Frugal

I touched on hitchhiking in a previous post, but felt that it deserved a deeper treatment than I gave it at the time.
For those not familiar with the term, hitchhiking refers to getting rides, for free, from generous motorists who have a free seat and are willing to take you to (or at least closer [...]

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The Bag Lady recently posted about Daniel Suelo, a man who has “quit using money like a bad drug“. I always find people, like Charles Long, Don Schrader or the Freegans to be interesting in their ability to opt-out of the Western economic and social system and chart their own course, living how they [...]

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I’ve written in the past about people like Charles Long and Don Schrader who make me seem like I should be called Mr. Spendthrift, not Mr. Cheap.  An entire group who also makes me look like I’m throwing money around like a drunken sailor are the Freegans.  At our recent get together, neither Preet [...]

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My apologies again for anyone who tried to comment on the “Bedtime Stories” post.  Somehow I managed to turn off comments on it.
A couple of times I’ve referred to a trip across Europe I took after my second year of my undergraduate degree.  I was originally inspired to take the trip after Gil White [...]

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I’ve been finding that it’s increasingly difficult to even understand, let alone benefit from, the “deals” that are being offered by stores.  It’s apparently a Canadian thing (according to a friend in the US), but we regularly get coupons for fast food.  It’ll be something like a free fry and drink, if you buy a [...]

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With two little people around the house, Easter is a time of fun.  Here is one of the ways we enjoyed ourselves.  We made edible art out of eggs and some onion skins we had collected the last couple of weeks.

Collect onion skins.
Wrap the eggs in onion skin.  For varied patterns, add smaller bits [...]

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I was really impressed with the comments and discussion when a post on VOIP services (and specifically Vonage) generated a lively discussion last year.  Along similar lines, I’d be very interested in what people have been using for their ISP in Canada, especially anyone based in Ontario.
I used Bell years ago, and without fail they [...]

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With the economy in a downturn, this year more than ever the pressure is on to find cheap gifts for loved ones.  Luckily, this is Mr. Cheap’s forté, so without further ado may I present the 2008 edition of the “Four Pillars’ Last Minute Cheap Gift Guide”.

Pine Cone Bird Feeder:  A perennial favourite, this feeder [...]

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There’s a wave of frugality going through the world, as people are worried about jobs and money in light of a looming recession.  I’m amazed at how people have developed the expectation that spending $65 monthly (or far more) on a TV subscription is a “necessity”.  Possibly this attitude will be re-examined in the [...]

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One of my uncles (by marriage) loves to gamble.  He doesn’t bet the mortgage payment at the horse track or anything like that, but if there’s a possibility to win money, his eyes light up. One of the meanest presents I’ve ever given was a fake lottery ticket I put in his stocking.  After scratching [...]

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I wrote last week about the value, as I see it, of keeping track of things in order to make changes in your life. While a common refrain in personal finance is to spend less than you earn, its obviously quite difficult for people to do so. I think part of the reason [...]

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We have a ritual in the Cheap clan.  Whenever a member is “nearing the end”, we all gather around the matriarch or patriarch.  They’ll look each of us deeply in the eye to convey the gravity of the situation, then when their hour approaches, hold the gaze of a younger member of the clan (who [...]

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Everyone is familiar with the idea that a new car loses value the instant you drive it off of the lot. Having it sit there shiny and new is worth something that disappears when you make the purchase. A number of other products have this same property, although we sometimes delude ourselves into [...]

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As much as I love owning a car, I absolutely hate paying for maintenance and especially repairs. I bought my current vehicle brand new so I decided that for the first few years I would get the regular maintenance done at the dealership since it probably won’t need any repairs. After that I [...]

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For some reason EVERYONE seems to have had powdered milk when they were a kid and HATED it. I have no idea when or where I tried it, I just remember that it tasted like evil. As I mentioned in a previous post, I’m reading “The Complete Tightwad Gazette”, and one of the [...]

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As much as I love to save money, something I’m embarrassed to admit is that I never bother with coupons. I’ll grudgingly submit rebates (I hate them though, just sell me the thing cheaper please), but coupons have always seemed like more trouble then they’re worth.
Every so often you read about a coupon queen [...]

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I started running regularly a few months ago and really enjoy the exercise. However, since our second child was born, I’ve had a really difficult time getting out jogging. It’s hard to run during the day since I am usually looking after my son (the older one) and at night I often help [...]

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I’m a big fan of exercise in order to stay in shape. One of the things that I try to do is to get some exercise doing normal chores around the house so that I can increase my fitness without having spend extra time or money going to a gym. A great way [...]

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Much like my recent post on finding extra income if you’re poor and unskilled, this post is about methods for reducing your expenses, which SHOULD be possible for most people. If you’re not doing any of the things listed, and *still* have trouble getting by on your salary (which is at least equivalent to [...]

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This Sunday is Mother’s Day and if you are anything like me then you are probably wondering what to get her and how to get it without spending too much money. I’ve come up with a few suggestions – keep in mind this list is intended more for Mom as in your mom, not [...]

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My mother recently went on vacation to Spain with one of our distant relatives from England. During the course of the trip, it turned out our relative is deep in credit card debt. She split up with her husband (of over 20 years) and has been struggling to get by on jobs that [...]

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I was down in Niagara Falls last weekend and decided to do a little cross border shopping. I’ve always been curious as to what the cost would be to exceed the exemption on alcohol. With this in mind I bought a 12 pack of beer and a 1.75 L bottle of bourbon.
The bourbon [...]

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Quite a while ago I was planning a post on living without owning a car, and a bunch of posts on the subject hit the blogosphere. Enough time has passed that there might be interest in kicking the topic around again.
I’m in my early 30’s, have had my driver’s license since I was 16, [...]

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NOTE: This is not a post about Wal-Mart. I like Wal-Mart and will preferentially shop there.
Obviously with a name like Mr. Cheap, I like to get a good deal. I understand other people who want to get a good deal. What I don’t totally get is people who want a cut-rate [...]

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I’m often perplexed when, to comfort someone else, friends suggest to do something “because you deserve it” or reassure them that “good things are coming your way, you deserve it!”. I understand in situations where someone gets to make choices for us where deserving may come into play. Apparently when Apple was taking [...]

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After my second year of university I did the cliche “tour of Europe”. I managed to spend 4 months on the continent for $5K, including airfare (and saw 23 countries or so in a whirlwind tour). The cost of travel always seems to be dropping, and it seems to be one of [...]

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As a reward for reading me all these long months (and following me when I upscaled and moved into Mike’s crib), I’m finally going to pull back the veil and provide 3 mind tricks to become cheap. I love little ideas that can give you a totally new way to evaluate the world (things [...]

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While digging through the I Will Teach You To Be Rich archives, I came across an interesting post about Cheap versus Frugal.
Although I am *MISTER* cheap, I’m actually quite hurt when someone I care about says something that implies I’m cheap. Amusingly, I actually don’t mind if they CALL me cheap. An insight [...]

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After a lively discussion broke out in my “About” section where Money Gardener and Four Pillars were shocked at how cheap Mr. Cheap really is, I figured it might be time to update my cost of living calculations.
My monthly fixed costs are the same:
Rent – $440 (half of $880 rent paid by gf on 1 [...]

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Canadian Capitalist wrote an excellent post about the cost of children. As someone who doesn’t have children (and doesn’t really expect to) you might think I wouldn’t have anything to add on this topic.
You’d be wrong.
An interesting article I came across (sorry, can’t find it again to provide a link) was about the idea [...]

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I’ve been amazed at how much I’ve been able to save on my food spending. By simply taking my lunch every day and eating at home more often at night (and shopping at No-Frills), I’ve cut my food spending from ~$21 / day to ~$14 / day. Ideally I’d like to get it [...]

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I’m trying to “put my money where my mouth is” (or maybe change the money going into my mouth) and pull back on my food spending a bit. I packed my lunch for the first time yesterday and brought two tuna and mustard sandwiches (mustard as a healthier alternative to mayo), a bag [...]

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I’ve been tracking my daily spending (basically every time I buy anything I make a note in a notebook I carry around with me. As mentioned previously, I’m spending far more then I thought I was, especially on food.
I’ve tracked spending from May 7th to May 26th I seem to be spending on average [...]

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