My Story

My name is Angel Durr and I am the newest of TLC’s Extreme Cheapskates. I was pregnant when the show aired and have since had a beautiful little girl. I think my story is unique from the Cheapskates featured so far because my background and reasoning is very different from everyone that has been on the show thus far. The show has a habit of showing people in situations without explaining how they got there. I am going to provide you all with my back story so you can understand who we are. 

Check out our casting video on TLC.com

Our casting video is up on TLC.com, check the link below to view. 

http://www.tlc.com/tv-shows/extreme-cheapskates/videos/meet-the-expecting-cheapskate-couple.htm

Thanks for your support! 

Living Within Your Means

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Far too often today I see people shopping and buying for status associated with those items. Spending outside ones means or spending without anticipation of your future financial situation will inevitably catch up with you. I know it certainly caught up with me and my husband.

Paying for Ambiance

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Did you know that you pay for ambiance? Did you know you actually pay for those fancy fancy carts, fancy shopping bags, and employees who are trained to cater to your every whim. I personally consider myself a pretty low maintenance individual so I make a point to not frequent places where I am actually paying for anything other than the product or products I am buying. 

Buy Reduced

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My earlier post from today leads me into another money-saving topic very near and dear to my heart, buying reduced. Folks, if you shop the clearance rack for clothes you can shop the clearance rack for food! (LOL)

Freezing Your Food

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Freezers are very valuable appliances. I save a great deal of money by freezing most of my food. Yes of course you can buy those pre-frozen bags of food but we pay for the convenience of having someone cut up those onions and carrots for us.

Watch Us on TLC Nov. 6th 2013 @ 8pm central

Photo Courtesy of: TLC.com

For those of you who don't know, we will be featured on an episode of TLC's Extreme Cheapskates this Wednesday, Nov. 6th, 2013 @ 8pm central/9pm eastern time. Please watch our episode and tell your friends! And if you know Oprah or Ellen give them a heads up (:

Tune in to see all types of crazy pregnant cheapskate shenanigans! 

Homemade Homemaker

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Another way to maximize ones budget is to go homemade as often as possible. People pay for convenience. We pay extra to have someone do the work for us. If our income is limited we can view homemade as paying ourselves to do this same work. By paying ourselves instead of some outside individual we pocket that money plus, we have the benefit of actually knowing what goes into our homemade items. 

Getting Help from a Hobby

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One valuable way I am able to stretch a limited income is by looking for ways to earn additional money. Whether it is selling the items I re-purpose or having a yard sale, I am always looking for ways to earn additional income outside my regular salary. 

Being A Handy Person

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I know I talked in one of my previous posts about the importance of doing it yourself to save money. I want to stress the importance of doing things yourself again because I think it is one of the easiest ways you can save money. 

Homage to a Glue Gun

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What is the most important tool in my entire cheap repertoire? Well besides a computer and internet connection, it is my trusty glue gun. Last night as I was putting the finishing touches on costumes and preparing last minute decorations, I realized just how amazing this one little tool is for stretching my money that much further.

Homemade Halloween Costumes

My little sister, one of the members of my crazy family!

Since it is Halloween, I thought I would discuss ways to save money on this wonderful occasion. 

First, and foremost, don't buy the hype. Don't get me wrong, Halloween is my favorite holiday, but this a day one day a year in which you will spend money on an entire outfit that you will wear one time. Let's just think on that one for a minute.

Student Loan Debt Secrets of Success

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So as I mentioned previously, I am in fact a PhD student. As a matter of fact, I have been in school nonstop my entire life. The longest break from school I have ever had was a summer. I went High School, College, Masters, onto PhD. People often hear this and are shocked because most people think of being a student as a financial death sentence. 

Dumpster Diving: A Manifesto

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Dumpster Diving is a delicate art. I have been doing this basically my entire life so I am not just your casual diver. I should preface this by saying I don't always literally dive into dumpsters. Alot of what I get is simply stuff left on the side of the road or next to the dumpster (not literally inside) but under the right circumstances I have actually dug in a dumpster before...

FreeCycle

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Speaking of Free! Another valuable resource for getting 100% free stuff is FreeCycle! F reeCycle is an awesome resource where you sign up in your local area to get emails from people looking to either get rid of stuff or seeking out free stuff. In addition, you can post things you are looking for and things you want to get rid of and people can either come get your stuff or you can get stuff from other people. In some ways it can be like a trading group, because you can trade things you don't need for things you do need, but you aren't required to post things by any means...

The Values of YouTube

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What better way to do something than to do it yourself. That's what I always say. Another way we save money around this house is by doing it ourselves. You know how some people used to say, "There's an app for that," well around this house we similarly believe there is a YouTube video for any situation that requires assistance...

How Did We Get On TLC?

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www.elephantjournal.com

Since some of you may be visiting as a result of our going on TV, I thought I would discuss a topic that people ask us about alot. How did you get on TV to begin with? Like I said in an earlier post, we got on the show via Craigslist...

Extreme Cheapskates

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Some of you may have heard, or if you are reading this after the fact, seen our episode of Extreme Cheapskates. We filmed this past summer while I (Angel) was pregnant. It was always on my bucket list to do something on TV just once in my life. It was really fun and interesting to see this side of TV...

Angel's Introduction

Me! Just one part of this crazy family!

I look at a blog as as sort of diary or book that tells an individual story of a person. Therefore, it is only befitting that I start my blog from the beginning. My name is Angel D. I was born in New England but have lived pretty much all over. Let me start by saying that I come from pretty humble (that's putting it lightly) beginnings. I was a welfare child, a kid who know one thought would succeed, but most of all I was just a kid who wanted to be like everybody else... 

Hello World!

Greetings!

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This is our first ever post!