Share your frugal victories and/or frugal flops

[HaleyB]

Sorry for the thread hijack

Hmm, I once 'recovered' some household items from a dumpster and then I had a garage sale and sold it all. All stuff left by a family that was moving. I made $800 on that garage sale! Some people are so wasteful.

This whole year will be a failure budget wise. My son is a Freshman in college and is in New York (we are in Texas). I went about $400 over budget setting him up in the dorm when I dropped him off. Pure guilt. Today I booked him a flight home for a long weekend in October...another $400 not in the budget. I knew we would be bad this year, that is why I booked a trip to WDW. Intresting logic, no? But I figured we were going to have to sell some stock to cover tuition anyhow...

 

[Atotty]

I had a good frugal day yesterday. We're going to Disney next month and dh has just about worn out all his shorts this summer. I told him Wednesday he needed to buy some more. As I was shopping yesterday at Walmart, I found shorts his size marked down to $1 a piece. I got 5 pairs of shorts and 4 bathing suits for a total of $9.

 

[barbeml]

medical and/or dental costs have ceased to amaze me. my daughter was in the hospital for surgery. 1 day. the hospital bill (not the surgeon, anesthesioligist, pathologist bills-the bill separatly) over $45,000.00 thank heaven i had insurance that paid for all with a $25.00 co-pay.

my frugal victory-our car was nearing the end of the warranty period. i had complained about several odd sounds and it not driving correctly (nothing major-it just felt "off"). of course each time i take it into the dealership they can't detect any problems. i got tired of taking it back and forth, and having delt with a dealership before on repairs after the warranty period ended...i decided to take matters into my own hands. i waited one evening until i knew that the repairs portion of my dealership was closed, i then went in to the sales department and started looking at the new models-when the salesman approached me and asked if i needed any help i asked if i could see what kind of a trade in i could get on my car. within an hour they made me an offer on my car. i asked why it was so much lower than what i thought was the value-they (of course) tell me EVERYTHING they detected as wrong with it. i asked them to make a list "to show to my husband". the next day i went in and asked to speak to the service manager about the "undetectable problems"-i showed him the list. he turned white as a sheet. they ended up inspecting the car from top to bottem, correctlng everything on the list (plus a few more).

Brilliant!

 

[gr8ful4Him]

I found shorts his size marked down to $1 a piece. I got 5 pairs of shorts and 4 bathing suits for a total of $9.

That's an awesome shopping spree! Gotta love end of season clearances

 

[Pat]

I love the frugal car story. You are brilliant!

 

[djkeenan]

OK, I'm one of those people who spend way too much time planning. I want to be sure we get the best deal and don't miss anything. With that out of the way... here's my story:

We want to take my sister and her family with us to WDW this winter. We picked the middle of Jan since we hate crowds and hot weather. We decided to rent a vacation home for all of us and I spent more than 100 hours studying all aspects of VRBO (vacation rental by owner). I determined that there is an over abundance of properties which is bad for the owners and great for us rentors! Using a few tips I picked up here, I was able to get a beautiful 6 bedroom home, (check it out: http://www.sjsvillas.com ) with our own heated pool, game room, full kitchen, laundry etc, etc. For less, actually a lot less, than a moderate room on-site! It turned out to be so easy! (feel free to ask how)

DW went looking for airfares and found us non-stop flights from South Bend, IN to Sanford/Orlando for $59 each way.

Using our kitchen and eating out only once a day should save us enough to pay for admission.

Bottom line: these deals will save us over 50% of our original budget.

 

[3DisneyKids]

Frugal victory happened just today: bought Pal Mickey for just $13.99 (brand new from Character Premier). You know what a huge savings that is.

Frugal Flop happened today, too: Bought THREE Pal Mickey's...one for each kid! LOL

When I originally though about buying Pal Mickey for our next trip, I naturally assumed I would buy just one for all us to share and take turns with, etc. Then, I saw this price and boiught multiples! With shipping, I still paid less than one new version of Pal Mickey, but not much...

 

[OceanAnnie]

Great car story!

 

[OceanAnnie]

Oh. I just thought of a frugal victory I had yesterday.

You know about those clothes organizers that hang in your closet? Great for kids. Their clothes are all picked out for the week and ready for each day.

Well, Lillian Vernon sells them for $19.95. I wanted them but kept putting it off. I needed 3. I just couldn't see spending $60 on them.

I went to the Dollar Tree they had the same thing (minus the days of the week labels) and it has an extra pocket, for $1 a peice! Wow. So instead of spending $60, I spent $3. I love the Dollar Store.

 

[kaytieeldr]

You are my Hero!

Mine too, Barkley! Will you go car-shopping with me when I'm ready? Please?

 

[hsmamato2]

How did you get Pal Mickey for 13.00? Did you order from character premiere- or do you live near there? If you did order,how? I thought they were just a reg. store...

 

[LauraR]

My best find was a dress at Salvation Army by a Parisian fashion designer. The price tag (Bergdorf Goodman's) was still on the dress, and it read $1,399 marked down to $749! I got it for $5, down from $10 because it was half price Wednesday at Salvation Army! And the dress actually makes me look thin...

Also, I once got roundtrip tickets to Greece for my husband and myself for $250 apiece. We went for a week and spent $1,500 for the whole trip.

I too want to offer my kudos on the car repair story. That was absolutely brilliant! I never would have had the idea OR the nerve to pull it off.

 

[3DisneyKids]

How did you get Pal Mickey for 13.00? Did you order from character premiere- or do you live near there? If you did order,how? I thought they were just a reg. store...

Yes, I ordered from Character Premier. They do mail order. Same with character warehouse. Just called them up and did it all over the phone. Shipping for one = $8.95, but I ordered three and shipping was $10.95, so the total was about $18 each.