Trying to be Frugal

Living in an RV lends itself to being quite adaptable to all types of people.  Some people like to live ‘high on the hog’ so to say and have plenty of money to support that kind of lifestyle while at the other end some live as frugal as they can.  John and I tend to be on the more frugal side.  We still eat out probably once a week or every other week but I cook at home 98% of the time. 

We rarely go to movies as they are way too expensive now and just opt for renting from Redbox instead.  With movies hitting the DVDs shortly after ending at the theaters the wait isn’t that bad.  Besides making popcorn at home with our Whirley Pop beats paying out $20 for popcorn and a drink at the theater.  I also look for free Redbox codes to save even more money on movies.  Redbox does send codes via email every few weeks but it ends up being a rent 1 get the other for $1 off deal that doesn’t work for us if we only want to see 1 movie on a given night.  We use to stream Netflix on our Wii but our internet service was changed from unlimited to 20 gigabyte a month so streaming is no longer a viable option.
 
I came across a website while perusing the internet called Dealflicks, it offers discounted movie tickets of up to 60% off tickets and concessions.  Sign up is free and just search by zip code for a participating theater near you.  If your theater hasn’t signed up with Dealflicks you can favorite the theater and get your friends to do the same.  It helps Dealflicks to get the theater signed up faster and you (plus your friends) will get a $5 coupon towards tickets.  Who doesn’t like coupons?

Since May when our internet service changed, I have to watch our internet usage closely throughout the month as we have used our allotment in less than 30 days a few times.  Once we hit the magic number they want us to pay out another $90 for another 20 gig which by the way does not roll over into the following month.  Rather than paying more we end up going without internet for 2-4 days at the end of the month.  I’m hoping to find an alternative in the near future but I don’t see anything better right now.  I did find a web page listing all the mobile plan providers which saves me hours of searching.  Other than lot rent and food our internet is our biggest monthly expense right now.

Even our phone service is cheaper than our internet.  John is on AT&T pay as you go plan.  He just adds on $25 at a time as needed.  We were sharing the phone but when he started working again we realized we both needed a phone.  I did get a smart phone but rarely use the data feature, in fact I keep it turned off until I need to use it, the data portion not the phone.  I did not go with AT&T instead I went with PagePlus as they are a no contract company and have plenty of plans to choose from.  I use their $12 monthly plan which is 250 minutes talk, 250 text and 10 MB of data.  As I said I really don’t use data on my phone right now.  I can easily set it up to auto refill and change plans as my needs change.  They also offer pay as you go so you can add minutes as you need them.  They use the Verizon network by the way so their nationwide coverage is pretty good. 

Other ways we reduce expenses is turning our Satellite service on and off as needed. Dish makes that easy, there is no contract to worry about and they don’t hassle us when we move.  We bought a Tailgater when we first started traveling with our 5’er, because a number of places we stayed either didn’t have cable or didn’t have much reception over our HD TV antenna.  Our current location has pretty decent antenna reception of the major networks so we only turn our satellite service on now just to watch one show on HBO.  We would be willing to turn in on more often if they would offer an al-a-carte option so we wouldn’t be paying for channels we don’t want or watch.

So that just leaves food and clothing where I can save money the best I can.  I use a lot of coupons both from newspaper inserts and printing from online sources. I try to match coupons with sales whenever possible.  I am not an extreme couponer by any means, when I buy a product I don’t clear the shelf I live in an RV where would I put it?  My favorite coupons are $1 off meat coupons as current meat prices are crazy.  I buy fresh loaves of bread from Walmart for $1.  Yeah it’s French and Italian but it is better than paying more than $2 for whole wheat or whole grain breads, of which they are now saying aren’t good for you either.  The ‘in’ thing now is ancient grains.  I wish there were coupons to save money on fresh vegetables and fruits.  I’d go vegetarian if the vegetables were any cheaper than the meat.  I hate inflation. 

About a week ago I found a really good buy on a product I use a lot which is over the counter allergy medication.  There is an American company named PL Developments that has been in business since 1988.  I was really surprised I hadn’t found their products before now.  They sell generic pharmaceuticals such as allergy, analgesics, cold/flu, digestive, etc. at a very low cost.  How low you may ask?  Quite low, I picked up a 14 day supply of 24 hour allergy (generic Zyrtec) pills, low dose aspirin, generic Aleve and generic Tylenol for .88 each at Walmart. 

I shop primarily at Walmart now since they began their ‘Savings catcher’ which compares their prices of items you purchase to local competitors and credit you back the difference.  I am letting my savings accumulate before I put it on a gift card.  I know there are a lot of Walmart haters out there but I do what I need to do to get the most for our money and there is a Walmart in almost every town which helps us a lot while traveling.   Besides Walmart I also use Dollar General and Dollar Tree stores.  You would be surprised what all you can get for dollar at Dollar Tree.