First Gen American.com

Category: Frugal Living

  • Slow Food = Feeling like you Have More time?

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    Sandy L
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    Tweet One of the annual events that I started once Babci moved to my town is making red current jelly. It is truly a team effort and it reminds me of the old barn raising days where the community gets together to help each other. A Great Sense of Community Every year, my mom grows…

  • Dumpster Diving: Babci the Golfer?

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    Sandy L
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    Tweet It’s exciting times on Babci’s Street.  You see, one of her neighbors is moving out of town and has made a gigantic “free” pile in front of their house.  To Babci, this is like Christmas.  To my husband and I, we cringe and hope she shows some restraint.  You see, Tuesday is garbage day…

  • Blogging and Real Life Collide

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    Sandy L
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    Tweet Tonight, a couple of my friends are hosting a Beer Tasting Night. One of them works for a local magazine, Berkshire Living, but she also has a fun Little Beer Blog called From This Pint On.  Okay, so I may not be cool by writing crazy stories about finances and my mom, but at least I have friends…

  • Duck Bread – Today’s Spontaneous Fun

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    Sandy L
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    Tweet This morning, my older son woke up a whole half hour early, by himself and came downstairs in an uncharacteristically perky fashion. As a result, lunches were made, everyone was dressed, fed, and ready to go almost 1/2 hour ahead of schedule. I quickly decided this was an opportunity to have a mini-adventure. I…

  • Pros and Cons of Fixer Uppers

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    Sandy L
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    Tweet We have been home owners for about 10 years now.  I love my home. It’s a Colonial Built in 1959 with 3 bedrooms, 2 baths and is just over 1700 sq/ft. It’s situated on a cul de sac and I like my neighbors.  When we bought the house in 2000, that’s about where the…

  • The Dumpster Dilemma + Underwater Summer Homes

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    Sandy L
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    Tweet The house next door to Babci just sold for $99K and it’s about identical to hers.  We bought Babci’s house at the peak of the market in 2005 and are currently about $155K into it.  We have already replaced the roof, furnace, refinished the hardwoods downstairs, gutted the hall and one of upstairs bedrooms.…

  • Vacation, Bad Dreams & Emotional Spending

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    Sandy L
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    Tweet Just a quick note:  I will be unplugging for a good chunk of this week for vacation. I’m one of those people who have wild and crazy dreams on a regular basis. I have two recurring dreams. The first involves a person trying to kill me. Sometimes I run, but in most cases, I use elaborate…

  • Nature vs. Nurture on Frugalism

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    Sandy L
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    Tweet Is Frugalism even a word?  I don’t care, I like it. Today I’m going to ponder the age old question, nature vs. nurture with a twist.  Which of these factors makes a person inherently frugal in life? Now up until writing this post, I was firmly in the nature camp.  We can all think…

  • Extreme Frugalism – How many have you tried?

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    Sandy L
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    Tweet The other day, I was commenting on an interesting post about shameless frugality over at Squirrelers.  Mr. Squirreler himself expressed an interest in hearing about some of Babci’s money saving  undertakings that would make even the frugalest of frugalites cringe. So by popular demand, here is a list of actual things that either my…

  • Pantry Efficiency – How’s yours?

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    Sandy L
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    Tweet Okay, before I even get started, I need to confess that I’m a bit of a food snob. I love food, I’m extremely brand loyal and its my #2 biggest expense in my budget (Daycare is #1).  I am not the one to talk to if you want to know how to feed a…