Cheerful Frugality In The Lean Times

Great Post! It is hard to keep finding ways to save, especially beyond the “obvious.” I’m grateful that we have an Aldi’s in our community – yesterday I was able to do a restock of my pantry for only $40. I’m always delighted by how much food I can get for so little!

We’ve found some new corners to cut this year. They may sound extreme to some, but we have found them worthwhile for us:

Big items:

We line dry all of our own clothes. We have a large family so we generate a lot of laundry. We estimate that this is saving us $50/month.
We are skipping the a/c. This is saving us $150-200/month.
We switched to cloth diapers. Savings: $30/month.

Smaller ways to save:

We started using baking soda & vinegar instead of shampoo and conditioner. We also switched from antiperspirants to a homemade concoction which has shocked me by working better than anything I’ve ever used! We don’t do these things for the savings, but that’s a nice little perk. Savings: $15/month.
Like cloth diapers, we now use cloth feminine products. With lots of girls in our house, this will add up to greater and greater savings over the upcoming years. Current savings: $15/month.
We make our own laundry soap. Savings: $10/month.
We invested in chickens this year. They live primarily on scraps so feed cost is minimal. Once they start laying, we’ll save $30-50/month on eggs and might have extra to share or sell.

Future plans:
We hope to install a woodburning stove to heat the house this winter. We expect to save $400-600 this winter.
We are considering a milk goat. This should save us $30-40/month minus the cost of feed.
We have talked about using passive solar energy to preheat our water, significantly reducing the energy consumed by our water heater. This is rather common here in south Texas. I estimate that it might save us $15-20/month, though I admit that’s nothing more than a wild guess.

Go hang out at the library in the how-to section or search the internet. Amy of Tightwad Gazzette has an article about learning to make muffins instead of searching around for on sale muffins that covers this idea. What is something you pay others to do? Auto maintence, birthday cakes, haircuts, landscaping, mending or alterations, basic home repairs? Go research it and see if you think you can do it. Your efforts may be sub-par the first few times but if you keep at it you gain skill as well.

We have a large family so Sam’s club works for us. We buy their big bsgs of shredded cheese and freeze it in quart size bags. The gallon size cleaners cam be diluted into small spray bottles and is less expensive than buying individual ready mixed cleaners.
Aldi is great! Their produce is much better than Walmart’s and less expensive. I also learned this week that their milk and eggs are hormone free.
My neighbors and I all grew gardens this year and are sharing different vegetables that others may not have grown.
I’m interested in the cloth femenine products kimc mentioned. Can you share more of how you do this, what they’re made out of, ect.?
Living in the city we can take the bus instead of driving. At .25 a trip that has to save on the gas budget!
A local church has .25 clothing. Ther are places like this in every community. Just ask around.
We shop at a bread outlet store that has less expensive bread and also has a punch card for $1 off when full.

-Put a moratorium on bottled drinks. If your tap water needs some help, buy a pitcher water filter and buy refill cartridges in bulk.
Brew your own iced tea. Buy milk by the gallon at Aldi or the like. If you need to, use powdered milk. Keep it nice and chilled and mix 50% with “traditional” milk.

-get back to basics with breakfast. Aldi store brand cereal is remarkably like the popular brands, but less than 50% the cost. Buy a container of quick oats and add sides per your taste (brown sugar, cinnamon, raisins). Omlettes are a good way to utilize leftover veggies and small chunks of cheese. Purchase coffee in bulk if you belong to a warehouse club (Costco offers delicious beans for about $4/lb. Make breakfast burritos with flour tortillas, scrambles egg and small amounds of breakfast meat; freeze individually for convenience.

- Think outside the box for snack items. Buy a bag of corn kernels and pop your own at home. Pretzels, purchased in bulk, are a great snack with chunks of cheese. Peanut butter on toast is a nutritious treat.

-have 2-3 meatless meals per week. Simplify your menu and your grocery list. Homemade pizzas on Friday night. Homemade burritos can be filled with much more than ground beef; grilled chicken, leftover breaded fish, strips of pork all make delicious alternatives, especially if they are leftovers or items found on sale.

-even store bough cake mix is a less expensive dessert alternative. Make cupcakes and freeze. A pan of brownies is also quite economical. Bake up some oatmeal raisin cookies, using ingredients you purchased in bulk.

-shop at home first. Challenge yourself to have an “eat from the pantry/freezer week once in awhile.

-buy fruit/veggies that are in season. No reason to pay $3/pint for mediocre blueberries in January. Enjoy what is bountiful and inexpensive when the season is right!

I’ve been frugal for my entire life and find that a lot of it comes down to contentment and attitude. Frugality is a good challenge and I try to keep it fun.

Some things I would suggest are to look at all outgoing income carefully. There is always a way to do something more frugally.

Look at the big and small expenses. Learn to do as much as you can for yourself. Focus less on material items and more on doing. Learn a hobby that is fun and saves money. Spend quality time with those you love.

With God’s help, good frugal choices, and gratitude, we are maintaining on what some view as impossible. If we can do it, then I know many others can too.

I’ve saved a lot on diapers by using EC (elimination communication) instead of traditional diapering. Even when used part-time it greatly reduces diaper use – I used it with my second daughter but hadn’t know about it before my first. My younger daughter was down to two diapers a day (including night!) by 16 months, and many children using EC are completely out of diapers by that age.

Just FYI: In my area, powdered milk is more expensive than fresh milk right now. A box of powdered milk from Aldi makes up for about $2/gallon, but milk is regularly sold here for $1.98/gallon, with sales going even lower (I’ve seen $1.35/gallon). Just make sure you don’t go with what seems more frugal and end up spending more in the long run.

First, decide what you really need. If you are like me, you need to shop your home (garage and attic). I am a packrat and forget that I have things. Shopping at home, first, is the cheapest.

Then, look on Freecycle (for it free), Craigslist (for really cheap or free) and ask. You don’t need to beg, but when someone asks me about the best thrift store, or cheapest office supplies, I give them my advice. But, I also ask what they are looking for to see if I have it and am willing to part with it. What goes around, comes around.

In my darkest days, I would want something like a Corningware set. The table/oven/fridge type with lids. Of course it was out of the question, even second hand. One day, my neighbor stopped by to ask about thrift stores. I gave my advice and asked her what she was looking for at the thrift stores. She wanted to donate her mother’s Corningware set!! Oh!! MY!! She could see I was excited and asked if I wanted it. YES!!

I had given her things over the years when she was looking for them and was delighted I wanted her mother’s oven ware. Poverty (I was sooo poor) doesn’t mean you can’t share things with other people. It usually comes back to you.

Amy Dacyczyn gives excellent advice here – always (ALWAYS) accept what is given to you. People give me weird things. If I cannot use them, I pass them on. If they are not usable, I throw them in my garbage can. But, I always thank them. If I use them, I tell who ever gave them to me all about how I use it. But I have gotten lots of things that tided me over rough times – a bag of boys clothes that I brought to the consignment shop. I got enough credit at the store to buy my daughter back-to-school clothes.

Now, for entertainment, we go to the library for books, audio books, movies and air conditioning. They have children’s activities and teen activities.

We go to the YMCA on the days that everyone can swim for $2 – in 100 degree heat, it is the one “optional” activity we have. There are movie theaters that have free shows in the morning for the kids. They are second run movies, but fun!

But, I think some of the best advice is to stay out of the stores and off the road. No money gets spent that way.

I’m going to come at this question from a different angle. If you listen to Dave Ramsey’s radio show, you’ve heard him occasionally tell someone that they have an income problem rather than a spending problem.

A few things to consider if your income is really, really minimal –

Did you get a tax refund this year? Have you had a baby in 2009? Adjust your withholding and bring home a bigger paycheck.

Did you pay someone to prepare your tax return? Please, if your income consists primarily of wages, don’t pay a tax preparer – do it for free online with any of the big software names (TurboTax, etc.) or look into free tax assistance. Here in San Antonio you can have your taxes done at no cost at Goodwill.

If you didn’t file a tax return for 2008, it’s not too late to do so, and you may be due a refund.

Get creative to bring in extra income. Yes, even a stay at home mom with young kids can do this. Can you babysit occasionally? How about giving music or voice lessons, or tutoring? Could your husband or son mow a couple of lawns or wash a couple of cars? Have you ever cashed in aluminum cans rather than throw them in the recycling bin for the city’s benefit? My husband and I take a plastic bag on our walks and pick up discarded aluminum cans for recycling – as an Army family we’ve lived all over the country and have always found a recycler willing to buy our cans.

Perhaps you could register with a temp agency and pick up an occasional weekend job (to save on child care.) Product demonstration comes to mind. . . .

One of my money-making schemes is opening bank accounts when a cash bonus is offered. Chase offers bonuses almost continually and will allow you to open one personal and one business account per year. I just opened one to get a $100 bonus which will go into my Christmas gift fund – the requirement for the bonus is an initial deposit of $100 and 5 debit transactions (no minimum amount) within 60 days. This scheme works well as long as you pay attention to account requirements and avoid all fees.

Have you ever searched for money being held on your behalf by the state? There’s a link for this service at http://www.stretcher.com. It’s quick and free and you might just discover a forgotten utility deposit or bank account; this year we received a $25 refund being held by the state of Kansas on my husband’s behalf.

In the past I was able to receive credit for a utility deposit we made when we moved into a different home. Once we were customers of the utility for one year, the deposit was available to offset our bill – but I had to ask for it.

Hope this helps!

Susan in San Antonio

Cutting out the internet would be cutting out a source of income for us. It would cost us more than it would save us.

Even for those who don’t make money online, it can be a frugal way to keep in touch with friends- saving phone bills and postage.