Sometimes saving money just requires asking a simple question or two. With very little effort you can be saving money on your monthly bills and beyond. In many cases it is just a matter of asking to pay less.

It never hurts to ask, right? The worst that can happen is… nothing, which is exactly what is going to happen if you don’t ask.

How much money could you be saving?

Today I’m sharing four examples that teach four principles about how simple questions can save loads of money. I would love to hear your experience in being brave enough to ask potentially awkward questions in order to save money.

Rates are Negotiable

My first experience with reducing bills was when my husband and I were first married.  After being married for only four months we left the country for an international internship.  We moved out of our apartment and put our things in storage.  Naturally we called to cancel our utilities, including our land line phone.

My husband explained to the phone company representative that we were moving out of the country so we needed to cancel our phone service.   As soon as the representative heard “cancel” he kept lowering the price to entice us to stay with their company!

We though it was pretty funny because it wasn’t about money.  We were leaving the country!  No great deal on our monthly phone bill was going to change our mind.  We learned something though, which we stored away for when we came back to the states: rates are actually negotiable!

Customer Loyalty Pays

My dear friend wanted to get an iPhone but couldn’t see adding the data plan to her monthly bills.  She decided that if she could get her other monthly bills lowered enough to cover the cost of a new phone plan then she would go for it.  I was impressed with her discipline to stay within her current budget.

She called her cable and internet provider and politely said,

“I have been a loyal customer for X years and really like your service, but I feel like I am paying too much.  I get offers in the mail about signing up for other providers at much cheaper rates.  I am willing to switch to get a better price, but I would like to stay with you if it’s possible.  Is there anything you can do to lower our rate?”

Both companies were willing to lower their rates and she got her iPhone without increasing her monthly bills.  As loyal customers, we have more power than we think.

Have a Creative Alternative

Another close friend was tired of paying for expensive trash pick-up in her rural area, especially since her family didn’t generate very much garbage each week.  Her husband had just moved his small business to a new office in a newly developed business area.  He was the first one to sign on with the builder/landlord.  Noticing the large dumpsters were never full since the office space wasn’t yet all rented out, she asked the landlord if it was okay if she brought the family’s trash up to the dumpster each week.  He agreed, which completely eliminated the monthly garbage bill!

Of course every situation is different and will require its own custom solution.  By thinking creatively about lowering your monthly bills, you may be able to come up with a solution that will save you.

Look Beyond the Bills

While tuition is not a monthly bill, this example teaches the same principle.  When he decided to return to school and applied to J.D and M.B.A programs, he received a scholarship offer from both the law school and the business school at the university he ultimately selected.  The law school offer was more generous than we expected.  The business school offer was much smaller.  A few days after receiving the offer from the business school, he contacted the dean of admissions and explained that while he would love to attend, he wasn’t sure we could justify the added cost over an already expensive law school education.  Fifteen minutes later, the scholarship offer was doubled and our tuition cost was down by ten thousand dollars– just for asking!

This seemed like a novel idea to us at the time, but talking with other students, our experience was hardly exceptional.  Many students ask for increased scholarships or other benefits, and if a school wants you to attend, they’ll often accommodate the requests.  In retrospect, my husband probably should have also negotiated an increase at the law school.

The lesson: A scholarship offer is usually not a take-it-or-leave it proposition.  Treat the initial offer like a starting point for negotiation and you could ends up thousands of dollars ahead.  This lesson applies equally well to job offers.  The first offer is a starting point, and the company has illustrated by making the offer that they want you there.   Don’t be afraid to ask for more.

Is asking a potentially awkward question worth it?

Umm… YES!  The best part about saving on monthly bills or tuition (as opposed to just a purchase here and there) is that you see the savings every month!  Even just a little less on a monthly bill will add up quickly over time.  The savings can go straight to paying off debt or saving for the future.

Could you be a phone call away from saving hundreds of dollars a year by reducing your bills?

You’ll never know unless you ask!

• How have you experienced the power of asking?
• Have you had experience getting a monthly bill reduced by just asking?
• If you could get a bill reduced, which one would it be?

Note: This post was originally published in January 2014.

The post The Power of Asking– Simple Questions Have Saved Us Thousands! appeared first on Six Figures Under.

In the range of frugal folks we have minimalists who are frugal by needing (and having) little, all the way to hoarders who show their frugality in the way the save (and hold onto) anything that might be useful.

Chance are you are somewhere in the middle, like me.

I’m not a minimalist.  Nope, not me.  I love stocking up and being prepared, which means…. stuff.  But not too much stuff.

I like to hold onto things that I think will be useful so that I don’t have to spend money on them later, but I also see the value in cleaning up and letting go and being free of unnecessary stuff.

Sometimes stuff is great.  But too much stuff can be a problem.  A take-over-your-life problem in some cases!

The implications can even be financial.  Have you ever stopped to think about what clutter is costing you?

Yep, that stuff that you’re storing to save money might actually cost you money.

How does clutter cost you?

Let’s go through some of the scenarios where cutter means losing money.  You might just be able to relate.

1. You can’t find what you need so you’re forced to buy multiples.

When you can’t find that really important thing that you need right now what do you end up doing?  Chances are you’ll go out and buy another one.  Re-buying items you already have wastes money and time (and “time is money”).  You might think the cost is nominal, but when you have multiples of everything in your house, the cost really adds up.  Plus, bringing more stuff into your house will perpetuate the clutter problem and clutter costs.

2. You’re paying late fees because your bills (or other time-sensitive things) get lost in the clutter.

Have you had to pay late fees for library books that you just couldn’t locate amidst all of your own junk?  What about the car registration renewal that hid quietly under the pile of clutter on your desk?  I’m not pointing fingers here, friends!  Those last two examples are personal ones!

3. You’ve run out of space for stuff in your house, so you’re renting a storage unit.

The actual cost on this one is pretty easy to calculate.  Whatever you are paying each month for your storage unit isn’t helping you pay off your debt or save for retirement.  Sure, there are times and circumstances when you might need to have a storage unit temporarily, but if a storage unit is part of your long-term plan, you might want to closely evaluate the value of the stuff that you are paying hundreds or thousands of dollars to keep each year.

4. You have valuable stuff that you don’t want or need.

Not all clutter is created equal.  Some clutter is valuable, but not as clutter.  If you have things that you’re not loving or using that could actually bring in money, then it’s time to cash them in.  For example, I bought my husband a pair of new shoes for Christmas.  They didn’t fit. We exchanged them for the next size, but they still didn’t fit right. For 7 months that box of new shoes cluttered our bedroom! I was debating between returning them where I’m have to pay for shipping or trying to sell them on Ebay where I could possibly make a little more.  During my indecisive inaction they cluttered our already limited space.

5. You are depressed or discouraged because you’re living in clutter.

That might sound like an emotional effect of clutter, but it is most definitely a financial cost as well.  When you’re feeling down, you’re less likely to make good spending choices, less likely to set and achieve goals, and less likely to be motivated to improve your situation. (No authoritative study, just life experience and observation.)  You clutter may lead to problems in other areas of your life that are directly or indirectly related to finances.  For example, the clutter around you might be keeping you from starting a profitable side business.

6. You avoid being home where you could be saving money.

In more extreme cases of clutter, you might avoid being at home.  Even if you’re comfortable in your own space, you might eat at home less because your kitchen is overwhelming.  Instead of inviting friends over, you go out.  You can save lots of money by being a conscientious homemaker, but if you’re avoiding your home you miss out on those money-saving opportunities.

7. You buy stuff that immediately becomes clutter because it doesn’t have a place or a purpose.

The clutter itself is a cost that you might be overlooking.  You paid money for all of the junk that is in your way and taking up space.  If something is not being used or is still sitting in the shopping bag gathering dust, the cost of that item is a real cost of clutter.  Even if the item was a great deal, if it becomes clutter, the money you spent turns out to be money wasted.  It’s easy to think ahead and say “When I need XYZ I will be so glad I picked up this great deal.  It’s going to save so much money!” when in reality you never end up using it and have to chalk it up as a loss.

There’s hope!

If you saw yourself in some of those scenarios, don’t beat yourself up.  There is hope!  Instead of dwelling on the money that you’re wasting because of your clutter, start thinking of all the money that you’re going to save by getting organized!

How would you like to sit down with someone who knows exactly what manageable steps you should take next to get your life and home running smoothly?

Well you are in luck! I’m teaming up with over 100 other women who are sharing their expertise when it comes to organizing your life and streamlining your home.

It’s called Get Organized HQ Virtual, and it’s a completely free, totally online conference.

We have women teaching about decluttering, meal planning, home organization, time management, family organization, cleaning, budgeting, and so much more! I’m talking about organizing your finances by getting a month ahead (one of my favorite topics!).

I have had early access to all of the sessions and have been devouring them! They are inspiring and motivating while also being down-to-earth, practical, actionable and so do-able. I am already implementing what I’m learning. I’m excited for you all to have access to all of these classes too!

It is free to attend and you can access it all from the comfort of your own home! It’s all happening online September 12th-16th.

Here’s how it works.

Step 1: Get your free ticket to Get Organized HQ Virtual. Make sure you claim your free ticket so you don’t miss out on this great event!  Click here to grab your free ticket.

Step 2: Check your email for confirmation. As soon as you get your free ticket you’ll get an email confirming that you’re all signed up for Get Organized HQ Virtual.

Step 3: Enjoy the sessions starting on September 12th. From September 12th to September 16th new sessions will be released hourly. Every workshop will be available for 24 hours, so pick your favorites, and enjoy all the free organizing goodness coming your way!

It’s that easy! Mark your calendar and get your free ticket because I know you are going to love it!

The post 7 Sneaky Ways Clutter is Costing You– Get Organized to Save Money! appeared first on Six Figures Under.

Originally published July 10, 2017

Electricity bills in the summer can be brutal!  Our summer rates are double and triple what they are in the winter.

If you’re lazy about conserving electricity in the winter, there is some serious motivation to buckle down in the summertime.

When we moved into our new house earlier in 2017, I signed up for OhmConnect, a free program that encourages people to save power by giving you cash for doing so!

Several times a week I’ll get a text notifying me of the next upcoming OhmHour (usually a day or two in advance), then during that hour, we try to use as little electricity as possible (or at least less than our projected usage).

We get our results a couple of days later and if our actual usage was below our projected usage, then we get points which translate directly into cash via PayPal. The lower your actual usage versus the projected usage, the more points you get.

I thought I was excited about OhmConnect, but it has been my kids that have really taken control and run away with it.  Since they’ve been so motivated and involved with saving electricity (both during OhmHours and generally), I’ve decided to put all the OhmConnect money we earn in our family fun fund.

Of course in addition to earning money through OhmConnect, we’re also saving money with a lower electric bill because we’re using less power.  Thanks to the OhmConnect program, we’ve closely examined our energy use and we know how to be savvy power consumers.

It definitely pays to be energy conscious!

We have learned that the little things we do to save electricity really do make a difference.  We already have good habits of the saving electricity in the big ways, but as we’ve gone the extra mile recently to tackle the little things too, we’ve seen great things happen (i.e. a cheaper electricity bill)!

Air dryer, not hair dryer

If you can get away with a summer ‘do’ that doesn’t require a hair dryer, it will pay off!  Any appliances that heat or cool suck lots of electricity.  Letting your hair air dry either at night or during the day is another way to keep you cool.  Plus, you aren’t heating up your house by blowing hot air into it!

Put a lid on it!

It doesn’t get more simple than this!  When you boil water, put a lid on your pot or saucepan.  The water will boil faster, which means you won’t have to keep the stovetop on as long.  Having the stove on as little as possible not only helps by reducing the amount of electricity needed, but also means you aren’t heating up your house as much, which is expensive to cool down.

Unplug it

Did you know that even when an appliance is off it’s still drawing power if it is plugged in?  True story.  It takes such little effort to unplug something when you’re not using it, but it can make a difference when you make unplugging a habit, especially in the summer when rates are higher.

Confession time.  I actually learned this a long time, but was too lazy to unplug things.  Could it really make that much of a difference?  Well, now, motivated by OhmHours and high summer electricity rates, we got in the habit of unplugging and it does make a difference!

Use free air conditioning

If you live in a place where it cools down at night, open your windows and let that cool air fill your home at night.  Before it heats up in the morning close the windows.  It’s so refreshing to feel the cool (sometimes even cold!) air in the morning!  This small daily habit makes a HUGE difference in how much we need to run our air conditioning.

Be the thermostat

Instead to setting our thermostat to a normal temperature, we set it ridiculously high during the summer (or ridiculously low in the winter).  In essence we use it as an on/off switch for our air conditioning.  With a high temperature set, the default is that the air is off.  We make a conscious decision to turn on the air when it gets too hot. Another benefit is that we don’t accidentally have the air running when we’re not even home.

Don’t cook

Many of us would love an excuse not to cook.  Am I right?  Not only does cooking take electricity, it heats up your home.  Summer is a great time to have a salad for dinner. (I hated salad until I was in my twenties, but this was the cure for me.)  If you like to grill, that’s a great way to keep the heat outside. I’m not above serving cold cereal for dinner on a hot day.

Use those window treatments

Curtains and blinds aren’t just to look pretty.  Make sure they’re being functional too!  Keep your house cool by drawing the curtains or closing the blinds when the sun is shining straight in and heating up your house.  In the winter, of course, you’ll want those window treatments open to capture that nice heat, but in the summer don’t let it make your house toastier.

Lights out!

Both my husband and I grew up with this habit, so it’s not a problem for us, but I have to mention it because it really is a super simple way to make a difference.  I’ve been in many homes where all the lights are on all the time.  If that sounds like your house, it’s time to make a new rule: Last one out of a room turns off the lights.

Shorten the shower

For a while I thought this was only a matter of conserving water, but I’ve since seen the error of my ways.  One Saturday night, I had four of our kids their take baths/showers right before an OhmHour started.  My thought was that if their baths were over when the OhmHour started we wouldn’t have to have lights in the three bathrooms on.  We ended up not meeting our goal that OhmHour because the water heater started doing its job (heating up the water for four simultaneous baths/showers) just as the hour we were conserving energy started.

That was the first time it hit me that shortening showers would reduce the amount of water that the water heater would have to heat, which is why shorter showers not only save water, but electricity too! Did you know that the water heater is one of the biggest power users in the house?

Ditch the dryer

If you already have a clothesline installed at your house, then it’s just a matter of choosing to use it.  If you don’t have a clothesline, then putting one up might take a little effort (more than the other suggestions on my list), but it will quickly pay for itself.

Every time I use my clothesline I get excited about the savings. Is that nerdy or what?! If you need some motivation, read these 9 reasons to use a clothesline.

Challenge Yourself

If you’re in California (or New York or some parts of Texas), I recommend signing up for OhmConnect to both make you aware of the power you’re using and motivate you to reduce it.  After you sign up you’ll need to sign a form (digital signature of the person whose name is on the utility account) giving permission for OhmConnect to have access to your utility account.  They use your history to determine your projected use for each OhmHour and to know your actual usage after the OhmHour occurs.

If you’re somewhere else, try having your own family challenge!  Take a look at your bill and what your family’s average usage is, then set a goal for how much you want to reduce your electricty usage.  Set up a reward that gets your family excited.  For example, you could tell your kids that if they can help reduce the bill by a certain amount of money, you’ll take half that amount and put it toward a fun family activity (bowling ice cream party, pizza, etc).  Each month you can heighten the challenge.

Not only will you save electricity and money, but you’ll create good habits have fun too!

How about you?

• Do you make conscious efforts to reduce your electricity?
• Are you savvy about how your electricity use is monitored and billed?
• What simple things do you do to save electricity in the summer?

The post 10 Little things you can do to save electricity in the summer appeared first on Six Figures Under.

Nothing compares to snuggling up with a good book and smelling the real paper pages. For convenience, though, audiobooks are pretty darn close to as good as the real thing.

Audiobooks let you be well-read even when you don’t think you have time to read.

While it’s true that you’ll make time for what’s important to you, it really is hard when your list of important things is a mile long.  I like to efficiently multi-task (note: not all multi-tasking is efficient) while listening to audiobooks.  While I’m doing a chore that takes no brain power like cooking, laundry, dishes, cleaning, or organizing, I love getting lost in a good book.

Do you commute?  Do you exercise?  Do you clean your house? You can kill two birds with one stone by listening to a book while you drive or work out.

Audiobooks are great for kids too!

In fact, in our family audiobooks are the secret to serenity on any car trip.  Of course they’re great for road trips, but for people who live in the boonies, going to church or the grocery store may as well be a road trip (we’re not quite in the boonies anymore, but we still dive a lot).  All that time in the car is great for whining, whistling, wrestling, and generally annoying your fellow passengers.

Putting on an audiobook magically turns chaos into calm, whether it’s in the car, the kitchen, or the bedroom.  The kids are glued to the story and suddenly forget complaining, arguing, nit-picking, mess-making, and pestering.  They can relax and just listen or work on a project with their hands, like knitting or building with blocks.

The best part is that audiobooks don’t even have to cost you anything!  Here are five great ways to get audiobooks for free!

1- Check the CDs out from the library

Your local public library has audio books on CD (or even cassette) that you can check out.  If you’ve never looked at the audio book section, you might be surprised at how big it is.  Our library has a whole section of kids audio books.  Recently we have been checking out a few books each time we visit the library.

Just like other library materials, you can look up the exact title you want or you can browse in person or online.  When I browse in person I always find titles I’m interested in that I never would have thought to look for.  When you’re searching the catalog online, you can also filter by the type of media, so you can narrow your search down to audiobooks.

2- Check out the digital audio books on Libby

Did you know your public library has a lot more available than what you see on the shelves?  If you haven’t been to your library’s website recently, you’re missing out on some hidden treasures.

Libraries partner with digital book providers to make them available to library card holders.  Over 90% of libraries in North America use OverDrive, which gives you access to literally millions of titles, including thousands of audiobooks.  Even though the books are digital, your library has a limited number of licenses, so you sometimes have to wait for a title to become available, just like you would reserve a book at the library.

All you need is a library card and the Libby app. If you don’t have the Libby app on your phone or device yet, do yourself a favor and download it for free! When you set it up you’ll link it with your library.

When your checkout period ends, the book will disappear.  The best part is you don’t have to worry about losing or damaging the library’s resources or paying any late fees!  And since the file disappears when your time runs out, you don’t have to worry about your device’s storage space being bogged down with audio book files.

3- Download books from librivox.org

While there are many sites online where you can download free books, LibriVox.org has one of the most extensive collections.  You won’t find anything that is currently under copyright, but you’ll find loads of classics and other books published before 1926.

Unlike the audio files that you “check out” of the library, there is no time limit on these files.  I can’t tell you how many times my kids have listened to The Adventures of Reddy Fox (and other animal stories by Thornton W. Burgess).

Volunteers record themselves reading books that are in the public domain, and thus no longer under copyright.  These can be older books, published before 1926, books to which the copyright was never renewed, government works, or other books intentionally placed in the public domain. Librivox is a non-commercial, non-profit and ad-free project.

4- Get a free trial (or two)!

Audible is an Amazon company that specializes in audiobooks.  They offer a free 30-day trial of their “Plus Premium” service which includes 1 free audiobook to download and keep or if you’re already an Amazon Prime member you get 2 free audiobooks during the trial. After the trial you get 1 book free per month with Plus Premium.  You can cancel at anytime and keep the books that you’ve already downloaded. For a plus premium membership it’s $14.95 per month after the trial. Audible also has a membership (Plus) that doesn’t include any monthly downloads and costs $7.95 per month.

While “audible” has become synonymous with “audiobook” these days, it’s not the only option. When we started homeschooling I discovered Scribd and have loved it! Your Scribd subscription gives you access to millions of ebooks and audiobooks along with podcasts, magazines, sheet music and more. With a house full of readers, listeners and musicians, we access quite the spectrum of books on any given day. Scribd gives you a 30-day trial if you just go to their website, but since I have a Scribd subscription I can give you a 60-day free trial! After the trial

Which service is better? You’ll have to try for yourself and see which you prefer! For some people it’s worth it to have both. But in this article we are focusing on getting audiobooks to listen to for free, so I recommend doing the free trials for Audible and Scribd at different times to spread out the free audiobooks over three months.

No excuses

I was recently talking with a friend who drives a truck inside a huge mine.  School has never been his thing and he’s never been a big reader. Now that he spends most of his long work days in a truck by himself, he was excited to discover that he loves books!  Audiobooks have opened a whole new world to him, offering subjects and stories that he never would have encountered without audiobooks.

There really aren’t any excuses for not having great listening material.  Go find something motivating, uplifting, educational, or enjoyable to listen to.

Be careful though.  You might just be motivated to clean the house, exercise or take a trip while you listen!

How about you?

• When do you listen to audiobooks?
• Where do you get your audiobooks?

Note: This post contains an affiliate link.  For more info, see my disclosure page.

The post 4 Best Places to get Audiobooks for Free (& why we love them) appeared first on Six Figures Under.

Originally published May 13, 2014

We have been drying our clothes on a clothesline since we moved to California in 2011.  At the time we were living in my in-laws’ basement while we paid off six figures of law school debt. Since my in-laws use a clothesline pretty much exclusively, that’s what we did too.

It’s been years now and it has become just what we do. When we bought a house, one of our first improvements was putting up a clothesline.

If you’re looking for ways to save money on electricity, then using a clothesline will be right up your alley! But reducing electricity costs isn’t the only great benefit of using a clothesline. There are some great bonus benefits that come from using a clothesline to dry your clothes.

Here are a few of the reasons we love using a clothesline.

Save Money on Utilities

Appliances with a heating element are a sure energy suck.  Whether your dryer is gas or electric, not using it will save you money, though the amount will depend on where you live and what kind of dryer you have.

Get Outside

Hanging clothes out gives you an excuse to get outside and enjoy some sunshine.  It’s easy to get so busy with things indoors that I don’t even go outside (except to tell my kids to come in for dinner).

Enjoy Alone Time

In addition to time outside, my clothes hanging time is typically alone time as well.  The kids can manage for the ten minutes it takes to hang or take down the clothes.  Sometimes I just enjoy the silence, while other times I listen to a podcast without interruptions.

Naturally Whiten Whites

The sunshine will naturally whiten your whites. Cloth diapering parents probably already know and take advantage “sunning” their whites.  The sun naturally bleaches out stains and keeps your clothes looking spiffier!

Extend the Life of Clothes

Did you know that the friction in the dryer wears out clothes more quickly? Your clothes will last longer if you use a clothesline to dry them.

Fresh Scent

Drying clothes in the sunlight gives them a fresher scent. Whether it’s the suns ultraviolet rays sanitizing them or because they are hanging in a dry, airy environment (not a hot, moist one like in a dryer), clothes dried outside have a natural fresh scent. It’s a great way to get rid of stubborn odors on towels, socks, and other stink culprits.

It’s Often Faster

In the summer, drying clothes on a clothesline is much faster than using the dryer. Where the dryer would normally be the bottleneck in the laundry process, the clothesline speeds up the entire chore. By the time I’m finished hanging a load of clothes in the summer, the first things I hung are already dry.

Avoid Setting in Stains

When you’re hanging clothes to dry you can check to see if stains came out in the washer.  I don’t know how many times I have intended to check to see if a stain came out before I accidentally threw the clothes into the dryer where the stain was permanently set.  If you catch a stain before it goes into the dryer, you’ll have another chance to get it out. Hanging clothes out on the line, gives me a chance to handle and check each item.

Easily Match Socks

I usually hang all my socks together on the clothesline using something like this.  When I take the dry clothes off, I can match socks as I take them down.  I also fold towels and blankets as I take them down.

It’s not for everyone

Some people just prefer their dryer, and that’s okay too.  I have a friend who grew up exclusively using a clothesline. When she went to college and discovered the convenience of an electric clothes dryer she said she could never go back to using a clothesline.

For some, using a clothesline is particularly challenging. If you live in a really humid climate, a clothesline might not work very well.  Some home owners associations have regulations against drying clothes in your yard.  If you do your laundry at night, then a clothesline probably won’t be very effective (though I’ve been known to hang a load at night so it can be ready for the first morning rays).

Where there’s a will, there’s a way

I have heard from readers who have made a clothesline work in situations where others might not.  For example, Celeste says:

I live in a one bedroom 740 sq foot condo. I have a rack that I bought at the Amish market that we hang stuff that can’t go on a hanger. Hanger items go on the shower rod in the bathroom.  This system works all year because it’s against condo regulations to hang clothes outside.

There are plenty of other ways that you can choose to save money.  However, if you are looking to cut down on your utility bills, then give the clothesline a fair try!

How about you?

Do you use a clothesline? Why or why not?

The post 9 Reasons We Use a Clothesline appeared first on Six Figures Under.

Updated! Originally published June 23, 2014.

Over the weekend, the boys in our family (my husband and four boys) got much-needed haircuts.  It probably won’t surprise you that we take care of these haircuts ourselves at home.

Cutting our family’s hair happens to be a family tradition. Growing up, my mom always cut my hair and my siblings’ hair.  My mom is talented at everything creative and artsy, so even when we were older my sisters and I trusted her to cut our hair.

My husband also grew up in a family where his mom cut all the kids’ hair.  When he got older he learned to cut his own hair.  To this day, my husband has never paid for a haircut.

Saving Money

How much you can save depends on how much you spend!

How much do your spend monthly or yearly on haircuts in your family?

Having never paid for a men’s/boys’ haircut, here’s a rough estimate.  If I paid $10 per haircut (that’s a low guess) for each of my boys (husband and 4 sons) every month, that would be $600 per year.

The clippers easily pay for themselves after one hair cutting session at our house!

And that’s just the for the boys. There’s also two daughters and me. Girls’ and women’s haircuts are more expensive, though they may not be as frequent.

Crunch a few numbers and see how much you could save by cutting your family’s hair.

Investments

The investment to cut your own hair is pretty minimal.  It will pay for itself in a haircut or two.  For girls’ hair, you’ll need a pair of basic, affordable haircutting scissors or even a simple haircutting kit that includes both straight scissors and teeth scissors.  As an untrained stylist, you really don’t need anything fancy or expensive.  The most important thing is to reserve your hair scissors just for hair so you don’t dull the blades.

For men and boys’ hair you’ll probably want clippers. My mom always cut my brother’s hair with scissors, but it takes more skill.  Probably the best clippers are the ones your grandma used to cut your dad’s hair.  They were made to last for generations and actually do!

If you didn’t inherit any clippers, there are many affordable name brand hair clippers on the market. Wahl, the classic brand your grandma’s clippers were, makes a very affordable set (currently priced at under $40 on Amazon) that consistently receives great reviews.

Learning

If you’re new to cutting hair, be brave and give it a try.  Between blog tutorials and YouTube videos, you have plenty of instruction at your finger tips.  The best thing about hair is that it grows back.  Even if you make a mistake, you’ll have another chance to try in a couple of weeks!

If you start cutting your children’s hair when they are young, your skills will increase as their awareness increases.  When they’re young, they couldn’t care less about what their hair looks like.  If you tell them they look good, they will believe you! We have teenagers now but we’re still doing haircuts at home. My oldest son will show Mike a picture of a haircut he wants and Mike does a pretty good job at figuring out how to make it happen thanks to lots of years of practice.

Is it Worth it to YOU?

For some people, paying big bucks to get their hair cut (and colored, styled, etc) at the salon is worth every penny. It’s their form of self-care. That’s fine!  We all have things that we’re willing to give up and things we just don’t want to sacrifice.  If you are trying to find ways to reduce your spending in order to reach your financial goals, cutting your family’s hair at home is a great way to save money.

How About You?

• How much and how often do you pay for haircuts?
• Do you (or have you) cut your family’s hair to save money?

(top photo) All my kids came out with a head-full of hair, but this little guy takes the cake.  He got his first haircut at 4 months (but obviously needed it much sooner).

(bottom photo) It took me a while to decide to finally cut my daughter’s hair.  I didn’t want to cut off her cute little baby curls for fear they wouldn’t grow back (they didn’t).  Finally, just before she turned three I cut her hair for the first time.

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Now that we have lived in our house for a year and a half, it seems like every cupboard and closet needs to be decluttered and reorganized.  I just went through the children’s books last week and have two big boxes of books to donate.

I have been thinking lately about where I lie on the spectrum between being a minimalist and a hoarder.

The post below was originally shared in May 2015, but I wanted to share it again since it’s what I’ve been mulling over lately.

What do hoarders and minimalists have in common?

Admittedly not a lot.  In fact they are pretty much at opposite ends of the “stuff” spectrum. The lifestyle of a hoarder would drive a minimalist insane.  Likewise, a true pack rat would go bonkers in a minimalist’s world.

Hoarders and minimalists have at least one thing in common: Frugality.

By definition, frugal is:

Economical in use or expenditure; prudently saving or sparing; not wasteful

Not all hoarders and minimalists are frugal.

While individual cases and motives vary, I think the mentalities behind hoarding and minimalism both demonstrate key components of frugality.

The Frugal Hoarder

Painting the image of a hoarder (or “pack rat” to put it more gently) isn’t hard, thanks to television’s exposure through shows like Hoarders and Extreme Couponing.  The extreme situations that make it to the screen, however, are definitely less frugal than your average pack rat mentality.  Set aside the extremes and picture a pack rat that you know and love.

Frugal hoarders accumulate stuff that they feel may possibly be useful to themselves or others at some time in the future.  They have a difficult time getting rid of anything because they are afraid they will want or need the item in the future.

Whether it was given to them for free or purchased on a great deal, frugal pack rats take pride in how little it cost them to acquire the goods.  The low price itself is often the sole justification for bringing the items home.

Looking at the definition above, frugal hoarders feel that getting rid of something that could possibly be useful would be wasteful. They believe that saving stuff is saving money.

The Frugal Minimalist

Minimalists hit frugality from a different angle.  Instead of focusing intensely on the economical expenditure, they are economical in the use of things.  Minimalism, as far as stuff is concerned, is defined by William Morris’s quote, “Have nothing in your house that you do not know to be useful, or believe to be beautiful.”

Minimalists are also not wasteful, another classic component of frugality’s definition.  Instead of preventing waste by saving everything like a pack rat, minimalists avoid acquiring things that would not be used.  To a minimalist, having something that isn’t useful is wasteful, not only because of the money spent, but also the space it takes up, the maintenance costs and opportunity cost (what else your money and space could be doing).

Frugal minimalists save money by just not buying much.  Their purchases are intentional and well thought-out.  They believe they are saving money by not saving stuff.

Where are you on the spectrum?

Most people aren’t one extreme or the other.  We all have different priorities and tendencies, but we probably lean one way or the other.

You might be a frugal hoarder if…

…you find yourself justifying clearance purchases with “I might need this someday.”

…you can find plenty to buy at any given garage sale.

…you buy more at the thrift store than you donate.

…you buy multiples because the deal is just “too good.”

…people call you when they are moving or downsizing to see if you want their stuff.

…you hang onto your children’s outgrown clothes for potential future children.

You might be a frugal minimalist if…

…you get rid of potentially useful things to save space.

…you shop with a list and stick to it.

…you donate more to the thrift store than you buy.

…you only buy what you absolutely are sure that you need.

…you love giving away useful items to friends.

…you pass along baby clothes right after a child outgrows them.

I would say (and my husband would agree) that I lean toward the hoarder side of frugality (and his tool collection would reveal the same thing about him).

For example, my newborn daughter is wearing clothes that my 7-year-old daughter wore seven years ago.  Those clothes have traveled 3,500 miles with us in those seven years.  Thinking about the space that they took up for those seven years and the effort of moving them across the country twice, makes the minimalist mindset sound appealing.

Still, I have a hard time passing up “free” things that may be of use in the future, even if I have to store them.  And when it comes to food, I believe in being prepared, which is why I prefer to call it stocking up rather than hoarding.

If you are feeling overwhelmed and frustrated with all of the stuff in your house or you feel like you’re always cleaning but nothing ever seems clean, then you probably have a clutter problem.  If you’ve tried to declutter in the past but have gotten burned out, then Step-by-Step Decluttering will be great for you!  After listening to the audio-book, I was totally encouraged and motivated to get to work.  Sarah gives clear methods and strategies to work through the decluttering process without feeling overwhelmed.

How about you?

• What kind of frugal are you?
• Have you had experience moving to a different spot on the frugality spectrum?

The post Hoarder, Minimalist, or Something in the Middle? appeared first on Six Figures Under.

Today we have the second place winner of the My Secret to Saving contest. Jennifer Duenes of Ditching Our Debt is sharing her creative way to save money which definitely has me inspired!

Several years ago, the idea of building my own furniture had never crossed my mind. On a tight budget for most of our marriage, our own home was furnished with providential finds like a free table and chair set left out on the curb or a sofa generously purchased for us by some friends.

Then I stumbled upon several blogger references to free woodworking plans available on a site called AnaWhite.com. Ana White, a mother and wife who lives up in Alaska, had figured out a way to simplify furniture construction and offered free plans as well as video tutorials to build beds, tables, bookcases, desks, coffee tables, and more. Many of them looked very similar to designs found in popular home stores like Pottery Barn.

I knew that I wasn’t ready to build something as intimidating as a table. While we were blessed to have a home where there was space to build, I had very few tools and money to purchase them. What I did instead was to start with small projects and use birthday or Christmas money to slowly build the basic tool collection I needed. After acquiring the basic tools to get started, I aimed for a very simple project: a play kitchen for my son.

There were quite a few imperfections in that first build. I hadn’t realized that wood can be warped, or that you need to adjust for the width of the saw blade when measuring cuts. But somehow, I managed to cobble together a kitchen with a little sink and faucet as well as an oven.

My next project was a picture ledge shelf for about $10, and then a wall-hung cabinet that I made to store craft supplies using an old picture frame I had found in our home. Again, there were a few flaws, but I felt more confident in gauging what I needed to do.

After that came a new mudroom!

. . . and then a rustic X-console to go behind our sofa for about $50 in supplies . . .

And that table that was so intimidating to me a few years ago? Well, it’s just a few steps away from being finished. The wood for the project cost just around $80 and we will be building a matching bench soon. A table very similar to the one I am building retails for $800-$1000 and that’s without shipping or sales tax!

Learning how to build furniture has become one of my favorite ways to save money, and it’s something that anyone can do thanks to the Internet and a simple investment in some basic tools. But the benefits go far beyond cutting costs. Not only have I build furniture, but I’ve also built confidence and learned to overcome fears and insecurities, and that is worth more than the savings itself. I also love the fact that I can customize the design and finishes of the furniture that I want to build.

If you’d like to learn more about the possibilities for building furniture, here are a couple of great sites that I love. They will get you started in figuring out what tools you need and which projects you could start with:

• www.shanty-2-chic.com

• http://www.ana-white.com

Jennifer Duenes writes at Ditching Our Debt, a blog about her family’s efforts to slowly tackle $90,500 in loans. She also homeschools her 4 kids and loves cooking, woodworking, sewing, and gardening.

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I’m welcoming Libby to the blog today to share her secret to saving!  Her post earned third place in the My Secret to Saving contest that I recently hosted!

Living in New England, where it is not uncommon to have nights at -11 F in January and February and where snow comes as early as Halloween and can last through Easter, heating costs are a MAJOR expense.

Then add in the old-house factor… in my town people are living in houses built as early as the late 1700’s.  My “new” house was built in 1952 and the walls have minimal insulation.

During these frigid New England winters, the thermostat limbo dance comes into play – how low can you turn the heat down and still be comfortable?

We have a programmable thermostat and I thank the person who created this brilliant and practical item.  Our heat goes down to 58 degrees at night and comes up to 68 degrees 30 minutes before our alarms go off in the morning.

So…how come we aren’t popsicles during the night?  How are we comfortable with the house down to 58 degrees at night?

The secret is air pockets!

Trapping air that is warm creates insulation – specifically on our beds.

The Layers

The first layer is a set of flannel sheets.  They are WARM to the touch when we get into bed.

As a side note, after I graduated from college and had my first apartment – where I was paying the heating bill for the first time in my life – I had regular cotton sheets.  They were icy cold to the touch, which was lovely in the summer but painful in the cold weather months.  When I went to bed in the winter I used to lie on my back and “make snow angels” under the covers trying to warm my sheets up as quickly as possible!

What a HUGE difference it made to upgrade to flannel sheets.

Now good quality flannel sheets aren’t cheap.  Portugal produces the best quality flannel in the world and this is the material that L. L. Bean, Lands End, The Company Store, etc use for their sheets.

When I buy flannel sheets, I try to find them on clearance during the summer.  They still end up costing about $180 per queen-bed-sized sets.  The sets I’m using now are 8 and 10 years old and are still going strong.  So they last.

Flannel sheets are on our beds starting in mid-September through the end of May/early June.  So the cost per night is pretty low.

For the math lovers:  8.5 months x 30 days = 255 nights x 10 years 2,550 nights.  $180/2,550 = 7 cents per night.  It will go even lower because the sheets haven’t worn through yet.

But I digress – let’s get back to learning how to create layers and trap warm air.  The second layer – and this is super important – is a cotton blanket with a loose weave.  This creates air pockets.

The cotton blanket is then covered by another blanket.  I use a wool blanket on my bed but my son prefers fleece.  Wool is heavier than fleece and I like the weight.  Either way, this next layer is trapping the warm air in the pockets created by the cotton blanket.

The final layer is a down comforter, which has lots of air pockets created by the feathers.

Using this sandwich layering technique to create air pockets, we stay toasty warm all night long.  The only hard part is if I need to get up in the middle of the night to pee!

I do want to note that when my son was very little and tossed off his covers during the night, I kept the temperature at 62 degrees during the nocturnal hours.

So what does this save me?

My house is heated only with an oil furnace.  Heating oil varies but the past last winter it was $2.599 a gallon.  We used 171.3 gallons total for the entire winter!

The other houses on my street are about the same size and my neighbors use double and triple the amount of heating oil.

Creating our air-pocket beds helps us to save $445 – 897 each winter… more when the cost of heating fuel goes up.

How about you?

• What’s on your bed?
• What do you keep your thermostat set at in the winter?

Libby was a single parent for 13 years, learned to squeeze a penny until Abe cried out, and has deep roots in beloved, gorgeous, frigid New England.  If she wins Stephanie’s contest she is buying an ice cream maker, because she can’t get enough of the cold?!  Well, rumor has it that New Englanders eat more ice cream per population than any other region of the country… go figure!

The post How to Lower Your Heating Bill Without Freezing — My Secret to Saving appeared first on Six Figures Under.

Are you thinking about investing in a chest freezer or upright freezer?  I get asked all the time by friends and readers alike if a deep freezer is worth it.  To each of them I answer a resounding YES!  A deep freezer has been totally worth it for us.

Before I gush about all the reasons we love our deep freeze, let’s look at the costs of a freezer first, then weigh them against the benefits.

How much does a deep freezer cost?

There are two costs associated with a deep freeze.  The first is the initial cost to purchase the freezer.  The second is the ongoing cost of running the freezer.

Initial Cost of a deep freezer

For us, the initial cost was zero, as we received a brand new freezer as a graduation gift from my parents.  Now if that sounds odd to you, it’s because it is!  My siblings and I are the only people I know that got a deep freeze as a graduation gift.  Well, it has turned out to be the best gift!

A deep freezer probably isn’t as expensive as you think.  You can get a brand new 7 cubic foot deep freezer for around $200.  You can get this 7.0 cubic foot freezer for $219 right now, which is amazing! You can order it and pay online, then pick it up in store (then you can be assured that it’s there and not have to run around to every Sam’s Club in town).

You can also find used ones for very reasonable prices too.  The downside of a used freezer is that older models aren’t as energy efficient as newer ones, so you may pay more in the long run.

To get the best deal, keep your eye on the market.  Once you know the size and type of freezer you are interested in, start paying attention to prices so that you know when a sale is really a good sale (and not just an advertising gimmick).

Ongoing Cost of a deep freezer

I have had friends hesitate about getting a freezer because they worried about the ongoing cost of the electricity to run the freezer.  After all, it needs to stay plugged in all the time!  Plus, appliances that heat or cool are known to be the ones that use the most power.

So how much does energy does a deep freeze actually use?  If you buy a new freezer, this information is readily available on the tag and in the sales materials, which makes comparisons really easy.  In order to know what it really means for you, you should be familiar with your electric bill.  Do you know how much a kilowatt hour costs for you?

I decided to do a little research so I could give you some actual numbers.  First I spent under $20 to get a Kill A Watt meter so that I could measure the power that my deep freezer is actually drawing (I’m planning to use the meter on some future posts on saving electricity, too).

Here is what I found:

Our 7 cubit foot chest freezer (which lives in our garage) uses on average 1.1 kilowatt hours of electricity each day.  During the winter, a kWh costs 15-18 cents, depending on the time of day.  In the summer (four months), each kWh costs 30 cents for the peak time (3-8pm) and 23 cents for all the other time, which averages out to about 25 cents.

In the summer, it costs about $7.50 per month to run the deep freezer.  During October through May, it costs about $4.68 per month.  Annually, that’s $67.44 per year or an average of $5.62 per month.

Keep in mind that your freezer will run most efficiently when it’s full.  It’s easier to keep frozen things cold than to keep the empty air space cold.  When you’re first working to fill your freezer, consider freezing bottles of water to take up some of that air space so your freezer doesn’t have to work as hard.  Also, a chest freezer is generally more energy efficient than an upright freezer.  You’ll lose less cold air opening a chest freezer (cold air sinks) than an upright where cold air spills out.

Benefits of a deep freezer

There are lots of benefits of having a chest freezer at home and many of them involve saving money.  I’ll go through some of the reasons that matter most to our family and some that might be a big deal for you.

Storing garden produce

If you’ve had a high producing garden, you know that it can be impossible to keep up with all those wonderful fruits and veggies during the busy harvest time.  Having a deep freezer buys you some time in dealing with your produce.

For example, I currently have somewhere around a dozen gallon-sized freezer bags full of blackberries that we picked last summer.  I make the majority into jam (but make plenty of syrup too), but I like to save them all to jam at the same time so the mess is consolidated to one day (and preferably in the fall when it’s not so hot).  With our move and my pregnancy, I haven’t gotten around to making jam, but since they’re frozen I can take my good old time (and they’re great for smoothies and cobbler when they’re frozen)!

Also, the method I use for canning tomatoes works great with frozen tomatoes.  I don’t even have to blanch or peel them!

Having plenty of freezer space makes harvest time much less hectic!

Buying Meat in Bulk

As one of the most expensive items on your grocery list, stocking up on meat can really save money.  Whether you’re hoping to get lucky with markdowns at your local butcher’s counter or you buy meat in bulk, you need somewhere to put that meat while you’re waiting to use it.

I do a combination of freezing meat cooked and uncooked.  I usually brown up half of the ground beef and divide it into portions I will use and then freeze the rest raw in normal portions.  With chicken, I’ll cook up and shred some of it and freeze the rest in normal portions for my family or in freezer meals.

If you’re looking for easy-to-follow, scalable freezer meal plans for lots of different dietary and cooking method preferences, check out MyFreezEasy.  After deciding that freezer meals weren’t for me, MyFreezEasy helped me see the light.

Shopping less often

I started making once-a-month grocery shopping trips when we lived very far from town.  Having a deep freezer really makes once-a-month shopping simple.  I could stock up on milk that would last us all month by sticking some gallons in the freezer.  There are lots of other foods that you might not know that you can freeze.  Once you learn about all of the foods that can be frozen, you’ll be able to stock up when you make your shopping trip, especially if you find a great deal.

Take advantage of clearances and sales

I like to shop at a discount foods store that sells foods near their expiration or “best by” date.  Food prices drop drastically when food gets near the end of it’s prime.  If you have freezer space you can score big when this happens.  Here’s one example, but I seriously do the same thing when ever I find a killer deal on any freezable food that our family eats.

I like to make homemade yogurt because it saves tons of money over store-bought yogurt (plus it’s simple to make a gallon at a time).  Still, when I find the individual school lunch size yogurts for a super deal (like 8 for $.47 or something crazy like that) at Grocery Outlet, I grab all I can.  I put them straight into the freezer, then pull them out one at a time to put in school lunches.  Freezing them puts a hold on the expiring process, so when I take them out it’s as if it were the same day I put them in the freezer.  Not only is the yogurt still good, by lunch it is thawed but still cold.

Bulk baking sessions

I’m a go-big-or-go-home kind of girl when it comes to baking.  If I’m going to the effort to bake and make a mess in the kitchen, then I am quadrupling recipes left and right.  My family loves homemade baked goods, so if I don’t get them into the freezer, even six loaves of pumpkin bread will disappear in a day or two!

Using the freezer in conjunction with bulk baking allows me to store breads, muffins, cookies, and granola bars for snacks and school lunches.  Making homemade lunch snacks is a great way to save money.

Once or twice a year I will make pie crust dough in bulk and then freeze individual dough balls.  For the rest of the year, we’ll have delicious pies, pot pies, and quiches with very minimal effort on my part.

Make-ahead sandwiches

Speaking of packing lunches, my freezer saves me from having to make sandwiches every day, which is one of the things that drives me bonkers about school time.  Between my husband and three school-aged kids, I make at least six sandwiches a day.  If the little one and I have sandwiches, that’s two more!

One of my greatest discoveries of the past decade is that you can freeze peanut butter and jelly sandwiches.  And they are wonderful!  After our monthly grocery shopping trip, I will make something like eight loaves of sandwiches to go into the freezer.  I go through several large jars of peanut butter and several jars of jam all at once, but it is so satisfying to not have to make sandwiches for a while.

I put each sandwich in a fold-top sandwich bag and then put all the sandwiches into a bread bag with a twist tie to go into the freezer.  I save the store bread bags, so even when I make my own bread I use the store bought bread bags for the freezer.

Is a deep freeze worth it to YOU?

Before you dive into investing in a deep freezer, here are a couple of questions to ask yourself.

How will a freezer save ME money?

I’ve shared some ways that a freezer saves US money (not to mention time and sanity), but what are the reasons that matter to YOU?  What would you store in your deep freezer?

Is it worth spending $6 each month in order to have these benefits?

I figure that it takes $67 each year to run our deep freezer, or averaging under $6 per month.  For us, that money is well-spent.  What is the estimated energy cost to run the freezer that you are interested in?  Looking at the benefits you will receive, is it worth the cost for you?

What else is holding you back?

There are other legitimate concerns about getting a deep freezer.

Where will I put my deep freezer?

A common concern about investing in a chest freezer, aside from the cost, is space.  If you have a small house or apartment, you might think there is no way that you could ever squeeze a chest freezer into your place.  And you might be right (we’ve lived in some pretty tight quarters, too).  BUT, before you discount the idea completely, be sure to think through all of the possibilities.

One of my sisters, who also got a freezer for college graduation, kept hers in a coat closet by the front door in one of her newlywed apartments.  You can keep your freezer tucked away in the garage (that’s what we did during law school and are doing now).  I’ve seen small chest freezers in kitchens and dining rooms too.

When we lived in my in-laws’ unfinished basement (while we paid off $144,000 of law school debt), we kept ours in the “living room” (if you saw it you would understand why I put it in quotes).  In fact, at Christmas we perched our small artificial Christmas tree atop the freezer which I adorned with a cute plaid tablecloth.

What if I lose power?

I have a funny story about that (though at the time it was anything but funny)!  If you’ve got a minute, you should go read about our freezer nightmare (and find out a solution to prevent it from happening ever again).

With any electric appliance, there is always a risk of power failure.  When we lived in the boonies, it was normal to lose power for days at a time in the fall and winter storms.  Still, my in-laws don’t hesitate to keep their enormous chest freezer (which could literally be a coffin for NBA players) stocked full all year long.

Your freezer would need to be without power for quite a while for anything to spoil, especially if it is well-stocked.  Chest freezers are kept at a lower temperature than the freezer portion of your refrigerator, which means it will stay frozen and cold for much longer.  The best thing to do is to keep our freezer closed during the power outage so you don’t let out any of the cold air.

Of course if you have a generator, you don’t have to worry about your freezer.  Just plug your freezer into the generator periodically to keep the temperature down.

How about you?

• Do you already have a deep freezer?  Do you love it?
• What makes a freezer worth the cost for YOU?

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