There is a site where you can bid on free stuff. Yes, free stuff. Toys, clothing items, DVD’s, etc. Free.  If you win the auction, you only pay shipping and some items offer free shipping.

So how does this work? Well you bid with credits. Credits are completely free. So, how do you get credits if they are free? Well, you get free credits by joining, by connecting with facebook, by referring friends, by listing your own auctions and having someone win them.

Some people offer free shipping on items so their auction will be more popular and they will get more credits. They then use these credits to bid on something they want.

It’s sort of like an online swap. You list stuff you no longer want and receive credits. You use these credits to bid on stuff you do want.

Check Listia out, it’s free to join and you might win an auction you want. For free.

Click on this link: http://www.listia.com/signup/82750

You can wash your clothes yourself indoors. It’s not for the lazy because it takes time and work. It will save you electricity because it uses a lot less electricity than washers and dryers. It also uses less water, so you’ll save a little on your water bill too.

Some people don’t have washers and dryers and must go to a laundromat to wash their clothes. This is a pain because it’s really boring. You can’t just leave your clothes there, so you have to sit there and be bored or try to read a book while you’re waiting for your laundry to wash and dry. Most laundromats charge around $1 or $1.50 per load in the washer and the dryer. You have to supply your own laundry detergent of course.

There are basically 2 benefits to washing your clothes yourself indoors:

1-save money-it’s frugal

2- don’t have to wait around at a laundromat. Can do it at your own time.

But I don’t want to make this sound too easy so here are the disadvantages:

1- is time consuming

2- you have to work at it unlike just throwing a load in a washer (this could be a good thing though if you want to build a good work ethic or want to burn off calories)

3- clothes take a long time to dry indoors, like 2 days.

Hand washing is a good thing if you only have a few items of clothing, a uniform perhaps or your favorite outfit, but don’t want to use the washer and dryer just for a few items. Save water and electricity by hand washing them.

Now if you are really serious about hand washing your own clothes indoors, go to http://www.lehmanbrothers.com and you can find all kinds of neat stuff-like the things they used long time ago before washers and dryers.

You can get a variety of washing boards which remove all those stubborn stains that washers don’t touch.

You can get indoor drying racks-this is really a necessity and a double rinse sink, clothes wringers where you turn a handle to get your clothes wrung out good, as well as other indoor laundry items.

Stock up on these items if you are serious about this and plan to hand wash your laundry indoors long term.

Now if you want to just experiment and try out how it works, do this.

Get 2 of those plastic storage containers. You can get them around $5 or so. One is for washing and the other for rinsing.

Get some clothes, put it in a container which should be in your bathtub, then pour on the water and put in the laundry detergent.

You need something to stir the clothes with. They need to be stirred good or agitated to get them clean.

Then pour out the water and wring out the clothes and put them in the other container which should also be in your bathtub. You can now take the washing container out of your bathtub and keep in the rinsing container. Then fill the container with water and let the soap get rinsed out.

For a good rinse you have to do this twice. Pour out the water, wring out the clothes again, and put them back in the rinsing container with fresh water.

Next, you have to take out the clothes and wring them out again one by one. This is hard to do by hand so that’s why if you want to do this long term, to get one of those close wringers where you can wring them out good just by turning a handle.

Then you need a place to put them to dry. You can put them over your shower curtain (put a towel on the floor it the clothes are dripping) but the shower curtain will only hold so many clothes. So it’s good to have an indoor drying rack. This is unless you live in a place where you can have an outdoor clothes line.

So do this experiment and see if you think it’s worth it to save money and use less electricity and water.

If you think it’s worth it, head over to Lehman Brothers and stock up on some essential laundry items like the clothes wringer, indoor drying rack, and washing boards for clothes with stains.

Stores are now getting rid of all of their left over Christmas merchandise. Wal-Mart started out when it opened at 6am the 26th with all Christmas items half off. A lot of stuff doesn’t last long. If anything remains in a few days it will be 75% off.

If you need any gifts, wrapping paper, gift sets, cards, or anything else for a birthday coming up or for next Christmas now is the time to get it.

For example there are bath and body kits, perfume kits, and stuff like that, which would be good for any gift occassion such as birthdays, not just Christmas.

Get all your wrapping paper, boxes, ribbons, bows, name tags, and cards now for next year. So when Christmas comes around again, you will already have all your supplies so you won’t have to go shopping at full price.

The unemployment rate is the highest it’s been in 30 something years and 1 in 10 homeowners are either in foreclosure or late on their mortgage payment.

I’m totally not into fear mongering and wish the media would stop it, but it’s really time for the middle class for cut way back and learn to be frugal. In fact, things wouldn’t be so bad for a lot of households if they simply cut back.

I know a family that constantly complain about how poor they are and about how bad things are money wise, but they keep going on vacations and eat out more than they eat at home-what’s that all about! If they would eat at home and not go on so many vacations, they’d actually have more money. Big surprise!

The older generation things that parents of today are spoiling their kids like crazy and it’s even backfiring.

Way back when kids got homemade Christmas presents like homemade dolls and trucks and crocheted mittens and hats instead of video games, video games systems, cell phones, cash, ipods, and blackberries.

Give a kid today a pair of crocehted mittens for Christmas and they’d probably kill you. Hopefully not literally, but you never know today.

If things are so bad moneywise:

• cancel your cable/satellite
• have a landline phone and no cell phones
• if you have a cell phone stop text messaging unless it’s free
• stop buying video games
• buy clothes and books at thrift stores and not retail
• cook at home instead of eating out

If you’ve done all this and are still struggling, then there are more drastic measures you can take such as moving to a cheaper place or renting a room out if you have an extra room for a homestay or something. (Be sure to get a background check and have rules in place first). Or going to a food pantry if things are really bad.

And if you STILL need help, then it’s time to put yoru efforts into making more money instead of just saving it. You can’t save what you don’t have.

If you are unemployed, fill out applications everyday. Even if you go to the same place more than once, then they will know you’re serious.

Or if you have no income and can’t find a job go on welfare.

Ok these last steps are for the low class/poor and not the middle class.

Anyway the middle class needs to start shopping smarter and not spoil their kids so much. Besides, love is better than any material item period.

My grandparents were poor, southern country people. They had to be frugal because they had very little money. They never ate out at restaurants and they had to make do with what they had or starve.

There was no microwave dinners, stops by fast food places, or convenience foods. I don’t know if there was a such thing as food stamps back then when they were growing up, but even if there was, they didn’t get any kind of assistance whatsoever. They grew much of their own food.

They grew gardens in the summer and canned food to eat during the winter. They raised chickens which provided them with eggs and killed the chickens for meat. (Yuck!) They also raised hogs. (Yuck! I don’t eat pork)

Apples grew on trees which they ate for snacks or used to bake. There were walnut trees and hickory trees which provided them with nuts.

Basically the only food supplies they purchased in stores were things like salt, sugar, pepper, flour, and cornmeal. Everything else they provided for themselves or did without. They didn’t have a choice.

A regular and staple dinner for all poor country people was pinto beans and cornbread. It was cheap, easy to make, and filling. It didn’t include any meat which they could not afford to eat meat regularly.

Well now things have changed a lot for this generation. I like Mexican, Indian, Middle Eastern, and Americanized Chinese food. I like eating out. And I don’t raise my own food.

People today are also cooking a lot healthier than they did back then. Back then they used grease to cook with (Yuck!!!) After frying some kind of pork like sausage or bacon they would save the grease and use it to cook with and fry foods with. Personally to me that’s disgusting, but doctors have been telling their patients for a long time now, especially those with heart disease and diabetes to use canola oil, olive oil, or corn oil to cook with. Don’t use grease, lard, or fat. It’s unhealthy, clogs up your arteries, and makes your heart disease worse.

People today still enjoy their southern country dinners even though they’ve changed somewhat from way back when.

Why are they so good? Because they are healthy (lots of veggies, no meat), filling, comforting, and cheap.

Here is my version of a cheap country dinner. I don’t like pinto beans, so it’s not included.

*Cornbread- A necessity. Fried or pan baked.
*Corn on the cob
*Green beans and potatoes
*Boiled cabbage
*Mashed potatoes
*Macaroni and cheese

In the old days, people would have put in grease with the green beans and cabbage. I don’t use anything when I cook green beans. Just take some green beans and potatoes and boil in water until cooked.

With boiled cabbage add a little olive or canola oil.

Here is the recipe for fried cornbread cakes:
*1 cup of self rising corn mean
*1 egg
*1/3 cup milk

Mix batter. In a skillet heat a tablespoon of canola or vegetable oil and fry.

For people who grow their own vegetables, this is a very cheap meal since the green beans, cabbage, corn and potatoes are free. This filling meal would only cost a few dollars to feed a whole family.

Ok, there is a big craze going on about water cars, fueling your car with water, running your car on water, or however you want to say it. If you haven’t heard about it yet, you will.

The first time I saw these headlines, I thought it was a scam. It sounded so ridiculous. So I decided to research it and find out for sure if it’s real or a scam.

And my conclusion is, it’s legit, it’s real, but it’s misunderstood. You don’t run your car on water. Your car still runs on gas…but with using the hydrogen in water, you use a LOT LESS water and you save A TON of money.

With the way my car burns gas, I would save over $50 a week assuming I doubled my MPG. I estimated I would save close to $300 a month.

So you are probably wondering how this works. Well, water is made up of hydrogen and oxygen. Hence, the H2O. And hydrogen is a powerful fuel. There is a way to turn H2O into a gas called HHO-hydrogen-hydrogen-oxygen.

With HHO, you can double your MPG. You will still buy gas, you will just buy a lot less and save a lot of money.

The thing is, you will have to buy a manual showing you how to make a kit and put it under your hood and either you will have to do this yourself or show the instructions to someone else and have them do it for you.

You don’t have to be a mechanic. The manual is written so everyday people can read the instructions and do this.

There are several different guides out there, but the BEST one is of course, the most expensive one at $97. You will also need some supplies like a glass canning jar and some stuff you can easily purchase at any hardware store. In total with the manual and supplies it will probably cost around $150 up to $200.

Now I would make up that in less than a month and I would save probably around $3,000 a year on gas. So a $200 investment is nothing. My car gets terrible gas mileage and it makes me angry! (Mazdas get GREAT gas mileage by the way, but my Mazda died and I ended up with an awful gas guzzler. My Mazda had me spoiled)

So anyone who wants to be frugal and double their gas mileage might want to try this out. If you are like me and scared of tinkering with cars, then just buy the manual and show it to your cousin, uncle, father, friend, hubby, or mechanic. They should be able to get your car converted in an hour.

There is more science behind it that you can read about if you wish. It goes into more detail about HHO, Brown’s gas, hydroxy, the inefficient way your car’s engine is designed.

Your car actually WASTES 80% of the gas you put in it and converting water into HHO actually stops your car’s engine from doing that.

So, if you want to look at the actual sale’s page for Water4Gas and see if you want to invest $97 into saving a ton on gas here is the link: WATER4GAS

You can also look at: www.squidoo.com/savealotongaswithwater

With food prices having gone up faster than anyone can remember, more and more families are looking for low cost meals.

A common meal for poor families in the country was pinto beans and cornbread. Before food stamps, many poor rural people grew up on pinto beans and corn bread because it was cheap and filling.

Cutting back on meats and eating more pastas and beans will save on your grocery bill. Ramen noodles are cheap, but it doesn’t take long to get sick of them.

Noodles, spaghetti, macaroni and cheese are low cost meals or sides. With creativity, you can still eat good and cut back on your grocery bill.

Everyone who drives must have car insurance. It’s the law and you don’t want to drive without insurance and get pulled over the the police. Then, you’d be in some big trouble and face mandatory huge fines.

The problem with car insurance is it can eat up a lot of money. Of course it depends on age, driving record, type of car, and other factors.

It never hurts to check around and see if you can get a better deal. A lot of people have been with the same insurance company for a long time and haven’t even considered changing. However, they may find another company can offer them a lower rate and save a few hundred dollars a year.

So this is just a reminder for people like that. Call around to different car insurance companies, be sure to tell them you already have insurance but are seeing if you can get a better deal. They want your business, so they will give you the best deal they can.

Sometimes change is good. You may find yourself saving a few hundred dollars a year on your car insurance. Especially if you have a good driving record.

Now that Valentines Day is over, head over to the store to get some great deals on Valentines Day stuff before it’s all gone.

Got a sweet tooth? Get Valentines Day candy for 50% off at most stores. Or if you have kids at school, grab boxes of valentines day cards for their school Valentines Day party next year at a fraction of the cost.

In January I bought a Christmas dress for my baby girl. When I went to the store I certainly wasn’t planning on buying a Christmas dress. Christmas is 11 months away. But I saved by taking advantage of a clearance sale for leftover Christmas items the store is trying to get rid of.

You can save big by buying items leftover after any holiday. Stores want to get rid of their holiday items to make room for the next holiday so they slash the prices off of their leftover inventory 50-75%.

Their was a rack of cute Christmas dresses for little girls marked way down at only $6. These are really cute dresses and it’s certainly not everday you can find such a cute dress for only $6.

If I waited until around Christmas time when the Christmas stuff came out to by my baby girl a dress, I imagine it would cost around $20-$25. But now I already have her dress ready for when Christmas comes around and when I see the price tags on the dresses come Christmas time I will be smiling thinking of how much I saved.

I just get a thrill on huge savings!  I find it fun to see how much I can save.

Now Valentines day is coming up and the stores have all of their Valentines stuff out. I will wait until February 15th to see what I can find for 50-75% off.