Just curious who else is living super frugal

[mythreesons]

I do a lot of stuff to save my family money so we can afford to have money in other areas..I do a lot of scratch cooking,keep lots of BULK baking ingredients on hand at all times like dried fruit,nuts,spices,bread flours,all purpose flour,bulk yeast,brown sugar,powdered sugar,baking chips,etc..I buy and stock up when there is a sale on things my family will eat or use..I stay on top of keeping lights,tvs,computers off when not being used..have power strips in all rooms..I grocery shop twice a month..mostly just to add to my stock..I've worked hard to get my pantry,shelves in the basement,cupboards& freezers to where I really don't "need" to go shopping....I stock alot of OTC,HBA's,aluminum foil,baggies,wax paper, pads.. I learned to have subs like powered milk,instant potatoes,dehydrated onions as that is the foods that I buy fresh that I do run out of when I dont feel like shopping for weeks.. I pay my bills online to save on postage..I make freezer meals for times when I dont feel like cooking or sick..I never buy cookies..I make mine from scratch..I make the following from scratch..

Pancake mix
Cookies
Fruit breads
Maple syrup
Light corn sryup
Taco seasoning
Italian salad dressing
Ceaser salad dressing
Bagels
Bread
Rolls
Fajita seasoning
Tarter sauce
Cocktail sauce
Brownies
Raisin bread
Lady fingers
Whipped cream
Laundry detergent
Dawn dish soap
Sherbet
Yogurt


I know there is more but I need to go fix supper..

 

[nok13]

well, some of that list of DIY is , like, so obvious. who buys pancake mix? or cookie mix? or whipped cream?

the wonders of a can of whipped cream were brought to our store, a few of us anglos bought some, and then everyone vetoed it as to synthetic and not real... as for pancake mix? why? the mix is just flour sugar and baking powder. anyhow u have to add eggs and milk...

the other thing in being frugal: only use what u can get, fresh, or in season. dehydreated onion has no benifits in it for you. better to not have onion in the food, then spend money on something that doesnt have any benefits.

better, for instance, to fry up lots of onion in oil or lard, and store... thats a thai thing, but hubby is a chef and thats his thing, a little of that flavoured oil goes a long way in meat and soup dishes.

we only by fresh garlic when in season, which is now. i buy in the souk (open air market), 6 kilos, hang them, dry them, and chop and freeze mixed in olive oil, in small cubes.
we grow our own chili peppers since that is a high use item with us. we must have 50 kilos of dried peppers in a storage room, and bugs dont bother with them.
we buy rice in 25 kilo bags since that is an other high use item.

'elderly' vegetables become soup bases that i freeze (carrots, potatoes, our pale green squash, celery)
all those sauces and dressing? dont know anyone that doesnt make their own. just started seeing salsa sauces and stuff in the past few years here in supermarkets, as specialty items that cost a fortune, so again, home made. frankly , when i came here 30 years ago, i proved everyone as correct in believeing that all american women only buy cake mix, as i was the only one that never knew how to bake and never had home made cakes for friday night dinner -scandalous!!! (my now ex-mother in law would send me a whole cake so that her son could have cake for shabbat day); fortunatley now even my son knows how to bake a mean basic (kindergarten teacher style) cake (a simple chocolate cake, oil based w/o dairy, sometimes with sweet wine or orange juice as the liquid. its the cake that the children make for friday to take home)>
many of us make our own challa (sweet white bread for friday) as it si more expensive then our regular daily bread (which is bought fresh daily or every few days)>
old bread/challa become croutons and bread crumbs if not turned in to french toast.
old shirts become rags and floor clothes (we use buckets with soap and water on the floor, scrub with a broom, and squeegee the water out and then dry with a rag)
no canned stuff, no frozen bought stuff (expensive). if we cant get it in the market or from a friend, then we just dont have it... fortunately we are still fairly agricultural: the seasons go like this:
august-october: grapes(vineyard and wild)/raisins/figs(wild but all over the place)/dates/ pomagranits (wild and cultured), then guavas (make in to jams), then apples and pears. december should be bananas, oranges and other citrus (we have pomella tangerines lemons kumquat, grown here), then january/february: strawberries. at present, there is nothing but horrible expensive bananas and old citrus, there will be green almonds for a week or two to pick from the wild trees; then: depending where u live, peaches, plums, and mostly nectarines. we grow nectarines so we will have nectarines in confiture, jams, cakes, muffins, sliced, boiled and made in to sweet nectar. soemwhere in there are the avocodo season, ah! and summer: watermelons and melons. once in a while there will be cantelope, and honey dew but more expensive. also the seedless kinds are more expnesive. the skin of the watermelon is made in to a sort of sweet pickled relish.
since eating sunflower seeds is a national pasttime, we used to all buy up kilos of the uncooked seeds, then mix with water and salt and bake our own , just in time for the football (soccer). now , people buy the seeds already done but at twice th price. so if u plan well, u do the seeds, then while the oven is still hot, bake cakes, then, bake eggplants and then make the eggplants in to babganoush/ that all saves electricity.

 

[Chick_In_The_Burbs]

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).

If you are looking at solar, you might look into solar shingles. If one gets damaged you only end up replacing that one shingle instead of a whole row/panel. Not sure what the DIY cost difference is between them and panels.

 

[erinszoo]

Well, we're trying out a new form of gardening this year in a small form just to see how it does. If it proves viable we'll expand next year and if it doesn't, we'll probably try again with the same lot in case it's a fluke year for gardening. We're trying out straw bale gardening. It's a whole lot cheaper to buy straw bales than soil for raised beds. It's quite a procedure though to get it started and I'm pretty sure our neighbors think we've lost our minds standing outside watering straw bales day after day. However, we have it on our driveway that we are unable to use because of the insane neighbors ... so I guess if they think we're crazy, we're just even. Anyone else ever do straw bale gardening?

 

[DennisK]

I do a lot of stuff to save my family money so we can afford to have money in other areas..I do a lot of scratch cooking,keep lots of BULK baking ingredients on hand at all times like dried fruit,nuts,spices,bread flours,all purpose flour,bulk yeast,brown sugar,powdered sugar,baking chips,etc..I buy and stock up when there is a sale on things my family will eat or use..I stay on top of keeping lights,tvs,computers off when not being used..have power strips in all rooms..I grocery shop twice a month..mostly just to add to my stock..I've worked hard to get my pantry,shelves in the basement,cupboards& freezers to where I really don't "need" to go shopping....I stock alot of OTC,HBA's,aluminum foil,baggies,wax paper, pads.. I learned to have subs like powered milk,instant potatoes,dehydrated onions as that is the foods that I buy fresh that I do run out of when I dont feel like shopping for weeks.. I pay my bills online to save on postage..I make freezer meals for times when I dont feel like cooking or sick..I never buy cookies..I make mine from scratch..I make the following from scratch..

Pancake mix
Cookies
Fruit breads
Maple syrup
Light corn sryup
Taco seasoning
Italian salad dressing
Ceaser salad dressing
Bagels
Bread
Rolls
Fajita seasoning
Tarter sauce
Cocktail sauce
Brownies
Raisin bread
Lady fingers
Whipped cream
Laundry detergent
Dawn dish soap
Sherbet
Yogurt


I know there is more but I need to go fix supper..

It sounds like you have frugality down pat, mythreesons! Being in NJ, you are blessed with maple trees. I love maple syrup – not that corn syrup stuff, but real maple syrup is quite expensive here in California. How do you make Dawn Dish soap?

 

[Chick_In_The_Burbs]

Well, we're trying out a new form of gardening this year in a small form just to see how it does. If it proves viable we'll expand next year and if it doesn't, we'll probably try again with the same lot in case it's a fluke year for gardening. We're trying out straw bale gardening. It's a whole lot cheaper to buy straw bales than soil for raised beds. It's quite a procedure though to get it started and I'm pretty sure our neighbors think we've lost our minds standing outside watering straw bales day after day. However, we have it on our driveway that we are unable to use because of the insane neighbors ... so I guess if they think we're crazy, we're just even. Anyone else ever do straw bale gardening?

I love the neighbors that think you're crazy. My favorites are the ones that drive out their garage in their brand new car they can barely make payments on drinking the coffee from the $200 coffee maker that still isn't paid from their card while thinking how low class you are for having chickens.

Anycase, I have fun messing with them. We had a neighbor decide our backyard was too messy (we spent the weekend pulling out the chicken fencing we didn't need up anymore, pulling apart two old hay bales so they could go in the trash cans, pulling weeds and generally rearranging things for a new setup, including a new coop). We were planning on finishing up the next weekend with the new coop arriving the weekend after. She called the city code enforcement on us using a code that essentially meant we were breeding disease. The code guy was very nice but ended up stopping in earlier than the appointment he called to arrange with us because of 'the high number of complaints'. We never saw the inspector again after the inspection, he just shrugged and closed the complaint. Color me irritated though. So I decided if they just HAD to look into my yard and get their panties in a twist, I would give them plenty to twist over.

I hadn't picked paint for the new coop at that point. I had been leaning towards a light blue with white trim to match into the house. My end choice actually glowed a little at night. The bird, parts of the flowers and the dark centers on the purple circles were done with glitter paint, it doesn't show up well in pictures.





This side faced my Nice Neighbors.

And this side faced our house directly. We've dressed it up a bit with some metal artwork.

 

[jbirds2012]

I love the neighbors that think you're crazy. My favorites are the ones that drive out their garage in their brand new car they can barely make payments on drinking the coffee from the $200 coffee maker that still isn't paid from their card while thinking how low class you are for having chickens.

Anycase, I have fun messing with them. We had a neighbor decide our backyard was too messy (we spent the weekend pulling out the chicken fencing we didn't need up anymore, pulling apart two old hay bales so they could go in the trash cans, pulling weeds and generally rearranging things for a new setup, including a new coop). We were planning on finishing up the next weekend with the new coop arriving the weekend after. She called the city code enforcement on us using a code that essentially meant we were breeding disease. The code guy was very nice but ended up stopping in earlier than the appointment he called to arrange with us because of 'the high number of complaints'. We never saw the inspector again after the inspection, he just shrugged and closed the complaint.

when i lived in kc,k years ago, a city person came by and said that someone was complaining about a roster, so i smiled and told him that i didn't know what he was talking about and right after my roo did his cock a doddle and then my neighbors roo did the same. and i smiled at him and said my neighbors must be hearing things. he smiled and said ok, but, if i get one more complaint. i gave him a serious yes sir and never heard from him again. that was way back in the 1980's if it happened today i might be brought up on federal charges. thank you god that i live in the country and my chickens,turkeys,guineas,dogs and me can make all the noise we want. amen.

 

[erinszoo]

Love the coop paint! Our neighbors whine about our chickens all the time but they are the only ones who do. In our town you have to have at least three complaints by adjacent neighbors before the city will even consider doing a drive by. The guy who lives behind us loves our birds as does the neighbor behind the "crazy" folks. The other two houses that could be considered immediate neighbors are empty. Ha! There's a lot of days I hate living in this town but their laws regarding chickens, poultry, and other farm animals is great for people like us who want to be self-sufficient as possible. Now ... tying solar panels or wind mills into their precious grid is another matter entirely.

 

[nok13]

fortunately in my row of apartments on the kibbutz, there is noone behind or in front of us but noisy temporary folks for 5 month stays to study and work and they are raucos and loud all night long when it is summer; my side neighbors, one keeps birds, another has quails and a loud (but good guard) dog that patrols all night long, and the other side also have dogs. we all have dogs that bark. so hopefully the increasing noise level from the greenhouse thai babys (now three months old and loud) will go fairly unnoticed til they are moved...
plus i ply everyone with eggs; it used to be that people always had farm picked eggs, before they were sprayed and packaged for the city markets so fresh laid, free housed hens are a plus...

but my yard on the side also looks a bit, well, umm, shanty town, as my kids put it. hubby fixes up washing machines, so there are parts all over, and we both collect buckets and plastic containers for planting seeds (its become an obsession), plus we also collect bottles/cans so we have enough we can trade them in to a main collection center as opposed to a super market which only take 50 cans at a time, for a refund on a buy (no money). he works in a restaraunt and i in a hotel so we always have good big buckets from soap, olives, tehina and whatever else. plus stuff that we 'rescued' from the local garbage cans: now everyone is cleaning for pesach (passover, esentially spring cleaning) so have found a almost new bathroom closet, a set of wall shelves, and buckets.
tomorrow i will be working on my vertical garden for tomatoes, maybe sweet potatoes, green onions...and dealing with the composter i got from the kibbutz (full, so i have to spray with garlic, then empty the compost for the neighbors then set it up for me.)

 

[nok13]

photos of a shuk (open air market in downtown jerusalem, last spring)