Month: April 2009

Frugal Librarian #7: Online Shopping

- Bill Leave a comment

frugallibrarianLet’s get stingy with it… The frugal librarian is also too lazy to leave the house to find value.

Become a regular checker of, or subscribe to the RSS feed of slickdeals and dealhack.  These sites have user-submitted deals that are RED hot on hundreds of merchants.  We’re not talking “save 10%” kinds of stuff.  Ridiculously low blowouts that require action within a few days.  So if there’s a knickknack for which you’ve been on the fence for a couple months or something you’re kind of interested in, keep it the back of your mind and wait for it to come across these sites

And for the one-two cheapskate combo punch, check retailmenot and currentcodes for the secret codes you enter while buying to get additional discounts.  Well, they were secrets before astute shoppers or those that subscribe to those merchants insider deals newsletters leaked them to all us common folk altruistically.

Too phobic to shop online?  Completely understand.  Most of the insurance companies out there are offering packages for online identity protection and peace of mind.  $2-$3 a month for $30,000 in coverage is pretty reasonable.  Shoot, you’ll  probably save twice that in gas and time getting dressed.

April Fool’s! — Humor on Display

- Ann Leave a comment

binder-twine3Did you know that April is National Humor Month?  What better way to start it off than with an April Fool’s joke!  Tickle your funny bone and find some easy April Fools joke ideas in the current issue of Martha Stewart’s Living magazine.

If you’re a fool for fun, or just want a good LOL (laugh out loud) book, check out some of these authors: Erma Bombeck, Dave Barry or Steven Colbert.  Plus, we also have joke books and cartoons (such as Garfield) and sound recordings of several comedians,  so you have lots of options.

Here’s a favorite of mine by a local author, D.D. Dunn — it’s called Binder Twine ‘n Bandaids: Homegrown Humor from the Heartland. Her “Pretty as a Picture” describes the ordeal many of us may remember in getting ready for the all-important annual school photo.  I don’t think they offered re-takes in those days, either!  Her “First Date” story is hilarious, too! Have fun reading!