Just curious who else is living super frugal

[TarainNC]

I hit the mother load the other day. A neighbor moved out and there were bags and bags of items at the curb. I brought a bunch of it home. Two floating shelves, tons of canning jars, a king size ralph lauren quilt, ralph lauren twin comforter, clothes, shower curtain and rings, a white vase from Target and a set of fiesta dishes, shoes and picture frames that I kept for me. A box of 10 cashmere sweaters and an american eagle coat for my 19 year old daughter. 3 pairs of pants and a fleece jacket , victoria's secret nightgown and a purple bath rug for my mom. In addition to these items I washed up the rest of the clothes and household items and added them to my yardsale last sat. I made about $60 on the items and donated the rest to the salvation army and got a tax reciept for my donation.
My husband has been calling me Fred Sanford for this and the other treasures I have been bringing home. I have also picked up some other items curbside to recycle. Recently I got two old entertainment centers and turned one into a child's kitchen and the other into a little girls vanity. I sold the kitchen for $145 and have the vanity listed on FB. I found 4 vintage windows I am going to clean up and put vinyl lettering on and sell at an antique fair in may. I also found an old wooden chair I am making a planter out of. Then yesterday a friend I do not see very often saw a post of mine on FB that I have been shopping and collecting items to redo the beach house we just bought from my inlaws. She gave me a 4 ft tall bookcase shaped like a rowboat an two wooden lounge chairs that need some work for our place at the beach. I am soooo excited to go down this weekend and start our "remodel".

 

[nok13]

that is soooo fun and cool; here its passover so people also dump amazing things; found a set of plates that are basically the same as my set (we all buy the same cheap stuff from the same stores); shelves, planters.... thought to go 'shopping' on saturday which is two days away from passover night, but our car is dead... and in this case, being thrifty and frugal ended up costing us more (buying a remade starter and alternator, a common practice in israel, but the starter lasted a month, so the car doc opened it all up and we are having to do a one stop all in one redo of engine head, and everything else. i asked him if i could pay him in eggs; ill have to give him golden goose eggs to make up for the price (5000 shekels, more then hubby's paycheck in one month including overtime). then he said maybe i can find him some layers, so maybe i can still work some of the money off by helping him set up a small animal yard for him and daughter... gonna try. first decent garage guy ive ever met in this country, ever... works twice as slow as anybody else but very thorough and decent enough...

seems to be slimmer pickings this year i think the economy here is even worse then last year... people are only doing cosmetic changes and not major furniture dish type changes. bummer for me.
im in the market for a mattress since buying one went out the window with the new engine stuff...

 

[Child of Noah]

I am doing a "food stamp challenge" in order to save on groceries. I use my state's

Maximum SNAP Benefit Allowances
Household Size Maximum Allotment
1 $ 200
2 $ 367
3 $ 526
4 $ 668
5 $ 793
6 $ 952
7 $ 1,052
8 $ 1,202
For each additional member $ 150+

I try to keep under the maximum monthly amount. All food counts. If I choose to spend $4 on a coffee, that is $4 less somewhere else. If I spend less that month, the excess goes to savings. So far, I have been able to get a coffee on my way to work occasionally, and have some left for savings each month. I do not use coupons, but I have found that this is more than enough if you actually cook (as opposed to using pre-boxed foods).

 

[The4Chickeneers]

I am a BIG couponer. Rainbow and Costco are great stores, escpecially Costco's gas prices

 

[RedneckGurl]

This is our second year of a Halloween Challege. Each child has a goal of coming up with a costume for less than $5. My kids are not easily placated so this is a huge challenge for them. My daughter is running with a theory from a radio show that witches were actually aliens, so she is in a witch costume complete with hate and brook, with an alian face mask. Its pretty freaky ( $5). My son is a Jedi. He is at 0 dollars so far and only need a bigger belt ( I can pick one up for a buck at the thrift store). I found a complete darth vader costume for my 4 year old for $3. My youngest daughter is getting a costume out of my costume drawers ( all the old costumes and all the ballet costumes I have had to buy over the years for the oldest). At most I have to buy a pair of fair wings for $2 and we are good.

The first year they resisted, this year they jumped in with enthusiasm. Well the oldest ones did. The younger ones are just glad mommy comes up with something. So grand total its going to cost roughly $11 for 4 kids costumes this year. Better than saving money is the lesson the kids are learning. Not even an argument and they had such fun doing this.

I'm just now joining in to make a comment even though I've been reading this now for days, starting with your very first post, and have made it to page 181...whew! When I read this I just had to make a comment even though it's now several months into 2013 and Halloween is long passed. BUT, there is always next Halloween and kids always need something new each year.

As soon as I was old enough to do things for myself, my parents never bought me another Halloween costume. Besides, back then, in the late 60's, they were nothing more than a cheap flannel or felt oversuit tied at the neck printed with some design and a plastic facemask with a little elastic cord to hold it on your face. Who wants that??? My mother and definitely my grandmothers were frugal before it was fashionable I guess. My mother had something some older folks (I count myself in that group) will probably remember called a "rag bag"...which in our case was the very top shelf of our hall closet, where she tossed old clothes, towels, sheets, etc. that were too worn or stained for everyday use but could be used for "something" else at a later date. Usually a couple of weeks before Halloween my sister and I would raid the rag bag. We'd take a step stool and drag every single thing out of the top of the closet, spread it out on the floor, and start crafting our costume. We never spent a dime. For instance, one year I went as a hobo. My costume consisted of an old flannel shirt of my father's that got relegated to the rag bag for a few rips in it, a pair of old jeans with stains and holes, cuffed for my shorter legs, two different colored socks, two differents shoes, an old hat, one of Daddy's old handkerchiefs (yes, he always carried one) stuffed with wadded up newspaper and tied to the end of a stick from the yard, and soot dabbed on my nose and cheeks right out of our fireplace (to mimic the soot they got from riding the rails in the empty boxcars). It was a great costume and I got lots of compliments on it.

The problem with our society and most of the children being raised in it is that we've lost the ability to imagine and create. We want it store-bought and factory-made and instantaneous. If you have relatives who throw away old clothes or other items, have them reserve them for your kids costumes and dress-up (if you don't already). My sister and I routinely played dress up and were everything from housewives with curlers in our hair, to gypsies with lots of beads and skirts, to princesses and we NEVER bought a single thing we played dress-up with during those magical years. We just used what we got from our parents and grandparents and most importantly, we used our imaginations!!!

Too many people think that by living frugal and "doing without" they are somehow not doing right by their children and that they are somehow missing out. I DO NOT subscribe to that. If your children have clothes to wear (even consignment or thrift), food to eat (even better if it's home grown), a roof over their heads, and LOVE, those are the MOST important things in the world. I am firmly convinced that as we move forward to the future, the children who are raised by frugal parents and "forced" to use their imaginations in finding things to play with and to entertain themselves will be the saviors of our society when it all hits the fan. They will know how to take care of themselves and can think through the problems. The spoiled rotten video-game playing, indoor dwelling kids with their designer clothes and their own kiddie cell phones and microwave snacks will be at a complete loss.

In the animal kingdom it's called survival of the fittest. Never forget, we humans are also animals.

 

[erinszoo]

Well somedays frugality just doesn't win ... sigh. Found a good sale on sirloin and had discovered that canned cubed sirloin makes a great fast meal prep item to have in the pantry, so I bought several pounds of it. We spent part of the day yesterday cubing and browning the meat and canning it up, but when we went to take it out of the pressure canner, half the jars busted and we lost half the meat we bought. AAAUUUUGGGGHHHH!!!!!!!!!

 

[DennisK]

Well somedays frugality just doesn't win ... sigh. Found a good sale on sirloin and had discovered that canned cubed sirloin makes a great fast meal prep item to have in the pantry, so I bought several pounds of it. We spent part of the day yesterday cubing and browning the meat and canning it up, but when we went to take it out of the pressure canner, half the jars busted and we lost half the meat we bought. AAAUUUUGGGGHHHH!!!!!!!!!

Sorry to read about your misshape, erinszoo! Its time for us to learn from you - did you put the lids on too tight when loading the pressure cooker? If not, then it seems to me that the jar company was pursuing its own version of frugality to the point of sacrificing value. What brand of canning jar were you using? I can't think of any other reason why those jars should break.

 

[erinszoo]

We've had them break on occasion before. We think maybe they were touching the side of the canner and heated up way too fast because we heard them pop before we even put the weights on. They were Kerr jars just the normal that we always use and they were all tightened like always just til closed. We've been canning for over twenty five years so we're experienced at what we're doing. We are using a brand new pressure canner though and still figuring out its quirks. Our old one actually has a basket insert that keeps the jars from touching the canner but even in it we had a few jar failures.

 

[DennisK]

We've had them break on occasion before. We think maybe they were touching the side of the canner and heated up way too fast because we heard them pop before we even put the weights on. They were Kerr jars just the normal that we always use and they were all tightened like always just til closed. We've been canning for over twenty five years so we're experienced at what we're doing. We are using a brand new pressure canner though and still figuring out its quirks. Our old one actually has a basket insert that keeps the jars from touching the canner but even in it we had a few jar failures.

Thanks for sharing this experience. Jennifer and I are just starting out canning. We did our first canning using last year’s harvest. I remember that she boiled the jars before filling them and then putting them in the cooker; so the glass already had a high temperature before being pressurized – it’s not like taking them out of a freezer and putting them directly in a fire. I suppose you do the same thing, as she explained that pre-boiling sterilizes the jars. Can the sides of the cooker really get that hot? If some of the pressure cookers have screens to keep the jars from touching the sides, I guess they do! We bought our first jars from Wallyworld, and they were Kerrs. We broke one jar after taking it out of the cooker. We made the mistake of poring tap water on the lid to clean off the hard water deposit from the boiling water in the cooker – didn’t do that again! It seems to me, they should use a Pyrex formula to make their glass.
I just learned that Ball and Kerr are made by the same corporation; so expecting any difference between the two would be pointless.

 

[Child of Noah]

Halloween is coming ... eventually again. I am not particularly frugal in my Halloween giving this is one of those places where my husband and I allow ourselves to splurge, since we get such great joy from doing it. We budget for this all year. We buy candy and toys months in advance to prepare. Everywhere we have ever lived we have been The Good House To Go To. We have trunks and trunks of costumes, most of them made, some of them from old plays, some of them were formerly bridesmaid dresses... etc. Throughout the night we change our costumes several times. There are kids who know this and will go back (not to get more treats, but) to see what we're wearing NOW.
Anyway, we do "rate" the Trick-r-treaters' costumes. Everyone gets Something if they come to our house, and even the smallest from us is like a puzzle toy and a whole candy bar.
The ones we like the best get the most. My All Time Favorite, from a few years ago was a little girl who had a headband with (ratty, well-loved) kitty ears, dollar store fairy wings, glitter on her face, and Sunday School shoes.
Just try to beat that. She got Play-Do and coloring books and crayons and chocolate and puzzles and anything I could dump into her little bag.
That was The Best Glittery Kitty Fairy I have ever seen. I am sure she picked out her costume herself from stuff she had at home, and it was WAY cooler than some $200 (yeah, they can be that expensive) store-bought thing.