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The Frugal Lifestyle
You're cheap, huh? Ol' miser? Don't spend a dime for anything, not even air? Or, perhaps you're the other side of things and want to learn how to do it? I joined, earlier this year, a frugal website. The reality is that with the recent economy I realized that a) was living beyond my own means and b) had "stuff" (see YouTube of George Carlin on "Stuff") that really didn't need to have.
[ame="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MvgN5gCuLac"]YouTube- George Carlin Talks About "Stuff"[/ame] So for those who want ideas on how to be frugal; have ideas to be frugal; want support to be frugal; etc. this would be the place to hang around. A few sites to help: Retail Me Not: a great place to find coupons for online sites ThunderFAP (Freebies Archive Page): free "stuff"! (samples) |
Such an intriguing topic. I am a hoarder trying to reform. I have stripped down on the books but still have enough to fill two 6' bookshelves.
I have some great recipes to help a frightened budget (which is what my aunt titled them when she gave them to my mother in 1960-63). |
I have retired because of health reasons. It has really affected/effected what I spend my money on. Coupons are a must do each week. I use several websites like Coupon Bug, and another one, plus I trade things with others (veggies, etc.).
With the economy down the toilet, I think it has influenced everyone. I am not sure of what is going to happen in the future. It has made me think long and hard about what I spend my money on. |
I have never been a frugal person, but in the last couple of years, have been on a journey to purge unnecessary stuff from my life. It feels good to get rid of clutter.....I'm not done yet! :rolleyes:
Also, since it's just me in my home, I have no reason to heat this whole house, so I have a space heater that is easy to move. If it gets really cold at night, I throw an extra quilt on the bed.... |
I am a single mom to two girls who enjoy eating my paycheck the moment it hits the bank.
Arwen, I would love it if you shared your frightened budget recipies with me! LOVE that new phrase :) I am an avid thrifter and am trying to get out of the habit of making morning coffee stops on my way to drop off the girls at school and getting my hiney to work. Isn't it terribly difficult breaking those old comfy habits?!?! Looking forward to reading more tips to help keep our heads afloat during these economically challenging times. |
oh, is this my place? :rolleyes: :D :rolleyes:
Couple days ago I emptied a bag of flour into the canister; a bag of sugar into its canister; a box of smashed tato flakes into its canister, but I couldn't bring myself to throw the packages away. Last night I got frustrated because I have too many magazines and nowhere to put them. :mad: Gotta be something I can do about that! :cool: *this is a job for SuperBit! ta-daaa!* So I spent an hour getting messy in the only way I like to get messy: I ripped those bags into palm-sized pieces, cut the box into a magazine caddy shape, and papier mached the bags onto the box with white glue, plain side out. It would cost me anywhere from $2.50 to $4.00 plus the busfare both ways to go buy a cardboard magazine caddy----and then I would have to throw away the otherwise perfectly usable paper bags and box after all, because my recycler won't take them. Yanno why I didn't mind gettin messy? I got to peel the glue off my fingers when it dried. That's so cool, lol. ;) |
I'm doing the 'less binging, more purging' thing too. It's freeing when I see the actual space that one, two, ten boxes took up that is now free and empty.
While I prefer to get some money back on the things I was stupid enough to buy (too many clothes....crafts....books....wedding gowns (don't ask....unless you are in the market, of course :p)...and general STUFF), I understand that it's a different time and most people can't afford to buy the same stuff I did before, no matter the condition. So, I'm doing what I can to purge through CL and a local consignment shop. It's very slow-going but I hope some of my nicer things will sell with the holidays coming up. Coupons.com and other coupon sites help tremendously with food purchases. I'm cooking more at home versus picking stuff up on the fly. It's the perfect season to make stews, chilis, casseroles and other larger dishes that will span several meals. Leftovers rock! I am a VERY good hunter/gatherer. When I have space, I will stock up months worth of food and household supplies. It's just my nature, so I have to fight myself every time I step into a store. Do I need this? Really? REALLY REALLY? Okay then. But only ONE...or something like that. :rolleyes: |
Bit, what a great idea with the magazine bin! I have let most of my magazine subscriptions go. Someone gave me Everyday Foods (Martha) and to support a school group, I ordered Gourmet. I can't throw those away.
I have learned to buy the store brand on most things. There are some brands I cannot however, because while the store brand of applesauce is just as good, the store brand of maple/brown sugar oatmeal is not. Sometimes a store brand is not a savings at all....and sometimes, the difference in price blows my mind....and I realize I've just been paying for their brand name! I have found that I simply do my grocery shopping on a full stomach and have a defined list of what I need. I do less impulse shopping that way. Also, I have found no shame in buying my groceries at Wal~Mart rather than Central Market. When I drive, I try to run all my errands in one big trip, rather than a bunch of small ones. This is a wonderful thread..... <3 ~Diva |
There is a website called zinio.com...magazines can be read online for free or nominal feel. So its a frugal and green way of reading your favorite magazines. Also, they have a lot of LGBTQ mags too.
Wasrmly, Jewel Quote:
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OH! Thank You! What a great thing!!! Thanks, Lady J! ~Diva |
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I also try to cook once or twice a week, big meals, grilling the meats whenever possible, and put together homemade "tv dinners" and freeze them. That way I have good food for work, the boy has quick, good meals, and I can share them with Mom when she doesn't feel like cooking. Plus cooking it all at once means the stove/cooling/heating energy is reduced slightly. Great idea Bit for the boxes. My roommate is moving out the first of the year and that's when I really plan to start purging. It'll be the first time in seven years we haven't shared a home. :( A |
Since it's just me, I cook what I like.....
When I first moved here, I bought a LOT of Lean Cuisines.....I thought ~ at the time ~ those were a GOOD thing for me....but they are SO loaded with sodium! So for the price of about 2 LC's, I can make a huge meatloaf ~ control the amount of salt ~ and have many more than 2 meals from it! The freezer is my friend! Also, I buy frozen bags o' veggies, rather than the canned. I find them to have better flavor. Of course, fresh is ALways best. :D ~Diva |
Diva Ma'am...I have to watch my sodium and cholesterol so I watch the store ads and wait till ground turkey goes on sale. It can be used in any recipe requirirng ground beef and its wayyy healthier. Also, if you want low carb pasta, dreamfields makes a very very low carb pasta that tastes like the real deal and also has a $1.00 off coupon on their website :)
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This magazine was awesome with DIY ideas, some are frugal and simple...some are complex, but most fit within a decent Budget....
http://www.readymade.com/blog/ |
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i'm a cheapskate.....
After raising our own softball team of kids...the wife and I stll have not let go of our frugal ways. Cause now we are working on a football team of grandchildren :)
I truly beleive their is a big difference between being frugal and going on the cheap. My favorite clothing store has been and continues to be GoodWill or Salvation Army thrift shops in fancy neighborhoods....nice clothes cheap prices. I have brooks brothers suits, that cost me 3 dollars....brand new gucci shoes,,,,and various other fancy labels that i prolly paid 1/1000 of the retail price... My favorite sport is dumpster diving behind nice private colleges during exam time, I get books, computers, refridgerators, microwaves, ipods, u name it.....and yes i have been known to resell them, disinfect and give to my kids or take them over to the goodwill, or give them away...i just cant stand the wastefulness. Late Garage sale is fun - u stroll aorund after the garage sales and see what they toss,,and trash day in fancy neighborhoods during october and november has wonderful finds...(people redecorate and toss) If I can not use it i will call and see if a friend will want it beore i pick it up,,if it is to good to pass up the goodwill loves the donation. I also love auctions, cause If i do have to pay for something it will not be a retail price. Best one is www.govdeals.com and yes i am so tempted to buy a fireturck and give it to a small town cause the prices are so low. But i have purchased my aerator for the lawn thru them, my kids all drive bought at auction cars....maximum i ever paid was 1900 for a 2002 saturn sport coupe.... and yes they run beautifully u just have to know what u r looking for. the saturn had a little bullet hole in the door panel....a buddy of mine fixed it....and i must confess the wife loves antiques..so we go to a dealers auction and part of the cardboard box has that stuff in it.... I adopted this motto about 4 years ago "nothing is worth having unless you can get it for free'... and for the most part a very large part of my fish room furnishings in the cardboard box has been gotten for free..... The addition to the garage (which is ready to be done) I have obtained all the wood, electric wiring, switches, doors(specific to the plans i drew) over the past 18 months by dumpster diving, asking construction sites for their scrap, picking up the most beautiful oak hand hewn beams that are 10 feet long that someone set out for the garbage cause they were redecorating. It appears i will have to go to the habitat thrift store to buy the windows...so the entire addition will cost me 200 dollars for the 4 windows...(they also have wonderful tools on sale....i have some great wood planers i picked up for 5 or 6 dollars) My greatest find has been six 8 foot high fish tanks, that i picked up this past summer....the guys at PETCO even helped me get them out of the dumpster and in my truck... I am currently building a fish wall with them....(I like projects not fix its). my grandfather and father were both frugal....and their ability to make something from nothing has always been soemthing i respected. I also however beleive frugality does not mean cheap or lacking..... My family is frugal so we can .... go to the opera,,,go to concerts,,,have an entire room of fish tanks, pay for the grandchild to go to a pre school...to me frugality is a setting fo priorities. |
tag sales can be fun. do any of you have FreeCycle? i have received several huge kennels and dog houses for our projects. free !
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Hope you get many more:dog: kennels.. I admit I am a Goodwill or ValueVillage junkie...:shocking: |
I definitely need to subscribe to this thread. I would really like to get my whole family on board with living a more frugal lifestyle.
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<---- doesn't like being overly frugal - jus sayin
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:rolleyes:
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Gryph brings home chipboard and cardboard from work, usually packaging from boxes of clothing. Lately he's been bringing home picture frame shaped corrugated cardboard, and now he's having fun experimenting with it. He's got one in progress that is covered not with paper, but aluminum foil, and he's using old leather dye to antique it. Can't wait to see how it comes out! I buy and cook ahead, also, and I have also discovered that store brands are sometimes incredibly good---better than the name brands, even---and sometimes they're lousy. The only way to find out is to try them. The same goes for buying from other stores. We have Aldi's here and yes, they are cheaper than any other store... but the quality is inconsistent. Gryph absolutely HATES wallyworld, so I try not to shop there... but yanno, that Great Value Brand really is good, and very consistent from product to product. The Kroger brands are not consistent, but still more consistent than Aldi's. Oh, and yes, I also think frozen veggies are way better quality than canned! ~~~~~~~~ Pajara, seven years is a long time! My sympathies on your roommate's moving out. |
I am not frugal enough, I admit it. And living on the pittance I get from SSI disability, I should be.
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i will be frugal whenever purchasing a lot of items- because name brand on dry beans usually does not matter. the store does, however. marsh sells fava beans for 8$ a package! international market 2$. big difference. produce is very important to me, being a vegan. local tomatoes/farm stands during the summer. aldi is good, but i always check closely the packages underneath for the perishable berries, especially. frozen is not bad, but i never eat store canned. one item i absolutely cannot do the GV brand is coffee! kroger is ohk- but second choice.
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I stock up... sometimes it causes temporary budget problems, but oh my, the worry-free months after that! I bought four big canisters of Folgers coffee when it went on sale for $6 several months ago. Tis the kind Gryph prefers and it's cheaper than generic. We still had three canisters left from the last time, giving me seven plus the open one. I have five more months of coffee to go before I will have to pay full price... and I'm always watching to see if they put it on sale like that again. They seem to do so twice a year.
When they changed the size of the veggies at Kroger, I was really upset; they downsized their frozen veggies from 16 oz to 12 oz, but they left the price the same. I bought thirty pounds of the leftover pound bags. We're almost out now, so I'll have to pay the higher price, but in the meantime I discovered that Aldi's sells decent fresh produce at an affordable price--and I discovered I can get there, lol--so I'm not as dependent on the Kroger frozen veggies anymore. here's hoping that next summer I can grow my own and be even more independent! :veggie: |
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I wear my "cheap ass" badge proudly :bandana:
Since moving to Arkansas, our monthly financial output is significantly lower. Not just because we don't have a mortgage payment but we also chose to pay off our truck as well. The biggest difference since coming here is that we RARELY eat out anymore. In Los Angeles, it was nothing for us to eat out 2 - 3 times a week. Being in the sticks like we are here, we can't just run down to the nearest Outback Steakhouse and drop $60 on a meal. Nope. It's more like I buy groceries once a week and we eat at home every night....AND we eat much better. I have my favorite "cheap ass" discussion every night with Jack over dinner (I dont know how she tolerates me). It goes like this: Me: "Honey, you will never guess how cheap this dinner is!" Jack: "I'm sure you're gonna tell me!" Me: "Well, this piece of roast is HALF of the roast we ate last week that I froze, so that part is $2! The potatoes and carrots are another $2! The onion and gravy MIGHT come out to $1! And the rolls come out to .25 each! So that means that for $6, we are going to get TWO meals EACH. WEEEEEEEEEEE - BABE! THAT COMES OUT TO $1.50 PER MEAL!" And really, when you think about easily spending $6 for a sack of crap from McDonalds or Wendys -its fabulous! |
The Dollar Store - great place for deals.
My local Safeway grocery store has a "clearance" section in the meat department. It's usually last sale date stuff but the deals can be amazing. Once I got $6/lb bacon for 99 cents. I bought all they had and froze it! |
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I miss having home cooked meals!... When I was growing up I used to think how kool it would be to eat out all the time. Ummmm... Now I wish I had my Moms home cooked meals! |
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We use freecycle, a lot, mostly to pare down all of our stuff. I love giving usable and useful things to others who can really use them.
I have a great partner who clips coupons, reads circulars, and takes advantage of store savings. She does the grocery shopping and saves us lots every week. |
Speaking as somebody who invariably seems to choose the most expensive items without knowing (what can I say, I have an eye for quality) I've long been used to squeezing my champagne tastes into a beer budget.
But this summer has been extra challenging what with my hours at work being erratic. Being underemployed sucks but during that time period I learned to live without my weekly Starbucks (I had already cut back from 2-3x/week), going out to lunch or dinner, Sunday papers etc. Small things to be sure but they added up. Instead I learned to love my slow-cooker again, freezing the extras for later on. I also threw out shocking amounts of fresh food doing a weekly shop so learned to shop Euro style, buying only the fresh things I needed for the next day or so. It really made a difference in reducing food waste. Being frugal on many things still allows me the occasional splurge and has made me appreciate it that much more when I do. |
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Have you noticed that after a while of cooking at home, you can't tolerate most fast food? Or is that just me? What a distressing surprise that was! I just cannot handle the grease anymore. :shocking: Which is pretty funny when you consider that I am NOT a diet cook and I'm all verklempt cuz I didn't realize that I ran out of butter, lol.... but there's such a difference in how my system tolerates what I cook, and most fast food. I suppose it's just as well, since cooking at home is so much cheaper, eh? |
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My housemate is like that. We're both coupon clippers and really shop the sales, but she also has access to the base shopping which has phenomenal deals, so she's always breaking stuff down like that for us. I'm the only one who tolerates her because, secretly, I want to be able to buy 4 bottles of Garnier shampoo for $1.50 too. :bowdown: |
reading about coupons, i saw a woman at the market the other day who was flipping through a binder in her buggy. 4x6 clear photo spaces were used for her coupons. pages could be added to the binder.. her book was full of coupons and pages !
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Hey! What a cool idea, violaine!
I'm not using too many coupons these days but Kroger does send me coupons on Kroger products... OH how I love that! So I just have a small coupon holder for those. Has turkey gone on sale for everyone now? I was telling Gryph last night, you can't get even the cheapest-worst-for-you hot dogs for 39 cents a pound!! (Honest, I don't think I can buy ANYTHING for 39 cents a pound anymore--even rice is 50 cents a pound!) This is when I most wish for a big freezer, and this is the time of year I buy the most food. If I have my druthers, I will buy at least two more turkeys--they're small, just 12 to 15 pounds--and I'm considering buying a big stock of sweet taters, too. They're 49 cents a pound and not likely to get any lower than that anywhere. We're likely to have them baked and topped with cheddar cheese for dinner--carrots and sweet taters both have this affinity for cheese, which I discovered by accident--and then I'll have to make sweet tater casserole too, which is, I think, the equivalent of a spicy sweet tater pie without a crust. The turkeys (I would love to buy half a dozen!) will make main dishes and sandwiches, plus of course there will be stuffing... and the carcasses make wonderful broth when you leave a little meat on the bones, which is fine with me. I might even go all out and make soup from one this year, although truly the broth is great for making rice or noodles and I consider it an ingredient all on its own. I get a lot of food value for that thirty nine cents! Now if they will only put the winter squashes on sale also--slow roasted Delicata winter squash makes the best pumpkin bread I have ever had! Plus, yanno.... they're great baked and topped with cheese. :cheesy: |
OMG!
I love this time of year too bit! The cheap turkies and sweet potatoes! The celery for .39 ! The eggs for .69! I need to figure out how to get a cube-type freezer myself because I have heard they are much lower on energy than other freezers and are on sale at sams right now for $99. Imagine how many turkies could fit in that! :thud: My granny used to cook sweetpotatoes down to a mush and freeze them in plastic containers for breads and such ;) |
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Wow, your sale prices are even better than ours, Dusa!
Chest freezers for $99 at Sam's Club? :drool: Woohooo! But it would be $145 for me, because I'd have to buy the membership... not that I mind a membership, but I'm having a hard time justifying the outlay right now. apretty, I'm willing to bet those freezers run between $25 and $35 a year on electricity, if that... the newer ones are truly much more efficient. I've heard that chest freezers are more efficient than upright freezers, also, because when you open an upright freezer, all the cold air sinks down to the ground. |
I picked a chest freezer up at a yard sale this summer for $50. It works great! I share it with my roomies but it still makes it easier to take advantage of sales that I wouldn't have been able to before, which is good because my grocery budget for this week is oh, nil. :eek:
Costco memberships start at $60 here, which just goes to prove that EVERYTHING is more expensive in the PNW. |
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