I'm trying to pare things back to as little as possible as far as spending for the next few months. I want to save up a cushion for emergencies as we've completely depleted ours. And we're doing the steps, pretty much Dave Ramsey style.

So, give me your best tips for reducing spending in those areas of the budget where we have control: groceries, clothing, gas, and more...I know we have a great thread going on groceries so let's focus on the other areas.

I'll post some of my own ideas in a reply...

My own ideas:

*shop at the grocery outlet and Big Lots and build meals around what's available there

*Eat from pantry as much as possible.

*Think about where we're driving, consolidate trips, etc.

I don't know. I'm pretty burned out on ideas...

Just a few that I can think of right now...

Buy used clothing and anything else used that you can.

Don't buy anything non-grocery related unless you think about it for at least 24 hours. Grocery- have a list and stick to it.

Gas- of course, combine trips when possible. Don't use gas for recreation purposes.

Eat vegan once a week! Beans, rice, lentils, in season veggies, all inexpensive and great for you and the animals!

Use the library for recreation. Read books, enjoy nature for recreation.

Do free things that nurture yourself and your family so you will feel fulfilled and not deprived.

I look forward to reading other's thoughts...

We are considering dropping to one vehicle. I work from home and we live in town. I know that this is not always do-able for those who live rurally. For us, the savings would be (payment, ins., gas) $700 per month.

Line drying

Efficient appliances. We used to have an old freezer that we got rid of when we realized how inefficient it was. The savings realized in buying in bulk were destroyed with the electricity the freezer used. We bought a new fridge that had a large-enough freezer in it.

Tankless hot water heater. I borrowed a gadget from our library to see where we were using the most hydro and found out our 40 gal hot water tank is responsible for about half of our monthly $200 bill.

ETA: portion control. Everyone in my family was either eating too much or the little ones were filling up on the wrong stuff. This issue has dropped our bill almost in half.

Clothing: accept all hand-me-downs with gratitude - really, they just keep coming once people know you're happy to have them. Even my clothes are part hand-me-down.

Thrift stores for clothes, assuming they're available. Another 1/3 of my wardrobe is thrift clothing. The rest is discount/outlet/clearance.

An oft-overlooked clothing savings option is fixing clothes. Mending a hem, figuring out how to remove that darned stain, etc. I've even mended kids' underwear (in the name of compacting - though that's gone by the wayside some with this moving crap).

And, of course, having fewer clothes.

Gas: Like you said, combine trips, think about where you're going.

Keep the car tuned up and the tires at proper pressure. I should really practice what I preach on this one...

Decide if a trip is worth $5 or whatever the cost of the drive will be. I frequently find myself not going to get the $2 Dagoba xocolatl bar that would cost an additional $4 in gas to the HFS. ;) Even when I'd rather go to the HFS, I frequently make do with Kroger because I prefer not to make the longer drive. And I doubt the HFS would save money vs Kroger. :p

Use public transit if available. Even if the cost is the same as gas, it's also saving wear and tear on your vehicle.

Carpool. Not always an option, again, but my kids and I can carpool for field trips, etc with my neighbor.


Food: I totally forgot about Big Lots. I love their grocery section. Once I got almost 100 vegetarian instant soups for 25 cents each when I was in college (and lived 4 blocks from Big Lots). That was my lunch for a semester. The one here has surprises all the time like organic pasta sauce for $1, etc.


Just thought of another one: vacation for free or close to it. Tent camp in state parks. Have a good friend whose parents live at the beach. Ok, I got lucky this year - I slept on a screened porch for a week, but it was worth it! ;)

Seriously, the camping is something anyone can do, and most of us already have the stuff. We just never use it because someone (in my case, it's DH) thinks it's too much trouble to camp with kids. It really isn't. It's a lot of fun, really relaxing, and inexpensive, to boot. I just came to the conclusion that I have to camp with my sister, not my husband.

Just put the money away, with the cards, and pretend like it's not there. :lol: One thing I've learned lately? If you don't have it you can't spend it, no matter how much your brain normally tells you that you "need" something. At times like this you realize just HOW frugal you can be, when you previously thought that you *were* frugal. But, you've been here before haven't you? So I'm not telling you anything you don't already know.

clothes...ask friends and freecycle for the size you need before you buy. yes, xt, accepting hand me downs excitedly have kept them coming for me. i'm super grateful for hand me downs! omg...jodi...i could not be more grateful for the clothes i got for kendall from her before she moved.

my biggest challenge is keeping the clothes to a minimum. it's easy to feel like it's ok to have tons of clothes if they are all used/cheap.

gas...super hard for me to conserve! i am doing SO much better with this. i am doing my best to have 2 days/week that i do NOT leave the house AT ALL. besides that, i am just figuring up how much it's gonna cost me in gas, and then make my decision about whether it's worth it to go out. i realized our movie was due back to the library the other day, and almost jumped in the car to take it/play at the library. then i realized it was going to cost me more than $1 (late fee) to drive there, and that we would be closer the next day.

our "family fun" time is hard too. we have decided that it will be cash/envelope system so that we just can't budge on it like we usually do. it's $80/month and includes all eating meals out, getting ice cream out, coffee out, dates, and parking fee and costs of anything fun we do.

Think in $5 bills not $20 bills.

I'm often :drop: when I hear someone say: "Oh it's only $100 bucks."

When $100 doesn't seem like an amount of money that is important, I feel a little worried.

When I need to cut back, I think in terms of $5 bills when I am considering spending on a want. I might have $5, but do I have four $5 bills to spend? Something about thinking I need to have ten $5 bills ($50) just seems too high. If I think of lump sums, I talk myself into things easier.

Also, figure out your hourly wage. That was an eye-opener. I figured out how much dh got paid and subtracted everything to had to pay for. Then, the leftover was his hourly wage. So, working 3 hours for a $10 item suddenly doesn't seem that important.

I think the biggest thing is going to be to learn to make do with less, unless it's free. I know when Aileen was getting out of debt, they let a LOT of things go. Kids didn't have as many nice clothes, cars went without repairs that COULD be put off (brakes not being one of them, lol). After the debt was paid off (or in your case, savings is rebuilt) that money that was being put away could now be used on the things that they did without.

Don't buy anything non-grocery related unless you think about it for at least 24 hours. Grocery- have a list and stick to it.
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I LOVE this

Thanks mamas. The suggestions are helpful but at this point most of the "tricks" are used up. The one place I could definitely do better is clothing. But, I have no friends w/bigger kids to hand down to me. My kids are the biggest. :lol: We used to get great hand me downs. Now I'm just stunned at how much clothes cost, and they're not easy to find on sale here, or used - the thrifts are bare, almost always, and cost a lot in gas to drive to. Now if we had a Target...LOL...I'd be fine. Or a Kohl's, or TJ Maxx, or whatever. Anything. We have a Penney's that's very poorly stocked, that's it. And a Walmart. An hour's drive. And, my kids don't fit in "regulars" unless they have adjustable waists, but are too big for slims...I have 5 pr of size 10 reg jeans handed down/gotten at the clothing swap for Kate, but they're too big around and a smidge too short. But the 10 slims we bought are too small, and 8 reg are too short. Ack! I'm thinking if I sew elastic in the waistband of the 10s and cover in fleece for softness, that will work. Maybe hem them too; she's complaining they're long.

We have a free clothing swap coming up in Oct, and you can bet I'll be there the second it opens. But, last year there was almost nothing for the kids.

Stacy, I like the idea of thinking in $5 bills. I think dh and I both think in $20 increments, LOL, and we don't add up the little purchases here and there, on special foods the kids want, or whatever. (I bought hot fudge and caramel sauce for ice cream last week. There went $10. Ouch. I need to say "no" more often.)

Allison, I think you're right - just mining for ideas maybe I've skipped over, but definitely just doing "without" some of the things we "need" will help a lot.

Think in $5 bills not $20 bills.

I'm often :drop: when I hear someone say: "Oh it's only $100 bucks."

When $100 doesn't seem like an amount of money that is important, I feel a little worried.

When I need to cut back, I think in terms of $5 bills when I am considering spending on a want. I might have $5, but do I have four $5 bills to spend? Something about thinking I need to have ten $5 bills ($50) just seems too high. If I think of lump sums, I talk myself into things easier.

Also, figure out your hourly wage. That was an eye-opener. I figured out how much dh got paid and subtracted everything to had to pay for. Then, the leftover was his hourly wage. So, working 3 hours for a $10 item suddenly doesn't seem that important.
Love this, too - all of it. Really eye-opening for me.

I think the biggest thing is going to be to learn to make do with less, unless it's free. I know when Aileen was getting out of debt, they let a LOT of things go. Kids didn't have as many nice clothes, cars went without repairs that COULD be put off (brakes not being one of them, lol). After the debt was paid off (or in your case, savings is rebuilt) that money that was being put away could now be used on the things that they did without.

Yeah - I see that, too. Really good points.

These are really awesome suggestions, btw - I am learning a lot.

Case in point, what drives me mad. Just sent dh and the kids to Hardwick (10 mile drive each way) for groceries (expensive Grand Union, but we got only what was necessary until we're in town tomorrow, it's stuff to make birthday cake and chicken for J) and to pick up meds.

He came home with $5 hydrocortisone cream for my rash that I didn't ask for. BUT, my rash is bad. I told him I'd return it, but then he threw the box in the garbage and it got food on it. Then he put the tube itself up on top of the cabinet where I would never see it. When I asked where it was, he said he put it there because I said I didn't want it. Meanwhile an hour ago before he left I had *said* "don't get it because it's too much $ and it's getting better already."

And that's the good part. The bad - he didn't check the bags when he picked up the meds. He's missing his Nexium, and he can't go one single day without it, so he will have to drive all the way back for it. They put one container of Jake's medication in each bag - he should have known it was 2 containers in 1, and 1 in the other, but he hasn't been picking up 2 containers for J because they're always out of the second one.

ARGH!!! Must get off computer now. Anyway this or "oh I forgot XXX" is typical. :P

Sorry, Lauren :rub: :hug:

Lauren, what I've done w/Mason and Morgan's jeans when there's been no other alternative is to cut an opening on the inside of the waist band. Just through the inner layer. Then run elastic in there and tack it down with the machine at either end w/a zigzag stitch that covers the opening I've made as well. Sometimes they are sewn right through at the middle back, so that you'll have 4 openings and two pieces of elastic. Sometimes you get lucky and the elastic will thread right through from hip to hip in one go. If you really wanted to be cool, you could use the button hole elastic (I picked some up from someone at sewing mamas a long time ago) and stitch buttons on.

The ones that are too short, could those be trimmed to long capri length? Or what about sewing in a ruffle or flannel piece that could be turned up to look like a cuff? A totally easy way to hem when I'm lazy, but the children prefer it, is to just sew a straight stitch around the leg and cut off just below it. It frays just the tiniest bit and they love that for some reason, esp when cut to shorts this way.

I know you don't construct clothing much these days, but small changes to existing clothing don't take long at all if your machine is still working.

eta I thought of another idea for the too short jeans! Do you remember the "ribbon" jeans that sold for so much on ebay? Basically some little pieces of ribbon folded over and sewn to the hem, to make the hem longer. Do you have any ribbon or trims left in your stash?

Those are all great ideas, Marina! I gave away the 8s we had...we only had 8 slims that were too small around as well as too short, so I don't have any pants that actually fit otherwise but are too short. The 10 slims she wore for 6 months, but they're now a smidge too small around.

I like the idea for quick hemming. The 10 regulars I have are all pretty well worn so it's not like I'm too worried about letting them back down again.

I'm getting back into constructing clothing. Seriously. I finally have my basement cleared out enough, and DRY enough, to work down there, and I have five huge tubs of fabric. If I could get together a few basic patterns, I could make all their winter clothing. They're already set w/ski pants and jackets so that would just leave boots to buy. Katie is so particular, and both are such odd sizes at the moment, that I think the time will be well spent. I'm hoping to kick out a few pairs of leggings for her tomorrow. Another idea, is to just go to skirts or skorts and tights for her for winter. I can find tights fairly cheaply at kidsurplus.com and we even have some Hanna tights that might still fit her.

ETA: Matt found his prescription. It had fallen out into the sink. :eek:

Lauren, what I've done w/Mason and Morgan's jeans when there's been no other alternative is to cut an opening on the inside of the waist band. Just through the inner layer. Then run elastic in there and tack it down with the machine at either end w/a zigzag stitch that covers the opening I've made as well. Sometimes they are sewn right through at the middle back, so that you'll have 4 openings and two pieces of elastic. Sometimes you get lucky and the elastic will thread right through from hip to hip in one go. If you really wanted to be cool, you could use the button hole elastic (I picked some up from someone at sewing mamas a long time ago) and stitch buttons on.

The ones that are too short, could those be trimmed to long capri length? Or what about sewing in a ruffle or flannel piece that could be turned up to look like a cuff? A totally easy way to hem when I'm lazy, but the children prefer it, is to just sew a straight stitch around the leg and cut off just below it. It frays just the tiniest bit and they love that for some reason, esp when cut to shorts this way.

I know you don't construct clothing much these days, but small changes to existing clothing don't take long at all if your machine is still working.

eta I thought of another idea for the too short jeans! Do you remember the "ribbon" jeans that sold for so much on ebay? Basically some little pieces of ribbon folded over and sewn to the hem, to make the hem longer. Do you have any ribbon or trims left in your stash?


I've done similar - especially before the adjustable waists were available. Not hard to do at all, and works great. I still do it for ds's dress pants (really hard to find in slims, and no adj waist), and some skirts for dd (who is too skinny for slims even).

For hand-me downs- we don't get much here either. I either make most of the clothes, or relatives buy. Can you ask relatives to do clothes for gifts? And also - PLEASE ask here!! You can fit a good amount in a flat rate box, and it's only $9. Fabric too ;) Even for stuff you or your dh need. We get rid of SO much here, I'd much rather it go to a mama I know than GW if it can. I know others feel the same.

If I could get together a few basic patterns, I could make all their winter clothing.

ETA: Matt found his prescription. It had fallen out into the sink. :eek:

What patterns/sizes do you need?? If you feel up to more detailed stuff, winter stuff, etc - I can lend you my Ottobre magazines. But I also have patterns for basics as well (that I could give you), and could lend you my KS for Children.

Meant to say thanks for the tip on the elastic through the waist...I had only thought of sewing through the whole waistband then covering in fleece. This will be SO much easier!

What patterns/sizes do you need?? If you feel up to more detailed stuff, winter stuff, etc - I can lend you my Ottobre magazines. But I also have patterns for basics as well (that I could give you), and could lend you my KS for Children.

K: size 10 reg for pants or skorts. Also could use a pattern for a simple knit l/s top size 10/12.

J: He's in a 7x regular for pants, but I have plenty. Need mostly a pattern for a simple knit l/s top size 8.

I do have KS for children but the drop shoulders on the top pattern just kill me! I have to figure how to modify that. :P The kids hate the way they feel.

For now I think Ottobre may be beyond my reach, but in a month or two I may take you up on that generous offer. :D I want to get back into sewing basics...if there's anything really cute for Katie, though, I'll definitely attempt it.

Mostly all I need for the moment is jeans/pants/tights/skorts for Katie in size 10 reg that run a little small/narrow. :) She has one pair of jeans that fit. She has plenty of shorts, but it's already getting chilly here (say, 60 for a high).

Thank you! *mwah*

My DD was in a 10/12 last fall. Let me see what I have around here for Miss Katie :hug:

Can you PM me your addy?

Too bad Jake's not in a 6 :( I just put away 3 pairs of gymbo elastic waisted pants that he's worn for maybe 3mo. For the drop shoulders on the KS book - make a size smaller than they need, and you can narrow the shoulders a little bit from the outside w/o altering the sleeve. Just take it in about 1/2" and alter the curve to that. But for me, it's usually baggy enough that sizing down a size, and just adding length to the sleeves and bottom works good. And for Katie, you can curve the sides in a bit to add a bit of shape.

Ottobre is easy if you have basic garment construction skills (they're not going to show you how to put a sleeve in, just tell you to do it, lol). The tracing is a killer.

Send me your addy, and I'll get some things together for you! And I'll pick an Ottobre pattern that has a simple shirt in to send for you to use.

Thank you, thank you! :hbeat:

I just gave away all his 6s. They're tiny. He's grown 2 inches in the past six months. He is HUGE all of a sudden. 52 lb and 4 ft 1 in (123 cm, fits in a Hanna 130 though). Katie's 70 lb and 4 ft 8 in (I think that's right, Euro 140 is a good size for her).

PMing you my addy now...

We're cutting back on wanting. Just earlier today I was dreaming of buying gifts for ds's birthday. I began searching and found that everything he'd like (with the exception of some new books) are things DH and I can make for him. So we're doing that, as we'd mostly planned anyhow.

He does need undies, badly, but Tawnya said she'd trace her pattern and send it to me. :heart:

I went to our library's online book search and put books on hold that I'd like to read.

I had a meeting with someone today at Panera and I didn't buy anything. I don't need the calories and I want to keep my money. Since I had to go there I consolidated a trip to the post office and a few other errands.

I skimmed a book at B&N that I wanted info from and I learned a lot from it. :)

I guess it's a lot of little steps.

ds has this thing he says..."i want to do something fun." when we asked "what," it was usually going to barnes and noble. it's free fun to go there and play with the trains and read books, but we would spend gas and sometimes cave in and buy something from the cafe.

the other night, dh and i were trying to come up with a fun family activity and we decided to make a fort and read books inside. now when asked, ds says..."i want to make another castle." you know what that entails? a sheet and some clothes pins and our kitchen chairs...all free, and we're all at home in one room spending time together. i LOVE it!

All great tips. Here is mine: I re-use my vaccum bags. I buy the cloth one's which are pretty spendy but a must bc of my job. What I do when they are full is open the bottom of them, empty them out being careful not do stir up too much dust and dirt in the air, then I sew them back up and tape them shut.

This is such a great thread...just wanted to come back and say thanks again.

Jenni, I love that idea - cutting back on wanting. :)

Portion control, marjen - one of my bugaboos. My little guy w/CF needs to be on a calorie-UNrestricted diet. I easily spend $250 a month on *just his food.* He eats as much as any eleven-year-old, and he's seven. And, with the autism, he's very particular about what he will eat. So, we'll buy family packs of boneless skinless chicken breasts and cook them up just for him. That's mostly what he eats. Recently, though, we've been successful in switching him to chicken thighs! I'm very excited about this, and it's better for his health (higher fat = better). We also had one of our Highland cattle sirloins out of the freezer last night. Best steak I have ever eaten, bar none. And Jake loved it. BUT - most of our 1/4 cow is in ground beef form, and he won't eat it. :( The rest of us will, though.

We've lived pared back quite massively this entire time, even while getting into debt. Yes, there are definitely choices I could have made differently. When I look at what I've spent, though, most of it was "I could have gone to Walmart instead" and saved money, and I've refused to do that on principle. So, doing without is going to be the order of the day. Waiting more time before getting something, and spending more of MY time sourcing out used or free clothing, or sewing it. Simply not buying unless it's a drastic need.

Case in point: birthday. We've been broke. It all turned out well, though, as dh had squirreled away secret money (how? I have no idea, but I know he's wanted his own "gift fund" for a while now, and I have to give him credit for doing it). He bought Katie a $60 bike at Walmart, and a cool air-pumped flying plane for Jake (which he LOVES) and a crash-up car and some Floam. He took the initiative, he spent it without asking me, and I'm happy he did it.

Katie *desperately* wanted the dollhouse, though. I told her yesterday that I was still going to build her one, but I wanted to know more about what she wanted. As we talked I realized that she wants something fairly detailed and the idea of setting up the rooms is appealing to her. She picked out a birch plywood dollhouse online that's around $150. OUCH! Not including the furniture. And not what I had planned...I explained to her I had planned to build a very simple one and although I'm glad I talked to her before investing a lot of time in making it, I can't buy that for her birthday (but she has $100 in birthday money, lucky girl, my kids are SO blessed!!!, and I told her she could use that, but she wants to save that). Anyway, trying to make this succinct. She said "something like that dollhouse would last generations!" So I asked her, "How would you like something from another generation?" Yes, around her age, I got very into dollhouses, and I still have mine with all the furniture and miniatures, packed up at my parents' house in Florida. She lit up, and I told her I knew what I was going to do, but I had to get it for her. (My mom just had major surgery and my dad's taking care of her, so I don't know when I can get it packed up and here, but the wait will be delicious!) So - right there - her major "want" will be filled without us spending money. (Except I may pay them for shipping.)

This is such a great thread...just wanted to come back and say thanks again.

Jenni, I love that idea - cutting back on wanting. :)

Portion control, marjen - one of my bugaboos. My little guy w/CF needs to be on a calorie-UNrestricted diet. I easily spend $250 a month on *just his food.* He eats as much as any eleven-year-old, and he's seven. And, with the autism, he's very particular about what he will eat. So, we'll buy family packs of boneless skinless chicken breasts and cook them up just for him. That's mostly what he eats. Recently, though, we've been successful in switching him to chicken thighs! I'm very excited about this, and it's better for his health (higher fat = better). We also had one of our Highland cattle sirloins out of the freezer last night. Best steak I have ever eaten, bar none. And Jake loved it. BUT - most of our 1/4 cow is in ground beef form, and he won't eat it. :( The rest of us will, though.

We've lived pared back quite massively this entire time, even while getting into debt. Yes, there are definitely choices I could have made differently. When I look at what I've spent, though, most of it was "I could have gone to Walmart instead" and saved money, and I've refused to do that on principle. So, doing without is going to be the order of the day. Waiting more time before getting something, and spending more of MY time sourcing out used or free clothing, or sewing it. Simply not buying unless it's a drastic need.

Case in point: birthday. We've been broke. It all turned out well, though, as dh had squirreled away secret money (how? I have no idea, but I know he's wanted his own "gift fund" for a while now, and I have to give him credit for doing it). He bought Katie a $60 bike at Walmart, and a cool air-pumped flying plane for Jake (which he LOVES) and a crash-up car and some Floam. He took the initiative, he spent it without asking me, and I'm happy he did it.

Katie *desperately* wanted the dollhouse, though. I told her yesterday that I was still going to build her one, but I wanted to know more about what she wanted. As we talked I realized that she wants something fairly detailed and the idea of setting up the rooms is appealing to her. She picked out a birch plywood dollhouse online that's around $150. OUCH! Not including the furniture. And not what I had planned...I explained to her I had planned to build a very simple one and although I'm glad I talked to her before investing a lot of time in making it, I can't buy that for her birthday (but she has $100 in birthday money, lucky girl, my kids are SO blessed!!!, and I told her she could use that, but she wants to save that). Anyway, trying to make this succinct. She said "something like that dollhouse would last generations!" So I asked her, "How would you like something from another generation?" Yes, around her age, I got very into dollhouses, and I still have mine with all the furniture and miniatures, packed up at my parents' house in Florida. She lit up, and I told her I knew what I was going to do, but I had to get it for her. (My mom just had major surgery and my dad's taking care of her, so I don't know when I can get it packed up and here, but the wait will be delicious!) So - right there - her major "want" will be filled without us spending money. (Except I may pay them for shipping.)

wow! so cool that she's going to get your dollhouse. i hope she loves it!

ETA: portion control. Everyone in my family was either eating too much or the little ones were filling up on the wrong stuff. This issue has dropped our bill almost in half.


:agreed: This was a huge eye-opener for me, as well! When I started doing sparkpeople to lose weight, I realized how much I was overeating. When I started cutting back, even though I replaced most of my meals with healthy foods, it really made a difference in the grocery budget. FTR, I do not limit how much the girls eat, but I do encourage them to fill up on healthier options, rather than chips, meat, crackers, and other expensive junkfood.

Now, I'll go read the rest of the thread, LOL.

In addition to trying to want less, are there any easy ways for you to make money? Do you have anything you can sell? Is it yard sale season in your town? I know you are off the beaten path; could you have a sale at a friend's house?

Could you take a day to drive as far as you need to in order to have multiple thrift stores to choose from (leaving the kids with Matt)? Doing that 2-4 times a year could get the clothes you need. Do you think outside of the box? Any t-shirt (s/s or l/s) combined with any soft elastic waist pants can be pajamas. My boys are super slim in the waist so we only do elastic waist clothing.

Not participating in swaps is a big saver.

Now that you are set up to sew again, could you sell simple quilts?

Have you given up as much convenience as you can? It's hardcore, and we aren't there yet, but our goal is to never purchase disposable products. Tissues, tp, paper towels, etc.

Do you bathe less? Share the water with the kids?

I love the $5 idea. One thing I try to do when it seems like we can't cut any more is to think of 10 things that will save $5-$10 each.

Can you make Jake's ice cream? (I make DS#2's ice cream; we need to push calories as well. He's 7YO, 48 inches, and 50 pounds with clothes on.)

I know that you know all of the tricks, that's why it is so hard to come up with anything new.

Just put the money away, with the cards, and pretend like it's not there. :lol: One thing I've learned lately? If you don't have it you can't spend it, no matter how much your brain normally tells you that you "need" something. At times like this you realize just HOW frugal you can be, when you previously thought that you *were* frugal. But, you've been here before haven't you? So I'm not telling you anything you don't already know.

:hug: I wish things were getting better on your end, I really wish they were. :hug:

I thought of another one.

Since you don't have to hand down to siblings, cut off pants into shorts in the summer. Also, cut long sleeve shirts down to short sleeves when summer rolls around.

The same can be done with pj's.

My kids actually only have winter pj's and they are pants that I made them. They just wear a soft long sleeve to bed with them.

I made some summer boxers for my little boys, but only because they asked me to. Otherwise, they would just wear their regular clothes to bed or undies.

Re: gas

Nearly everything that's necessity is biking distance for us so we'll be parking the car for awhile. Driving means we're retail shopping and we *don't* want to do that. I know you're not so close to town but maybe scheduling two grocery trips a month or somehow coinciding with doctor's appointments will work for you?

I'm focusing my desire to buy gifts on making them instead. I made a small box, two yarn dolls & their clothing and a bedspread and pillow for dd's dollhouse this evening.

I love that you're passing on your dollhouse. The situation seems serendipitous. :bow:

Do you bathe less? Share the water with the kids?


Hey, water conservation, a subject near to my heart lately. :lol: We've taken this one farther and carry the water when we are done to the washing machine so we can run it! (don't worry S. I won't wash that little hanna jacket in used water!) I use that water to wash my son's work clothes (he works full time outside and it's been in the 100s) or my children's dirty play clothes (we live in the country, when I say dirty, I mean *dirt*y) ) This way I'm more likely to actually have water to wash the clean-dirty clothes.

We've got 10 gallon buckets (you can get frosting buckets free from bakery deptartments) in the floor of the shower stalls. That water is used for the garden.

We soak dishes in another one of those buckets and that water goes in the chickens watering troughs. They empty them sometimes twice a day, so with only a little food in the water that doesn't have time to go bad - no soap, it's fine for them.

I figured out I can move the pipe easily on the washing machine that carries the water away. I'm wondering if I collect only the rinse water, if I can use it for anything. I could recycle it into the next loads wash cycle, even for the clean-dirty clothes, right? Wash the car? I can't think of much else, since it has Sears (not natural) detergent in it.

ahhhh, the things we take for granted when we have them! Water used to be something I never really thought much about.

I'm so totally procrastinating hand sewing lining into a civil war calvary jacket right now. Guess I'd better get to it though eh? It's got to be worn tomorrow. It's so hot here, just thinking about that wool makes me itchy. <shudder>

re: portion control - I just wanted to clarify :-) that I don't actually limit how much my girls eat but I do limit how much of ONE thing they eat. Pizza is a GREAT example. My 15 dd would eat 4 pieces easy if I let her - now she eats 2 pieces and then salad.

I switched over to cash only at the grocery store. Every Friday I take $100 out and that's all I get for the week. No more adding junk to the cart! I also try to only go grocery shopping 1x a week to save on gas.

That's been my biggest money saver.

Groceries = Wal-Mart. I save a lot of money on food by shopping at Wal-Mart.

Clothing - I know what it's like to live rural, so I do a lot of online shopping. Google Product Search (http://www.froogle.com) might help find clothing you need at good prices, even with shipping.

Gas - One trip, once a week. It's can be hard at first, but it saves LOTS of money. you could have your husband do the errands since he goes to town more often, but really the once a week thing helps me get out more. I go to church on Saturdays so I try and do my errands then, too.

Buying in general - Once your shopping is done and you're headed for the check out, go through everything in the cart. I did this one time and realized I had been saying yes to *every* "can I have this" question. What can I say, I was distracted ; D I've found this to be very useful in pulling things out.

In addition to trying to want less, are there any easy ways for you to make money? Do you have anything you can sell? Is it yard sale season in your town? I know you are off the beaten path; could you have a sale at a friend's house?

I do have a massage client next week and am going to actively look for a couple more. It's hard to set up though, and now I have to spend $225 to keep my license current - it expires Aug 31. Sigh. Plus another $100 for liability insurance if I will actively do massages.

Yard sales, I have nowhere to have one. But, I have a bunch of things we can sell off, just waiting for school to start so I have the time. The other problem is, taking the time to take pics and list stuff online, or organize a yard sale, takes time away from the writing which is where I could actually make some money.

Could you take a day to drive as far as you need to in order to have multiple thrift stores to choose from (leaving the kids with Matt)? Doing that 2-4 times a year could get the clothes you need. Do you think outside of the box? Any t-shirt (s/s or l/s) combined with any soft elastic waist pants can be pajamas. My boys are super slim in the waist so we only do elastic waist clothing.

We don't even wear pj's. :D And Burlington has like, 2 or 3 different thrift stores, but I don't think it's worth the drive, honestly - they're more consignment. I mean, it's 1.5 hrs each way - I can't imagine it's worth the gas. It's $25 in gas. And then it could be hit or miss - there isn't enough density anywhere unless I drive 3.5 hrs to Boston.

Not participating in swaps is a big saver.
Haven't ever done it. :)

Now that you are set up to sew again, could you sell simple quilts?
I have never made a quilt in my life, and I'm not a "precise" seamstress, so I don't think this would work for me...plus I don't have a lot of quilting fabric, so I'd have to invest in that.

Have you given up as much convenience as you can? It's hardcore, and we aren't there yet, but our goal is to never purchase disposable products. Tissues, tp, paper towels, etc.

I do purchase tp and paper towels. We don't use tissues - just use tp if we need it. We hardly use paper towels - a 12-pack lasts 6 months. I am not ready to give up toilet paper. :P I buy Marcal - it's recycled, safe for septic, but still fairly cheap.

Do you bathe less? Share the water with the kids?
We don't bathe or shower daily as it is. Hope I don't gross everybody out. But I think the American standard of everyone, even kids, showering daily, is insane. I shower 2-3x a week. Dh does daily when it's school. Katie is 2-3x/week. Jake gets filthy and usually requires a bath daily. K and J share baths, or I'll drain the tub partially then refill it for the second child's bath (just to warm up the water). Water doesn't cost us much - the water itself is free from our well, and we have a very efficient propane hot water heater. We're careful, but I don't think we can save much in this area.

I love the $5 idea. One thing I try to do when it seems like we can't cut any more is to think of 10 things that will save $5-$10 each.
Yes, great idea.

Can you make Jake's ice cream? (I make DS#2's ice cream; we need to push calories as well. He's 7YO, 48 inches, and 50 pounds with clothes on.)
Sounds like Jake! They are the same size almost exactly. :) He is 52 lb though and 49 inches. How do you save $ making it yourself? My mom gave me an ice cream maker but it seems cheaper to buy it on sale.

I know that you know all of the tricks, that's why it is so hard to come up with anything new.

Thanks. I don't mean to criticize your suggestions - it's just that as I read I'm like "doing that, done that for 5 years, have never gone on vacation," and so on. It gets tiring. I want to go deeper...and I think I'm at a place where I'm bumping up against the standard of living I think we're entitled to.

Groceries = Wal-Mart. I save a lot of money on food by shopping at Wal-Mart.

My Wal Mart is an hour away and doesn't carry any food. We don't have any of those big ol' supercenter jobbers within 3 hrs.

Clothing - I know what it's like to live rural, so I do a lot of online shopping. Google Product Search (http://www.froogle.com) might help find clothing you need at good prices, even with shipping.

Great idea...this is one of my biggest areas where I need to find cheaper alternatives.

Gas - One trip, once a week. It's can be hard at first, but it saves LOTS of money. you could have your husband do the errands since he goes to town more often, but really the once a week thing helps me get out more. I go to church on Saturdays so I try and do my errands then, too.

We do this already. He does grocery shopping on his way home from work. It is another 20 min to the supermarket from where he works but that's quicker than my 35 min each way.

I don't drive anywhere unless I absolutely have to. I go to the town that's 15 min away *maybe* once a week. I end up at the kids' school 1-2x per week for school events - that's a 10-min drive each way.

I also have become a master at smooshing trips together and consolidating errands.

Buying in general - Once your shopping is done and you're headed for the check out, go through everything in the cart. I did this one time and realized I had been saying yes to *every* "can I have this" question. What can I say, I was distracted ; D I've found this to be very useful in pulling things out.

Great idea.

I switched over to cash only at the grocery store. Every Friday I take $100 out and that's all I get for the week. No more adding junk to the cart! I also try to only go grocery shopping 1x a week to save on gas.

That's been my biggest money saver.

I think this would help us a lot. Only, we need to couple it with menu planning or something. When we've done this in the past, we've run out of basic food and then been like, "Okay, what does Jake eat, do we make him PBJs for 4 days or go buy more chicken breasts?" He needs the chicken...so we get it. We need to figure out how to make that $100 go further. We're getting there...planning and organizing has been key.

I thought of another one.

Since you don't have to hand down to siblings, cut off pants into shorts in the summer. Also, cut long sleeve shirts down to short sleeves when summer rolls around.

The same can be done with pj's.

My kids actually only have winter pj's and they are pants that I made them. They just wear a soft long sleeve to bed with them.

I made some summer boxers for my little boys, but only because they asked me to. Otherwise, they would just wear their regular clothes to bed or undies.

We don't wear pj's at all - my kids pretty much sleep in their undies. If they're cold they'll just wear a long-sleeved shirt.

I did buy those zip off pants you mentioned - and am glad to have them now, if I can find all the bottom pieces, LOL! Great idea - he wore them all summer and now can wear them all fall.

But- the shorts idea - it doesn't work here. IF pants/jeans still fit - we need them for summer. :lol: We wear long pants ALL summer here but also need shorts for the (few) hot days. :) Just one of the joys of this climate!

I did buy those zip off pants you mentioned - and am glad to have them now, if I can find all the bottom pieces, LOL! Great idea - he wore them all summer and now can wear them all fall.


If you're not using them for pants at all (like we do when it gets hot), or rarely, take all the bottoms, pin them together, and stick them somewhere safe. I use the bottom drawer in my dresser since it's empty.

Can I say? I still think all the ideas on this thread are all GREAT ideas...just only a few of them work for our situation, or we already do them.

I'm feeling a mixture of a) depressed because we already live quite frugally, how are we possibly going to cut more? and b) excited to see that I actually do most of the things people suggested already and I'm ready to dig deeper.

Digging deeper...for me...

*increase income...this is where I've been for a while, thinking there's not another way to really do it. The writing is starting to roll in money, I'm looking for massage clients, I can sell stuff off on ebay this fall.

*completely cut out paper towels. This will be easy. As I said, I buy a 12-pack of recycled every 6 months. It's a habit we got into last year when ds needed nebs and they were adamant we use paper not cloth to dry them on. I am keeping my tp - that would not go down well around here. In fact dd doesn't use tp for pee, never has - she seems fine, no rashes or anything. So it's just me using tp for pee, and then we use it for poop of course.

*Watch the propane. We have been luxuriating in being able to take more than a 5-minute shower, or fill the tub with hot water (our previous hot water heater was crap). Our hot water usage has gone up...so our bill has not gone down much. Summertime is time for a lot of baths, because the kids get dirty, so this will naturally go down as they're in school all day.

*Find cheap coffee when the stash from my friend runs out. I'm not above Maxwell House. But I can find bags of organic Peet's for $3 at the scratch and bump if I am disciplined about going there.

*Keep combining trips and make sure I'm not making any extra trips anywhere. I'm not willing to give up participating at the school or going there for meetings related to Jake. I'm not willing to give up therapy 2x a month (covered by ins, but I do pay $15 copays). I'm not willing to give up Jake's home program therapist, who we just started with, which is a 35-min drive each way 1x/week - but I'm hopeful that soon we'll have him coming to the house, as soon as the school agrees to that.

*Plan in advance more for clothing needs. (Hard to do with these kids that have these huge growth spurts!) Shop online for good deals on clothing...put the word out more widely about what we need.

*Moratorium on book buying EVEN for my work. We have $70 in book gift cards that should be plenty for the next 6 mos to a year. I am going to get Paperback Swap and BookMooch going on - thanks for those links, Elizabeth. We have tons to share; I have about 10 boxes of paperbacks that we can swap. Katie only reads things once.

*Couple of things we already do that might be helpful for others: for soap I buy Kirk's Castile - it's cheap, but natural, and we're sensitive around here (no Dial etc for us, it rashes us up). In our spending days I bought a Pampered Chef foam soap pump and I put some Vermont Organics lavender castile in it...it stretches it so far, it's amazing - luxury at low cost.

*Whenever I find something we "need" or I'm justifying by saying "this is important for Jake," or "this is critical to Katie's development," - I need to step back and think. Write the desire down, and the rationalizations. Then step away, wait, don't buy right away. I do this already but I need to dig deeper here.

*What can we do without? This is the biggie. I need to think about this, and think about it hard, every time we "want" something. Can we do without this? The answer is usually YES we can. Or at least we can wait until something materializes for free. (a la the dollhouse - I also had my neighbor say he had one we might be able to have! cool!)

I think that's it for us...oh and better meal planning and grocery list making would go a long way toward cutting grocery spending. Currently we spend around $500...remember around $200-250 is just for one person, the other 3 of us eat on $300ish. I do buy organic produce, but we have a CSA, and otherwise only buy in season and local, and it comes to almost as cheap as conventional. (one of the few things that's cheap around here, is organic produce!) We don't drink milk. I buy conventional half and half for our coffee. I buy Cabot (nonorganic) cheese or organic "trim" from Grafton that's less expensive b/c it's in chunks instead of blocks (I shred it anyway). We buy almost no boxed or prepared foods - just dry pasta, canned tomatoes for sauce, canned beans here and there but also cook dry. I buy in bulk at the co-op and it's cheaper than the several-year-old beans in bags at the supermarket. We don't eat much bread, even. But we can always trim and cut here, I think, with better planning.

I think the MAIN thing you need to do here is increase your income. I think that being frugal is great, but these tactics only apply if you are bringing in a certain level of income to begin with. I would really start working on bringing in more money.

I think the MAIN thing you need to do here is increase your income. I think that being frugal is great, but these tactics only apply if you are bringing in a certain level of income to begin with. I would really start working on bringing in more money.

I know, you are right. :wah: :eyes: :help: It's really really hard up here, to make money or get a job. If I could walk into a $30k a year FT job right now, I would do it in a *heartbeat.* I have a BA in psychology and experience working in a bookstore, working as a receptionist, chasing down late payments for a medical office, running a computer help desk, and working as a librarian's assistant. I've been looking at the paltry want ads, and even considered a FT job with an hour's commute each way in Montpelier (our nearest "city" with actual jobs other than inseminating cows). I can't find anything.

I'm depressed because if we can't get enough coming in via the writing or other telecommuting type situation, we're screwed.

I calculated out getting a $7/hr job as an aide at the school, but b/c of our SSI payment for Jake getting cut, I'd end up only breaking even or even in the negative once you count gas and clothing expenses.

Matt may have to teach community college. He has to do 3 nights 7-10 plus a 30-min drive each way (hairy dirt road too) for us to be in the positive as far as that payment getting cut. But, you do what you have to do. He's the one who can actually make a decent enough return on his hours to make it worthwhile.

But yeah. We've been living on a gross salary of $30k for so long already...and gone into debt three times over, then pulled ourselves out various ways. The kids only get more expensive as they get older.

It may really be time to consider a move. I don't know your history and if that is something you guys would consider. We have made a couple HUGE moves in our life even though we didn't want to move and had to make sacrifices... we knew it would be better for us in the long run.

Lauren,

I'm not sure I save money making ice cream over something similar; I can't get anything similar. I make it with raw cream, raw milk, raw egg yolks, maple syrup, and pure vanilla. We price it out and it was about the same price as buying Strauss organic ice cream.

For us, we are factoring the cost of ingredients that we want no part of; even natural brands don't have to tell you if they use spray-dried milk and eggs, and most brands add various thickeners, stabilizers, and ingredients to enhance "mouth feel". I try to get the best prices for food, but food is my non-negotiable area.

To compare, I'd suggest figuring out the cost of half and half in your area, or milk and cream. You'll use about 3 cups at a time (or any combo of cream and milk; we go 2:1 most of the time, but switch to 1:1 when the cream is richer and thicker in early summer). If maple syrup is cheap in your area it is a great sweetener. If you are concerned about raw eggs you can always do a cooked custard base.

Because of the cost of the ingredients for ice cream we generally only give it to DS#2. DH and I eat it rarely. DS#1 can't have dairy, so we can make him lemon sorbet for a lot less than the ice cream.

I know you do so many of these things; it's why I was hesitant to offer suggestions. But I am trying to think of more. Feel free to ignore any that you already do...heck, feel free to ignore them all.

Do you have all electronics and appliances that have stand-by modes plugged into strips that can be turned off (to reduce phantom load)?

Do you use a microwave? If you don't, can you unplug it?

Do you charge cell phones overnight, or just for the hour or so that it actually takes (and then turn off strip or unplug charger).

As you take meat from your freezer do you replace it with bags/bottles of ice so the freezer doesn't have to draw as much power to keep cold?

Could you give up coffee completely?

Do you have anything collectible that you could sell?

Do you wash in cold water and line dry when the weather cooperates?

Do you have window quilts for winter?

Will any of your utility companies come out and do free audits to find any unknown leaks or places where you could use less energy?

Do you turn off the computer when you aren't using it (it is a myth that this will make the computer have a shorter life)?

Other than massage, do you have any easily marketed skills, such as home organizing or making scrapbooks? It is amazing what people will pay for these kinds of services.

Have you considered life coaching/counseling as a money maker? If you don't want to set up a practice you could perhaps barter with Amity mamas for things you need.

Do you have any non-essentials that could go? I know you need your internet service for your writing career. Do you subscribe to movie channels or Netflix?

Have you looked for at-home editing jobs to supplement your writing experience and income?

Do you carry more than $5 cash at a time? Limiting the cash in your wallet limits buying impulse treats. Do you carry your checkbook; leave it home.

Are your ties with your local community strong? Can you work to create an environment of helping and sharing? This increases hand-me-downs, sharing of power equipment, etc.

Could you increase your flock and sell eggs next spring/summer? Or at least trade with neighbors who may raise food that you want?

Can you sell books on Amazon?

Clothing: accept all hand-me-downs with gratitude - really, they just keep coming once people know you're happy to have them. Even my clothes are part hand-me-down.

Just thought of another one: vacation for free or close to it. Tent camp in state parks. Seriously, the camping is something anyone can do, and most of us already have the stuff. We just never use it because someone (in my case, it's DH) thinks it's too much trouble to camp with kids. It really isn't. It's a lot of fun, really relaxing, and inexpensive, to boot. I just came to the conclusion that I have to camp with my sister, not my husband.

*sniff* you know you can still send me hand me downs, right? :lol:

we (me, my aunt/cousins and my uncle) just took the kids tent camping for the first time ever, at the campground I've been going to since I was a baby.. it was a lot of fun :)

I have another idea. It may or may not work, but the idea came to me so I thought I'd toss it out there.

Instead of coming up with a full-on "family" budget, can you make a budget for each person and then total it?

When you said something to the effect that you need to consider not buying items that be integral to their therapy or personal development, etc... that sparked something for me.

If each person has their own budget, that will help you see more visually whether or not the money is there. You can assign the mortgage, car payment, utilities to the person who earns the money to pay for it. So it would look something like this:

Dad:
Mortgage $800
Car Payment $400
Electric bill $200
Propane $150
Groceries $100 (split in 1/3's based on your info about Jacob)
Maint Fun $200

Mom:
Internet $75
Telephone $25
Cell phone $60
Gas $100
Groceries $100

Katie:
Groceries $100
Clothing $20

Jacob:
Groceries $250
Therapy $50
Clothing $20

The theory behind it would be that if it was in the kid's budget, you could get it. However, if it not, you would have to cut something else in your own budget in order to get it.

Sometimes, seeing the "whole pot" as $2500/mth makes us overspend the first part when it is just a "drop in the bucket". If it is all split out like that (and I've just thrown numbers out there!), it might be easier to see each teeny tiny number.

Also, I have a question on the "pushing calories" and ice cream thing. Does he need the calories because of the autism/sensory stuff or the cf? Is he just small? I'm not sure I understand all this.

What would happen if you just didn't have ice cream?

Thought of something else;

If you sew, and get hand me downs that you can't use (wrong size/style/etc) but is decent fabric - remake it into something you CAN use. If pants a re too short, but fit at the waist, make them shorts. Pants of dad's that don't fit - cut them down to kids' clothes (same with shirts, etc etc).

Stacy, this is great - I really like how you broke it all out. Our "whole pot" after bills is way, way less than that number, which I suspect is part of the problem. If I were working with $2500 a mo, I'd be budgeting comfortably. :)

Let me explain J's needs. The higher calories are because of the CF. Kids w/CF have blocked pancreatic ducts, basically, so they don't digest their food properly (esp fat) and need to take replacement pancreatic enzymes every time they eat. Still, due to the fact that it's not a perfect replacement and the fact that for various metabolic reasons they don't understand, people w/CF burn about 150% of the calories of a person woCF, they need a higher caloric intake and especially a very high fat intake. So - basically - high fat, high calorie diet. I try to make those as inflammation-lowering fats as possible (omega 3 vs 6) because people with CF have a lot of trouble with inflammation as well. So far so good - we have a new pulmo who is astonished at Jake's healthy condition. Also when people with CF get a lung infection they lose weight extremely rapidly and their BMI has been shown to be correlated with lung health. So they are extremely, extremely anal about him having a certain BMI and threaten a G tube if it's lower than the norm for 6 months.

The other piece of the puzzle with Jakey, is the autism. First of all, he never, ever stops moving. So his caloric needs are even higher due to his very high activity level (although that's so good for his CF, for him to be very active). Secondly, he doesn't eat the normal variety of foods a neurotypical person eats. He has a few foods that he reliably eats - oatmeal, chicken, deli turkey breast and certain kinds of deli roast beef, steak, french fries, ice cream, and a ton of snacky/unhealthy foods that I won't list out - those are easy for him to like, but he doesn't get them often. Anyway so it's not like I can just switch him to rice and beans, is what I'm trying to say. I've tried, and I'm still trying - but it's lower on the priority list...I do have to live with a kid with major special needs every day, and that in itself is exhausting.

If we just didn't have ice cream, he'd probably eat another chicken breast for "dessert."

Also he's not small, but if we don't keep pushing calories, he is likely to fall behind in height as well as weight.

I hope I explained that somewhat clearly. I feel a bit fuzzy this afternoon.

Lauren, I'm surprised there isn't someone with whom you can trade for raw milk up there. It just seems to sound like such a "farm-y" community. :lol:

With DS#2 we push calories because he didn't grow or gain weight for nearly 2 years; he developed celiac/gluten intolerance and completely fell off his curve.

Now, for being nearly the same weight and height as Lauren's Jake, DS#2 seems rather small. He is so active that it is all muscle. He wears a 5 in shorts, and all of his pants are elastic because even slims are too big around if they fit in length.

We use raw milk and cream to help heal his gut. They are full of good fat and enzymes (something it took me a long time to accept, but once I tried it I was amazed at his progress). He has actually put on 6 pounds in the last year, which is amazing for him.

He is now at the 35th percentile, which is fantastic for him. I think he looks great and he is very healthy. A year ago he dipped below the 25th percentile, and he looked painfully thin. Now these numbers don't mean a lot by themselves, but we had watched him drop slowly from age 1 to age 4, and then rather quickly until age 6. We fed him a lot of ice cream at first, but now we only make it once a week.

Part of it is that we are very active (the boys especially, with racing plus 20+ mile bike rides on the weekends), and we just don't eat much junk. No HFCS, no trans fats, not much in the way of processed foods. They don't get soda in restaurants, or Kool-aid, or juice, or sweet tea (in other words, they don't drink their calories). We are dealing with multiple food allergies and intolerances. Basically now we just make sure every calorie they get (excepting special occasions) is as high nutrient as we can get, and we don't limit good, unprocessed fats.

I wanted to clarify that the "whole pot" I was talking about was a paycheck, not the leftover. It was a very basic sketch of a budget so you can shift around as necessary.

Gifts, shoes, even shampoo, can be put under each person instead of in the group pot. Even if you all share it. Each month would be separated like this. I think I'm actually going to give it a try.

My thought is that by doing this you would accomplish a couple of things:

1. Pay the money you will get in big trouble for defaulting on first.
2. Appropriating the money to the proper person to keep from overspending on one need/want and leaving you short in another area.

I know for me if it came down to buying groceries and I needed ice cream for my kiddo, but was out of coffee too (Ack!!), I could make a better decision. OR, say I really wanted a puzzle or something like that. I could see right away whether or not there was any wiggle room.

I'm wondering if breaking it out month by painful month including any an all maintenence that you can think of, might help.

I know when I get my dh's paycheck, I feel like "woo hoo! We just got paid. Let's go out to dinner." After $50 is spent, the total amount of his check still looks really big and therefore, deceiving! However, if I need every dime of it, I've just overspent by $50.

That makes total sense about Jake. I knew there was something I wasn't figuring out. :)

Another thing I thought of while I'm on a roll (ha!) is a plan for your tax return. Consider that now and work through the "wants" ahead of time. This may not be the year you increase your homestead. It may be a "maintenence" year while you are increasing your cash flow.

Marina - I haven't tried trading for raw milk yet. I know the farm that does raw milk nearby. But, we don't actually drink milk, so I just haven't had the motivation to do it just for ice cream. If we buy milk it will just spoil before we finish it all. We stick with raw milk cheeses. My neighbor makes blue cheese and a chaorce that is, basically, a brie. They're strong tasting and delicious, but more "treats" than a staple, and too much for the kids.

Jake eats about 2 lb of chicken a day, just to give you a ballpark. Same here as Kimberly, we do no "junk" food, and it's expensive to feed well and avoid simple carbs and sugars.

Kimberly, Jake's all muscle too. So interesting how just a couple of pounds can make a difference...he's 49 in and 52 lb, I swear, but in a size 7X regular (with the adjustable waist pulled in). But just last winter he was more like 48 lb and he was in 7 slims with the waist cinched in a lot, still. Then all of a sudden we couldn't even button them.

Stacy, the idea you have is really a great one. I think it really might work for us. Let me explain what we have done though, that I think addresses the "wow we have $1000, let's go out to dinner," issue. For me it was the *sinking funds* part of the zero-based budget. What seems to get us, are the non-regular expenses. Example: this month we have a small filling for Matt ($81), a cleaning for me ($81), an oil change on the Subaru but then it desperately needed an air filter change too ($75). Those all add up, and if we pay all the bills and have $500 left and think we have enough to blow a little on fun stuff, we'll be screwed. So we did the sinking funds and really calculated everything including, say, the fact that in 2 years we will need to spend $600 for winter tires (that was a purchase that went on a CC last winter).

I'm wondering if breaking it out month by painful month including any an all maintenence that you can think of, might help.

This is what we've done. We really have. Honestly, including the amount of writing income that I can count on right now, we're $700 in the hole every month with what we *ought* to be putting away for dental/medical, tires/car maintenance, house maintenance, etc.

Also LatteLover mentioned this in another thread - sometimes a windfall can cause you to overspend, ironically. We got our tax return. I had it planned so that it was enough for the washer, dryer, and hot water heater. I decided to buy the w/d new because it seemed we had enough. Then, somehow (!!! that $700 hole I mentioned?) we spent it all after we bought the w/d and still had no hot water heater (and that was more critical, as ours had just about died, at the end we couldn't even get through shampooing our hair in the shower without it going cold). So, that went on a CC.

We are definitely treading water and not increasing our homestead for a while. But I thought I had a plan for the tax return, and I blew it this year. With the zero based budget I now always have something to look at so there's a plan for all the money coming in.

(And as far as the $700 hole, we readjusted - things are tight, but still doable, with a true "0" at the bottom.)

Anyway, all great ideas, and I appreciate them!

Oh and speaking of tax returns... Have you changed your dh's W-4 to maximize your cash flow now instead of getting a huge return?

Just checking. :)


I totally hear you about windfalls making one spend more. I agree with that completely.

LOL...yes we have adjusted his W-4. He gets only $9.xx taken out each paycheck so I think our big tax return is a thing of the past (we get EIC too though and that was a big part of our return this year). We do almost everything (except giving up coffee, and having an energy audit, but this house is solid log and energy-star-rated windows and costs us very little in wood to heat) on Kimberly's second list too. Um, I'm not sure if I'm reassured or scared by that. I mean, there is very little to cut. And some of the things like selling books on Amazon - it feels like a distraction from what I'm trying to do with writing.

This summer I made a choice to focus on national pubs though, which move more slowly although they pay a lot, and I think I may need to go back to churning out articles for regional parenting publications. I sent out a reprint list yesterday and have three potential sales which would be $90. :D (But they pay the month it publishes, so I might not see some of those checks for 6 months!) If I could up my production of articles and just churn them out and send them to my regional parenting publication list, I might be able to make up several hundred a month pretty quickly. Something like that would be a better choice for me than turning to a *different* income stream. Although I may pound the pavement again at local chiropractors' offices and see if I can work a couple of days a week. And dh is looking into teaching community college this fall, which would be a huge, huge help.

Lauren,

I sold some extra books on Amazon just to get rid of them easily. It is super easy to list them because all of the info for the books is there, and once you are notified you package them and send them off. I learned not to bother with bigger books that won't fit in a padded envelope. Anyway, I made $100 (after mailing envelopes and postage) in July and it took very little time or effort.

The down side is that you have to mail within 2 business days. Luckily DH works across the street from the P.O. so he could do it for me. It wouldn't make sense if you had to drive to the P.O.

Altogether I am sure that it took me less than 2 hours to earn that $100. It's something you can do at home to get rid of extra books you might have. I wouldn't recommend turning it into a business where you are looking for used books to sell.

What about maple tapping next spring? Do you have the basics for that? Maybe not as a commercial business, but to supply yourselves and barter with local food producers?

I understand wanting to stay with writing. That is why I suggested editing; I know a couple of people who were writing articles, took on unpaid editing, moved into paid editing, and ended up with book deals. I'm trying to figure out where I am with all of this. I have a great idea for a homeschooling book (which I am staying absolutely mum about for now, even to good friends). While I work on that I need to write some articles for homeschooling magazines (including unpaid articles) to get my name out there. I am such a newbie, but I know I have this book/idea in me and I know it is a good, even if in the end it is a website or presentation instead of a book.

That's great, Kimberly, about amazon! I don't think I thought about it being that profitable or easy to do. I assumed you had to develop a storefront, etc., like becoming an ebay seller, and I haven't found ebay to be very profitable for things like selling clothing or whatever. I will definitely go through our books and list some. :) The PO is one thing that's close and *very* uncrowded...I pass it every time I go anywhere.

Maple tapping. We wanted to do it, but no. We don't have the basics, and it costs quite a bit to get set up with them even used through the trader, scavenged, or whatever. Even if it doesn't cost actual money, it is an *incredible* investment in time that is very precious to us right now (hours and hours of slaving over the hot sap) plus lots of fuel to heat the arch - unless you cut your own wood it's $$. With the local abundance of maple syrup, I can't barter with local food producers. They all have huge sugarbushes on their farms, or arrangements with local landowners to tap their trees, and have had their equipment for 50 years...most local farmers produce syrup themselves, is what I'm saying. For us, we use a good bit of it, but I'd say maybe 3-4 gallons a year, which is at $30/gal, significant, but not enough to really entice us to do it. On top of that we have to spend some time cutting trails back there to access the line of maples that we do have. I'm excited about doing it, but it's in the 5 year plan for the homestead, not next spring.

Kimberly, you should check out freelancesuccess.com. You don't have to write unpaid articles. You can write articles for regionals that don't pay much, but pay a little, while you build up clips. There are classes you can take online, on how to write and submit book proposals, and those folks could tell you how much time to spend (or not) writing articles before you do a book.

Do you know where these folks found their editing jobs? Was it for local businesses, or online? I'm trying to figure out how to find jobs doing website writing, or other business writing. I just can't seem to find the door, yk? I have the skills, the resume, the clips.

Thanks for the info; I'll look into it.

Yes, Amazon is amazingly easy. I wouldn't have done it if it wasn't. If you really want to LOL, I use what I make to buy maple syrup off Amazon (and craft books). We easily use 1 gallon a month.

Hmmm ~ one friend started with editing textbooks, which she got through another friend who did the same thing. I don't really know how it morphed after that, and she makes more editing than writing (she doesn't have a book). A couple of others I know wrote for homeschooling magazines, then took up editing, and I think both have books coming out.

The thing is for me, I don't really need to write for money. I just want to write; I have always wanted to write but now it feels more like a need. Then again, I won't pay to self-publish or anything like that (why would I really, when I can blog?). I'm at a place now where I can say "that's a fantastic idea for a book" or "wow, that could be a whole bi-monthly magazine." But I don't really want to spend too much time pursuing it. I think the first step is take my blogs down for awhile and work with the ideas and posts I have already written.

I've found three homeschooling magazines that I would be interested in writing for, and I'm fairly certain that one would take just about anything (no pay), and one would be interested in my articles (they are fairly new, and they do pay a small amount). The third doesn't pay but is more respected. My goal is to develop a query for the third by the November deadline, and to just submit to the first two, one in September and one in October(since they take full articles).

Just to be clear, this isn't some higher purpose and getting paid would be nice. I just don't actually need the income and I have to think about how much time I have to pursue it, since it would be a hobby.

I forgot that the smaller, niche publications like homeschooling magazines, typically don't pay or pay a very small amount.

As a writer trying to make a living writing, I hate to see people give their writing away, is all. :) And I think you write well and clearly, Kimberly, and have lots of great ideas to share.

I'm not *quite* sure how it works, but lately lots of people have been getting book deals after having a well-read blog about their book topic. So, that might be a way to go about it. There's not so much of, "I have to keep this idea under wraps," anymore in publishing, transparency is the hot word of the year - so you can have half your book actually written in blog form, get a book deal, put the rest of it together or edit it from blog posts, and actually get paid. :) What book publishers want to see these days is a "platform" - how are you going to market it? Do you have an audience who will buy the book? More and more the marketing is falling to the writers. What I do is 60% marketing, 40% writing. At least, if not more on the marketing side of things! Kinda wild, huh?

I agree with Lauren. I was re-reading one of your blog posts from November (Use it up, wear it out, make it do or do without) and thinking it sounded like a magazine article. I have it printed out from when you first posted it.

jumping in really late but i have quit using paper towels completely. I bought a 25 pack of microfiber towels dirt cheap at Sam's-i use these in place of paper towels.

Jen and Lauren, many thanks.

A couple of months ago I got a domain for my idea and a typepad blog to get started on specific blog posts. Life has just been crazy since then. The reason I am pulling down the other blogs for now is to mine them for material that might be easy to publish now, to get my foot in.

Lauren, I hope you feel better soon. I understand making yourself sick with worry. I hope you find the balance that you need.

I agree with Lauren. I was re-reading one of your blog posts from November (Use it up, wear it out, make it do or do without) and thinking it sounded like a magazine article. I have it printed out from when you first posted it.

I totally mis-read this post this morning and proceeded to spend 20 minutes looking for this post in Lauren's blog! Which was a great read, btw, but not what I was looking for, :lol:

Kimberly, would you mind sharing your blog addy with me? I looked for a link in your sig but did not see one.


And to every other poster here, these were some great ideas.

As for cutting back on groceries, or maybe I should say buying the non-necessities at the grocery store, my DH and I have found that if we go together WITH the kids, we spend less. It didn't make sense to me at first, but I think when we are both there keeping each other in check, we don't fall victim to our own weak spots. And the kids being there hurry us along, leaving us less time to browse, LOL.