Frugal & Free Family
Live Better on a Shoestring!
Save Hundreds a Year, Easy!
Online money savers, tips & tricks,
Ideas, freebies & online money for surfing etc.
save/have to $7,000 or more in a year!

Do you know? You may need to!

Q: Why is a dollar saved worth more than a dollar added to your income?

A: Reducing your spending by a dollar gives you a dollar saved.... a plus! But, in order for you to spend an addition dollar, you have to make between $1.20 and $1.70 (the additional amount is do, for the most part, to taxes w/a few cents going toward your incidentals). So, that's $48.00 to $68.00 you will need to make in order for you to spend that extra $40.00! 

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This Issue... 
(Save $350 or more with the tips, tricks, projects and freebies in this edition!)

Index
Monthly Projects to Save Big!
Phone Bill Cramming  ...An Important NBC Report
Freebies and Freebie Sites for March -Useful freebies!
Tools to Help Every Family!
Beat the High Cost of Gasoline... Get 10 Gallons for Free!
Sites to Study on your Spare Time ...you could save hundreds in no time!
Closing

Projects for March... 
Save $150 or more with these...

Do you serve/eat meat every night? Try to go without a meat dish at least 1 time a week, (a few more would not only save more money, but, it's healthier!)

Take the family out to dinner once or twice this month during happy hour! Many restaurants serve tons of goodies from chicken wings to egg rolls! A Mexican place may have chips with cheeses and veggies, a steak house may have some stuffed potato skins! Buy everyone a soda pop, grab the free munchies for dinner, have fun getting out and save too!

Most energy companies will go to your home and give you a free energy evaluation! Use their tips and solutions and advice and save big! AND, many of them give freebies too! Ask them for their offer... (many give energy compact florescent bulbs, water heater blankets or low flow shower heads! Just ask, no harm in that and you can couple that with your energy evaluation to get ahead a good bundle of savings in the utility department for the year!

Be extra penny-pinching and use all the ideas here, (in this letter), and then pay one or more of our credit holders/Loans/Cards at least 10% over (or more) what they request! Start with the credit cards/loans which charge the greatest amount of interest... It looks good on your record, cuts down that total interest rate at the end, lessens your time to pay it all off and feels good too! (remember, don't use your credit cards... cash is the best bet on nearly all occasions!)

Replace 2 or more of your regular light bulbs with the compact high-energy saving florescent bulbs! This will save a ton of energy and the (screw in) bulbs last forever and ever! Save for a long long time!

Your freezer will run much much more efficiently when it is on the fuller side. If your freezer is nearly empty (or even half-empty), fill some plastic cartons with water and put them in the freezer to make up for the lost food space/room!

Spend 2 hours a week (just a few minutes a day total), on searches for free offers, samples and coupons etc., (some sites are listed down below for you), on freebies that you would buy anyway... (remember to discipline yourself and only click on those things that you purchase for your household, food/bev, work, pc, etc., needs only!!! Skip the others for another month!) Order as many in that 2 hour per week time and then enjoy them as they roll in and your shopping list is cut back! (8 hours total can get you $100 bucks or more of free samples/goods etc)

tools you can use!

Phone Bill Cramming... An NBC Report

Consumers should always look carefully at their phone bills to ensure no extra charges have been placed on them -- either in error or on purpose. Hidden charges on your phone bill Could this happen to you?

NBC News

March 17 — It could be in the mail right now on your phone bill, hidden somewhere in the pages of names and numbers. Or maybe you spotted it while you were going over the charges. It’s a service you’re sure you never ordered, yet it’s there in black and white—and somebody wants to be paid. How did this charge make its way to your bill and how can you keep unwanted services from cropping up and costing you money? Chief Consumer Correspondent Lea Thompson reports in this Consumer Alert.

FCC: Truth in Billing
The Case Against Cramming: A Report From the Federal Trade Commission FTC Bureau of Consumer Protection: Complaint Form National Consumers League National Fraud Information Center United States Telephone Association Dateline NBC: Consumer Alert

“I WAS BROUGHT up in the time of depression,” says Darlene Buroker. “And you had to watch everything. You had to watch what you used, what you threw away, what you ate.”

It’s with that watchful eye that Darlene Buroker has managed her finances for decades, making sure she and her husband, Keith, never paid a dime they weren’t supposed to.

“When bills come in,” she says, “I have always went over them from beginning top to end. Because I don’t believe in paying anything that isn’t mine.”

So when this Wisconsin woman’s October 1998 telephone bill arrived in the mail, she did what she always does — what many of us don’t do — she actually read it. There were the usual charges from her local phone company and long distance provider. But then, Darlene’s eyes stopped at charges she had never seen before: $4.95 for something called “ld serv” and a $5 charge for a “travel card.” With tax, the total for those two items came to $10.75.

“And I thought, ‘Oh, what’s that for?’ You know?” she says.

So Darlene called a number listed near the charges. Three more calls later and hours of hassle before she finally got some answers. She was told a “K. Buroker,” her husband Keith, had signed a form authorizing the services.

Darelene asked for and received a copy. Sure enough, it’s signed “K. Buroker.” But Darlene knew her husband had never even seen the form.

“First, it was not his handwriting, is the biggest thing,” she says. “Because they really goofed up the handwriting.”

And that wasn’t all. Whoever filled in the form had the wrong birth date. It was off by more than 25 years. It said they rent their home, when it is actually paid for. And one more thing: Keith Buroker supposedly signed the form on August 12th, 1998. He died the year before. “Very upsetting,” says Darlene. “Very upsetting and I thought, “Well, they’re not going to get away with this.” 

WHAT IS “CRAMMING”?

According to consumer protection investigators in Wisconsin, Darlene had become a victim of one of the newest forms of telecommunications fraud — “cramming.” It’s when charges are put on your phone bill for things you never asked for or agreed to buy.

Don't get crammed

The Federal Trade Commission suggests these tips to help protect consumers from being "crammed."

Federal Trade Commission What kind of services are we talking about? “They really run the gamut, says Senator Susan Collins, R-Maine. “We’ve seen charges for calling cards, for personal 800 numbers, a local club or an entertainment service, or Web site construction, Internet services.” 

Senator Collins has investigated cramming. She says tens of thousands of consumers have complained, but she believes there are many more victims.

“Because many consumers don’t even realize that they’ve been crammed,”

Report From MSNBC, http://www.msnbc.com/news/383027.asp

more tools and money saving items...

Why Not Visit a Few of our many Fun, Free & Entertaining Site Pages!?

To Crazy Dude's Free Games!     To Mental Jokes! 

The Dude's Free and Funny Downloads    Free Animated Smilie Guys, Unique lil Guys Too! 

Dude's Free Sports Hangout... Games, Sports Junk...  

The Dude's Games for Shockwave Lovers Only! 

Get a Free Crazy Dude's Email Account w/all the extras!
(your name @crazydudes!) 

Manic's Dance ...manic depression "dancers" and their loved ones...

(many more links and fun... entertaining games, humor, fun room, freebies, etc., pages from our 
site pages... not in any particular order... cuz, that's okay sometimes, right?) 

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