Just curious who else is living super frugal

[chicmom]

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An extra way to save on Soda's is to bring them with you. My husband allows him self a 12 pack. I also buy bottled waters. He usually will take one of each. The bottle he can refil at work and it helps make sure he gets enough water instead of all sugary drinks. He also has those ramen soup bowls or pasta bowls in his desk drawer for the days he forgets or runs out of time for a home made lunch.

Those are good ideas....Lunch food is a problem for me sometimes because I don't plan and then I don't have time to make it. Now I'm going to try and make time to plan these things out, but the Ramen noodles and such would be handy to keep just in case.

 

[chicmom]

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I have never owned a dishwasher either (My mother does). I do not however have an outhouse. Wish I did. I can just picture it in my yard...I live on the corner by the post office.

OMG Beekissed, you have an outhouse now? I'm 47, and my mom talked about having an outhouse when she was a kid. (She's in her 70s now.) I thought it was incredible that my husband, who is now 42, had an outhouse and a wood burning stove for heat when he was a boy. His family was very poor. His bedroom, back then, was a curtain at the end of the hallway. His dad sometimes went to an old abandoned church and caught pigeons to eat for dinner.

One day, to impress him, I made a lovely dinner with Cornish Hens. He got this funny look and couldn't eat his. He said they reminded him of the pigeons he had to eat when he was a boy. I was mortified! LOL

 

[ODS-n-ENS FARM]

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We currently have 2 homes. One we rent, one we own they are about an hour apart.Neither place has a dishwasher. The cottage we own has has an outhouse( I refer to the bathroom as a half bath cuz it only has a shower and sink) and we heat it with wood. I also enjoy cooking on the woodstove. we have water and elec but they are not a necessity. With the outhouse, woodstove and a hand pump on the well we can survive comfortably.

 

[BigSkyChickens]

LOVE, LOVE, LOVE this thread! Good job, everyone, gettin' your frugal on!

Thank you chic mom, for encouraging me to pass up Mcdonalds and have an egg for dinner, instead. With Rooster Sauce. It's great for anyone on a budget. It's made by Huy Fong Foods in Rosemead, CA. The bottle has a rooster on it, and it is inexpensive and delicious.

I went to the Goodwill on Saturday and found some much-needed work clothes.

GARAGE SALES RULE! DBF has been pretty religious about garage sales this summmer, scoring some nice clothes and tons of fencing and T-posts we always seem to need. stuff is often one tenth the retail price. If you have a good eye, and are willing to ask, you can get things for free. Keep a running list of things you are looking for, and ask if you don't see those items.

Cooking at home is an area where I would really like to improve. I need to sit down and review recipes and do some overall menu planning. Especially bread, biscuits, tortillas, pasta.....

I love all your ideas about preparing your own "convenience" food for the freezer. Recently I've started making steel cut oats, cinnamon and apples, freezing in little containers and eating those for breakfast. Just microwave and add brown sugar....or honey.

My awesome neighbor made me pick a whole bushel of apples because I bought an apple picker for her on craig's list. I'm grateful for a bountiful garden this year, but it was quite humbling trying to harvest and preserve and eat everything this year. I hope to build more canning and drying skills in the next year.

Question: Do y'all think it's a good idea to buy my pressure canner at a garage sale? Or should I buy it new? From a safety perspective....thanks.

 

[kuntrygirl]

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Empty it? Who said anything about emptying it afterwards? Use it for about a week before you empty. We are talking about being "super frugal" right? Ya gotta start somewhere. "Reduce, Re-use and Recycle".

Hmm was dishes in it first, then bath, then the laundry, then the dogs and finally use it to water your plants.....hehe.

Perfect way to recycle!

 

[faerielady]

This is going to sound like a weird question, most likely.

I have a formal dinner tomorrow night. I also have mid-back length hair (bra strap length, for those who know that saying). I would like to curl my hair with big curls, but I don't have a big curling iron and quite frankly it would be wasteful to buy one to only use it once. Does anyone have any suggestions?

 

[chick-in-florida]

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Use socks!! my sisters used socks to roll their hair. there are apparently videos on youtube to show you how. personally i have never curled my hair.

 

[Avalon1984]

My plan of being frugal right now is not to have the heat on. It gets into the mid 20’s at night but warms up during the day. The pipes are still ok and if it gets humid and cold I will have a fire inside. My whiney inside cats roll up in a ball all day acting like they are cold. Husband acted like he was cold. I told him that would give him more reason to snuggle with me. Our problem is that the windows are bad, so it would be quite the futile effort to turn on the heat. We are just starting to put up plastic to conserve heat and it helps. The house is around 55 degrees. I think it’s comfy and I saved $400 so far on heat bills. Mhm…what can I buy for $400.00????

 

[WomanInTheWoods]

I have honestly never heard of curling hair with socks! My girls and I will have to try that one out. Thanks!

Avalon, I'm too much of a wuss to go without heat!

Our house was built with forced air heat, but with a loft over the living room it stayed cold downstairs. After a couple years I got rid of the heat and put a wood stove in the living room. We live on wooded acreage, so free heat. Then I had a bunch of babies and couldn't keep up with the stove, so we switched to a coal stove, which still cost less than half to run instead of the forced air heat. Now the kids are a bit older (the boys are big enough to help me cut wood) and I'm able to keep the wood stove running, so next year we'll switch back to that. I miss my wood stove, we have it stored in my parents' basement. It's actually the best of both worlds; it's an old Vigilant cast iron stove and will run on both wood and coal, so I can still run coal during the coldest part of the winter. I can't wait to get it back! Bottom line~ I HATE being cold. I'm a big baby.

 

[Carols Clucks]

If you decide you want a curling iron, I paid $2 for mine at CVS.