Just curious who else is living super frugal

[mom22alcorns]

Quote:
Mine is usually watery, too. It doesn't affect the cleaning power though

I just swish before I measure it out and my clothes are always clean.

 

[BYC Project Manager]

Hi everyone,

Just dropping in to remind folks to make their June nominations!

BYC Awards!

Thanks!

 

[homesteadmomma]

Three years ago, we made the biggest change in our lives. We packed up ourselves, and our two daughters and moved out to the country. Put the house up for sale and borrowed $25k from his parents in hopes that we could pay them back over time, say the next 5 years. Problem was, we bought a repo'd house that way falling in, had no water, and no plumbing, well none that worked, and no working electricity. We didn't have the money for a new well and in trying to pay a mortgage on one home and paying back his parents at the same time, we just weren't able to save anything. So for 6 months we went with no water, uh huh, that's right. We took 5 gallon buckets with lids up to his parents once a week and filled them up and brought them home. Black buckets for bath buckets, kept outside to heat up during the day, and white buckets kept in the basement for drinking. I thought it was going to be my worst nightmare, but honestly, it freed up a lot of time. No waiting on baths to fill up or taking hour long showers. Get in, get out, you're done. Along with no water, comes no bathroom, luckily there was an outhouse and we had two in diapers, so that wasn't a huge deal, and I still use the outhouse more than the inside toilet. With no electricity, meant cooking on the woodstove or on the fire pit, no problems there, even got pretty crafty and was making cakes and pies over the fire. We used candles and oil lamps to light the house when needed. In the six months that we went with no electricity and no water, we saved up $8,000. Paid for a new well, new plumbing, and new wiring, and gave the rest to his parents. Of course, once the electricity and water was run, we started paying bills...bummer, but we tried to keep the same mentality. We cook on the woodstove or over the fire pit when we can.

We use wood that we cut ourselves to heat our home with two woodstoves. Use cloth diapers for the most part, hang out laundry to dry all year round. Shop once per month at the grocery. We also raise chickens for eggs and will probably butcher some along the way. We DO NOT buy meat from the store other than a random frozen pizza or a pack of lunch meat or hotdogs, everything else is hunted or caught. I buy everything in bulk (25lbs of sugar, 50lbs of flour, 10lbs of rice, etc). I do not buy junk food, hot dogs once a month is as junky as it gets. We watch movies on a tv, no satellite or cable. We share one tv in the living room. My husband works construction and picks up every single scrap from a job site. This is building a new kitchen this summer and has built the chicken coop and run, the deck, and the remodeled living room, bedrooms, and dining room. We go to auctions and swap meets all the time. You can pick up buckets of nails, hardware, storage totes, etc, for next to nothing. We have two vehicles, one truck and one car, both 10+ years old. The truck for hauling that stays mostly parked and the car for trips and my husbands drive to work. We've also added another daughter to the family, and we're doing our best to teach them to live off the land and they are expected to help with daily chores. I plant a huge garden and freeze or can anything that doesn't get eaten right away. I've also planted a garden for the chickens that has a lovely assortment of greens and other veggies and this fall will be a grain garden that will hopefully feed them all winter.

I never thought that this would be my way of life. I pictured a big house, new car...but honestly cannot imagine having that now. It's a lot of work, and the work is year round, but it can be done. I respect and appreciate things more now. It's honestly made me a happier, better person.

 

[Yay Chicks!]

Just found this thread and plan to read it through for more ideas. I don't have an income at present and my partner is underpaid. We have huge student loan debt and are under water on our house. So, what have we done?
Not buying clothes, even at Goodwill, but I'm volunteering to sort clothes at a rummage sale which gives me first pick of really cheap stuff.
Don't have the space to store a month's worth of food, but have become much more careful in my choices.
Eating eggs every day, of course!

Never eat out. No Starbucks, or what have you.
We keep an eye out for free entertainment.
I grow a little food, but only have three raised beds. Our soil here is horrible and although I'm working on the compost, I've only had chickens for a year so it's not ready yet.
There are other areas we could cut, I know. I think a little more at a time

Thanks for this thread OP.

 

[cheryl0423]

We have been very blessed.

we own out right our 20 acres and house that is is duplex. Our side has 8 bedbrooms and the rental side is a 3 bedroom 1 1/2 bath that we rent out. I occationally rent out rooms in our home to single mothers down on thier luck. If they do not have enough right off for rent, I enclude "chores around the farm". We have our flock of chickens ( I usually have around 30-50 at a time) of which supplies our egss and meat (what we dont eat, we sell the eggs and that pays for the chickens feed). We also incubate our own eggs to replenish our flock when they start getting to old. We also have a dairy cow who provides our milk, butter, icecream, and buttermilk. A small heard of meat cows (5 heifers and 1 bull) we use 2 a year of the offspring to provide our meat and the others are sold to provide tax money for the farm. We cut hay off the back 10 acres that provide hay for the cows for winter.

I do my grocery shopping once a month and have a room in the house that is my store room, I only buy staples on sale and stock it up. I stopped buying boxed meals and learned to make the spice packs my self. I mix up the spices I use alot (like for spaghetti sause, stew mix, sloppy joe mix, and others) once a month and keep them in containers for easy use. I also learned how to make my own bread and tortllias. Now I only buy stapples, I have gottten away from the boxed items. We try to make it from scratch.

I only use my dryer in the winter, and installed a clothes line for drying clothes.

I have raised beds that I use to grow our vegtables.

I buy our clothes on sale once or twice a year. Usually at back to school time I catch really good sales. This way the kids dont feel like the are always having to wear hammy downs, but I dont feel bad about the prices. We are not big into name brande, so they worry dont about that, so long as they think they like the color.


We have so far been able to make the farm keep up with itself.

And to think this all started by wanting to have a few chickens to provide our eggs, that was 2 years ago..........My how things do grow.

 

[MomAtHome08]

Coupons are scarcer now and not a good deal usually since so many people want them! Although, who gets a hardcopy newspaper anymore? For that matter, online coupon sources aren't great deals either, and it is usually better to just buy the generic instead of the name-brand with a coupon! It's all the same anyway.
We live frugal, before because it was good to, and now because we have to!
For once a month shopping you will need a separate freezer. Limit bi-weekly trips for milk and the like. We never need eggs!
Severly limit eating out. That is a money waster.
Teach your kids to earn what they want, and to make do.
NEVER EVER pay retail!
Don't be ashamed to curb-shop, or take stuff from the 'free' bin at a garage sale. I have found some great stuff both ways!
A good saying from yesteryear is " Use it up-wear it out-make it do-or do without!
Today's disposable, instant-gratification society should take heed to that!!!
And by the way, I have 7 children, a 99er husband who recently just picked up 2 part time jobs [however both are near min. wage and not in his field] and we are getting by. This is not a case of do as I say, not as I do. We are doing it this way, every day.
It works.

 

[Rathbone]

Quote:
My income has drastically changed. Drastic changes had to be made. I didn't have to start shopping second hand...I had to stop shopping. This new budget has been in effect for almost a year now. Long enough that what I had to wear -wore out.
For us, our diet changed quite a bit. I didn't think top ramen was a good idea so we eat lots of beans and rice and potatoes. Still enough money for some fruits and veggies if I shop carefully. I walk to work, my husband walks the kids to school.
I don't have enough land to grow very much food and water is very high priced in California. But we planted tomatoes and squash - most yield for our small amount of land. We took out the little square of lawn we had and planted there. We bought chickens...hence my new aquaintance with BYC. So I have eggs and occasionally meat.
If I had one bit of advice for you it would be this: change your attitude. Not meaning that your attitude is bad, but meaning that for me to be happy - and I am happy - I had to change the way I looked at the situation. I try to make a game out of it. How little can I healthfully get by on? Where could I save more? What could I do differently? I also took the time to pat myself on the back for everything that I struggled with and successfully survived.
Our grandparents were made of strong stuff. They survived more than what most of us will ever encounter.
So each day, as I am pulling on a pair of pants that are wearing thin and realizing that they probably are not appropriate for work - I just pat myself on the back and lift my chin and I feel proud: proud that I keep working, proud that I keep going, proud that I am self-sufficient.
Pat yourself on the back my friend for a job well done.

 

[kuntrygirl]

Quote:
Well said.

 

[Suzannah]

I try to do a lot of this stuff - garden, can, have a milk goat and chickens - but we are in a hole, dug a bit deeper when I founded my own school and DH lost his job; DH now has a job, but he has to travel and pay for all of it out of pocket. He can't quit because there is nothing here. At least he has a job.

Issues are compounded in that DH has ZERO frugal bones in his body. He does not understand that sometimes you have to do without. I feel like the bad guy (the one who says "no" all the time), and it is hard with an 11-year old. I can't even get DH to cancel the TV, and our cell phones are out of control. We pay the bills and keep the lights on, but I am now working on my last retirement account, and then we have to make some really difficult choices. I have one more year to get my school going, and then I am not sure if I can keep trying.

I agree that life isn't about money, but I want frugality to be a choice, not a requirement. I personally happen to like all of the old-fashioned home things (canning, gardening, animal husbandry, although I cannot kill a chicken. Just can't, and we have two that could be dinner right now if I could), but I also like to travel and experience the world, but that's not possible. I don't spend much on things, but it doesn't seem to matter.

We are treading water and I am trying to focus optimistically on the future of my school and the beauty of life in general. We are alive, we have loved ones and we are unbelievably lucky. I do truly believe that.

And it is raining, which is a beautiful, beautiful thing. Pasture is growing!!

 

[Rathbone]

I plan to follow this thread, and also to go back and read all of the posts. I am hoping someone has listed here something that will help me. What I did notice is that no one is lumping us all together. I like that. I like that we each seem to realize that what works for us might not work for another, but just in case it does we throw our ideas out there.
I also noticed I am not the only one trying to raise children on a shoestring budget. That for me has been one of the hardest things. I am tired of hearing my own voice say the same thing "we can't afford it". However, I hope that this experience makes strong men of my little boys, strong in the joy of life without all the frills. Because really, life is beautiful.