The Many Uses of Witch Hazel

Witch Hazel is a frugal person necessity, especially when you consider that it has about 20 different uses that can also be conveniently purchased in the form of other products to treat separate issues. Wikipedia describes Witch Hazel as:

“An astringent produced from the leaves and bark of the North American Witch Hazel shrub (Hamamelis virginiana), which grows naturally from Nova Scotia west to Ontario, Canada and south to Florida, and Texas in the United States.[1] This plant was widely used for medicinal purposes by American Indians. The witch hazel extract was obtained by steaming the twigs of the shrub.

10 Great Uses for Witch Hazel

1. Fight acne and other blemishes
2. Reduces bags under your eyes
3. Soothes sunburn
4. Reduces itching from bug bites
5. Fades varicose veins and stretch marks
6. Reduces hemorrhoid inflammation
7. Helps bruises fade and heal faster
8. Heals cuts and dings
9. Treats dry skin
10. soothes razor burn

Witch Hazel Discussion:

• What other uses for witch hazel have you tried?
• Is witch hazel “the fountain of youth”? I think so.

Don’t Miss Out on More MicroFrugality tips!

When it comes to going ‘Microfrugal’ on your groceries, switching from prepared foods to their dried counterparts can often save you a good chunk of change. Looking for a good place to start? It’s all about the beans!

Which is Cheaper: Dried or Canned beans?

Dried beans average at least half to two-thirds of the price of reconstituted (canned) beans. If you’re able to purchase in bulk, you’re often able to save much more. A recent search at a local grocer yielded a 16 oz. bag of dried black beans for $1.47, while a 15.5 oz. can of black beans cost $0.74.

You’re probably thinking, “wait a minute, the canned beans sound like a better deal!”, right? Not so fast! One 16 oz. bag of beans tends to yield the same amount of beans as 3 cans. So in this example, you’re saving roughly 50% on your beans.

If you had purchase 3 cans of beans per week and made the switch to dried beans, you’d be saving approximately $25 per year. It may not sound like much, but when you consider that it is only one item out of possibly hundreds that you purchase over the course of a year, it all ads up. That’s what being MicroFrugal is all about.

Other Benefits to Dried Beans

• Dried beans often store easier than canned, and if kept in a cool, dark place, keep good for up to a year or more. If you open a package or buy in bulk, make sure to place them in an airtight container.
• They are often easier to store, since they take up only one-third of the space and don’t come in a rigid can form.
• You’re helping to reduce your carbon footprint by avoiding the purchase of aluminum cans and the extra storage weight and volume that come from canned beans.

How to Cook Dried Beans

Recipes will vary by bean variety, but here are some general rules. Keep in mind that one cup of dried beans will yield two cups of cooked beans.

Dried Bean Cooking: Step 1 – Soaking

There are two ways that you can soak dried beans:

1. Overnight: Rinse your beans, place in a container with double the water, and let soak for 8 hours or more.
2. Quick Soak: Rinse the beans, place in pot with double the water, and cook for five minutes. Then cover the pot, turn off the heat, and let the beans soak for an hour.

Dried Bean Cooking: Step 2 – Cooking the Beans

Drain the beans from the water they were soaked in and put into pot.

Cover with fresh water (about 2 inches above the beans).

Bring to a boil, then reduce to a simmer. Cover with lid partially and cook until tender (usually takes at least an hour).

Time Saving Bean Cooking Tip

If you want to avoid the time involved in cooking, simply cook up large batches and then freeze the beans. When you want to use them later all you need to do is de-thaw, and you’re ready to go.

Frugalheads:

What bean or other dried food cooking tips do you have to save money?

Want more Budgeting & Other MicroFrugality tips?

Frugality & Budgeting – the Perfect Marriage

Trying to be a frugal ninja without setting and keeping up with a personal budget plan is like being a blind vegetarian randomly picking out TV dinners from the frozen food aisle. Hot pockets…

More important than tracking all of your actual expenses is simply documenting all sources of income and average monthly expenses. There are lots of beautiful, shiny personal finance applications out there that can help you keep track of things, and they definitely serve a purpose when used effectively. However, I’ve found that the most effective thing is a plain ole’ budgeting spreadsheet.

Budgeting Made Simple: The Budgeting Spreadsheet
I’ll share the budgeting spreadsheet that I use. Feel free to make a copy of your own and modify as you see fit.

Here’s a Google Docs Budgeting Spreadsheet. You will not be able to edit this spreadsheet without copying it first. In order to save and edit your own version of this spreadsheet, select ‘File’, and ‘Copy Spreadsheet’. Now you should be able to edit your own version in Google Docs.

Additionally, here’s an Excel Budgeting Spreadsheet version for your downloading pleasure.

Using the Budgeting Spreadsheet

Step #1: Add in your income. Grab your W2 and go at it! If you get bonuses or other period income, add that to the appropriate month. There is a row for one-time additions.

Step #2: Total up your Expenses. If you don’t use much cash like I do, this can be a lot less daunting than it might seem. You can split up your expenses into different categories by going through your bank statements and credit card bills. Additionally, online applications like Mint.com can do this for you automatically.

Step #3: Prioritize & Start Getting Frugal: The great thing about a personal budget is that it opens your eyes to where you can cut back in some areas to free up more cash. This is where frugality gets really fun.

Frugalhead Discussion:

• What tools do you use to budget?
• What is your favorite online personal finance app?

Want more Budgeting & Other MicroFrugality tips?

Have you used sites like Expedia, Hotels.com, and Tripadvisor, but always been frustrated by the fact that you can’t use a map overlay to see how much certain hotels are in what locations? RoomAtlas might be able to help.

The site is basically a mashup of these three travel sites overlayed on Google Maps. You are able to search by date, star rating, and ammenities, and then filter by price (with price ranges color coded). And it’s pretty accurate. Here’s a screenshot of one of my favorite places to visit – Traverse City, Michigan.

From a frugality perspective this is great because if you need to stay within a certain area, you can zoom in and out and find the lowest priced hotels in that area. There are just those times when you travel and are not willing to sacrifice location, but still want to be as frugal as possible. RoomAtlas definitely helps with that.

Frugalhead Discussion:

• What travel sites have you been able to find the best deals on?
• Have you used any other map search engines for travel?

Want  Travel and More MicroFrugality discussion & tips?

First commenter to guess the correct number of fecal humor puns gets a huge steaming pile of respect from the frugalheads.

But seriously folks, toilet water flowage is no joke. Wow, I can’t believe ‘flowage’ didn’t get flagged by spellchecker. If you have a toilet that is anything above 1.6 gpf (gallons per flush), you are flushing your money down the crapper.

The Guv’ment Drops a Bomb on Americans

You see, back in 1994, the government realized that you don’t really need 7 gallons of water to send Mr. Hankey to the Caribbean. It was mandated that all new toilets sold in the U.S. have a maximum flow of 1.6 gpf. Generations were taken back by the fact that they were having to drop their kids off at kiddie pools instead of Kevin Costner’s Waterworld (hint: Kevin Costner movie reference is also a fecal pun).

People were seriously pissed. High flow toilets were selling for more than their purchase price at garage sales.

At first flush, you can see why people might feel cheated. They went from having their Snickers bars float around in more fresh water than an Ethiopian child gets per year to only 2 months worth of fresh water supply. Bummer, dude.

Flexing your Flushing Muscle

Before you turn a brown eye, note that the average person flushes a toilet 2,500 times per year. That’s just nutty. Surprisingly, it appears local Mexican restaurants have been successful in promoting ‘blow out’ specials after all. 2,500 flushes is no laughing matter. That equals, 17,500 gallons of water in pre-1994 terms, but only 4,000 after the low flow mandate. If you take nothing else away from this post, know that you need to dump your old inefficient toilet.

Flexing your Sphinc… I mean Savings

That’s a savings of about $60 annually (for my local municipality, which charges $3.89 per 748 gallons). At the same time, you can purchase a low flow toilet for under $100, allowing you to realize a positive return in year 2 in making the switch.

If it’s Yellow, Let it Mellow…

And don’t forget the age old adage, only flush when you need to, regardless of your toilet’s flowage. So remember, if you should not deliver the next time you sit on the John, don’t be broken hearted, you just saved some serious water, and money. And that’s definitely Poops McGee.

More Toilet Fun Facts

• Most toilets flush in the key of E flat.
• The average person spends three years of their life on the “John”.

Want more toilet humor and MicroFrugality discussion & tips?

Frugality. As Peter Griffin’s ancestor, the great philosopher Thomas Griffin, would say, “Whyyy??”. Where did the concept of ‘frugality’ come from? And what compels us to follow it? Does frugality have origins in spiritual or religious belief? Are there emotional triggers that inspire us to be frugal? Are we just stingy bastards who will end up dying with a loaded bank account? Let’s discuss.

Frugality in Spirituality

A number of religious and spiritual groups, past and present, have touted frugality as a means for spending less on oneself in order to:

• live a life less reliant on material possessions.
• allow us to save more money to give to charitable causes.

Both are undoubtedly strong virtues and I can see why a spiritual or religious person, in practice, could be fulfilled through the practice of frugality.

Back to the Basics Philosophy

Not to dissimilar from religious and spiritual philosophy is the ‘back-to-the-basics’ school of thought, whereby removing debt and material clutter from your life can lead to a sense of fulfillment. There is a counter-consumer movement worldwide that is rooted in the belief that one will much more easily find a satisfied life if they can limit the amount of economical and material baggage that they are indebted to.

Environmentalism & Frugality

Environmentalists everywhere have touted a frugal lifestyle. We’ve all seen how saving on materials, water, energy, and transportation has not only led to monetary savings, but have a significant impact on the environment as well. The tiny house movement is a combination of environmentalism, de-cluttering, and frugality.

Frugality Driven by Fear & Obsession

There are certainly people who are driven to be frugal from emotions such as fear. Fear can lead people to want to pinch every single penny so that they won’t run out of money, fall into debt, or maybe they are simply afraid to give up their hard earned money. When kept in check, a little fear around spending too much is a healthy thing, but it rarely should ever be the only reason why you are frugal in every monetary situation. A focus on the fear can lead to obsession and that’s when you get stories of people who don’t spend a dime on anything and die alone with millions in the bank.

Wealth & Frugality

Frugality is a practice that can have a significant impact one of the two defining factors in building wealth: expense and income. Living below your means and spending less than you earn is key to building wealth and seeking future goals such as early retirement, purchasing a home, going back to school, etc.

Situation

There are simply times when financial situation forces us to be frugal. Earlier this year, when my wife was laid off, I was rudely reminded of this reality.

Personal Motivators for Frugality

For me personally, each of the above triggers has inspired me to be frugal at one point or another. When I was in college, I was driven by fear that I would never build enough savings to buy a home or retire. This fear drove me to the point of obsession. I probably turned a lot of people off in this phase. I can happily say that I have moved on.

After school, building wealth was a motivating factor for me to be frugal. I’ve set long-term goals to become self employed, pay off my mortgage, and retire early. None of these goals could be accomplished without a little frugality. This passion for the frugal-to-wealth approach is the primary reason why I started MicroFrugality.

Most recently, I have been driven to be frugal through spiritual, minimalist, and environmental reasons. With career, family, and material commitments at times becoming overwhelming and leading to stress, I truly believe that if I can limit the amount of financial and material baggage in my life, I will be less stressed, more focused, and happier.

Why Are YOU Frugal?

• What are the motivating reasons why you are frugal?
• Have you gone through stages that motivated you in different ways to be frugal?
• Where do you think the origins of frugality began?

Want more free MicroFrugality discussion & tips?

Probably the best money and energy saving device that I’ve ever purchased has been an Alsons low flow showerhead. The return on investment on these things is ridiculous. Through the above Amazon link, you can get it on sale for $35 at the moment, with free shipping.

What’s great about this showerhead, among other things, is that it has a switch to flip between 1.85 gallons per minute (gpm) and 2.5 gpm. I use the 1.85 gpm setting and it makes for a great shower. My guests are welcome to use the higher setting if they choose. Contrary to popular belief, I don’t miss the energy, money, and water wasting old showerhead at all. This showerhead has a special high volume spray design that makes for a satisfying shower.

Why Use an Energy Star Low Flow Showerhead?

One 10 minute shower with an inefficient shower head uses 55 gallons (5.5 gpm) on average, while an Energy Star model uses less than half that (2.5 gpm). Most showerheads made before 1992 have a 5.5 gpm flow.

Making the switch would save a family of four 27,500 gallons of water and about $260 in energy costs per year (not to mention the water costs.

That’s right, a $35 investment would save you $225 in year one and $260 every year thereafter. Where else can you get a 640% return on investment within just one year while helping to preserve the environment?

Not Sure if you have a Low Flow Showerhead?

Take a gallon bucket and hold it up to your showerhead. Turn on the shower and measure out how many buckets you fill in one minute.

How to Replace your Showerhead

Swapping showerheads is VERY EASY. Simply take a standard set of pliers and turn the fastener counter-clockwise to remove the old showerhead. Next, turn the fastener on the new showerhead clockwise to fasten. If you’re concern about leaks apply a little plumbing tape to the inside of the new showerhead before fastening.

It’s literally a 2 minute job!

Frugalhead Discussion:

• Do you have a low flow showerhead?
• What flow rate is your showerhead?
• If you haven’t made the switch, why?

Want more free MicroFrugality tips?

You may also find the following article of interest:

The 2 Things Everyone Should do to Lower Heating Costs this Winter

Home Winterizing: Two Types of Advice

When it comes to winterizing the house, there is two kinds of tips. The first variety often involves spending a load of money to upgrade your energy efficiency. While definitely worthwhile, these fixes can often be very costly (think adding insulation, getting a new energy efficient furnace, etc.). If you’re like me, big expenses like these can be very demotivating.

The other variety of home winterizing tips focus on the things that you can do on a weekend afternoon for very little money (or free) with a little bit of elbow grease. The cost savings of doing such work generally comes in the form of preventing costly fix-it repairs that come from neglect. Here are 10 things that you should do around the house every year before the first sign of snow hits.

How to Winterize your House for Almost Nothing

1. Clean the gutters out: Gutters that are dammed up with leaves can result in ice dams, which can lead to all kinds of costly outdoor repairs – damaged shingles, roof leaks, broken gutters, etc. Additionally, if your gutters are clogged up, water could be falling right next to your foundation and leading to leads and possible flooding in the basement.

2. Drain your external faucets: Water that is sitting in pipes that lead to outside faucets can freeze and burst, ultimately flooding your basement and leading to possible water damage and mold problems. Simply close off the interior faucet valves by turning them clockwise all the way to the right. Then go outside and make sure that every last drop has come out of the faucet.

3. Repair your shingles: If you have cracked, missing, or otherwise damaged shingles, have them replaced immediately so that you don’t get roof leaks. Strong winds, falling tree limbs, and sun weathering can all lead to damaged shingles. You might as well check them out while you’re up on your roof cleaning your gutters out.

4. Flush your hot water heater: You can do this any time of year, but you might as well throw it in with the other maintenance work you’ll be doing since you really only need to do it about once a year. If you don’t, sediment can build up at the bottom of your water heater and cause it to lose efficiency or even leak.

Simply take one of your water hoses and fasten it to the water faucet at the bottom of your water heater. Turn off the water heater so that you don’t get burned by hot water accidentally. Run the hose outdoors, preferrably, but if you can’t do that, then a laundry tub should be sufficient. Open the valve and let the water drain out completely, rinsing the sediment out with it.

5. Replace your furnace filter: Furnace filters, in a clean basement, can lead to a more efficient performing furnace when replace about every six months. I usually replace mine when I first turn on the heat and then when I switch over to air conditioning in the summer.

Frugalhead Discussion:

• What winterizing tips do you have?
• For those who don’t live in cold weather climates, what maintenance work do you have to do?

Want more free MicroFrugality tips?

You may also find the following article of interest:

The 2 Things Everyone Should do to Lower Heating Costs this Winter

When heating gas costs were absolutely out of control a few winters ago (when the average American spent over $1,200 a year just to heat their house), I did two things to save money that I would recommend EVERYONE do EVERY YEAR:

1. Bought a programmable thermostat.

2. Programmed it to much lower temps than I was used to.

Programmable Thermostats – A Beautiful Thing

Here’s how I programmed my thermostat. When at work and during sleeping hours, I programmed the thermostat to 62 degrees F. I probably would have lowered it to 55 degrees if not for the fact that I have pets and I don’t want them to freeze. Note that you probably don’t want to ever go below 40 degrees even when on vacation because your pipes might freeze and burst – driving all your savings in heat costs out the window.

Remember that your basement (where most of your pipes are located) is usually 5-10 degrees cooler than the floor above it, where the thermostat is usually housed. This only applies to a traditional multi-level house, of course.

At all other times (when I was there and awake) I set the thermostat for a balmy 64 degrees farenheit.

What Temperature should you Set your Thermostat to?

There’s a great deal of personal comfort that factors into this equation. I like layering up in the winter, it makes me feel cozy. I also like a warm comforter and cold while sleeping. 62 and 64 degrees is ideal for me in the winter. You may have different preferences. Regardless of preference, how much can a strategy like this typically save you?

For each degree you lower your thermostat, you can expect to save 3% on your heating costs.

In my case, just programming and lowering my thermostat temperature saved me about 21% on my heating costs. Not bad! Heating costs have since gone down, but the money saving habit has remained.

Frugalhead Discussion:

• What is your temperature set for in the winter months?
• How low can YOU go?
• Are you using a programmable thermostat?
• What other ways are you saving money on heating costs?

Want more free MicroFrugality tips?

Did you know that your employee sponsored 401K plan is able to charge you fees beyond the management fees of the funds that you invest in? It’s kind of the dirty little secret of 401K plans. Up until a few years ago, I had no idea that these 401K fees existed and just thought that my employer covered all fees as a benefit to me. Wrong!

This is National Save for Retirement Week, so it’s only natural that we take a look at the frugal aspect of retirement savings here on MicroFrugality. It turns out that a little frugality, when compounded over decades, can have a profound impact on your retirement plans. According to the U.S. Department of Labor website:

“Assume that you are an employee with 35 years until retirement and a current 401(k) account balance of $25,000. If returns on investments in your account over the next 35 years average 7 percent and fees and expenses reduce your average returns by 0.5 percent, your account balance will grow to $227,000 at retirement, even if there are no further contributions to your account. If fees and expenses are 1.5 percent, however, your account balance will grow to only $163,000. The 1 percent difference in fees and expenses would reduce your account balance at retirement by 28 percent.”

That’s worth repeating (and bolding): 1 percent in 401K fees can reduce your retirement balance by 28%.

Where do these fees come from?

401K Fees Fall into 3 Categories:

1. Plan Administration Fees

2. Investment Fees

3. Individual Service Fees

Where can you See your 401K’s fees?

1. Your plan administrator should be able to provide you with a list of fees.

2. Your annual account statement should list all associated fees.

3. Your 401K should have a summary plan description (SPD) that separates what you pay and what your employer pays. This is given to you when you begin your plan and every 5 years.

Where Am I Going with this?

Not knowing what your 401K is costing you prevents you from taking frugal action. If you know your fees, you can:

1. Determine if it makes sense to switch to roll old 401K’s into your present 401K if it’s cheaper.

2. Determine if it makes sense to roll old 401K’s into an IRA that may be cheaper.

3. Determine if it makes sense to just get your employer’s match in your 401K and then work on contributing to a cheaper IRA.

Final Thoughts on 401K Fees

This is definitely a case where a little bit of homework (half an hour or so) can literally shave or add years to your working life. So get motivated to look into this and seek professional advice if you need to!

FrugalHead Discussion:

• Did you know that your 401K charged you fees beyond trading fees and mutual fund management fees?
• What kind of fees have you been paying to use your 401K?
• Does this make you want to switch to an IRA?

Want more free MicroFrugality tips?