Just curious who else is living super frugal

[WomanInTheWoods]

luvs2garden~ Congrats on the brandy-new baby grandson!

It is very thoughtful of you to keep toys for your grands at your home. I had a munchichi toy I left at my grandparents until I was an adult. My grandmother actually kept her on a decorative shelf in the kitchen waiting for me. (we were 600 miles away) I didn't take the toy home until she was returned to me after my grandmother died and my grandpa had to move. It was like a part of me stayed at Grandma's house when I couldn't be there. She also kept a picture I drew for her when I was little pinned on her bedroom wall by her bedside.

 

[chicmom]

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What are some of your bad habits? Maybe we can help.

Well, I don't buy expensive designer clothes or anything. I don't buy fancy things.....I think I do very poorly when it comes to grocery shopping.

Our money is just so tight. Sometimes we end up having to put an item on the credit card. (Service on the car, broken dryer.....) and now and then we do buy something we shouldn't.

We have cell phones, and satellite dish. I can't get my husband to let go of those things no matter how hard I try.......

Is there anything I can do? I think we're financially doomed sometimes. Also we had a 20 year old daughter move back home and she had a baby......

I'd love some advice.....(Please don't tear me apart.....) Every payday, I say, I'm going to do better.....But I don't......

 

[WomanInTheWoods]

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I completely understand! My MIL is the same way. She didn't care that our house was filled to capacity and then some. To her, she wanted to see boxes stacked to the ceiling! So not how we roll here. Like you said, different kinds of people. I'm just glad my kids aren't materialistic and are really good about donating to Goodwill. They don't like clutter either!

Vent away!!! I'll bring the wine if you bring the nachos!

 

[ChikeeMomma]

Quote:
I completely understand! My MIL is the same way. She didn't care that our house was filled to capacity and then some. To her, she wanted to see boxes stacked to the ceiling! So not how we roll here. Like you said, different kinds of people. I'm just glad my kids aren't materialistic and are really good about donating to Goodwill. They don't like clutter either!

Vent away!!! I'll bring the wine if you bring the nachos!

Yep, I know! Up to $200 worth of various Walmart toys is waaayyy too much. We don't spend that much per child from Santa. And what we do spend goes towards quality made gifts. The sad thing is she will not pay her utilities and other bills so that she can go hog wild at Christmas. I've even told her that if she doesn't want to set any aside for college, savings, her own retirement to consider buying for needy children.

Oh, and I'll bring the nachos and maybe a few other food items. I'm 6 months pregnant and HUNGRY!!! : )

 

[WomanInTheWoods]

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That's just sad and crazy. Not paying her own bills so she can overindulge in Christmas shopping...

So I guess we'll nix the wine for some cider, grab the nachos, Ben & Jerry's, cookies, grapes, and, of course, pickles! ...and maybe some ginger for the belly-ache... lol

 

[kuntrygirl]

Quote:
What are some of your bad habits? Maybe we can help.

Well, I don't buy expensive designer clothes or anything. I don't buy fancy things.....I think I do very poorly when it comes to grocery shopping.

Our money is just so tight. Sometimes we end up having to put an item on the credit card. (Service on the car, broken dryer.....) and now and then we do buy something we shouldn't.

We have cell phones, and satellite dish. I can't get my husband to let go of those things no matter how hard I try.......

Is there anything I can do? I think we're financially doomed sometimes. Also we had a 20 year old daughter move back home and she had a baby......

I'd love some advice.....(Please don't tear me apart.....) Every payday, I say, I'm going to do better.....But I don't......

Well first of all, no one is going to tear you apart. But what we will do is give you a big ole, fat, and tight hug

You are not doomed.

There are many thrifty/frugal shoppers on BYC and they will chime in shortly. Are you buying processed foods? Maybe you can switch to making some of your own foods (biscuits, pancakes, waffles, bread, mayo, spaghetti sauces, noodles, etc.) There are a lot of people who make their own detergent. Many have gardens and grow our own vegetables. Seeds don't cost a bunch. Not sure if you have the room for your own garden. Are you grocery shopping on "sale" days? Are you checking the reduced grocery aisle at the store?


As far as the cell phone and satellite dish.......sounds like that is a battle between you and your husband. Maybe you can show him how much it costs to have satellite dish. Add up all of the satellite dish bills for the year and show him that annual frightening cost. Maybe you can find someone who can give you a converter box, so that you will have some channels if you give up the satellite dish.

Does your daughter have a part time job and is she contributing around the house?

That's just a few tips. I will post more as I think of them.

But others will give you tips as well. It'll be ok.

 

[WomanInTheWoods]

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Our credit card gets used sometimes too; sometimes we just don't have the money when one of the cars needs to be fixed or an unexpected expense comes along. We just try our darndest to pay it off asap, and when we get a tax return we put it all on that debt. My husband won't get rid of our satellite service either. I stopped pushing for now, but if things keep getting tighter instead of improving, it's going to have to go. The cell phones stay: we don't have a landline and for safety reasons I really need to keep the cell phones. Right now on our plan we have one each for me, dh, his mother, our dd, and one ds. I would die if my 17 yr old dd was stuck on the side of the road somewhere not able to contact me. We have a basic family plan, no trendy apps or anything like that. I hate that phones aren't just phones anymore.

You seem to be the most upset about your grocery bill. What I do, and have found it helps tremendously, is to make a meal plan for the week the day before I go shopping. Check the pantry & cabinets for what's needed for the week's meals, then make a list for what is needed from the store. Don't forget to include breakfast and lunch items and snacks. Tell everyone that you are shopping ONCE per week for food and if they run out of something before that, they're just going to have to wait for shopping day for more. My kids use to pounce on the freshly stocked pantry as soon as my back was turned. Once they ran out of a few things they learned to budget their food (snacks) better. Things *really* got better when I started labeling the granola bars (yeah, serious here... lol) I put a different color sticker on the bars for each kid, that way they didn't feel like they were missing out and someone would eat *their* granola before they got to it.

But seriously, making a meal plan and sticking to it like glue is very helpful. Only buy what's on your list and DON'T SHOP HUNGRY!!!

As for your daughter and new grandbaby... congratulations! ... life happens.

Not saying it's the ideal, but since when do things ever go according to plan. Just make sure your dd understands the financial restraints. Even if she is not able to help financially at the moment, she can help in other ways. While baby is napping she could help look up recipes to make simple, healthy, yet frugal meals. (cooking from scratch & using my crock-pot often helps *a lot*) I keep a binder with all my recipes in it & make notes on any tweaks I make so dh or dd can make them if I'm not available. In the binder she could put dividers for breads, meals, desserts, I even have cleaning supply recipes in there. You'll be surprised how cheaply you can clean your house, and how much better the home-made stuff actually works! Name-brand cleaners are such a rip-off.

Take *little steps* in the right direction as you feel comfortable. Don't overwhelm yourself & ease the family into things. Little changes go over easier, but put your foot down on what you do change.

 

[Kassaundra]

everything womaninthewoods said and I would add, check the sale ads before you make your meal plan, base your meal plan on whats on sale and or in season, be flexible you might find an awsome unadvertised sale or quick out that you can tweak to fit the plan.

Make the cleaning products that you can, if you can't or don't want to definately don't buy name brand. Use coupons sensibly, only what you actually would have bought w/o the coupon, or you can get for free.

Also if you buy pricy products that are name brand try some off brands, you can be pleasently suprised some things are the same or better off brand, others not so much. If your family is more brand loyal then you keep the brand package and put the off brand in the brand package to get a true opinion w/o brand bias.

 

[Beekissed]

I'm sorry...this is not directed at you, WIW...at all! This is just one of the things I hear around the office that always leaves me very mystified as I hear co-workers cell phones constantly ringing and they actually TAKE the call right in the middle of a meeting!

What's with the cell phones?

I'm wondering about all this safety that cell phones are supposed to afford....does everyone live in a high crime area? I know they don't around these parts. A cell phone for each family member seems a little extreme, but everyone has them. Why not a prepaid for a teen daughter for when she travels alone??

I've often wondered about that whole "I need to have it" or " my kids need to get a hold of me". If that is the only reason, then a prepaid phone to use only in emergencies would be the thing...but it isn't. The fact is that the teens want them so they can communicate nonstop with their other friends and not necessarily only to parents in emergencies. And just how many emergencies can one have in a year's time?

We were all raised without cell phones and we were fine, my kids were raised without cell phones and they were fine....it seems to be the general opinion that parents that do not provide cell phones for all their kids(even grade schoolers!!!) are endangering their lives in some way.

I've never seen a society with more ways to keep in touch...and so little real life closeness in their relationships.

Cell phones? Seriously not needed unless one travels in their job quite a bit. But not in the actual home...one can save a lot of money by having just a landline phone that has a standard bill that you know the amount of each month. That way you can budget. The phone doesn't have to be replaced when a new model comes out, doesn't drop and get broken, doesn't have to have apps downloaded onto it. It just is. In the long run, it saves you money.

And that is how one figures out how to live frugally....what is essential to actual real living? What is something we've added to our lives and grew to depend upon but could be replaced by something less costly?

Dish can be replaced by a Netflix membership or something similar...there isn't anything on TV worth watching anyway. Car payments? Take your income tax and pay cash for a used car....save all the money you would have spent on payments in an account so you will have money for repairs. You may have to use it, you may not. If not, you have a car that gets you from A to B without a monthly payment/interest.

There are literally tons of ways for a family to save money if one wants to have the attitude that doing without a few things is way worth the lack of stress caused by wondering how you are going to make it from month to month.

 

[ChooksinChoppers]

Sometimes we do poorly at the grocery shopping too. Especially when I don't make a list. My DD and I are the only ones in the house and she could live on spaghetti (jar of sauce and fresh shredded pharmisan) or chicken pharmesan (frozen). And I like certain meals that I eat over and over, so its hard to buy in bulk packs. But If I don't make a list, I tend to look at everything in every isle and in doing so pick up far more "goodies" than I would normally. (impulse shopping) I also avoid if possible having DD with me

and I buy the store brand wherever possible.
So I always always make a list! and NEVER shop while hungry. We also have a new dollar store opened just up the road so I make a seperate trip there for paper and cleaning products plus toiletries. Todays mail bought me coupons in flyers from all the local stores so I actually

looked through them and kept some instead of just throwing the lot in the trash can like I usually do. So now I can get chicken breast at U Save for 99c a pound and found lots of bogo offers.

1. Make a list
2. never shop while hungry
3. buy store brands and look for buy one get one deals, not 10 for $10 because a lot of the time the price per can is raised to begin with or is a designer brand that costs more.
4. don't take children with you if at all possible.
5. buy everything else at a dollar store
6. try to look over coupons and grab real bargains when you see them.