Just curious who else is living super frugal

[Totalcolour]

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We have our own well, but even so, the law states we can only use so much a day. Of course, they don't really have a way of checking how much we use, and I thought it a silly law; at first. Then I thought about it. Our water comes from the ground, and with all our neighbours using groundwater from their wells, we need to share, hence the law.

Rainwater? That isn't so obvious. What about the rainwater that lands on your lawn and soaks in? It isn't so very different from "catching" it in a barrel. Interesting

 

[Totalcolour]

Ok everyone - how about a little informal, fun CONTEST!

So, we are all frugal, right? Lets do a "silly/odd" frugal habit, tell everyone about it, and then we all get to vote on the silliest/strangest idea. For example, saving/reusing candle wax. Or maybe washing and reusing aluminum foil (that was my mother's favourite). I don't like throwing stuff away, so when I peel my veggies, I save the peel to add to stock pots, and THEN, after that they get fed to the chickens. The bottom bits of asparagus stalks, I add to pasta water for flavour. Since doing those two things alone, I found that my trash bin is a whole lot less full at the end of the week

DH tried grinding the bones of my cooked (and then re-cooked in a stock pot) chicken to make into dog food. Unfortunately, the grinder wasn't big enough. But we still use all the gristle and skins to make into dog treats.

And ladies, old pantyhose, washed and rinsed well to get all the soap out, makes wonderful (fruit, stock) strainers instead of paying for cheesecloth.

Don't buy hair conditioner - an egg beaten in some warm olive oil, and some hot wet towels wrapped around the head for a few minutes, works great.

Hey, we could put all these handy hints into a little book and.........................!

 

[BarefootMom]

a few frugal tips that I do:

save old candles and dryer lint--makes great fire starters. Instructions- use the paper egg cartons (when they aren't sturdy enough to hold eggs that is!) stuff holes with lint, pour hot wax over them, repeat making sure that there is some lint sticking out over the wax. cut apart and store by the stove. Works great! Also discovered last winter that chew cans stuffed with lint and wax makes good fire starters too...

use the panty hose to tie up my tomato plants and my rose bush

when browning hamburger, take a tablespoon or two out of pan and freeze. After a few meals you will have enough frozen hamburger to make a meal and you won't ever miss that spoonful of meat!

keep a container in the freezer for leftover vegetables and when it is full make veggie soup!

will think of more later...

 

[Tikkijane]

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And we here are running out, literally. Even a good year doesn't refill what's being taken out, although we're sending some to Tx still...... Despite laws, if it rained, I would consider collecting it, even to just fill glasses and inconspicuously take them inside.... I figure, if it falls from the sky on my property, it's my decision if I want it all going onto my grass or not.

 

[DinosRBirds]

i am a regular in my local retail shop. i am currently going there to get teddybears for my halloween costume, (no spoiulers to wha it is.) and i jst got a pair of shoes on tuesday.

 

[DinosRBirds]

woohoo, go savers!

 

[breezy]

I save up chicken parts like backs and wing tips and necks as well as the carcasses of whole roasted birds and turkeys ect. as well as the skins and trimmed parts off onions,celery trimmings, carrot ends and peels. When I have a big bag full in the freezer then it all goes into the pressure cooker with water and I cook it down into stock. I can or freeze the stock and then run the leftover stuff in the pressure cooker thru the food processor and turn it into a thick paste which then goes out to the chickens and also gets fed to the 5 dogs. I do the same thing with beef trimmings and bones.
I save the bits and pieces of bars of soap that get too small to be useful and when I get enough I grind them up and add them to the rest of the ingredients when I make laundry detergent or I add the powder to a bit of water and store it in a squirt bottle in the shed to wash my hands when Im gardening.I use the grass clippings from mowing the lawn each week to mulch my flower and veggie gardens to keep weeds down and reduce my water use. I pack it in the beds each week till its between 4 and 6 inches thick. Drives me nuts to see my neighbors water and fertilize their lawn then cut it and throw it away. I feel like the water and fertilizer I put into the lawn gets put back to use when I mulch with it and so it gets double use with no waste.
I save blue jeans that dont fit or cant be worn for one reason or another, I cut pieces off them to make patches for the jeans we keep around to wear when we are doing yard work or painting ect. I also make dog tug toys out of braided strip of denim. I cut the bottoms off of milk cartons and use them as mini greenhouses when I plant seeds in the garden or I use then as dog toys too.

 

[cuntryuppiechick]

For the informal contest....

I got a free roadside grab of a couple of hard to find antique kitchen cupboards when they were demo'ing the old abandoned dirty book store/sleaze motel. Probably my best savings and what a history. If those drawers could talk! Most embarrassing was that I couldn't find a truck to borrow and had to put them in the back of a hatchback compact car and go back a second time because they barely fit. For about two months I would drive by at 5 miles an hour scoping for more but no such luck.

 

[Wifezilla]

A recent study showed that over 90% of the water that hits the ground here evaporates, so they all actually "allowing" some people to legally gather rain water.

 

[laseterlass]

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Allowing people to gather rain water? Maybe I am out of the loop. In Alaska, where I have been for over 20 years, we have unmetered water.