Shaving pennies

[Guest Virginia Dawn]

Ok, I'm looking for more ways to save money by reducing, reusing, and recycling. I already do most of the stuff that you find on the lists that go around. I'm looking for unusual or creative new ideas that work for you.

 

We've got an oil bill and other expenses coming in the next few months and I am determined not to touch the credit card.

 

You know what they say, "A penny saved is a penny earned." :D

[Denise in Florida]

I will keep a watch on this post, I hope to see new ideas too.

 

I'm still struggling to do the obvious ones consistently, like sales shopping, cooking at home, getting books/movies at the library. I'm improving but I back slide every now and then. :001_smile:

[Chris in VA]

I'm not good at this, but thought I'd give you a bump!

One little idea--compost if you have to pay for garbage pickup by the bag or at the dump. It cuts down on garbage.

[Tutor]

Friends of ours are champions of thrift, and some things we learned form them were:

 

- place a bucket in the shower to catch the grey water and use that water to flush the toilet (you can also use grey water from washing dishes if you wash them in a tub)

 

- save the crumbs scraped of the baking sheet or from under the cooling racks when baking cookies to use as ice cream toppings (or for mixing into more cookies)

 

- spin the sheets (best with kid sheets) once a week to get two weeks use out of them before washing (since kids gen. sleep on the top 1/2 of the bed)

 

- be up when the sun is up; go to bed when the sun goes down

 

- run appliances in the evenings when the utilities are cheaper (if your utility company offers discounts for off-peak use)

 

- ask to barter everywhere; I was amazed how many services this family was able to barter for - dental care for hot meals around busy times in the dentist's schedule, cleaning service for occasional babysitting, etc

 

- ask to be taught; they found many people willing to teach them a skill (plumbing, sewing, canning, etc) simply in exchange for fellowship and the joy of sharing knowledge

 

- swap garden produce; she was good at growing veggies and her neighbor had a ton of fruit trees but too much shade to grow veggies, so they would swap veggies for fruit and visa versa

 

The best tips I have gotten on being thrifty revolve around being thoughtful in how we live. Ask *why* you do things in certain ways - or why you do them at all. And be willing to try doing things in new ways (wash all laundry in cold and see if you can live with the results, use half the meat suggested in a casserole, etc).

 

HTH

[specialmama]

... and here I thought this thread would be about a cool, new science experiment where you get to shave samples off of coins and test them for their purity :lol:

[Guest Virginia Dawn]

I'm not good at this, but thought I'd give you a bump!

One little idea--compost if you have to pay for garbage pickup by the bag or at the dump. It cuts down on garbage.

 

Thanks. We dump our own garbage and compost. :)

[Guest Virginia Dawn]

- place a bucket in the shower to catch the grey water and use that water to flush the toilet (you can also use grey water from washing dishes if you wash them in a tub)

 

HTH

 

Hmm. This may be one to try. I don't know if I could get the kids on board but dh might be willing.

[Renee in NC]

Ok, I'm looking for more ways to save money by reducing, reusing, and recycling. I already do most of the stuff that you find on the lists that go around. I'm looking for unusual or creative new ideas that work for you.

 

We've got an oil bill and other expenses coming in the next few months and I am determined not to touch the credit card.

 

You know what they say, "A penny saved is a penny earned." :D

 

What honestly works is when you have to do something. When we had access to credit, we didn't have to be as creative at meeting the basics. Now that we have no credit and little income, we have to be creative.

 

How do we save money? We just don't spend it!

 

Toiletries - what is absolutely necessary to you? Can you get buy with the basics of shampoo, soap, and toothpaste?

 

Household goods - Ammonia, vinegar, and water for cleaning. Toilet paper (and I don't skimp here because then they just use more.) Laundry detergent (I am not using homemade now, but I probably will once we move.) No paper towels.

 

I have to head out, but I will try and think of some more.

[HRAAB]

 

- place a bucket in the shower to catch the grey water and use that water to flush the toilet (you can also use grey water from washing dishes if you wash them in a tub)

HTH

 

We have big plastic buckets that laundry soap use to come in. We keep these lined up along our garage (no gutter) to catch rain water.

 

We use our wood stove to help keep our gas bill down. Keep lights turned off, appliances unplugged. I've always used a clothesline in summer, but now I have some of those plastic drying racks that I'm using in the winter. Especially with the wood stove going, clothes dry quickly.

 

Janet

[lionfamily1999]

... and here I thought this thread would be about a cool, new science experiment where you get to shave samples off of coins and test them for their purity :lol:

LOL, I was wondering how we got the pennies to grow hair to begin with...

 

Oh the tongue in cheek thread will dwell in the back of my mind forever ;)

 

 

ETA, I will be lurking to read serious answers... sorry to've interrupted with trivialities.

[elfgivas]

maybe look at where your money goes now, and try to reduce it.

 

there are big savings quickly if you are willing to go without television and cable, for example. and Christmas is so much nicer, because no one has a list of things they "simply have to have". i'll never go back.

 

the getting up with the sun and going to bed with the sun works wonders in our household for saving money and having well rested people :001_smile:

 

find one day a week when dh or you/kids can carpool to whatever it is you need to do. or more. carpool savings add up really quickly, too, and you don't feel deprived at all. sometimes, its even nicer to have company.

 

if you still drink soda pop, simply stop. that saves a lot, and you end up healthier.

 

we've started keeping cold water and homemade ice tea in the fridge all the time, and that is a delicious addition (and a money saver).

 

no eating out. also, no starbucks, etc. ever. dates don't count ; ).

 

the ole "turn the thermostat up in summer, down in winter" really works. we did a degree a week until we got it to something that we could tolerate. programmable thermostats make this work well. we also turn it to a less comfortable temperature if we're going to be out for a few hours. in many places, folks routinely wear a sweater indoors. we've come to like that cosy feeling.

 

we eat by candlelight one night a week. (this started after "earth hour" was such a delight for us one year). sometimes more.

 

eating only 4 ounces of meat a person per day is healthy, and trims the budget (and the waistline : ).

 

hmmmm....

 

there are so many things....

 

line dry.... everything.... when i lived in ottawa, things would freeze dry, and then be soft when they thawed out. here, they wind dry.... really fast... it saves about $300- a year.

 

often we just think back to how our parents and grandparents lived, and we do that. and save a lot in the process.

 

its a journey! maybe pick one thing and get it working, then try another thing.

 

:bigear:

i'm listening for more good ideas, too :001_smile:

 

hth,

ann

[Guest Virginia Dawn]

Thanks for the list.

 

We've already done most of these things, except the candles. :-)

 

 

That's why I'm searching for unusual things that might not come to mind when trying to save or cut back. It's getting harder to think of anything new.

[st_claire]

Reusing shower water? Really? I would think you could spend that time working at mcdonalds and make much more money. Water is pretty cheap. Not to put down the idea, I just think that often people spend more time "saving" money than their time is worth.

[elfgivas]

have you tried breakfast for dinner one night a week?

[BikeBookBread]

I agree, it is getting harder to think of new things. But here are a few that you are probably already doing :D

 

 

• Save every scrap of leftover food and freeze rather than putting in the fridge -- I go to freezer when I'm tired and don't want to cook. Fridge leftovers always get tossed.:glare:
  
• We keep all the empty yogurt, sour cream type containers (we buy the large tubs) and cut them up to use in the garden as markers, to hold crayons, notions, everything. Not as cute as store-bought but work just fine.
  
• Crusts of bread are kept for breadcrumbs and croutons.
  
• Bring snacks from home (my dh is always harping on this -- I'm bad about it) to avoid the Starbuck's drive thru.
  
• Water and vinegar for cleaning, baking soda for scrubbing and laundry booster.
  
• Cut the cable and switch to pre-paid cellular. These two things alone are saving us $140 a month!!! (Combined, dh and I now spend $30 in the average month on our cell phones -- we were spending $100; cutting the digital cable cut $70 off of our monthly bundle). We bought and had a digital TV antenna installed for $300, and love the lack of channels! We get 4 PBS stations, all the major networks and a few indies... plenty of entertainment and even better, the TV is more likely to be off.
  

 

[Lisa in the UP of MI]

I agree, it is getting harder to think of new things. But here are a few that you are probably already doing :D

 

[*]Cut the cable and switch to pre-paid cellular. These two things alone are saving us $140 a month!!! (Combined, dh and I now spend $30 in the average month on our cell phones -- we were spending $100; cutting the digital cable cut $70 off of our monthly bundle). We bought and had a digital TV antenna installed for $300, and love the lack of channels! We get 4 PBS stations, all the major networks and a few indies... plenty of entertainment and even better, the TV is more likely to be off.

 

 

 

We have no cell phone (well, dh has a pre-paid one but we rarely use it) and no cable/satellite. We just recently got a digital antenna from the store for about $30! We now have 10ish channels but still only watch the Packers' games.

[HRAAB]

Reusing shower water? Really? I would think you could spend that time working at mcdonalds and make much more money. Water is pretty cheap. Not to put down the idea, I just think that often people spend more time "saving" money than their time is worth.

 

It's not just saving money. It's conservation, too. And in some areas of the country, water is not cheap.

 

Janet

[Renee in NC]

Reusing shower water? Really? I would think you could spend that time working at mcdonalds and make much more money. Water is pretty cheap. Not to put down the idea, I just think that often people spend more time "saving" money than their time is worth.

 

I would much rather spend an hour to save $6 than spend that hour at McDonalds.

 

And some of us have to work *and* be seriously frugal.

[Renee in NC]

Thanks for the list.

 

We've already done most of these things, except the candles. :-)

 

 

That's why I'm searching for unusual things that might not come to mind when trying to save or cut back. It's getting harder to think of anything new.

 

I think what you have to do is to make a detailed list of what you spend now and then go through it line by line to see where *you* can cut. For example, take your grocery budget and figure out what you could cut, same with toiletries, household, electricity, etc.

[Denisemomof4]

OMG!!! I'm even more tired than I thought!

 

I thought your subject was about shaving...... OMG....... boy parts.

:eek::eek::svengo::svengo::blush:

 

Whew!!!!!!!!!

 

:leaving:

[st_claire]

I would much rather spend an hour to save $6 than spend that hour at McDonalds.

 

And some of us have to work *and* be seriously frugal.

 

Let's do some math. We pay just under $8/1,000 gallons of water (including sewage fees). A 10 minute shower takes about 35 gallons of water. So if we say it takes say 10 minutes of work per shower to reuse the water. That's 210 gallons of water "saved" per hour of work. That's $1.68 of "savings" per hour of work.

 

Minimum wage here is $9.50. So would you rather spend 5 and a half hours savings water or 1 hour at mcdonalds? Maybe you would, but I'd rather do what made the most money while working/saving so I have more time for things I actually want to do.

 

It doesn't make sense to be frugal for less than a working wage, or you could just work additional hours and more than cover the "savings". Unless there are no jobs in your area, I think working make much more sense.

 

Like I said, if people would prefer to refuse shower water than work, then that's fine. I'm just letting people know that financially it doesn't make sense.

[shalom22]

check out the Grocery Game. I have been doing it for the last four months and have cut my grocery bill to half. And I have a well stocked pantry.

[Renee in NC]

Let's do some math. We pay just under $8/1,000 gallons of water (including sewage fees). A 10 minute shower takes about 35 gallons of water. So if we say it takes say 10 minutes of work per shower to reuse the water. That's 210 gallons of water "saved" per hour of work. That's $1.68 of "savings" per hour of work.

 

Minimum wage here is $9.50. So would you rather spend 5 and a half hours savings water or 1 hour at mcdonalds? Maybe you would, but I'd rather do what made the most money while working/saving so I have more time for things I actually want to do.

 

It doesn't make sense to be frugal for less than a working wage, or you could just work additional hours and more than cover the "savings". Unless there are no jobs in your area, I think working make much more sense.

 

Like I said, if people would prefer to refuse shower water than work, then that's fine. I'm just letting people know that financially it doesn't make sense.

 

Minimum wage here is $7.25 and it doesn't take 10 minutes to save the water - it takes the 30 seconds it takes to empty the bucket and put it back in the shower because you would be taking a shower either way. So, the actual "hourly wage" (using your numbers) is 4200 gallons saved for a roughly $32 per hour "wage." Even if you factor it at a minute to dump the water and put the empty bucket back, it is still more than twice the minimum wage.

 

Unless, of course, there is some work involved in saving shower water that I don't know about (I don't actually do this because we are currently on a well.)

[paula j]

I put one of those retracting clotheslines in my laundry room. I also have clothes lines outside for summer.

 

I try to make as many things from scratch as possible.

 

I can and have several folks in the community that call me to come get extra apples, pears, peaches from their trees.

 

I slice and shred zucchini when it is in season and freeze for later use. I freeze the shredded zucchini in 1 cup increments for bread, quiche, whatever.

 

I try to use my crock pot as much as possible. this keeps the house cooler in summer and also everything I have made has been very tender and yummy.

 

Make sure you only wash full loads of laundry! I also save coupons for laundry soap and buy it when it's on sale. I recently got jugs of All for only $1 a piece.

 

I shop yard sales and thrift stores for many things from books for homeschooling to clothes to furniture. DD went away to college this year and I found some wonderful furniture for her in like new cond. I also got her a really nice microwave for $5.

 

Save old socks with holes, they are great for dusting and also cleaning rags.

 

Old jeans with holes can be made into shorts and capris.

 

Use a pump on your shampoo bottle! My dd alone used to go through a bottle of shampoo or conditioner in less than a week. Since using a pump bottle it lasts about a month.;)

 

Use cloth napkins, they look classy and save on paper towels. Use the old socks and rags for icky messes and then pitch em - you would have thrown them away anyway.;)

 

Oatmeal for breakfast. Not only is it really good for you but it is very inexpensive and everyone feels better with a warm meal in their tummy.:) We often add pecans, apples, peaches, brown sugar, bananas, and butter not all at once of course, oh and cinnamon is really good too.:)

 

When making tacos you can extend your beef by adding refried beans, yummy!

[Wyndie]

We just moved and the new electric company said that over 70% of electric bill comes from plugged in all night appliances. We put all electrical applicances on power surge protectors and shut everything down when we go to bed (um, not the fridge or anything unpluggable). I haven't seen the bill since starting (we've been doing it for 2 weeks) but I'm certain we're saving money doing it! I didn't realize how much elec. we must be using while we sleep until we did that.

[elegantlion]

Stay home more often. We had one cars for two years and saved more money that way. Now that I have a car I'm more apt to go places and spend money, much less the gas it takes to drive around. :glare:

 

Add some stress to your life (kidding). :tongue_smilie:We've had a stressful week in my house and no one has an appetite. I think we've had a full dinner one night this week. I started making the grocery list for this week and discovered we need almost half of what we normally do.

 

Make sure you check your utility bills. Our water bill tripled for no reason last month. We called and there must have been something wrong with the meter because they lowered the bill by half once coming out to look into the issue.

 

Contemplate your phone service. We discovered we could save 50.00 on our cable/internet bundle by eliminating the home phone. We only have cell phones. My dh has to have one for his business and we are added phones on his plan. we check the bill carefully each month and stay on top of new promotions and have changed plans for a better deal. We also get upgrade credit every so often so we upgrade the phones at a cheaper rate.

 

Look into customer loyalty programs. What kind of benefits can you get because you've been with a company for a period of time? Like the phone upgrade credit, we didn't realize it existed until we read the fine print insert that came with our bill.

 

Insurance coverage - can you drop/change/tweak anything to lower your monthly costs.

 

Home repairs - my dh is a carpenter so we don't pay labor for any remodeling. However our washer recently had an issue, he wasn't sure he could fix it. Dh looked into it, ordered the part, and installed it himself. He said it was an easy install. Saved us at least 200.00 in repair costs.

[KidsHappen]

OMG!!! I'm even more tired than I thought!

 

I thought your subject was about shaving...... OMG....... boy parts.

:eek::eek::svengo::svengo::blush:

 

Whew!!!!!!!!!

 

:leaving:

 

That is so funny. I thought the same thing and then realized that I was also way too tired. :001_smile:

[Prairie~Phlox]

check out the Grocery Game. I have been doing it for the last four months and have cut my grocery bill to half. And I have a well stocked pantry.

 

http://www.couponmom.com or http://www.hotcouponworld.com are similar and they are both free. The Grocery Game you have to pay. I do it on my own using the first two websites and have shaved $200/ month off of my bill. We are a family of five and my goal is $400.00/month for eating out and groceries. We have more now than before I couponed, and we do eat healthy.

[novagirl]

Let's do some math. We pay just under $8/1,000 gallons of water (including sewage fees). A 10 minute shower takes about 35 gallons of water. So if we say it takes say 10 minutes of work per shower to reuse the water. That's 210 gallons of water "saved" per hour of work. That's $1.68 of "savings" per hour of work.

 

Minimum wage here is $9.50. So would you rather spend 5 and a half hours savings water or 1 hour at mcdonalds? Maybe you would, but I'd rather do what made the most money while working/saving so I have more time for things I actually want to do.

 

It doesn't make sense to be frugal for less than a working wage, or you could just work additional hours and more than cover the "savings". Unless there are no jobs in your area, I think working make much more sense.

 

Like I said, if people would prefer to refuse shower water than work, then that's fine. I'm just letting people know that financially it doesn't make sense.

 

 

Oh, My mom and dad do the "save your shower AND TUB water" thing. Yuck it is just a mess. When kids cannot get the bucket of water into the toilet right and it is all over the floor and unsightly buckets are all over the place, I just can't handle it. You waste more water washing the towels to clean up the floor! It's also kind of embarrassing to have people over at my moms when there is dirty water sitting in the tub. I know the op said "gray" water, but that is what my parents do. It just doesnt save that much money, and for all the work they do bucketing, well, it's their house, they can do it if they want to! I hate it and so do most of my other brothers and sisters!

[Guest Virginia Dawn]

Reusing shower water? Really? I would think you could spend that time working at mcdonalds and make much more money. Water is pretty cheap. Not to put down the idea, I just think that often people spend more time "saving" money than their time is worth.

 

I've been thinking about this and I don't think it would be wasting my time at all to have a bucket under the tap while waiting for the water to get warm; I'm there waiting anyway. Then using that water to flush once or twice would take all of 5 seconds each time. I'm going to give it a try.

[Vida Winter]

Here are a few that we've been doing so long I can't remember not doing them:

 

Grocery Game -- We used to do this when we lived near a city. Now we don't, and we pay $$$ for much of our food because there is only one large grocery store within 75 miles.

 

Reuse your vacuum cleaner bags. We have a new-ish vacuum from Sears that uses very expensive bags. It's gross but I empty them out and use them *many* times before putting a fresh one in.

 

Make your own general purpose cleaner with water and a little bit of Mr. Clean (I use the yellow one). Put in spray bottle - great for counter tops, stove top, etc.

 

Cut up old towels to make reusable rags; throw in wash with load of whites plus some bleach after use.

 

Buy roast chicken; serve it for dinner one night, make chicken salad with the rest. Boil the bones plus veggies/seasonings to make chicken stock; strain, use as base for other soup dinners.

 

Make home made tortillas and bread.

 

Make big batch of pinto beans once every week or two.

 

Wear aprons -- you won't have to wash clothing as often.

 

Learn how to cut hair. The kids usually don't mind being guinea pigs.

 

Floss daily. Money saved when you visit the dentist.

 

Make your own yogurt.

 

Make your own granola.

 

If you know how to sew, make your own gifts. Baby blankets are easiest.

 

If you like candles, buy the sets of jar candles from Wal-Mart. If you have leftover candles that won't burn any more, you can melt them down (careful!) and add the wax to a used-up jar candle. When you have enough wax, make your own wick with a wax-soaked pipe cleaner that you can just bend and drop on top of the (hardened) wickless candle.

 

Buy flour, sugar, beans, yeast, etc... in quantity from Costco or whatever source you have. Store in gamma-sealed buckets.

 

Make your own pizza.

 

Don't eat out or buy coffees.

 

We use an old 1986 Toyota Corolla for short errands that don't involve taking the whole family. It gets much better mileage than our SUV.

 

Make water your #1 beverage choice. Don't even get kids started on juice.

 

Boil eggs at least once a week. They can be eaten as snacks or used in tuna salad, egg salad, etc.

[tex-mex]

Oh, My mom and dad do the "save your shower AND TUB water" thing. Yuck it is just a mess. When kids cannot get the bucket of water into the toilet right and it is all over the floor and unsightly buckets are all over the place, I just can't handle it. You waste more water washing the towels to clean up the floor! It's also kind of embarrassing to have people over at my moms when there is dirty water sitting in the tub. I know the op said "gray" water, but that is what my parents do. It just doesnt save that much money, and for all the work they do bucketing, well, it's their house, they can do it if they want to! I hate it and so do most of my other brothers and sisters!

 

Is there a reason why your folks dump the greywater down the toilet? I can see greywater from washing machines or showers being used to water the lawn. Have seen folks set up hoses to catch the greywater and divert it to the lawn or a tank for holding. You don't have to lug a bucket and make a mess. But don't get why flushing greywater down the potty is vital. :confused:

[novagirl]

:confused:

Is there a reason why your folks dump the greywater down the toilet? I can see greywater from washing machines or showers being used to water the lawn. Have seen folks set up hoses to catch the greywater and divert it to the lawn or a tank for holding. You don't have to lug a bucket and make a mess. But don't get why flushing greywater down the potty is vital. :confused:

 

 

I dunno, supposed to save money? :confused::confused: My parents are getting to the age where ya can't tell them anything anymore anyway! SO we go along with it, out of respect of their wishes but we hate it. Plus its not safe to have huge buckets of water around when very little ones are present!

[Renee in NC]

I've been thinking about this and I don't think it would be wasting my time at all to have a bucket under the tap while waiting for the water to get warm; I'm there waiting anyway. Then using that water to flush once or twice would take all of 5 seconds each time. I'm going to give it a try.

 

Once we move, I might do this because the septic system at our new place is not rated for a family the size of ours. The more water we can keep out of it, the better off we are! I doubt I will try and catch the shower water, but I will definitely use the water that comes out while I wait for the water to warm up.

 

Since the water has been off while we worked, we have been flushing with buckets anyway, so the dc are used to it.

 

To each their own and all that...

[Renee in NC]

Is there a reason why your folks dump the greywater down the toilet? I can see greywater from washing machines or showers being used to water the lawn. Have seen folks set up hoses to catch the greywater and divert it to the lawn or a tank for holding. You don't have to lug a bucket and make a mess. But don't get why flushing greywater down the potty is vital. :confused:

 

You use it to flush the toilet, thereby saving the water you would have used to flush the toilet. In our house, with 8 people flushing, that could be a LOT of water.

 

2 gallons x 8 people x 6 flushes per day = 96 gallons a day or 2880 per month

 

That is a lot of water. Even ignoring the $20 or so you could save each month, it would work from a conservation standpoint. (However, I know that we couldn't keep enough buckets around to make this work - there is no room!)

[st_claire]

Minimum wage here is $7.25 and it doesn't take 10 minutes to save the water - it takes the 30 seconds it takes to empty the bucket and put it back in the shower because you would be taking a shower either way. So, the actual "hourly wage" (using your numbers) is 4200 gallons saved for a roughly $32 per hour "wage." Even if you factor it at a minute to dump the water and put the empty bucket back, it is still more than twice the minimum wage.

 

Unless, of course, there is some work involved in saving shower water that I don't know about (I don't actually do this because we are currently on a well.)

 

I would assume you would need to take the water from the shower to where you were ging to use it, say the garden. It takes me much more than a minute to take a bucket downstairs, out to the garden, empty it, bring it back upstairs, and put it back in the shower. Not to mention the physical labour of carrying tat water, you may have to make multiple trips.

[st_claire]

Oh, My mom and dad do the "save your shower AND TUB water" thing. Yuck it is just a mess. When kids cannot get the bucket of water into the toilet right and it is all over the floor and unsightly buckets are all over the place, I just can't handle it. You waste more water washing the towels to clean up the floor! It's also kind of embarrassing to have people over at my moms when there is dirty water sitting in the tub. I know the op said "gray" water, but that is what my parents do. It just doesnt save that much money, and for all the work they do bucketing, well, it's their house, they can do it if they want to! I hate it and so do most of my other brothers and sisters!

 

:iagree:

[Renee in NC]

I would assume you would need to take the water from the shower to where you were ging to use it, say the garden. It takes me much more than a minute to take a bucket downstairs, out to the garden, empty it, bring it back upstairs, and put it back in the shower. Not to mention the physical labour of carrying tat water, you may have to make multiple trips.

 

Ahh, I was thinking of using the water to flush the toilets, not to use in the yard. If I was going to use it in the yard, I would re-do the plumbing so that they greywater went directly to the yard. That wouldn't save us any money, though, as I don't believe in watering grass anyway.

 

Under that scenario, yes, that would be a lot of work for a little gain. If you lived in the desert, though, it would be a necessity I would think!

[katilac]

It doesn't make sense to be frugal for less than a working wage, or you could just work additional hours and more than cover the "savings". Unless there are no jobs in your area, I think working make much more sense.

 

Like I said, if people would prefer to refuse shower water than work, then that's fine. I'm just letting people know that financially it doesn't make sense.

 

If you have kids at home, I think being frugal can easily make more sense than getting a part-time job or working more hours - - especially if you're a home schooling family!

 

Most frugal practices take a few seconds here and there; they are things that you do with or alongside your kids. A job requires leaving the kids at home, either with the other parent (so cutting into family time), or with a sitter (negating the savings of a minimum wage job, adding stress, and adding unexpected expenses, such as eating out more, etc).

 

For example, gardening ten hours a week might not 'pay' as much as working ten hours a week. But when I'm gardening, my kids are right there with me, either helping or playing in the yard. It's a far more relaxed, pleasant solution.

 

There are few part-time jobs that give you much say in when/how many hours to work. The vast majority involve working week-end hours, holidays, all the prime 'family time' hours.

 

Because the point of saving money (for my family) is to NOT have both parents working outside the home, or working long hours, frugality definitely makes far more sense than adding jobs.

[st_claire]

If you have kids at home, I think being frugal can easily make more sense than getting a part-time job or working more hours - - especially if you're a home schooling family!

 

Most frugal practices take a few seconds here and there; they are things that you do with or alongside your kids. A job requires leaving the kids at home, either with the other parent (so cutting into family time), or with a sitter (negating the savings of a minimum wage job, adding stress, and adding unexpected expenses, such as eating out more, etc).

 

For example, gardening ten hours a week might not 'pay' as much as working ten hours a week. But when I'm gardening, my kids are right there with me, either helping or playing in the yard. It's a far more relaxed, pleasant solution.

 

There are few part-time jobs that give you much say in when/how many hours to work. The vast majority involve working week-end hours, holidays, all the prime 'family time' hours.

 

Because the point of saving money (for my family) is to NOT have both parents working outside the home, or working long hours, frugality definitely makes far more sense than adding jobs.

 

You can work from home though. And I'm not saying gardening is bad, it a nice hobby with yummy payoffs, but some things are not worth it for "savings" alone.

[MeaganS]

Some of the things I did were switch to cloth napkins, towells, etc. I even made them from some of my husband's old shirts so all they cost was the thread (which I was actually given for free).

 

Try a "money fast." My husband was studying for the MCAT for 6 weeks solid and we decided that he should do that full time and not have a job. For those 6 weeks we did a money fast, where we refused to spend money on anything except for a very minimal food budget. It's amazing what you can get by with, and it really helped us get in the right mindset towards frugality afterwards.

 

Don't use aluminum foil or plastic wrap (unless you can get them for free), only use reusable containers.

 

With couponing, I haven't had to pay for shampoo or razors or lotion or toothpaste at all for the last year. Or soap for that matter. I get the Johnson Buddies soaps for free and take them out of the little cover they are in.

 

As far as the debated water thing goes, you could always just try to take shorter showers. We did this when we were staying in a house for a week at a family reunion with 40 people and only a 40 gallon water heater. We would get wet, turn of the water, shampoo and soap ourselves, rinse off, and we only used about 2 or 3 gallons per person doing this.

 

Other than that, make sure you are getting the best rates you can on car/home insurance. Walk or carpool when whenever possible, etc.

 

I'm not sure how you feel about it, but if you are ok with it, you could always check out what programs are available to you to help. For instance, there are many gov't programs that could help ease the burden like heat assistance or food assistance.

 

Well, that's all I can think of at the moment. Good luck!

[MommyX8]

We don't buy "disposable" items, meaning that if it was meant to replace something real, we don't buy it. We only use cloth diapers, cloth paper towels, kitchen cloths and napkins, cloth TP, no paper cups or plates, etc. My little ones have only known cloth TP. They don't even know what to do with toilet paper when we are out. :lol Not having to pick up all that extra stuff every week is a huge money saver.

 

We heat with wood. My husband just bought 6 cords of wood for $400, which will last for almost 2 winters. All the kids have nice and warm wool slippers so that their feet stay warm. We also have a whole house fan so we can also cool the house virtually for free as well.

 

We don't buy processed and prepackaged meals. We don't do soda at all. We rarely have juice and my kids basically only drink raw milk and water, although they do have tea in the AM.

 

Buy in bulk! I buy wheat berries, sugar, and organic white flour in 50 pound bags. And shop through co-ops.

[unsinkable]

It's not just saving money. It's conservation, too. And in some areas of the country, water is not cheap.

 

Janet

 

I agree! Water prices vary within our county!

[Orthodox6]

The earlier suggestion for "breakfast foods for dinner" can be very helpful -- and enjoyable !

 

I often serve polenta for dinner when I am worn out and it is late. Although I make more elaborate meals based around polenta, the quick dinner is plain polenta served with warm syrup, or with fresh fruit on it.

[unsinkable]

The earlier suggestion for "breakfast foods for dinner" can be very helpful -- and enjoyable !

 

I often serve polenta for dinner when I am worn out and it is late. Although I make more elaborate meals based around polenta, the quick dinner is plain polenta served with warm syrup, or with fresh fruit on it.

 

I had an epiphany a while ago about breakfast for dinner.

 

You know all those casserole type breakfasts that need to refrigerate overnight before you bake them? Well, it hit me that I can make them in the morning, let them refrigerate all day and bake them for dinner!

 

I'm sure others have know this but I was proud of myself for "discovering" it!

[Crissy]

I would assume you would need to take the water from the shower to where you were ging to use it, say the garden. It takes me much more than a minute to take a bucket downstairs, out to the garden, empty it, bring it back upstairs, and put it back in the shower. Not to mention the physical labour of carrying tat water, you may have to make multiple trips.

 

We collect our shower warm-up water for watering the lawn and the plants in the yard. Walking out the door with a bucket of water doesn't take any more time than unrolling the hose and dragging it across the deck.

 

We've never calculated the cost savings since money isn't the issue. For us it is about making the best use of our resources.