EBay makes online auctions worthwhile again

I have always used EBay to make money saving purchases. When my video camera battery died, and it was no longer available in the stores, I did not buy a new camera, I got a new battery on EBay. When the cat popped a few keys off my daughter’s laptop, I didn’t spend $100.00 on repairs, I got new keys from EBay and found an online tutorial for installing it. Instead of buying a $1000 projection screen for the basement, I purchased fabric and screen building instructions from EBay and made the perfectly good screen for $40.00. EBay has saved … Continue reading →

Extreme Makeover: Grocery Bill Edition

A big thanks to Mary Ann and Nicole for letting me share my frugal journey here with you all. Truth be told I’m not entirely that frugal. It is in part due to the fact that we live in the city. Categories actually exist in my budget that other people wouldn’t dream of putting in theirs. (Do you have a category in your budget specifically for parking tickets? I didn’t think so.) Furthermore, daily living here is just more difficult to manage without spending any money. Take laundry for example. Mary Ann wrote a great article about line drying laundry. … Continue reading →

Saving Money on Magazines

Magazines can be costly. Especially when you factor in the fact that most of them are monthly, with some even being weekly. So how do you enjoy your magazines, but save some money while doing it? It’s not that difficult, but in some situations, you might have to spend a little to save a little. Share If you have friends or a neighbor, that enjoy the same hobby or style of magazines, share them. Ask around to friends, relatives and neighbors to see what types of magazines they are buying. Then offer some of the ones that you have as … Continue reading →

Buy a New Computer the Frugal Way

Ready to buy a new computer? There is one little known secret to saving a lot of money on your computer purchase. Read on to learn how to reduce the cost of your computer purchase by as much as $500 or even more. Two Christmas seasons ago, my husband surprised me with a new laptop. It has been an invaluable tool in my writing, and a never seem to be far away from it. It was a current model and came complete with the very latest operating system and software. You might think that this was not a very frugal … Continue reading →

Frugal Shopping: One CD and Five Different Offers

Are you getting the best deal on your purchase when you shop? I’ll show you how one CD can have five different prices and how you can find the best offer. I am always surprised that more people don’t research their purchases before they buy. It is so easy to do in this age of the internet. E-mail offers, retail stores with web sites, and of course savings forums and the Deals Blog here on Families.com make comparison shopping relatively painless. Prompted by an offer from Borders in my e-mail, I decided I wanted to reward all of my hard … Continue reading →

HUGE College Textbook Savings!

If you go to college or you know anyone that does, you?d better keep reading. Another college semester is nearly upon us and the thought of buying hundreds of dollars of textbooks might be a little overwhelming. Fortunately, there is one piece of insider information that could save you hundreds on your books. My husband recently went back to school to continue his education. He has to buy all of his books online and there usually is not much chance that he can ever buy used copies of his textbooks. Last year, he stumbled upon a helpful little website called … Continue reading →

How To Save Money On School Pictures

This probably seems like a strange article to see so early in the school year, however, for me it’s not that strange. You see, last night we took our two middle school students up to school to pick up their schedules. One of the things we had to do was get their pictures taken, and no school doesn’t start until next week. They have all these id’s and other things they need the photographs for, so they do them on schedule pick up night. So I got to thinking about ways to save on picture packages because quite frankly, they … Continue reading →