Tightwad Gazette Principles Revisited: Part 1: Buying Stuff

I've broken out the Tightwad Gazette by Amy Dacyczyn to refresh my mind of some really frugal things I could be doing. I love reading and re-reading this book not only for the great ideas but for the general purpose of reminding myself that the simple things are truly good things when it comes to "having it all". I love the solid principles of the book on saving money. Generally there are three themes:

1. Buy it cheaper.

2. Make it Last Longer.

3. Use it less.

You can apply these principles to most areas of buying things. My example today will be pickles. My kids love to eat dill pickles and they have the added advantage of not containing much sugar or calories. They are cold, salty, and crunchy and are just right for a little snack.

I have applied principle #1 to buying pickles. We always stock up when Winn-Dixie or Publix has them BOGO and we have a coupon. I will buy at least 10 jars usually when this occurs which is about every 6 to 8 weeks.

I also apply principle #2 to buying pickles in the summer months. Yep, we can make them last longer. Here's what I do. After all of the pickle spears are eaten up I simply buy a few a cucumbers, slice them into spears and put them into the pickle jar with the remaining juice. Once you wait two days, you have pickles again. I'm growing my own cucumbers this year so perhaps if the kids don't eat them all as soon as they are picked from the vine I could use them
for pickling.

Of course, you could also apply principlel #3 if pickles are not on sale and you don't have any more to eat. Just substitute jars of pickles with another inexpensive, frugal snack until pickles are at a good price again.

The beauty of the 3 steps to saving more is that you can apply 1, 2, or 3 principles to something you buy or you can combine 2 or more of them to save the most.

Let's say that a jar of pickles sells for $3.50 when not on sale and my kids eat 1 jar of pickles each week. I could buy 10 jars for $35. Total cost of pickles for 10 weeks: $35.00

If I apply principle #1 and wait until a BOGO sale and I have $.25 off each jar then I can buy 10 jars for $15.00. Total cost of pickles for 10 weeks: $15.00

If I then apply principle #2 to each of those sale jars by reusing the pickle juice and refilling them with cucumbers I buy 3 for $1.00 I can save even more. Total cost of pickles for 10 weeks: $12.50

If I use cucumbers from my garden, total cost of pickles for 10 weeks: $7.50

By thinking in these terms I can easily see how much money I can save with each step. In the scenario above I save the most money by waiting for a BOGO sale for pickles. By adding in step 2, I'm not really saving much more money (Only $2.50). At that point I can decide if my time spent cutting up the cucumbers is actually worth the relatively small savings. But if I use step 2 and the cucumbers are from my own garden it would be an additional large savings.

Think about the next thing you have on your list to purchase, whether it is a jar of pickles or a new purse. Which of the saving money principles can you apply to this purchase? How far into frugalness are you willing to go in order to save some bucks?