I treated myself to a trip to the bookstore this weekend and walked out with "Frugal Living For Dummies."  I had a funny moment with the cashier when they asked me if I wanted to buy a discount membership and then stopped themselves, citing that it probably wouldn't be terribly frugal to do so.

Anyway, I'm only about 1/3 of the way through the book, but it still has some very good advice already.

One of the coolest tips I've seen in the book is to keep a price diary.  Here's an article on Price Diaries (written by the same author of Frugal Living for Dummies)

http://www.stretcher.com/stories/02/02feb18c.cfm

There are loads of tips on how to reduce impulse spending, and make normal grocery shopping cheaper and healthier (such as shopping the perimeter of the grocery store: hitting the bakery, butcher, dairy and produce sections, etc instead of buying the same packaged items in the maze of isles.)

It's even inspired me to strike up a bet with a coworker to have a "free month" where anything recreational (movies, dining out, coffee, etc) must be done for free.  If either of us falters at any point, then the loser will have to do something gross.

Has anyone else read this book or encountered a similar text?

At this point I definitely would recommend the book.  (I don't benefit financially from posting this.)

How do you watch a movie for free?  Walk in with someone else's pay stub?

How do you a dinner for free?  Walk out before you get the ticket?  Show up at a friend's house right before dinner?

I think that chapter should be more about finding things to do that don't require money.

Where I live, I can take in a concert for free.  They happen on the mall all the time.

There is a scenic path you can walk through western Maryland.  It doesn't take any money to walk.

Going camping doesn't either, if you have friends or family with the land.

Eating the free samples they hand out at cheese markets.  Taking the kids to the park for a little bit of swings and merry go rounds, then taking in a pee wee baseball game.  Reading the free books at the coffee shops and sticking around for the poets to hit you with their fresh stuff.  Now that's what I call an evening.

mridanddawg you've uncovered a lost art - having fun for free. When I was little, my mom was so broke that we had to invent things to do for fun, entertainment and everything else for free.

Sitting at the beach, hunting for rock crabs for hours is way better for you than sitting in an expensive restaurant wondering why your debts are so high.

Catching a free poetry reading with friends is way more social than all of you staring at an expensive cinema screen and not talking with each other.

Inviting friends over for a Sunday afternoon late-lunch where everyone brings along something is a cheap, social, entertaining way to spend a Sunday and it doesn't cost the earth.