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The Happy Rock
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A blog dedicated to change ourselves, so that we can grow our wealth. Focuses on getting out of debt, budgeting, investing, relationship, and much more.
Recent Posts Tagged With 'frugality'
Tap Water - A cool refreshing frugal drink
Water water everywhere, but not a drop to drink. That’s how my wife and I felt when we first moved back to my hometown. Our rental house was right across the street from a creek which runs through town. A stinky, smelly, slimy creek. I don̵...
The Library Still Rocks! Yes, I Like The Free Movies And More
I love my library! I know, I know…I already wrote this post a few months ago. But indulge me. The reason for my outburst is that my town is looking at replacing our library. A few days ago they held a meeting to gather input in what we citi...
Cheap Eats - Meal Ideas Under $10
A while ago I wrote about how I blew my grocery budget on a $11 hunk of cheese, I ended that post by asking for some budget friendly recipes. Only Kristy from Master Your Card took me up, and I’m ever glad she did. Her chicken dish was fantas...
Frugal Fixes Around the House - Duct Tape, Foam and a Rubberband
Back in September I wrote about how it took me two days to fix a screendoor. Guess what? It’s broken again. I bring this up to show that I’m no handy man. With all the Bob the Builder that my kids watch you’d think that something ...
Cheaper Than Cheap Tip Of The Week #8 : Don’t Flush The Tiolet
“Cheaper Than Cheap” is a recurring tip series about frugality. The idea is to provide potentially helpful frugality tips that border on fanatical or fictitious to the point of becoming humorous. Love them or hate them, let’s hear what you thin...
Necessity vs Luxury: Research Shows That The Economy Shapes Our Perspective
Quick question: Do you think a microwave is a necessity or a luxury? I ask because the other day NPR ran a story about a Pew Research Center study that asked these types of questions. According to the findings Americans are paring down on what they...
Little Things Part 3 - Budget Practice And Correcting Mistakes
This is the 3rd chapter is a series of posts showing how the little things can add up. Here is part one & part two. You might have missed it, but I dropped some subtle hints in my recent snowblower post that I can from time to time, be a pretty b...
Deep Freeze - Freezing Sale Items To Help Stretch Your Grocery Dollars
Now that I’m trying to limit my family’s Grocery spending to $450 a month, I’m looking for ways to get the most for my money. I’ve already mentioned a few ways I’m doing this in a couple of previous posts (here & h...
Runaway Electric Bill - Looking For Electricity Savings Tips
I thought I was prepared for winter. I took some steps to winterize my house, we’ve added insulated curtains, and have been wearing our smart wool socks we got for Christmas. But now I hear that according to Punxsutawney Phil, we’ll ha...
Sacrifice and Save Money with Store Brands
I used to think “generic” was a derogatory term. It probably stems from a childhood visit from my snobbish cousin who called everything I had or liked “generic” and everything he had or liked “special.” Kids can ...
Extravagence - It’s What To Teach Our Kids
Set a good example of extravagance for all the world to see, that is what Laura Bush did as one of her final acts as First Lady. She unveiled the White House china that most 2 term first ladies are privileged to design. It cost $485,000! “The...
Out with the Old, In with the New - Switching Phone Companies
As most of you know, I list my monthly expenses ( here is last month’s) to help track where my family is spending our money. Not only is it good for us to see where improvements can be made, but posting them online has also allowed me to gat...
Think Fix It First, Replace It Second - Replacing A Bathroom Fan
For months we have had a very squeaky fan in our bathroom. The task of fixing the fan has haunted my todo list for months. It drained my energy and laughed as each day passed that I consciously put it off. The fan is a 10 year old contractor grad...
Skipping Christmas Gifts And Other Ways I Save At Christmas
Here are a 5 ways that I have saved money over the last few Christmas seasons : Skip the Gifts - Don’t try and buy significance and meaning, it doesn’t come from gifts. Talk to family and friends and see who is open to cutting back on ...
Eating on $1 a day
I’m sure by now a lot of you have heard about the couple who for a month ate on only $1 a day. If you haven’t, check out their blog. I guess they have some new projects in the works for 2009 and a book will follow. Talk about a strict b...
Fred Thompson’s Commentary On The Economy and The Bailout - December 2008
I just love this satirical monologue that accurately describes a lot of my sentiments about United States government’s plan to save ourselves from our current economic issues that are caused largely by out of control consumer, business, and gov...
Free Christian Audio Book Each Month (MP3 Format)
For those that are interested, ChristianAudio.com offers at least on free full length audio book for download each month. Dec. 2008 is 90 Days of Morning and Evening by Charles Spurgeon. Check back at the start of each month to see what the new sel...
“Black Friday” vs “Buy Nothing Day”
Happy Thanksgiving Everybody! And welcome to the official start of the holiday shopping season. Back when I shared my Christmas budget, I said I’d revisit the idea of whether or not Christmas is becoming too commercialized or not. Well it...
Get 25% Cashback On eBay Purchases Through Live.com
That’s right, it sounds to good to be true, but it isn’t. Microsoft has been pushing this unique advertising ploy off and on for months now and people have been saving a ton on online purchases. Here’s how to take advantage. Fir...
The Little Things - Saving Money On Contacts And Shoes
As promised, here is a post on how spending more money actually saved me money. Some of you might recall from my August Expense Check-up, that I spent $90 on a two month supply of contact lenses. In the post I said that I felt that it was too much...
Cashback Bonus = Christmas Budget
I know it seems early to be bringing up Christmas (especially with the economy possibly crumbling around us), but the displays are going up in stores, so I guess it’s never too early to starting thinking about it. For the last few years we here...
Credit Card Signups At Checkout - Worth it or not?
As I was in the line at Home Depot with all the supplies to redo our bathroom, I did something I haven’t done in years The seed was planted by an extremely helpful employee in the bathroom section and by the time I was about to check out wi...
First Chase Freedom Cash Back Check Recieved
Back in March I dissected the best cash back credit cards to see which one would net me the most free money. My calculations had me receiving $345 dollars of cash back each year from the Chase Freedom card. Well in about 5 months I had the necessar...
Tire Lessons From A Nissan Murano And A TireRack.com Review
I have learned a thing or two about tires since I had to replace the tires on our 2003 Nissan Murano last year. First, Muranos and by and large most modern cars are equipping larger tires which are more costly. I assume it is for safety and handling...
Reader Stories - Doing What It Takes
I love getting emails about the stories of The Happy Rock readers. I wanted to share this particular one because it is a beautiful example of a family banding together focusing on what matters and making it work despite hardship. I thought you would...
Just canceled Netflix…trimming the budget fat
It was a sad day here at the Debt Defier household. We just canceled our Netflix account. We were already on the lowest plan available, so it’s not really a huge money saver. But as mentioned earlier the little things can add up, especially ...
Get Lots Of Free Stuff On Your Birthday
The frugal side of me thoroughly enjoys the weeks surrounding my birthday(August 8th). Stores and services that I don’t normally give money to are willing to give me free stuff just because it is my birthday. There is something so gratifyin...
Cheaper Than Cheap Tip Of The Week #7 : Embrace Your Diurnal Cycle/Sleep When Its Dark
“Cheaper Than Cheap” is a recurring tip series about frugality. The idea is to provide potentially helpful frugality tips that border on fanatical or fictitious to the point of becoming humorous. Love them or hate them, let’s hear what you thin...
Have We Finally Hit Our Gas Price Tipping Point?
I talked before about my tipping point for financial change and my tipping point for financial success, but it seems that the US as a nation has finally hit its tipping point at $4.00 a gallon. To recap, a tipping point is “the level at which the m...
Frugal Summer Treat - Homemade Popsicles
That is right, you can make your own freeze pops. Our 2 year old son absolutely loves this and we don’t mind giving him one or even two a day because we control the ingredients. The Rockette and I even enjoy the ice cold refreshment on a ho...
