Hotel Parking
Want to live better on the money you already make?
Visit www.stretcher.com/index.cfm?TipsSyn to find hundreds of articles to help you stretch your day and your dollar.
Copyright 2016 • Dollar Stretcher, Inc.
Hotel Parking
Most big city hotels charge for parking. Sometimes it’s quite a bit. So before I travel, I do a search for public parking a lot near the hotel. I’ve often saved more than $10 a day by walking across the street. Jason
Making Your Garden Pay
I often have to thin out my garden. Lately, I’ve put my extras into peat pots and taken them to the local flea market. I’ve been selling them for a dollar or so. I don’t make a lot, but it’s better than putting them on the compost heap. Josh
Lady’s Shoes
Being a woman that needs wide shoes isn’t easy or cheap. I wear a ladies size 8W. Usually my choices are limited and often expensive. Recently, I discovered that I could wear boys size 6. I am limited to loafers or sneakers (obviously no heels.), but at least, I can buy some of my shoes for less. Holly
The Organized Handbag
Hate a messy handbag? Me too. I keep mine organized by using smaller bags (like a make-up bag or even a resealable baggie). Similar things go into a bag. Make-up goes in one bag. Aspirin, lip balm, and bandages go into another. When I need to change from my everyday bag to something fancier, I can do it in seconds. Karla
Corn for Campers
We love to roast corn on the cob when we go camping. To make it easy to serve, we found a way to easily spread butter on it. We just heat up some water and melt butter. The butter sits on top of the water. We dunk the corn in the water, and it comes out with butter evenly spread on the whole cob. There’s no mess and no fuss. Corene
Gift Shops? Not
We’re going to vacation on the beach in Virginia this summer. My three kids like to bring home a keepsake to remember the trip, but we won’t be visiting the area gift shops for souvenirs. Instead, we’ll visit the local Salvation Army store or other thrift shop. They have all kinds of local t-shirts, coffee mugs, and trinkets available at great prices. My kids’ allowance money will go much, much farther there. Natalie
Weekend Gigs
My wife and I were looking for some extra income that wouldn’t interfere with our regular full-time jobs and would allow us to decide how much we wanted to work. We found the perfect solution at a local hotel that hosts conferences and banquets. We both applied as servers. Most of the time they call us for a gig that’s on a Friday night, Saturday, or Sunday. They are rarely during the week. We can turn down an offer, but we try not to do that too often. We make $10 an hour plus tips. The work isn’t hard. People are trying to have a good time, so they’re fun to be around. Plus, we often get to take home leftover food or beverages. Rick
Who Makes Store Brands
I retired from Colonial Bakery in Muncie, Indiana. We would run 50,000 loaves of name brand bread and then change the bags to a generic brand and run 20,000 loaves. Then we’d do 15,000 loaves of a different name brand and then 10,000 loaves of a white generic bag. It was all the same bread with the same recipe. DC
Who’s In Charge
Here is something I learned awhile back when looking for a discount. It’s important to find out if the person you’re talking with has the authority to give a discount. Often they’re not, but they won’t say anything if you don’t ask. Instead, they’ll just say ‘no’ to your request. Often getting the right person makes all the difference. You’d be surprised how often they’re willing to knock something off the price. Gene
Leave Something Behind
A lot of people move during the summer. You probably know that you’re not supposed to put canned goods or food products onto a moving van. I think it’s a federal law. So instead of breaking the law or throwing good food in the dumpster, why not take it to a local food pantry? There are plenty of people who can put it to good use, and it won’t cost you a dime. Nora
Eyeglass Cleaners
I was tired of spending the money to buy lens-cleaning cloths for my eyeglasses and hated the thought of all the little foil packages that were getting thrown in the landfill when I used them. One day I realized that they were nothing but a small piece of soft cloth soaked in alcohol. Now, I make my own.
If I’m home, I just wet a small piece of clean, white, soft paper towel (the cheaper kinds work better because they usually don’t have metal in them to make them stronger) with a small amount of rubbing alcohol. Then I clean my glasses and polish with another piece of paper towel.
When I’m going out, I put a couple of alcohol-dampened pieces of paper toweling into a zipper baggie and have another baggie with pieces of dry paper toweling. I can clean my glasses over and over again for less than 10% of what the lens cleaners used to cost me. Kamia
Visit www.stretcher.com/index.cfm?TipsSyn to find hundreds of articles to help you stretch your day and your dollar.
Copyright 2016 • Dollar Stretcher, Inc.
Hotel Parking
Most big city hotels charge for parking. Sometimes it’s quite a bit. So before I travel, I do a search for public parking a lot near the hotel. I’ve often saved more than $10 a day by walking across the street. Jason
Making Your Garden Pay
I often have to thin out my garden. Lately, I’ve put my extras into peat pots and taken them to the local flea market. I’ve been selling them for a dollar or so. I don’t make a lot, but it’s better than putting them on the compost heap. Josh
Lady’s Shoes
Being a woman that needs wide shoes isn’t easy or cheap. I wear a ladies size 8W. Usually my choices are limited and often expensive. Recently, I discovered that I could wear boys size 6. I am limited to loafers or sneakers (obviously no heels.), but at least, I can buy some of my shoes for less. Holly
The Organized Handbag
Hate a messy handbag? Me too. I keep mine organized by using smaller bags (like a make-up bag or even a resealable baggie). Similar things go into a bag. Make-up goes in one bag. Aspirin, lip balm, and bandages go into another. When I need to change from my everyday bag to something fancier, I can do it in seconds. Karla
Corn for Campers
We love to roast corn on the cob when we go camping. To make it easy to serve, we found a way to easily spread butter on it. We just heat up some water and melt butter. The butter sits on top of the water. We dunk the corn in the water, and it comes out with butter evenly spread on the whole cob. There’s no mess and no fuss. Corene
Gift Shops? Not
We’re going to vacation on the beach in Virginia this summer. My three kids like to bring home a keepsake to remember the trip, but we won’t be visiting the area gift shops for souvenirs. Instead, we’ll visit the local Salvation Army store or other thrift shop. They have all kinds of local t-shirts, coffee mugs, and trinkets available at great prices. My kids’ allowance money will go much, much farther there. Natalie
Weekend Gigs
My wife and I were looking for some extra income that wouldn’t interfere with our regular full-time jobs and would allow us to decide how much we wanted to work. We found the perfect solution at a local hotel that hosts conferences and banquets. We both applied as servers. Most of the time they call us for a gig that’s on a Friday night, Saturday, or Sunday. They are rarely during the week. We can turn down an offer, but we try not to do that too often. We make $10 an hour plus tips. The work isn’t hard. People are trying to have a good time, so they’re fun to be around. Plus, we often get to take home leftover food or beverages. Rick
Who Makes Store Brands
I retired from Colonial Bakery in Muncie, Indiana. We would run 50,000 loaves of name brand bread and then change the bags to a generic brand and run 20,000 loaves. Then we’d do 15,000 loaves of a different name brand and then 10,000 loaves of a white generic bag. It was all the same bread with the same recipe. DC
Who’s In Charge
Here is something I learned awhile back when looking for a discount. It’s important to find out if the person you’re talking with has the authority to give a discount. Often they’re not, but they won’t say anything if you don’t ask. Instead, they’ll just say ‘no’ to your request. Often getting the right person makes all the difference. You’d be surprised how often they’re willing to knock something off the price. Gene
Leave Something Behind
A lot of people move during the summer. You probably know that you’re not supposed to put canned goods or food products onto a moving van. I think it’s a federal law. So instead of breaking the law or throwing good food in the dumpster, why not take it to a local food pantry? There are plenty of people who can put it to good use, and it won’t cost you a dime. Nora
Eyeglass Cleaners
I was tired of spending the money to buy lens-cleaning cloths for my eyeglasses and hated the thought of all the little foil packages that were getting thrown in the landfill when I used them. One day I realized that they were nothing but a small piece of soft cloth soaked in alcohol. Now, I make my own.
If I’m home, I just wet a small piece of clean, white, soft paper towel (the cheaper kinds work better because they usually don’t have metal in them to make them stronger) with a small amount of rubbing alcohol. Then I clean my glasses and polish with another piece of paper towel.
When I’m going out, I put a couple of alcohol-dampened pieces of paper toweling into a zipper baggie and have another baggie with pieces of dry paper toweling. I can clean my glasses over and over again for less than 10% of what the lens cleaners used to cost me. Kamia