what is your absolute favorite frugal living site?

[BonAmy]

I need fun inspiration... with every aspect of frugal living. I'm even going to cut off our Dish.... right after the finale of The Biggest Loser, of course!

 

We have special diet concerns in our house.. allergies to wheat, dairy, eggs, soy, everything. And frugal plans you know of that deal with special dietary concerns?

 

What do you do to save money... time your showers, grow your own vegies, go huntin' (....ah.... not us, but just wondering!).

 

Do you have any goals you'd like to share to inspire me?

 

I just would like to have every penny dh makes NOT run right out the door, so he can be working for our retirement. so he actually could retire.

 

thanks everyone!

BonAmy

[Mom2jnb]

There are a lot of sites out there. You will have to figure out what works best for you....also, many of them will link to other sites. Some of them that I frequent are:

 

moneysavingmom.com

afullcup.com

vickysdeal.com

frugalhacks.com

itsmorethanenough.blogspot.com

simplythrifty.com

grocerycartchallenge.blogspot.com

 

I will list more in a little while. I need to get the kiddos some lunch.

 

Alison

[Philothea]

Here are some of the ones that we have collected:

http://www.catholicmotherhood.net/daily_life.htm

[Laura in OH]

I don't know about the whole site, but I really like the weekly menus on http://www.thehomeschoolmom.com/kitchen/. They also list the shopping list, recipes, even down to tips like "cook all of the hamburger, but save x amount for Thursday's dinner".

 

I signed up to have the menu emailed to me every week -- easy! Planning meals has always been a chore for me, so I end up spending more money by planning "on the fly" or eating out. Much more frugal to plan a whole week's worth of meals ahead of time.

 

HTH,

Laura

[Nestof3]

I am on the warpath to being debt-free, so I have been seriously making changes.

 

I will say that the one thing that saves me the most money is to stay out of stores. Seriously. I limit the number of times I enter a store (especially something like Target or Walmart). I keep a list of things that need to be bought and make do until I plan to go. I am also trying to use up what we already have before buying something that might work better -- you know, the grass is always greener syndrome. Just going into Target seems to cost me $20!

 

For grocery shopping, I write down everything that I already have and make meals around it. I try not to let the pantry keep building up so that I cannot find anything. I also try to use things up in a timely way so that I don't have to throw anything out. For me, freezing something right away works better sometimes than sticking it in the back of the refrigerator where it gets forgotten. I also plan my meals around what's on sale. If I get a great deal on potatoes, we may have corn chowder one night, skip a night, the next night we may have roasted potatoes with something else, skip a night, and then boiled potatoes fork-mashed with butter and sour cream. This is far faster than baking potatoes (esp. since we don't own a microwave) and easier than "mashed potatoes" where you have to peel them first and so forth.

 

I have posted a lot lately on meal ideas as well.

 

I have also been selling stuff on Craigslist lately. I will be taking homeschool stuff to the homeschool bookstore this week as well to get store credit which I can use toward buying next year's books.

 

I am also finding little ways to save money. For example, this one thing won't save much, but it's the lots of little things that save in the long run. I took my dryer sheets and cut them in half. I read that half a sheet works fine, and it does. That makes me get four large boxes of dryer sheets for $8.00 rather than two. I've also read you can generally use half of the dishwasher detergent, though I use these tablets. When I am finished with my Arm & Hammer laundry detergent, I am going to make a batch of my own.

 

I limit the # of cleaners I have as well. I hate clutter, so this cuts down on the # of bottles under the sink, but it also saves money. I find something that works and I stick with it. For example, I like Simple Green. I have a ton of it. I use it for everything. When I am done with it, I am considering trying something more natural, but for now, I will use my Simple Green and not buy another all-purpose cleaner until I am done with it.

[asher]

I agree w. Dawn. I'm really working hard to be debt free as well. :) We do clip coupons and can save quite a mint on those sometimes. I try to make practical but nutritional meals from scratch. I have a mental list of where to find the best deals.

 

My recent favorite places to go (before Rainbow Resource ;D ) are homeschoolclassifieds.com and abebooks.com (where some books ship free w/o a minimum purchase amount).