Do you haggle over the price of goods? My dad was a great haggler. We were always so embarrassed to go shopping with him when we were kids, but he rarely paid full price for things and often walked out with a few bonus freebies thrown in.

Now I have no qualms about asking for a discount. It can actually be fun bargaining. Here are some key tips to getting a better deal.

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I’m in the market for some new bath towels. The plush, once white, wedding gift towels have grown a crop of mould like I’ve never seen, and it just keeps getting worse. It can’t be healthy. Moral of the story: don’t leave towels on the line in the rain for three days. 

I’ve tried everything to clean these towels: washing them in bleach, soaking them in bleach, rinsing them in tea tree oil, rinsing them in vinegar, hanging them in direct sunlight over the summer… all no good.

To me, towels are one of those items that are worth spending a bit more money and investing in quality. Quality towels dry better, are softer and last longer. You also don’t need to worry about good towels going rough and stiff. I have been waiting for the brand I know is good to go on sale, but after doing some research on what makes a good towel, I think I can venture out and look for other brand bargains.

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How much do you pay for appliances? When you’re in the market for new white goods, it pays to consider the running cost as well as the upfront cost of the item. At least that’s the standard advice and what I would have said also. Well, I’ve crunched some numbers comparing three top brand washing machines to see just how much running costs affect the overall cost of purchasing appliances.

For this example I have looked at two front loading and one top loading washing machine. I have compared their initial purchase price and the energy and water consumption of each product.

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Of course, if I’d planned ahead and had been more organised, I wouldn’t have been standing in my underwear, grating soap at six o’clock in the morning. And if I had read my menu plan stuck right there on the fridge I would have remembered to defrost the mince this morning and we wouldn’t be eating Dominos.

So many aspects of being frugal require planning ahead and being organised.

Take shopping for example. Finding the best bargains means knowing what you need in advance before it runs out and waiting / shopping around for the best price.

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It’s 6 am.

And I’m grating soap.

I’ve been up since 2. The little fella: fed, bed and then gurgling, grunting, snorting and farting his way to 5 am. Fed, bed.

Now I’m standing in front of the washing machine, shivering in my undies, grating soap so that I can wash another load of nappies.

With sleep-squinted eyes and grated, bloody knuckles, I have a moment of existential angst.

Why?

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We don’t have an ideal situation for growing our own vegetables. Despite living in the sunshine state, for most of the year, our tiny courtyard doesn’t get any sun at all. We have grown vegetables in the past, but the only months our yard gets sun, is the off season for growing here in QLD. We do however have ideal conditions for growing a good crop of moss.

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I’ve always had a fascination with ants. Did you know that they farm fungi underground and that they can lift 20 times their own weight? Did you know that they love cat food? And cheese? No, neither did I until they invaded our kitchen.

Oh, they come for other crumbs inadvertently left behind, but they swarm for the food kitty flicks all over the floor and the cheese grater waiting to be washed.

As far as pests go, I don’t mind ants too much. However, in the days leading up to the wet season and throughout summer, the kitchen invasion becomes too much to ignore.

A few ideas that I found on dealing with ants naturally:

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According to the stats, around 75% of jobs are never advertised. These jobs are often filled through an informal network and they can only be accessed through networking or cold calling.

When I first moved to QLD, I decided that I only wanted to work in an accounting firm despite not having finished my studies and having pretty much no experience. Having no success with the few advertised positions there were, I cold called until I was hired. From the time I started cold calling, it took me two weeks to get the position I wanted in an accounting firm.

The key to cold calling for employment is having an organised and systematic approach. Treat getting a job as a job in itself. This kind of job hunting approach can be harder than the usual job hunting methods, but the result can be a better job than those that are advertised.

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A frugal blog will inevitably extol the virtues of ‘the simple life’. After all, the simple life (synonymous it seems with ‘the good life’) is often one of the reasons for being frugal. But what is the simple life and is it a one size fits all definition? Is it something specific, or are there principles that can be embraced so that no matter where you live, or what you do, you can live the simple life?

Living the simple life is generally considered a voluntary lifestyle choice for environmental, frugal, spiritual, philosophical and social reasons. It is often characterised by one or more of the following traits:

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Regular preventative maintenance on your car can save you hundreds if not thousands down the track on repairs and other costs when car parts breakdown or prematurely wear out. If it feels like there is just not enough money in the budget to repair that minor problem, think again. We thought that too…

In February we had our regular service on the car. So far so good. However, there were several small maintenance tasks that Mr Mechanic recommended above and beyond the regular service, like replacing the worn radiator hoses and cleaning the cooling system.

Well, it wasn’t urgent, said Mr Mechanic, and we were only planning on driving the car around town, so we decided to put off these maintenance tasks until April when we knew we would have a little extra cash in the budget.

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