so what is my frugality worth?

[canadian gardener]

Ever wonder if it's all worth it?

I was participating in a thread on another site and we were sharing a bit about how we saved. This is what I wrote out, and it's been a while since I looked at it in black and white.

Learn to cut your own hair, using video and books from the library (which is how I started) my savings were 20$ every 3 to 4 months which was a haircut plus tip at the discount place. Probably cuts are cheaper in the States so you might save less. Annual savings for me were 60 to 80$.

Sew your own sanitary pads/use a Keeper or Diva cup in place of pads and tampons. Savings are around 5 to 10$ a month if you "flood" for Canadian priced no name products. So I saved around 100 to 120$ per year. Less for others who don't rip thru a box of 48 tampons, and a bag of pads in one cycle.

Buying low energy flourescent bulbs to replace our electric bulbs. If you just replace the ones that are on a lot first, you will get the MOST bang for your buck. Dh and I saved a little over 100$ last year with this one change alone.

Using the stove less (oven too) and microwave and crockpot more. Individual appliances like electric frypans or kettles use less than their top of the stove counterparts. I found that doing OAMC saved me a lot, I'd bake oven loads, and do many meals at once, freeze them. Then to reheat, just use the microwave.

Using the clothesline rather than the dryer. That is a bit more problematic for me as our family has pollen troubles but I do have and use folding wooden racks indoors. Saves a lot of wear and tear on the clothes too. I haven't worked out my savings there.

Vaccuuming the fridge coils really helps too. I thought I saw someone worked it out something like 5$ a month or so that she saw in her bill after she started to. I do mine first of the month along with the furnace filter which helps keep my furnace running cheaper.

And regarding heating, I run our furnace fan 100% of the time even when the furnace isn't cycling on to reheat the house. It equalizes the temperature and so the furnace cycles less. When we started doing this about 10 years back we noticed a big savings. Something around 5 to 10% of the heating bill. It's been so long I can't remember but dh and I will NEVER go back. The savings are good.

Even keeps it cooler in summer as it pulls the basement air upstairs. And in winter the basement is a few degrees warmer than before. We actually started this habit to help our basement suite tenants, but kept it up due to the savings.

And if you do this you MUST MUST MUST clean the filter religiously once a month or oftener. I have a washable one. Otherwise your furnace has to work harder to push the hot air and bang go the savings from running that fan 100% of the time.

Staying out of debt esp credit card debt. The interest on the debt while you pay it off, more than erases the savings. 18% interest is common in cards, worse for some, better with others but it's still a whack of money you don't need to pay out if you are careful.

Don't lease a vehicle. Friends did, and it's the worst financial move they ever made. Took many years before they got free of that problem. Now they do like dh and I. Buy gently used vehicles, sell for cash when getting too old to maintain cheaply and buy cash with another "new" to us vehicle in good shape.

If you have a paid off car, keep it running till it costs you more to repair than to buy a gently used one. Try to have a running savings account strictly for new wheels when the old one wears out.

Dh and I run one car, not two because with me home, it saves us a bundle. Purchase cost is only the beginning. Licence fees are around 1,200 annually, along with insurance. Gasoline that I don't buy because I stay home would be around 40$ a payday if I was using a car a lot so about 80$ a month. Tires, oil changes, and routine repairs and maintenance add up, so does membership in AAA which is essential if you run older vehicles or get locked out. Car ownership costs us between 200 to 250 a month if you average all that out.

We skip the cost of a second vehicle and save 200 a month for sure. More if we had bought the vehicle on credit or one of the vehicle loans where you pay interest or some kind of hidden charges. There is no such thing as 0% really and truly. They make it somewhere.

And we do payroll deduction for the annual insurance and licence costs plus some other annual fees and stuff like Christmas. That takes care of irregular expenses that otherwise come up to bite you when you forget about them and spend that money as if it was income.

So running one car, without including car loan payments is around 200 a month on the low side, so savings on me not using a second car runs us 2400 a year. That is a fair chunka change, and buys a lot of emergency taxis which was what dh worried about when I first proposed one vehicle.

I figure the savings I mention above conservative estimate around 3K a year. and I save in other areas as well. One thing I don't do is coupons.

Grocery: Probably we would spend a LOT more if I didn't work at this. Right now our costs are 250$ a payday (every two weeks) and before you think I'm a spendthrift, remember this is CANADIAN dollars and canadian prices. American prices and dollars don't quite equate. I figure we could easily run thru 400$ a payday or even more if I shopped like other people. My grocery costs also cover cleaning supplies, medicine, personal care, dog food, paper products, small gifts, entertainment, and some clothing.

conservatively I save around 150 to 200 a payday, I really think it's closer to around 200$ but this is guess work, not science. So 300 to 400 a month, and that means 3600 to 4800 a year in savings. Lets avg it to 4K a year.

here are my main strategies:
Menu plan, OAMC, make a list, shop carefully-- sales-- know your prices, maintain a pantry and a freezer.

Find bread outlets and freeze the loaves etc.

Use no name products when and where possible. Personal care to food, I try it and most of the time I switch to the no name. Usually it's cheaper than a brand name plus coupon and they go on sale too.

shop the dollar stores and discount stores for gifts, cards, small household supplies.

regarding clothing-- I shop carefully, end of season sales, outlets. I usually pay the same for new clothes as they are charging at the resale shops and the charities but not always.

Shop the charities and resale or consignment stores too. SELL stuff to the resale and consignment if you can.

Used books, I often pick up what I know the used bookstore wants, from charity and garage sales, and turn around and sell to the used bookstore for credit (credit is worth more) and that way I can enjoy shopping the used bookstore for interesting books that I can't find in the library.


TOTAL SAVINGS: not really the total, just the guesstimate is 7K per year of after tax dollars. That's a part time job. I'll explain in the next post. I didn't count in what I save on running the furnace the way I do, cleaning the filter, vacuuming fridge coils etc.

Lots of other little savings but about 7K that I am pretty sure of.

[canadian gardener]

There is a hidden savings when you stay home and employ frugality. That is after tax dollars you are saving. They are worth more than the dollars you make at a job. Around twice as much.

You see, my dh has to pay taxes. There is income tax. Union dues, sales tax, hidden tax, tax on our house, tax on the sale of a house when we have to move, tax on services.

When I save that 7K a year that I told you about, he would have to earn 14K to match the buying power of the 7K I saved. WHY?

Because where I live, about half what we earn goes to pay one form of tax or another. So to make 7K of spending dollars, he must first earn 14K in order to be left with 7K.

So my 7K of savings equals a wage worth about 14K a year. Which is a part time position. HOWEVER if I need transportation, child care, and a uniform or work clothing, plus some coffee money for extras at work like gifts for co workers etc-- well those need to be deducted too, SO if I need those, I may find that in order to have 7K left, I need a full time job paying 28 to 30 K a year.

(If I went to work, some of these savings are still possible but realistically, even if I continue to work at frugality other savings are partly eaten away-- I don't pay child care, but transportation and a work uniform or work clothes, possibly dry cleaning bills, possibly union dues or professional association costs, and more conveniance food, some lunches out, some lunch conveniance foods and conveniance cleaners will be part of the picture plus gifts for co workers and that sort of thing).


I'm not saying don't go out to work, for a lot of us, that isn't practical, in order to save some money, there has to be some money coming in,

but it's interesting to look at what we women do around the home, and how it impacts our family finances.

edited to add--after tax dollars look kind of ghostly and unreal for most people.

The tax info is the usual stuff for Canada but I suspect somewhat similar in the States. We are taxed on avg about 50% of our income, when all is considered, not just income but all the other taxes take their bite.

It's interesting because things like sales tax take a bite out of after tax dollars so it's actually a higher percentage. You have to pay tax and dues on the money you earn to pay sales or property tax so it's actually a higher percentage of your earnings than people realize.

So when you save money, and save sales tax on that money, you are actually saving way more of your money than maybe you originally figured.

I think that is hard to wrap the brain around but it's an important part of the equation of frugality whether or not both people work outside the home.

[guest2]

Great ideas here Margery!!!! Thanks so much for posting this!

[canadian gardener]

Something that people don't think of in relation to frugality but I've found is that it allowed me to be the SAHM I always wanted to be, and we used to figure we couldn't afford to let me stay home.

We ended up affording a much nicer lifestyle than I ever could by going out to work at a job for it.

The way I look at it is this, if I go out to work, my employer gets my energy, my mind, my comittment first and foremost in every day. Not my family, they actually get what's left of me after a shift and on my days off.

And when I get paid, where does the first deduction go to? The government for income tax right?

And as I point out above, there are costs to working. And some savings are there for both SAHMs and work outside the home women, but some of the savings become more difficult, the less time and effort you have to spend on the frugality project.

When I stay home, and work to stretch my husband's income, that is ALREADY taxed, I am able to do more with less.

I am able to stay home and manage our home, resulting in stress reduced lives for all of us. By managing laundry, meals, shopping, cleaning, bills, budgeting, garden, and our social lives the stress on all of us goes down.

Our nutrition goes up because I can take the time to plan better meals, and cook them. I am able to spend less money on those meals by fine tuning things like menu planning, shopping, pantry stocking, using a price book system, and freezing or otherwise preserving.

I have the time to shop carefully for clothing at end of season sales, and really hunt the bargains.

I have time to sew gifts, or knit or otherwise create a personal warm gift that didn't cost a lot of money.

I put the best and first part of my energy towards my beloved husband and family. I'm able to make a difference in their lives. I create an oasis of peace for them, and for myself as well.

Along the way, I've been able to take time to homeschool my now adult children through their teen years up till university (and they are both nearly finished their Bachelor degrees in Science).

I've been able to help my kids by providing things like meals and laundry so that they've been able to go take part time jobs which have paid their way through the local university college. Both of them will graduate WITHOUT ANY STUDENT LOAN DEBT and that has been very important to us.

I've been able to help my husband manage a rental business for a while and although my health took a nose dive in the past 7 years, I've been able to manage the savings end of things to be able to stay home, and rest when I need to.

frugality bought us reduced stress levels, and a calm home life, an oasis of peace that my kids and my dh have often thanked me for.

it's not just saving money, it's about affording a better life and peace of mind and heart.

[canadian gardener]

you are welcome Melissa!

It took me some years to think all this out, but finally I understood why it works so well, better than it looks on paper when we first contemplated me being a SAHM again in order to homeschool our teens.

[PrairieRose]

Thanks so much for the validation Margery. I think many of us *know* that it's the right thing for us but when you see it broken down and numbers like that it really makes you feel good about what you spend your life doing. Especially in a world where those of us that choose this lifestyle aren't as valued as career people.