frugality 101

here at i'm frugal we took a break. obviously. but i'm recommitted to sending out frugal vibes and ideas to fabulous women out there who are also being frugal.

so get excited.

posts coming soon.

Being Frugal: Diapers

“Having a baby costs so much money!”
How many times have you heard this statement? Some may answer that a newborn baby needs very little aside from loving parents. But some of the simplest necessities cost the most: diapers, clothing, a car seat, and food. Join us over the next few weeks as we share some ideas for saving money on baby basics.

First my diaper story… many of you know that I have twins.  Thankfully they are 5 and out of diapers but my two year old is not there yet.  For the twins I attempted cloth diapers out of sheer desperation and then I lost my mind (seriously).  We weren’t couponing at the time so I did the next best thing always buying house brands.  They did great but we spent a ton of money.  The cheapest house brand I liked was still around $7.50 a pack and we could go through a pack a day!  Currently though my two year old has it great.  With coupons and store sales we usually end up with free diapers or at most paying less than $5 per pack for name brand diapers.

1. Choose cloth diapers

It may seem old fashioned or even gross to some, but when you start doing the research you will find that choosing cloth is by far the best way to save on diapering. The average family spends anywhere from $1,500 to $3,000 to diaper one child to age three, depending on how good they are at finding the most economical disposable. This price doesn’t include disposable wipes (which are sometimes almost as much as the diapers), a special diaper pail, all those little plastic baggies to minimize smell, etc. Multiply these numbers by three (or more), and we’re talking about nearly $5,000-$10,000!
Families who choose cloth diapers (even the most expensive all-in-ones) rarely spend over $500 on diapers and associated gear. Even when you add in the cost of laundering, the total doesn’t come close to the amount spent on disposables. Don’t forget that quality cloth diapers can last a family through several children. To further reduce start-up costs, you might even consider buying gently used diapers (check Ebay or Craigslist) or making your own if you have the talent. Once you have the diapers, you can save on laundering by letting your diapers line dry, which also helps them to smell fresh and remove stains.
Finally, many choose to cloth diaper because they feel it is a superior product that is more comfortable for their child or because of the environmental impact. Don’t forget, this doesn’t mean that you can’t use disposables for convenience on occasion.
Simple Mom has a comprehensive guide to cloth diapering in her archives.

2. Use Coupons!

If you have done the research and have decided cloth diapering is not for you and your baby, there are still ways to save. There are some amazing deals on disposables at drugstores and grocery stores.   Many of grabbed Huggies for $2.99 a pack at Harris Teeter a couple of weeks ago, or Pampers for $3.49 at CVS.  Look out for those rock bottom prices and stock up, even before baby is born. Make sure to sign up for newsletters from your favorite (or all) brands as they will often send you coupons through the mail or email.
I will not detail the drugstore systems in this post, but if you are new to Southern Savers, check out our Getting Started Guides.

3. Bulk or House Brand ??

I know several moms who swear by Walmart diapers, and several more who use their membership at a wholesale club (i.e. BJ’s, Sam’s, or Costco) to save on diapers. Still, I know others who use only the top brands because of a bad experience with store brands be it leaks, blowouts, rashes, or just overall quality. Some even go so far as to say that the top brands help to stretch your dollar even more because they don’t fill up as fast as cheaper brands, and therefore you use less diapers overall.  In my opinion, it is more advantageous to spend a few minutes clipping coupons and buying Huggies and Pampers at rock bottom prices.   Here’s a math breakdown to help you see this better:

Pampers Cruisers Size 3 - 204 ct
Current Sam’s Club Price: $37.98

This equals 6 jumbo size packages.

Pampers jumbo packs a few weeks ago at CVS after coupons and ECB were $3.49 each
Buy 6 = $20.94
For the same amount of diapers you save $17 to buy them in smaller sized packages with coupons for each package.
Again, just my opinion, but I think that buying house brand or wholesale is best saved for those times when your stash runs low, or you’re out of town, and you just have to buy diapers now! Especially since one must include the cost of a wholesale membership in the cost of wholesale diapers. However, there is one bulk source that could be useful - diapers.com. They are constantly running deals for free shipping, offering $10 off for new customers, giving special codes, and offering rewards.  Plus you can mail them coupons and they will apply them to your account!!

4. Take advantage of reward systems

You aren’t going to save enough to pay for your child’s first semester of college, but every little bit counts right? You can earn anything from gift cards (some for more diapers), toys, baby gear, or photo albums. You can find codes on manufacturer’s products, but there are also general codes to be found on the internet (here or right here on Southern Savers).
Check out Pampers’s Gifts to Grow program and Huggies Enjoy the Ride program.

5. Ask for them!

Crazy thing - people love to buy stuff for a new baby! If you are expecting your first baby, don’t forget to include diapers (all sizes) and gift cards on your registry. When a relative or friend calls and asks “Do you need anything? We’d love to come visit!” Say, “Sure! You can stop by and bring us a pack of diapers.” If you are a veteran momma who already has all the gear and clothing, ask your friends and family to throw you a diaper shower instead. Also babies grow fast, leaving their mommas with a surplus of diapers that are too small or cloth diapers that are no longer being used. If you have a friend (or two or three) with older children, ask her to save you her extras or gently used cloth diapers. Even your church nursery might have unused diapers lying around. One of the many joys of motherhood is the community that comes with it, so don’t be afraid to lean on your fellow frugal mommas.
Resource to check out:
Baby Cheapskate provides an extensive list of diaper reviews.  If you are going with a store brand at least see how they compare.

reposted. original post found here. 

Reusable Shopping Bags

Some retailers are starting to provide a monetary incentive to get you to bring your own reusable shopping bags. This is a great way to save the environment and keep all those plastic bags out of the landfill.  Other retailers, however, are actually charging for plastic or paper bag use.

Some states are also considering legislation to ban the use of plastic bags. San Jose, California has banned the use of both paper and plastic in grocery stores.  Citizens of Washington, DC now face a charge of 5 cents per plastic bag, and Ireland imposed a bag tax and now charges 15 cents per bag, providing an incentive for customers to bring their own resuable bags with them. This trend of charging for plastic bags seems to be popping up in countries and cities all over the world, including Hong Kong, and Toronto, and other stores in other parts of Canada. Click here to see what other governments around the world are doing to combat the problem of plastic shopping bags in their landfills. 

Bags typically cost about 99 cents - $1.50 each, and are available at many retailers, particularly grocery stores.  In searching the web, here's a few articles I found regarding SOME stores that offer a discount on your purchase price. This is likely only case in locations where retailers do not charge for the use of plastic. The discount will be taken off of your total and be reflected on your receipt. Occasionally you might have to remind them.  If you don't know if a store has an incentive program, just ask!  I've asked several times, and the typical response is 5 cents per bag.

For example:

Albertson's grocery store offers 5 cents per bag.

Smith's/Kroeger offers 5 cents per bag. (Some locations) It used to offer 10 cents, but some locations have done away with the program completely. 

Macey's grocery store (Utah only) offers 5 cents per bag.

Target offers 5 cents per bag

Ralph's offers 5 cents per bag

CVS has a different program. You must join their ExtraCare rewards program and purchase one of their 99 cent bags. They will give you a Green Bag Tag card that you hook to the bag. Each time you use the bag, they will scan the card. After 4 purchase, you will receive a $1 Extra Buck coupon which is good towards your next purchase.

Click here for an article about what other stores are doing.  Also, if you know of other stores that offer incentives, be sure to comment so that we can all benefit by knowing!

Making Your Own Reusable Grocery Sacks

If you'd like to make your own reusable shopping bag, here's a few links to some free patterns that are available on the web.  Use old bed sheets or tablecloths, or pick up fabric from a thrift store to reduce the cost of making your own sacks.

Wallet-Sized Fold-up Reusable Shopping Bag (pictured above)

Lunchbox Inspiration 2: Fabric Grocery Sacks

Morsbag Free Downloadable Pattern. There's also an animation of how to construct the bag.

Pie and Coffee: How to Make a Canvas Bag Canvas is stronger than cotton fabric, but this blog also shows how they used oil-based ink to print a custom design on the canvas.

All-Free Crafts: How to Sew a Fabric Shopping Bag

Curved Bag within a Bag  This site shows how to make a bag that closes up within it self into a tiny cozy.  This might be great for always having at least one bag in your purse or car, for those quick trips to the store. The bag itself doesn't look very big.  

Sew a Durable, Reusable Grocery Bag (from About.com)

Tutorial- How to Sew a Reversible Grocery Sack in Under an Hour

If You Don't Sew or Prefer Knitting or Crochet:

Reduction Tote Bag  (crochet)

Large Market Bag Crocheted from Plastic Bags

Felted French Market Bag (Knit)

Personalizing a Bag that You Purchased at the Store:

For those of you who don't sew or want to just personalize a pre-made bag

Personalizing with Iron-on Photo Transfer Paper

Sack Lunch Ideas in a Printable Document

Thanks to my bff, google.com, I think I have figured out how to upload a document to blogger and you can print it from your computer. Yay!  Click here for the uploaded  document for the sack lunch ideas from this post. It seemed like an easier format. And, once again, thanks to my awesome friend Jen for creating this document and sharing it with me. Love her.

If it works, comment and let me know! Yay for google. I knew she wouldn't let me down. :)

Free Photobook

My friend, Erika, posted this on her site Celebrating Today.  

Get a free 8.5x11 Hardcover Photo Book (up to $39.99 value) with 20 pages from Picaboo using the code AFFLGB if you are a brand new customer. You do need to pay $8.99 shipping. I've never used Picaboo so I am not sure how user friendly the site is, but $8.99 is a good deal. This offer expires on March 31, 2010.

Mending Holes in Blue Jeans

When you find that perfect pair that fits just right, don't you wear them until they are threadbare & have a hole or two? I have been thinking that I should try patching a few pairs of my favorite jeans, but I don't personally like the iron-on patch look for adults (or older teens).  It's ok for little girls, since there are some really fun decorative patches that can be added to the denim.

However, I found this awesome tutorial on patching holes in denim jeans.  Ragged, holey jeans are sold in high-end department stores, so here's a great way to duplicate the look for next to nothing and repair your favorite jeans in the process. Abercrombie & Fitch sells "destroyed" jeans for $90-100 a pair.  Here's an example from their website. These shorts retail for $50 a pair.

Abercrombie & Fitch Destroyed Denim Shorts

Why not make your own knock-off from the pair you love so much you just don't want to give them up?  If the legs are beyond repair, you can may your own version of "destroyed" shorts, and save yourself $50 in the process.  You're also helping to save the environment and learning/practicing a great skill at the same time.

So, I decided to head to my machine and see if it really was as easy as Suzannah makes it look in her tutorial. It was! Here we go.

To patch your jeans, you will need:

1. A sewing machine

2. A pair of jeans with a hole torn in them, or just starting to wear thin in a few places.

3. Thread.

I used a blue that was close to the color of my denim, but a neutral tan for the bobbin. When the bobbin ran out, I replaced it with the same blue. Either way, you can't tell. If you want the patched holes to show more, and have more of the "destroyed" look, you'll probably want to use white thread.  You could purchase some denim-colored thread if you want it to match exactly. I just used what I had.

4. A piece of soft iron-on interfacing or a scrap piece of denim. 

You can cut your denim scrap from another pair of jeans that is too small or beyond repair.  You could also use an iron-on denim patch, but it won't be as soft, so you probably want to use the interfacing or soft denim if you are patching the crotch area.

Directions for mending blue jeans:

Cut a piece of soft interfacing that is slightly larger than the hole in your jeans. Iron it on to the inside of the jeans. Head to your sewing machine and on the outside of the jeans, start stitching back and forth -- like a zillion times. You can use a tight zig-zag stitch or you can use a straight stitch. Both worked. I kept my hand on the backstitch knob and just went back and forth over and over until the hole was filled in. That's it! It honestly took less than 10 minutes to repair one hole.

For more detailed instructions, click on the Essential Blue Jean Mending Method from Adventures in Dressmaking.  

Example #1-  Holes by back two pockets of my son's shorts:

Before

Ironed-on piece of soft interfacing on the inside of the jeans.

Another view of the ironed-on interfacing

After: Outside of the back of the shorts after they have been repaired (blue bobbin thread)

Another view of the back

Example #2: Hole next to the bottom pocket

Before: Small hole starting next to the pocket

The inside of the pocket showing the taupe bobbin thread and the interfacing

After: the outside of the pocket (with blue thread & taupe bobbin thread)

It was really easy to patch these jeans! Her tutorial will show you some other examples of ones that she has repaired. The hardest part was when the hole overlapped with a belt loop or pocket corner, since the fabric was much more bulky.  Go slowly when you hit sections like this. I broke two needles because I was a speed demon. What can I say?

Seriously, this is an easy project, and I believe that a beginner sewer could do it. You can't really mess it up too much, and even if you do, they were jeans with a hole in them that you were going to throw out. So, now I am off to scavenge through my drawers for more beloved jeans that need a bit of tender loving care. Happy sewing!

Watching Free TV and Movies Online

Disclaimer: Imfrugal.blogspot.com is not being compensated for any endorsement listed below and is not affiliated with any of the following mentioned companies or websites.

Why do this? Because it will save you a lot of money. (I can't know exactly what you pay, so you do have to do a bit of homework). Here's an exercise for you:

DO THIS FIRST:

1. Take the total amount you spend monthly for cable or satellite TV and multiply it by 12 to get what you pay annually for television.
2. Make sure to include the monthly price of each DVR you are renting from the cable or satellite company. DishNetwork is $6 per month and DirectTV is $7 per month per DVR.  If you have this from your cable company, include that, too. 
3. Make sure to include the regular price if you are looking at an "introductory offer." For example, DishNetwork offers an introductory rate of $19.99 for the first 12 months, with free installation if you have a 24 month contract. So, after the first 12 months, the rate goes up to $34.99 a month plus $6 per DVR. DirectTV has an introductory offer of $29.99, but that goes up to $58.99 after the first 12 months. Cable companies do the same thing, so make sure you are thinking of what it will cost you in 2011, 2012, etc. 

Now that you have your annual total,... breathe. lol  My annual total for just televsion (not internet) through the cable company was $852. That doesn't include my TiVo subscription for $120, for an annual total of $972. GASP!

A while ago, Lori posted this great idea for watching TV online with an Xbox 360. Here's a few more ways to watch TV online. If you use a search engine, you'll find that there are a lot of different websites for watching TV online. I looked at several of them, but I have tried to list the ones that didn't have scantily clad women in advertisements on the sidebar. If that doesn't bother you, then you can search for different websites, but I have kids in my house, and that is something that choose to not invite (if I can help it). Now, I can't promise that these websites I list won't end up using the similar advertising, but at the time I posted this, they were "clean."

Alternatives to Cable and Satellite:

Watch TV on Your Computer via High Speed Internet:

If you have high-speed internet, you can watch most cable/satellite channels online for free. Check out these websites:

www.hulu.com Most of you are probably pretty familiar with hulu. It's a great way to watch TV and get caught up on past episodes for free. 

www.spreety.com  So far, this one looks to be my favorite.At first glance, it looks to have a lot more titles than Hulu does. Basically Spreety has done the work for you and the format is very user friendly. You just type in the name of your show and it will link you to wherever that show can be watched on the web. You don't actually watch the shows on Spreety. For example, if you want to watch Dora the Explorer, it will take you right to the video for Dora on Nick Jr. Simple! 

www.fancast.com

www.casttv.com

www.freetvonline.com

Also, remember that you can watch TV online at the websites for most channels, such as abc.com, nbc.com, fox.com, history.com, cbs.com, usa.com, cartoonnetwork.com, etc.  Just type in the name of the channel. Can't find your show? Type in "____ free episodes online" at google and you'll probably be pleasantly surprised. 

If you decide to only watch TV online, your savings will be significant. You can simply cut your money spent for the television portion of your budget entirely. For my example of what I pay of cable, this would net a savings of $972 annually. Sweet!

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Antenna & Converter Box:

Purchase an antenna and converter box (if you need one) & run some coax cable.  If you have a newer TV, you may not need a converter box. Going with this method will cost about $100-200 for 2010, and nothing annually after that. It would be cheaper if you don't need a $50 converter box.  You can still watch TV online, but you could watch your local channels on your television. 

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Antenna & Netflix:

The cheapest Netflix package is $4.99 a month. This allows you to have one DVD at a time, but does not allow for instant streaming. So, while you can't watch Netflix instantly, you could watch TV instantly over your computer using the websites listed above and still have regular TV through your antenna (& converter box if you need one).  Keep in mind that you can rent DVDs from Netflix that are whole seasons of television shows such as Lost, 24, The Office, etc. 

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Antenna, unlimited Netflix & a Netflix-Ready Device:

For $8.99/month you can get one DVD at a time from Netflix and you can have unlimited instant streaming to your computer or a Netflix-ready device.  (There are other Netflix packages to choose from that allow more DVDs at one time).  I believe all of these devices require a high speed internet connection. Some TV shows are not available for instant streaming over Netflix, but you could get the season on DVD or you could watch those epsiodes online using one of the websites listed above.

Netflix ready devices include:

• Xbox 360 - ($199 MRSP) You must also have a high speed internet connection and a subscription to Xbox LIVE Gold (about $39.99 a month).
• PlayStation3 (PS3)- You need a PS3, an unlimited Netflix plan and a Netflix PS3 disc, which you get for FREE from Netflix. Retails for about $299.
• Wii (this should be available via Netflix sometime in Spring 2010). You don't need anything else besides your Wii and a free instant streaming disc from Netflix to make this application work.
• Roku Digital Video Player ($79 MSRP)
• Insignia Connected Blu-Ray Players ($179 MSRP), LG Network Blu-Ray Players ($299 MSRP), Samsung Network Blu-Ray players ($299 MSRP) and Sony Network Blu-Ray players ($249 MRSP).
• LG HDTVs with Netcast Broadband, Sony Bravia LCD HDTVs featuring Bravia Internet Video, and VIZIO XVT Series HDTVs with VIZIO Internet Apps (VIA). 
• TiVo HD DVR - you also need to pay an annual subscription fee which is about $120 a year. There's a video on how this works if you click the link and scroll down a bit.
• LG Network Blu-Ray Home Theater Systems & Samsung Network Blu-Ray Home Theater Systems.

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An alternative to Netflix is the Playstation Network.

Playstation Network 

You need to have a PS3 for this. Through the Playstation Netowrk TV and Movie Downloads, you rent or purchase TV and movies through your PS3. So, you need to keep in mind that you still have to pay for the shows you watch. If you rent the video or movie, you have a limited time to watch it, and then it removes itself from your PS3 system memory.

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So, do a bit of homework, add up your totals and see how much you can save.  My husband was very resistant to the idea of changing from cable TV until I created a spreadsheet to show all the different options and how much each method would cost/save. At first he was in denial about how much we actually spent for cable TV, lol.  But once he saw cold, hard numbers, it was hard to not give it some serious consideration.  He was resistant to giving up Dora the Explorer for our daughter, but I convinced him that I can purchase some Dora DVDs for a lot cheaper than we spend paying for cable. :) 

If you know of other great sites for watching TV online or you have other methods for saving $$ on television, please comment and let us know. I'd also love to know how much you saved if you cut your cable/satellite.  Here's to being frugal!