For me, the only good thing about the economic meltdown is that there’s a lot more to read about frugality. Even the Wall Street Journal, which heretofore chronicled the lavish lifestyles of Wall Street titans, now presents the humble frugal tip, although there is something incongruous about an essay in WSJ that earnestly exhorts you to use a bread machine.
Here’s a list from a recent column called ROI (Return on Investment) by Brett Arends. These provide “sure returns” that “will produce a greater return on investment than Wall Street's greatest boom year.” Each tip is followed by my own situation.
1. Buy a bread maker.
ME: Mr. Dr. Frugal Scholar has been baking bread for 30+ years. We have a bread maker for “just in case.”
2. Get a credit card with a sign up bonus. Arends recommends a card that gives you a free flight; after you fly, cancel the card.
ME: We thought about getting the one from USAir, but realized we have tons of frequent flier miles already.
3. Get a Library Card. Use it!
ME: We are already big library users.
4. Use Netflix instead of cable.
ME: We’ve never had cable and already use Netflix.
5. Buy seeds and grow herbs.
ME: We have a garden and I don’t buy fresh herbs at the grocery anyway.
6. Use prepaid cellphone instead of expensive plan.
ME: We already do this.
7. Bring coffee to work instead of buying en route.
ME: We already do this.
The problem for long-time frugalities is that we already do many of these things. The nouveau frugal are, in a way, lucky. They can do all these things and save a couple of thousand dollars and get returns of up to 1000%. But the only thing I DON’T do is something I don’t want to do: I’m happy with my American Express rebate card. I already have tons of frequent flier miles from flying.
So dear readers: Help me find some guaranteed return on investment habits. Can you think of any sure things that are out of the ordinary? What are your sure things?
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