In a time when conspicuous consumption is the "in" thing, I feel like a frugal outcast.
The world seems less in tune with me and more with poet Ogden Nash, who wrote: "The further through life I drift, the more obvious it becomes that I am lacking in thrift."
But I know there are legions of penny pinchers who are thrifty to a fault. In fact, I want to hear about them, which means it's again time for my Penny Pincher of the Year Contest.
The contest is simple. I'm looking for original penny-pinching strategies. You can nominate yourself, a friend, co-worker or relative. Winners will be featured in a future column. And, of course, there will be prizes.
So what's original?
Susan Ganger of Dublin, Ohio, won honorable mention last year for saving money by going through other people's trash. And where is some of the best trash? A university campus on move-out day, Ganger said.
"Students throw out perfectly good items because they don't want to move them," Ganger wrote in her entry last year. "There is no need to buy a dorm refrigerator as the students throw them out like they are paper. Carpet, clothing and furniture are there to be had."
Now, that's a great idea.
Third place went to MaryPat Wirkus of Middletown, Conn., who wrote that her husband saved $7 by replacing just the driver-side windshield wiper. Tina Leap of Lusby, Md., won second place for trying to concoct a homemade sports drink for her softball-playing daughters. The mixture of Kool-Aid, sugar, salt and water was not a hit. "They spat it out into the sink," Leap wrote. "We all had a good laugh."
Last year, the winning entry was submitted by an expectant mother in Virginia, Lauren Wells, whose husband, Matt, took her for a penny-pinching ride she will never forget.
Wells had waited a little too long to start for the hospital. As the couple climbed in the car on the way to the hospital, her husband opted to skip taking a toll road to save $2.
Thank goodness this mom had a sense of humor. She arrived in plenty of time to deliver her baby girl. And she wasn't even mad at her maddeningly frugal husband.
