According to www.forbes.com, despite Warren Buffet’s billions, America’s most admired investor still lives in the same modest Nebraska home he bought in 1958 for $31,500. He also recently traded in his six-year-old Lincoln Town Car for a 2006 Cadillac DTS. The Oracle of Omaha has spent the past month sticking up for the middle class, lamenting that he pays less taxes, as a percentage of income, than all of the other Berkshire Hathaway employees in the company’s home office–including the secretaries and receptionists.

Expirator \eks’per-A-ter\n. - A person who knowlingly challenges the expiration dates on foods, etc.

Use it in a sentence:

As an actively practicing expirator, on occassion I’ve experienced stomach aches after eating.

Joe’s favorite expirator tale: even though the yogurt expired 3 weeks previously, he at the entire container.

A cheaplet is a word relating to cheapness that isn’t in the dictionary, but should be.

www.timesquaregossip.com reports: Singing star Ashanti is saving up her money so she can retire and play mom to 12 children. The hit singer admits to having motherhood on her mind, but she wants to amass a small fortune before she becomes a mom, so she can be comfortable financially. The talented star holds back on buying expensive treats and instead saves the millions she receives from her film and music careers for her dream. She says, “I need, like, 12 (kids)… I love kids. I definitely want to get married… I’m so family oriented. I want the big wedding, I want the long marriage, I want kids.”(But) I’ve got to stack my cheese a little bit more… I want to be able to bring my kids into the world nice and comfortable.”  

Does the above “hammer to sugar” picture look familiar?  See our March 23rd blog called “4 year old brown sugar” that has a similar picture of my husband trying resurrect our brown sugar for cooking.  As we learned since then, there’s no need to resort to hammer use.  Putting the sugar in the microwave, among several solutions, is one way to soften your brown sugar.  However, there’s a handy gadget called the JBK Brown Sugar Saver that is a cleverly designed pottery piece that you store within your sugar stash to keep it fresh.  They also have Bread and Muffin Savers to keep your bread and muffins fresh longer.  Visit www.jbkpottery.com to see all their beautifully crafted and cheapo enabling products!

For those of you who have visited our forum, you know we have discussed the issue of messy burner drip pans and how to deal with the clean up or replacement.  Well, JBK Pottery has a product called The Pot Minder which you simply put in your pot full of liquid that you are tending.  This Pot Minder will help prevent boil overs and it’s messy consequence.  It also starts to rattle just before the pot is ready to boil over so you are warned before the big mess of ‘boiled over whatever into the burner pan’ occurs.  This doesn’t necessarily relate to being cheap, unless you’re one of those that use disposible burner pan liners. 

Cudos, JBK Pottery, for inventing products that provides a longer life to our food items! 

From her two shows, America’s Top Model and The Tyra Banks Show, Tyra Banks makes an estimated $18 million a year, and her net worth is around $75 million.  However…

 New York Times Magazine reports: Tyra Banks has no interest in owning the latest designer this or that — her wardrobe, which features form-hugging, low-cut dresses on air and jeans for the office, is mostly within the budget and desires of her audience. “I’m frugal,” she said. “I’ve always been this way. When I was young, my mom would give me my allowance, and I’d peel off a little each week and have some to spare.” “When we moved into these offices, I didn’t like the carpet,” she continued. “But do you know what carpeting costs? It’s really expensive. So, I picked out a color palette that would go with this carpet, and I painted the walls instead. Painting is much less expensive than carpet.” She considered this decision for a moment. “One of the first things I ask when I hire someone who deals with the financials of the company is about their spending habits. How you spend money reveals a lot about you.”

She told Readers Digest, “At night I use Vaseline everywhere: under my eyes and on my laugh lines, lips and elbows. I swear by the stuff.”  This is an example of the many frugal tips Tyra provides for her audience.

Hopeink \hope inc\ v. - Displaying an inability to throw away any ill performing pen or marker until it absolutely won’t work again.

Use it in a sentence:

Even though the pen had failed her in the past, she was hopeink that it would work in the meeting.

Do you have a stash of writing utensils stored away that you can’t bear to toss because you are hopeink that some day, they will come to life?  

A cheaplet is a word relating to cheapness that isn’t in the dictionary, but should be.

According to several sources, Glenn Close was spotted flying on inexpensive JetBlue Airlines.  Glenn Close starred in movie hits such as Fatal Attraction and The Big Chill to name a few.  It’s not clear whether she chose this discount airline or was forced out of necessity…but I’d like to think she’s just plain frugal!

Showers, toilets and lawn sprinkling require a lot of water.  To reduce your water bills, consider the following ideas (if you haven’t already):

Toilets - dual flushers, originally big in Europe, now are becoming more common in the United States.  The Toto Aquia uses only .9 GPF (gallons per flush) for liquid waste and 1.6 gallons for the bigger jobs.  Plus, it was ranked top in Good Housekeeping’s performance tests.  The Gerber Ultra Dual-Flush scored the highest in GHRI performance tests.  No matter what type of toilet you have, make sure there are no leaks!  To do this, open the tank and drop in enough food coloring so the water tints.  If color slowly appears in the bowl, there’s a leak.  Make sure you replace any worn-out parts to stop wasting water!

Faucets and Shower Heads - most kitchen and bath faucets can be fitted with an aerator which screws into the faucet opening and mixes air into the water stream for less water output while still maintaining adequate and steady pressure.  The Waterprik EcoFlow conserves water and still delivers a good spray according to Good Housekeeping’s consumer tests.  Again, be sure you fix any leaky faucets and showerheads right away!

Lawn Sprinkling - there are a couple products out there to prevent your sprinkling systems from watering inappropriately: the Melnor AquaSentry With AquaTimer is a three part system that checks soil moisture before signaling the timer to trigger the water flow.  The Automatic Rain Monitor is a simple no-batteries gauge that blocks water flow when it rains, so sprinklers don’t start while it’s raining.  Make sure you don’t make the biggest mistake when sprinkling - set those sprinklers right so you don’t water the sidewalks, driveways and other pavement!

According to walletpop.com, Desperate Housewives star, Eva Longoria, scored a lot of freebies to give to her 200 wedding guests: Van Cleef & Arpel 18K yellow gold charm bracelets, and L’Oreal, Cole Haan, and Bebe products were a few. She says the frugal gene runs in her family, explaining that her dad would take her and her three siblings camping with no food. “He would tell us that we could live off the land.”

This “no waste” beauty is a Cheapo’s dream!  Note the added rounded nubbin feature of which I have no idea what it’s called.   This durable plastic knife doubles as a spatula and enables a Cheapo to spread his/her peanut butter and jelly with ease.  Its unique shape allows a Cheapo to get all of the peanut butter or jelly out of the corners of the container so that there is never any waste.  This knife is also great for getting the remains out of other containers such as spaghetti jars.

Want to order one of these amazing knives?  Visit: http://shopcompac.com/B0006TIVPG/M/B0006TIVPG.htm