Living within your means

FRIDAY 5

These are days of mixed messages: Our economy is weak because we don't save enough; the only way to avoid a recession is for everybody to spend more. Whatever. No matter what the experts say, we don't see anything wrong with smart, frugal, debt-free living. Which is why we read Home-Ec 101 (motto: 'What You Wish Your Mama Taught You'), a Web site produced by Heather Solos of Moncks Corner and her friend, Ivy Hogan of Nashville, Tenn.

These enterprising (if occasionally snarky) young mothers write about (and talk about) such tips as how to stretch a family food budget, how to store lettuce and how to prevent your socks from disappearing in the wash. So when our thoughts turned to frugality, we turned to Heather and Ivy (www.home-ec101.com) for advice.

Wash your own car

Ivy says: 'When you have more discretionary spending, it's easy to start relying on conveniences that cost a very small amount of money. For example, washing your own car.' Even a $5 automated wash once a month adds up to $60 a year, and going to a full-service carwash once every two weeks will easily set you back more than $300 over 12 months. Wash your car at home and bank the savings. And wash your dog while you're at it.

Ask nicely

Heather says: 'My regular grocery store was quiet the other morning and I had a brief chat with the lady in the bakery department. I asked if she had any of the 5-gallon buckets used to store frosting. She said I was welcome to have one. ... A little hot water, a little soap, and I now have a great place to keep my oats.' The same rule applies to everything from construction materials to milk crates and cardboard boxes: If you use good sense and ask politely, you can collect all sorts of valuable, but surplus, stuff for next to nothing.

Update your online persona

Not feeling outdoorsy this weekend? Spend a little time online cleaning up your electronic identity. When was the last time you rounded up all your passwords? Or organized your photos? Your social Web accounts, from the random clutter of MySpace to the buttoned-down confines of Linked-In, would certainly benefit from updating, uploading and a serious pruning. Put your name in a search engine and see what comes up: Like it or not, that's your public identity. Does it match the identity you want to present?

Go 'Thrifting'

Saturday mornings are the best time of the week to go browsing through yard sales, and winter weekends aren't a bad time to find out what's available in Lowcountry thrift stores. True, one man's trash is typically another man's trash. But every now and then, you find that rare gem you've been seeking for years. Like that perfect Pat Benatar concert T-shirt from 1981. Call up a friend and make a morning of it.

Free DVD run

Libraries have changed over the years, and if you haven't been to your local branch, you might be surprised. We can remember when the idea of a library loaning out music seemed radical. Today's libraries offer recent releases on DVD. So if you're trying to figure out how to keep your kids entertained on a budget, here's a suggestion. Go browse a library DVD collection this weekend and bring home a classic you missed.