10 Changes we’ve made this year
Our family has made quite a few changes this year toward simplifying our lives and our budget. Some required extra work to adjust; others were painless. Some save a significant amount of money, while others were done for different reasons - but resulted in savings as a secondary effect.
- We switched to cloth diapers. This has saved us at least $30/month in disposables diapers, but it also has other benefits I didn't expected. There are no more unplanned trips to the store because we forgot to buy diapers. This saves us $12 in gas every time we don't have to run to town. Even better, there are no more nasty disposable diapers in the trash, tempting scavenging animals to dump our trash and spread it around the yard. The savings will double during the inevitable overlap between new baby and previous toddler. I've never had one baby trained before the next arrives.
- We switched to cloth baby wipes. This was a no-brainer after we switched to cloth diapers. No extra trouble, no extra costs. We do still keep disposable wipes in the diaper bag, since we're not always near a water source to dampen a cloth wipe.
- We canceled weekly trash service. This saves us the $30/month service, and it saves us the cost of the large trash bags that were required. It also saves us the extra fees, stench, and headaches when we missed trash pickup one week and had to pay extra the next week when we put out twice as much. All told, I estimate our savings is closer to $40/month. We began burning our burnables, and I'm pleasantly surprised at how little of our trash is not burnable. The more we cook from scratch, the less packaging we generate. Now that we're cloth-diapering there are no disposables to dispose of. When you don't bring as much into the house, you don't have to dispose of much either.
- We got rid of the electric clothes dryer. It was broken, and we decided not to replace it right away. That was over a year ago. We've kept up through rain and shine, hot weather and cold. This works for us, and probably saves our large family $30-50/month, not to mention the initial investment and space required by an electric dryer. I've also heard that line drying is much gentler on fabric, so our clothes may be lasting longer.
- We skipped the a/c last summer. It was a scorcher, but we acclimated, learned some new tricks for keeping cool, and we made it. This probably saved us $700-800 over the course of the summer.
- We switched to more natural alternatives for deodorant and shampoo/conditioner. Yes, after some initial skepticism, I jumped on the bandwagon. I'm now using and loving my homemade deodorant (the first that has ever really worked for me!) and baking soda/vinegar instead of shampoo/conditioner (my dandruff is finally gone!). It sounds weird, but I'm won over and so are most of the children who are old enough to have opinions.
- We built a chicken coop and bought chickens. In spite of the fact that we had access to many free materials, our "chicken palace" as my dad dubbed it cost us far more than we initially expected. Nevertheless, we think it will be worth it in the long run. We purposely chose breeds that have some setting instinct left in their bird brains - not the absolute best layers, but capable of hatching out replacement populations in the coming years. We're currently getting about a dozen eggs/day out of our flock of 17, at a cost of $10 every 2-3 weeks in feed plus all the scraps our family generates. We think it's a good deal and one less reason to rush to the grocery store. Eggs in the store are $1/dozen, so we're $3/week ahead, but there are other advantages: our eggs are fresh and homegrown, I don't have to find room in my fridge to store 6-8 dozen on shopping day, and chickens are very entertaining to watch.
- I started cooking beans from scratch. After years of believing that our water was simply too hard to soften beans, I finally learned that I was using old beans. Fresh beans cook up nicely in the crockpot and make a hearty, frugal addition to our diet. Beans also helped immensely with my morning sickness. And now that we're not opening cans of beans constantly, our burnable trash declined even more.
- I started making all of our bread, from fresh-ground whole wheat flour. This might not be as much of a savings once we use up all the wheat we received free from some dear friends, but in the meantime it's not only a great improvement in our diet, but is also cheaper than the [far less wholesome] whole wheat bread at the store, and one less reason to rush to town. Incidentally, cinnamon rolls can be made from whole wheat bread dough. I mix up enough dough for 3 loaves, but often shape the 3rd into cinnamon rolls instead. Fast & easy when the dough is already made!
- I started buying more staples in bulk. This may seem like a no-brainer, but I finally bought some gamma lids and started storing 25 lb. bags of flour, white sugar, and brown sugar in easy-open 5 gallon buckets. It's cheaper to buy them this way. Not by a lot, but enough to make it worth my while. It's also far more convenient to pick up one big bag of flour or sugar once in a while than to remember to get one or two every time I go to the grocery store. We use these goods in large enough quantities to make the big bags a worthwhile convenience even if the savings were minimal.
Next?
- We're hoping to install a woodburning stove, though it probably won't happen this year.
- We'd like to get a milk goat - or maybe even a Jersey to share with the local extended family if I can talk everyone into it.
- We're looking at reducing our cost for hot water - maybe like this, or this, or simply by installing a timer and using it mercilessly.
What changes have you made this year? What changes do you hope to try next year? Will any show up on your list of New Year's Resolutions?
related posts:
- Cloth diapers: why I shunned them for 15 years. Why we switched. I have 9 children now, and I used disposable diapers...
- New month, new you Last month, I switched to cloth diapers and homemade laundry...
- Monthly challenge for February cwaltz suggested a monthly challenge for frugal hackers. In the...
- Poll: cloth diapers Now that you know why I made the switch from...
- Shopping Once A Year? For some time now, I have been mulling over in...
20 Responses to “10 Changes we’ve made this year”
December 9th, 2009 at 1:50 pm
all good.. but #3…. i know some environmental person will question the burning that you do.
December 9th, 2009 at 2:53 pm
What type of pail do you put your gamma lid on and where do you get it?? I could use those for all kinds of things!
December 9th, 2009 at 2:56 pm
I like all of your money saving ideas. I do not know if I could ever go back to not using an air conditioner in this part of Texas; unless we were destitute I do not want to even try. I do how ever hang our laundry. If my husband would help me I would give our dryer away. It just takes up space in my small laundry room.
I would like to have a few chickens. I do not think the neighbors would like it though. I would also like to have a bigger garden than we have. That is a goal I have set for next year.
I remember years ago my grandfather burned the trash for our large family and a nursing home he and my grandmother owned and operated.
December 9th, 2009 at 3:01 pm
Mark,
I realize some will question that decision, but I hate the very existence of landfills, and recycling paper is notoriously inefficient. Maybe we’ll start composting our paper trash. That should keep everyone happy.
JS,
Gamma lids snap firmly onto nearly any standard bucket – mine are mostly 5 and 6 gallon buckets that held wheat.
Roxie,
What part of Texas are you in? We’re in the San Antonio area. As I said, it was a brutal summer, but we really acclimated over the course of the season. Now we’re getting used to cooler temps again.
December 9th, 2009 at 3:19 pm
I use old frosting buckets that I get from somewhere that makes cakes or pastries. They are around 5 gallons and hold the gamma lids nicely. The best part is, that I was able to get these buckets for free by asking at the local donut shop.
December 9th, 2009 at 6:18 pm
Is there anything that can be burned safely that can’t be composted instead? Composting is definitely the better choice environmentally! (I assume, at least, that you’re not doing something as hazardous to your OWN health as burning plastic.)
We also canceled our trash service years ago; only four of us in the family but we’ve managed to only produce one can of trash and one of recycling per month. We go to the dump about 4 times a year to get rid of it.
December 10th, 2009 at 8:28 am
Thanks so much for the link to the bean cure for morning sickness. I have a friend who is struggling with that so will pass the info on to her.
December 10th, 2009 at 9:54 am
great list! i’ve done most of those things out of necessity or choice over the years. i really miss our chickens.
i have been researching living in brazil and found it interesting that they rarely have clothes dryers. everyone hangs their laundry and they have interesting contraptions they have made for those in tiny apts. they also don’t use AC very much but instead use fans, windows and sleep in hammocks in the hallways to catch the breeze.
once we move out of campus housing next summer, i look forward to having a garden again and maybe some chickens.
December 10th, 2009 at 2:09 pm
We LOVE our Gamma lids…they are so much nicer to twirl open than the old pry-open ones.
We have cut our furnace use to about 5% of what we normally use. With 11 and 13 year old boys, we’ve got wood-choppers now, and we’re heating with wood (from our property) 24/7. I personally LOVE the chore of waking up in the morning and getting the fire going. It heats 75% of our 3400 square foot home…VERY worth it!
One change we have made is to stock our ‘emergency supplies’ slowly over time this past year. Now, we’re making more of our menus based on simpler eating, and sometimes using an emergency item. While this might not be saving money in the short-term, it’s changing my thinking on meal-planning and I’m not pursuing a gourmet meal for every dinner! (I love cooking…and our budget has been waaay too high because of it.)
We also spent almost no $ on school the past two years. We based our kids’ education nearly entirely on what we have in our home library, and supplemented with things from our public library. It’s been a wonderful change, and I love the fact that the kids are reading what we’ve already invested in! Our main investment this year was a Latin program for our oldest (17), because our town library stopped offering Rosetta Stone for free (sooo wish we’d hopped on that train while it was still running!)
December 10th, 2009 at 8:29 pm
We did the same thing with the dryer. It broke, i didn’t want to spend the money for a new one so we put out a clothes line and my son and I had fun outside more often. I love hanging out clothes.
December 10th, 2009 at 11:09 pm
We burn a lot of our trash, too. I don’t really believe it’s any worse for the environment than sending it to a landfill would be. If we had a paper shredder I’d compost more of it.
We finally got our corn boiler up and running. Next winter we hope to hook up the woodstove. No spare funds for that this year.
Next year I think I’ll try your vinegar and baking soda shampoo- I gave up this year.
We are using our drier through the winter, but we hooked up a pulley clothesline from our deck to a tree across the yard this summer, and it was great.
We are raising two cows for beef, and housing a third for a friend. I would love to have a chicken coop again (we’ve done milk goats and chickens in previous homes).
We’ve been using 100 percent whole wheat for almost all our baking (except a few holiday items each year) for years. But we’re still doing the old pry-open lids. I’ll have to look into the gamma lids!
December 10th, 2009 at 11:11 pm
Oh- we can’t cancel our trash pick-up- two other families dropped trash off here.
We have lived in places where you could not cancel your trash pick up- it was required by law, whether you had any trash or not (and we generally didn’t have enough to fill even one can each week back then).
December 11th, 2009 at 5:48 pm
Good tip about cloth diapers. Suggested that to my daughter-in-law when my grandson was born a month ago, but so far she hasn’t heeded my advice. Maybe next year. Here’s how I saved this year. I put a timer on my water heater and scaled back cable to the most basic package. Savings approximately $70 a month. I switched from a cell phone contract to a good prepaid service called Straight Talk. My savings (when you compare my $45 a month for an unlimited plan to the average cell phone bill of $81) is $36 a month. It may not seem like much, but when you add just those 3 items, I’m saving about $106 a month. That’s more than 1,200 a year.
December 12th, 2009 at 10:40 pm
I noticed “burning trash” on your list of chores for which your kids are responsible. That reminded me of the trash incinerator in the back yard of the brand-new duplex my parents bought in 1966, in the Denver metro area! I don’t know how long they actually burned trash there, probably until the infamous “brown cloud” resulted in all kinds of emissions limits. As I remember, the incinerator was located next to the clothesline – one wouldn’t want to burn trash next to drying laundry, I suppose. . . .
December 13th, 2009 at 1:58 pm
I’d love to cancel our trash, but we can’t burn because of township laws. We also use cloth diapers, as well as rags and napkins instead of paper, and recycle everything possible, so we usually only put out a grocery-sized bag or two. Any suggestions on what to do with animal scraps, especially in the summer when they start to stink quickly? I already freeze chicken scraps for broth, but I don’t know what to do with fish and deer scraps, or kitchen grease.
Our trash service accepts up to 20 large bags of trash per week. Oh. My. Goodness! No wonder we pay $30/month.
December 14th, 2009 at 4:51 pm
Renee,
We just put our animal scraps in the compost. I know this is supposed to be a no-no, but our chickens eat everything before it ever composts, so there’s no chance for it to stink or draw predators.
December 15th, 2009 at 1:24 am
Renee — we only produce about one supermarket size bag of rubbish every couple of weeks. We freeze inedible meat related scraps in a separate bag from our stock-scraps and just get it out on trash day.
December 31st, 2009 at 8:05 am
Wow, you all are doing great! Lets see, we sold our 3300sf-3500sf for a 700sf apt. house that we use to rent but now live in. No more $500.00 ac bills in the summer, of assoc. fee, or mortgage.
I really miss that.
We switched to no store bought shampoo or conditioner.
When the dc were little we did use cloth diapers and wipes, we have used cloth kitchen napkins for years.
I use to buy in bulk when we lived in the bigger house but now we have no room
We still have a long way to go but are working on it.
March 5th, 2010 at 6:28 pm
It would be awsome to get a cow!! I get fresh farm milk, and make all kinds of things! Butter, sour cream, buttermilk, yogurt, and have even tried cheese (cheese is a lot of work and uses a lot of milk, but if you had a cow you’d have tons of milk, AND you have helpers). The taste is superior, but the health benefits of raw, organic unpasturized milk are really huge. Also, I enjoy projects and teaching them to my girls (and you have plenty of them). And you’d never run out of milk! But I have heard that goat’s milk is great for children and even babies. The cream doesn’t separate, so you couldn’t make butter or sour cream.
March 12th, 2010 at 4:31 pm
I have read you use a crockpot. Have you tried a pressure cooker? They are the ultimate frugal tool! They cook in very little time (even dry beans) and save lots of energy, time and work. I think pressure cookers are the frugalite’s best friend!!!
Leave a Comment