I read something interesting over at Boston Gal’s Open Wallet. It looks like the governor of Oregon challenged the whole state to try living on $21 for one week for all food expenses. In an effort to bring awareness about hunger and the reality of many who live off of food stamps, even the governor took up the challenge.

Here’s an article from the New York Times with even a list of the food items the governor purchased to live on $3 a day of food. Looks like he ate some chicken and a lot of peanut butter and jelly sandwiches.

One of the trickiest part of this challenge is that you have to start with an empty cupboard. So even basic things such as salt and pepper need to either be purchased or sacrificed.

I think this is a great idea, something I would definitely want to try with my fiancée. Maybe I can get my whole church to try it as well.

Back in October, I wrote about taking the bus to work and how it was saving me money. Well now, I have an update about my commute to work.

My new apartment is pretty close to the metro station and my fiancée and I have both decided to take the train to work. I did some calculations and I can save a significant amount of money by commuting instead of driving:

The distance to work now is 20 miles.
The price of gas is $3.30 right now.

I can get 30 miles per gallon on the freeway (so $3.30 * 40 miles / 30 miles = $4.40)
My daily commute is costing my $4.40 each day if I drive.

But a monthly metro pass is $26 (my company pays for half of the cost).

If a typical month has 20 work days, each commute to work is costing my $1.30.

Plus the major bonus of commuting to work is that I get to read on the train and relax. So, looks like I’ll be commuting on most days.

Me: “Hey ___ whatcha doin?”
Fiancée: “Hey, I’m getting coffee at Starbucks.”
Me: “What are you getting?”
Fiancée: “I’m getting an Americano.”
Me: “Hey how much is a extra shot of espresso?”
Fiancée: “It’s 65 cents.”
Me: “You know what I was thinking the other day?”
Fiancée: “What?”
Me: “What if I walked in with a thermos with hot water and asked for just a extra shot of espresso?”
Fiancée: “Um…I don’t think that’s going to work.”
Me: “Well if a shot of espresso is 65 cents, then they’re charging $1.15 for a cup of hot water.”
Fiancée: “Hah, you’re the only person I know that would even realize that.”
Me: “Well it’s because I’m always looking for ways to save a buck.”
Fiancée: “Well for Starbucks that’s how they make money, because people are willing to pay for it.”
Me: “So true.”

Letter writing has become somewhat of a lost art. These days a quick voice mail or e-mail gets the job done. But there is something very personalized about a hand written letter. I still write cards and notes to my fiancée. I’ve been doing ever since we started dating.

I found this free resource over at www.letterfu.com where you can download a free pdf file and print it to make a letter that folds into an envelope. How ingenious! I love origami and I love efficiency so this idea really got me excited. There’s a few designs to choose from. They claim that there is no cutting involved and even no gluing involved. You just write the letter, flip the paper over, follow the folding directions, and stamp and mail.

Check it out over at www.letterfu.com.

The church is reserved, the restaurant is held with a deposit, and the invitations our out.  This past weekend, my fiancée and I finished making and sending out our wedding invitations.  Praise the Lord.

Now we’re looking for frugal wedding favor ideas.  Since we both love coffee and tea, we thought we would do something with them.

We could buy these espresso cups and fill them with chocolate covered espresso beans.  But we were thinking that it might be a pain to fill all of them and then bring them to the reception.

Or we could buy personalized tea bags from here, here, or here.

Hmm…It would be nice if we could make something personalized for under a dollar each.

Gas is back up at $3.00 a gallon here in Southern California.  But something I never understand is when people complain so much about the price of gas and yet don’t even bat an eye at buying a latte or going out to lunch every day.

Personally I think there are much more effective ways of saving money than driving ten miles out of town just to save 10 cents on a gallon of gas.  Don’t waste your time and your money driving around trying to find the cheapest gas station.  Find the closest one, fill up, and get home.  Maybe with the time saved you can devote it to packing lunch for tomorrow instead.

Also, if you haven’t gotten your hands on a 5% cash back card, get one now.  No matter what income level we are at, we all fill up gas and buy groceries on a consistent basis.  Why not get some kickbacks from it.  Here’s some few credit cards that will get you 5% back:

Chase Cash Plus Rewards (I have this card but I’m not sure if its still available).
Citibank Driver’s Edge.
Discover Gas Card.
Shell Mastercard.

I learned this frugal tip from a college friend.  Instead of buying expensive car fresheners, you can buy a 3-pack Glad Plugin refill for around $2.00.  Just peel-off the cover and place the refill under the car seat.  The scent is subtle and not too overpowering.  I actually prefer using it this way because I think it’s too strong when you actually plug it in to an outlet.

Each refill lasts about 2-3 months so a 3-pack can last you about half an year.  My favorite scent is Rainshower, but they have a lot to choose from.

I went shopping with my fiancée yesterday for a bridal veil and we were both in sticker shock! We couldn’t believe a piece of fabric with a plastic comb and some plastic beads glued to it could cost hundreds of dollars. We saw one veil that cost over two hundred dollars. The cheapest one we found was around $75 and it still looked like an elementary school student put it together. I told her that we could probably make one instead and it probably wouldn’t be that difficult.

So off we went to Michael’s craft store and looked for the materials we needed. We went to the wedding section and found completed veils for $20. My fiancée will have some free time soon so she decided that she would try to make one herself instead. So here are some of the materials she bought and their cost:

Tulle fabric - $4.99
Veil combs - $2.99
Lace Ribbon - $0.99
Plastic pearls - $3.99

Other things she needed was scissors, needle and thread, and a hot glue gun.

We searched online for some do-it-yourself tips and found some great websites:
Making a veil.
Bridal veil and headpiece.
Making a bridal veil.
Instructions for making a bridal veil.

My post on Wednesday about building my own bookcase got me thinking about other do-it-yourself projects. I looked around and found a bunch of awesome websites for the do-it-yourself types out there. Here’s a collection of useful links:

Daily Blogs
Hack-a-Day
http://www.hackaday.com
A daily blog that gives you a new hardware hack every day. Learn hacks for your iPod or for your wireless connection.

Zedomax
http://www.zedomax.com
A blog that offers both do-it-yourself projects and reviews on the latest gadgets and technologies.

DIY Live
http://www.diylive.net
A do-it yourself blog that is more electronics and technology related.

Paper Crafty
http://www.papercrafty.com
A blog that covers all sorts of paper craft possibilities. Learn how to make ninja stars and modular origami.

DIY Bride
http://www.diybride.com
A blog dedicated to do-it-yourself wedding projects. Find tips on various projects as baking your wedding cake to learning how to do calligraphy.

Magazines
Ready Made
http://www.readymademag.com
A magazine for people that love to make stuff. The website has awesome how-to articles and a blog as well.

Real Simple
http://www.realsimple.com
A magazine devoted to simplifying your busy life. It offers thousands of useful organizing tips, quick and healthy recipes, and other useful life skills.

Make-Zine
http://www.makezine.com
A magazine devoted to various digital and hardware projects and hacks. Learn how to make pinhole cameras, altoid tin headphone amps, and a human catapult.

Craft-Zine
http://www.craftzine.com
From the creators of Make-Zine, a magazine dedicated to inspiring and cultivating all sorts of crafts. Tips on your crocheting, quilting, sewing, knitting, etc.

Hack-Zine
http://www.hackzine.com
Also from the creators of Make-Zine, a webzine that is devoted to all sorts of useful hacks. You’ll find a lot of software and hardware hacks are.

How-To Websites
Instructables
http://www.instructables.com
Do-it-yourself tips and projects contributed by an online community. This is an awesome website that is constantly updated with great ideas. The step-by-step instructions come with easy to follow pictures.

Elephant Staircase
http://www.elephantstaircase.com
A website offering do-it-yourself project ideas in both wiki format and blog format.

DIY-4-Less
http://www.diy4less.com
Do-It-Yourself For Less, offering helpful tips and ideas for your home or garden.

eHow
http://www.ehow.com
A more general website that provides concise how-to articles on a broad range of topics. Find clear instructions on just about everything.

How To Do Things
http://www.howtodothings.com
A similar website to eHow, a website that people can come to learn and share their knowledge. They’re still in a beta phase and looking to expand their content.

Like other bloggers I am a bibliophile. I read a lot of books. I have a lot of books. Once I get married and move into a new apartment, I hope to have even more. Okay, okay, I know that I don’t have to own every book that I read, but it is nice to have a decent collection. But I need a place to put all these books.

Currently I have a mishmash of bookcases that are all different sizes and shapes. I still have some books in paper bags that I bought at used book library sales. The frugal part of me wants to buy a few more used bookcases from craigslist, but to be honest I have never been satisfied with MDF laminate bookcases. They are cheap construction, prone to chipping, and they aren’t particularly good looking.  I’d rather spend the money to buy matching bookcases and that are more durable and sturdy.
I’ve been looking at different solid wood options but I haven’t found anything I like yet. Ideally it would be nice to set up three large bookcases in my apartment when I move in and I wouldn’t have to worry about shelf space for a long time.

I’ve been looking at the option of building my own and customizing the dimensions. I found two bookcase building plans that I might try out:
Black & Decker Projects
Popular Mechanics Projects