Frugal Frannie · Anno MMXXVI The Bill Book · First edition
Frugal Frannie · The Bill Book

The old ways that kept my family's bills small enough to pay.

Cut $1,500–$3,500 a year off your electric, water, laundry and grocery bills, using the 120 household tricks I've run in my own kitchen since 1973, re‑checked at 2026 prices. Now in a 73‑page first edition. Most households earn the $37 back in the first month, from the drafts and the water heater alone.

Get the Bill Book → Read the math →
120checked tricks
1973–2026in my own house
30‑daykeep‑it guarantee
Frannie's Bill Book, front cover
Not for going without. For keeping more of what comes in.Frannie · married 1973
I.
The book

One book. One hundred and twenty tricks. Three thousand dollars a year.

Cooling, heating, electric, water, laundry, groceries, cleaning, pantry, waste nothing. Eight sections. One hundred and twenty tricks, each with the steps, the 2026 price and the month I checked it.

Frannie's Bill Book cover
PDF · 73 pages · large‑print and audio editions · first edition

The complete kitchen‑table plan to keep $3,000 a year in your house.

Foil on the south windows. The three drafts. The water heater at 120. The dye test. Vinegar in the softener cup. One whole chicken, three suppers. The price book. The four‑staple cleaner. One hundred and twenty tricks my mother and I have run a house on, with the exact 2026 prices and what each saved me. Most households earn the $37 back inside the first month.

$37 $79 first‑edition price
What you get for $37:
  • Frannie's Bill Book · 73 pages, 120 numbered tricks, 2026 prices
    $37
  • Large‑Print Edition · 134 pages, one trick to a page, 14‑point type
    $9
  • Frannie Reads It To You · 86 minutes, the whole book read aloud
    $12
  • What Each Trick Saves · 18 pages of tables, every cost and source
    $9
  • The First‑Weekend Quick‑Start · three jobs that earn the $37 back by Monday
    $7
  • The Household Savings Ledger · one printable page to track what each trick returned
    $5
  • Lifetime price re‑checks · every new edition, free
    free
Total value$79
You pay today$37
Get the Bill Book · $37 →
Instant access · Pay once · Yours forever
II.
The math

Where your money actually goes. And what you can stop paying.

Pull up a year of household spending. The right‑hand column is the same family after working through the tricks in this book. The gap is real money you keep.

A typical household per year

  • Utilities, fuels and public serviceselectric, gas, water, phone
    $4,736
  • Food at homegroceries
    $6,224
  • Housekeeping suppliescleaners, laundry, paper goods
    $877
  • Personal care productssoap, shampoo, toiletries
    $978
Annual$12,815
Bureau of Labor Statistics, Consumer Expenditure Survey 2024

The same household after the Bill Book per year

  • Utilitiesfoil, sealed drafts, dye test
    $3,552
  • Groceriesprice book, whole chicken, dried beans
    $4,668
  • Housekeepingthe four staples, rags
    $439
  • Personal careplain soap
    $587
Annual~$9,246
Every line is a trick in the book
Roughly $3,500 a year back in your purse, from a book that costs $37. Once.

Figures use BLS household averages; savings depend on your climate, starting bills and how many tricks you use.

III.
What's inside

Exactly what you get for $37.

Eight sections. One hundred and twenty numbered tricks, 14 + 16 + 15 + 12 + 14 + 22 + 12 + 15, each on its own page with the steps, the cost and the month I checked it.

Keeping cool · 14 tricks

The house that stays cool without the meter spinning.

Foil, fans, shade and the hours you open the house.

  1. 01Foil the south and west windows
  2. 02The 9‑and‑7 rule
  3. 03Frozen jugs in front of a box fan
  4. 04Blackout curtains on the sun side
  5. 07Solar screen on the outside of the glass
  6. 10Set the air conditioner at 78 and leave it
  7. 11Clean the filter and the coil
Keeping warm · 16 tricks

Heat the person, seal the house, keep the furnace quiet.

Holding the heat you already paid for, in October order.

  1. 01Seal the three biggest drafts for $12
  2. 02Bubble wrap on the north windows
  3. 03Heat the person, not the house
  4. 04Plastic film kit on the leakiest windows
  5. 07Open the curtains at 9, close them at 4
  6. 13Programmable thermostat, set once
  7. 16Water heater to 120 and a blanket on it
The electric bill · 15 tricks

The bill you can move fastest.

The meter, the refrigerator, the dryer, the things that run all night.

  1. 01Read your own meter once a week
  2. 02One power strip for the TV corner
  3. 03Every bulb an LED
  4. 04The refrigerator seal and the coil
  5. 05Off‑peak hours, if your utility has them
  6. 07Line‑dry, or the rack
  7. 14Ask for the budget plan and the senior rate
The water bill · 12 tricks

Find the leak, halve the tap, catch the rain.

The leak you never hear and the water you never see.

  1. 01The dye test for a running toilet
  2. 02A $4 aerator on every tap
  3. 03Catch the cold water while it warms
  4. 04Read the meter with everything off
  5. 07The rain barrel
  6. 09Fix the drip the day you hear it
  7. 12Ask for the leak adjustment and the sewer cap
Laundry · 14 tricks

Wash day for four cents a load.

Half the soap, no softener, the line for the big things.

  1. 01Half the detergent the cup says
  2. 02Vinegar in the softener cup
  3. 03Wool dryer balls instead of dryer sheets
  4. 04Cold water for all but the towels
  5. 05Line‑dry the big things
  6. 07Borax overnight for the whites
  7. 14Two old tricks I took out of the book
Groceries · 22 tricks

The biggest bill in the house.

The price book, the twenty staples, the whole chicken. July 2026 prices.

  1. 01The price book
  2. 02The twenty groceries I buy every week
  3. 03One whole chicken, three suppers
  4. 05Dried beans, not canned
  5. 10Ask when they mark down
  6. 12Powdered milk, half and half
  7. 13Bake the bread on Saturday
Cleaning and the pantry · 12 tricks

Four cheap things clean the whole house.

Vinegar, baking soda, dish soap and rags. Food put by without a canner.

  1. 01The four staples
  2. 02Rags, not paper towels
  3. 03Baking soda and vinegar for the drain
  4. 07Stop buying these
  5. 08Put food by without a canner
  6. 10First in, first out
  7. 12Bulk flour, rice and beans when the price book says so
Waste nothing · 15 tricks

Nothing leaves until it has done every job.

Friday soup, the mending tin, the freezer, the ledger.

  1. 01Friday soup from the week's leftovers
  2. 02Ten‑minute mending
  3. 04Stale bread has four more lives
  4. 06Fix before you replace
  5. 07The thrift store first
  6. 09Cook once, eat twice
  7. 15Write it down: the ledger
Sample page: Section 1, keeping cool
Section 1 · Keeping cool
Sample page: Section 3, the electric bill
Section 3 · The electric bill
Sample page: large-print edition
Large‑print edition
Sample page: What Each Trick Saves
What Each Trick Saves
IV.
Reader results

What people did with the tricks in the first month.

Public comments under my videos, word for word, with the like count. About the videos, not the book, until the first readers write in.

“So far with the things I have learned in your other videos, my light bill went from $100 a mo to $68 a month. Thxs adopted Grand Ma.”

@jefffoster4303 · 216 likesYouTube

“Grew up in the Mojave Desert and this is exactly what we did in the summer. Sure those 120 days were brutal but the house in the afternoon would be 85. We didn't go out at that time we stayed in and read, sewed or played games. Every thing was done before 9 AM or after 7 pm.”

@joannevans8278 · 173 likesYouTube

“My siblings & i grew up with fans in the summertime; no AC. Higher ceilings too, because we lived in the South, and still do. My Dad had window fans put in the bedrooms, and it made them really cool at night time. Also i think the attic fans really make a big difference in keeping your house much cooler in the summer. i will be trying the mylar window treatment as i have four south facing windows & one west facing one. Thank you Frannie for your house cooling advice.”

@delanelauderdale9099 · 52 likesYouTube
Frannie at her kitchen table
V.
About the author

Frannie.

I grew up in a house where a dollar was expected to do the work of five, and I married in 1973 into one that had even less. My mother kept her tricks in her head and in a notebook nobody else could read. I kept mine in a shoebox of utility bills, a price book I have filled in every week since 1973, and the habit of reading the bill before I pay it.

This book takes what I have been showing on the Frugal Frannie channel and organizes it the way my mother should have been able to: eight sections, one hundred and twenty tricks, every one written down with the price it costs this year and the month I checked it. It is not a book about going without. It is a book about running a house well on what you have, and handing the knowing on to your daughters. My girls have the notebook now. You get the book, and the prices are this year's.

Questions before you buy: write to me. I answer every one. Watch on YouTube →

VI.
Order the Bill Book

$37 once. No subscription. Yours forever.

PDF, 73 pages, first edition, with the large‑print and read‑aloud copies. Delivered by email within two minutes. Phone, tablet, computer, or print it. Thirty‑day money‑back, no questions.

  • Frannie's Bill Book · 73 pages, 120 tricks, first edition
    $37
  • Large‑Print Edition · 134 pages, one trick to a page
    $9
  • Frannie Reads It To You · 86 minutes of audio
    $12
  • What Each Trick Saves · 18 pages of tables with sources
    $9
  • The First‑Weekend Quick‑Start · three jobs, two pages
    $7
  • The Household Savings Ledger · one page to print
    $5
  • Lifetime price re‑checks · every new edition, free
    free
Total value$79
You pay today$37

Each item is also sold on its own at the price shown.

The six files: book, large-print edition, audio on a phone, price sheets, quick-start and ledger
Secure checkout · Stripe
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Thirty‑day guarantee. If the Bill Book isn't what you hoped, send one email and the full price comes back. No questions, no forms, no asterisks. Keep the files either way.
  1. 1. Pay on the secure Stripe page; the statement says Hiraya Media LTD.
  2. 2. The download page opens at once; the six links arrive by email within two minutes.
  3. 3. Try one trick this week and write it in the ledger.
VII.
FAQ

Questions buyers ask before they click.

Seven short answers. The long ones are in the book, and anything else you can ask me by email; I answer every one myself.

Will these tricks work in my climate, up north or down south?

Section 1 is for summer and Section 2 for winter; the other six work anywhere. A house in Texas leans on the foil and the fans, a house in Minnesota on the drafts and the bubble wrap. Each page says where a trick matters most, and where a store or a machine changed the rules, the version that works now.

I'm not handy. Is this still useful for me?

Most tricks need foil, vinegar, a pencil and a little discipline. About a dozen touch the water heater, a tap or a toilet flapper and take fifteen minutes with a screwdriver. Where a job touches gas or the fuse box, the page says to call someone licensed.

How long until I see the savings on a bill?

The three drafts and the water heater dial show on the very next bill. The price book shows in the first month of groceries. Every price in the book is the government's own July 2026 average or my own receipt, with the month named, so you can check the arithmetic against your store.

I rent. Can I still use this?

Yes. Foil, bubble wrap, aerators, power strips, the price book, the laundry and grocery sections and all of waste nothing work in a rental. A few tricks need the landlord's yes; the page marks them.

What format is the book, and can I print it?

PDF, plus a large‑print PDF and an MP3 audio edition. No app, no account, no subscription. They open on a phone, a tablet or a computer, and the large‑print edition is laid out for a home printer. Each part is also sold on its own at the price shown above.

Are there more books coming, and do I pay again?

Every new edition of this one, with each year's prices re‑checked, goes to every buyer by email at no extra charge. If I write a second book, buyers hear first and pay less. Your email is used for that and nothing else.

What if it's not for me, or I change my mind?

Thirty days. One email, full price back, no questions. You keep every file.

Last call

Stop paying $3,000 a year you don't have to.

$37 once. Instant access. 30‑day money‑back guarantee. Most households earn the $37 back in the first month.

Get the Bill Book · $37 →
Pay once · Yours forever
$37 once · 30‑day guarantee
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