I love to live as 'close to the vest' as possible. My husband and I do not make much money and due to medical issues there is not much left over to 'buy' stuff with. I trade my labor for free garden and flower starts..ie..I plant my friends flower pots and container gardens..they give me extras and starts for my own gardens..I have extra eggs and i trade them for their extra plants and rhubarb. I am a certified bookkeeper and I trade my work for feed and plants and car repairs I find odd things at yard sales and make container gardens out of them to give as gifts planted with flowers or herbs everyone is very happy with what I do. I shop at the bread outlet 1 time a month. I have a freezer just for bread items. Nothing goes to waste there. I plant lettuces and herbs in my greenhouse and will be growing most of my produce this year. I can everything from jams to homemade syrup and my own home grown tomatoes. We are a family of 3 at home and I spend 200.00 a month on groceries, we don't eat out very often. we always take our lunch to work. I have a Kuerig coffee maker and although it is expensive it pays for itself by maki andng only 1 cup of coffee at a time when it is just me that wants coffee. On Sunday which is my only day off I make a pot with my French press coffee...lovely and it all gets enjoyed. My husband and I carpool, if one of us is done before the other (we work within 1 mile of each other) the other one will go to the park and read a book until pickup time..(when the weather is nice) bad weather wait in the car. it is less than an hour to wait no matter what. We do not drink pop or bottled water. There is a place near my home that sells 50 pound of potatoes for 10.00 in the fall..I buy several orders of them. ( I cannot grow them that cheap and although I do grow some of my own I don;t have that much room). We have a plum tree, apple tree. pear tree. filbert tree. Queen Anne cherry (Rainer) tree, and a pie cherry tree in the yard. all of them give us wonderful fruit, I do not use any sprays on them so yes I do lose some of the crop but I am afraid of the chemicals more than the loss of the fruit. We turn off the lights and keep the temp down in the house...I have traded clothes with my friends for years..we all wear about the same size and wear pretty classic things..tired of that blouse? I will trade you this one for that one..done..new work wardrobe. I buy my jeans at Costco..needless to say by the time i am 'done' with them no one wants to trade me for them...lol..although they make excellent bean bags for our fun summer 'bean bag' game. and they are great for patches. My husband was raised in a 'better' off family than I was but he has found the fun in 'reuseing' stuff too. He is happy that I can take what he calls crippitycr*p and turn it into a gift or some other useful thing that others will pay $ for or be so happy with their unique gift. I have loaded up my 'makings' and gone to sales and traded for things I see that I want. I have made a tidy bit moving odd pieces of furniture onto someone I know would pay good $ for. The person selling is happy the person buying is happy and the person who put the two together is happy (me). Oh my gosh ...blabbing on too much here.. 
