Just curious who else is living super frugal

[thesunthemoon89]

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Gardening [vegetable as well as fruit trees/bushes]. Going to make more of an effort to use secondhand/recycled materials [including when we build our coop]. Be better at couponing.

 

[itsy]

I love coupons at the grocery store.

The key to it is to study your Sunday flier in the paper. The more you read it, the more you'll see trends and what goes on sale for what and when. When I use coupons, I cut them all out and organize them by what they are.... canned foods.... fresh foods.....cleaning products, etc. I then see what goes on sale in the flier and use a coupon for that product at the same time - and then you're getting a double discount! I try not to buy anything that isn't on sale/with coupon. Our grocery store also doubles coupon value up to 99cents.

Even with doing this - generic may still be cheaper. If you buy Scope mouthwash, for example, and use a coupon plus a sale price, it may still be more than what the grocery store generic Scope costs.

I'm going to be sitting down to write my list/do coupons tomorrow. It'll probably take me 1-1.5 hours.

 

[Mattemma]

I am going to build some garden beds using landscape timbers. To much work keeping weeds out of my current beds. I am going to have rows of them,and each filled with a soil that has compost mixed in.Lawns are overrated.I will make each bed for 1 or 2 items instead of mixing all in one.

Going to tone down on the pets.They are really expensive.Stock up on sale items more. I felt silly buying a huge amount of something,but shoot if it is a deal and we use it then I should buy more!

Try to lower the utilies more(gas,water,electric).

 

[HeatherLynn]

Someone asked how the frugal Christmas went. Ours went fine. We still spent 60 on each child but thats way down from what we used to spend so I am content with it. I bought things that didn't need batteries and were more hands on. Erector sets, lego's, and craft kits were big hits. Its under consideration to try to shave another $50 off and see if i can get that to stretch with deals found throughout the year. We shall see.

 

[oldcrowfarm]

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Meeee, too, so PLEASE share your recipe!
I am still reading before I do much posting, but I am learning so very much from y'all.

Thanks!
Sybil

 

[zzGypsy]

I'm switching over to raw feeding my dogs... I was thinking this was going to be expensive, and then I really looked at the numbers, and did some poking around, here's what I found.
cheap kibble is about $.50/lb. they'll eat it, but it's mostly grain products and not ideal for the dogs.
the best grade all-meat kibble is about $3/lb (ouch! we've got LGDs and they can EAT!)
at the MFA, I can get a no-corn, no-soy mostly meat kibble for $2/lb. this is my backup option so I figure I need to raw feed for less than $2/lb.

I calculate we'll need between 2000 and 3500 lbs of meat per year for 5 dogs (2 LGDs, 3 border collies)... we won't know the exact amount until we know how big the LGDs get when they finish growing

. and how all the dogs do body-condition wise on the raw feed.

my plan is to get at least a month's meat accumulated before we start, its best for the dogs if we don't switch back and forth between raw and kibble. so I need around 300 lbs. the recommended plan is to feed a different meat source each week, with 10% bone, 10% organ meats and the balance in muscle meat. some things are more than 10% bone (chicken, raccoon) so I may have to add some additional muscle meat to those to balance them out.


here's what I've got so far:
old commercial chest freezer, quite large, $50 (guessing this will hold around 700 lbs altogether)
135 lbs of beaver (5 of them) at $8/beaver - $.30/lb
100 lbs of raccoon (12 of them) at $20 for the lot - $.20/lb
30 lbs of brisket at $1.29/lb
20 lbs of chicken leg/thigh quarters at $1.20/lb
10 lbs of ground beef at $1.29/lb

so if I don't count the freezer, I've got almost a month's worth on board (still need to buy some organ meats and more chicken and beef) at $.46/lb... that's less than the cost of cheap kibble!

there are still open questions - will the dogs all eat raccoon? do I need to add more fat, more boneless meat, etc.?
and some things like beaver and raccoon are seasonal, so won't be available all the time. we raise our own goats and sheep, so I can add those later, and may be able to pick up some deer scrap or other seasonal meat as well, but I don't know that this price will hold. still, it looks entirely possible to do this for less than the cost of good kibble, and maybe for close to the cost of cheap grain-based kibble.

 

[ebwy2]

you could ask the local butcher if he'll keep any decent bones for you to feed the dogs too

 

[zzGypsy]

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I've been in to all of the local groceries that have actual butchers in house about big leg bones and knuckles - they don't get them in unless ordered and then they sell them. I'll be making the rounds of the local places that do custom meat processing/butcher work, and deer processing to see if they have leftovers or low-price scrap... those can be good sources, but I haven't finished my rounds yet...

 

[Raiquee]

Also ask those places about organ meat!! I know they sell livers and such, but I would believe they wouldn't have much traffic on hearts and other things. Doesn't hurt to ask! I also saw on craigslist (as I was looking for an outlet of chicken wing tips when we butcher meat birds, I have no use for them) and people were asking for "freezer burnt meat" for their dogs. Not sure what the turn out was for that, but an idea. They wanted it for free, but maybe offering a little cash for it would get people more into it.

As far as frugal christmas, well ours wasn't very frugal.

Christmas is hard when family is very uppity. But, the inlaws offered to pay for christmas dinner if I cooked it, and they bought a 80 dollar prime rib roast. Glad I didn't have to buy it! Sheesh!!!

I think this year I am going to try raising plants from seed and selling them in small containers. We will see how that goes. Heirloom stuff. Ya know.

 

[newfoundland]

A general question really for anyone who has the time and patience to explain US income to me. Here in Britain we generally pay as we earn and the money is taken out of our pay cheque before we receive it. I have noticed on various US TV programs, such as Judge Judy etc, that some people get sizeable income tax refunds, almost as a matter of course. Here, income tax refunds are quite rare and you only get a refund if they have made a mistake and overcharged you. Income over about £7000 is taxable at the rate of about 20% and rising as income increases. I have wondered about this for a long time as I often here references to buying cars with income tax refunds.