Frugal Living Today

Quite often these days I am asked for frugal health care tips and it doesn’t surprise me at all; millions of people in this country are forced to go without health care and with the economy in its current state I don’t see any quick remedy to that problem anytime soon.

Here’s a frugal health care tip that will save you money and help to make you healthier at the same time:  Go meatless one day a week!

I bet I lost a few readers with that single sentence but it is absolutely true that eliminating meat from your diet just one day a week can save a great deal of money over the course of a year.

The health benefit is tremendous as well.  By reducing the amount of meat you consume you are lessening the burden on your body of processing that food.  It can contribute to lower fat and lower cholesterol as well.

Just  one day a week, go meat-free!

There are countless ways for you to save money in the garden and having just founded my own community garden this year in my neighborhood I am looking to use all of them!  Here are a few ideas to get you started off on the right foot:

Don’t Waste Soil!   Just because that container is so large it would hold a whole bag of expensive potting soil doesn’t mean you have to use that much!  Instead, use some sort of recycled filler in the bottom of the pot to take up the space that you don’t really need anyway.  How about the broken and unusable plastic pots that your plants came in?  What about the disposable cups from your morning trip to the coffee shop?  It is a great way to reuse something you can’t recycle and save money on potting soil at the same time.  WIN WIN!

Grow It From Seed!  I know that you can buy seedlings for a decent price during the spring and summer months, but with a small investment of time and a bit of money you could start all of your garden veggies from seed and save HUGE.  I generally grow 100+ tomato seedlings every year and sell, barter or give away the ones I won’t need.

TOMATOES!  If you have space for extra tomato plants, you should take advantage of it.  Tomatoes are almost always expensive at the supermarket and they don’t have any flavor!  Rake in a huge bounty at home and learn to make and can your own whole stewed tomatoes, sauces and salsas.  The taste is unbeatable, you know what went into it and you will save a fortune over the stuff you get at the store.  If you grow only one thing, it should be tomatoes.

I told people early last year, when the economy was really just beginning to look dire and then president Bush was still claiming that we were not in a recession, that it was a matter of time before people across the country would realize that they needed to return to their roots - literally.

By growing your own vegetable plants at home you not only ensure that you have the best quality produce on the block but you also save a ton of money in the process.  Have you seen how much supermarket hot house tomatoes go for per pound these days?  Last year I got more tomatoes off one of my plants than I could use and ended up making sauces and salsas for my friends and neighbors just to keep up with what the plant was giving me.  What’s more, the tomatoes were so flavorful that I hardly ever had to season them when added to salads or eaten raw!

The best part of all? I spent no money at all on my two tomato plants last year (they were toss aways given to me by a local nursery) and by my calculations, I had over sixty pounds of delicious tomatoes from them by season’s end.  At the current market rate for heirloom tomatoes (about $2.99/lb) I save myself over $175.  Imagine what that’s going to be like for my four tomato plants this year, much less the peppers and other veggies I plan to have feeding me, my family and my neighbors!

I have been a terrible frugal friend, I know.  I’m so sorry, my friendly frugal folk!  I’m in the midst of planning and executing a move to the beautiful city of Atlanta, Georgia and I promise that I haven’t forgotten you; I’ve just been caught up in a whirlwind of real world activities that are getting in the way of my personal blogging time!

Love to you all!

Michael

You guys know me well enough by now to know that I wouldn’t ever steer you in the wrong direction, but when I found this 4 GB flash drive for less than nine bucks I had to let you know about it!

This deal is through Buy.com so the company is really reputable and believe it or not you can even qualify for free shipping (see the site for details about that).

I gave these little red flash drives away as gifts over the holidays and I couldn’t believe how well received they were!  People are using their computers now more than ever before and having a flash drive in your pocket sure makes it convenient to copy files and take them with you!

What is a Flash Drive?

If you’re fairly new to the whole computing thing you might not understand what a flash drive is or what it does.  In short, a flash drive is a tiny, more modern version of the floppy disks we used on the earlier computers.  A flash drive simply plugs in to your computer’s USB port and you can save files to it just like a floppy disk or CD-R.  It is compact enough to put in your pocket or even attach to your keychain and take it with you wherever you go!

The Dane-Elec 4GB zMate Pen High-Speed USB 2.0 Drive pictured above is currently priced at just $8.77 through Buy.com.  To get yours, either click the image or click here now !

We’re going to take a mid-month break from Get It Free Month at Frugal Living Today to honor, respect and celebrate the Inauguration of the United States’ first African American President, Barack Obama.

The world is watching my friends, and never before has an incoming President had so many eyes upon him. Our economy is frightening and our troops remain in harm’s way. Today let us celebrate this historic moment and pause long enough to ensure that we remember where we were the day Barack Obama was sworn in as the 44th President of the United States of America. I know where I will be. I’ll be sitting in front of my television with a box of tissues next to me.

Some have viewed our new President as somehow less adequate because of his seeming celebrity status but I can’t imagine how anyone could be more off the mark. Today one of the most well-known and well-liked men in history will be taking the oath of office before taking up residence at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue with his wife Michelle and their daughters Malia and Sasha. The entertainment world has embraced him with such names as Oprah Winfrey, Denzel Washington, Beyonce Knowles and many more standing up and making their voices be heard.

Congratulations, Mr. President.

Michael Nolan is a full-time writer who blogs on topics related to saving money here at Frugal Living.  He is currently working on completing his first novel.

I’ve given you two free audio books to download this month thus far (see Day 6 and Day 13), but today’s free download is a much more modern book than those two novels. Today’s free downloadable audiobook is by Seth Godin, a recognized name to anyone who colors themselves an entrepreneur in this technologically advanced age in which we live.

“Tribes” is an informative and inspirational book that talks about tribes - those groups of small and large numbers of people with a recognized leader and a common idea that binds them together.  Seth talks about this phenomenon and how to use these tribes to make the most of your leadership skills.

To download Seth Godin’s “Tribes” for free at Audible.com, click here.

Michael Nolan is a full-time writer who blogs on topics related to saving money here at Frugal Living.  He is currently working on completing his first novel.