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Frugalfice Testimonies from around the PF Twittersphere

06.03.2009 by Matt Jabs //

Yesterday I asked my Twitter buddies to share a 140 character testimonial (using the hashtag #frugalfice) of a sacrifice they have made for the sake of frugality that turned out to be a huge blessing to them and/or their families, and so “The Frugalfice” was born…

I would like to add that I am unabashedly grateful to be part of the awesome network of Personal Finance blogger’s on Twitter.  I owe a debt of gratitude to many of you and since I cannot stand to owe anyone – anything – anymore…please accept this most sincere thank you as payment  in full!

To start, let’s define a few terms for our readers:

  • Frugal – adjective:  Economical in the use or appropriation of money, goods or provisions of any kind; sparing; not profuse, prodigal or lavish.
  • Sacrifice – verb:  To surrender or suffer loss for the sake of obtaining something.
  • Frugalfice – adverb?:  A frugal sacrifice that ends up blessing you or  your family.

Just in case you are stammering to a dictionary to verify the validity of the third word…I made it up.   🙂

The frugalfice was conceived from a yearning to recognize & promote the awesome benefits that have resulted from the frugal sacrifices of some many hard working individuals and families!

The Frugalfice Testimonies

** I advise you to follow each of these great Personal Finance minds on Twitter **

Before I deliver the testimonies, I would like to passionately convey this powerful truth to my readers:

  • That which seems a sacrifice at first will most times yield unexpected benefits and blessings that far outweigh the original sacrifice itself.

I will start with my own short testimony, then deliever the 15 tesetimonials I received yesterday.  If you would like to share your own frugalfice testimony, I am utterly anxious to hear it and strongly encourage you to leave it in the comments section below this post!

My Frugalfice Testimony

@MattJabs – Six months ago wife & I sacrificed going out to eat.  We have since been blessed by a $5,000+/year savings, increased health, decreased weight, & a closer relationship!

Frugalfice Testimonies around the PF Twittersphere

  • @lrgche – LRG of Financial Family Life testified:
    sacrificed: HD TV & DVR, blessing: watched too much TV anyway! now more family time
  • @MoneyMatters – Pete of Bible Money Matters testified:
    1 frugal sacrifice that we’ve made is not to pay for Cable TV of any kind, even though we would like to at times.
  • @moolanomy – Pinyo of Moolanomy testified:
    my wife and I stop ordering out for lunch and pack left over instead. We save at least $15 a day and feel healthier!
  • @FMFblog – FMF of Free Money Finance testified:
    Gave up multiple sports/events for kids. Now only one per season. Saved us money & resulted in more family time.
  • @KIntheHouse – K of Shankrila testified:
    I gave up traditional landline for long distance and chose Magicjack (non-local areacode) saving 100s of $/yr. http://bit.ly/iXdy4
  • @ManVsDebt – Baker of Man Vs. Debt testified:
    Driving cheap, paid-off cars, rather than getting payments. Cars were a complete & utter blessings. Tough at times, but worth it!
  • @SuburbanDollar – Kyle of Suburban Dollar testified:
    We have sacrificed the temp in our home to save, and boy does it help. 78 summer 68 winter, costs less than 72/72
  • @GetOutOfDebtGuy – Steve of Get Out Of Debt testified:
    Cut back our electric usage. The journey began with a desire and has ended with me saving $330 a month.
  • @moneyrelation – Adam of Money Relationship testified:
    I have given up soda. It is saving us quite a bit of money each week and I feel healthier already!
  • @The_Weakonomist – Phillip “The Weakonomist” of Weakonomics testified:
    I gave up coffee shop coffee @ $1 per cup and brewed @ $0.25 per cup for instant at $0.06 per cup. Save time & money.
  • @mymoneyshrugged – MMS of My Money Shrugged testified:
    I gave up going out to lunch everyday, went from spending around $210-250 month to around $60
  • @Matt_SF – Matt of Steadfast Finances testified:
    I gave up my blackberry. Since I work from home, it seemed like a major luxury I didn’t need.
  • @NealFrankle – Neal of Wealth Pilgrim testified:
    – Gave up entire family going on big trips….split trips allow more focused time w/one child and big $ savings
  • @fcn – Nickel of Five Cent Nickel testified:
    Driving on most vacations instead of flying. Takes longer, but we save money, and the trip is way more memorable.

Isn’t it refreshing to focus on & recognize the blessings & successes in our lives?!!

It would be great to see some of my friends mentioned above elaborate on their frugalfice in the comments.  Also, if you did not get a chance to reply via Twitter, or if you don’t have any clue what Twitter even is…I strongly encourage you to share your own frugalfice testimony in the comments.
Thanks again for sharing, and God bless.

Categories // General Tags // frugal, sacrifice, testimony

Free Haircuts = Save Money – DFA Tip of the Week – 4/27/2009

04.30.2009 by Matt Jabs //

There are many ways to reduce costs in our every day lives, so to help do just that each Monday I will post a money saving “Tip of the Week”.

“And he said unto him, Well, thou good servant: because thou hast been faithful in a very little, have thou authority over ten cities.” Luke 19:17

This weeks tip involves…getting free haircuts!

haircutI have always hated having to pay for haircuts.  To me getting my hair cut is kind of like mowing my lawn, it just keeps growing & we just keep cutting, over & over & over. As a matter of fact, I sort of wish I were bald.  There I said it…and I think I may actually mean it!  Any bald men out there please chime in with reasons why I should not wish to be hairless. Although quite necessary…to me cutting my hair once a month just seems like a big waste of time and money.

If I break it down, including tip haircuts were costing us around $20/month.  Here is what my wife & I did to cut that down to $0/month!

  • We purchased a decent pair of hair clippers for $45
  • We purchased a hair cape for $10
  • We let my wife loose on my hair
  • If you are not confident in your ability (or maybe your wife’s ability) to cut hair, check out this post on instructions for the tapered haircut, which is the most popular mens haircut.

For an initial investment of $55, which we made back in just three short months, we are now able to put the extra $20 into our savings or toward debt repayment…and every penny counts.  Let me add that my wife is doing an excellent job to date.  I think she is giving me better cuts than my barber…after all she does cut it with love!  Thanks again baby.

At this point I am not cutting my wife’s hair…yet!  She won’t let me near it, although I think I could do a very good job given the chance.

Lastly…gentlemen, please make sure that you “get right with your wife” before you give her clippers & sit in her chair or you may end up looking like the kid in this picture!

Click here to see all our past DFA Tips of the Week.

DFA is passionately dedicated to helping others break the bondage of debt using biblical principles.

Categories // Expenses, Tips Tags // free, frugal, personal, products, reduce, Reduce Expenses, Savings, totw

Beans Beans and More Beans – How we plan to reduce our grocery bill

04.25.2009 by Matt Jabs //

Beans – healthy, delicious, and cheap

Sure…beans make you fart, and deep down inside we all know that farts are funny…well…most of the time!  Let’s move on shall we.

Due to our recent but ongoing financial fast (which I recommend everyone try for at least one solid month) my wife & I have not been spending money on anything outside of our normal bills and expenses.

We stopped going out to eat which is saving us over $5,000/year.  We subscribed to Netflix and stopped going to the movies which saves us $600/year.  We are working diligently to reduce our monthly bills which has helped us cut at least another $600/year.  All told, since January of 2009 we have reduced our monthly spending by over $500!

I of course keep pushing by wondering…how I can cut this down even further?  Looking over our budget it appears that one of the few categories I can still reduce is our monthly grocery expenditures.  Enter “Beans Beans and More Beans”!

The remainder of this article is a quick break down of how beans, which beans, and why beans – with a core goal of – how to use beans to reduce costs.  Our specific goal is to reduce our grocery budget from $400/month to $250, mainly by using a ton of dry beans. An additional benefit my wife & I stand to realize from our great bean adventure is increased health.

The Low Cost of Beans (dry) vs (wet a.k.a pre-cooked)

Yes beans are cheap, but did you know that buying dry beans is a much more frugal choice than buying wet beans?  Wet beans cost more because of their swollen size & water weight.  You actually get about 66% less beans by weight if you buy them wet.  Companies selling wet beans actually have a brilliant business plan.  Take something they can get for SUPER cheap, soak it in water overnight, then sell 1/3 the amount at double the price.  It works for them because the wet beans are STILL super cheap!

Basically dry beans will yield 3x their volume once they are cooked.  This in turn means that you will get three times your money if you purchase dry beans versus cooked beans.

Okay, I’ll buy dry beans, what does this have to do with my grocery bill?

I’m glad you asked.  If you substitute dry beans in your recipes in place of other protein sources you stand to save big time!  When you are trying to make ends meet in these tough financial times, replacing high cost meats with low cost beans is just sound financial sense.  Don’t worry, beans taste excellent and have a good “meat-like” texture.  I am a big fan of meat in meals and thought I would have a tough time substituting beans, but I have not really even noticed much “missing”.  There are also a ton of health benefits when substituting beans for meat because beans are just so healthy!

The Health Benefits of Beans

Beans are one of the most nutritionally well rounded foods available to us.  They are classed as both a vegetable and a protein and are both high in complex carbohydrates and low in calories.

I know I said we were moving past the fart talk, but I just can’t help myself.  The reason beans make you fart is because they are SO VERY high in fiber.  That’s right, not only does that mean a lot of farts, but MUCH more importantly it means a cleaner colon for you!  More and more studies show that good colon health is directly indicative of good overall health.  Beans are also extremely high in protein; which supports our claim that there is no better meat substitute than beans.  Are you trying to lose some weight?  Beans are incredibly good for the waistline and may also aid in disease prevention!

Simply put, it is obvious why beans should be a part of any person’s diet.

Which Beans are Best?

When it comes to which bean is best it is quite simple, the darker the better.  The darker the bean the more flavonoid antioxidants it contains.  Black beans boast the most, followed by red, brown, yellow and white beans. (Brown and yellow beans are similar to the manteca-type beans widely eaten in Latin America.) A 3.5-ounce serving of black beans contains about 10 times more antioxidants than the equivalent amount of oranges.

Washing & Preparation

I do not want to reinvent the wheel with instructions in this post so I will make this very brief.  That is not hard since washing and preparing dry beans is very easy.

Wash your beans in a colander, then lay them out on a dish towel and scour for stones.  Once cleaned, soak most beans in three times their volume of cold water for six hours before cooking.  I make this easy and just soak my beans overnight…just set ’em & forget ’em.

Once the beans have been soaked I then bring them to a boil in their soaking water and then reduce to simmer for about an hour.  The amount of time can vary for each bean and since I do not feel like listing them go here to see the cooking times for different beans.  Here is another more in depth tutorial on using dried beans.

Recipes

Last week we started our “Bean Adventure” by making a lentil & chickpea stew.  The entire meal cost us less than $5 and provided us with 10 servings or better! Here is the recipe:

Lentil & Chickpea Stew

Ingredients:

  • 1 lbs bag dry lentils (wash & soak overnight before cooking)
  • 8 oz dry chickpeas (wash & soak overnight before cooking)
  • Soak beans in at least 14 cups of water
  • 3 Tbsp olive oil
  • 3/4 cup fresh cilantro chopped
  • 4 carrots sliced
  • 1/3 cup of your favorite rice (I use brown Basmati)
  • 6 cloves smashed & minced garlic
  • 1 1/2 tsp paprika
  • 1 1/2 tsp chili powder
  • 1 1/2 tsp cumin
  • 2 tsp sea salt
  • 2 tsp fresh cracked black pepper
  • 1/2 tsp Cayenne pepper (optional)
  • 1/3 cup lemon juice
  • 3 Tbsp whole wheat flour, dissolved in 1/2 cup warm water
  • 3 Tbsp salted butter

Bring beans to a boil in their soaking water then let simmer for 60 minutes.  Add all ingredients except the cilantro, butter, lemon juice, and flour.  Stir together and let simmer for another 60 minutes.  Heat the butter & lemon juice in a sauce pan over medium heat and whisk in the flour slowly to create a roux.  Once whisked together add the roux to the pot and simmer an additional 15 minutes.  Remove from heat, add cilantro and serve!

I am looking here for a bunch of awesome bean recipe

In Closing…

I will keep you posted on how our bean adventure pans out.    We will also continue to pre-plan our meals, but now plan on basing our meals around our local grocer fliers to save even more.  I am confident that these slight changes will enable us to cut the desired $150 from our grocery bill each month.  I am excited to have this experiment underway and am also pretty excited to be getting the added health benefits of all these beans!

DFA is passionately dedicated to helping others break the bondage of debt using biblical principles.

Categories // Expenses, General, Money Management, Spending Tags // frugal, healthy, Money Management, monthly, Reduce Expenses, Savings

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