Posted on 10th July 2009 by Mish in frugal | green
being frugal, frugal, frugal tips, going green, green
Another reason to hang your laundry:
Hanging your laundry not only saves you money on energy by not running your dryer – it also saves you money on clothing!
You know all that lint in your lint screen? Yup – it’s your clothes, falling apart, right in front of your eyes! Who knows – maybe that’s where the other sock goes to die…it doesn’t disappear, it just disintegrates into lint!
Hanging your laundry is also a great way to “bleach” your clothes without using bleach. I have hung stained whites on the line and been surprised to find them bleached and stain-free when I come back to take them down later in the day. The sun has bleached – and sanitized – my clothes for me and it didn’t cost a dime.
This is also a great way to keep cloth diapers fresh and clean.
Have a frugal and green tip? Email Michelle!
Technorati Tags: being frugal, frugal, frugal tips, going green, green
Posted on 19th March 2009 by Mish in finance | frugal | money | personal finance
frugal, frugal tips, frugality, money
My father always used to tell me that “work was work, if it was fun, they’d call it fun, but it’s not – it’s work. It’s not supposed to be fun.”
I used to argue with him. I would rant and tell him that you could most certainly do something with your life that you loved (or at least liked) and still be paid for it. He dismissed me out of hand. He told me that my thinking was irresponsible (as was having a bunch of kids!) and that I had to wait for the weekends to have fun.
I’m much older now. Twenty years older, in fact. And I’ve had a lot of jobs – not all of them fun. I’ve learned, through the years, to work very hard, but I have to say that I have been able to find elements of fun to each of my jobs. Although, I would probably amend my argument to say that work can be fun some of the time – or that you can find joy in hard work if you like doing it.
I did not, for example, always enjoy waiting tables. But I like people and I always enjoyed talking with customers and joking with the cooks in the kitchen. I found waiting tables to be enjoyable work – even if my feet ached and I sometimes got a lousy tip from a grouchy customer.
Being a newspaper reporter was hard work (no, not as hard as say, construction work, but still…), and it was often frustrating and intimidating. I frequently faced angry people who didn’t want to answer my phone calls, but I enjoyed the learning process and I thoroughly enjoyed investigating a story. It was, in the end, a very fun job.
Through the years, I have cultivated two careers – one as a writer and one as a mother. Both are equally frustrating in their own way and one pays only marginally better than the other (I’ll leave you to guess which one), but I am happy doing them both.
(more…)
Technorati Tags: frugal, frugal tips, frugality, money
Posted on 10th November 2008 by Mish in frugal
frugal, frugal tips, nbc, today show
Dear Today Show on NBC:
I am a loyal viewer. I have only two channels – NBC and PBS – so I enjoy watching the Today Show with my morning cup of coffee. Sunday morning (November 9), I sat down for a little quiet and a little weather and news and whatnot. As the writer of a blog on being green and frugal, I was very happy to see that you would be doing a segment on how to save money in these tough times.
Imagine my surprise when you gave us, instead, two beautiful young ladies who told me how to save money by doing some of the silliest things of which I had ever heard.
Cut back on my cellphone service? Really? That’s a “frugal” tip? If I’m that strapped for cash, shouldn’t I give up the luxury of a cellphone? I don’t have a cellphone. I also don’t have a Blackberry. I don’t pay for things that require contracts or extraneous services. Besides, I live in rural Vermont and cellphones don’t work here.
Cut back on my “morning cup of Joe?” My husband and I thought about this. It used to be that a can of Folger’s or Maxwell House was the “expensive” brand of coffee. No one would have considered paying $4 for a cup of coffee every morning. Now, buying coffee out is the norm. Not me! I have a big, old-fashioned coffee maker and fill it up – twice – every morning.
I won’t go through the whole list of silly tips, but what I will say is that the reason people are in the position we are in is because we have been brought up believing that we are entitled to the “finer” things – regardless of our income level. We have been coaxed by marketing and television into believing that it’s OK to buy on credit or that we need more than we do.
Silly little tips on how to save money on manicures or cellphone service is not going to do it. This country needs to go back to the basics. People need to understand that cellphones are not a “need.” Salon visits are not a “need.” Pre-packaged, pre-processed food is not a “need.”
What we need to be giving people tips on is how to start a small garden that’s going to provide the bulk of a family’s produce. Or how to shop for bulk food. Or how to cook from scratch. Do you know how many people write to me and ask me how to make macaroni and cheese from scratch? Most kids that come to my house think mac and cheese comes out of a box – they didn’t know you could make it with real cheese!
Please, concentrate on giving us tips that are helpful. I appreciate wanting to live “well,” really I do, but it’s not until we, as a society, see that hard work, growing food, and saving money is the key to living well that anything will change.
Best,
Michelle Kennedy Hogan
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