Just curious who else is living super frugal

[Totalcolour]

Quote:

Weaving? Actually i have.. if you mean somethng like a rigid heddle loom?
Its not too time consuming... just the setting up part... ugh! Hate that! (ETA: but of course, i cant do nuttin' fancy smancy with it yet...)
But anyways, every person lives differently... many make their own soap,.. toliet paper... etc...
Take a look over on the SS forum... bottom of this page is the link.. lots of decent people over there!

Yeah, I know, but it's when you do ALL of it that it takes up the time. Not just the carding, spinning, weaving, dieing, cutting and sewing. And, he said that anyone meeting him would not know he'd done it himself. I've done, and seen a LOT of home woven cloth - mostly gorgeous stuff, but definitely hand made. NO mistaking it for machine made.

Simply, I don't think anyone can do it ALL!

We raise 90% of our own meat - we tan the rabbit skins, we make homemade wine, I also make pottery. We raise goats and ducks. Sell meat and eggs, make candles. . .

So I know how long it takes to do all these things. And more power to the person/s who can do it.

Just don't pea on my leg and tell me it's raining!

 

[the4heathernsmom]

There are soooo many good ideas to save and recycle but what I have a hard time with is finding the TIME and the energy to do it all. Even working just part time 2 days a week we are always so busy with kid sports and activities. I would like to find a way to incorporate all these ideas into the normal course of the day. Oh I have four kids and a hubby so that doesn't help much.

 

[zzGypsy]

Boy does it save money though. We should go back to this...however we drink 6 gallons of milk a week and it was really hard to do...couldn't store enough.

dairy goats solve this part, if you're somewhere you can have them. an average producer will make 3/4-1 gallon a day... and it's really good too! they're not hard to keep, and if you've got excess, yogurt, mozzerella, and chevre are easy to make. plus it's great for the cats, dogs, hogs, chickens should you have those.

 

[Armywifeandmama]

Us
*Garden as much as we can
*Meal Plan- The kids and I eat left overs usually for lunch and I pack Hubby's lunch when he's not deployed or away at trainings.
*Shop used almost all the time
* I plan the kids clothes in advance and buy on sale. We don't get much as far as hand me downs but I will use the same clothes for several kiddos... ( My youngest is wearing his brothers outgrown clothes etc) I ONLY buy kids clothes used, period. They get new underwear besides that it's used clothing. I'm a big garage sale shopper for clothing. I can't off the top of my head think of any new clothes I've bought them ever. They grow so fast that's it just doesn't make good financial sense. My hubby wears a uniform to work. I'm a stay at home mama so our clothing needs are casual and minimal.
*We homeschool and utilize the libarary constantly.
*We don't eat out. Period. Too expensive
*No cable tv and we are actually considering getting rid of tvs period because of content
*We chop wood for heat ( fireplace)
* I breastfeed every baby for at least a year. Formula isn't as good for them, is too costly and I would never utilize a program like WIC when God made the perfect food for them for free
* We cloth diaper.
* I buy in bulk
* I freeze everything(milk,bread,cheese etc)
* I do bulk cooking so we have easy meals instead of eating out or paying a fortune for convience food.
*We eat very little junk food.
* No extra drinks..... just tea,milk and water. No sodas,juices etc. Too expensive for my taste.
* I make all our household cleaners.
* We try to turn off lights not being used and open curtains during day instead of turning on very many lights.
* I make home made breads instead of store bought alot of the time
* We can
* I do some couponing but not much. I try to grow as much as I can or just buy generic and coupons are for store brands and usually alot of packaged processed foods which I find too pricy to begin with.
* We eat meat at every meal but I plan out sales and stock up and we usually eat cheaper meats. ( Whole chickens, bone in chicken if store bought, hamburger, etc etc)
* I buy presents through out the year for birthdays and Christmas so we don't have to buy everything at once. We have a budget per child. Usually 50 for birthdays and 100 for Christmas but even that I'm thinking is too much so we are considering dropping that to 50 as well. Hubby and I don't buy for eachother. We just do a family dinner with a cake for birthdays... no extravagant parties but the kiddos will have balloons and streamers and friends over.
* We are Dave Ramsey followers and are big on paying off debt.
* We try to never buy on credit and have spent years and years paying off about 70K of debt(not too much longer!) from Hubby's 1st marriage on about 25K a year (after Hubbys Child support)
* We do a cash envelope system for absolutely everything.

 

[WhiteMountainsRanch]

I heard there was a rabbit hide tanning thread somewhere's but I can't find it... anyone know where it is? Thanks!

 

[Raiquee]

Well my frugal steps for far into the new year has been this:

-Opened a christmas account, which takes 50 bucks from each paycheck. Should leave me with about 1200 by christmas. No scrambling like we do every year!!
-Doing my own taxes, which I do every year.

It's not a lot right now. My goals:

-Depending on taxes, will pay off my car and another bill. Will repost when we figure this out. Also will probably buy half a hog.
-Garden as much as a I can, despite the impending move
-Find a way to save on childcare. Ask family.
-Put ourselves on a much stricter money allowance. We got a bit lazy with managing our money the way I wanted.
-Pay for the rest of my schooling with simply scholarships and grants and money from work. No more taking out loans.
-Use a whole stick of chapstick before I lose it (ha!)

5 Year plan:
-Pay off DH's car
-No balances on credit cards
-Buy a boat
-Maybe buy land up north for hunting, split with relatives.

SO YEAH.

 

[Armywifeandmama]

Something else I think is key for us is we bought a house on acreage that's an older small farm house. All ours friends tend to live in big subdivision homes they can't afford. We just to live BELOW our means. We do the same with vehicles. I have a minivan that's 6 years old ( which to us is super new) and hubby has a 10 yr old truck

 

[HeatherLynn]

Well, a few nibbles on our house but so far its looking like we will rent it out while living in my parents farmhouse and saving up to build. Less money going out that way and more going to savings.

I have been having some very rough times lately and to be honest the old me would have gone shopping ALOT. Well the new me still went shopping but I will be honest I am loving it. I went to Hosparus and spent an entire $9.48. I felt better and I got some things I had wanted too. My daughter and I are learning to sew with her 4h group. Free class but fabric is expensive. I saw they had patterns for $50 so went to check it out. Well no patterns but they had a roll with roughly 8 yards on it. It was only $4. Beautiful pale lavendar fabric too. I was thinking about sewing myself and my two girls matching skirts. Something simple. I also found a thesaurus and a handbook for writers. ( I homeschool and I am writing a couple books so very handy) I also found a brand new set of dave ramsey financial peace university book n d workbook. A couple other novels just for reading and a couple pretty scarves for my daughter who was with me. In total we spent a lovely time together shopping, we found some deals, managed to get fabric for class and for easter and a few new books for my library ( my one sinful indulgence, book book and more books)

The dave ramsey books arn't even for me. I just read what he had online and a book my sister had bought. I listen to the radio shows too but his stuff is pretty common sense. I wanted my nephew who is expecting twins and more than likely about to be labeled as disabled to read these. His wife was asking for advice and Dave has it. Today was kinda like having my cake and eating it too.

 

[babymakes6]

Well, a few nibbles on our house but so far its looking like we will rent it out while living in my parents farmhouse and saving up to build. Less money going out that way and more going to savings.

I have been having some very rough times lately and to be honest the old me would have gone shopping ALOT. Well the new me still went shopping but I will be honest I am loving it. I went to Hosparus and spent an entire $9.48. I felt better and I got some things I had wanted too. My daughter and I are learning to sew with her 4h group. Free class but fabric is expensive. I saw they had patterns for $50 so went to check it out. Well no patterns but they had a roll with roughly 8 yards on it. It was only $4. Beautiful pale lavendar fabric too. I was thinking about sewing myself and my two girls matching skirts. Something simple. I also found a thesaurus and a handbook for writers. ( I homeschool and I am writing a couple books so very handy) I also found a brand new set of dave ramsey financial peace university book n d workbook. A couple other novels just for reading and a couple pretty scarves for my daughter who was with me. In total we spent a lovely time together shopping, we found some deals, managed to get fabric for class and for easter and a few new books for my library ( my one sinful indulgence, book book and more books)

The dave ramsey books arn't even for me. I just read what he had online and a book my sister had bought. I listen to the radio shows too but his stuff is pretty common sense. I wanted my nephew who is expecting twins and more than likely about to be labeled as disabled to read these. His wife was asking for advice and Dave has it. Today was kinda like having my cake and eating it too.

JoAnn Fabrics has a sale flyer they send out every few weeks with their sales in it. They have patterns on sale every month for .99-1.99. You can get up to 10 at a time.

 

[3GChicks]

We have started shopping at consignment stores. I always joke and say that if our 11 month old had been a she would be wearing her big brothers baby clothes but thank goodness we had a boy so we saved money on clothes, we still had baby clothes from our 6 month old that had the tags on them.

I do not think we could pull off the whole grocery shopping once a month, but I am trying to figure out how to do the whole coupon thing. What I do not understand about the couponing is who need 11 bottles of mustard? I need to find the coupons for the stuff I need, like diapers and baby wipes, not glad refillable plug-ins. I tried the coupon Suzy website, but it was not helpful.

I completely understand on the cutting back on driving, my husband drives 74 miles one way to work so that won't change, but I do not go anywhere really, we pretty much stay home and thank goodness I have a neighbor that we carpool with for school.

I cannot wait until spring so we can take the chicks outside and play with them in the backyard!