $5.62 (only $3.15 for juice, the rest was taxes). Wonder how much a couple of cf lightbulbs will help?</p>
<p>Hot water is a problem, for one shower a day, a few dishes and a couple loads of laundry per week it’s costing me $22 a month. I’m checking into an on demand hot water set-up.</p>
<p>Much bigger savings on gasoline. It peaked last April at over $600 a month with hs carpool and me doing extra driving slots to help out others (heck it was my last year of carpool duty). Last month, walking to work, no carpool and no kid driving, my gas bill dropped to $46 for the entire month…</p>
<p>Welcome to NC, NJres!</p>
<p>
</p>
<p>See and raise you: our piano is the one that my mother learned on, purchased used when she was 7 years old. It cost us more to move the piano than it cost my grandparents to buy it! </p>
<p>But I can’t really count that as frugality, just as convenience. Just like my kids wear my mom’s old sweatshirts, because if we go over to my parents’ house and the kids didn’t bring a jacket, my mom insists on them borrowing one for the ride home. </p>
<p>For many years, our tv was my spouse’s grandmother’s tv. Yes, my children were watching tv on their great-grandmother’s tv.</p>
<p>do we have the same granma?</p>
<p>This is a great thread</p>
<p>Over the summer:</p>
<p>Replaced an 85 year old oil fired boiler (which had been converted from a coal fired boiler) with a high efficiency gas boiler and added zones. Then I shut off the radiators in both sons rooms and shut the doors. They’re at college, no need to heat empty rooms. </p>
<p>Replaced all 24 of my homes original drafty windows with thermals. </p>
<p>This season I expect to be allot warmer than last year, while paying less than half of last winters heating bill which totaled $3,000.</p>