Frugal Follies

[Shell]

As I was making dinner tonight and wondering how I could use up the extra peas from last night and left-over tomatoes from today, I thought the two things I really have to work at on frugality is waste (such as leftovers) & want (such as wanting more clothes)

I guess you could call these my weaknesses. When you have a closet full of clothes it is just foolish & selfish to want more.

I also think, what a waste it is throwing out old food that I should have used up days ago.

I'll keep trying though. So, what are your frugal follies?

[ewokgirl]

I'm bad with the food, too. It's just my DH and me, so sometimes our leftovers just aren't eaten. I freeze some stuff if I think about it, but usually it all just goes in the fridge.

And yeah, I'm guilty of wanting stuff I don't need. Clothes, shoes, books, craft stuff. Sometimes it's hard when commercialism is so in our faces at all times.

My most recent stupid purchase was a $40 pot that was big enough to do some canning. I just wanted to try canning. I tried it, didn't enjoy that much, will probably never do it again. I now have a superfluous large part and a bunch of empty jars.

[Missy]

mine are kids stuff and food.

[Persimmon Lace]

My is food and losing things sometimes and buying another to replace it, at which time you find the one you lost!

Ewokgirl, the big pot can come in handy for a lot of things, when I've had to boil a lot of water or put water up for usage during a water outage and the empty jars can be used to store stuff in. I have quart jars storing wheat berries right now.

[autumnlynn]

Mine is definitely food. I need to do more cooking from scratch and have better preparation. I also need to use my crockpot more to avoid last minute fast food runs.

[lottaLove]

I need to stop being forgetful Last night I forgot the carton of eggs on the counter all night, so theres a whole caton minus 2 eggs in the trash. Sometimes I will forget that I left a pot of something on the stove after dinner, and so the leftovers will go bad.

[nuisance26]

~I stay at home and on top of the little things so they aren't my weakness. The biggest 'folly' for DH is entertainment expenses. He spent twice what was budgeted. In 2007 I plan to up his entertainment allowance and give it to him in cash, not just written in the ledger. Another big hole for us is gifts we give to us. DH bought me a carpet shampooer for mothers day that cost $500. Eeps! Sean's tastes are very premium, which is sweet because he wants to spoil me, but painful when I see the number in the ledger. I'm considering a cash allowance for gifts for him too. That way he controls his spending AND I don't have to see what he spent. These 2 areas are 9% of our income. That's really scary to me! My personal weakness are thrift shop clothes($25 month) and craft supplies($10 month) but both are well below what I budget so no pain there, just waste. 90% of the time I don't need that craft doo-dad or pretty shirt, I just want to satisfy my urge to buy something.~

[ironmaiden]

Mine is solving "problems" by buying stuff. And by problems I mean things like "Oh, there's not enough stuff for the kids to do at church" and I go shopping or "DD needs to work on her pencil skills" and go out and buy expensive workbooks. I need to try and be creative instead.

[starsapphire]

I'm bad about buying chicken breasts and either not getting around to separating and freezing them so they go bad, or I manage to freeze them but then I'll thaw them out to cook them and then I don't cook them in time and they go bad.

Not all leftovers get eaten.

I'll buy a celery bunch for two stalks and not use the rest and it goes bad. I quit buying lettuce (unless I'm making salad) a long time ago for the same reason.

[Sara Noel]

Mine is definitely movie rentals. It's at its peak when all my shows are at the end of the season. (like now) My web "hobby" is quite expensive too, but that will always be budgeted in. (I guess that's a good thing) lol

Very few leftovers get trashed here because Gabe comes home from work for lunch.

As a family overall, our weakness is entertainment. I don't think it's outta control though. Many "no spend" family fun days and outings too.

I was starting to have a thrift store problem. Sounds crazy, but it was becoming addictive and I was buying just because stuff was cheap. I cut way back on that.

[Bethany]

We love to eat out. We're curbing it big time, but it's still a weakness. I don't buy clothes except for thrift. When I do buy shoes (which is not often) I ususally spend 50 dollars a pair. But, they do last for years and years. I can't get around not throwing food away. I often times throw away fresh veggies or leftovers at the end of the week because I didn't get around to using them up. Gotta work on that. Oh yeah, I like an occasional ice coffee on the road, too. I've gotten much better with that though.

[dcompton]

I relate to Lottalove and forgetfulness. Me too. I hate it when I come home from work, and there sits something on the counter. The worst forgetting was one night when I filled a crock pot with chicken breasts (I usually cook overnight with it) and came out in the morning to find I had forgotten to plug it in. Boy, did I feel dumb.

Fresh produce is a problem. I buy it with the best of intentions, but often don't get around to using it, and end up tossing it, especially things that go bad fairly quickly like summer squash. I've tried to make it a rule that anything like that I buy I have to cook when I get home, but often after the shopping I am just to tired, and days pass and .... there we go again.

I also have a distressing tendency to leave lights on. I'm working on that one.

[DixieJ]

Groceries is were I need to be more frugal. I spend too much at grocery store and I'm having a problem getting it down. I always tend to cook too much and it gets thrown out. I can't get hubby to eat leftovers so I need to learn to start cooking less.

Dixie Jean

[ironmaiden]

For the leftover phobic, freeze. Cook a meatloaf, eat half, freeze the rest.

Leftover veggies become stir fries, fried rice, omlets, thrown into soups, quiches.
Leftover rice becomes fried rice or stuffed peppers.
Leftover spaghetti becomes frittata.
Leftover potatoes become latkes, potato pancakes, shepherds pie.
Leftover hamburger becomes tacos, shepherds pie.

I have a list that I call "what's for dinner". I write a list of ideas cause we were always asking "what's for dinner". I have a hamburger list, pork list, etc.

And for those not into writing a weekly menu, during dinner cleanup, the question should be "what's for tomorrow's dinner". This way you pretty know how tomorrow's schedule is going to be - whether you'll be home early or running around like a nut and can plan accordingly.

[thriftstorequeen]

Mine is picking up little things for my kids and grandkids and others. Somehow it seems ok to spent money on others.