Just curious who else is living super frugal

[r4eboxer]

I haven't visited this thread often enough, but I wanted to share a frugal tip for getting rid of fruit flies. I have a ton of them because of my compost bucket.

You take a glass or canning jar and funnel a peice of paper so that it fits tight to the rim of the glass. Put an inch of vinegar or wine in the bottom, a small peice of fruit and viola a super duper fruit fly catcher. Make sure you empty it outside and then rinse it out before they start laying eggs.

leave a pin hole in the bottom of the cone. The flies can get in but then don't know how to get back out. Poor souls

 

[HeatherLynn]

I might post this elsewhere also but thought I would share with you my latest efforts.

First we have started a wish list. We have a list of things that we will all look for whenever we happen to be at a thrift store or goodwill. So far we got a nice looks like it has never been used record player for $6. I have old records I love to play but the one my parents gave me died and I could not bring myself to spend the 200 on the pretty one in all the sales flyers. The $6 also is a radio and plays tapes so some of the really old stuff from when I was a kid can be shared. I am a bit attatched to some of these old records and tapes. Some are Christmas music I have listened to every year for the last 36 so its worth it to me. I also finally found a nice, newer sewing machine in perfect working order for $8. Very pleased. I can find the same one in the store for $199. Pretty happy about that. It got some patterns for $50 and I can make the baby girl dresses this year. She is super slender for her height so makign her clothes is the only way I am going to get a good fit. Pretty pleased on the sewing machine. It came with everything from when it was bought. Very convenient.

The next thing is lighting for my chicken coop. We picked up a solar spot light for $30. Now this has yard spikes but what I did was attatch the light inside the coop and the solar panel outside. So now my chickens have light for a few extra hours each day and it doesn't up my electric bill. Also it detatches easy still so when I needed to look for a missing one we just detatched it and used the spot light outside. Pretty handy.

 

[jdopler]

love the chicken light idea!! I may steal that one!
congrats on the great deals

 

[BigSkyChickens]

Happy New Year Frugal Folks!

Property tax is almost due, so I'm feeling rather tight with my $. That's a good thing for the budget. I want that feeling to last all year.....

A sewing maching for $8! That is awesome! We keep a wishlist for garage sales, but that's a good idea to keep a wishlist for the Goodwill too. I've been finding a lot of good work clothes at Goodwill lately.

We had a major cleaning and purge over Christmas break. Stuff went to friends, relatives, neighbors, goodwill, junkman, craiglist, and even the county hazardous waste drop. I really enjoyed imitating Heidi Klum as I was deciding to get rid of something: "One day you are in, the next day you are OUT...auf wiedersehen!"

Feels SOOO good to have less stuff in and around the house. More room to breathe.....Whew!

 

[Totalcolour]

love the chicken light idea!! I may steal that one!
congrats on the great deals

We out in lights over Christmas - went from 3 eggs per week to 19 per day!

We had the solar panel ones last year, but after about a year, the battery wears out and it need replacing. Since hubby is an electronics engineer, he did some tests; measured how much energy electric uses and compared it with buying new solar batteries per year. Turns out it's WAY cheaper to run a real light (we use a low watt fluorescent) and it worked within a week. Plus we have it one a timer so it turns off at the correct time. It's hard to turn off a "SOLAR" light that runs on a battery unless you spend some bucks on timers etc.

 

[MamaRoo]

I bought LED christmas lights on sale after the holidays and put them up in the coop/pen. White lights for the coop, the pretty colored ones around the pen. These are on a timer so I don't have to worry about lights in the coop.

 

[HeatherLynn]

I desperately needed a shopping trip yesterday. It had been a pretty horrid day and I needed some shopping therapy. Goodwill to the rescue. I left with under $10 spent and tons of good books. It was great to indulge and still stay within my frugal budget.

 

[watchdogps]

I have seen a lot of posts about going dryerless, but how are people drying, besides outside? I have a line, but it's been raining all the time, not just cold. I do a fair amount of laundry, as hubby has a job that requires him to get very dirty, and sveral dogs who get muddy and need wiped down to come back in. Do you have lines in your house?

 

[swampcat]

I have seen a lot of posts about going dryerless, but how are people drying, besides outside? I have a line, but it's been raining all the time, not just cold. I do a fair amount of laundry, as hubby has a job that requires him to get very dirty, and sveral dogs who get muddy and need wiped down to come back in. Do you have lines in your house?

I just stumbled upon this thread and wanted to jump in. We haven't used a dryer in about 7 years. I bought the wooden drying racks and have them all over the house. Of course if we have company the laundry all gets piled into my bedroom (the catchall room of the house). When we had an attic (pre-ds) I had some lines up there. We also have cast iron radiators throughout the house so when the heat is on we pile clothes on top and they dry rather quickly. When I first stopped using the drier, I saved apprx $20/month on electricity. It would probably be more now that rates are higher. My dh makes the majority of the laundry, too, and his stuff has to be washed separate because they are the greasiest, filthiest clothes in the house. Gross!

 

[vmdanielsen]

I have not had a dryer in about 15 years. I do as swampcat does. I also have a porch that I have strung up clothesline. I do laundry at night(I do have to plan because if I wait to many days I run out of room) and hang it at night.
We have forced air heating and the laundry is dry in the morning. The house gets moisture too! I don't like to run humidifiers because of the mold build up inside. You can get a bactericide, but who wants THAT spewed all in their house?