Just curious who else is living super frugal

[jbirds2012]

So, how's this for forced frugality? We had a snow storm and the power went out ... we had three brooders of baby birds who no longer had heat lamps keeping them warm in freezing temps. So... I've been saving two liter pop bottles to build a solar heater for my coop. I filled them with hot water, wrapped them in a towel and placed them in the brooders. The babies curled up and sprawled over them quite nicely and stayed warm all night with no power. Luckily we have gas hot water and gas heat and a gas stove ... so power outages are minor inconveniences. Gas outages on the other hand ... yikes!

we are off grid and depend on solar power and use a wood stove, so when the lights go out in the valley i silently snicker at the folks that ain't quite figured it out yet.

 

[OffGridMAMA]

we are off grid and depend on solar power and use a wood stove, so when the lights go out in the valley i silently snicker at the folks that ain't quite figured it out yet.

Me too!!!! (Also offgrid)

 

[jbirds2012]

One way to save a good deal of money is to become your own mechanic. With the sophistication cars are today, many of us run to the nearest auto repairman - me included. That is, until soon after meeting DW, my car stranded us on the road into town. At the time, we could’t afford a repair bill; so we towed it home where I discovered that it threw a timing belt. I was sure the engine’s head was destroyed and I was planning to have the car towed off to the junk yard. DW refused to believe the car was worthless – “Let’s fix it!” “No”, I said “Some of the valves are probably bent. It isn’t worth fixing.” She convinced me to remove the head and take a look. I was right – every one of those valves was bent. “Well - buy new valves!” She is such a stubborn woman! “No”, I said, “The head is probably warped! … Is it?” I started questioning myself. “All right, let me check it…..” The head was in good shape! Soon after, DW and I were stooped over the inner parts of a computerized car replacing damaged parts. I was dragged into that project ‘kicking and screaming’, but it turned out to be time and expense well spent. The car has served us well for the last 2 years, and it is still going strong. The cost was a little over $300 where we would have been looking at an expense many times over that.

yea, that's me, stubborn my mom told me that they were gonna name me "Jennifer stubborn", but then they decided that "Jennifer Nicole" sounded better when they were trying to marry me off.

 

[jbirds2012]

Me too!!!! (Also offgrid)

yea !!! good fer you !!! we love not paying electrical or heating bills,

 

[nok13]

lots of folks here still tr;ying to get ON the grid;

 

[DennisK]

For those of us who live in areas where there is more sun than clouds, photo-electricity works very well – no need to hook up to the grid - no need to put up with all of the political ramifications associated with utilities.
There is currently research on the potential to convert static radio waves into electricity. I saw what appeared to be a solar panel, but it had thousands of tiny antennas covering its surface. If they can figure out how to put something like that into profitable production, we would have electricity, day/night, sun or rain.

 

[MamaRoo]

I hear you on the repairs. I started dating a guy who, after riding in my truck a few times, has fixed the brakes, the fuel filter, the fuel pump, spark plugs, and something else I think. I'm tellin' ya, this guy has made himself a necessity in my life, and saved me a huge bundle of money while doing it.

 

[erinszoo]

Quote:
I wish we were off grid but we live in town and can not tie to the system if we install solar or wind so we are having to move that way slowly. We are going to buy our first solar panels later this spring and build a small room for the battery storage. I can't wait. I'm also looking at building my own wind system with a vertical wind turbine.

 

[erinszoo]

One way to save a good deal of money is to become your own mechanic. With the sophistication cars are today, many of us run to the nearest auto repairman - me included. That is, until soon after meeting DW, my car stranded us on the road into town. At the time, we couldn’t afford a repair bill; so we towed it home where I discovered that it threw a timing belt. I was sure the engine’s head was destroyed and I was planning to have the car towed off to the junk yard. DW refused to believe the car was worthless – “Let’s fix it!” “No”, I said “Some of the valves are probably bent. It isn’t worth fixing.” She convinced me to remove the head and take a look. I was right – every one of those valves was bent. “Well - buy new valves!” She is such a stubborn woman! “No”, I said, “The head is probably warped! … Is it?” I started questioning myself. “All right, let me check it…..” The head was in good shape! Soon after, DW and I were stooped over the inner parts of a computerized car replacing damaged parts. I was dragged into that project ‘kicking and screaming’, but it turned out to be time and expense well spent. The car has served us well for the last 2 years, and it is still going strong. The cost was a little over $300 where we would have been looking at an expense many times over that.

Listen to your wife! I've also saved us hundreds in car repair by looking up how to do it ourselves. I've also fixed the washing machine and dishwasher and replaced the hot water tank just by being stubborn and refusing to spend money we don't have to spend to buy new ones. My first car repair was replacing the radiator in our truck. It was so easy I couldn't believe mechanics got paid $400 to do it. Then I dropped the steering column and replaced a signal switch which the shop wanted $350 to do and it cost us $8 and took about 15 minutes. We've replaced numerous hoses, always do our own oil change, have repaired an a/c system on a car, do our own brakes, etc... Now I need to look up replacing an exhaust system on our Expedition. We replaced half of it two years ago and it cost us thousands to do but the other half needs done as well and there is NO way we can pay that kind of price.

 

[DennisK]

Listen to your wife! I've also saved us hundreds in car repair by looking up how to do it ourselves. I've also fixed the washing machine and dishwasher and replaced the hot water tank just by being stubborn and refusing to spend money we don't have to spend to buy new ones. My first car repair was replacing the radiator in our truck. It was so easy I couldn't believe mechanics got paid $400 to do it. Then I dropped the steering column and replaced a signal switch which the shop wanted $350 to do and it cost us $8 and took about 15 minutes. We've replaced numerous hoses, always do our own oil change, have repaired an a/c system on a car, do our own brakes, etc... Now I need to look up replacing an exhaust system on our Expedition. We replaced half of it two years ago and it cost us thousands to do but the other half needs done as well and there is NO way we can pay that kind of price.

When it comes to auto repair, or just any project, DW roles up her sleeves and wades right in with me. It makes the project more fun. We do have conflicts, but those are resolved with penny bets. ( Don’t ask who has the most pennies – lately, she has taken to rattling her piggy bank at me ….. oh the indignity of it all!)