There are hundreds of dozens of blogs & forums about frugality, but I'm not interested here in the "philosophy" of frugality in general, or any links to the "same ol', same ol'" -- but rather in your own firsthand personal responses to cutting spending and watching your pennies.
Thank you.
Conservatives should not have to be frugal, liberals should be “sharing their wealth” since that’s what they claim to believe in.
I buckled down and learned how to replace brakes (both pads and rotors) on my truck just yesterday after work. This is no big deal to those who have done it before but I just saved labor costs and now have a new skill, abeit very limited.
I mix white wine with tonic water. It makes like a spritzer, makes the wine last longer, and I don’t get so tipsy.
I inherited the frugal gene from my father and his father in spades. I’d say one of the big things I have done is getting married a couple of weeks ago and renting a different home with my wife from where we were living separately. Total rent per month saved = $450. In order to have enough shelf space for all our books, I decided to stop by the local auction house the other night. Found an old desk with two shelves for books above. Paid $15 for it. Still need a washing machine, a splitting maul, some splittng wedges, and a chainsaw, though. The chainsaw and splitting tools is for my new camp firewood business that this home located outside of city limits will allow me to start.
bmflr
wash and set your own hair - and learn the simple method of cutting your families hair - and do your own nails.
that can save HUNDREDS of dollars a year. (I’ve done this for decades. If I had put the money saved, in a ‘can’, all these years, I’d be sitting pretty.)
Don’t play the ‘buy a new car every 3 years’ game.
My trusty Buick will be 20 years old next year - and then will qualify to register as antique. She still looks good and the motor purrs. The insurance is just over $400 a year - including road service - and registration under $100.
Don’t trade up to a new and bigger house just because you can. Keep yourself in a smaller house with smaller insurance/taxes. And forget ‘cathedral’ ceilings. That’s a lot of square footage to heat - and heat rises, making the warmest place in the house the ‘empty’ space. the ideal house is a story and a half, with the slanted ceilings in the upstairs bedrooms cutting down on heated square feet and enough heat rising up from downstairs to heat the bedrooms enough for sleeping - mega heating money saved.
I could go on - but I won’t ;o)
< grump> Every tip on frugal living is pretty much something I’m already doing, except for some things I can’t afford to do (like installing a wood-burning stove, which I’d love to do but don’t have the money for).
I make out like a bandit at the local Goodwill. I buy brand-new, tags-on Ralph Lauren clothes there and people think I spend a fortune on all the lovely silk, wool, and linen designer clothes I wear. I try never to spend more than $4 on an article of clothing, plus the cost of getting them cleaned before I take them home, even though they’ve never been worn. I have also bought some couture designer samples that may have been worn once in a fashion show—these constitute my ballgowns. The only downside of this is that everyone at my office thinks I’m rich! I’m thinking about buying some of this stuff at Goodwill and at the Habitat for Humanity ReStore and reselling them on Ebay.
Apart from that, I go out into the woods and find firewood, which I drag home, cut, and split for the fireplace. All my lights are on dimmers. I grow my own vegetables, make my own bread, and trim my horse’s feet myself when possible.
I just started making my own laundry soap. It’s easy and very cheap. I used to pay over $10 for Tide Free, now I make 10 gallons at a time for pennies.
Programable thermostat is set to 46 when no one is home, which is most of the time. I’ve used maybe 150 gallons of propane this season. Woodstove is my primary source in the evenings.
Bump for later
I make my own iced mochas at home. Just chocolate milk mix, a little coffee or instant coffee granules, and maybe a few drops of almond or hazelnut extract, mix it all into a tall glass of milk and add ice. Yummy!
Yesterday I canned up some cheese. We don’t eat it often, but we do eat it sometimes, and even with the smallest brick of cheese that usually means more than half of it just sits there growing mold. So this time I diced it into very small jelly jars and canned it, following Jackie Clay’s directions. I also canned up some leftover beef stew. When leftovers are allowed to go bad, it means money is being thrown away, so a canner can quickly pay for itself IF it gets used.
Turns out that the wife of the book's hero had already foreseen this eventuality - a full decade earlier, she had gathered several dozen phone books from the city of Chicago - to be prepared.
We are NOT saving phonebooks, nor hoarding toilet paper, but that scene from the survivalist novel really makes one realize what a THROW-AWAY pampered lot we all are, and how we rely on so many things that could easily disappear if TSHTF. . . . just think of how few plastic bags you'd ever toss away IF you had absolutely nowhere to get another one ever again. . . . .
LOL!!!
ONE SECOND AFTER is about the aftermath of an EMP and raises similar issues.
I write a “frugal” blog, covering everything from dates to grocery shopping, to buying clothes. Today I have posted frugal Valentines food and crafts and yesterday I wrote about our Valentines Day tradition.
I think Frugality is nearly innate. You either have it or you don’t.
My wife and I both do.
Yeah, we forgo some stuff. But I doubt either one of us could actually enjoy the baubles even if we could force ourselves to buy them.
Frugality ideas needed here.
Dave Ramsey Fan Ping List.
If you would like to be added to the “Live like no one else, so that you can LIVE like no one else” list, feel free to Freepmail me.
Personally, I found that by unplugging all appliances (excl. the fridge) and other electric devices when not in use reduced my electric bill by 25%. The only items that are always plugged in at my house is my fridge, main tv items and my alarm clock. I do unplug the alarm clock for the weekends.
In addition, I only brew coffee when I am out of the pot. Every other time I just warm it up in the microwave (after plugging it in of course.) I now only brew 2 pots a week compared with the 5 or 6 pots a week. That has also reduced my coffee expense by 80%.
The Family Dollar store is a great resource if you aren’t to brand loyal for certain items.
The biggest thing we’ve cleaned-up lately is the eating out budget. I looked over bank statements for October, November and December — and realized we were spending $850-$950 PER MONTH eating out.
Starting in January, we put ourselves on a hard-budget of $250/mo. for eating out. We came in at $200 for January — and its really made the finances flow more smoothly.
SnakeDoc
I’m bookmarking this one for reference. Thanks.