The following are a few examples of how we manage on our meager income, plus tips from other websites and sources on ways to save money and live frugally.  Everybody has some fixed expenses – fixed however doesn’t always mean completely unchangeable.  For instance, interest rates are down – it might be possible to renegotiate your mortgage for a lower payment.  You might have a monthly cable TV bill that is ‘fixed’ but of course it’s up to you to decide whether you need cable TV (or the specific plan/provider that you have).  Then there are the expenses you should be able to curtail to some extent – such as food, entertainment, and purchase of clothing and other household or personal goods.  These are the areas you have the greatest control over and the easiest first step in preparing a frugal budget.

Food

Our challenge is feeding a family of five, plus pets, on a limited budget while living in a small space.  How do we do it?  Well, naturally we clip coupons. But I don’t even try to ‘extreme coupon’ (haven’t seen the show but have an idea of what they do).  We don’t subscribe to the newspaper (too expensive) but I generally buy the Sunday edition for the coupons and I find coupons online (Shortcuts.com and mypoints.com for example).  I can either load the coupons onto my grocery club card or print them.  If I use coupons from My Points, I get points in addition to savings – those points eventually translate into grocery or gas gift cards.  Unfortunately a lot of coupons are for name brand products that, even with the coupon, cost more than the store brand, so I get limited use out of them.  The days of grocery stores doubling the face value of a coupon are over (at least where we live, although they will double up to $1) so I generally only use a coupon if it is an item we use/need and whenever possible I try and combine sales and coupons.

We shop at the bargain and warehouse stores – Dollar Tree, 99 cents store, Big Lots, Food for Less, Smart and Final – and sometimes these are good deals, sometimes not.  It helps that I have time to shop around but due to the price of gas I try and limit my visits to multiple stores and only go to those near another destination (generally one of our schools).  It’s not worth the gas to drive out to the closest Walmart (12 mile roundtrip) to save a few cents on one or two items.   And sometimes the bargain stores aren’t such a bargain – yes I can get a small bottle of dish soap for .99 but I have to calculate the unit price (is the $2.99 larger bottle at the grocery store a better price per ounce?) and decide whether I’m OK with trading quality for the lower price. If I use twice as much to get the dishes half as clean is it a bargain?

The warehouse store issue is buying in bulk.  The cost of some foods is less at Smart and Final when I buy the ‘value pack’ and I like S&F because you don’t need to pay to join like you do with CostCo and Sam’s Club.  But even though the cost per unit is sometimes quite a bit cheaper at S&F, the total cost is frequently more than I can afford.  And, with limited storage space, even when I have the money to buy super large bags of rice or flour or multiple packs of canned goods, I have no where to put them.  Nevertheless these stores are worth scouting out if you have a garage or large pantry.  When we lived in a house we had a freezer in the garage and I regularly stocked up on bulk frozen goods.   I miss that freezer!

In addition to shopping habits we’ve changed our eating habits.  We don’t buy treats (cookies, soda, ice cream, etc.).  We buy things on sale.  We buy fewer convenience goods and I cook more from scratch, although I have found out that sometimes the packaged meal is cheaper than buying all the ingredients and making the meal.  We have all given up foods we like and we seldom eat meat (which I must say I think I miss more than the kids do).

We get a box of food from a local food pantry about once a month if things are very tight – and sometimes end up with odd cans of things like cranberry sauce and mushrooms but sometimes get treats like strawberries and pork chops.  One month our box was nearly entirely made up of bread and bread products – loaves, rolls, bagels – and a frozen container of bread stuffing!

Entertainment

We own a TV but do not have cable TV service.  It’s too expensive and essentially a luxury for us.  We used to just use the TV to watch DVDs that we rented through Netflix or from one of the video rental boxes (Redbox, Blockbuster and the like).  And we picked up DVDs on sale (Blockbusters sells ‘previously watched’ dvds sometimes quite cheaply) or borrowed from friends or the library.  This was great for the kids who don’t mind watching the same show/movie over and over, but not something I used much.

We were given a Wii for Christmas some years ago and found that with an internet connection we could stream Netflix videos through the Wii.  This works perfectly for us and we use the Wii more for streaming than to play games (although the kids are really enjoying playing Wii Party Games – a Christmas gift from a friend this year).

Frankly an internet connection (something we did without for some time) is something more than a luxury.  It is a necessity for job hunting, and responding to requests from prospective clients.  I use it to sell on Etsy (cat beds) and, at one time, eBay.  I have multiple job searches set up via various websites, and use it to network (LinkedIn) and of course, write and maintain my blog. It is also the way I keep up on the news (our old trailer had a built in radio, this one doesn’t) and weather forecasts. The kids use it for homework (particularly my oldest two) and entertainment.

Our other ‘entertainments’ are on the cheap – we hang out with friends when we can; go to the YMCA, public playgrounds or the beach; read books checked out from the library (which occasionally does involve an expense as the library is out of our way and books are sometimes not returned on time); do puzzles and play games.  I try to put aside a little money for things like fieldtrips (my oldest is going to a science museum in LA next month) that have entry or bus fees so that the kids can do things with their school classes.

Clothing

Unfortunately due to the size difference between my daughters and the lack of storage space we can’t do too much in the way of hand me downs.  So we shop at thrift stores and bargain stores like Ross.  Internet coupons for stores like Kohls, plus shopping the clearance racks are great go-to places when we need a specific piece of clothing, like the black skirt/white shirt combination my middle school daughter needed for her band uniform.  Mostly we just wear things until they are worn out!

I think we are saving some money by washing clothes at home instead of going to the Laundromat.  Our electric bill is somewhat more expensive in our new trailer and I’m sure some of that is the washer/dryer use, but I no longer have to drive to the Laundromat so there’s a savings in gas to offset it.  I wish our washer had more than one setting – you can only wash a full tub of clothes since it fills all the way up with water regardless – but even so it is a big convenience to have it.

Internet Bargains

I use the internet to comparison shop, look for coupons and sales, and check craigslist for garage sales and freebies.  I used to look at freecycle but since we don’t really need to acquire much I tend not to go there these days.  If we ever have an apartment to furnish I’ll resubscribe.  I also sometimes pick up a Groupon deal – such as the $20 worth of Old Navy Clothing for $10 that I got just before Christmas.  Between the Groupon and the clearance racks I was able to find several pieces of clothing for nearly 80% under the list price.   I picked up another Groupon right after the holiday with a little of my Christmas money – $30 for THREE oil changes at a local auto shop.  That means the next 3 oil changes will only cost me $10 each, and are already paid for.  Yes, I expect the auto shop will try and talk me into new air filters, and any other add-on they can come up with but if I stand firm I’ve got a real deal!

I’m a member of My Points and redeem the points that slowly add up (you can rack them up faster if you shop on line but I generally earn points through emails, surveys, and coupons rather than shopping – although I do purchase my Groupons through My Points to get points in addition to the deals) for gift cards for the grocery store (Safeway) or gas station.  Since gas is one of those necessary expenses that I cannot stock up on it helps to have a gas card tucked away for the times when money is in short supply.

And of course I used the internet to ‘monetize’ my blog with Google ads and the Amazon.com affiliate shopping link.  Thanks to all of you who did your Holiday shopping through that link we will receive a check for nearly $200 in March (payment trails earnings by about 2 months).

What are your frugal living tips?

When you have a small and sporadic income, budgeting isn’t easy.  To be honest, even when I was employed fulltime I was never the poster child for budgeting.  You know how we’re told by all the personal finance gurus that you need to have 6 months worth of living expenses saved in case of an emergency or lay-off?  At best I managed 3 or 4 months.  Periodically I got hooked on some new financial management software or gimmick and, as with exercise programs, followed it religiously for a few months before reverting to old habits.    Money management wasn’t really part of my education – it was one of those subjects that wasn’t discussed much at home and in school the only part of the curriculum that came close was learning to balance a checkbook in home economics class.

Nevertheless I was relatively responsible in how I handled my money – tucking some away in savings, never coming close to the extravagant credit limit on my cards, and paying my bills on time.  I did enjoy browsing through stores and sometimes indulged in a little ‘shopping therapy’ when blue or to mark special occasions in my life.  I had a laid back attitude about money because I had a healthy and regular income.

To say that’s changed is an understatement.  These days financial issues are my biggest stressor.  Nothing keeps me awake late into the night, or makes me as anxious and irritable as wondering about whether I’ll be able to pay the bills.  With over 20 million Americans out of work, I figured others are probably having the same concerns so I went looking for tips and advice.

The blog, Living ‘Poor’ and Loving It, caught my attention by virtue of the title alone as we are living poor and I’m not loving it!  Unfortunately the blog’s author’s three rules consist of 1) Have Very Little Money; 2) Live on it; and 3) Rule 2 will change your life if you let it.  These are rules for people who have some money but live as though they have more.  People who run up their credit cards buying things they don’t need but think they want.  People who need to pare down their expenses by not eating out, buying sporting tickets, and going on vacation.  The author says “My most important money-management tool hasn’t been figuring out how to get more but rather discovering how little I really need and how much I already have.”

Been there, done that. We passed this phase of living poor during the first year after I was laid off.  Thanks to unemployment benefits we were able to ease into being poor (although it didn’t seem like it at the time) and as I detailed in several early blog posts we learned to live with much less – in possessions, space and income.   We gave up eating out, going to movies, subscribing to cable TV.  We clipped coupons, shopped at thrift stores, and ate a lot of beans and rice. If we were careful we could afford small luxuries like buying yearbooks for the kids or eating out on a birthday night.  We made do.  It wasn’t easy but it was bearable.

Now we have entered (sunk to) a new level – with no guaranteed income, some fixed expenses, some variable expenses and the occasional emergency.  We very much live hand to mouth.  My income (mostly from writing and editing jobs and the odd sale of a cat bed) is uncertain, frequently comes in very small amounts and goes as quickly as it comes.  When someone pays you $30 and you have a quarter tank of gas in your car you don’t worry about trying to save – you just head to the gas station.

When I have a slightly larger payment or a windfall I always put aside money for rent, stock up on necessities and use part of it to pay forward on whatever bills I can (after getting caught up on whichever bills I’m behind).  I find that paying two months of internet service, or car insurance, for example, relieves some of my anxiety and a less anxious mom is definitely a good thing for the family!  But sometimes I’m too eager to get caught up and paid forward and am then caught short-handed when, as happened last week, the car battery dies and needs to be replaced or the computer crashes and needs expert care.  Then, with no credit or borrowing power, I need to borrow from the rent money, hoping that another job comes along in time for me to replace it.

I believe we are on the edge of moving from living poor, to survival living.  It’s a scary place to be – I don’t like the view from here.

A number of interesting articles about the job situation in the U.S. have caught my eye recently.  There are still millions of people out of work (13.1 million counted plus another at least 8 million workers who are not receiving benefits or are ‘discouraged’), a situation that has an increasingly detrimental effect on our society.  Consider it – over 20 million people who are not contributing to the income tax revenue that the government needs to fund services and projects; over 20 million people who are struggling to keep a roof over their heads and food on their table and who are taxing the very services that are now underfunded and overwhelmed.  Personally (naturally) I feel the job situation should be making more headlines than it is!

The articles that caught my eye were varied, each providing different information and insights about the current situation.  The first was an article on msnbc.com stating that jobs are going unfilled because employers cannot find appropriately skilled workers.  With so many people looking for work it is hard to believe that a skilled worker can’t be found for every job opening.  Nevertheless, over 50 percent of employers surveyed said that they cannot find the right worker.   This begs the question – do employers have reasonable expectations?  According to experts quoted in the article the answer is a qualified no.  Employers complain about the lack of skilled workers but at the same time they have decreased their recruitment efforts, lowered wages, done away with benefits (such as paying moving expenses) which might encourage workers to apply for a position, and are more reluctant to spend the time or money training someone for a highly specialized job.

In my job hunt I notice many of the position ads list very exacting requirements or exclude certain candidates.  Of particular interest to me, given that I plan to take courses in medical assisting in order to switch into a field that is still growing, is that most of the local job advertisements in this field are now stating that they will not accept applications from job seekers who do not have two to three years of experience.  One specifically declared “New graduates will not be considered.” This presents a quandary for someone looking to retool for a new career in middle age.  Is it worth spending sometimes substantial sums of money and potentially several years training for a new career if the field in which one is interested will not hire new grads?  Should we gamble on the possibility that hiring requirements will relax in the time we take to learn our new skills?

The second article in the Wall Street Journal contrasted the growth in company expenditures in machines (orders for new robots are up 41%) versus hiring (1.4% growth in private sector jobs).   Current tax incentives are making capital purchases more economical than in the past and companies that are not just stuffing their profits away in bank accounts are taking advantage of the bargains.  These tax incentives were created to help give the economic recovery a boost but aren’t necessarily having the intended effect.  Sure lots of companies are buying or upgrading equipment but many of those items are purchased from overseas manufacturers (nice for China’s economy) and in the end may result in more layoffs rather than additional hiring.  For instance Sunny Delight’s upgrade of their Littleton Massachusetts plant, currently in the works, will result in the shedding of around 40 jobs as more processes are mechanized.

The third article provided a glimmer of hope.  It discussed the beginnings of a trend of bringing jobs back from China.  It’s not patriotism or concern for the well-being of America that’s bringing jobs back from China, but the bottom line.  As China’s economy expands, more factories are built, and employers compete for workers, bringing up wages and the cost of the product, and at the same time shipping costs rise as concerns over Iran’s control over the strait of Hormuz and continued unrest in the Middle East drives up the price of fuel, and suddenly it’s not that much cheaper to manufacture your product overseas.  The authors of a study titled “Made in America, Again: Why Manufacturing Will Return to the U.S.” believe that by 2015 it will only be 10% cheaper to manufacture goods in China (which does makes me wonder whether wages in the U.S. will continue to drop).  At any rate bringing manufacturing jobs back to America will benefit all of us as more people return to work, pay taxes, spend their earnings, and keep their roof over their heads and their children fed.  Perhaps between factory upgrades and returning jobs we’ll be even more productive than ever!

Several months ago I posted about an ad on our local Craigslist – a new ‘reality’ show looking for Americans who were struggling. FYI,  I’m not going to name the show and won’t publish any comment that does.  Well, I did respond to the ad, and when the producers called me, I sent in an application of sorts.  We even went to LA at our own expense to have a videotaped interview.  I don’t know where we were in the running – I believe they had a lot of responses from folks across the nation – but eventually I opted out.

The releases the producers wanted us to sign were very much weighted in their favor (we essentially would have given away all rights for nothing) and I did not foresee anything good coming of our participation.  The show was going to be a web blog detailing your struggle.  You agreed to allow cameras to film you as you blog for a year.  The idea was that local people would respond to your struggles and help you out and the producer’s experts would offer advice that could benefit you.

However, each new release form became more intrusive and exploitative. There wasn’t any sort of guarantee that you would be better off at the end and I was really annoyed by the last release form which essentially said we would grant them all rights to our images and story forever and that they could alter or modify such, that we recognized the producer’s “substantial and valuable property rights” in our story and would not be able to discuss this story with anyone else ever and if we did we agreed to pay the producer $500k ” as a reasonable and fair amount of liquidated value to compensate the producers for any loss or damages”!  Funny how it isn’t worth paying us anything for our story but if we agreed to intrusive filming for a year and said anything to anyone about an upcoming episode it would be worth half a million dollars to someone else.  Oh, and by the way, the release also said we agreed we essentially had no recourse and even if portions of the release were found to be unenforceable it didn’t release us from the release!

So at that point I declined to sign and never heard another word from them!  C’est la vie.  I guess our 15 minutes of fame still awaits us.

First, I want to say that I’m no hopeful Pollyanna all optimistic just because we turn a page on the calendar and it’s a new year.  It’s merely another day, likely to be a lot like yesterday and the day before.  So, I scoff at headlines like “Hope Reigns as Americans Ring in 2012” – seriously?  Do people really think that the world will be a gentler, kinder and more just place in 2012?  That dictators will bow to the will of the people and resign?  That both sides of congress will stop grandstanding and work together for the betterment of the American people?  But I don’t want to get started on a rant.

I don’t generally make New Year’s Resolutions and haven’t been notably successful in the ones I have made.  But I am not immune to the appeal of fresh starts.  I ended the year feeling a bit bruised and battered by the vagaries of fortune – finally getting a job and raising our hopes of getting out of this situation only to finish up worse off than we’d been at the beginning of the year.  A week ago I took photographs of my girls so that they could upload them into a virtual hairstyle program to try out new dos.  At their urging I allowed them to take a picture of me for the same purpose.  Oy!  Even the facial recognition program in my photo editing software didn’t recognize me!  It accurately named my daughters when I uploaded the photographs but put the photos of me into the “Unknown Persons” category!  I’ve aged dramatically in the past few years, adding lines to my face, grey hairs, and unwanted pounds to my slight frame.  I believe the outward appearance mirrors inward health changes as well.  Who wouldn’t want a fresh start!

And there’s something to be said about making a fresh start on New Year’s.  For one thing there are a lot of support programs geared towards people who have resolved to be more fit, eat better, quit smoking, etc. that start in the month of January.  And I, personally, plan to take advantage of two of them to lose weight and improve my fitness level, health, and general outlook on life.

Thanks to a generous friend we are able to continue our YMCA membership past the month of December so I am attending the Fit Start class this evening.  It is designed to help you jumpstart your fitness program if you’ve been out of training for a while and to provide support and coaching until you get into the groove.  I’m sure to benefit from this because I tend to start strong but give up quickly!  In tandem I’ve joined the SparkPeople January Jumpstart Workout Challenge for added support and encouragement.  The kids are signed up for classes in dance (my son) and karate (youngest daughter) at the YMCA and are looking forward to their own fitness routines.

An article I read has encouraged me to make some changes in our diet as well.  According to a recent study eating a low carbohydrate diet (limiting carbs to 50g a day) even as infrequently as twice a week, can have a notable positive impact on losing weight and lowering insulin levels, which are both associated with lower risks of breast and other cancers.  So Tuesdays and Thursdays will be low carb diet days in our household.   This will be a challenge as we eat a lot of rice and pasta, both low cost and filling foods, and potatoes and breads are a mainstay in our diet.  It’s trickier than I thought at first – not as simple as just doing away with bread and pasta and eating more fruits and veggies.  Who knew carrots are high in carbohydrates?

In both fitness and diet we are making it a family affair and I’m enlisting the kids’ input on meals and activities.  I’m hoping this will help make the changes stick!  They say it takes 30 days to break a bad habit or get into a new good habit (actually some say 21 days, some say a lifetime so I’m arbitrarily picking 30 J) so roundabout February 1^st I’ll let you know how we are doing!  What are your resolutions?

I’m going to select one of my cat beds at my Etsy shop to ‘promote’ via an ad on Etsy’s homepage. Which one should I pick?

Removed at request of the company for which I’m writing blogs.

Check out this cute, and very affordable house!

Like many of you we have been busy preparing for the holidays.  We got a tall thin artificial tree from a friend; it just fits into the corner in front of our bookcase. We have missed having a Christmas tree (no room in the old RV) and enjoyed decorating it with inexpensive and homemade ornaments.  We hung lights and a garland and stockings along the edge of our pop-out in the living room and made handcrafted presents for teachers just in time for the last day of school.

We have also been busy dealing with various things that are breaking around the house!  Our propane system sprung a leak, emptying out one tank entirely and putting an end to holiday baking since our stove and oven depend on propane.  Figuring out the problem, and fixing the leak, took some time but we are back on line as of today – just in time to bake and decorate cookies.

In an unrelated kitchen incident, the shelves in our pantry abruptly collapsed, dumping cans and pasta all over the floor!  The problem seems to be the very thin plywood used for interior walls and shelves.  They cannot support the weight of canned food, bags of flour, pasta and beans.  An interim repair lasted less than a day before the floor collapsed so I ended up ripping out the shelves.  We have another less than perfect interim solution – a small plastic shelf unit – but it doesn’t hold nearly the contents of the pantry so more food has been stored under my bed in a plastic tub.  I think a more permanent solution would require building a frame for shelves and, after shoring up the floor in some fashion, installing it in the tall narrow space.  I’ve ‘shelved’ that idea for now – too much other stuff on my plate.

I’ve also been working on my various part-time jobs.  I finished the archaeology survey report last Friday and sent it to the client along with the invoice only to receive an ‘out of office’ email in return.  The client is off on vacation and will return on January 3rd (and hopefully send a check soon after).  It was a good reminder of the importance of communication!

I put in quite a few hours doing eBay listings and helping to pack up my friend’s warehouse, finishing on Monday this week.  She’s been in this business for years but is finding it harder and harder to make a living so she’s pulling back and focusing just on her store.  I’ve sold a few cat beds, and made more (see the Etsy shop) and today submitted my first commercial blog post (I have a contract for 2 posts a week for 5 weeks at $15 a post).

In other employment news, there’s… no news!  No word from the school district on the Assistant Director of Nutrition job – and they are out for the holiday so I don’t expect I will hear until January if at all.  And speaking of school – I did get approved for a small amount of financial aid, enough to pay the tuition for the course I planned to begin in January but by the time I heard from the aid folks the course had completely filled up and is currently closed to new students.  So I’m a bit at loose ends now.  I have a paper to edit (a math professor’s journal article) and the blog posts to write but that’s all that has been scheduled.  I’m hoping things will pick up after the holidays.

I would like to thank all our readers who have contributed to our Holiday Cheer in many ways from shopping through our Amazon.com link to sending gifts and warm wishes for the New Year.  Your kindness is much appreciated and I assure you we will have a very happy Christmas this year.  I hope you will all enjoy the holidays with loved ones and stay safe in your travels!  Merry Christmas and Happy Hanukkah!

Does it take to replace one full time job?  More than I have currently! This month I have the following jobs – eBay consultant, crafts-person, editor, data collection assistant and archaeologist (yes, my advertising blitz of October has paid off in a small survey job which I completely underbid).  Each pays on a different scale (commission, per sale, per page, per hour…) and the money comes in fairly small amounts at irregular intervals.  So far my income in December – based on known jobs – will be around $700.  Hopefully there will be a few more sales and projects in the 2nd half of the month.  I have sold one cat bed from my Etsy shop and have another special order and a couple more beds almost complete and ready to list before the Christmas shopping period ends.  The eBay job looks like it will go away soon as my friend is going out of business (for real this time as the landlord has rented her warehouse to someone else in January).  I will be listing like crazy until then so check out the link on the blog – we have some nice collectible porcelain figurines listed currently.

But enough about the minutia of the jobs.  I want to tell you the ways in which doing 4 or 5 different small part-time jobs differs from the nice full-time jobs I’ve had in the past!  Well, obviously there’s no health insurance or guaranteed paycheck to begin with.  There are too many bosses.  There’s no stability as the jobs are either one offs (British slang – either I remember it from my years doing fieldwork in England or it’s from the British TV shows I’m watching on Netflix while knitting) or sales waiting to happen.  Either way there’s just no way to plan or, more importantly, budget.  When I get a payment for a cat bed I don’t know if I should tuck it under my mattress to pay rent or go ahead and put gas in the car!

And because I’m doing so many different things to make money my jobs sometimes collide with one another or overlap in ways that require me to do a bit of this and then a bit of that – a true juggling act. I’m pretty sure you can’t do anything well (or at least not as well as if you just concentrated on one thing) when you have multiple demands for multiple people. I don’t dare say no to anything so I stay up late, very late, most nights as I don’t feel like I can take a break from eBay listings or cat bed knitting.  My work doesn’t stay nicely constrained to an office and the hours of 8 to 5 which makes it hard to separate it from my family time.  When my daughter wants to have a private chat at 7 pm and I’m busy writing eBay descriptions or editing an article she feels ignored and I feel pressured.

 Although I’m very happy to be making some headway in my varied income schemes, and we are keeping our heads above water, it’s still a very tenuous way to live and it’s stressful! Possibly it would be easier if I felt one ‘career’ would pan out and I could just concentrate on it (archaeology, editing..) but so far there’s no clear winner in the group!

I had a brief period of euphoria when a local environmental firm to which I had applied phoned me last week to say they would like for me to come in for an interview.  It was brief because the next day they called back and said they were ‘rethinking their hiring strategy’ and weren’t sure they were ready to fill the position after all. So in the meantime I soldier on saying yes to everyone (except the kids who mostly hear ‘not now, Mommy needs to work’), feeling a bit frazzled but glad that we are getting by.