Tips on Frugal Living

[kllydnvn]

I haven't been on the site for a very long time. But, I've learned a ton about how to shop and get the best bargains from all the veteran strategic shoppers here. I'd really like to see a forum about how people are cutting costs in other ways. For example, ways to cut your utility bills, fun (inexpensive or free) things to do with your kids, inexpensive vacations.

Everyone has such great ideas on how to slash their shopping bills; I bet they would have a ton of great ideas on frugal living.

[love free Bzs]

did you check out just chating they were talking about cutting cable and unplugging unneded items. I personally hang my clothes to dry I do pull the plug on unneed things including the computer overnight when it's not in use. I collect the water you let run while waiting for the hot water to get a shower and use it in the washer when doing wash or water the garden in the warmer weather we have to pay for our water so I sort of recycle it this way.

[Helene]

You know I tried the hanging my clothes out to dry thing during the summer time. I LOVE when my sheets are dried outside so I do that anyway, but you know I really didn't see too much of a difference in my electric bill...The only other things I can do to save (and we do) is make sure the lights are turned off when we leave a room, and I don't let the kids leave their tv's on all night long like they used to. I make them set a their tv timer so it goes off...

My water is anywhere from $30-$35 a month I do not think I can cut that much more. I don't run my dishwasher every day, I try and run it every other day, sometimes I run it every 3 days, just depends on how many dishes we use. We all take one shower a day and surprisingly enough I don't have to hound my boys to get out they are usually pretty good about that. I have one of those huge garden tubs and I do "splurge" and take a bath every Sunday night...It is my relax and alone time before I start another week..

Now I could save on my gas bill IF MY DH WOULD STOP PUTTING THE DARN HEAT UP TO 70-72...but ole snuggy should be in soon LOL

I can tell you that the way I save on vacations or family outings is by saving on my groceries. I really wanted to get a little "stock pile" of grocery savings before I started spending it, but there is a rodeo in town this weekend and we really wanted to go. DH and I took our youngest son to the rodeo last night and went out to dinner...I still have $18 left....We also like to get Dolly Wood season passes. This turns out to be very inexpensive in the long run. We live about 1-1/2 to 2 hrs from Dollywood. We only buy 3 because our other son that is still at home is almost 18, never home and would not be worth it to buy him one because he doesn't even like Dollywood. But we went a bunch of times during the spring/summer...Just spent a few hours at a time...We would either pack sandwiches or order off of the McDonalds value menu. We bought refillable Dollywood cups. We were also able to go for their awsome Holiday events, especially their Christmas one. Actually we stayed the night for that because Gatlinburg is so beautifully decorated for Christmas and we wanted to see the lights. Got a good deal on a hotel, went during the week paid $50 for the night.

Soo...needless to say my grocery savings for the next 2 months is going towards renewing our Dollywood passes. Other than that, we take rides in the mountains and explore a little bit, the only thing that costs is gas and I have a corolla, excellent on gas!

They say the best value on a vacation is a cruise because it is all inclusive..I would love to be able to do that ...maybe next year

I would love to be able to cut my dish network but we do watch a lot of tv and without it we get one channel and that is if you are standing in the right place in the room and have your arm and leg up...LOL. I pay about $170 a month which includes my DSL, Dish Network FULL package except HDTV but does include all movie channels and it also includes my phone service with free and unlimited long distance.

[kimshaw1106]

That is so great. To save the money in different areas helps you put the money towards things you normally couldnt afford or things like that. I do what I can to save here and there. Every penny counts. But to be able to reward yourself for savings is a great thing.. Like Friday night Hubby and I order subs for ourselves. A treat that we dont do that much.

[staceytwinmom]

Re saving money on other expenses.... my husband and I have a close family friend who is a finance person and we have always gone to him for guidance. Recently we were feeling like our spending was getting a bit crazy... or more so- our money was getting tighter so we asked him to review our credit card bills with us monthly. What this means is that we have to be able to explain our expenses. We have set up a budget and he doesn't go over our expenses one by one.... I just tally up the expenses in each category and we discuss it if we went over. What it makes us do is give a second thought before we make a purchase. Does this fit in our budget? What will we say when we review it.... It also allows my husband and I to talk about our spending with a third party and we have found it helpful. I especially find it helpful because I am better at saving than he is... he is learning!

We are also trying to use what we have... we have tons of games and crafts stuff in the house so before we buy more we use what we have a bit more.

Hope that helps, Stacey

[SavingInLakewood]

If you go out to eat, only order water. Why spend $2.50+ on a soda when you can get a whole 12 pk at a WAGS sale for $1.80?

[rayflana]

I have slowly but surely replaced all the lightbulbs in our house with the CFL bulbs... (even the ceiling fan and chandelier lights.) I can see a difference in our electric bill. I still think the "easiest" avenue of savings is couponing for food. I have saved a ton of $$ each month, and our pantry has never been fuller...(more full?)

[saverintraining]

I've only been "seriously" couponing since September but it sure has helped out. I am starting to get a small stockpile on various items but I usually can't get too many of one item unless I shop alone (hubby gets paranoid when cart gets full!). We have a wood stove which we use when the weather stays around freezing so our furnace hardly runs during the day unless its windy. I hang up clothes year-round since I have lines in the basement facing the woodburner. When we get our heating oil delivered once a year the deliveryman always says "Do you know that you haven't got any fuel since September??". We always have a large garden to have fresh produce to can and freeze. My husband and son are avid hunters/fisherman so we save on meat this way also. There are so many different things you can do to save money but you can't possibly do them all! Pick the ones that are a good fit for you and your family then see how much you can save!

[vagabond2]

That is the truth. Choose what fits for your family. I have some items I am willing to *sacrifice* and others which I won't give up.

I love to travel. I am known for my ability to locate some great travel deals.......and friends know that if we're on a trip its only because I got a fantastic deal somewhere, from flights to hotel to rental cars.

[ameeker]

We do so many things to save money I hardly know where to begin. We shut off all the lights - all the time. Our house has fairly light colored walls for just that reason, so the light coming in the windows reflects off the walls keeping the rooms bright enough by day that the lights can be off. Almost all the light bulbs in the house are CF's now, and it's actually is noticeable on the electric bill. We also try to keep things not in use unplugged, and use timers on things like the Christmas tree lights etc.

We've added lots of insulation to the attic, plus we also gutted the house 10 years back and put new insulation EVERYWHERE. That alone cut the winter heat bills by more than half. We're also on the budget plan with the utility companies, so we never get a big fat surprise in the winter. We also have a programmable thermostat and keep this house pretty chilly at night, it also dips below 65 during the afternoon when the baby is napping and it's just me awake and wandering around. I can do 67 no problem, but 65 requires another layer of clothing and a physical activity.

We bought storm windows for all the windows in the house. They were $42 each, but have saved us several times more than that since we installed them. We have a very old house and instead of replacing the windows (a very expensive option) we reconstructed the old ones and put storms on the outside to protect them and keep the cold out better. The storm windows cost about $1,000 give or take. New windows throughout would have been $20,000. We have lots of big windows, and every last one of them would have been custom made.

We only use an interest free credit card. My DH travels for work and sometimes racks up sizable bills with that. At one point we realized that we sometimes ended up paying $100/month in interest for his work related expenses, just because it sometimes take 5-6 weeks to get the reimbursement check. So now we have a 0 interest credit card, when the 0 interest period expires, we cancel it and get a new one. And since he travels for work, he has memberships to Hertz, Marriott Hotels and 2 different Frequent Flyer clubs. That way when he travels we build up points for free flights, free hotel nights and free rental cars. We also are famous for staying with friends and relatives for a night or two, once we reach a destination. That saves a heap of money.

For media/communication we have a bundle package with the cable/phone company. We pay around $100/month for phone, long distance, cable and internet. It might go up as we received a notice that our cable company just filed chapter 11. But we'll have to wait and see on that one. I get my cell phone through DH's office discount, we pay the bill on it, but it's at a 10-15% savings.

We pay an extra $50 each month on our house payment. This will save us 10 years on our mortgage and maybe 20-30K in interest. We also pay our own property taxes (so we earn the interest on it) and made sure we have a 20% downpayment on the house so we don't have to pay PMI, which was $35/month for NOTHING. Same plan going on the student loan, and extra $50/month and refinanced to the lowest possible interest rate.

I do a great deal of cooking. In fact my own personal motto is "cook once, eat twice". So I always overcook, and count on leftovers for at least one day a week (Saturday is usually my day off from the kitchen). Typically I can make all three meals for my family any given day for about $7. I try to keep it at this number (or less), so occasionally if we want to splurge and go out to dinner or buy sirloin, it's not a big problem. I also try very hard not to throw food away. This takes routine inventory of the refrigerator and pantry, but it saves HUGE amounts of money. I HATE cleaning out the frige, but I just keep saying to myself "waste not, want not", which seems to help me.

Currently considering getting rid of curbside garbage pick-up, or sharing a service with the neighbors. We recycle and/or compost almost everything. The only thing going in the curb cart is cellophane wrapping and card board boxes. Our local recycling station doesn't take card board, and we have too much to compost.

We also have a garden in the summer and can/freeze/dry anything that comes out of that dirt. We also have a cow, he name is Cornelia, she's due any minute and ever since she got into the corn last summer I've been shaking my fist at her and threatening to eat either her or her children. I can almost taste that steak now. Currently considering getting a new more efficient deep freeze. The old one works great, but it's small for a family of 5 and is probably not as efficient as some of the newer models. I've been setting money aside each week, and will wait until the model I want and the cash stash are equal before I spring this on the DH. He resists large purchases, it's his nature.

I've also gone to bathing the children (and sometimes myself) every other day. We also wear our pj's two nights instead of one. This saves us on average 1-2 loads of laundry and about 40-50 gallons of water each week. Sounds silly that something so trivial could add up so quickly. In the summer it's a little different, since everybody gets a lot sweatier, but in colder weather it's totally fine. In the summer I just have the kids wash the chlorine off if they've been in the pool all day.

Oh, one other thing, we put the kids savings account money in CD's. That way it earns interest, and when the rollover comes around every 7-8 months or so, we add in whatever they've managed to save in their accounts to the next CD. I can't believe how much they've made just in interest, like $50 for each $500 in the account. It's a bit of a hassle, but well worth it. We do this with our tax return every year too and when it cashes out in December, we use the extra to help cover Christmas. Savings bonds can be good too, but they take a long time to mature, where CD's earn less but turn around faster.

I could go on and on, but it's long and boring enough.