Frugal living is essential when you have a large family. If you don't have a large family, then frugal living is essential to saving money. Things that we do that qualify as frugal are these.
1.) Shop at thrift stores. We have found so many neat things there, and name brand clothing for 1 to 2 dollars? Bargain
2.)Go to garage sales. Yesterday my oldest found a phone holder that is the perfect fit for his phone. Price? 25 CENTS!
3.)Buy in bulk. In most instances, it is cheaper. You will have to compare, but it's worth checking out.
4.)Use coupons. I used to hate the thought of coupons, and didn't think you could really save money, but we got ahold of 80 coupons for baby wipes that we used anyway, and save 100.00 on them. Yes, the crunch could be hard at first, spending so much money, but in the long run is when the savings is felt
5.)Buying generic food. They are mostly just as good as name brand, without the name brand price tag.
6.)Filling the toilet a couple of times with tinkles, and then flushing. Don't laugh...its not bad at all, and when you consider the price of water, we save a considerable amount of money. Poop goes down, but pee can sit a little while.
7.) Asking for things. Get over your pride, people! The most someone can say is no. I have gotten hand me downs, and a car recently by just asking. What do you do with your leftover clothing, Sally??? Well, I usually give them away. Why? Do you want them? Why yes, I would love to take them from you. Thank you. Or, does anyone have a car we can borrow for a few weeks until we figure out what to do with our old one? Yes, we do.... Nuff said there
8.) Cooking in bulk. Freeze some, or just cook a lot of meat at once, and stick half back in the fridge. Save it for tacos, or something. Then you have half the battle the next day as the main part is already cooked. Just heat it up.
I will probably think of more things later, but seriously. In today's economy...why would you NOT want to save money? Its little things that add up to bigger amounts. Try some of them. Tell me what you think.
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6 comments:
Yes, these are good suggestions. Paul and I already do numbers 3, 4, 5, and occasionally 6. We shop at Costco for as much of our food and paper products, etc, as we can possibly find there....which saves us a lot of money. Another thing we used to do (but have gotten out of the habit) is go shopping at the 99 cent stores. You can get cans of Progresso soup for so much less than at the supermarket!
Do you have an aversion to thrift stores and garage sales, or are they to time consuming in california? I imagine there would be so many there that it could be overwhelming. I like the dollar stores, but sometimes they actually cost more at a dollar than they would at say wal mart. For example...gatorade bottles are a buck there but 88 cents at wal mart. I do like progresso soups though. I will have to check them out!
Thrift stores are OK...garage sales can be time-consuming though. And with little ones, it's really hard to get out there at 6am to find the best deals!
Another thing we do to conserve water is to take baths or showers every other day and do sponge-baths in between.
Oh, I forgot to say we also do #8 on your list....cooking in bulk. At least, I try to do this a couple of times a week and have plenty of leftovers so that I don't have to cook every day. It does save money, too.
Good tips! We take baths much less frequently in the winter. No sweating, and less activity leads to less smelly kiddos.
You could always just go to the garage sales alone...leave the kids with Paul still sleeping. I know it is more fun with a partner, though.
Hi Holly,
I remembered one more thing we do to save water...sometimes (if the weather is not warm and the clothes have no stains on them) we wear outfits twice before we wash them. Just like skipping showers, it's only doable if the weather is cool (no perspiration).
JoAnn
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