Sense to Save

Join me on my journey to live a more frugal lifestyle. Here, you'll find common sense and not-so-common sense on ways you can save money.


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    Snowflakes for April!




    April 30th, 2008

    April went by so quickly! It was a crazy month for us, and I’m sure we won’t soon forget it. At the beginning of the month, I set a goal for myself of finding at least $250 in “snowflakes” to put toward our emergency savings. That is, non-regular-income money that I wasn’t expecting. I guess [...]

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    Book review: The 99 Cent Only Store Cookbook




    April 30th, 2008

    If you’re following the Dave Ramsey plan to get out of debt, then you might be dining on “beans ‘n rice, rice n’ beans” to keep grocery costs down.
    Instead of eating the same humdrum things in the name of frugality, you can prepare some fairly gourmet dishes without it costing a fortune.
    I recently received a [...]

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    How to stay cool without air conditioning




    April 29th, 2008

    Yesterday, Be Thrifty Like Us shared tips on how to save money on your air conditioning.
    I’d like to expand that, and share some things I’ve done in the past to stay cool without air conditioning.
    For a few years, my family lived in a two-bedroom, 524-square-foot apartment. It was supertiny, but the layout was quite efficient [...]

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    Hey recent grads: I want to tell you something




    April 28th, 2008

    My husband and I graduated from college last May. It’s amazing that almost a year has passed since then! A ton of changes have happened to us since then–getting married, moving 400 miles from home, starting new jobs, etc. (and that’s a big etc.!).
    I didn’t actually attend commencement.
    I remember not wanting to pay the $60 [...]

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    May freebies at Walgreens




    April 27th, 2008

    I got a few freebies at Walgreen’s today. Nothing complicated, since most of my coupons are just from today’s paper. I grabbed the Walgreens EasySaver catalog at the front of the store so I could see exactly which products are free after rebate this month.
    In the past, I’ve had good success with simply getting the [...]

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    I’m drugstoring again




    April 27th, 2008

    I’m going to start working the drugstore deals a bit harder for awhile, and get a big stockpile of freebies from Rite Aid, Walgreens and CVS.
    I’m basically starting from scratch, as far as couponing goes. Most of my previous coupons have expired, except for a few that I’ve received in the mail. I bought a [...]

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    Check your airline’s baggage policys to avoid paying extra




    April 25th, 2008

    A few days ago, several conscientious readers pointed out that airline baggage requirements are changing, and now some airlines are only allowing one “free” checked bag per flier. Lovely.
    I checked with our airline, AirTran, and sure enough, starting May 15 they will be charging $10 for a second checked bag. That’s the day of my [...]

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    Make installment payments to yourself




    April 24th, 2008

    When my husband and I first started paying our own car insurance, we could only afford the payment schedule that had us make five or six monthly payments. We simply didn’t have the $400 or so to make a one-time insurance payment.
    Now that we’re making some financial headway, we’re starting to save money to make [...]

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    Mid-week roundup of posts you’ll enjoy




    April 23rd, 2008

    Be sure to check out these great blog posts that have popped up in my Google Reader recently.
    By the way, if you read more than a handful of blogs regularly, you absolutely should look into using a feed reader! You can “subscribe” to your favorite blogs and sites and you’ll be able to streamline your [...]

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    Food to take on our flight to Florida




    April 23rd, 2008

    It’s less than a month until Shane and I fly to Florida for his sister’s wedding! We’re so excited for this little vacation, and to spend some time with family.
    As I’ve mentioned, eight of us are staying in a vacation home, complete with a full kitchen. To save money, we’re going to cook some of [...]

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    Being frugal, socially conscious and green: Can we have it all?




    April 22nd, 2008

    Sometimes, when we try to be frugal, we aren’t always socially conscious or environmentally friendly at the same time.
    We might choose to shop at certain stores, buy goods wrapped in too much packaging, etc., because the prices are lower. But at what cost?
    For example, it’s widely understood that Walmart’s employment and business practices are [...]

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    A few inexpensive snacks we enjoy




    April 22nd, 2008

    We don’t snack much at home. We tend to snack when we’re bored, and that’s never a good reason to eat. I try to keep on hand some semi-healthy (or completely unhealthy but delicious), frugal snacks to tide us over between meals.
    Popcorn — At $1/box (one box has six bags) at Aldi, that’s only $0.16 [...]

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    The Largest Entrecard Giveaway - Contest Winners




    April 21st, 2008

    Here are the results for the community Entrecard giveaway contest. We received a total of 45,193 EC from sponsors. The site Random.org was used to randomly select contest entries for each host in each category. For any category that did not have a host, Sense to Save’s entries were used.
    Prize amounts are based on how [...]

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    I like to calculate my car’s mpg




    April 21st, 2008

    How many miles per gallon does your car get? You might know what the manual says it should get, but do you know for sure?
    My car’s manual states that my car should get 23 mpg in the city and 31 on the highway. My actual gas mileage is better than that, and I like to [...]

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    Someone tried to steal from me




    April 21st, 2008

    Someone stole my credit card number and tried to buy shoes (I think) with it.
    I have all of our accounts linked to Mint.com, and when I saw that there was a pending charge, alarm bells went off in my mind. We haven’t used our credit cards in a few months, and they are all at [...]

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    Be back Monday




    April 17th, 2008

    As Shane mentioned in the post below, he and I are heading to Indiana later this evening to be there for his grandmother’s funeral :(.
    I’ll probably be blogging again on Monday.
    Please visit Gather Little By Little, as he hosted the 148th Carnival of Personal Finance earlier this week.

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    Largest Entrecard Giveaway Ever - Contest Announcement




    April 17th, 2008

    The top winner for our Entrecard contest has been drawn. The candidate does not appear to qualify for the contest guidelines, which state that you must be a new Entrecard user within the deadlines of March 15 - April 15. We are waiting on information from Phirate, the Entrecard Admin, to verify the signup dates [...]

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    A loaf of bread for $0.10




    April 16th, 2008

    I didn’t know you could buy anything for a dime anymore. Well, today at Aldi, there was a manager’s special on loaves of bread and hamburger buns.
    Only $0.10/loaf! What!? That’s cheaper than you can make it, I’m pretty certain. Regularly, it’s like $0.69/loaf.
    I bought four loaves and stuck them in my freezer. We tend to [...]

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    One reason for not canceling all my credit cards




    April 16th, 2008

    I guess I have one semi-good reason for not canceling all my credit cards just yet. We need a few more birthdays before my husband and I are 25. If we need to rent a car, we’ll need to have an actual credit card to do so.
    The fine print on Budget.com:
    “These locations will rent to [...]

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    A $7 beauty school haircut




    April 15th, 2008

    After almost a year (OK–more like 9 months, but who’s counting?) I finally got a haircut.
    I just hadn’t gotten around to getting a haircut in awhile, and I didn’t actually need one. I tend to wear my hair up most of the time, anyway. Today, I went to a beauty college to see if they [...]

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