Showing posts with label frugal friday. Show all posts
Showing posts with label frugal friday. Show all posts
Friday, February 12, 2010
Frugal Friday
So.....if you are an aivd reader of my blog (all 2 people) - maybe you've noticed that I haven't been very diligent in writing my Frugal Friday posts. Um, yeah. Basically I keep forgetting about it! I think I am going to change it to being a monthly post instead of a weekly post. This may help me keep up with it a little better!
Saturday, January 30, 2010
Frugal Friday
Technically I started this post on Friday and since I was out of the office most of the day, I have a great excuse for not posting it yet....but at least I didn't forget this week!
-There are two different Trolley Hops offered in the Ville - both free - both on Friday nights. Fat Friday Trolley Hop is on the last Friday of each month and runs in the Mellwood Ave./Frankfort Ave. areas. The First Friday Trolley Hop is the first Friday of every month and runs through downtown. Each hop stops at several Art Galleries, Shops and Restaurants....and you ride the trolleys for free!
-The Speed Art Museum on the campus of UofL offers free viewings of it's permanent collection.
-Thunder Over Louisville is the Nation's largest fireworks show and it's right here in the Ville and better yet - it's free! Although the experience is unlike any other, you don't have to trek down to the Great Lawn for a good view. This show is so big that you can see it from lots of places around the city.
-Light Up Louisville - Free event featuring Santa and the Mayor lighting the Ville's huge Christmas tree. There's always live music and festival booths set up for browsing.
-Free Concerts - the Ville offers several opportunities to attend a concert for free (although you may have to pay to park). Check out these links for more: Kroger's Fest-a-Ville, Waterfront Wednesdays and the KY State Fair all boast free concerts throughout the year.
-St. James Art Fair - This is such an attended event that they acutally cancel school! It's been rumored that this day has become an inservice day for area schools because so many teachers take off to go to it.. True or not, the event is always a crowd pleaser and it's free to browse!
-City of Parks - the Ville has 124 parks to explore and enjoy! Go! Explore! Enjoy!
-Waterfront Park - Even though this is included in the Ville's 124 parks listed above, it definitely deserves it's own spot on the list. Enjoy 55 acres of grass, trails, fountains and playgrounds on the banks of the Ohio River with the Louisville Skyline as your backdrop.
-Bardstown Road Shops - You'll be entertained for hours on this stretch road in the Highlands. Lots of eclectic shops, people and restaurants. Grab a spot to sit and people-watch or have fun riffling through records at fun shops such as Ear-x-tacy.
-Go see the Big Bat. The world's largest baseball bat is right here in the Ville. It's outside and completely free to see. Take your picture with it. While you're there, I highly suggest a tour of the bat facotry and museum (which do cost money), but if you want to go totally free, you can see into a few parts of the factory from the windows that line the street....although it's not the same, you'll get the gist.
Whatever town you live in, I'm sure there are always free things to do and free places to visit - just do a little research and I'm sure you can find them. Finding free things to do definitely saves money! Happy Frugal Findings!
Top 10 Free Ways to Have Fun! (the Ville Edition)
(In No Particular Order)
-There are two different Trolley Hops offered in the Ville - both free - both on Friday nights. Fat Friday Trolley Hop is on the last Friday of each month and runs in the Mellwood Ave./Frankfort Ave. areas. The First Friday Trolley Hop is the first Friday of every month and runs through downtown. Each hop stops at several Art Galleries, Shops and Restaurants....and you ride the trolleys for free!
-The Speed Art Museum on the campus of UofL offers free viewings of it's permanent collection.
-Thunder Over Louisville is the Nation's largest fireworks show and it's right here in the Ville and better yet - it's free! Although the experience is unlike any other, you don't have to trek down to the Great Lawn for a good view. This show is so big that you can see it from lots of places around the city.
-Light Up Louisville - Free event featuring Santa and the Mayor lighting the Ville's huge Christmas tree. There's always live music and festival booths set up for browsing.
-Free Concerts - the Ville offers several opportunities to attend a concert for free (although you may have to pay to park). Check out these links for more: Kroger's Fest-a-Ville, Waterfront Wednesdays and the KY State Fair all boast free concerts throughout the year.
-St. James Art Fair - This is such an attended event that they acutally cancel school! It's been rumored that this day has become an inservice day for area schools because so many teachers take off to go to it.. True or not, the event is always a crowd pleaser and it's free to browse!
-City of Parks - the Ville has 124 parks to explore and enjoy! Go! Explore! Enjoy!
-Waterfront Park - Even though this is included in the Ville's 124 parks listed above, it definitely deserves it's own spot on the list. Enjoy 55 acres of grass, trails, fountains and playgrounds on the banks of the Ohio River with the Louisville Skyline as your backdrop.
-Bardstown Road Shops - You'll be entertained for hours on this stretch road in the Highlands. Lots of eclectic shops, people and restaurants. Grab a spot to sit and people-watch or have fun riffling through records at fun shops such as Ear-x-tacy.
-Go see the Big Bat. The world's largest baseball bat is right here in the Ville. It's outside and completely free to see. Take your picture with it. While you're there, I highly suggest a tour of the bat facotry and museum (which do cost money), but if you want to go totally free, you can see into a few parts of the factory from the windows that line the street....although it's not the same, you'll get the gist.
Whatever town you live in, I'm sure there are always free things to do and free places to visit - just do a little research and I'm sure you can find them. Finding free things to do definitely saves money! Happy Frugal Findings!
Monday, January 25, 2010
Frugal Friday
Stink! I forgot about Frugal Friday last week - again!! I think on Fridays my brain is numb or it's already enjoying the weekend or something. So, here's Frugal Friday on Monday...again!
Say No to Credit Cards!
One way I make sure not to spend too much is by not using Credit Cards. I have one, for those really extreme emergencies, but I do not make a habit out of using it. In fact, most of the time, my Credit Card is locked in a file cabinet instead of being in my purse so I'm not tempted! What does this have to do with being Frugal you ask? Well, if you simply don't use Credit Cards, you save yourself lots of money in monthly interest fees (unless you are disciplined enough to pay off the total amount every month it comes in). Also with a credit card, one typically spends more than they normally would. When something goes onto a Credit Card, it's easy to put the next thing on there too and before they know it, they're thousands of dollars in debt!
The moral of this story, is simple....if you don't have the cash to pay for it, don't buy it. Whether it's something for yourself, a gift for someone else or something you just don't want to wait to buy - don't buy it if you don't have the money already on hand.
Need some extra cash for something?
-Have a yard sale or try selling an item on Craigslist or ebay (save money by saying it's pick-up only instead of mailing it). I've known people that go to yard sales and buy things very cheap and then clean them up and re-sell them on ebay for more! And seriously - people will buy anything!!
-Get a part-time job (I worked at my church for one night a week for about 6 months cleaning and doing odds and ends and earned an extra $100-$150 a month). My church also frequently needs score-keepers for softball and basketball - a very easy way to make some extra dough!
-Sell your plasma - seriously, people make extra cash this way!
-Decide which luxuries you might not need: If you don't ever use that gym membership, stop paying for it; Make your own coffee at home instead of that expensive run to Starbucks; You don't watch all 1,500 cable channels? Downgrade your cable or cancel it altogether. Think of simple ways you can cut-back to have extra money each month....it really adds up!
-Sell your talents. Is there something you are good at that you could teach and/or do for others? Make some money off it!
Saying no to using Credit Cards isn't always easy. It makes you live differently, but you can have a great outcome! Good luck and happy saving!
Monday, January 18, 2010
Frugal Friday
I completely forgot about Frugal Friday last week, so here's it is!
Budgeting:
Once I graduated college, my dad taught me his budgeting system and I have kept to it since then and plan to the rest of my life. It works great!
It's similar to Dave Ramsey's Envelope System except that I don't stash actual cash in envelopes somewhere, I use a binder and notebook paper to keep track of all my money and I leave the actual money in the bank (this just seems safer to me than having lots of cash around the house).
Here's the basic system:
I get paid twice a month, so I split each monthly bill I get in half. Half of each bill comes out of every paycheck I get. I also guesstimate how much I will spend on items that are not "bills" but still must be paid for every month and take out half of those amounts from each paycheck as well. I like this system because I always have money in my account for everything that I have to pay for.
Let me give you an example:
Say "John Doe's" paycheck is $800 and he gets paid twice a month making it $1600/month. His Apartment Rent is $650/month, Utilities are $150/month, Cell Phone is $50/month, Food/Toiletries are $150/month, Gas for Driving is $100/month, he'd like $100 of Fun Money/month and he'd like to save $100/month.
John Doe would write out on a different piece of paper each category (ie, rent, utilities, etc...), then each time he got paid, he would add half of the total monthly bill amount to each category and subtract it from his running total:
+$800 Paycheck
-$325 Rent (half)
- $75 Utilities (half)
- $25 Cell Phone (half)
- $75 Food/Toiletries (half)
- $50 Gas (half)
- $50 Fun Money (half)
- $50 Savings (half)
___________________________
$150 Left Over
You can see how all of John Doe's bills/incidentals are covered each month and yet he still has plenty ($150/paycheck or $300/month) left to decide what to do with. Of course this is just an example, I know that there are plenty more bills that people have to pay, but it shows you how you can budget and yet still have extra left over each month to use for more savings, fun or to bless someone else.
I actually budget every single bit of my money every month (until I have allocated my entire paycheck somewhere) so I do not have any surprises later (and any extra I have goes into savings). I budget for things that might come up such as Doctor Visits, Car Troubles, Birthday and Wedding Presents, Vacations and Scrapbooking.....that way when something comes up like my car breaking down, I already have a fund set up so I don't go in the hole trying to pay for it.....or for that trip to Hobby Lobby when I didn't realize Scrapbooking items were half off!
Also, another reason I budget all my money to a category is because once that category is empty for that pay period (such as the Food/Toiletries category and the Fun Money category), I'm done spending out of that category and I have to make due until the next paycheck. It's one way to keep myself accountable and not overspend. But the good news is that I don't have to wait an entire month for more money (since I add to my budget twice a month), I just have to wait for my next paycheck.
Hopefully this was helpful to someone out there, I know it has been a great thing for me to do. If the system wasn't entirely clear, feel free to leave me a comment and I'll explain further.
Once last tip: make sure you sit down every few days with your receipts and paid bills to subtract them from your budget so you don't overspend a category. Also, I like to take out cash for some things like Food/Toiletires and Fun Money so that I can better keep up with how much I've spent and not accidentally overspend because I'm using my debit card.
Budgeting:
Once I graduated college, my dad taught me his budgeting system and I have kept to it since then and plan to the rest of my life. It works great!
It's similar to Dave Ramsey's Envelope System except that I don't stash actual cash in envelopes somewhere, I use a binder and notebook paper to keep track of all my money and I leave the actual money in the bank (this just seems safer to me than having lots of cash around the house).
Here's the basic system:
I get paid twice a month, so I split each monthly bill I get in half. Half of each bill comes out of every paycheck I get. I also guesstimate how much I will spend on items that are not "bills" but still must be paid for every month and take out half of those amounts from each paycheck as well. I like this system because I always have money in my account for everything that I have to pay for.
Let me give you an example:
Say "John Doe's" paycheck is $800 and he gets paid twice a month making it $1600/month. His Apartment Rent is $650/month, Utilities are $150/month, Cell Phone is $50/month, Food/Toiletries are $150/month, Gas for Driving is $100/month, he'd like $100 of Fun Money/month and he'd like to save $100/month.
John Doe would write out on a different piece of paper each category (ie, rent, utilities, etc...), then each time he got paid, he would add half of the total monthly bill amount to each category and subtract it from his running total:
+$800 Paycheck
-$325 Rent (half)
- $75 Utilities (half)
- $25 Cell Phone (half)
- $75 Food/Toiletries (half)
- $50 Gas (half)
- $50 Fun Money (half)
- $50 Savings (half)
___________________________
$150 Left Over
You can see how all of John Doe's bills/incidentals are covered each month and yet he still has plenty ($150/paycheck or $300/month) left to decide what to do with. Of course this is just an example, I know that there are plenty more bills that people have to pay, but it shows you how you can budget and yet still have extra left over each month to use for more savings, fun or to bless someone else.
I actually budget every single bit of my money every month (until I have allocated my entire paycheck somewhere) so I do not have any surprises later (and any extra I have goes into savings). I budget for things that might come up such as Doctor Visits, Car Troubles, Birthday and Wedding Presents, Vacations and Scrapbooking.....that way when something comes up like my car breaking down, I already have a fund set up so I don't go in the hole trying to pay for it.....or for that trip to Hobby Lobby when I didn't realize Scrapbooking items were half off!
Also, another reason I budget all my money to a category is because once that category is empty for that pay period (such as the Food/Toiletries category and the Fun Money category), I'm done spending out of that category and I have to make due until the next paycheck. It's one way to keep myself accountable and not overspend. But the good news is that I don't have to wait an entire month for more money (since I add to my budget twice a month), I just have to wait for my next paycheck.
Hopefully this was helpful to someone out there, I know it has been a great thing for me to do. If the system wasn't entirely clear, feel free to leave me a comment and I'll explain further.
Once last tip: make sure you sit down every few days with your receipts and paid bills to subtract them from your budget so you don't overspend a category. Also, I like to take out cash for some things like Food/Toiletires and Fun Money so that I can better keep up with how much I've spent and not accidentally overspend because I'm using my debit card.
Friday, January 8, 2010
Frugal Friday
I'd like to start a new series for 2010 on my blog called "Frugal Friday." 2009 was a year of vacations for me! I took several trips - both flying and driving - to many destinations. This year, I'll have to tighten my purse strings a bit and focus on ways to save money and reuse/re-purpose items.
What many of my friends do not know yet is that I have purchased a house! Yes, I am once again taking the plunge. I have purchased a home right here in the Ville that is very close to where I work. So this fuels my need to keep a closer eye on my finances. I was blessed this last year to be able to live with a friend (and now my parents) after selling my first house, so my living costs were pretty minimal, making it possible for me to go to so many great places in 2009.
Not to say that I won't spend money on things or won't eat out some or won't take a road trip or two, but I'd like to spend a little less and save a little more this year. So, my Frugal Friday posts will be a way to document this and keep me accountable and aware of my spending....and maybe give anyone who reads my blog some ideas too.
I'll post some pics of my new house (I won't be moving in until late February) and the decision to stay put here in the Ville at a later date, but for now - enjoy my first Frugal Friday Post!
I got into the bad habit at work of going out to eat almost every single day for lunch. Although it is nice to get out of the office for an hour, go laugh with my co-workers and to have the food prepared for me, this is a very costly habit (not to mention the unnecessary calories!). Each lunch was an average of about $8-10, plus a tip!
So my solution for eating out was to make sure I have several options to choose from if I stayed in instead (or going out would continue to look better than staying in!). This picture shows what's hiding in the drawers beneath my desk at work.
The left side are 100 calorie Pringle Packs and a variety of potato chips (okay, not the healthiest, but let's take this one step at a time!). On the right in the top drawer are oatmeal packets (for breakfast) and protein bars (for when I hit the gym). The next two drawers down are Chef Boyardee canned pastas and several different types of soups. Like I said, I will work on the healthy part as I go, but for now I am just concentrating on not eating out (which is already saving some calories) and not getting bored with my lunch options. So for a fraction of the cost (about $45), I'll eat lunch for a month for what it would have cost me to eat lunch out every day for just a week.
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