Just curious who else is living super frugal

[HeatherLynn]

I cannot remember the numbers. Its the whole house windtunnel. Has the retractable cord and the washable filters. I could only find this model number listed at walmart though. A bit disturbed by that but the thing cleans like a dream. I have carpet in one of the busiest family areas and wood everywhere else. Its great that this one does both. I still have not had any regrets though. It will probably shave a couple hours off my cleaning daily. The old one took forever to actually get the floor half way clean. I had to go around and pick up every little thing so all it had to do was a bit of dust and maybe pet hair. The old vac was dying a slow painful death anyway. Just glad I have the new one and that it does such an awesome job. I am kicking everyone out of the house tomorrow so I can vacuum like a mad woman lol.

I will figure out what to cut to pay for the thing tomorrow lol. its still worth it.

 

[Chuckles1330]

I don't think you failed at frugal. Frugal doesn't mean just money - won't this cut the time spent on this chore down considerably and allow you to spend time on another endeavor??? Growing up we were taught to buy the best quality we could afford. Frequently that entailed waiting a long while to make a purchase or going without or making do. But in the long run, it was worth it - product longevity generally paid for the item many times over.

 

[halo]

I wondered if it was the same one at Walmart online, that was marked down from $129 to $99, and has free shipping to your house. I need one and you've tempted me now.

 

[HeatherLynn]

its not the same one but the one you saw online was the one I was looking for. This one does woodfloors also. I LOVE IT even more than i did yesterday. It picks up dirt like no vacuum I have ever owned. Seriously. I even had a rainbow vac. Yep this one is better. Still no regrets.

http://www.walmart.com/ip/Hoover-Whole-House-Bagless-Upright-UH71209/19478275

This is it. Man I love this thing.

 

[khenderson]

We also grocery shop once a month except for milk and cheese. (my husband and son can't get enough of it). someone above mentioned the chest freezer. SOOOOO important. I don't know how anyone survives without one. we lost maybe 4 bags of frozen veggies worth of space in the freezer in the fridge when the old one went out and we don't know what to do without that extra 6 inches haha. I don't buy any bread products besides tortillas wich we ALWAYS have on hand. but everything else i make. i use my sourdough starter religiously and make 4 or 5 loaves of bread a week. we've been doing this for many years so about every 4 months we have to restock our chest freezer and buy a lot of meat that month but we only spend about $350 on groceries a month for two adults and a toddler at one point me and my husband lived off of $200 a month for groceries very strictly. a food saver is also extremely handy if you find good deals on large cuts of meat, you can seperate it at home. We meal plan too a lot. If i roast a chicken the next day, whats left goes into my pressure cooker with an onion for stock that goes in my freezer. anything ham or bacon leftover goes in the crockpot for the next day's dinner. If it's a weekday, i make enough dinner to feed us 3 and enough for me and my husband to take leftovers to work for lunch the next day. I also can a lot of meats and beans and veggies. Its taken me years to get all this going but we eat extremely well, and don't feel like we are frugal at all!

 

[Raiquee]

Yeah a chest freezer is a must! We have the freezer off our fridge, and also a small chest freezer, and a small freezer off our back up fridge. When we move I want one of those huge freezers, the 5ft ones or whatever, as then we will be raising beef, pig, chicken all for meat. So at any one time i may need room for a steer or two pigs, or 30 chickens! Plus I will have a milk cow, so excess milk will probably be in there for the months my cow is dried off. I saw some nice ones on CL that big for 150. Worth it in my opinion! I am kinda shopping once a month now, but not doing a great job at it.

I'm trying to can more soups, I always had them in the freezer before, and I want to can them. I got a pressure canner, only problem is I have MY soup recipes, not others. I already can my stock. I am so giddy of thinking after chicken butchering day making stock pot after stock pot of delicious stock. Mmhmmm!

Yesterday we got rid of our cable. We are never home to watch it and the kids only watch a bit of tv in the am on the local channel. Dropped our bill from $105 to $27. Woot! I've also been keeping the kids home from daycare on my days off ( I didn't used to cause our sitter needed money and I would do my school work that day) which saves us $240 a month. I have to be much stricter on myself for my studies, but it's worth the $240 in my mind.

 

[khenderson]

Oh you will LOVE making stock in your pressure cooker it takes it from a day of boiling down to a couple hours, and it all just falls apart so its super easy to sort out the bones and stuff. I got my own pressure cooker only this christmas, i had been borrowing my mom's when i had to can so i never used it for other things. I don't know how i lived without it!!

 

[HeatherLynn]

I think to save a bit more I am going to just take the jump and start making my own kefir. We go through probably $50 in kefir a month. Family of 8 kefir addicts I swear. I think making a gallon at a time would be such a cost saver for us. AND if i made more Kefir than we buy now I could probably cut out my yogurt too. the kids go through $30 to $40 in daminals a month right now. The baby eats yogurt or kefir at every meal. it gets expensive.

Anyone had a really good experience with any of the online stores that sell Kefir grains?

 

[Frogdogtimestwo]

I ordered my water kefir cultures from http://www.culturesforhealth.com out of Oregon, they came fast but I have not started them yet

they have a lot to choose from and a lot of information for getting started in the world of cultured/fermented foods.

 

[Totalcolour]

. . . AND if i made more Kefir than we buy now I could probably cut out my yogurt too. the kids go through $30 to $40 in daminals a month right now. The baby eats yogurt or kefir at every meal. it gets expensive.

Anyone had a really good experience with any of the online stores that sell Kefir grains?

You don't need to cut out yoghurt, make your own, I do and it's better than store bought. You can do it with a thermos (although I got a yoghurt maker as a gift). Heat the milk, ad some live yoghurt, and in about 12-18 hours you have a new batch!