Free Republic

What if I were to offer you $10 for every 54 cents you give me. Even better, to sweeten the deal for you, I would kick in 30 bucks worth of stuff for FREE. Sounds like a fantasy. Too good to be true, right? Well, guess again because that is EXACTLY what I did today many times over.

I used to get some really incredible deals via couponing on a variety of laundry detergents but my wife wasn't satisfied. She wanted only one brand: Tide. It seems that people from Venezuela have developed VERY strong loyalties to various product brands. For example, she also disdained any toothpaste except for Colgate (or "Col-gah-teh" as she pronounces it) although I have finally gotten her to become a fan of Crest as well. This wasn't a problem because I have been able to score a lot of FREE tubes of both Colgate and Crest via creative couponing. However, Tide had...

I'm kicking off the New Year with a new blog. The main purpose of "The Coupon Whisperer" won't be to provide hot coupon tips, although I will be doing that. The primary purpose of this blog is to provide you with entertaining "war stories" from the field. Think of it as adventures in couponing. And so we start of with our first story...the strange story of Coupon Mike...I met Coupon Mike earlier this year at his job when I was introduced to him by a mutual friend, who worked at the same place, because of our common interest in...

If you're looking to get the most value for your dollar, it would do your wallet good to check out secondhand options. Many used goods still have plenty of life left in them even years after the original purchase, and they're usually resold at a fraction of the retail price, to boot. Here's a list of 21 things that make for a better deal when you buy them used. 1. DVDs and CDs: Used DVDs and CDs will play like new if they were well taken care of. Even if you wind up with a scratched disc and you don't...

Before the economy imploded, cheapskates were considered a pitiful bunch -- frumpy coupon moms racing across town to save 19 cents on baby wipes, joyless penny-pinchers subsisting on ramen noodles. Meanwhile, the cool kids were starting wine collections and equipping their homes with plasma TVs and stainless-steel kitchen appliances. Then, in the drop of a Dow Jones average, frugality suddenly became fashionable, and all those still-unpaid-for off-road vehicles and granite countertops became symbols of foolishness and excess, rather than success. Lifestyle sections brimmed with redemptive stories of former mortgage brokers/derivatives traders/entertainment publicists who had suddenly discovered the humble joys of...

Lindsay Binegar was 14 the first time she spent any winnings from years of showing hogs. She bought a purse. The second time, at 18, she splurged. She bought a four-bedroom, two-bathroom house with a two-car garage. And she paid in cash. "I've never heard of a teenager buying a house," said Nikki Gasbarro, spokeswoman for the Ohio Association of Realtors. "Smart girl." The Greenfield teenager has been saving money since she was 4 years old and won $100 showing a hog. "I didn't get the money; it went to the bank," said Binegar, now a 19-year-old freshman at Ohio...

Frugality. That's been the buzzword of the Great Recession.   Sliding home values, stumbling stock portfolios and a shaky job market brought with them a consciousness about spending that many of us misplaced during years of consumer overindulgence. Americans responded to the crisis by buying less, clipping coupons more and increasing savings to 4.8 percent of disposable income in December, up from near zero before the recession.   In the past year, blogs about frugality went viral. Everyone from Oprah to President Obama joined the frugality parade.   Now a new term is marching through the blogosphere: Frugality fatigue. But...

One of the best bargains in your local grocery store is plain old white vinegar. You can get a 32 ounce jug of it (half a gallon) for about $1.50 and it has a multitude of uses beyond the edible ones (like pickles and salad dressings). Here are fifteen uses for white vinegar, most of which I use myself. Toilet cleaner Got a toilet bowl that’s difficult to clean? Before you go to bed, dump a cup of vinegar in the bowl, then close the lid. I usually spread the vinegar around the bowl a bit with a brush to...

The chemical Bisphenol A, which has been used for years in clear plastic bottles and food-can liners, has been restricted in Canada and some U.S. states and municipalities because of potential health effects. The Food and Drug Administration will soon decide what it considers a safe level of exposure to Bisphenol A (BPA), which some studies have linked to reproductive abnormalities and a heightened risk of breast and prostate cancers, diabetes, and heart disease. Now Consumer Reports' latest tests of canned foods, including soups, juice, tuna, and green beans, have found that almost all of the 19 name-brand foods we...

This is my first attempt at a post so everyone be nice:) Earlier this week I was interviewed for a segment on the CBS Early Show. It will air tomorrow morning (Monday the 16th) at about 7:40am Eastern time. They invited me to do it because of my deal, coupon, frugal living blog, www.mylitter.com. I teach classes and help people learn how to coupon and save money in all areas of their lives. Kelly Wallace, the reporter, asked some questions about the economy and I tried to mention FreeRepublic! It will be interesting to see how it was edited, what...

Adding to the Survivalist and Self-Reliant work of to nw_arizona_granny; Delawhere and so many others, I would like to start a decorations and gift thread ideas for these folks' benefit (and all comers). Please add to this list.

Weekly Roundup - Living On Nothing Edition Category: Roundups | Comments(15) Did you hear about the guy that lives on nothing? No seriously, he lives on zero dollars a day. Meet Daniel Suelo, who lives in a cave outside Moab, Utah. Suelo has no mortgage, no car payment, no debt of any kind. He also has no home, no car, no television, and absolutely no “creature comforts.” But he does have a lot of creatures, as in the mice and bugs that scurry about the cave floor he’s called home for the last three years. To us, Suelo probably sounds...

Twice a year, in the spring and again in the autumn, six families on Vicki Matranga's tree-lined Oak Park block go to one neighbor's garage and bring out the $1,200 woodchipper they all pitched in to buy. Then they gather around and feed it dead branches gathered from their yards. "We chip up our branches and make our own mulch out of it," Matranga said. "There are a couple of passionate gardeners on our block. Many of us who contributed to this machine, we've lived on this street together for 20 years." Financially, it was worth it for Matranga and...

Gutsy Americans get back to grandma's Depression roots by hunkering down - for good. Adaptive re-use it ain't.

...Plan out a week's worth of dinners before going to the store. Check the supermarket fliers and base your menu on what is on sale. By doing a week's worth of shopping in one trip, you really will save money and time. Raise your hand if you have ever gone into the store for "a few items" and come out with $79.43 in stuff you didn't think you needed. Uh huh, we thought so. Store Brands are just as good as name brands (most of the time). Our pantries are full of delicacies like Juicy Magic, Woven Wheats and Magic...

Even the Pope, therapists and Wal-Mart are now endorsing an anti-consumer lifestyle that our wise grannies knew of long ago: thrift, frugality, humble style makes for a merrier life, and a closer family. Wear out those shoes with pride.

Back in 1985, I'm five years old and staring into my lunchbox. All around me, children are ripping into packs of Monster Munch. I've got yesterday's quiche and a mushy tomato. And there's something soggy at the bottom, possibly a homemade rock bun, but I can't be sure. My lunchbox was a testament to my mother's thrifty habits Today, it would be celebrated as a resourceful meal made from leftovers. Back then, I didn't give a hoot about food waste and packaging. I wanted pickled onion crisps and a Penguin bar. It wasn't that my parents were tofu-munching hippies who...

Frugal Public School Teacher Donates $2.1 Million to Alma Mater The Associated Press Published: Jun 20, 2005 HOUSTON (AP) - A retired public school teacher who was so frugal that he bought expired meat and secondhand clothing left $2.1 million for his alma mater, Prairie View A&M - the school's largest gift from a single donor. Whitlowe R. Green, 88, died of cancer in 2002. He retired in 1983 from the Houston Independent School District, where he was making $28,000 a year as an economics teacher. His donation shocked family members and friends alike. "He was a very meager person....

Welfare lines would shrink if everyone became frugal. Being frugal ain't easy. We're variously seen as fringe fanatics, minimalists, or threats to a consumerist driven economy. It's not easy to hide being frugal, either, and it's even hard to imagine a society where being frugal was accepted. What a life that would be! What a cut to the goverment's beloved welfare programs! If everyone understood how to stretch food, how to cut back on utility costs, how to get out and stay out of debt, how to find alternative housing and transportation and how to shop for necessities with a...

After a two-year hiatus, I've brought back my Penny Pincher of the Year contest. The number of frugal folks and the lengths they go to to save money amazed even me. I received hundreds of entries from all over the country, from the tried and true (reusing plastic bags) to the disgusting (bathing in someone else's used bath water is just not right, and it's not sanitary) to knee-slap funny (sisters a year apart sharing the same high school ring). But I just love penny-pinching people. And believe me, I'm right there with them. In fact, my friends and family...

Mitchell E. Daniels Jr., the professional tightwad worth $25 million who is President Bush's budget director, has plenty of money to pay for landscaping at his big waterside home in Indiana. But he just happened to be pushing a mower around his front lawn last week when a reporter drove up for an interview.

And the winner is . . . really cheapLooking for tips on frugality, a columnist finds connoisseurs of conservation, experts on economy, sultans of scrimping. By Jeff BrownInquirer Columnist There is the granny who has her chauffeur circle the block to find a meter with time left on it . . . The man who goes to Phillies games free by rushing over during rain delays . . . The woman who gets mulch and clothes by gathering discarded scarecrows after Halloween . . . Then there were the many, many contestants who carefully dry their paper towels for reuse,...