Earn a bigger "hourly wage," extend your financial resources

Whatever you decide to do to save money, both large and small changes can add up quickly. I once heard somewhere, “You can't be poor AND lazy.” So, when my ancient washing machine quit agitating, I had choices. I could:

1. Call a repairman, most everyone's first choice;
2. Throw out the old washer and buy a new one (EEK!), the spendthrift's first choice; or
3. Quit assuming I wasn't smart enough to fix a washing machine.

I Googled the machine's make, model number and “won't agitate,” and within five minutes had a plausible answer. Opening the top of the agitator, I confirmed that some little plastic cogs had worn down. The next day, I bought them for $4.85 at a local appliance repair shop. It took me 15 minutes to take apart the top of the agitator, clean out the pieces of the old cogs, slip the new ones into place and put everything back together again. The washer was good as new.

If I had paid a repairman to come to my house, it would have been $85 for the service call (I did call a local company, just to find out in case I couldn't fix it – there's that self-doubt again). They would then charged $50 an hour for labor (minimum of one hour), and I have no idea how much they would have marked up the parts, so let's keep the parts at $4.85. If the repairman fixed the washer in the same amount of time it took me, the minimum bill would have been $139.85. My total was about $15 including gas (I live 20 miles from the repair shop), so I saved $124.85, but that's not the important thing. The work I did in 15 minutes was worth $139.85, taking my hourly wage to $559.40 ($139.85 x 4, the number of times 15 minutes goes into 60).

That's the really high end of hourly wages. On the other end, there's clothesline vs. dryer ($6.00/hr) or keeping chickens ($5.16/hr, accounting for feed but not water because I use rainwater). Those low hourly wages are worth it to me for other reasons, though, so I'm willing to spend my time doing them for less than my base hourly wage (which I usually set at about $10/hr.). If it's not important to me and my hourly wage doesn't make the work worthwhile, I pay someone else to do it. I don't change the oil in our trucks because the hourly wage turns out to be less than $10/hr after buying the oil and filter. Also, I have a five-year-old running around and don't like to be under a pickup when he's with me. If you like getting used engine oil on your hands, don't mind finding a place to dispose of it, and don't have small children who want to crawl under there and “help,” it might be worthwhile to change your own oil.

Then again, you could always use a (*gasp!*) coupon for an oil change, which would bring your hourly wage way down or into negative numbers and just doesn't make DIY the sensible choice. Coupons ARE good for some things...

Using bulk buys to cut the grocery budget

It's not that we eat tuna all that regularly. It's not that I'm prepping for the zombie apocalypse. It's just that, when I find that deal that's so good I have to post it on Facebook (you know you've done it), I don't ever buy a sensible amount. I buy almost everything on the shelf.

There's a little controversy surrounding stock-up buys. Some people say it's not fair for one person to buy two cases of tuna because it's a loss leader at 2/$1. I say, since when is life fair? Everyone else should have gotten there sooner, because my pantry will be stocked with cheap food for as long as I can keep it that way (50 cents for a 5.5 oz can of tuna is a protein source at less than 10 cents an ounce). When I find that once-a-year deal, I have to be able to pay for it, and that's where a stock-up fund comes in handy. It's the cushion that allows you to buy your normal grocery budget while stocking up on the occasional awesome deal. Normally, $100 is a good amount to budget for unexpected windfalls, but if you can set aside more, that's even better. These are the sales that will get your grocery spending down further than you ever imagined was possible, so don't be shy – buy everything you are comfortable buying. Store it under a bed or a couch if you run out of room in the kitchen.

Of course, spotting these super awesome deals means knowing your prices and/or carrying your price book. Hubs glanced away for a moment at the grocery store last week and was SHOCKED, I tell ya, when he looked back and saw me loading 10 pounds of butter into the cart. I explained, gently, that butter is a staple and staples don't ever go on sale, so 30 cents off is a big deal for butter (which is yet another thing that freezes beautifully). If I had a decent sized deep freeze, I would have gotten three times as much as I did: it was the cheapest I had ever seen it. I'm still kicking myself for only bagging up seven pounds of free mangoes at the local Mexican market last week. D'oh!

Some women brag about some fancy shoes they got for 10 percent off. I brag about a year's worth of coffee for $54, or two months' supply of milk for $5 (freezes!). My shoes, by the way, are $120 shoes that someone got a "great deal" on, then wore twice and sold to me for 50 cents at a garage sale.

The top 5 items every frugal foodie needs

Multitasking is something lots of people are good at, but how good are your kitchen tools at multitasking? When you have a small kitchen, a small budget and value your time, there are five multitaskers you must find at garage sales to help maximize your hourly wage.

Big-ticket item No. 1: Bread machine

I live in Texas, and it gets HOT. Bread is expensive to buy, but super cheap and a lot healthier to make. I do not, however, want to heat up my oven when it's 110 degrees outside. My bread machine was free (thanks to a super awesome cousin/best friend who got it at a garage sale for 20 bucks and shared the love – thanks, TripleR!). It is the Cadillac of bread machines, a Zojirushi with so many settings you can't even shake a stick at 'em. It takes me three minutes to load and set it, and when we wake up in the morning, it's to the smell of fresh-baked bread. (Wipe your mouth, you're drooling.) Buy a bread machine cheap, and cross bread off the grocery list. BIG savings.

Foodie must-have item No. 1: Good knives

We have pretty expensive knives, thanks to some generous wedding guests. The thing is, we usually only use the paring knife, the 10-inch chef's knife and a cheapo bread knife we stuck in the block with the stuck-up Henckels guys. So, instead of buying the whole block for $399, you could just buy individuals and put them in a cheapo block. They're still mind-numbingly expensive for knives, but dull knives in the kitchen are dangerous, and these last for. Frickin. Ever. You'll thank you.

Mom must-have item No. 1: A blender

Smoothies are a mom's best friend, and no store can sell salsa that's as good as what Hubs can whip up in the blender. Plus, it's handy for making ranch dressing. Did I mention smoothies? Old, mushy fruit (and even lettuce, a.k.a. a “Shrek Smoothie”) goes into a baggie and into the freezer, then straight into the blender with a little milk, yogurt or just water for an awesome summertime snack. My kids think it's a treat. Gosh, even our snacks are multitaskers!

Girlie splurge item No. 1: A KitchenAid stand mixer

I would NEVER have purchased this for myself unless I found an awesome Craigslist deal, but Hubs went behind my back and bought it for Mothers' Day one year. It makes any kind of baking such a breeze, and kneads specialty breads for me so I can do other stuff. You can find lots of attachments for sale online that have been barely used that make it a sausage grinder, ice cream maker, pasta machine and maybe even a really good mixer. And it's pretty. So, so pretty. My precious...

Alternative to pricey stuff item No. 1: A food processor

There are plenty of pricey food processors out there, but lots of people ask for them when they get married, then sell them at garage sales about five years later after using them once. This is a must-have for making baby food, but can also mix and knead doughs just fine. It also whips up some dreamy pesto with fresh basil from the garden. Oh, and it chops veggies like a champ. Even those miniature versions like the Magic Bullet do just fine, and can also take care of a lot of your blending needs, too. They can even take care of a lot of your “blending needs,” too. Like frozen margaritas after a whole day of very organized freezer cooking.

Project: Salvage-Style kitchen island for less than 30 bucks

OK, I'll admit it. I have a lot of pet peeves. People who say, “libary.” Misspellings or incorrect punctuation in advertisements (I will never shop there). Shipping film left on electronic devices and appliances (eek!! Must...peel...).

But maybe my biggest pet peeve is people who claim they're selling something frugal, because it's a bold-faced lie. Frugal can't be bought, that's the whole POINT. If you have to buy something to call yourself frugal, thrifty, or any other popular label floating around cheapo-world these days, go ahead.

But I don't have to like it.

Case in point: I got an e-mail from a home improvement warehouse that sometimes offers good tips or pretty pictures I can get ideas from. Their big sell this time? “Salvage Style Kitchens.” They take stock cabinetry and make it look funky by adding ginormous wood corbels to kitchen islands, “distressing” the paint to make it look old and worn, and then charging three times more than they would normally (it was seriously like $1,400 - I snorted!). Really? Like any self-respecting trash picker would pay $125 each for mismatched milking stools that aren't even the same size. We'd use the stuff if someone gave it to us or we found it on the curb, but why on Earth would I spend thousands of dollars on stuff I can find and/or make for nearly free?

"Salvage style" $22 kitchen island, made out of two free bathroom vanities. Note super-stylish salvage bar stool at right, next to the dog's bowl, which came with the dog.

I must be way ahead of this trend, because my entire home is in true “salvage style,” which I love because it's free or nearly-free. My kitchen island is fast becoming the latest object of my affection. Right after we moved into this house, I saw an ad on Craigslist for two free bathroom vanities. The Most Awesome Goat Rancher I Know helped me load them up and get them home, and I put them in the kitchen, back-to-back. Mr. Rancher then built a custom-made top for my cabinet island, and it became functional. My boys and I recently (finally) painted the whole base a soft green (paint was given to us), and I (finally) installed some hardware I bought two years ago at an actual salvage store. Total cost for my island: $22. Now if I can just decide whether to use tile or laminate on top, it'll be finished.

Guess I'll be watching the curbs to see what turns up...