Kitchens are one of those places where we tend to build up a large supply of items that are supposed to make our lives easier. Take one look inside of a kitchen drawer and you’ll usually find a jumbled up mess of various tools that were used once and then shoved aside (and there’s usually one drawer that’s just a mess of bits and pieces of stuff from around the house). Among the pots and pans there are specialty pieces that never get used. And the pantry is usually filled with things that expired a long time ago.

When you go through all the items in your kitchen, ask yourself

• What is this for?
• Do I know how to use it?
• Have I ever used it?
• When is the next time I’m planning on using this?

It’s easy to fall into the trap of thinking that you could possibly need a specialty item in the future. But you have to really ask yourself whether or not you use an item on a regular basis. Sure, crepe pans really make the process of making crepes easier, but if you only do it once ever 5 years, the pan is just wasting space.

Remember, you can usually borrow kitchen items from friends, neighbors or family if you really need the item, so don’t be afraid to remove items you don’t use at least on a monthly basis.

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Popularity: 5% [?]

There is nothing worse than seeing a gorgeous pair of sandals on a pair of nasty, dry, cracking feet with grody toenails. Ladies, it is NOT hard to take care of your feet with a little bit of effort once a week, and if you do it at home you can definitely fit it into all but the very tightest of budgets. For the price of one pedicure at the nail salon or spa, you can buy the necessary tools to do a self-pedicure for months.

The Pros of a DIY Pedicure -

• The Price  – It cost me $30 to buy all the stuff I need. I might have to replace my buffer or filer for $2 in a few months, but it’s still cheaper than a professional pedi.
• The Time Saved – There’s no travel to and from the salon. You don’t have to wait for the technician to finish with a previous client. You can read e-mail, watch TV or write a blog post while you wait for the polish to dry.
• Convenience - You don’t have to work around business hours. If you want a pedicure at 8am on a Sunday, you’re fine. Only get peace and quiet when the kids are in bed? Give yourself a pedicure at 10pm.

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Popularity: 6% [?]

Everyone and the their brother is writing a post on how to hold a garage sale. Well here’s a post for those of you on the other end of the transactions.

Scoring the best deals at garage sales:

Get up early – There are people who are practically garage sale shopping professionals, so you’ll have to get out their early to compete for the best pieces. Larger and more desired items like furniture sets go quickly, so try to be out the door by 7am, 8am at the latest.

Eat breakfast – If your stomach is growling the whole time, you may make a poor decision because you just want to get out of there and get some food or because you’re distracted. Not to mention being grumpy will not net you any special deals.

Plan your route – Take note of addresses when you see Yard Sale signs. Also check Craiglist a few days ahead of time and the night before. Take note of any items being advertised and if you want them, hit those sales first.

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Popularity: 3% [?]

So first off, what is a multi-level marketing? Wikipedia to the rescue:

“Multi-level marketing (MLM), also known as Network Marketing, is a marketing strategy that compensates promoters of direct selling companies not only for product sales they personally generate, but also for the sales of others they introduced to the company. The products and company are usually marketed directly to consumers and potential business partners by means of relationship referrals and word of mouth marketing.” - Wikipedia – Multi-Level Marketing

Multi-Level Marketing is NOT the same as a pyramid scheme. The difference being that there is a real product being sold and MLMs are technically legal.

Common MLMs that you may have heard of include Amway, Mary Kay, Cutco and the newcomer Mona Vie.

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So what’s so bad about that?

First off, if you want to make a decent amount of money you can’t just sell the product. Instead, you need to sell the MLM to other people who will then start to sell the product (and MLM) thus giving you referral sales/money. While this sounds fantastic, you have to realize that there’s a limit to how deep in the referral levels you can make money off of.

If you take a good look at the ‘success’ stories, you’ll find that the people more than $100 or so a month are the people in the top 5% or so of referrals. In other words, they’re the guys at the top of the pyramid. The other 95% are peons making the money for the the guy at the top. Statistically speaking, if you join you’re probably going to be a peon and not the pharoah.

That’s not to say that it’s impossible to become rich with a MLM job. I’m sure the top .05% of the marketers are enjoying their second home in Hawaii.

Secondly, most of these companies make you buy your own stock to start off with. While company literature usually claims that start up is ‘free’ or ‘only $XX’ that usually doesn’t include the stuff you have to buy in order to sell. If you can’t sell this crap, you’re stuck with it and you usually have to buy a certain amount of product a month to continue to collect your referral sales money. Many companies also make you buy more than the minimum if you want to make an extra percentage on the referrals.

Company literature also usually claims that this can be done from home in a few hours a week, which is bullshit. The people working only a few hours a week are the ones in the bottom 95%. The people making a living off of MLM are the ones treating it like a full time job and working overtime. MLM is not something you can do in your spare time and expect to make a decent supplemental income on.

And finally, you will become ‘That Guy’ (or ‘That Girl’). In the end, almost everyone in the MLM ends up preying on their own friends and family. It’s hard to make cold calls into a cold market where you don’t know where the demand is, so you end up trying to sell to your friends, family and co-workers. No one wants to be friends with someone trying to pitch a product to them and people will start to avoid you. No, I’m not exagerating. I’ve known a few people in MLM schemes and this is exactly what happens.

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So why do so many people get sucked in? GREED.

Thousands of dollars a month for only a few hours work. Sounds fantastic, doesn’t it?

But like all things that sound too good to be true, Multi-Level Marketing fails in the end.

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More Reading:

- Federal Trade Commission on Multi-Level Marketing
- Great article on MLM with links for further reading

Popularity: 24% [?]

With all this talk about saving, people sometimes forget that it’s just as important to increase your earnings. With companies laying off people left and right, there are few opportunities in the business world for promotions and raises.

What that means is you’ll have to increase your income in more creative ways. While there’s always the option of trying to get a part-time retail/food service job, you can also create your own work. Where there’s a will, there’s a way and everyone has at least one skill they can market.

• Babysitting – Not going out this weekend? Babysitting can be quite lucrative, especially on popular evenings. Around here experienced babysitters can pull $10 an hour or more depending on the amount/age of the kids. You may need to take a child/infant First Aid class (offered by the Red Cross for a nominal fee).
• Tutoring – Math tutors are usually in the highest demand, but around SAT and finals time there’s usually a big need for language arts and other subjects as well. You can either sign up with an agency or market yourself around the neighborhood on your own.
• Teaching – Look for opportunities to teach at community colleges, historical/learning societies or adult/continuing education. You’ll need an advanced degree to teach actual courses at community college, but continuing education usually just requires knowledge and some references. There are opportunities to teach everything from home tax preparation to ballroom dancing.
• Cleaning – While you probably don’t want to be a custodian, picking up a few apartments to clean over the weekend could net you some extra cash. You could also offer an ‘after the party’ cleaning service. Start by asking your neighbors and let word of mouth help you out. Just make sure to pack a mask and gloves if you aren’t using environmentally friendly cleaning products.
• House Sitting – Also works for apartments. This is hard to get into because people are hesitant to let strangers into their homes while they’re away. Start by doing relatives and close friends/neighbors to get references.
• Dog Walking – You’d be amazed at the amount of people who buy a pet and never consider how much time it takes to care for them. Offer to walk twice a day and you could earn a nice wad of cash. Just make sure to screen dogs for personality if you plan to take on more than once. An dog aggressive dog is not a good candidate for walking in a pack.
• Errand Running – You can get paid for running errands for other busy people. And if you’re already out and about running your own errands, why not?
• eBay – Are you an amazing thrift store shopper? If you’ve got a great eye for vintage and used items, you can make a killing picking up items at flea markets, garage sales and thrift stores and then reselling on eBay.
• Odd Household Jobs – Washing windows. Cleaning gutters. Shoveling snow. Painting. You name it and there’s someone who doesn’t want to do it. That’s where you come in.

Popularity: 4% [?]

Cooking for one person or a couple can be a major pain in the ass if you’re trying to use a recipe from a cook book where the recipes are for four to six servings. It’s not as easy as simply halving the recipe, because things like leaveners, spices and liquid may not be right anymore.

Instead of trying to halve everything, Mr. and I just started eating leftovers for lunch. This quickly eliminated the extra servings and saved us money and time in the morning. Of course some things make better leftovers than others. Chili is great the next day, but a souffle is going to be a dense mass of yuck.

You can also try freezing half of your recipe. This requires you to learn which foods freeze well, but there are plenty of resources online for you to work from. For example, pasta doesn’t freeze very well in soup (it absorbs too much liquid) but you can easily freeze the soup without the pasta and then add it while reheating.  You can also freeze some foods before they are fully prepared, like meatloaf.

Don’t be afraid to make large recipes if you know they’ll freeze well. There’s no way a single person would consume two pans of baked ziti, but you can freeze them in their pans and then divide them once they’re mostly frozen and easier to deal with. Same thing goes for a massive pot of stew, becasue you can easily freeze 1 cup portions in freezer bags.

You can also try making a full recipe but preparing them as individual servings. For example, you can bake meatloaves in muffin tins, thus creating individual meatloaves perfect for freezing and thawing. The same thing goes for dividing casseroles into smaller ramekins for baking. You can usually remove the servings from their pans and wrap them in foil so all your cookware isn’t tied up in the freezer.

You can also try foods that can be used in a second recipe the next night. If you’re making chicken parmesan, don’t put sauce on the last few chicken breasts, but bake (or fry) them as usual. The ‘plain’ chicken can then be cut up and served on a bed of greens for the next night’s dinner. If you make a sesame-garlic marinade for a pork tenderloin, the leftover pork can be cut up and added to a vegetable stir fry. This method will take a little extra planning on your part, but will save time on night two.

Popularity: 3% [?]

Potlucks are one of the most frugal ways to entertain and as people worry about their finances potluck suppers are coming back in vogue. Potlucks aren’t limited to just dinner and you can be as creative as you want to be.

Potlucks can bring to mind childhood meals of soggy green bean casserole, buckets of tasteless baked ziti and nary a piece of actual meat in sight. It doesn’t have to be that way!

• Have everyone on board. It helps if you’re all on the financial wavelength and understand the need to cut back on costs while still having fun. If you’ve got a friend who still blows $200 a weekend on booze and steak dinners they can’t afford, they may not enjoy a potluck as much or understand why everyone else is cutting back.
• Have an overall theme. It should be fairly specific so there’s some direction for people to look to. You don’t have to have a ‘normal’ theme either. If you want to get together after normal dinner hours, you could have a ‘chocolate desserts’ theme. Or have a ‘zombie’ theme and have people get creative.
• Organize food types. Unless you love potato salad so much you want everyone to bring a pan, it helps to organize your guests so they have a category of food to bring (salad, dessert, side dish, vegetable, whatever.)
• Rotate food types. Some categories of dishes tend to be more expensive (ex. main dishes) than others, so either cook those yourself, or make sure that no one gets stuck with it time after time.
• Get creative. You don’t need to have a Sunday supper potluck. Try a brunch, dessert, after-work picnic, midnight snack, or other more unusual potluck. This will keep everyone from getting bored and help fit in time for some socialization in what are probably very busy schedules.

In the next couple days I’ll try to get to some of my favorite crowd-pleasing (but still inexpensive) dishes. Providing I can a) keep my eyes open and b) stop running to the bathroom every 15 seconds. Pregnancy blows.

Popularity: 3% [?]

A guest on Frugal Dad wrote an interesting post on Stretching Your College Fund today, and it got me thinking about a problem a lot of young professionals face. How can you afford to go back to school if you’re just barely making ends meet?

Mr. and I have been trying to send me back to school for almost two years now. While I’m fortunate that I’m only eyeing an A.A.S. from our local community college to supplement my B.A., it’s still a pretty big stretch for our budget at this point in our lives.  So how do you scrape together enough to get that degree?

1. Check out programs at work. Sometimes you can get a little help from your employer if you’re getting a degree that will give you skills they need, so you may get a hand for your M.B.A.  Mr.’s job will even help subsidize a law degree.
2. FAFSA and State Aid. Yes, you can fill out the same forms as the snot nosed freshmen and be assessed for federal and state money. Graduate students can also obtain the Federal Grad PLUS Loan in addition to the loans available to undergrads.
3. Grants and Scholarships. There are a ton of scholarships for adult learners. Check with your alumni association (especially if you’re going to your alma mater.) Ask the financial aid desk at your school. Check with your local community centers. Go online and run a search.
4. Graduate Assistantships. If you’re a graduate student, you can apply for one and get tuition, stipend and sometimes even benefits.  This usually requires 20+ hours in addition to a full-time student status. You’re essentially the low man on the totem pole, so you’ll be doing a lot of grunt work and other drudgery.
5. Go to a local, public university. Lower tuition for residents, plus public school are almost always less expensive.
6. Look into part-time programs. You can work full-time and school part-time if you think the work load won’t be overload. Just remember to make sure any scholarships or grants you apply for will cover part-time students.
7. Consider a certificate program. Make sure you require a M.A. or PhD before you jump in and pay for one. If you’re just looking for a promotion at work, you may only need a certificate program for specific skill sets.

If you’ve gone back to school, how did you pay for it?

Popularity: 2% [?]