IBelieveInFae
08-23-2007, 07:23 PM
A dear friend of mine tagged me with a meme of sorts at Once upon a time: Things I do to be frugal (http://mingu.sping.us/~erin/blog/2007/08/things-i-do-to-be-frugal.html) . She asked what I do to be frugal. I'm horrified to say "not nearly enough". I'm tagging all of you! However, here is my list -
1) Shop at Wal-Mart for groceries - not very fashionable, but it works. My food stamps can last longer than a month of decent eating. If I shop anywhere else, I don't even make it through the month on my food stamps.
2) No caffeine addiction - I haven't had a coffee or caffeinated tea in three years. That's down from a six-pot-a-day habit. Right now I am off the soda addiction. I'm holding on my the skin of my teeth, though.
3) Buying used kid clothing - I am blessed to live where I live as far as clothing goes. There are two great used clothing shops in town and the yearly yard sales normally carry us for a year. The only time I buy new is when there is something I need that the used stores don't have (i.e. a swimsuit in December).
4) Electric conservation - We are switching to compact florescent bulbs as we use up the old stash from my Dad. Yes, the man has been dead for three years but we still have a a lot of bulbs left over from him. We're just now running out of normal ones. We need to have a few normal 100 Watt bulbs around for outside fixtures - CFBs don't work in the cold here. We have ceiling fans that help TONS with heating and cooling. If the weather is close to decent I have the windows open. White, thick curtains to reflect away the heat in the summer, and curtains that open in the winter to let some passive solar heating happen. We work hard at turning things off if no one is in the room.
5) Low flow shower heads and toilets, plus a water saving dish / clothing washing machine. I take showers for the most part. We turn off the water while scrubbing hands or teeth and the like. We have an official no-watering policy for the yards. If it's not going to survive with the rain and sun that we get for free, the plant needs to pass on.
6) Simple Living - I really question what I have, what I need, and what I buy. It took me a year to decide I needed a bed side table, and that was based on the fact I always have a pile of books next to my bed because that is where I like to do my reading. I had a lamp already, a total need for my late night reading. Those ideas are pretty hard to pass on to Annabelle, though. She likes to have lots of stuff.
7) Shopping online if I can't find what I need used - I live in A Very Rural Area. Bed sheets are often expensive and of poor quality around here, so I abuse Froogle (www.froogle.com). That's how I found most of Annabelle's birthday presents since it also picks up things on eBay. I look for things on the www.amitymama.com boards and do okay there. I also sell there sometimes.
8) Book Swapping - Ah, my other bad habit! I LOVE BOOKS. I also don't read quickly enough to keep up with the bad library here. So I use to buy books. Now that I've found both PaperBackSwap : Your source for swapping books online! (http://www.paperbackswap.com) and BookMooch: exchange books and trade them, like a book swap or book barter (http://www.bookmooch.com) I am in heaven. I can give away the books I don't need anymore and I can get books I want. It's almost guilt free :D I can also keep up with Annabelle's book interests this way. Most recently she wanted to get rid of most of her picture books and wanted to get beginning chapter books. Since I get a point for each book I send out I can spend it on getting a book I want. I'm also on SwapaCD.com though I haven't posted most of my stuff to it yet. I am very eager for the day they have a DVD swapping site.
9) I bathe before I go to bed at night - his means less washing of bedsheets because I sleep on them clean.
10) Long hair, no make-up and wearing skirts - I have long hair so that means I go to the salon about once a year for a cut. I never learned how to wear make-up so i don't. I'm thinking about moving over to wearing long flowing skirts all the time because they live longer for me than pants. Pants normally die in a year with me. Minnesota winter can be a challenge to this skirt idea, though. I am trying to make more clothing for Annabelle and I. This requires something called "spare time", which I only have heard legends and myths of.
11) Regular doctor visits in the summer - Most doctors offices are dead in the summer. The staff is less stressed out, and there are WAY fewer germs. When we first moved here Annabelle and I had our yearly physicals in October. For the rest of the winter we were in every three to six weeks because we had some disease or the other that we couldn't shake. It SUCKED. It was also pretty expensive.
12) Education - if it's public or home I still do it as inexpensively as possible. With home schooling I try and get everything used. Books may come from book swap sites or the like. If it's public schooling I m realistic about school supplies. No, kids don't need a new box of crayons every quarter. The backpack from last year will work again this year. General sensible stuff like that :D
13) Cloth TP and cloth menstrual pads - I can't say enough good things about both of these habits. I use to be totally useless when I'd start my menstrual cycle and I was using either tampons or disposable pads. The cramps hurt so much i could barely deal with it. Now, I have no craps at all. As for cloth wipes - I'm still using the wipes I bought to use on Annabelle when she was born with her cloth diapers. These wipes have been in continual use since 2000! I think I paid about $10 for a dozen wipes. Oh, cloth handkerchiefs, too. We also use cloth rags for cleaning (no relation to the cloth menstrual pads)
14) Open ended toys - I try hard to have toys for Annabelle that grow with her. This is thrifty, yet it's not. It's thrifty in that she has toys that she isn't bored of in two days. It's not thrifty in that open ended toys are more expensive.
Hey, I also posted this at Board Message (http://www.nurture-sustain-love.com) which is a pretty quiet but GREAT board. Oh, it's also up at my LJ account!
1) Shop at Wal-Mart for groceries - not very fashionable, but it works. My food stamps can last longer than a month of decent eating. If I shop anywhere else, I don't even make it through the month on my food stamps.
2) No caffeine addiction - I haven't had a coffee or caffeinated tea in three years. That's down from a six-pot-a-day habit. Right now I am off the soda addiction. I'm holding on my the skin of my teeth, though.
3) Buying used kid clothing - I am blessed to live where I live as far as clothing goes. There are two great used clothing shops in town and the yearly yard sales normally carry us for a year. The only time I buy new is when there is something I need that the used stores don't have (i.e. a swimsuit in December).
4) Electric conservation - We are switching to compact florescent bulbs as we use up the old stash from my Dad. Yes, the man has been dead for three years but we still have a a lot of bulbs left over from him. We're just now running out of normal ones. We need to have a few normal 100 Watt bulbs around for outside fixtures - CFBs don't work in the cold here. We have ceiling fans that help TONS with heating and cooling. If the weather is close to decent I have the windows open. White, thick curtains to reflect away the heat in the summer, and curtains that open in the winter to let some passive solar heating happen. We work hard at turning things off if no one is in the room.
5) Low flow shower heads and toilets, plus a water saving dish / clothing washing machine. I take showers for the most part. We turn off the water while scrubbing hands or teeth and the like. We have an official no-watering policy for the yards. If it's not going to survive with the rain and sun that we get for free, the plant needs to pass on.
6) Simple Living - I really question what I have, what I need, and what I buy. It took me a year to decide I needed a bed side table, and that was based on the fact I always have a pile of books next to my bed because that is where I like to do my reading. I had a lamp already, a total need for my late night reading. Those ideas are pretty hard to pass on to Annabelle, though. She likes to have lots of stuff.
7) Shopping online if I can't find what I need used - I live in A Very Rural Area. Bed sheets are often expensive and of poor quality around here, so I abuse Froogle (www.froogle.com). That's how I found most of Annabelle's birthday presents since it also picks up things on eBay. I look for things on the www.amitymama.com boards and do okay there. I also sell there sometimes.
8) Book Swapping - Ah, my other bad habit! I LOVE BOOKS. I also don't read quickly enough to keep up with the bad library here. So I use to buy books. Now that I've found both PaperBackSwap : Your source for swapping books online! (http://www.paperbackswap.com) and BookMooch: exchange books and trade them, like a book swap or book barter (http://www.bookmooch.com) I am in heaven. I can give away the books I don't need anymore and I can get books I want. It's almost guilt free :D I can also keep up with Annabelle's book interests this way. Most recently she wanted to get rid of most of her picture books and wanted to get beginning chapter books. Since I get a point for each book I send out I can spend it on getting a book I want. I'm also on SwapaCD.com though I haven't posted most of my stuff to it yet. I am very eager for the day they have a DVD swapping site.
9) I bathe before I go to bed at night - his means less washing of bedsheets because I sleep on them clean.
10) Long hair, no make-up and wearing skirts - I have long hair so that means I go to the salon about once a year for a cut. I never learned how to wear make-up so i don't. I'm thinking about moving over to wearing long flowing skirts all the time because they live longer for me than pants. Pants normally die in a year with me. Minnesota winter can be a challenge to this skirt idea, though. I am trying to make more clothing for Annabelle and I. This requires something called "spare time", which I only have heard legends and myths of.
11) Regular doctor visits in the summer - Most doctors offices are dead in the summer. The staff is less stressed out, and there are WAY fewer germs. When we first moved here Annabelle and I had our yearly physicals in October. For the rest of the winter we were in every three to six weeks because we had some disease or the other that we couldn't shake. It SUCKED. It was also pretty expensive.
12) Education - if it's public or home I still do it as inexpensively as possible. With home schooling I try and get everything used. Books may come from book swap sites or the like. If it's public schooling I m realistic about school supplies. No, kids don't need a new box of crayons every quarter. The backpack from last year will work again this year. General sensible stuff like that :D
13) Cloth TP and cloth menstrual pads - I can't say enough good things about both of these habits. I use to be totally useless when I'd start my menstrual cycle and I was using either tampons or disposable pads. The cramps hurt so much i could barely deal with it. Now, I have no craps at all. As for cloth wipes - I'm still using the wipes I bought to use on Annabelle when she was born with her cloth diapers. These wipes have been in continual use since 2000! I think I paid about $10 for a dozen wipes. Oh, cloth handkerchiefs, too. We also use cloth rags for cleaning (no relation to the cloth menstrual pads)
14) Open ended toys - I try hard to have toys for Annabelle that grow with her. This is thrifty, yet it's not. It's thrifty in that she has toys that she isn't bored of in two days. It's not thrifty in that open ended toys are more expensive.
Hey, I also posted this at Board Message (http://www.nurture-sustain-love.com) which is a pretty quiet but GREAT board. Oh, it's also up at my LJ account!