Just curious who else is living super frugal

[jhoff310]

my wife and i took up frugal living a few years back when we were up to our eyeballs in debt. We took up canning, gardening, wood heat, second hand stores, creative recycling <garbage picking> learned how to fix just about everything instead of tossing and buying new. Now we are almost completely out of debt except for the house, we still do everything we started and she even took up couponing. we have absolutely no regets about what we did other than the fact we didnt start sooner. As far as getting out of debt, check out dave ramsey, stupid simple commonsense that most people forget about.

Jeff/Kristen

 

[GreenGables]

Quote:
Good Job!!! You are a great testimony to everyone you tell your story to. We're working on trying to bring down our mortgage principal too. Keep up the good work.

 

[Anna_B_Happy]

Don't forget to dispute your appraisal for property tax! Many counties overcharge. Go to your county assessor's website to learn how.

 

[jdopler]

Oh, great idea! My property has dropped in value but taxes increased!!

Wanted to share this also, its a link to Dr Mercola's website and a list of safe and natural home cleaners, some I hadn't thought of..
http://articles.mercola.com/sites/a...26/how-to-keep-your-home-clean-naturally.aspx

 

[Rathbone]

You all had so many good bits of advice. Well I listened and I am trying to put some of them into affect. Spent this past weekend digging in my quilting stash looking for flannel. I decided we would make the leap and go paper free. I have never been one to use paper plates or plastic utensils, but I am very much guilty of using lots of paper towels and ... baby wipes. I like to clean everything with baby wipes. I am trying to mend my wasteful ways. So, I took all that flannel and started making dishtowels, and washcloths and napkins for the table...and family cloth. I started sewing on Saturday and by Sunday we were trying out our new "cloths". So far so good.

 

[kuntrygirl]

Quote:
Way to go!

I stopped using paper towels A LONG time ago. I have saved sooooooo much money. That was money being WASTED! I use hand towels in place of paper towels. No paper plates or utensils either. That's another way to waste money. Although I still use plastic zip lock freezer bags, I re-use them by washing and drying them out and using them to freeze something else.

 

[Rathbone]

So...my son will turn 5 years old this month. I would like to give him a nice birthday but on a shoestring budget. Let me just say that my children have never had a birthday in a prosperous year yet so it isn't as if he is expecting a lot but, this year is the tightest our budget has been so far.
The cake is guaranteed - I can make that. Any ideas on what to feed the guests and what to do for entertainment/activities/gift bags for the children? Oh yes and one more thing - it is scorching here (Mojave Desert) so whatever we do it has to be INSIDE.
Ideas anyone?

 

[jdopler]

one year I did a small party with various colors of icing, sprinkles, etc and let the kids decorate their own cupcake instead of a huge single cake. It was a fun activity for them and easy for me to color up several bowls of homemade icing also. Good luck, I know you'll come up with something..
Oh! you can close all your curtains and set teams of kids for flash-light hide and seek. My kids loved that, although usually it was a winter evening activity, surely it can be tweaked for a summer afternoon.

 

[Rathbone]

I love the idea of them decorating their own cupcakes - and the flashlight hide and seek sounds perfect. (yes when I try to explain to my northern friends what summer is like here -I compare it to their winters - kind of shut in the house)

 

[jdopler]

I don't know how tight your budget is but what was also fun was making the cupcakes in icecream cones. That all depends on how many kiddos you are feeding though.
Good luck and let us know how it all goes!

If its any indication of how the kids enjoyed the flashlight hide and seek, they still (age 12 and 15) refer to it as "funnest night ever"

that was always how they asked for it when they were younger.