Just curious who else is living super frugal

[erinszoo]

Well we turned the last of our fifty pound sack of potatoes into mashed potatoes that we dried to have instant mashed potatoes. Eh, not really worth doing again. They still have to be cooked some and the consistency is funky. Think I'll stick to putting them in the cellar this year and just making fresh mashed potatoes.

 

[Totalcolour]

Well we turned the last of our fifty pound sack of potatoes into mashed potatoes that we dried to have instant mashed potatoes. Eh, not really worth doing again. They still have to be cooked some and the consistency is funky. Think I'll stick to putting them in the cellar this year and just making fresh mashed potatoes.

Yeah, I don't like them that way. BUT, you can slice them, blanch them , THEN dry them. They can be cooked like gratin potatoes and they turn out quite well.

 

[erinszoo]

Well we turned the last of our fifty pound sack of potatoes into mashed potatoes that we dried to have instant mashed potatoes. Eh, not really worth doing again. They still have to be cooked some and the consistency is funky. Think I'll stick to putting them in the cellar this year and just making fresh mashed potatoes.

Yeah, I don't like them that way. BUT, you can slice them, blanch them , THEN dry them. They can be cooked like gratin potatoes and they turn out quite well.

We did that with the first twenty five pounds. Worked great and we've already cooked some. They store well too.

 

[Hatch N Eggs]

I don't know if anyone has mentioned it yet, but my mother, sisters and I are "extreme couponers" we walk out of the grocery store feeling like we have legally robbed them. We stock pile and have done so, so much that we have enough to donate to the local homeless shelters. It's not as hard as it sounds, if you know what you are doing and there are a great deal of websites to help you out now a days. I can honestly say that if I stopped shopping today, I would have enough food in my house to feed my family of 6 for at least 6months if not longer. I have also cut back on my chicken feed by fermenting it. By doing this I have cut my feed bill down to about $40 a month, where it used to run me between 130-150 or more a month.

 

[erinszoo]

I'd love to have someone show me how to "extreme coupon" where I live. All the grocery stores in our town and in the next biggest town are owned by the same people so they set whatever prices they want and they are high all the time. We literally go shopping out of state because it's cheaper for us to drive 65 miles than it is to shop in our own town. Plus our paper doesn't carry coupons. And I don't know any stores that double any coupons. I'd love to get hundreds of dollars worth of stuff for almost nothing even if I had to work some for it. We shop whatever sales we can find and use whatever coupons my mom gets but without a printer for our computer we can't print anything off either. I think it's great you've been able to stockpile so much for your family.

 

[Hatch N Eggs]

I'd love to have someone show me how to "extreme coupon" where I live. All the grocery stores in our town and in the next biggest town are owned by the same people so they set whatever prices they want and they are high all the time. We literally go shopping out of state because it's cheaper for us to drive 65 miles than it is to shop in our own town. Plus our paper doesn't carry coupons. And I don't know any stores that double any coupons. I'd love to get hundreds of dollars worth of stuff for almost nothing even if I had to work some for it. We shop whatever sales we can find and use whatever coupons my mom gets but without a printer for our computer we can't print anything off either. I think it's great you've been able to stockpile so much for your family

I don't know what stores are in your area, but check out this site and it should help you get started. southernsavers.com
If your local papers don't carry coupons you can buy inserts on ebay really reasonable, you can also use printables. On southern savers, it will give you links to printable coupons and tell you exactly where to find them, which makes it easy. I hope this helps.

 

[Hatch N Eggs]

Sorry, I totally missed where you said you didn't have a printer.

 

[erinszoo]

That's okay. Thanks for the help anyway. I may try going to the library to print some stuff off.

 

[Hatch N Eggs]

No problem, happy to help anyway I can.

 

[Spock2013]

My mom is a couponer. She buys everything she can get cheap. If its free(or really really cheap) she gets it and donates it to the local food banks.

I am a senior in high school, so we're having to save for college. I recently got a car, but she had just payed hers off, and mine is used and gets really good mileage. When mine is paid off, we plan on getting my grandma a newer car.

I am starting to sell my art work, and taking commissions. That money as well as the money I will make when I finally find a job will be split between college, gas, helping my mom with the car payment, and saving up for renovations on our house.

For the renovations I plan to do most of the work myself with the help of my uncle who is currently on his way to being a licensed electrician. Having learned the basics of diy from my grandpa and my uncle being a construction worker I don't plan on spending much for contractors except plumbing. We have a family member that does ac/heating work, so that will be easy as well if needed.
My mom is looking into getting solar panels. She wants to save on those by getting the diy kit at the local hardware store.

I hope to get a garden set up in the next year. I have a plot picked and along with chickens we hope we can cut down on some food costs.

Some small things we do that help are keeping the lights off during the day and leave the windows open, collect scrap metal to sell, only use the ac/heater if absolutely necessary, stockpile foods that go on sale that are used a lot, e-clubs for restaurants, we use the library for books, and don't go to the movies but rather go to the redbox and spend a $1 plus about $4 for popcorn and soda if we want it(much better than $50 for 5 people).