What can your friends tell you about saving money?

By John | May 6, 2008

What can your friends tell you about saving money?

I put out the call to all of my friends to pass along their money-saving tips and I received a pretty good response.

LW and RW said:

going to brick-a-brack stores and buying items on clearance. Better yet buying on clearance and using a coupon.

I don’t usually buy things now unless I have a coupon and it is on sale that is the best way now to shop but not everything has a coupon out there. I also belong to www.mycoupons.com I read tips under “shopping boards” and then to “look what I found” reading blogs from other people and deals they find then I look here in St. Louis at my stores (are we talking about Target–yes) and sometimes Kmart, Home Depot, Lowes and Wal-Mart.

And our family has really started shopping at Aldi now for a lot of things except Green Beans Still like DelMonte and the meat afraid of meat only get meat at Dierberg’s and Schnucks.

Also go to garage sales or estates sales looking for nice things at cheap prices don’t get much time to do this but when we get the chance we hit several garage sales.

** LW and RW are pros at saving money. Combining money-saving approaches is what puts them in the “PRO” category.

Do you like to go out and party? I have a friend who also likes to part and has found a way to save a lot of money while doing it.

RB said:

Some of my friends in [the city] used to have a thing called “First Friday” the first Friday of each month we’d all get together and go out. Each month someone would pick a new place to go. It would cost on average $100-150 per couple (dinner and drinks). It would cost a few others even more by the time they paid for a baby sitter ($50-$80).

We only do that like 2-3 times a year now… Here comes the savings, now we go over to [our best friends' house] almost every Friday! [My friend's wife] cooks dinner and we usually supply the booze. We spend probably $150 per MONTH for the four of us vs ($150 x 2 couples + baby sitting) / night-out. So if you look at the math it’s roughly…

Partying at Friends

4 adults

$150 total for 4 nights per month (less than $40 per weekend or $10 per person)

Partying Out

4 adults once a month
$150 x 2 + $50 baby sitting = $350

Different ways to look at the amount saved:

go out 4 times that’s 350 x 4 = $1400 vs $150 for 4 weekends at home

150 x 12 = 1800 for the entire year! (and we get to get together every week ~40-50 parties)

350 x 12 = 4200 for going out with the gang each month for a year (12 parties)

So, we don’t have to give up getting together with Friends and having a good time (dinner and drinks, as much as we want) AND we play games and watch movies etc. and have more fun than going out!

CB gave a list of unique approaches to saving money:

1. Budweiser beer conditions the hair
2. Pam cooking spray will dry finger nail polish
3. Cool whip will condition your hair in 15 minutes
4. Mayonnaise will KILL LICE, it will also condition your hair
5. Elmer’s Glue – paint on your face, allow it to dry, peel off and see the dead skin and blackheads if any
6. Shiny Hair – use brewed Lipton Tea
7. Sunburn – empty a large jar of Nestea into your bath water
8. Minor burn – Colgate or Crest toothpaste
9. Burn your tongue? Put sugar on it!
10. Arthritis? WD-40 Spray and rub in, kill insect stings too
11. Bee stings – meat tenderizer
12. Chigger bite – Preparation H
13. Puffy eyes – Preparation H
14. Paper cut – crazy glue or chap stick (glue is used instead of sutures at most hospitals)
15. Stinky feet – Jello !
16. Athletes feet – cornstarch
17. Fungus on toenails or fingernails – Vicks vapor rub
18. Kool aid to clean dishwasher pipes. Just put in the detergent section and run a cycle, it will also clean a toilet. (Wow, and we drink this stuff)
19. Kool Aid can be used as a dye in paint also Kool Aid in Dannon plain yogurt as a finger paint, your kids will love it and it won’t hurt them if they eat it!
20. Peanut butter – will get scratches out of CD’s! Wipe off with a coffee filter paper
21. Sticking bicycle chain – Pam no-stick cooking spray
22. Pam will also remove paint, and grease from your hands! Keep a can in your garage for your hubby
23. Peanut butter will remove ink from the face of dolls
24. When the doll clothes are hard to put on, sprinkle with corn starch and watch them slide on
25. Heavy dandruff – pour on the vinegar !
26. Body paint – Crisco mixed with food coloring. Heat the Crisco in the microwave, pour in to an empty film container and mix with the food color of your choice!
27. Tie Dye T-shirt – mix a solution of Kool Aid in a container, tie a rubber band around a section of the T-shirt and soak
28. Preserving a newspaper clipping – large bottle of club soda and cup of milk of magnesia , soak for 20 min. and let dry, will last for many years!
29. A Slinky will hold toast and CD’s!
30. To keep goggles and glasses from fogging, coat with Colgate toothpaste
31. Wine stains, pour on the Morton salt and watch it absorb into the salt.
32. To remove wax – Take a paper towel and iron it over the wax stain, it will absorb into the towel.
33. Remove labels off glassware etc. rub with Peanut butter!
34. Baked on food – fill container with water, get a Bounce paper softener and the static from the Bounce towel will cause the baked on food to adhere to it. Soak overnight. Also; you can use 2 Efferdent tablets , soak overnight!
35. Crayon on the wall – Colgate toothpaste and brush it!
36. Dirty grout – Listerine
37. Stains on clothes – Colgate toothpaste
38. Grass stains – Karo Syrup
39. Grease Stains – Coca Cola , it will also remove grease stains from the driveway overnight. We know it will take corrosion from car batteries!
40. Fleas in your carpet? 20 Mule Team Borax- sprinkle and let stand for 24 hours. Maybe this will work if you get them back again.
41. To keep FRESH FLOWERS longer Add a little Clorox , or 2 Bayer aspirin , or just use 7-up instead of water.
42. When you go to buy bread in the grocery store, have you ever wondered which is the freshest, so you ’squeeze’ for freshness or softness? Did you know that bread is delivered fresh to the stores five days a week? Monday, Tuesday, Thursday, Friday and Saturday. Each day has a different color twist tie.
They are:
Monday = Blue,
Tuesday = Green,
Thursday = Red
Friday = White
Saturday = Yellow.
So if today was Thursday, you would want red twist tie; not white which is Fridays (almost a week old)! The colors go alphabetically by color Blue- Green – Red – White – Yellow, Monday through Saturday. Very easy to remember. I thought this was interesting. I looked in the grocery store and the bread wrappers DO have different twist ties, and even the ones with the plastic clips have different colors. You learn something new everyday! Enjoy fresh bread when you buy bread with the right color on the day you are shopping.

Don’t forget Gatorade for Migraine Headaches. PowerAde won’t work.

Since this post is long enough, there will be a part 2 coming soon.

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