tell me three frugal things you do

[forestdale]

that help save you the most money.

#1
For me, I am debt-free and own my own home, when we were still paying off the mortgage, we always put extra money into our payment - even if it was $5 extra, whatever we could afford, we used on the house payment. It makes a huge difference, particularly if it's an ongoing thing. We paid our house off in 8 years and saved ourselves tens of thousands of dollars in interest payments.

#2
I make my own laundry detergent, dog food, bread, cookies, cakes and anything and everything I can from scratch. I like doing this, it feels like a big contribution to our family budget, and we know exactly what goes into what we consume.

#3
I gave up buying magazines and books and now use my local library. I was a magazine and book junkie. I still am I suppose, but now I think I read a wider range of things because often what I want is not immediately available so I read something that I might not have chosen. I've discovered a lot of good things doing this.

What are your three things?

[QuilterMom]

1.) Our credit cards are paid off so we're not racking up even more debt with the interest. There are times we have to use them, but they are paid in full when the bill arrives.

2.) Utilizing the library, especially since we're homeschooling! If I purchased every book, video, magazine, cd, dvd, etc. that we have checked out we'd be more than broke! Any magazines we do receive at home are freebie subscriptions or ones that were given to the recipient as a Christmas gift. We do have a ton of books and videos, but I heavily shop thrift stores and yard/garage/rummage sales for them.

3.) Scratch cooking and in combination with that, shopping heavily for sale items and loss leaders. Our meals are planned based on what we have in the house, which is based on what's on sale.

[kimmee]

1. we never eat out or by fast food.
2. we never use outside help for anything.
3. I do all the care on my animals - i have studied veterinary medicine and I can buy amoxicillan and I care for our animals in that regard - raymond is our most recent livind proof that I know what I am doing...

[kymom]

1 I make all food from scratch. From butter to salad dressings.

2 I sew or rework all our clothes. We never buy anything "new"

3. I make all cleaners and soaps.

I also do most of our medicines too. We are stuck in the city at the moment. And all the neighbors think I am totally wierd lol I wear long skirts most of the time and I will set on our tiny porch and sew. They just stare at me lol

Our budget is very very limited so I do everything I can to help us get by.

A very nice woman here on the board gave me some fabric. When it gets here I am redoing a pair of jeans and a shirt for my daughter Aja. She thinks she is a hippy lol

So it will make cool bellbottoms and trim. I use sheets to make myself skirts and overall dresses. Sheets also make nice shirt for my son Zach.

The girls and I all have long hair so I will take the ends of fitted sheet and use it to make scrunchies! I use reuse and reuse again everything.

We go to the library daily. They have a sale 3 days a month. We get tons of books for 25 cents each. My dh bought a bunch of professional car repair books<50 or more of them> for 12 dollars. Got them home and made 25 dollars fixing a neighbors car!So they paid for themselves. I do all the hair cuts and styles.

And I am teaching myself to be the animal doctor now.

Oops! went on and on lol

[sunshine]

~pack my lunches and drinks for work (I saved $80/month when I started doing this nearly 10 years ago)

~shop garage sales and thrift stores FIRST for needed items

~garden, can, glean and accept blemished produce to put up

[pip]

....pay off credit cards in full immediately
....avoid fast food, if at all possible
....talk with my kids frequently about how buying things does not equate happiness

[PrairieRose]

We paid our home off about 11 years early by making snowball payments.

Do almost all of our home repairs and improvements ourselves.

Dh is an avid gardener and we eat all summer a long time into the winter from the garden and freezer.

I shop sales and stock up on loss leaders and sale items for the pantry.

We eat most meals at home (less now than when we had 3 kids at home).

I make most of my cleaners.

[forestdale]

thanks for all these hints for living well within frugal limits. I'm sure they will help others who stumble across this thread.

anyone else with anything to add?

[Chea]

Hang up my laundry to dry, reuse and conserve water wherever possible (cuts down on utilities!)

Buy all our clothes at the thrift store. MASSIVE savings there!

Paid off the c.c.'s!

[nodmicks]

-pack Dh and my lunches for work. Our oldest son is allowed 3 hot lunches out of 5 at school. Our youngest maybe takes 2-3 hot lunches a month(we give him 5$ of his own for taking cold most of the month this is his choice- hes pickey so it's easy@1). I think it helps teach the kids the corelation between lunch and cash.

-we have done all our home maintence the last 6 yrs since becomming home owners. Thank heavens for handy friends and family to tewach us as we go!

- I shop sales, secon hand, bread stores etc.

[blueknitter]

We shop Aldi's and loss leaders for the bulk of our shopping, though we're now finding the odd bargain at Sam's since DH's work pays half the membership.

I get about 95% of our clothes for the whole family at an annual fire dept. garage sale for less than 20.00.

We heat with wood, since we can't get propane delivered reliably up on our "mountain" as DS calls it.



I did my first major canning this year, and having all those green beans and tomatoes on the shelves takes a lot of weight out of my shopping budget, as those are the two biggest veggie staples we rely on.

[Ellise]

~ I do OAMC and have been for about 10 years now saves on groceries

~ We do most of the repairs on Autos, house and yard ourselves (just because dh doesn't think anyone will do it right)

~ I've learned how to sew (Thanks Dee) and Quilt ( Thanks CJ) that will cut down on the heating costs. As well as using our Kerosene heater.

~ I make all of our pets treats from scratch as well as most of our food and snacks. I want to learn about making my own flours. I know CJ was talking about it at one time.

~ Want to learn more about canning

[guest2]

~I got myself a job at the library so I get first dibs on all the wonderful new books, videos, DVDs and Books on tape that come out! Since we homeschool, this is a blessings, plus my "perk" is getting to waive any of our overdue fines! Oh yeah, the extra money is helping to pay off debt too!
~I shop sales, use coupons, cook from scratch, buy in bulk, garden and can to cut down on costs. I also have a nice stockpile going on certain items. I cut DH and 1 son's hair and my hubby and I cut mine. The 2 other sons get their's cut here in town by a hairdresser and pay for it themselves.
~We are blessed that my parents have provided us with wonderful vacations and music lessons for the kids. They have flown us to Hawaii numerous times (we are going again in November), taken us all to Disneyland and now have built a beautiful home on a lake in Montana that we actually have used more than they have. DH and I have been able to save up money to take the boys to Canada on vacation and up to Lake Chelan several times going off season so that our costs are about 1/3 of what they would be in the high season.
~My husband is a carpenter and has been able to get free or low cost materials to fix or improve our home. So far he has replaced all the bedroom and kitchen windows, built a shed with recycled materials and got carpeting and padding for free (that has yet to go in). He also replaced an old glass sliding door with a new to us one gotten for free from a remodel and replaced our laundry room door with a windowed door (gotten for $70 from a remodel). For Christmas this year, he and the boys are redoing my kitchen. They are going to paint all the cabinets and walls, rip out and build me a kitchen "command" center and use a low dresser that we were given for extra storage in the kitchen. They are also replacing all the countertops and some of the cabinet shelving.

[Telephus44]

Someday I hope I reach the point when I can do many of the frugal things listed above - right now I'm just starting out married life and DH and I are still about a year off from buying a house, so I don't have a lot of the space or time (we both work fulltime) to do everything I want to do - but someday we'll get there. For now:

*Stockpile - we always have a huge stockpile of HBAs and certain grocery items I can get free or cheap with coupons. This cuts down on the food budget and has made our HBA budget non-existent
*Stretch what I do buy when I can - dilute shampoo, most household cleaners, laundry soap, I cut my dryer sheets in thirds, I cut open tubes of hand cream to get out the last little bit, I boil chicken bones to make soup.
*Talk with DH about money - they say that a lot of marraiges end because of couples fighting about money. DH and I made a plan and we talk about it all the time - whenever we go grocery shopping, when the phone bill gets here, when we balance our checkbooks. We still have some stuff that is separate, but I know how much CC debt he has and he knows how much I owe on my student loans. Each small victory we have just keeps up more on track towards our eventual goals - house and kids.

[Darlene]

I reserve the right to add to this in the morning.

We put all extra $$ into paying off our home asap. We now are mortgage free.

Do not worry about what your neighbors have or do. Chances are they are in debt for what you think is so wonderful. Guess who sleeps better at night?

If you can't afford it and pay it off immediately do not buy it. Chances are you can find creative ways to get what you need.

The library and community newspapers are a wealth of wonderful free, enjoyable family activities.

Barter or swap. You have something someone else needs or wants...make a deal.

Keep an open mind, try new things, meet new people, learn new things. Most of all talk to people, lots of advice, conpanionship,laughs & giggles to be had for free. enjoy!