Just curious who else is living super frugal

I had never shopped used. That went first. It started with used furniture or appliances, and then to cars, and now clothes and anything else under the sun. I am desperately trying to get us debt free and I am making all the hard choices right now.

I have taken to shopping at goodwill and consignments stores almost exclusively. No one is getting even sale priced retail this year. I am looking at doing the whole only grocery shopping once a month thing. Not sure I can survive that. I need to cut back how much I drive drastically. These gas prices are killing me. I find my entire way of thinking about money and possessions has changed. I think for the better.

Curious what others are doing. Also curious if anyone else has pulled off the whole grocery shopping once a month.

Im headed that way atleast. We have for the most part cut out the extras but still have fun as a family. Wife is a great penny pincher, its me that needs to learn to control things.

We continue to raise the majority of our veggies (have for years but really stepped it up)

I have always hunted for deer and we literally have gone years without spending hardly a dime on store bought meats. Now raising meat birds and layersfor eggs, for both consumption and sale to offset feed etc.

Started hitting estate auctions and yard sales instead of JC Pennies and Walmart.

My youngest son and myself collect aluminum and scrap for a rainy day

I havent bought a firearm in years, used to buy atleast one or two a month, have quite the collection but dont NEED any more

I took to wood turning and sell game calls and wooden bowls

I have my own powder coating shop here at home and do pretty well with it for being a one man operation

I am a Professional Photographer and have used that as my main source of income for the past 5 years(weddings, sporting events, stock work, commercial) I am sub-contracted by every major ATV manufacture in the US of A, am published monthly in 5 or 6 magazines (all paid work)

I sell firewood, heck I sell anything that makes me a few dollars (legally ofcourse)

I worked my rear end off for 19 years, had little cash to show for it but we purchased a piece of ground that allows us to do alot and we can safely afford it. Both my trucks are paid off, car will be in a few more months. Never again will I buy new. Wife feels the same way. Infact we both worked for the same company, no regrets ...well a few LOL

The wife bakes cakes for those in her office that cant do for themselves. She sews for them as well. It isnt much but it helps pay for gas.

Now we arent bad off, we surely arent upside down on our home and we could easily sell today and pay off all of our bills and start over, but we are trying to be smart and see what the economy does before making another move. Our debt is high but its stupid debt and we have to work and be smart to pay it off. We made alot of right decisions and never got to a point where we did not have a fall back but we know we could be doing much better with some control, some more hard work and better choices in the future.

What scares me is the fact that the country seems to be rolling downhill and no matter what happens things wont change for the better....all the more reason to be frugal and thrifty!

I do the "bulk" of my grocery shopping once a month. That being said I do have to buy the all important milk for the kiddos about once a week. Other than those quick stops I buy in bulk and stock up on everything in one big trip.

Yes, we have done the grocery shopping once a month thing. We go more often than that now, but here are my tips:

You will need a nice big chest freezer, IMO.

Freeze butter and flour.
Freeze milk.
Don't let things sit around out of the freezer that might have bug eggs in them (like flour).

Get your DH or S.O. to come along and use two carts. They will both be heaping full.
Only buy enough fresh vegetables and fruit for the first week. Use frozen and canned the rest of the time.

Make an extensive list ahead of time and do a lot of impulse buying of cheap and healthy items (and a little junk food if you allow that in your household- because you will need them.

I tended to underestimate how much food we would go through and the impulse buys made the month more interesting and we enjoyed them.

BOY DOES THIS SAVE MONEY BIG TIME!!!!

ride a bicycle if you're only going a couple miles? I know not everyone can do that, but I am lucky to live in a rural area that happens to be on the outskirts of a shopping center. When i need to make a run to the store or the bank. Its pleasant and good exercise too.

also, I find that storing bread in the fridge makes it last 2-3 times longer. You can also freeze bread, if you have lots of freezer space. Although, if you buy groceries a month at a time you might not have room hah...

I go to town once a week for groceries and any other errands. I have shopped for groceries every two weeks before. I don't put many miles on my car -- over the past 7 months, I've put about 4,000 miles on it. Hopefully it lasts me a long time! I don't live right near town, either. It's about a 25 minute drive to the grocery store. If for some special reason I had to make two trips to town, I dread it. It's kinda funny because I had to train myself to only make one trip because I was used to going to town whenever I felt like it a few years ago.

It would be nice to only shop once a month, but I don't think it would work for me. The hubby can't stand milk or cheese that's been frozen (I've tried), so I buy it once a week along with fresh veggies and fruit. He could pick that stuff up for me, but he's not as picky about the fresh fruit and veggies as I am.

I find that head lettuce will last for almost two weeks if I keep it in the crisper drawer in the fridge. I started keeping my apples in there, too. They last a lot longer that way, too.

I grow a garden and can. I also freeze chopped up onion and sweet peppers so that I have a supply that will last me until the garden is producing again the following year.

coupons... never used them before
not buying any luxeries...
not eating out

Coupons seem much harder to get then I remember as a kid. The sunday papers used to be filled with them, now we get nothing

I keep all bread in the freezer, take out what I am going to eat. It is thawed by the time the sandwich is made. Actually I keep most everything in the freezer, rewrapped into single serving portions before freezing. I often make a dish or meal big enough for a few people and freeze leftovers into homemade TV dinners -- some sort of sauce or gravy keeps meat in great shape. Making your own household cleaners really saves the bucks -- there are all sorts of recipes out there, on the web and our sister website, SufficientSelf. For many things all you need is white vinegar and baking soda. Laundry soap is a little more complicated but works well. Would never buy a new car -- I think about half the price is for the TV commercials (OK, a bit exaggerated.) Actually I generally figure anything advertised on TV is not worth buying. Of course a lot of TV is available for free on the web now. I've cut my light bill in various ways, mostly adjusting the thermostat and hot water. I have a cell phone for emergency only, rarely turn it on, costs about $13 a month, no contract.

It's become a game to me -- conspicuous consumption has gone nuts in this country and I enjoy seeing how far I can go in the other direction.

Great ideas!