Tightwad Gazette Book II | a bread bag jump rope?

Well, in the previous posts, we made it all the way through the first Tightwad Gazette book. Soooo, we are now on to the second book.

This one is not handily divided into seasons, so I’m not quite sure how I will divvy up this trip through the book.

I guess I will just write a post’s worth of stuff and call it good until the next time I write one of these!

Prescription Savings

Amy says that at the time, prescription drugs had risen at triple the inflation rate over the last ten years, and I imagine the news on that front is even worse currently!

Back then, her solution was to get prescriptions from a mail-order pharmacy; the modern equivalent would be something like Mark Cuban’s CostPlus drugs, or Good Rx.

She compared the cost of several common drugs for this article, and I read the names with interest, thinking, “What in the world is Tenormin??”

I googled and realized, ohhhh, that was the original brand name of what we now know as atenolol, a beta-blocker used to treat high blood pressure.

Two slightly ridiculous ideas

You guys know I like to save money, but some of the ideas people sent into the TG are a little out there for my taste.

An example….a reader suggested splitting bread bags apart and braiding the pieces together to make a jump rope, with duct tape handles.

Reader, I struggle to imagine that this makes a jump rope that is functional or long-lasting. Also: a jump rope is not very expensive, and it does not need to be purchased regularly, so scrimping on this purchase doesn’t make a lot of sense to me.

I prefer to save commercial bread bags to use for storing food; I really like the big bread bags for storing Hungry Harvest lettuce and kale, which often come to me bagless.

Ok, so, the other idea that raised my eyebrows is this one: make a volleyball net out of six-pack rings, tying them together with twist ties.

Again, I’m skeptical that this makes a very good volleyball net and also: that’s a lotta six-pack rings!

What if you just drank water instead, and then used the savings to buy an actual net? That would make more sense to me.

And as with the jump rope, it’s not like you have to buy a volleyball net every month. That’s basically a one-and-done purchase.

Pantyhose reuse ideas!

As we discussed in a previous TG post, people wear pantyhose a lot less than they used to (a development I am fully in support of.)

I hated the way pantyhose got a run if you so much as looked at them carelessly.

Their flimsy nature is what made them so prime for reuse ideas, though; everyone had a steady supply of ruined pantyhose!

Expensive ink: a timeless problem

Printer ink was apparently a pricey problem back in Tightwad Gazette days too, although Amy’s article focused on dot-matrix and daisy-wheel printers. Ha.

My best solution to this problem has been my cartridge-less Canon printer. It has big liquid tanks that you refill with a squeeze bottle of ink and it is AMAZING. The ink lasts forever, the bottles are inexpensive, and I am never gonna look back.

Mine is probably 5 years old at this point, but this current model is very similar.

Frugal framing

This article has some tips for decorating your walls on a budget and I am proud to say I’ve have done some of the things she suggests!

Things like….spray painting mismatched frames so that they go together.

Or buying a thrift store painting just to salvage the frame.

Here’s how I turned the glass into a chalkboard surface.

And here at this house, I put some Buy Nothing prints in frames that were sitting in my stash.

Also, Sonia helped me do this little flower watercolor to hang in my bathroom, using a very, very old Goodwill frame.

Alrighty! I think we’ll call it there for this edition, and we’ll pick back up around page 330 for the next round, if you are following along at home.

What are your thoughts on this set of frugal ideas? And would YOU make a bread bag jump rope??