Hi everyone! Today I wanted to let you know that I'm expanding my Youtube channel. I have been working on some improvements over the past few days, and added a few non-grocery-haul videos that you may be interested in.


For All You Visual Folks...

My goal over the summer is to upload as many videos as possible in order to add a visual element to my blog. I'm certainly no TV personality, but some of the concepts I discuss here are just better seen in person than read about. I'm also hoping to expand on concepts and techniques that I talk about in The Housewife's Guide to Frugal Food.

If you are a Youtube viewer and enjoy watching my videos, please don't hesitate to "like" and subscribe to my channel. Thanks!

-Bethany

Okay, so it's a new-to-us car. But compared to what we WERE driving (see the picture above), it might as well be brand new. I think it's interesting how each family has a different approach to vehicles. Some drive old beaters, some drive brand new cars but keep them for 20 years, some people buy a new used car every few years, and some people hold on to leased cars or cars on payments, for whatever reason. Some people don't have any car at all, which is totally cool!

Living in the country, in Michigan, has its advantages, but having a 10 mile distance between you and town is not one of them. So, we drive cars. And trucks, and motorcycles. If it's a nice day, I will ride my bike within a radius of five or six miles.


Our Automotive History

Until last spring, we were essentially a one-car family. That's not including the motorcycle, or the old sports car that Hubs has (we don't drive it very often... like, a few times per year). So mostly we drove around the big diesel truck that Hubs used for work. During the winter of 2014/15, we purchased a car for $6000.00 and drove that around for a few months. When springtime came, Hubs re-sold the car for $6000.00.

When Hubs hired someone to do deliveries for him, we discovered that our primary vehicle was gone quite often! There were a few times when Mr. Delivery would pull in with the truck and trailer, and Hubs would quick unhook the trailer so we could leave in the truck. That was not a good system.

Hubs, being the resourceful man that he is, literally pulled an old car out of the weeds in our backyard. It was a manual transmission, 1991 Saturn that he drove several years prior (and probably hadn't drove since). To his surprise, the thing actually started up! He drove up by the house, loud and proud.  But I noticed that something was wrong with the car. The back two wheels weren't turning. Instead, they left deep ruts in the yard as Hubs dragged along. "I think there's something wrong with the back wheels," I said.

"Oh, they're just locked up. I'm sure they will loosen up after a little bit of driving!" He pulled out of the driveway, onto the black top, and headed down the road... leaving two dark black tire marks behind him. He came back not as confident as he left. "Well, I guess I will need to work on it a bit."

To his delight and my amazement, the car did loosen up after an afternoon of work and test-driving. I was still scared to ride with him, though. I mean, it was the car from the weeds. The speedometer didn't work, the headliner was falling down in my face, and as we drove along, pieces of plastic interior would start to rattle, making it hard to hear each other. I asked him how many miles the car had, and he said he didn't know. The odometer quit working before he got it. Every now and then, the putrid odor of feces would come through the heat/air vents. "What is that smell?" I asked him.

"Oh, I think there's a mouse nest under the hood. I'll have to look at that."

Eventually I "learned" to drive the car; everything from buckling my two-part seat belt, rolling down the window so it wouldn't get stuck, maneuvering with powerless power steering (which is worse than no power steering at all!) and guessing my speed by RPMs. I actually came to like the little car. It was a lot smaller than the truck with fewer blind spots, plus it got better gas mileage. I think.


Time For an Upgrade

Alas, the time came late this winter when I was ready for an upgrade. After several longish trips without heat (Hubs corrected me; the heat worked, but the fan that blew the heat did not work) in the dead of winter, I had made up my mind that we wouldn't drive it through another December. "The fan works," Hubs said. "You just have to plug in that wire under the dash. On your side. It should work if you make sure it's plugged in." After feeling around for several minutes hunched over and getting carsick, I found the plug and plugged it in. Still nothing.

Several weeks later, we were caught in a storm on the freeway. All of a sudden, Hubs' windshield wiper came completely OFF the windshield and started flapping against the driver side window. He thought it was funny. I didn't think it was very funny. Thankfully we reached our destination with limited visibility.

I think the flapping windshield wiper was really the straw that broke the camel's back for me. I could live with the broken speedometer, ratty interior (pun intended) and no power steering. But I had no desire to be a backseat mechanic, just wondering what would stop working next. I didn't like driving it at night because the "brights" were more like fog lights on a normal vehicle. One blinker still didn't work. It was time for an upgrade, for real. 

​
A New (Used) Car

When we go car shopping, we try to stay away from the dealerships and just use Craigslist. Hubs has enough mechanical understanding to spot major problems, and most owners are pretty honest. Hubs loves looking for cars, so he made it his part-time job for a few weeks to find a new car for us.

In the end, we bought a 2011 Impala for $4050.00 after taxes/fees. It is a newer car by our standards, but has a lot of miles; hence the lower price tag. Thus far, we are very happy with our new automobile! It has heated seats and a remote start (awesome for Michiganders), as well as the elements I had requested: a working speedometer, working power steering, no rattling interior, no poop smell, heat that works, and one-step seat belts! It also has an automatic transmission and functioning no-crank windows, which is a bonus.

"Do you realize," I asked Hubs, "that we made a 20-year leap in cars? Most people will upgrade by five or ten years, but we upgraded by 20 years!"

"Yeah. That's pretty cool," Hubs replied.


Frugality vs. Safety and Risk

I realize that not everyone is going to drive a free car that they pulled from the weeds. But honestly, I am kind of going to miss driving around our Saturn. It was so... frugal.

There comes a time when frugality competes with safety, and safety wins. Each person and family must decide for themselves what is "safe", because definitions for that word vary so much. Some people think eating soybean oil is dangerous. Some people think going to Mexico is dangerous. Some people think going to Detroit is dangerous. I am a firm, firm believer that safety is relative. It changes with every decade and physical location. Back in the day, toxic pesticides were used freely. Even today, many European countries have banned GMO crops while we Americans are partaking freely- even celebrating them*. 

Obviously, when opinions differ on what is safe and what isn't, arguments can occur. Judging can occur. The self-appointed safety police come out of the woodwork and make the risk-takers feel bad. Meanwhile, the risk-takers start mocking the safety police for being such prudes. Oh dear, what a hornet's nest.

Any frugal person will probably face the safety vs. frugality issue at one point or another. That is YOUR decision to make for your family; not anyone else's. My encouragement is to carefully evaluate risk vs. benefit (whether that is financial or something else) and make an educated decision that you can be proud of. 

Note: There was another reason we bought the car, too. I talked about that in my last email newsletter! You can subscribe to my monthly newsletter here.

**While I do partake, I wouldn't go so far as to celebrate GMOs.

Hi everyone! As I was doing research for a book on buying produce, I decided to see how my state, Michigan, ranked in terms of grocery costs. This excellent study shoes the 2016 cost of living in each state- not only overall, but also in terms of groceries, housing, utilities, health, and miscellaneous costs. If you get a chance to look, I would encourage you to check it out!

Using the information from that study, I made a spreadsheet of estimated grocery costs for each state. You can see the state in the left column. "Percentage of Average Grocery Cost" beside each state shows how that state ranks according to average (not in terms of spending, but cost of living in the food department). I was surprised to see that Michigan (highlighted yellow) came in fourth place as the cheapest state for groceries! South Dakota (highlighted orange) is about average. 

$10.00 Per Week: Is It Enough?

The next two columns had to do with my own $10.00/wk grocery budget. It's unfair to hold Hawaiians and Alaskans to my $10.00 per week standard, but what SHOULD their grocery budget goal be, if not $10.00 per week?

Even though Michigan is the fourth cheapest state to grocery shop in, it is only 10% below average. I set my average budget, then, at $11.00 and punched in that formula for all of the other states. The cheapest state, Idaho, came out at only $9.39 per week. The most expensive state, Hawaii, came out to $17.05 per week. So technically, Frugal Food should have a different subtitle for each state. "How to Eat for $9.85 per Week in Texas" or "How to Eat for $15.08 per Week In Alaska".

The sad news (something I didn't realize when I published the book) is that $10.00 per week is probably a touch too low for 95% of the states, according to cost of living alone. "How to Eat for $13.00 per Week" would have been more accurate, and covered all states except Connecticut, Alaska, and Hawaii. Those states would still need their own book. :)

The GOOD NEWS is that most while most people might not make it on $10.00 per week, they could make it on a few dollars more using the same principles and techniques I talk about in my book. If I can do it, I know that others can as well.


Produce for the Non-Gardeners

My last column, "Additional Produce" had to do with a new book project; how to buy produce for $5.00 per week. This is a little booklet I'm working on for all of the non-gardeners* out there. Again I plugged in the numbers according to each state's ranking. Again, my Michigan standard was a bit below most of the other states. A more accurate estimation would be $6.00 per week for a majority of the states. $7.00 would cover all states except the three I mentioned before.
​

Where are you from? Do you think the chart and/or study is accurate?

*The word "garden" does not imply 100% free produce. Even though I do have a garden, my $10.00 per person spending still includes carrots, potatoes, and onions. It also includes the occasional purchase of other produce items I don't grow. Just wanted to clarify that! Some people seem to think that $10.00 per week does not include any produce, which isn't the case. However, my new book project is for people who must purchase ALL of their produce and aren't interested in gardening or foraging in order to lower food spending.

**Another note: most of the time, higher cost of living comes with a higher average income. This should cover the few extra dollars required for higher cost of living states.

So, I have a confession to make. 

I went to an MLM party. I know, I know- bad frugal move. But it was with you- my readers- in mind! I thought I would buy a real MLM product, and then compare it with a similar (half the price) Walmart product and share my findings.


Which Company to Chose?

Wow. Did I want candles, or essential oils, or handbags, or lotions, or nutritional supplements or cleaning products? Memberships or recurring monthly purchases were out of the question, so I decided to go to a friend's Lemongrass Spa party. Lemongrass Spa offers natural personal care products like lotions, shampoos, makeup, etc. 

The party was fun, of course, because a lot of my friends were there. Plus there were nice snacks. Also, I had chosen to buy a product before I went, so that decision was already made. We all enjoyed ourselves, sniffing and trying all that Lemongrass had to offer.

I decided to buy a jar of sugar scrub because I really liked the pomegranate scent. I'd never used sugar scrubs before, so I thought it would be a great product to compare. Total cost for the 8 oz. jar, with $4.00 shipping, was about $22.00.


Buying the Competition

For the competing product, I had to chose something all-natural otherwise it wouldn't be a fair comparison. So I found the natural beauty section at Walmart and looked for some sugar scrubs. Burt's Bees had an 8 oz. container, and it was even labeled "Cranberry & Pomegranate". That would be perfect, because I could compare the scent as well as ingredients and feel, etc.

As soon as we got home, I opened the Burt's Bees scrub. It smelled so wonderful. At $13.00, it was a steal compared to the Lemongrass stuff. I loved how it made my face feel fresh after a shower, and the oil rehydrated my skin so it didn't flake off after so much hot water. 

​
The Final Comparison

It took several weeks, but finally I got my Lemongrass scrub. It came in a little green bag that I thought was so cute. Somehow, though, a bit of oil had leaked through the seal and got on the inside of the bag. But at least it smelled good.

The moment of truth had come. I opened the jar and took a big whiff. Oh my- it was just as lovely as I had remembered! I splashed some water on my face to try it out. This scrub was a little more oily than Burt's Bees, but it made my face feel all satiny smooth. Like a baby's butt, but it smelled a whole lot better. ;)

Then I got out the Burt's Bees and put the two products side by side. I sniffed each one. First the Lemongrass, then the Burt's. I had my heart set on proclaiming Burt's the winner (because it was cheaper), but my heart sank a little when I realized that I liked the Lemongrass scent better. They were both nice-smelling, but I preferred the Lemongrass. Then I had Hubs close his eyes, and then waved both jars under his nose.

"Which one do you like better?" I asked. He sniffed. Then he asked to smell each one again. I was getting a little nervous.

"It's hard to decide," he said, "because they both smell good. But I think I like the second one better." So, Lemongrass had won in the scent department.

But what about functionality?

Still determined to declare Burt's the winner, I compared the consistency and feel of each scrub. Again, Lemongrass was superior. Burt's Bees felt more sticky than smooth. This prompted me to check the ingredients on the back of each jar. I had expected to see almost identical ingredients, but the Burt's jar contained more cheap oils like soybean (first ingredient after sugar), olive and sunflower oils. The Lemongrass jar, on the other hand, listed finer oils like sweet almond oil (second ingredient after sugar), apricot kernel oil, and mango butter.

So despite my initial hypothesis, I had to declare Lemongrass Spa the winner, and Burt's Bees the lower priced (but lower quality) honorable mention.


Does This Mean Bethany Will Start Buying MLM Products?

No. Unless maybe you give me a steep discount!! All kidding aside, I still think MLMs are not a good idea for most people trying to save money. It's important to realize that network marketing products- like subscription boxes, new name brand clothing, and organic food- are very much luxuries. My sister receives a subscription box every month, and she calls it "a present to herself". That is what luxury items are. They are NOT needs.*

Let's be clear- I love my Lemongrass Spa sugar scrub. I think it is wonderful and I will enjoy every last dab of it. It was rather costly, but it was a one-time purchase. If the jar lasts five years, I might buy it again from Lemongrass. If it lasts one year, I will probably just make my own sugar scrub.

It's very important to distinguish between long-term MLM habits and short-term splurges. For nutritional supplements, it is easy to pay $100.00 per month or MORE for daily nutrition bars, shakes, and pills- and that is just for one person. That is $1200.00 per year for ONE ITEM on your budget. It's so important to evaluate purchases like these before signing up. There is a huge, huge difference between $1200.00 for a subscription "daily use" item and $22.00 for a single luxury item.


Does This Mean Bethany Will Start Selling MLM Products?

"But Bethany," someone says, "You can get X product for just $50.00 per month if you become a consultant! Plus the commission you make can offset the cost of X product. That would be frugal!" Never say never, but I don't see network marketing in my future. I still think the "sell to all of your friends" model is a little scammy and weird. I still think network marketing products are overpriced. 

One thing I would consider doing, however, is affiliate marketing. It is kind of like network marketing because you get a percentage of the sales. Unlike network marketing, though, you are selling stuff to people who are actually interested. There are no pushy person-to-person "appointments" or constant Facebook parties. Oftentimes affiliate marketing can be as simple as an ad on your blog sidebar, or links to Amazon products. I don't think there is anything scammy about that. If people are going to buy a product anyway, why not make a few pennies from the company (not from your friend!) by recommending that product?


Conflicts of Interest in Network (and Affiliate) Marketing


Several months ago, I looked into taking an online course about herbs. The class cost about $200.00 at full price. I'm frugal, so I started looking around for discounts and realized that they had an affiliate program for bloggers. Affiliates not only received a 50% commission for every class sold through their link, but they'd also receive a 35% discount on any classes they chose to take personally. On top of that, all students were eligible for a discount on herbs purchased from Mountain Rose Herbs. How could I say no to that? As an affiliate, my $200.00 course would only cost $130.00, and if I sold two classes through an affiliate link, my whole class would be paid for. Plus, as a student, I would be saving money on herbs that I *might* have bought anyway.

Here is where the conflict of interest comes in: even though it would be frugal for me, a $200.00 course (without the affiliate discount) would not be frugal for many of my readers; especially those paying off debt or just trying to make ends meet. I think that distinction is not made clear enough in a world where "frugal" bloggers are peddling all sorts of luxury MLM products and other subscription services.

I'm not 100% against affiliate marketing or selling stuff. I sell books on Amazon.

But as a consumer and blog reader, sometimes it can be difficult for me to untangle which products (DoTerra, Young Living, HelloFresh, Grove Collaborative, Dollar Shave Club) featured on my favorite frugal blogs are actually frugal. I've determined that most of them aren't. Not for me, anyway.


Conclusion

So, that was Burt's Bees (Walmart) vs. an MLM company (Lemongrass Spa). The MLM company won, but let's not forget that almost every MLM or subscription service is a luxury purchase; not an need, and certainly not a frugal choice.

-Bethany

*I know there are exceptions to the rule. But I'm talking about MLM products in general.

**For those of you DIY types, I did find the wonderful phthalate-free pomegranate fragrance for sale at several online retailers. I can't guarantee it is what Lemongrass uses, but it's out there for under $10.00 with shipping. :)

Wow- spring is just around the corner! I've got little seedlings and things growing all over the place, and it makes me so happy. There's just something exciting about new growth after cold, dull winters. Here are some frugal things I did last week:​

1. Line dried two loads of laundry.

2. Shopping: we went to Kroger this week and spent $11.83. You can watch my grocery haul on Youtube!!

We also went to Walmart and did a non-frugal trip (I promise it just started out with carrots and mayo) that included brand-name barbeque sauce, gelatin powder (which is like $1.00 per oz... what?!) and chipotle pepper powder. The only chipotle pepper they had, by the way, for $5.00. It was for a recipe. And I was hungry for cookies, so we bought some $2.50 cookies. At the checkout, I had forgotten to put something in my cart. So I ran back and got it. By the time I got back up to the checkout counter, Hubs had scanned a candy bar for himself. LOL! I can't blame him, though, because my cookies were more expensive. So that trip was another $20.00+.

3. Used a 10% off coupon at TSC to buy goat feed, a flower bulb, and something that Hubs wanted. I got three bags of feed, which will last at least 6 months. I decided to buy it all at once, since I had the coupon anyway. 

I also found a narcissus bulb-forcing kit (after Christmas sale!) for $2.70. It came with the pot, dirt, and bulb. I planted the bulb in its pot right away. Even if the bulb does not bloom this spring, I'm hopeful that it will flower next year. I am always looking for flowers to grow indoors during the winter months.

​4. Started herb seeds. I used little pot-pellets that we got at Menards; I think each pot cost between $0.10-$0.20. I was just curious to see if they worked. Anyhow, one of the herb seeds is already beginning to sprout!! I also transferred some lavender seedlings into an egg carton to grow in individual cells.

​6. Listed some stuff on Ebay. I am hoping to have sales to report next week!

7. Made sugar-free no bake cookies. They were SOOOO good. Even Hubs thought they were decent. The recipe was basically identical to the sugar one, except instead of butter it used coconut oil, and instead of sugar I used honey and Truvia (stevia). I think it would be cheaper and just as healthy to use butter, so I am going to try that before posting a recipe. I thought the honey/Truvia blend worked well. There was only a slight hint of stevia aftertaste that I noticed. I don't think Hubs would have noticed either, had I not told him. 

8. Uploaded some Youtube videos. One of my blog goals this year was to do some "real" Youtube videos in order to get my message to a new audience. I have uploaded videos before, but mostly just so I could have video clips on my blog.

I spent one day this week, therefore, learning how to edit videos from my phone to make them 'tube worthy. First I tried downloading an editing app (that didn't work), then I tried editing them on my phone before uploading. Finally, I found that the easiest thing to do is take the video on your phone, and then do the editing on the computer (Youtube Editor) after the clip has uploaded to Youtube. I found which fonts I like the best for titles and also figured out how to add music, links, and stuff like that. It was a long day, but time well spent.

Right now I have this week's haul on my channel, plus a clip on pantry shopping vs. grocery list shopping, and a clip on how I use my grocery store comparison chart. If you're interested, subscribe to my channel! If all goes well, I will be uploading at least one video every week.

And that's all, folks! Til next time,
-Bethany

​After the splendid weather we had during the second week of February, last week was kind of a downer for me. February is definitely the most "blah" month of my calendar year. With not a whole lot to do, I kind of lose focus and get lazy. I did a lot of cleaning this week, plus some reorganizing and de-cluttering. That's what you call being busy, but not actually accomplishing anything. I also did quite a bit of reading, which was nice.

1. Shopping: I didn't do any shoppping this week, except I bought some lard for a recipe (and now that I think of it, I probably have some lard in the freezer). We ate a lot of freezer food. 

One little shopping tidbit I've discovered recently is utilizing expiration dates and not buying stuff like milk and yogurt every week. Until recently, I was haphazardly buying milk wherever we were shopping that week. However, by purchasing certain items at certain places, I can shave spending little by little. Consider the scenario below.

One Month of Milk Shopping:

Week 1) 1 gallon Aldi brand @ $1.60
Week 2) 1 gallon Kroger brand @ $2.00
Week 3) 1 gallon Walmart brand @ $1.70
Week 4) 1 gallon Kroger brand @ $2.00
Total milk spending: $7.30

Week 1) 2 gallons Aldi brand = $3.20
Week 3) 2 gallons Walmart brand = $3.40
Total milk spending: $6.60 (savings of $0.70)


Week 1) 2 gallons Aldi brand = $3.20
Week 3) 2 gallons Aldi brand = $3.20
Total milk spending: $6.40 (savings of $0.90)

I can do the same thing with sour cream, yogurt, and other perishable dairy items we buy. Purchase enough to last until the item expires; not buy a new container every week. I love shopping Kroger for reduced fresh produce, reduced bacon, and other "Manager's Special" items, and I think Kroger has great sales. However, if I need to buy something on a shopping list, at retail price, it is better to do so at Walmart or Aldi. That is why staggering my shopping trips- one week here, one week there- is probably a good idea. 

Also, I have discovered that if milk is close to expiring (a day or two before), I can extend the life of it by making yogurt or cheese. I'm not 100% sure why this is, but it might have to do with re-heating the milk. At any rate, the cheese or yogurt will last at least another week that way. So the  milk that I bought on February 15 will probably last a good three weeks, in one form or another.

2. Returned aluminum cans: after the massive can hauls of last week, we had to empty the recyclables box. After all was said and done, we made $12.30 off of the cans. I left the plastic and glass bottles at home, so this was JUST the aluminum cans.

3. Started vegetable and herb seeds. Last year I tried buying a fancy seed starting tray, and it didn't work much better than my homemade versions. So this year I saved some plastic cookie containers (the ones that snap closed) and I will be using those as miniature greenhouses to germinate seeds. Some of my wormwood seeds are already beginning to sprout!

4. Pruned fruit trees. I also saved some of the cuttings, hopefully to start new plants in gallon jugs. Then I used some more cuttings to make a spring centerpiece for our kitchen table.

5. Watched free Amazon Prime movies. I know, watching movies is more wasteful than frugal. But at least they were free! We also played a new-to-us game this week that we got for Christmas. It's called "Score Four", and is actually a vintage 3D version of Connect 4. The game is easy and quick to play. It would also be a great travel game, I think.

6. Hubs made me a new set of cabinets!! This project has been going on since November, but with the accident, funeral, and our being gone a lot in January and February, it was only completely finished this week. I just had to paint the doors, and then Hubs put the hardware on and I helped him attach the doors to the front of the cabinet.

Because I do so much canning, and because of my various cooking tools, the pantry was overflowing into the storage room and even under the bed. With the new cabinet, I was able to move ALL of the canned food and kitchen implements (dehydrater, both canners, etc.) into the kitchen where they actually belong, and now we have more space in the storage room.

​As I have probably mentioned before, I am a recovering hoarder. I try not to accumulate too much stuff, and sell or give away what I don't need. But unfortunately, you need a lot of storage space if you do canning or stocking up on sales in order to cut down on grocery costs. The storage space is what saves us a lot of money. 

So yay for that project being done! While not exactly "cheap" (the wood and hardware cost about $100.00), the cabinets were custom built to our own specifications and to fit our apartment, matching the existing cabinets that were there. They are very sturdy and will last for years- definitely not Ikea cupboards. Custom cabinets done by a professional would not even be an option for this apartment; we will be moving out in a few years, and don't want to invest too much money into it. Hubs built the set of cabinets in his free time, so labor costs were minimal. He keeps saying he is in construction and not woodworking, but I think he did a fine job. If you want to be frugal, marry someone with a lot of skills!

I have had a lot of fun slowly making our little house into a home. Home decorating and interior design are NOT my strong suit (um... that's why you never see pictures of my house), but I think anyone can learn, and I am trying to, little by little. It's fun.  

Til next time,
-Bethany

​In January, I went to a Goodwill Outlet/Clearance Center for the first time. For those who don't know, Goodwill is a thrift store. A clearance center is where they send all of the stuff that didn't sell at the regular thrift stores. At the center, the stuff is piled up in big bins, and people can dig through the bins, paying for their merchandise by the pound. I went to a clearance center in Florida with my mom, sister, and younger brothers.

I knew this was going to be different as soon as we walked in the door. A voice over the loudspeaker boomed, "YOU HAVE 30 SECONDS TO SHOP. BEGIN NOW." A very short time later, the voice said again "YOU HAVE 15 SECONDS TO SHOP," and then at last, it said, "SHOPPERS, TIME IS UP. PLEASE TAKE YOUR MERCHANDISE AND BACK AWAY FROM THE BIN."

My mom and sister went to dig through bins, but I felt paralyzed. The loudspeaker told me to step away from the bins. Yet there were people on our left still digging through bins. Which bins were okay to dig through? I leaned over to my brother and whispered, "I have no idea what I should be doing right now."
     
"Me neither," he said.

Finally my sister saw us still standing at the entrance and waved us over to the back end of the building. Then she explained the rules.

"See those people in that big line over there? They are waiting to dig through the new bins that have just been brought out. All of these other bins-" she pointed to mountains of clothing, books and household goods- "are available to dig through at all times. The price list for each type of stuff is over there on the wall," she pointed back to where we were, "and there is a scale by the bathroom where you can weigh your stuff before you buy it."

​"Okay." I said, feeling a little less lost.

I dug through clothes, not really looking for anything in particular. After I had found some books, I looked for a cart that we could all share. Alas, all of the carts had been taken. Lastly I found a few housewares that I thought I could use. My eight-year-old brother had tagged along with me, and was holding some of my stuff. We dug through more of the bins... carefully. A lot of them were dirty, with broken things in the bottom. I noticed that some of the other shoppers were wearing latex gloves and surgical masks. Somehow my brother managed to stick his hand in a box of broken candies, and smear red slime all over himself. I took the stuff he was holding and found a laptop back to put it in, so he could go wash his hands.


The Greedy Book Lady

When I had finished shopping, my mom pointed out a couple using their phones to scan barcodes on different books. I've done a bit of book selling on Amazon before, so it piqued my interest. The mom and dad looked to be in their 40s or early 50s, well dressed, and had a son (probably age 13 or 14) working with them, bringing them more books to scan. I was quite impressed. I thought they might be a nice homeschool family, since it was a weekday and the boy was not in school. I walked over to the mom and asked her, in a friendly way, what app she was using to scan the books.

"I use several," she said, not looking me in the eye, continuing to scan. 

"Which one is your favorite?" I asked.

"I don't usually give out that information," she said, again avoiding eye contact. I didn't know what to say after that. I was shocked. She thought I was out to steal her precious business secrets!

"We're from Michigan," I offered, "and I guess I just wondered... I just thought..." The lady was completely ignoring me at this point and had turned her back on me. I stopped stammering and turned around. My face burned red with embarrassment. 

​Eventually, the rest of my family was done shopping and we were stuck waiting in a long line. A line of new bins- full of books- had been pulled out. All of a sudden, my mom elbowed me. "Look over there," she said.

Staff had just pulled out a row of new bins, full of books. The Book Lady was in line, of course. An older lady in line behind her had asked to look in her bin, which Book Lady was conveniently blocking with an empty shopping cart. Book Lady motioned for the other shopper to go look in the old book bins, which she (Book Lady) had conveniently already picked through. I felt the older woman's pain. Having been reprimanded, she stood there helplessly and watched as Book Lady went through every book in the bin (rather slowly, I might add) to decide which ones she should put in her cart. When her cart was finally full, she still did not let the older woman look in "her" bin. Instead, Book Lady's son came and took away the full cart, replacing it with an empty one. I wondered where on earth he found an empty cart, as neither me nor the older woman had had any such luck.

I couldn't believe it. Not only was Book Lady hoarding the new books, but she was also hoarding the carts, taking her jolly old time while others in line waited patiently. Woe to the little old lady if the book she was looking for happened to be worth anything on Amazon. She would not find it here; she would have to go on Amazon and buy it for at least $4.00 from Book Lady.


Prices: Low or High?

As I've mentioned before, Goodwill Clearance Centers price things by weight. I ended up buying one large binder, two book stands, a lavender sachet, and three books. Here is what I ended up paying for each item:

Binder: $1.18
Bookstands: $0.12 each
Lavender sachet: $0.06
Books: $0.42 and $0.56

Obviously, the lavender sachet and book stands were a great deal- at or below garage sale prices. I thought the binder was priced a little too high, and the books were just average. I can get $0.50 books all day long at regular thrift stores, and I can find them for $0.30 each at VOA 50% off sales. 

Concluding Thoughts

After we were all piled back in the van, my sister said, "Whew! That was probably the worst Goodwill Outlet yet. I'm glad it was your first experience, Bethany, because all of the other ones will probably be better."

"I hope so!" I said.

Given the mediocre pricing on many items, frantic/desperate shoppers, "professional" thrifters like Book Lady, and dirty merchandise, I didn't get a great impression of Goodwill Clearance Centers in general. The atmosphere was high-pressure to me. From the intimidating loudspeaker messages, to the cart-hogging and bin hoarding, I felt like this place, for some reason, drew an unsavory crowd out of the woodwork. Not everyone there was greedy or desperate, but at a regular Goodwill, people are not breathing down your neck to snatch up a deal. The store does not have to make rules about how long you can stand at a bin, or how many shoes or purses you are allowed to buy (yes, those were actual rules at the Goodwill Outlet). There are enough carts for everyone. People know how to be respectful and kind. 

So, that is my review of a Florida Goodwill Clearance Center/Outlet. Have you ever been to one? What was your experience like?

Audible: Not What I Expected

Last month I signed up for a free Audible trial. I realized how much time it was taking me to read books, and I decided that the $15.00 per month would be worth it, if it bought me more time.

After we got back from our trip to Florida, it was time to select my first paid audio book. I wanted to get the best value for my money, so I made a wish list of titles that were over 20 hours in length. Essentially, I would be paying $0.75 per hour or less to read a book to me. I thought that was worth it.

Then, out of those books, I wrote down all of the books with a regular (actually, discounted for Audible members) price of more than $30.00. Out of these 14 books, I picked out the "top three"- that is, the three books with the most hours AND top dollar value. The best value was David McCullough's Truman, with a price of $66.11 and playback time of 54 hours. Wow! A monetary savings of $51.11, and an hourly reading rate of just $0.28.


Running Into Problems

You would think that choice would be a no-brainer, but I realized later that I didn't actually want to spend 50 hours listening to a story about President Truman. There were FREE podcasts and audiobooks that I would much rather listen to. So, I went back to my list. Still, most of the books were history books. I wondered if I could find books in any other genres to listen to.

Instead of spending another three hours browsing Audible, I went to Amazon and typed in some of my favorite keywords. Then I scrolled down the list of books, looking for those with an Audible edition. I found two, and then went to Audible to read the reviews.

One of the books, as it turns out, had a lot of good reviews, but I didn't think it was what I wanted for $15.00. The other book had a lot of good reviews as well, but many listeners said it would be better to buy the paperback, as it was in more of a workbook format. So I passed on those two books.

I spent probably another hour looking for audio books that I liked. The problem I kept running into was that the price on Audible was less than $15.00. If I was paying $15.00 per month for a subscription, it didn't make sense to buy a $14.00 book. But then again, if I DIDN'T have the subscription, my price for most of those books would go up to $20.00 or more.

So, I went back to the history books on my list. When I started looking up the Audible reviews, there was one last issue. Commenters said, "The book sounds like Siri is reading it" or "This was their worst day in the studio- ever". Finally I found a book that cost more than $15.00, sounded interesting, and had good Audible reviews. I used my credit to buy it. It only had a monetary value of $17.95, and under 20 hours of playback time, so it would not have made my first list. But, oh well.


Not Sure if I Will Continue

My first real Audible subscription purchase didn't live up to my expectations. I wanted to buy books that I were already on my reading list, but most of the paperback books on my shelf are not available in audio format. They are either too old, too niche, or too short to warrant spending my $15.00 credit on.

Instead of spending five hours on the couch reading, I spent over five hours on the computer, trying to find a suitable book to buy. This thing was supposed to SAVE time, not waste it!! For next month's purchase, I have created a few guidelines.

1) It must be something I would enjoy reading.
2) Preferably a book on my shelf right now, that I will not have time to sit down and read.
3) The book must cost more than $15.00 on Audible.

Instead of making a wish list from the high-value books, then, I am going to buy a book already on my bookshelf. I will probably end up paying around $1.00 per hour for someone to read to me, but if I can do a $5.00 per hour activity while listening to an Audible book, I'll still be "earning" $4.00 per hour.

In the long term, I think it would be more frugal to pay for paperback books and listen to FREE audio.


The Good News For Non-Members

The good news for all of you non-members of Audible is that you can find a LOT of cheap or free audio to listen to without paying $15.00 per month. Amazon Prime members have access to Audible's "channels", which often include free audio books as well as podcast-type material. Then there are also free podcasts on Stitcher and iTunes to listen to.

Lastly- and this is a hack I learned before our road trip- you can "buy" a free ebook version of older classic books on Amazon, and get the Audible version for a few dollars. I downloaded David Copperfield (Kindle version) on Amazon for free, and then bought the 36 hour Audible version for $0.95. If I had bought ONLY the Audible version, it would have cost my $15.00 credit, $2.00 with an Audible membership, or $40.00 without an Audible membership. My total cost per hour for David Copperfield, then, was under $0.03 per hour. 

If you are in the market for good, classic fiction (pre-1910's), it's easy to find, and very cheap. Non-fiction audio books are a little harder to be frugal about, but you can still find pre-1910's non-fiction on Audible for cheap, a tiny bit of modern non-fiction on Audible Channels (for Amazon Prime members), and a lot of modern non-fiction audio though free podcasts.

Obviously, if money is tight, then borrowing non-fiction through your local library is going to be the best option. Second, find a cheap used paperback version on Amazon. If the used version is still not cheap, you can still buy it, read the book, and resell it on Amazon if the value hasn't gone down too much. Usually I only buy Kindle books if they 1) are free, 2) aren't available at the library, or 3) if they cost less than $5.00. It's important to remember that Kindle books have no resale value, so you MUST get your money's worth out of reading the book. Lastly, I check if the audio book would be cheaper with the purchase of an ebook. For modern non-fiction, though, usually it is just cheaper to buy the audio book if that is what you want.

Are you an Audible member? How to you chose which books to buy and how do you get the best value?

I Didn't Take Advantage of Grove Collaborative's Free Offer

I got out my debit card and typed my address and card number in all the boxes. My cursor hovered over the "submit order" button. I looked over my order one last time. To buy or not to buy? Buy or not to buy?

If you follow any of the popular health/wellness blogs, you've probably heard about Grove Collaborative's new customer offer. The offer is: if you place an order of $20.00 or more, they will send you a free cleaning caddy, free orange oil, free glass cleaning bottle, and free walnut scrubbie. You also get free shipping on your first two monthly orders. 

My eyes got big at the sight of those beautiful, high-value freebies. All I had to do was sign up and buy $20.00 worth of stuff. I figured that the freebies alone were probably worth $20.00, so what the heck. I could order cleaning tools that would last a long time instead of buying consumables. It would be an investment. Plus free shipping! I could pick out my items, buy them, and then cancel after the first month. Well, I signed up with my email. I picked out $21.00 (as close as I could get to $20.00) worth of pretty cleaning tools, which amounted to three scrubbing brushes. Then I asked myself, do I really need this? Between the free and purchased goods, the average price per item was $3.00. I asked myself if I would buy it at a regular store for $3.00.

a) Cleaning caddy. While it was nice, I knew I could get a similar caddy at the thrift store for $0.50. I already have a cleaning cart that I use for storing cleaning supplies, anyway.

b) Orange oil. I already have orange oil.

c) Glass spray bottle. Although I think this would be cool, I already have plastic cleaning bottles. I can understand the health benefit of using glass bottles for drinks, but you don't drink cleaning fluid. There are no advantages to using a glass bottle, especially if you re-use plastic bottles like I already do. In fact, there is a DISADVANTAGE to glass cleaning bottles, and that is that they are breakable. Plastic bottles won't break if you drop them on the tile.

d) Walnut scrubbie. I already have scrubbies that I never use.

e) Dish brush. All of the brushes I picked out had pretty bamboo handles with some kind of all-natural bristles. That aside, I already have a dish brush. The white plastic one I have is easy to clean, unlike the wood would be. Plus I can buy a replacement at Walmart for at or under $3.00.

f) Tile brush. Again, I could probably buy one of these at Walmart for at or under $3.00. I've actually never used a tile brush and don't have one. But the fact that I've never bought one might hint that I would never use one.

g) Glass cleaning brush. I thought this was cool, and I might be able to make my own replacement head instead of buying it from Grove when the first one got old. However, then I remembered that using newspaper actually works very well for me, and newspaper costs $0.00.

After I went through each item, I still tried to justify myself in buying it.  Even if I had no reason to buy the stuff for myself, certainly I could give it as a gift! But then I remembered that I could buy almost everything at Walmart for half the price. For the number of items, it would be a very pricey gift. After looking over my order, thinking, and rethinking, I finally decided to not buy.

In the end, I saved myself $21.00 on (albeit pretty) things I did not need. Sometimes the free stuff is worth it, and sometimes it's not. If you like all-natural products and buy them anyway, Grove's offer is open until Tuesday, January 17th. If you like that sort of thing, it really is a good deal. I just didn't need any of it.


Sidetracked By.... Everything

If you are trying to save money for a goal, it's important to stay focused. When EVERYTHING is a priority, nothing is a true priority. I see this a lot with food (I want healthy, I want local, I want cheap, etc. etc.), but it can happen with anything. The cleaning supplies are a great example. I like nice stuff just as much as anyone, but having paraben-free candles or eco-friendly cleaning supplies is not all that important to me.

Every $20.00 (or every $5.00 or $10.00, for that matter) that I spend on non-priorities is $20.00 that I will never get back to spend on things that are important and/or fun for me. I don't hate all-natural products, but if I had to choose between organic cleaner or generic cleaner PLUS $3.00 to spend on thrift store books, or ebooks, avocados or herbal tea, I would pick the generic cleaner every time. YOU TOO have a choice about how you spend every dollar. 

If you're not focused, you can get sidetracked into spending money on things that are not important to you. People will start pushing their own priorities on you (probably unintentionally) and you will lose track of YOUR goal. Pretty cleaning supplies are not a priority to me, but looking at the beautiful pictures and high-value free items made me think otherwise. "This will be a good way to upgrade my home supplies," "It will make cleaning more fun," "I deserve to have nicer stuff than Walmart," "My bottle brush is getting squished on one side, so I need a replacement," "It's so hard to reach the corner of the windows with my crumpled newspaper," "We can afford it," and a million other voices told me to get the freebies. I had seen this particular offer on several blogs and Instagram feeds that I love, and those messages had been working on me for the past week. "All the cool people are doing it" was the last message I got.

What happens when I spend $20.00 every week on "upgrades" that are not part of my goals? Nicer clothing, newer books, a magazine here and there, another herbal supplement. Organic rice, another animal for my hobby farm, new organizers for the stuff I have. There are a million things I can think of that would be fun to buy. Sometimes I buy this stuff, but every purchase should be a legitimate investment and wise use of money according to what I value. It would be nice to wear brand new clothing, but when push comes to shove, I don't really care. $1000+ per year can make a HUGE difference in your life if spent wisely. Just $20.00 per week can have that big of an impact. Can you think of a $1000.00 item that you would like to have? Cut out $20.00 of non-priorities per week (that includes grocery items, people) and you will have it at the end of a year. Do you truly care about the stuff that you are buying? Remember, YOU HAVE A CHOICE. Every time you buy a "meh" product that you don't need, you are sacrificing a "wow!" product that would truly make your life more enjoyable.

Thoughts for the day.
-Bethany

*Once again, I don't mean to bash all-natural stuff or Grove Collaborative. I think they are offering a great deal to people that regularly use those kind of products. Some day, I might stock my cabinets with all-natural cleaners and diapers and paper plates. That being said, I thought I would share and document my "no-buy" moment and reason behind doing so.

As you can see, the Diamond almonds were purchased at my favorite bent 'n' dent store for $0.35, or $2.48 per pound. The Kroger almonds were purchased at retail for $1.99, or $14.15 per pound. and are nearly identical. Ironically, the only difference is that the Kroger nuts expire sooner.

An $11.67/lb. savings is what can happen when you are not picky about where you shop.


Disregarding Types to Save Money

The $0.35/package nuts are pretty common when I shop at the bent 'n' dent. The only problem is that I don't have a choice in what kind or cut of nut that I get. Usually there are only one or two options.

Below is a comparison photo of $0.50 worth of pecans. The large pile is pecan chips bought from the bent 'n' dent. The small pile is pecan pieces/quarters bought at retail from Kroger.

Which pile would you rather have? I'd rather have the big pile! This holiday season, I will use my $2.48/lb. pecans for cheese balls, cookies, and candy. They will work exactly the same, if not better than the more expensive pieces purchased at retail.

​
Should You EVER Buy Nuts?

Before I discovered a local-ish (within an hour) bent 'n' dent, I almost never bought nuts. Why purchase such a luxury when the same amount of money could buy ten-fold of a more useful staple like rice?

Living a nut-free life can have many financial benefits. I love nuts just as much as the next person, but there are enough other yummy foods to choose from that I do not even miss having them around. Saving nuts for holidays, birthdays and other occasions (instead of using them on a weekly basis) will save a lot of money in the long run.

-Bethany

*Note: Part of this nut analysis was motivated by my secret plan to overthrow the diet food advertising barons that have drained so many wallets dry of grocery money. Having a nut-based diet (replacing real milk with almond milk, replacing real flour with almond flour, etc.) is so much more expensive than eating a variety of different food groups. For most people, I don't believe there is anything wrong with consuming wheat or dairy products. People who are allergic to these foods can go gluten free by simply not eating bread. Those allergic to dairy can stop drinking milk and drink water instead. No milk for cold cereal? Stop eating cold cereal for breakfast and start eating eggs. The nut-based diet should only be used for a) those who are gluten-, dairy-, AND egg-free (but apparently not allergic to nuts) or b) those who are willing and able to have a high grocery bill every month.

Even at $2.50 per pound, nuts are still more expensive than produce, grains, beans, white meat, and even some red meat and cheeses. Instead of a handful of nuts, you could buy a dozen eggs, a gallon of milk or a pound of meat. That one snack of nuts could be traded in for a week's worth of rice or two boxes of pasta. Even though I've found a "cheap" source of nuts, I still only use them on rare occasions. I would rather spend my grocery dollars on foods that stretch.

If you are still set on eating nut-based replacement foods for wheat and dairy, consider shopping at a discount store, buying expired or otherwise "imperfect" gluten free / dairy free ingredients or products to save money.

Do you use nuts? Why or why not? What is your favorite frugal tip for buying nuts?