Bread for Less Bread: $1 a Loaf

Need to make lunch for the week?  No bread in the pantry?  Hardly any bread in the wallet or purse?  Don't worry!  Dollar Tree has you covered.  They have loaves of bread for only $1.  Yup, you can get some bread for only a dollar!

I generally buy whole wheat Nature's Own Bread there.  It has no high fructose corn syrup.  However, the also usually have Nature's Own white wheat bread and honey wheat bread among other things.  You'll also find some other brands of bread.  They won't be as good as these artisan breads, but you'll be able to make a sandwich!

Photo by Peggy Greb, USDA ARS [Public domain], via Wikimedia Commons

Now, you do have to use a little caution.  Usually, the best buy date on Dollar Tree bread is only a day or two after you buy it.  I usually get one loaf and use it immediately.  Otherwise, I will freeze a loaf in the freezer and thaw it out the night before I need it.

Another place to buy bread cheap is a bakery outlet store.  Most big cities have one. However, they are not always convenient. To be honest, it's been awhile since I've been in one.  The other place I get bread cheap is Publix.  They often have buy one, get one free sales on bread.  If I'm lucky, I can get bread for $2.00 a loaf at Publix.

Of course, if you have the time, you can always save money by baking your own bread at home.

Cheap Summer Snacks - Smores!

If you are looking for a fun and inexpensive treat this summer, try making S'mores at home.  The ingredients are dirt cheap and taste great.

Photo By Codeman125 (Own work) [CC-BY-SA-3.0 (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0) or GFDL (http://www.gnu.org/copyleft/fdl.html)], via Wikimedia Commons

At Dollar Tree, they have graham crackers for $1 per box.  Dollar Tree also has mini-marshmallows for $1 per bag.  Our local grocery store has bags of chocolate chips for $2 to $3 depending on the brand that you choose.

All you do to make them is crank up your toaster oven to 450 degrees or so.  Take small squares of graham cracker and stack marshmallows and  chocolate chips on them.  Then, put them in the oven for about 5 minutes.  Watch them and you'll see the chocolate chips melt and the marshmallows begin to brown slightly.  Remove them and flip one square onto another so that it looks like a sandwich.  Voila, you've made S'mores!

Make sure your S'mores are cool enough to eat and eat.

Saving Money Around Your Home: Saving Money Behind The Scenes

You can save a lot of money behind the scenes at your home. All you have to do is distinguish between public facing household expenditures and private facing household expenditures.

• Have you ever noticed how the landscaping around your apartment complex is nicest at the entrance and near the demo units? 
• Have you noticed how the buildings often have a brick facade in the front, but cheap vinyl siding around back? 

It's not surprising. Businesses want to put their best foot forward towards potential customers. However, they control costs by saving money behind the scenes in less visible areas. In your life, you can do the exact same thing.
When you examine your personal spending, you can also spend more money to put your best foot forward and less money on private facing behind the scenes expenses. When it comes to spending money on your home, it makes sense to buy nice comfortable furniture. You'll use it every day and guests will see it. However. no rational person will ever judge you by the brand of toilet cleaner you use. That is one reason that I like to buy basic cleaning supplies and cleaners at dollar stores like Dollar Tree. There is only one caveat: each product has to work.

No one can see and no one would care that we use a wide variety of Dollar Tree toilet cleaners, glass cleaners, multi-surface cleaners, and dish washing soaps. We also like Dollar store scrub brushes and sponges. If we use a national brand name product, we use it because it has proven itself to work better on an important function than any generic substitute. For example, when funds are tight, we will use Sunlight brand dish washing detergent from Dollar Tree. But, when funds are available, we prefer to use Cascade because the results are visibly better. Similarly, we've tried various store brand laundry detergents, but we usually return to Tide.

Behind the scenes in our home, we use Ajax dish washing soap from Dollar Tree on the few pots and pans that need to be hand washed. For kitchen counter and table surfaces, Dollar Tree offers Spic and Span Multi-Surface cleaner. In the bathrooms, we use Dollar Tree's Jonny Fresh toilet bowl cleaner and Home Store Bathroom Cleaner. The Home Store Bathroom Cleaner is a close substitute for Scrubbing Bubbles. We even use Dollar Tree toilet paper. When we are done, we use SoftSoap hand soap from Dollar Tree. If it is allergy season, we use Scott brand tissues from our Dollar Tree, too. Unless they read this article or snoop beneath the counters, people visiting our apartment won't know what brands of cleaners we use or where we got them. However, my wife and I can predict our budget for cleaning products because everything is $1.


Dollar Tree is great for controlling your cash flow with predictable pricing. However, if you have more storage space or a larger family, you may achieve better savings on a cost-per-unit basis by making bulk purchases from a warehouse store. The key is to minimize your spending on basic behind-the-scenes household supplies that aren't visible to the public. Even when you go out in public, no one will know that you used Barbasol shaving cream from Dollar Tree.

Dirt Cheap Hobbies: Darts

The Inexpensive Sport and Pastime of Throwing Darts or "Darting"

If you are looking for a cheap way to pass the time, you might try the traditional bar game of darts. The entry costs (at home) are low as all you need to get started is some darts, a dart board, a wall, and about ten to twelve feet of open space. According to a study cited by the American Dart Association, nearly 10 million Americans play darts on a regular basis.

DART EQUIPMENT

There is something very satisfying about having your own set of darts for use in competition at home or in a league. They typically come in a nice leather case with three darts and one or more sets of colorful flights. The flights are the fins that stabilize the dart as it flies towards the dartboard. Dart sets can start for as low as $10. For example, amazon.com was recently selling Fat Cat Copper Steel Tip Darts, 23 Grams at an inexpensive sale price. These entry level darts even come with extra shafts and a carrying case. Some "darters" will pay more for various precision darts. But, as long as your darts are in good shape, the sport is really about developing a repeatable throwing skill. There are two kinds of darts: soft tip and steel tip. The soft-tip darts work with electronic dart boards while the steel-tip darts work with traditional bristle boards.

DART GAMES AND RULES

There are many games that you can play with darts, but two dart games are the most popular 301 and Cricket.

301. In 301, each player starts with 301 points on the board and subtracts each point scored by throwing one to three darts. The first person to reach exactly 0 points wins. If a player's score would bring him or her below 0, then the player has "busted" and reverts back to the score he or she had at the end of prior turn. The same game can be played with electronic darts, but then it is called '501.'
Cricket. In the game of cricket, the object of the game is for a player to hit each number on the dart board three times. A player can get a single, double, or triple for each dart thrown. According to American Dart League rules, " Additional marks on a closed number will score points if the opponent is still open on that number." To win the game, you have to close out all the numbers and the bulls-eye. If both players close out on the same turn, the player with the highest score wins.

Most games are played on a standard English dart board. However, there are alternative dart boards and alternative dart games.

DART LEAGUES

There are three national governing bodies that set rules for darts and govern dart leagues: the American Darts Organization, the National Dart Association, and the American Darters Association. The American Dart League The National Dart League governs soft-tip darts. The American Darts Organization is affiliated with the World Dart Federation. The American Darters Association is a for-profit association that works with businesses to promote darting and dart tournaments. Of course, your journey into organized darting can start with a simple internet search for dart leagues in your area.


Sources:
Amazon.com
American Dart League
American Darters Association
The National Dart Association
American Darts Organization

Transcending Your Stuff - Adopting a Minimalist Lifestyle

One of my favorite lines from the classic movie, Cool Hand Luke, is said by the prisoner Luke after he bluffs his way to victory in a card game.

Dragline:  Nothin'. A handful of nothin'. You stupid mullet head. He beat you with nothin'. Just like today when he kept comin' back at me - with nothin'.
Luke:  Yeah, well, sometimes nothin' can be a real cool hand.
(IMDB Movie Database Cool Hand Luke Quotes 

It's a pretty deep line.  Sometimes, the world deals you a pretty bad hand.  But, no one says how you have to play the game.

What We Have Here Is a Failure to Communicate scene - Paul Newman in Cool Hand Luke

 You can rebel.  One way that some folks rebel is by adopting a minimalist lifestyle.  They intentionally rid themselves of excess stuff and adopt a lifestyle of owning only the material possessions they feel add value to their lives.

It's an interesting thought.  In a world that often judges success by who has the most toys, choosing not to play is an interesting alternative.  Minimalists save a lot of money and avoid a lot of debt by simply NOT buying a bunch of stuff.

For an interesting blog on the subject, check out The Minimalists.

The bloggers, Joshua Fields Millburn & Ryan Nicodemu, walk the walk and live with a minimum of personal possessions.  They find that it frees them to do more and live in a manner that they want to live.

They've written an interesting book that is available on Amazon.

Dirt Cheap Hobbies - Birdwatching (or Birding)

Even if you are flat broke, it's important to have hobbies, interests, and passions.  It's important to maintain them to relieve stress.  Unfortunately, many hobbies require expensive equipment.  However, one hobby is practically free - Birdwatching.  Some serious hobbyists call it birding.  No matter what you call it watching birds is cheap.  To learn more, here is the run down on what you need to get started on the cheap:

Dirt Cheap Hobbies - Birding

You can spend hours looking at birds, taking notes on their behavior, and checking them off of your list of birds that are native to your area.  If you have a camera with a zoom you can take pictures of them.  If you have a few crumbs or just a few dollars for birdseed, you can feed them.  You can improve your environment buy setting up a birdbath or making sure that plants grow to sustain your local bird population.  But, best of all, these things cost little or no money.

Here is a basic pair of binoculars to get started: