Tightwad Deals Abound

With the economy turning south tightwad deals are popping up faster than snowflakes in a snowstorm. They are everywhere. Two of my favorite recent deals, one which is still going on and you can take advantage are here:

Tightwad Deal #1: Denny's Free Give Away

It’s not everyday that a restaurant gives away a meal. In fact, the chief executive officer of the nation’s largest full-service family restaurant chain says its never been done. Until now, that is. Come tomorrow, Denny’s is offering customers from coast to coast its signature Grand Slam breakfast for free between 6 a.m. and 2 p.m.

The belly-busting breakfast consists of two eggs, two pancakes, two sausage patties, and two strips of bacon. Sorry, but you’ll have to pay for the coffee, and 99 cents for any additional sides. We won’t even talk calories.

You can read about the tightwad madness here.

Tightwad Deal #2: Krispy Kreme Coffee Deal-o-rama

Now this one you can take advantage of right now. But i warn you it is not for the weak of heart. You must have the will power of a superhero. Right now Krisy Kreme the purveyors of fried sugar coated flour are offer pretty good coffee for 5 cents. Yep that's right you can buy 20 coffees for $1, but you'd have to make 20 different trips. I personally can manage up to three a day without much effort at all.

The key to this deal is to STAY IN YOUR CAR. DO NOT GO INTO THE STORE. If you park and walk on in you'll be sucked into a sweet smelling torture chamber that no one could ever leave without buying at least 3 dozen treats. So go through the drive though, and if you're particularly vulnerable I'd recommend breathing through your mouth until you complete the transaction.

Laying Cable Continued

What a wonderful way to spend a nice summer day!

Hand Digging to Lay Cable is Exercise

Lay your own cable and save $500. Yes for a day's worth of great exercise, you can save $500. Our cable company quoted us $500 to have this cable trenched in. We did it for $12 by buying a pick and digging the trench ourselves.

Also, we didn't do it for cable TV access. What a waste of money. We did it for Internet access. Why would you pay money to see TV? You can get it for free with an antenna. As a matter of fact we don't have TV at home. Even better it saves you time and you don't get sucked into all the commercial advertising egging you on to buy things.

Tightwad Chic Food Harvesting!

We can learn a lot from our surroundings. Be in tune with your local environment. This little guy can teach us plenty.

Tightwad Chic Food Harvesting!

In response to the following:

I was reading your blog – particularly the portion on wood chopping when
what should I see but the following passage:

You can usually find free food along the roadside in ditches, or pick it up at your
local dump, like we do...I would also highly recommend reading a book, from the
library of course, on using a chain saw.

If you are in fact picking up free food from ditches and the local dump your thriftiness has gone too far. And why do you need a chainsaw? I would think the food would already be in a state of decomposition.

I am copying my daughter because she shares some of the “tightwad” tendencies you wish to encourage. I want to impress upon her what a truly slippery slope this is.

Regards – I will be thinking of you and watching the weather report. I hope that those rare snowfalls you experience do not unduly interfere with your ability to find supper.

Dear Reader,

Firstly, thank you for your concern in regards to tightwad chic food harvesting practices. To clarify, I believe what you may have stumbled across was an unfortunate typo. We here at Tightwad Chic do apologize profusely.

Your comment does bring up an important topic that must be noted. Food harvesting is a wonderful way to save on the weekly grocery bill. I like to always be prepared and therefor always travel with two buckets. How often do we stumble across delicious berries only to realize we had forgot our bucket. I have found that carrying berries in your shirt does not always work the way one wishes it would. Again I would recommend visiting your local library and becoming familiar with your local natural food supply. Pay attention to those around you. How often do we hear people complaining about raccoons. Consider this, if raccoons are an issue, food is probably close by. Why not pay a visit. Dress dark and carry a flashlight. Don't forget your bucket. Once you locate the raccoons, you have located your food source. Enjoy.

Due to excess weight a chainsaw just seems impractical to hike with. I would also recommend not chainsawing one's food. Using a band saw to divide up bulk food is just fine, but chainsawing food can be quite hazardous.

House Photos

Here's a site with photos of the home of two chic tightwads. Photos are taken by Gabriel Boone, one fine photographer. The fine architect who worked on this house is from Design Lab. Cara Piscitello is amazing and I think everyone should have her design their home. After the home is complete I think Gabriel should be your photographer. These people both rock at what they do, as you can see. Obviously the house is always this clean, as are the people and animals who live within it.

http://gabrielboone.com/darkroom/share/?n=designLAB

Chickens

This is what I'm talking about. Perfect eggs, fresh every morning, from our girls. Did you know it's now perfectly lawful to house up to 6 chickens in Seattle, Bellingham and now in Maine. The trend is growing.

Tightwad Chic Protectors

These two keep everyone in line. They are fierce and good at what they do. We are lucky to have them with us.

Enrique misses the girls

Enrique really misses his line dancing with the girls. They used to have the best times line dancing in the kitchen. Besides being a great addition to the family, layers provide a practically free way to get fresh eggs every morning. What could possibly be better?

The Girls Were Such a Part of the Family

Missy loved to table dance just before dinner.

Chickens

Chickens are great!! I love chickens! Our chickens are always considered to be part of the family. Many a meal has been shared with our chickens. As I write this I'm starting to tear up.. Unfortunately our chickens were explorers. Girls that liked extreme hiking, this I believe was their downfall. These girls would go off on day hikes and slowly one by one they found better homes..

Well House Construction the Tightwad Chic Way

Why pay others to build when you can do it yourself. We were quoted up to 2K to have a lovely shed built for our water tank. 2K? We built this beautiful, not to mention chic, shed to house our water tank for free, in a couple of hours. Believe it.. We got the wood from the local dump and the tar paper from a local garage sale for 50 cents. The metal roof was scrap metal..

Do It Yourself Bathroom Tiling

Ok.. I have thoughts on tiling..Do your research..research..research..research and then tile whatever you need to tile yourself. Do not pay someone else to do this. Contractors are stealing hours of fun and money from you. When tiling I think it's very important to shop around for a good price on tile. To me, this means shop online..Anywhere I looked locally, tile was at least 4 times the price I could find it online. I know, you're thinking won't it break or it's expensive to shop..Trust me on this one..Online shopping for tile is the way to go..Why go to the movies on the weekend when you could spend a fun weekend or two or three tiling with a loved one..Fun for the whole family I say..

Tightwad Chic Kitchen Shelving

It's so important that we discuss this topic. Listen up all you chic tightwads out there, this is very important!!! I have heard horror stories in regards to kitchen cabinetry. I have heard stories of people paying up to $12,000 for kitchen cabinets..My response..Are you on crack?! Who would pay this amount of money for cabinets. Listen..Listen closely..In my mind, the point of a cabinet is to hold items..My reply..IKEA. For $40, ok maybe $75, we installed our own very stylish shelving, which I think does the job just as well as any $12, 000 cabinets would do.

Great Tightwad Chic Furniture!

Don't pay for furniture!! There are so many free pieces of furniture out there, just waiting to come home with you..This lovely table was found in my gramma's potting shed.. With a little bit of varnish and a couple of wheels, we're ready to go. On sunny days, we simple slide this outside and voila instant outdoor dining, in style. I'd say this table has a bit of family history as well. I've found a lovely heart with the initials J.G. and another set of initials engraved on the underside of the table. Hot stuff!

Getting Organized

Getting organized can be a great way to spend the day. Baskets are an item that can always be found at a good garage sale for 5 cents and and are a great, not to mention chic, way to hide all the crap you don't really need but are unwilling to get rid of.

A Fine Meal!

I think crab is best simple. So just add some butter, homemade bread and wine and fresh salad from the garden. Yumm..

Crabbing is so much fun!

Cooking crab

Once you catch crabs you simply throw them in your bucket with saltwater. To cook crab simply find a big pot..usually available at your local thrift shop for a buck and throw your big fat crabs into the boiling sea water, add some salt, just a pinch and wait for the little guys to float to the top..this usually takes about about 10 minutes.

The Art of Crabbing Continued...

This is an example of one fine haul. One is allowed up to 5 crab each day and each crab must be larger than a dollar bill in it's midsection. No girls allowed either. You're only allowed to catch and eat boy crabs..

The Art of Crabbing!

Today I will give you a lesson on the fine art of crabbing. Firstly..you don't really need a boat for this. I used to put traps out when the tide was low and come back later and just pull in the traps a couple of hours later. Call this extravagant I know, after two years I decided to purchase a boat for $50 on craigslist. She's a beauty. Anyways, I digress. You can get a crabbing license at hardware stores for some reason. Don't ask me why? So..the first step is to get a boat ($50), a bucket (free), a crabbing license(15$) and a crab trap (free if you are willing to take an oldie but a goodie) and old fish heads (free from you local fish or grocery store). Crabs love fish heads or nasty old chicken legs. Once you have your supplies lined up, it's time to crab..

Don't worry if you've never really rowed a boat before, you'll figure it out soon enough.. I would also recommend a loud whistle and life jacket, just in case you realize you may actually need a bit more time to fine home your rowing skills. So you're ready hop on the boat with all your goodies and you're on your way.

Wood Chopping is Fun and Good for You Too!

Notice the lovely fence made of chopped wood. Gorgeous, isn't it...To create such a beautiful, free, did I mention FREE fence such as this, you simply need free wood and a chainsaw.. You can usually find free wood along the roadside in ditches, or pick it up at your local dump, like we do...I would also highly recommend reading a book, from the library of course, on using a chain saw.

This lovely fence can then provide you with a winter's worth of heating. Wood chopping is great exercise and anyone can wield an ax. It's great fun for the whole family!!! I was chopping wood myself at the tender age of 6... If you weigh 150lbs, you'll burn 408 calories in 60 minutes chopping wood.!!! Do realize how many Snicker's chocolate bars you can then eat each hour you do this...just to maintain your weight.... Guess...Two..while chopping wood you can eat 2 Snicker's chocolate bars every hour and by the end of the day, you'll have enough wood to heat your home for a couple of weeks. Why pay for heating when you can have it for FREE!!

The House is Done..Hooray!

In this blog we will teach you how to build a house in the forest for cheap.

Likely Story Atlas

Hmmm...didn't know dogs could climb up chimneys Atlas.

It Wasn't Me!

I'm not guilty. It was another dog that broke in during the day while I was sleeping and made a big mess and then they shimmied out the chimney rigth before you got home. Really.

Yumm Burgers, Now That's Thrifty

Here are some burgers that we cooked up in a big way. Yum. I love burgers and they love me - by sticking to my belly and keeping me warn all winter. Man do I love burgers. I could eat burgers all day. No I did not say boogers, I said burgers.

Genius Dog Atlas - Hardworking

This is Atlas. Atlas is brilliant. He has taught me much. Unfortunately Atlas didn't cut the mustard in his attempt to obtain a B.A. in Guidance Dogging. Fortunately, Atlas has decided to make his home with us.

The beer you see in my hand. Don't be tricked. I brewed it myself. I just applied to local beer label to be modest. Again the camera just does not do me justice.

No Need For A Lawn Mower

Now why would one ever consider the cost of a lawn mower when you could simply have nature do it's work. Really..

How to get hitched for less than $100

This is me getting my marriage liscense. We'll talk about how to get hitched for less than $100 a bit later....The county would not budge on the price of a marriage liscense.