Call me frugal (or cheap... I don't care)

Tim has been out of work for 4 months now. A little over 4 month, actually.

But things are good. Really!
Although we already lived incredibly frugally compared to many, we found we had many, many places we could still cut.

I've had discussions with others and it amazes me how many people either never think of these things, or think they can't live without them:

1. Fabric softener. 'cmon... it's nice, but necessary???? Paleeezzzzze!
2. Dryer sheets. (see above)
3. Flavored creamers. Not only are they expensive, but have you read the ingredients in these things???? ewwwwwwwwwww
4. Eating out. You can buy a whole WEEKS worth of food for what you would spend on one meal! If you don't believe that, then you need me to teach you how to shop.
5. Fancy shampoo/conditioner/soap/lotion/etc. The cheap stuff works fine. Get over it.
6. Soda. I know... this is like asking you to stop breathing. But seriously, it might be the HEALTHIEST thing you ever do! At least cut down. A lot. And don't buy that bottle of soda when you stop at the gas station/convenience store. Buy a case and ration it out.
7. Convenience foods. Go the the library and get a cookbook. Seriously. It isn't hard and it will taste a million times better than that shelf-stable caca.
8. Movies- theater or rental. Watch tv. There IS enough on there. Try watching some classics or something educational. If you REALLY need a movie, move away from the cookbooks and check out (ha ha) some of their movies. The Cuyahoga Public Library System was rated #1 in the country for a reason!!!!
9. Driving- stay home! You'll save a lot of money! LOL At least consolidate your trips. Plan ahead so you don't have to go out for that one thing you forgot. We have a conversion van and a Ford Focus. We drive the Focus unless we absolutely NEED to use the van.
10. Use the clutter. Do you have a few dozen half used bottles of shampoo? Consolidate & use them up. Go through your make-up. Chances are you really don't need to buy a new blush/eye shadow/lipstick if you use the ones you already have. Look in the cabinet & use up all those odd n' ends cleaners instead of buying the newest one on the commercial you just saw.
11. Bleach & vinegar. They clean just about everything for less than half the price.
12. Fridge clutter: you can either google those things you don't know what to do with and find recipes, or use www.allrecipes.com and search under the ingredients tab. Use it up, don't throw it out.

That's the first dozen ideas just off the top of my head. I'll post more later, and feel free to share any of yours!

Hung out to dry

I've said before that I hang almost everything to dry... everything except sheets and blankets. Well..... add sheets & blankets to that list.

Yup- our old dryer died. And by old, I DO mean old. We bought this dryer for about $30 a year ago when our previous dryer died. That one was about 14 years old. One of our dear friends, Dave Brunswick, helped Tim move it here and downstairs while Stacey & I hung out. (Man, I miss those two!!!) The dryer was quite old... at least 30 years old, but it worked. DID work.

Friday, while the dryer was trying to ignite, it kept clicking. And clicking. And clicking. Tim just took out the part that would need to be replaced and went to the appliance repair shop that a friend owns. Lo and behold, those parts are too old to be carried anymore. (sigh)

While I was looking for a picture of a dryer that resembled our old monster, I came across this handy contraption. I thought it looked pretty cool, till I saw that it cost $149 plus shipping.
I think my style of hanging clothes on hangers in the basement works just fine!


Since we are NOT in the position to buy a new dryer right now, I've learned that I DO indeed have room enough to hang sheets downstairs.

Every penny counts

I like to think of us as frugal. Many people think we are wacked.

I would never dream of buying bread crumbs. Those bread crumbs most people toss in the trashcan get put into a gallon size ziplock bag, and put in the freezer. Dried out bread goes with them. I always have them readily available. Oh yea. And I make my own bread. It costs me about 25¢ per loaf. When I slice it, I have plenty of crumbs for my 'bread crumb bag'.

We keep our home at 60°. Honestly, you get used to it. We used to keep our home at 65°, but went down 5° last year. We used HALF as much natural gas with that slight change! When we are done baking, or running the dishwasher (I said I was frugal, not Amish), we leave the door open. That heat is paid for, and the steam from the dishwasher adds much needed humidity.

I hang almost EVERYTHING to dry. That includes towels, socks, and underwear. I only run the dryer for sheets & blankets. I hang everything in the basement, and I don't have the room to hang those. This not only saves a small fortune by not running the dryer for 2+ loads every day but, again, it adds much needed humidity to the air in the winter!

I do not buy processed foods. I used to use coupons and get them very cheap, but I have found that cooking from scratch IS cheaper! (No one was more amazed than me.) We also eat much healthier this way. I've had to change my diet to exclude meat, but my family still eats meat. I make at least 3 vegetarian meals every week, and it is much cheaper than a meat based diet. As I've become more used to cooking without meat, our meals are much more varied and I'm cutting out the meat even more.

Those who know me know that I make my own laundry detergent. Before you roll your eyes- it is NOT hard! It takes about 15 minutes to make enough to last for at LEAST 2-3 months. It costs less than $3 to make that much, and it works better than any commercial product you can buy. Seriously!

There are many, many more things we do, and I'll try to share more of them in future posts. Now that Tim is about to join the ranks of the unemployed, we are racking our brains to think of new ways to save money. It's frustrating when we watch these "how to save money" bits on the news every day, because we already DO all these things. So.... what to do..... what to do.......

Could we cut our heating cost even more???
We have 'zoned heating'- meaning each area of the house has its own thermostat. The office/classroom is a heat pit, so we put styrofoam in the windows during the winter. Hmmmmmm.... could we close it off? Where would we do school????

We are getting our house ready to put on the market. The number one thing to do is to clear out everything that isn't necessary for life. So, we got a POD . This has worked wonderfully, but we really need to cut somewhere.

Hmmmmmm........

Today, it hit me! We move our classroom downstairs! (Actually, Tim & had already talked about this) and turn off the heat out there. Then, we move all that "STUFF" from the POD into the office and get rid of the POD. Yea, it feels kinda like a waste after using the POD for so long, but why use it for the next 5 months if we don't have to! When the house is ready to show, THEN we move it out. These two things could save us about $200 a month!

Will we be a bit more cramped this way? Yea. So what. We have a roof over our heads. We have heat. We have food. We have our health. We have 2 cars!! We are so much better off than more than half of the rest of the world. By FAR!

Thank you, God, for all you have given us.
Please keep our thoughts thankful and our heats humble.