Wednesday, January 13, 2010

Frugality Rocks!

Essie has a too true Tuesday (that I read about on Mama Dramas x 2's blog that is very cool.  Being umm New England thrify myself (otherwise called cheap by most of America!) I hope to find more tips!  The gist is what are you all doing to save money, reuse, and further stretch the green none of us have enough of?  You can use the little linky thing at the beginning of the post to see the details in Essie's words.  Here is what I can think of that we do and trust me for some of this I get grief from the rest of society!

1.  water down kid juice (I actually do this only with KC's apple juice or unfortunate bathroom incidents happen.  My boss thinks I am being cruel to my kid!  Seriously.

2.  I have developed a network of friends and acquaintences that we share and swap clothes among.  I have not had to buy a winter coat for KC or Elisabeth or Rob this year as a result.  I did have to do snow pants for the 2 boys but Lissa even scored snow pants!

3.  We don't heat the upstairs of our house.  Our house has 11 rooms but the  upstairs is all sleeping quarters so why heat it?

4.  We wash out our ziplock bags and reuse them unless they had something really messy and yucky in them.  Marinara stains them and unless I know I have another tomato product to put in there, I will pitch them.

5.  We don't buy convenience foods.  We make all our baked goods from scratch.  It is cheaper and once you are used to it not any longer to do.  And I can pronouce all the ingredients which was the original reason I started doing that!

6.  We have one or two big errand days a week.  Other than that we don't do it as it eats up gas in a big way.

7.  I almost always pack my lunch for work.  It is almost always leftovers. Same for Chet.  Food CAN NOT be wasted. It is a rule.  I positively go ballistic if I find dead food in the fridge.  Goes back to when I left home and could barely put food in my fridge.

8.  I shop for Yule and bdays year round.  I have a myriad of hiding places.  Big gifts like the Wii I put on layaway.

9.  When I am shopping and the kids want a treat I am very um frugal.  I buy one treat for 99 c or less and they all share it.  For instance, I have often bought one danish or honey bun and cut it in 4 pieces. They only get a few bites but they are good with it.  It  is a big savings too.  I never knew that my wife was buying everyone their own treat when she had them out.  She now employs this strategy too.

10.  We don't eat fast food.  We pack lunches for things like meetings at church, picnics and car trips.

11.  We rarely long distance phone.  Email is free!

12.  We have cable but it is a company perk so I don't pay anywhere close to what I would otherwise.  Before I had this perk I had basic basic and it was under $10 a month.

13.  Vacations are always camping.  Let's face it what else can a family of 6 do that is reasonably priced!

14.  We join our local friends of the library to get discounts or free museum passes.  Helps the city, helps us.

15.  I save water bottles and wash them out. Then we don't have to buy bottled water in the summer and I just fill them and chill them with our home filtered system.

2 comments:

Mama Drama Times Two said...

I am beginning to think that Yankee Frugality is a gentic trait...Northern Vermont natives are even more frugal...my 86 yo neighbor has duct taped her snow shoveling jacket to make it last....she cleans her own gutters each fall also!!!! I pay the local handyman $20.00 to do mine. I'm not a native, after all.

The Accidental Mommy said...

Whew, dividing up a 99 cent honey bun 4 ways, that's a good one!

I water down our juice too, so now Teena can't stand regular juice LOL!