what is your #1 frugal tip??

aka_alisa · 12-19-2001, 10:58 PM

i was wondering...what is the frugal tip that has saved you the most money that you would be willing to share with us???

the tip that has saved me the most money has been to make all my own cleaners.i have saved tons of money by doing this. i was the type of person who would walk down the cleaning isle in wal-mart and go crazy with all the new cleaners!! i have found the homemade cleaners work just the same and in most cases better!!

come on everyone share your tips with us!!!!

**CountryMom** · 12-20-2001, 10:06 AM

Be aware of where your money is going. That can of soda everyday at work or that trip through McDonalds once a week really add up. Write everything you purchase down until you know where your money is going.

Budget, Budget, Budget! And stick to it. If you only budget $200 a month for groceries, only spend $200 a month. (or less

) Make your budget livable. Include an entertainment and a misc catagory, but stick to it.

Also, I always pay myself first. I know after doing my budget that I have X amount of money to put into my savings account. I put that in my savings account first, before I pay anything else. If I don't it usually gets spent on something else.

**Sara Noel** · 12-20-2001, 10:31 AM

I think my best tip is bulk cooking and reusing leftovers. I make large meals, so there are always leftovers.

Ex: Baked chicken one day = chicken fried rice the next day.
A batch of chili I reuse on top of baked potatoes or taco salad.

I make a lot of stews, soups, and roasts. I rely on my crockpot a lot and my rice steamer. :-)

I bake most of our snacks instead of buying them prepackaged too.

I am looking forward to having a new freezer when we move so I can really cook in bulk and freeze.

Sara

**Jerseygirl** · 12-20-2001, 05:50 PM

Avoid impulse buying. If it does not have a purpose, a use that is going to help you in some way, forget it, but do not neglect the things that make life more enjoyable. I've gone without cable, kept to a tight grocery budget, and taken off - season vacations--but when Springsteen is doing a charity show and tickets are $150 each I don't think twice.

**milach** · 12-20-2001, 06:58 PM

I've reduced my electric bill to $40 a month by not using the dryer.

Laura

**MicheleMomof3** · 12-23-2001, 11:51 PM

For us its two things. First one was me learning to cook from scratch. Making things we usually bought at the grocery store. And the second thing has been CurbsideMall/Dumpster Diving. We have saved money by replacing things we needed. Plus we have trashpicked items and sold them.
~Michele~

**Megareader** · 01-01-2002, 09:59 AM

I leave the checkbook and c.cards ( they are locked up ) home, and I do not carry any cash with me to work. If it isn't there, it can't be spent!

**livn4jc** · 01-07-2002, 06:07 PM

Here's one that will save some money-if you have a gas stove-remember what matches are for and turn off your pilot light.

**autumn** · 01-07-2002, 07:33 PM

Make-it, Fix-it, Re-use it, make-do or do without....that is my mantra that I repeat daily. It has saved me big time.

**mustang80** · 01-08-2002, 09:41 PM

Two things that really help us out. Yard saling and couponing. I can save tons of money couponing and picking up things at yard sales. Some things from yard sales go right onto eBay. Easy way to make some extra $$$.

**COUNTRYBUMPKIN** · 01-09-2002, 12:41 PM

I heard of a good one yesterday that I am going to start doing. Buy a cheap box of fabric softner sheets and use them in place of a regular swiffer cloth. I understand that this works just as well, if not better

I also cut my fabric softner sheets into quarters and I get the same results as using a whole sheet in my dryer.

**Bevv** · 01-20-2002, 01:15 PM

Not neccesarily number one, but some of the smaller things I have been doing lately:
You do not have to use as much laundry/dishwasher/fafric softner as the manufacturer recommends,

Dishwasher I do not fill the entra outside cup, only fill the cup with a cap on it 2/3 full..

Clothes washer I used about half the recommended amount

Fabric softner sheets I have been cutting in half

All of the above seem to be working just as effectively, reducing the cost at least by half.

Lets see: refill bottled water bottles from my Reverse Osmosis filter for work

bring my Mountain Dew from home (at around 2.00 per 12 pack) instead of paying .65 each from the machine.

**Gloria** · 01-22-2002, 09:58 PM

This is a very easy one. We have stopped eating out. That seemed to be where our major money leak was. I also keep a price book to compare prices at all my local stores. It really helps to know when a sale is a really good one. Most of the time Aldi can't be beat!

(love these smilies! Had to do Po the teletubby because it's my dd's favorite!)

**TAMA-TOE** · 01-23-2002, 01:00 PM

Well this one may not be for everyone but we saved big time by having our first beef butchered. It was 1.67 per pound and I just can't even buy lean ground beef for that price per pound. We also had our fist pig butchered too, I'm not sure about the price per pound on that but for a half a pig it was 106.00 and there was ALOT of pork to put into the freezer. I also have to say that being more pacient about sales, Sat double coupon day and loss leader shopping. We rent our movies at the video store for 1.97 instead of going to the movies and easily spending 30.00 or more. Shopping at Aldis has saved a ton too. Since moving to a small town of 4500 from Salt Lake City, our whole recreational fun time has taken a 180 too. Before we would eat out every Fri & Sat and either got to a movie one night or rent a ton of movies the other, we never stayed at home. Now we rent maybe one movie, I love to garage sale and estate auctions OMG I love estate auctions, never would of done this in the city. Plus now we are close to my dps and we spend a lot of time just hanging out with them and don't need to spend much enjoying each other. I also do all my dks school shopping when stores have their huge seasonal clearance sales. Right now they are having the fall sales and most everything is at least 50 percent off so I have already went and bought the dks winter clothing for next year. At the end of July they will start clearancing out summer and at that time of course I will purchase summer clothing for the next year. I can say honestly I rarely pay full price for any of my family's clothing sales or clearance always.

**strawberryfire** · 01-23-2002, 04:34 PM

my newest one i'm trying out is where it says save 35c on a product i'm buying, i put that amount in the money box at home. so now i am actually saving it, and as it is normally small amounts that would have been spent had i brought it, i don't miss the money, and at the end of the month, i have a nice treat, to either put in the bank, or put towards something.