Frugal tips

I always go to the store and buy a pork loin and have the store butcher slice it into chops for me( many of them do this at no cost). If they don't slice for free or your store has no butcher just take it home pop it in the freezer for 30-40 minutes (this makes it harder just enough to make it slice easily and uniformly) and slice your own chops. Just make sure you seal them up afterwards. These are high quality boneless pork chops that for me cost less per/lb than their bone in sub par quality pork chops. The good boneless pork chops go for upwards $3-5/lb and I can get a pork loin for around $1.99/lb sometimes cheaper. You can stock up and freeze the meat and it will last a few months. Stay Frugal my friends!

Hey folks, As temps heat up outside, our fridges cost us more money to cool. Help out your wallet by adding bottles of water in your fridge and freezer to fill up that unused space. When you need that space, just pull them out and drink!Adding water creates a 'thermal mass' buffer in your fridge, making it far more efficient, because once that water is cold or frozen, it does the job of keeping the food around it cool without the use of electricity. You can learn about thermal mass at this wiki link: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thermal_massJust a small tip! Enjoy the sunshine :)

Granted, I am an ambitious and energetic young lady, but over the years I've received the following items while helping friends move:* 2 bar stools* vacuum cleaner* box spring and mattress* rolltop desk and matching chair* dresser* lots of food, cleaning supplies, laundry soap, toiletries* $$$The friends didn't want to take everything with them when they moved and I was happy to take it off their hands. Now I'm moving and trying to unload my extra furniture, dishes, food, etc. So put in a few hours and help out - you'll have a grateful friend and probably quite a bit of loot to show for it. Most people will at least thank you with a nice meal. They might even thank you with cash. I recently offered to help someone extract his ex-girlfriend's belongings out of his house after a breakup and he paid me $300 for my trouble. I thanked him for being generous and he turned it around and said my help was priceless. Win Win!

The depth and breadth of what you can learn to do by watching how-to videos on YouTube is ridiculous. Here are just a few examples of how friends saved money watching how-to videos on YouTube:

• They learned how to polish and brighten their headlight casing with toothpaste;
• They learned how to replace a faucet in the bathroom; and
• They learned how to open the hatchback on an HHR when the battery went dead (you can only open it electronically from the outside). p.s. YouTube is the second largest search engine behind Google. Just search “how-to” + your subject.

Streaming services are the best. We get a ton of entertainment, whether it be a movie, a song or an ebook, at our fingertips for a fraction of the cost of ownership. But, those costs come month-in and month-out. What can be done to reel in some of these costs? Let’s face it, these services are so easy to sign up, right? (Just sign up with Facebook.) But, they are not always the easiest when it comes to cancelling. Or, sometimes we just plain forget we are paying for a service because we quit using it. Thankfully, there are apps and online services to help us sort out what subscriptions we are paying for. These apps can help us cancel those services, or, if we want, trained staff will negotiate better rates. Either way, we save money. Learn how you can save hundreds a year by canceling subscriptions or negotiating lower rates for cable or phone service.

There are always actions we can take that will help on the margins, but if we really want control of our finances so we can live abundantly and frugally (we do not think they are mutually exclusive terms), we need to use our money properly. This means budgeting, cutting expenses, saving more, and spending appropriately. Do not let “budget” become a four-letter word to you. When you understand how to budget, you will gain control over your money instead of your money controlling you. Budgeting is simply telling your money how it will be spent before you receive it. Budgeting is having a plan for your money. We agree with Benjamin Franklin, who said, “If you fail to plan, you are planning to fail.” Here are some links to guide you with an action plan to succeed with your finances:

• How To Stop Living Paycheck To Paycheck: An Actionable Guide
• How to Budget: The Step-by-Step Process
• 11 Actionable Money Hacks to Save Easy Money

We like credit cards. No, check that. We love credit cards because we are able to enjoy cash back rewards. Nikayla and I make credit cards work for us by paying off our balances every month. This allows us to rake in the maximum amount of cash back rewards while paying absolutely no interest. But, if you carry a balance from month-to-month and pay credit card companies interest, then you are not fully realizing your rewards potential. Most people pay more interest on their credit cards than they will ever earn with investments. Some cards are charging 24% to 27% interest. Three things to do right away to keep from going further into debt:

• Consolidate your credit card debt to decrease your interest rate
• Pay more than the minimum amount (you will never pay it off if you do)
• If you are able, stop charging purchases to credit until you can pay off the balance each month