Tag Archives: Frugal Inspiration

Cute, Fun, Duck Tape, Valentine’s Day Flowers

Posted by Ney@ShopahoicSavers.com on February 11, 2013 None comments

A friend of mine showed me these really cool flowers that she made for her boyfriend for Valentine’s Day and I wanted to share. She only spent $6 on two rolls of duck tape which makes this a fun, frugal Valentine’s day gift.

Take a straw and use one piece of Duck Tape to Wrap it up.

Cut a square of duck tape.

Fold down one corner.

Then fold the other corner.

Attach the Petal to the straw.

Wrap it around the straw.

Add more petals.

Keep adding them.

They will eventually start to look like flowers. You can make them as large as you want.

Eventually you will have a bouquet that you never have to throw away! Happy Valentine’s Day!

Free DIY Houses for Small Pets

Posted by Ney@ShopahoicSavers.com on January 30, 2013 None comments

Recently we ended up with a small rat as a pet. In the above picture you can see Benny enjoying a Milkbone. (Our local pet store told us you can feed rats dog food). We weren’t sure we were going to keep him so we didn’t want to spend a lot of money on his house or toys. You can also see a toilet paper tube in the background, another favorite and free toy for small, rodent pets. We originally made Benny’s house out of an empty Country Crock container.

As Benny got bigger, we got attached to our litttle guy and we realized he wasn’t going anywhere. Now he is too big for his butter tub house so we made him a house out of the bottom of a milk jug. The indented circle on the side was also a great size for a door.

As I was writing, I realized that we had also made a butter tub house for our hermit crabs. Yes, the one in the picture above is on his back and no I didn’t have to help him get up. The point of all of this is that small pets are often very happy with toys and houses made out of household items that we often throw away. I know that these things can often be very expensive at Pet Stores and honestly our little friends don’t know the difference.

A Frugal Date Night

Posted by Ney@ShopahoicSavers.com on January 22, 2013 None comments

Picture this- A couple celebrating their anniversary by getting dressed up in fancy clothes, walking through a downtown area, wandering through an art gallery and then heading to an expensive dinner at a nice restaurant. After enjoying a fantastic meal, they go to watch a movie.

Sounds expensive, right?

Well here are the numbers. We have been extremely busy the last few months and since this month was our anniversary we decided it was time for a nice date night. One of our favorite restaurants is a really nice place but it’s fairly expensive. Meals are around $25-30 per person but the food is excellent. One of the ways we save money is that I work at another restaurant that is also owned by the same company. Luckily I have a discount card that is for 50% off for up to 4 people at all the restaurants owned by the company that I work for. Also we received a gift card at Christmas for this same group of restaurants. When used together we received a huge discount. We had a $100 dinner including entrees, desert, and drinks for about $35 including a big tip (We always tip on the pre-gift card, pre-discount amount). We actually planned to go to the movies but then realized that there was nothing playing that we both wanted to see. We did however find a movie we both wanted to see at Redbox. So instead of spending $24 just for movie tickets (yes that’s what it costs where we live for two movie tickets) not including snacks or drinks, we enjoyed a movie at home.

Was it any less romantic?

No.

Did it require a little more planning?

Yes.

I am a firm believer that you can enjoy the finer things in life without spending a lot of money. For those of you who are already frugal I can see you nodding your heads. For those of you who would like to be more frugal think about this- If you can enjoy the same things for less, why wouldn’t you?

How I got a Bread Maker for FREE

Posted by Ney@ShopahoicSavers.com on January 19, 2013 None comments

I have been looking for a Bread Maker at different thrift shops for a while now but I was hesitant to buy one because I wasn’t sure how many pieces they came with or if they were going to work. I was inspecting a used one at one of my favorite thrift shops when a woman came up to me and told me that it wasn’t a very nice one. We started a small conversation and before the end of it she told me that she had an almost new, really nice bread maker with the instruction book that she wanted to get rid of. I was a little hesitant but she drove home and got it to give to me. I offered to pay her for it but she didn’t want anything for it. And that’s how I ended up with this fabulous Bread Maker for free. It was spotlessly clean and didn’t look like it had ever been used, even though she told me she used to use it a lot. That very night I used it to knead the dough for the pizza we made in the picture below. I can’t wait to try making a loaf of bread in it. I will write an update once I have tried it for a while to let everyone know if it actually saves me money or not, but I know that homemade bread is fantastic.

Put Your Grocery Shopping List on Your Fridge

Posted by Ney@ShopahoicSavers.com on January 13, 2013 None comments

Something that works well for us is putting our grocery shopping list on the fridge. Below is a picture of the magnet that I taped onto the back of the notepad. This works for us because it’s simple and easy to add things to the list when we run out of something. I then look for deals on the items we need to buy soon.

When I actually go to the grocery store, I find it helpful to take a picture of the list with my camera phone. That way I know I won’t forget it.

Waste Not Toothpaste, Want Not Toothpaste

Posted by Ney@ShopahoicSavers.com on January 11, 2013 None comments

This would have been a better picture if all 6 of the mostly used toothpaste tubes I found around my house had made it into the picture. I would like to mention that with these almost empty tubes of toothpaste you could no longer squeeze any toothpaste out of them and yet I hadn’t wanted to throw them away. When we “ran out” of toothpaste around the first of the this new year I decided that I wasn’t going to buy anymore until we had used them up.

My mother had shown me that if you cut open an “empty” tube of toothpaste you will still have several days of toothpaste left inside. Now I realize that this didn’t save us a huge amount of money but for two people we were able to wait another week before having to go to the store to buy toothpaste.

I haven’t found any great coupon deals on toothpaste recently so we didn’t have any stocked up. I find that when you have a coupon stockpile of items it is almost too easy to grab a new bottle of something when you are almost out of the last one without fully using it up. In another example, I recently dropped and broke the corner of a new bottle of body wash. Instead of throwing it away I put the remaining body wash into an empty conditioner bottle and have been able to use it. For me these little projects are more about not wasting than saving money. Yes, I did feel a little odd cutting open tubes of toothpaste even though I knew I was doing this by choice instead of desperation. Why would I feel that way when I should feel smart instead? Because in America we take things for granted and I don’t want to take things for granted that many people wish they had access to. When I did eventually buy toothpaste I used a free gift card. I like to think that now when we use our new tube of toothpaste we’re a little more grateful than we would have been.

Repost- Couponing in as Little Time as Possible

Posted by Ney@ShopahoicSavers.com on October 31, 2012 None comments

Recently, I keep hearing the same thing “I want to coupon but I don’t have the time.” I have been couponing for enough time now that I have a system set up that I think is fairly quick. It reminded me of an article I wrote for this blog called

“Couponing in as Little Time as Possible”

Click the link above to read the article.

I would also love to hear your ideas for how you save time and coupon as quickly as possible. If you want to share please leave a comment below 🙂

Avoid Baggage Fees With This Jacket?

Posted by Ney@ShopahoicSavers.com on October 30, 2012 None comments

I am obviously a very frugal person but my opinion on the idea of wearing a jacket to avoid baggage fees is split. On the one hand I think this is a great idea as a protest statement because baggage fees can be ridiculous but on the other hand I wonder if this is one of those taking frugality too far ideas? I actually might feel better about this idea if the last two of the jackets in the picture looked a lot more like coats. I do think that there is a potential idea here if you needed to bring a few extra things that you could fit into any coat, not just this one. What do you think?

Who Needs Gladware?

Posted by Ney@ShopahoicSavers.com on October 23, 2012 None comments

When I cook I often make too much food. Sometimes I make large batches of food to share with family or friends. Recently I decided to wash a few empty plastic food containers to use to send leftovers home with my mother. This is something she used to do for me when she would send food back with me to my college dorm room. Following her lead, I used to keep a few of these in the cabinet to use when we needed them or to give away with food and not worry about getting back. I have gotten away from this but I think I should start doing it again. They are plastic that is already in the environment. I figure it is better to reuse them than to buy plastic containers and create a profit for companies that put more plastic into the environment. It’s another use for these containers before they get recycled.

As someone wise once said, I don’t understand why our society has created something that lasts forever and then called it disposable. It just doesn’t make sense. Also, as soon as we can find some good deals we plan on investing in more glass food storage containers that can go in lunch boxes and be heated up without fear of chemicals leaching into our food. I have already replaced most of our plastic bowls and plates with glass or ceramic ones.

How to Get Free Stuff on Your Birthday!

Posted by Ney@ShopahoicSavers.com on October 16, 2012 None comments

I love the month of October for many reasons, but it also happens to be my birthday month! This year at at the beginning of the month I did something that I have always wanted to do. I signed up for all of our local restaurants e-mail/mail lists to see how much free stuff I could get. I made sure to do this a few weeks before my actual birthday to make sure I would be in their systems in time. I have been really surprised by all of the stuff I have gotten so far (I didn’t even print all of the deals for the picture above) and it isn’t even my birthday yet. Denny’s was the only one that had to be used on my actual birthday for most of these deals I had a week or two to use the coupons.

Note- It is considered VERY rude not to tip on the pre-coupon or pre-gift card total of your bill so please keep in mind that you will still have to tip even if your bill is zero, you are still taking up your server’s table, time and energy when you go out to eat and they have to make a living too.

I signed up for-

– Ruby Tuesday- A Coupon for a Free Burger and a B1G1 Free Coupon for joining

– I-Hop- A Free Birthday Meal and another free meal for joining, the waitress also told us that if I had a coupon and my boyfriend had a coupon (with different names on them) then we could use both of them at the same time but you may want to check with you I-Hop location first

– Denny’s- A Free Birthday Meal (Only on my actual birthday with ID, I don’t know if this was even a coupon or if you can just show up with your ID) and a 20% off the entire check coupon for joining

– Moe’s- Free Queso for joining and a free birthday meal

– Logan’s Roadhouse- A Free Small desert with purchase of an adult meal and a $5 off of a $20 purchase coupon

– Rita’s Italian Ice- A B1G1 Free Coupon for joining and a free italian ice for my bday

– Zaxby’s- They said they would be mailing me something but I haven’t gotten it yet

– Steak and Shake- Nothing yet