Just curious who else is living super frugal

[hispoptart]

about two years ago, we went to a dave ramsey course at a friends church. like dave ramsey, or not, it has been GREAT for our family.

we do not shop once a month, rather walk to the little store close to our house & get the things on an as-needed basis. this is usually several times per week. i take my two kids with me (one is a baby) & i let my toddler pick a snack from the bulk bin (i.e. yogurt covered pretzels, banana chips, etc.) & he only gets to get a few pieces. he likes it because he gets something different most times & i like it because it might add $1 to the total bill & we don't have junk food to bring home.

i have found that this frequent shopping saves us more money than the monthly trip (which we tried for several months) in that there is NO WASTE. no cans sitting in the pantry & food is always fresh. the walking there is also good exercise & doesn't make me experience the stress of the huge trip with the massive unloading once home.

good luck with your frugal lifestyle! we are having a great time & are ALMOST debt free hang in there!!!

While I think it is awesome that you and your children enjoy these every few day outings to shop for things, I think that in some ways you might be able to take advantage of sales and coupons to stock up a bit on things you use most often. Having things on hand in case of an emergency IE: power outage or something of the sort could really be to your benefit.

 

[zzGypsy]

re: having some stock on hand for emergencies...

it's not directly related to being frugal, but I find if I look in the cabinets and they're not full, I'm anxious, and if I look in the cabinets and they're more or less at capacity, I'm calm. there's been spans of time when that wasn't true, but right now it is. back in the mid- to late-seventies it was too. by 1980, that urge had faded way into the background.

I'm not particularly supersiticious, but I do pay as much attention to my instincts as I can. for the last maybe close to 2 years, I've had the visceral urge to stock up... so I am. it's good planning anyway, buy in bulk, use the sales, be prepared for short-term outages or disasters or bad weather...

and it drives decisions in other ways too... I have chest freezers, even though it's be much easier to find things in an upright, because in an outage, I can open a chest freezer and all the cold doesn't fall out.

I'm trying to do 1 major shopping trip at the beginning of the month, and one fill in shopping trip at week 2 or 3, with a weekly stop for fresh items if needed... I'm buying multiples, bulk and sale items in addition to the monthly needs, and right now would probably be good for 6 weeks if the chickens and turkeys don't stop laying. I buy my animal feed in monthly quantities, mostly because what I'm feeding at the moment won't keep and hold it's food value for long periods, but will be working on switching to feeds that keep longer... as I do that, I can buy 1 month +1 week and get ahead over time. I'd like to have 6 months supply on hand, up to a year if I can store it so it maintains food value.

anyway, the stock up thing feels urgent to me. so I'm paying attention.

 

[hispoptart]

re: having some stock on hand for emergencies...

it's not directly related to being frugal, but I find if I look in the cabinets and they're not full, I'm anxious, and if I look in the cabinets and they're more or less at capacity, I'm calm. there's been spans of time when that wasn't true, but right now it is. back in the mid- to late-seventies it was too. by 1980, that urge had faded way into the background.

I'm not particularly supersiticious, but I do pay as much attention to my instincts as I can. for the last maybe close to 2 years, I've had the visceral urge to stock up... so I am. it's good planning anyway, buy in bulk, use the sales, be prepared for short-term outages or disasters or bad weather...

and it drives decisions in other ways too... I have chest freezers, even though it's be much easier to find things in an upright, because in an outage, I can open a chest freezer and all the cold doesn't fall out.

I'm trying to do 1 major shopping trip at the beginning of the month, and one fill in shopping trip at week 2 or 3, with a weekly stop for fresh items if needed... I'm buying multiples, bulk and sale items in addition to the monthly needs, and right now would probably be good for 6 weeks if the chickens and turkeys don't stop laying. I buy my animal feed in monthly quantities, mostly because what I'm feeding at the moment won't keep and hold it's food value for long periods, but will be working on switching to feeds that keep longer... as I do that, I can buy 1 month +1 week and get ahead over time. I'd like to have 6 months supply on hand, up to a year if I can store it so it maintains food value.

anyway, the stock up thing feels urgent to me. so I'm paying attention.

I totally agree with you. I know it's not for everyone, but I feel more secure knowing I can safely feed my family if something were to happen. I am at about 4 months right now. I work at a grocery store and I am going to start taking advantage of the weekly sales and buying one case of something that is on sale that we normally use per week. That will then save me money in a long run. If I can find coupons for that item that will be even better.

 

[zzGypsy]

we actually have been using our supplies - we had perhaps 4 months worth built up in CA, and we're in the process of moving - but supporting two households at the moment, one in CA and one in MO. NOT easy, financially. so hubby (who's still in CA) has been living on the built up supply, spending only about $100/mo on food purchases, mostly milk and fresh veges. it's worked relativly well, although he's seriously bored with the fare, so that's something we'll have to think about for future.

 

[Frogdogtimestwo]

I could not agree more, when I read that I thought "Wow, I wish I was debt free but there is no way I would not have food storage!" I too have been slowly building my pantry with only food we actually eat for the last four years, I think it is a way to protect your family not only from not having a paycheck unexpectedly but a natural or man made disaster could happen to anyone, anywhere. JMHO

What if that grocery store lost it's supply line and you did not have a drop in the cupboards?? What if the power was out and they could not ring up your groceries? There are many scenarios that make a lot of sense for having your pantry full at all times.

 

[EweSheep]

There was a show last night or the night before about food hoarders. It just amazes me how one woman could store so much food. Her father was a grocer.

Such a waste of gathering up pasta way past its expiration date....do you know what the organizer said? Throw it away! I was about to have a FIT! Why not feed it to your chickens??!!

Same thing for freezer burned items and waaaaaaay past freezer storage date for long forgotten burgers? Chickens would love you for it. Dogs too!

Sure it wont kill you but if you can convert food that you never will eat into animal food that save or stretch your feed bills a bit further!

 

[Kittyf]

There was a show last night or the night before about food hoarders. It just amazes me how one woman could store so much food. Her father was a grocer.

Such a waste of gathering up pasta way past its expiration date....do you know what the organizer said? Throw it away! I was about to have a FIT! Why not feed it to your chickens??!!

Same thing for freezer burned items and waaaaaaay past freezer storage date for long forgotten burgers? Chickens would love you for it. Dogs too!

Sure it wont kill you but if you can convert food that you never will eat into animal food that save or stretch your feed bills a bit further!

This is such a good idea - I am cleaning out my pantry this week. The freezer is next. We eat differently now that we are older and use smaller portions with only 2 to cook for. I understand the food hoarding (weird and creepy show!) It used to make me anxious if the shelves were not full. Now it makes me anxious if they are.

PS We have emergency food, water etc in our earthquake bin - we rotate it out every 3 months.

PPS We live frugal even though we don't have to - our favorite shopping is at our favorite thrift shop. I love the challenge of remaining debt free and happy on our fixed incomes. It took a lot of toughing it out to get to be debt free. Now we're just in the habit I guess. It makes our life feel rich somehow.

 

[Apyl]

I try to live frugally. I plan my weekly meals very carefully, try to shop alone or with only 1 kid. If I take DH he likes to grab extras. We are a family of 5 and I can get our groceries to about $95 a week if I try. I do garage sales, good will, thrift stores, BUT you can't just shop those. Stores like Kmart offer rewards cards, so i have a rewards card, I shop their clearance and in some cases can get brand new jeans for less than the Goodwill store. Also when you use your rewards card you build up points that can be used like money when making purchases. But try to only use them during promotions like when they double your points so you get more for the points. For example, at Christmas time my oldest needed a gift for a gift exchange at school. Original price was $15, well I had points saved and it was during a promotional time so my points were doubled. The gift ended up being 37 cents. I also research prices online before I make big purchases, dont be afraid to shop ebay or amazon. I belong to websites like inbox dollars, cafemom, and Opinion outpost. I get paid to do surveys and can cash out every $20 to $30 or bank the money and save up. On Cafemom I am a moderator and get paid monthly thru paypal or giftcards. Like I said before we are a family of 5, living on 1 income and DH pays out $460 everyt two weeks in child support . We have the chickens coming soon, which will provide eggs and meat, and we have goats coming soon also which will provide milk , cheese, soaps, and anything else I can make from it. I have NEVER purchased a new vehicle. I see no point in it, they loose so much value the second you take it off the lot. We do all the work on our vehicle, like oil changes, tune ups, ect. Come spring we will have a 290 sq ft garden, as well as have wild blueberries,blackberries, and strawberries to pick. I keep staples like flour, sugar, margarine, oil in my house and cook as much food as I can from scratch.

.

 

[Apyl]

I also make homemade laundry soap as well as cleaners.

 

[HeatherLynn]

Have you guys ever had a panic attack because your finances looked better than they had in a long time? Yea thats what I am going through. Its like its a shock to the system to have anything extra at all. Granted all the extra has to go into savings so we can build our house without a mortgage but still its extra. So I spent an hour this morning tied up in complete anxiety over them being better than I thought they should be. I look forward to getting used to it, not sure how long that might take though. Its not so easy we can loosen things up at all but if we stay strict we will be able to save and not have to borrow from that savings all the time just for gas.

We also got a call yesterday and went to show our house today. We have someone who wants to lease it for 2 years ( no more mortgage, ins, taxes, or utilities coming out of my check YAY). So we are now about to go into high gear on saving up cash for our home. We live on the land with my parents now in an effort to save more. The plan is to start building next year and hopefully only take 2 years to finish it. This is something I feel so strongly about doing we have really made some horribly hard choices to make it work. One of those is of course living with my parents. They are wonderful and we are where we want to be but the lack of privacy. Its rough. I really think this is a path I am supposed to take though. My parents are relieved though that we are here and when we build we will be within shouting distance if they need us. They are in their late 70's so it has multiple benefits and the grandbabies just are the sugar on top. I would say this plan is almost all divine inspiration. It was like I never heard of anyone doing this and then one day just getting pounded with it from so many directions it became a serious idea.

On another note I started sewing this week. I cut out 2 skirts for my daughter. One for her to sew in sewing class and one for me to sew in her sewing class ( her teacher is letting me sit in with the girls and learn and its free so. YAY) I also made 3 valences to match baby quilts my sister made for my nephews twin boys. The shower is this weekend and they look great. Very neat job if I do say so myself. My $9 brother sewing machine is AWESOME!! Its easy to use and works wonderfully. It looks like someone bought it, used it once and then quit and gave it to goodwill. It was spotless and included everything. I was almost ready to give in a buy new. I do love goodwill.

Tomorrow we are going to a local butcher shop that someone suggested. I looked up their flyer and the meats seem to be a ton more affordable. Crossing my fingers and visiting tomorrow. I may come home with 30lbs of meat tomorrow if the price is right.