Just curious who else is living super frugal

[Rathbone]

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I love the idea of the bandanas and hankies. The cloths I made were simply too thick and were not that comfy but I think the hankies/bandandas (who would have thought I couldn't imagine this one on my own) would be perfect as...hankies. I have a son with severe allergies so this will be perfect for us.

 

[Rathbone]

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And now I am off to check out the "waste nothing" group. Thanks!

 

[EweSheep]

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1 cup per load.....two gallons, it won't go very far LOL!
I thought it was a tablespoon of liquid homemade.....someone correct me on that?

 

[ForgottenGlen]

When I get back from my family vacation, I'm going to try family cloth, since I'm the only one who would use it, #1 only for now. I just went and overloaded on handtowels to replace papertowels, and will be getting cloth napkins (formal and casual) to eliminate the paper use in my house tremendously. I'm a big paper waster. Also, ate one of our own birds for the first time the other day, and had deer for the first time last night! Big steps for this city girl, since we have 13 acres of deer infested woods we could use for food.

I love this thread!

 

[Rathbone]

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1 cup per load.....two gallons, it won't go very far LOL!
I thought it was a tablespoon of liquid homemade.....someone correct me on that?

Just as a clarification - 1 gallon in the pot to dissolve the soap, and another two gallons in bucket equalling 3 gallons total. Anyone want to weigh in on this one? I was just quoting from the recipe I copy/pasted. I would hate to overdo it on soap. What a total bonus if the laundry soap went even farther!

 

[Rathbone]

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Proud of you! Big steps indeed!

 

[Acre of Blessings]

We here at Acre of Blessings really have no choice but to live frugal. I love actually. I like the fact that when we go to a store as a family that our kids automatically head straight for the clearance section. We love thrift store shopping and yard sales. I am not a big fan of flea markets because its the same ol' stuff (most of the time). We love the farmers markets as well as our own garden out back.

We have in Danville, a salvation army thrift store that is super nice. My girls and i were sent shopping by Dad (who was at work) YA!!! girls day out. We went in the store and walked around for about 5 minutes or so and we were about to leave when a young lady that worked there began to tell us that if we purchased on of the bags for $5 that whatever clothing we could fit in the bag was only $3...which made everything int he bag $8. Well, she didn't know who she was talking to......the super bag stuffer!!!! lol

I can't remember all we got but several of the items wer new with tags and we added it all up at the thrift store cost and it was almost $200 worth of clothing for only $8. What a deal. Well we were in there again just today looking around.....no it wasn't a red bag day today (bummer).....but I did get my YDD a brand new pair of Land's End Flips for only $1.99 and I got these.........

.........can you guess how much? They are practically brand new. you got it!! $1.99. I almost flipped over the flop!!! lol.

There was also one day that we went to take off some trash and when we got there I seen 3 old greenish/grey looking wicker chairs and I asked if we could have them, I just knew the guy would say no. Well, I pulled the truck ove rto the little building and asked if we could have them.....he said sure, but not to let anyone see us ( it's a gaited dump-site now), lol, sounds fancy.....anyways we backed and and no one was there the whole time that my MDD and I loaded them up. We went by a store and bought some paint and this is what we now have. Sorta Patriotic if you ask me.

Now I'm not really sure how much Wicker chairs go for, but I do know that they are not cheap at all.

Our girls and I are usually really good about finding deals like these but it just doesn't happen every day. Hope everyone else loves the Frugal Life as much as our family does.

 

[Circe]

We used to grocery shop once a month, but I've found that I save more money if I do it once a week, but I can coupon more readily. I generally save around $100/grocery bill.

Other things:
grow our own veggies and starting in on certain fruits
starting with chickens/eggs
reuse/recycle--we don't use ziplock bags for lunches, etc. I made reusuables ones. My son recycles cans.
take our lunch to work/school
cloth diapers
energy efficient appliances
consign and buy on consignment
cut back on cable, etc.
make our own detergents
use vinegar/water/baking soda for most of cleaning
cloth/knitted dishcloths

 

[kuntrygirl]

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You make reusable ziplock bags? How?

 

[Rathbone]

Amen, I want to know about the sandwich bags.
And Acre of Blessings - you are making it look easy