She saves $35,000 a year
FULL OF IDEAS | Learned to scrimp as stay-at-home mom
Marsha Flood learned to squeeze every penny after she decided to stay home to raise three children.
Flood, 57, of Geneva,made do on half of the family's previous income, survived her husband's year-long layoff and ended up cutting the family's expenses by $35,000 a year while maintaining a middle-class lifestyle.
(Richard A. Chapman/Sun-Times)
Flood's children are now grown and have become penny-pinchers themselves, but she ramped up her cost-cutting skills after she was laid off from her job as a systems engineer in mid-April.
She offers this advice:
• • One of her relatives saved $4,000 a year in Veterans Administration benefits by studying up on them. The federal government prints free booklets on VA benefits, federal government jobs, child support enforcement and other topics. Order them at www.pueblo.gsa.gov or by calling 1-888-878-3256.
• • People who are unemployed should check to see if they qualify for free school lunches for their children and help paying their energy bills.
• • Senior citizens and people with disabilities may get a break on their taxes and prescription medicines from the Illinois Department of Aging's Circuit Breaker program. Go to www.cbrx.il.gov for details.
• • Use thrift-store prices when estimating the value of your charitable contributions, which are higher than the prices listed at garage sales. Look up valuation guides at Web sites such as traderstatus.com/charity.htm.
• • Keep receipts in an indexed, alphabetized accordion file in case you need to make a merchandise return.
• • Pay off your mortgage early, even if it's only $100 extra a month, because it will save interest payments over the long run.
• • Find school clothing exchanges in which to buy children's clothes at terrific discounts. Some school districts allow people to volunteer to work at the exchanges, allowing you to get an early look at the sales.
• • Read books or search the Web for ideas. Suggested readings include "The Best of Cheapskate Monthly" by Mary Hunt and "Rapid Debt Reduction Strategies" by John Avanzini.
What are you doing to make ends meet? Write to psmith@suntimes.com