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.
yes, I did text Katy of the Nonconsumer Advocate while I was typing up this post!
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.
I made these chalkboards from thrift store frames!
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.
Bee
Wednesday 18th of September 2024
I always enjoy looking back at the Tightwad Gazette. Although our lives have changed exponentially over the last 30 or so years, TG contains a great deal of tried and true advice.
Although I will probably never make a bread-bag jump rope or a badminton net, I do admire Tightwad creativity. Sometimes to have the things we want or need, it is essential to think outside of the box. However, I think the TG Ideas about framing and art are both practical and creative. (By the way, Kristen, I think your little watercolor is charming.)
It is amazing that some problems have persisted overtime, such as the cost of prescription drugs. I have had some challenges in this area over the years. I wish that as a whole we could overcome this problem. I do want to mention if you need to take a brand-name drug and cannot afford the medication, it is helpful to contact the Pharmaceutical company directly. There is often information available on their websites on how to receive free or reduce costs medication. I have been successful doing this for my son in the past and a dear friend of mine who has MS has also benefited from programs such as this.
On another note, as I was thumbing through The Tightwad Gazette, there were two subjects that I thought were interesting conversation starters. The first A. Marie had mentioned a few weeks ago — Passive versus active frugality. The other was a discussion regarding sweating the small stuff.
Wishing everyone a great Wednesday.
JD
Wednesday 18th of September 2024
I remember seeing a creativity contest one time using plastic store bags. One person wove a hammock out of them. That sounded terrible to me because the plastic would make me sweat and those bags degrade in the sun so I could imagine the hammock giving way.
I think too by the time you drank all those six packs you could have bought a net by choosing water and saving the money, as Kristen noted.
I seem to remember that Amy sometimes published tips from readers in a “for what it’s worth” manner. Perhaps that’s what these were.
A bread bag jump rope sounds useless to me. It’s easy to buy a jump rope or even a piece of rope at the hardware store, which is what my dad did. Besides, if you make your own bread you won’t have extra bags to use.
Karen.
Wednesday 18th of September 2024
I would not make a jump rope out of bread bags for basically all the reasons.
However, last Christmas we learned kind of last-minute that we needed to participate in a Shoebox filling event with the church we'd relatively recently switched to. To my even greater surprise, you were supposed to bring all your own things to fill the boxes, so there wasn't, like, a box or something for the rest of the congregation to put things in. This is not my thing on even the best of days, but there we were, far out of season for back to school sales and with no advance notice to work on getting the right sort of things at the right prices. But I didn't feel like we could skip it. All these social navigations, blerg.
Anyway, the point is — we did some jump ropes braided out of old T-shirts, as per instructions available on a zillion internet sites, and those are actually pretty decent as far as heft, and they're pretty easy to make. I particularly like that you can make an extra-long one for double dutch.
JenRR
Wednesday 18th of September 2024
It seems like the time and energy (and frustration) spent on making a bag jump rope, which probably doesn’t work well and would wear out quickly, would be better spent doing something else that would have a better money/time return. It is entertaining to read some of these very creative ideas, though!
Bobi
Wednesday 18th of September 2024
No braided jump ropes for me, but back in the '90s, plastic recycling/reuse was all the rage. "Plarn" crafts were a big thing, where you cut plastic bags into long strips, tied them together and used the new product, plarn (plastic yarn!) to knit or crochet. I can tell you from personal experience that this is not a particularly fun or practical thing to do. Trying to cut thin grocery bags into even strips and the endless knotting wasn't for me. I saw a few completed projects that were kind of cute, but ultimately decided to stick to buying real yarn. While I applaud the creativity of some ideas, I ultimately file them under dumb! ;-) Now that being said, around the same time, Mother Earth News printed directions for weaving baskets out of strips cut from brown paper grocery bags and I made several extremely sturdy, handsome baskets that are still in use.