Just curious who else is living super frugal

[EweSheep]

Great job, Heather!

Nothing wrong with the panic attack when you do have extras coming in!

I am not aware or have done the mortage thing by renting it out. Someone will come along and give you a better outlook on that if it is a good thing. I would say additional insurance may be a good thing in case those renters suddenly have no job and can not pay for the mortage, then what? Something to look at it.

With parents being in their 70's, they may want to live back in town and give you the farm LOL! That is one added bonus for a while. I have seen alot of folks doing this and save a bit back for taxes and insurance on the farm would be a good idea. Having no mortage is the best!

Good job getting the sewing at hand! Nothing fulfilling like making something by hand and a longer gradification in creating such a thing that will be used around in your house that cost very little or nothing at all.

 

[sumi]

Hi, don't know if you've touched on this topic in this thread, I haven't read all of it, but I saw this programme called "Extreme Couponing". It's about people who go shopping and buy up to $900 worth of groceries and pay up to 99% of the bill with coupons. Only problem with that logic is that they usually end up buying 500 toilet rolls or 200 tooth brushes just because they can and only pay $1 for it. So they fill their houses with their "stockpiles". One woman had enough bottled water to last her 20 years! Though the odd one do donate most of their coupon purchases to charities.
The worse thing I've seen on this programme is a woman who encourages her small children to go through rubbish bins, looking for newspapers or magazines that may have coupons in!
I think using coupons wisely, without going completely overboard like those people could be a nice way to save some cash. Some of the coupons I've seen on the programme knocks of a $1 or more on some items and when they "double up" (whatever that means) you get $2 off.
Or you could club together with a few other households and buy $900 worth of groceries and save you all a lot of money. If I lived in the U.S. I would go for it totally. I remember one lucky shopper getting so much discount with her coupons and in-store discounts combined, she left the shop with loads of shopping and a credit!
What's your thought?

 

[newfoundland]

I think we have become a bit obsessed with food hoarding. Buying daily, or at least several times a week was the way we shopped before fridges and freezers. In France people still shop like this today, deciding on the last minute what they will cook for supper that night, according to what they like the look of. Another thing is seasonal food. We ate according to the seasons years ago, but now most foods are readily available all year round. Buying in bulk isn't always the cheapest way to go. I cannot ever imagine buying 30lbs of meat. That is roughly enough for 120 meals. Seems a lot to speculate to me.

 

[HeatherLynn]

We stopped on the food hoarding a bit. We keep roughly 6 months at all times but its really difficult to keep track of and keep anything from expiring on more than that. ( except for coffee, my mom insists she would rather die than give up coffee so she has roughly 5 years worth hidden away) We are seriously looking at hunting for meat in addition to raising our own. I will miss my beef though, big time. No one freak out but as of late we are sorta gun hoarding lol. Now for us thats not as bad as it seems. We have a whole 2 guns now and are looking at a third. I bought a beautiful 12 gage shotgun with a built in choke for hunting waterfowl. Not that I have but if things go to crap I at least want to be able to shoot some wild turkey. My husband bought a 22 rifle so he could kill all the predators my cages keep catching inside the chicken yard. We are now looking at a Mosin Negant for deer hunting. Cheap to hunt with, cheap to buy, and you can find some very nice looking ones. I have this thing for wood stocks. I don't want to look like Rambo or anything when I go out to shoot a possum. Anywho thats where frugality is taking us right now. How to affordably hunt for our own meat. We would be hunting for a family of 6, both my parents and my sister, and potentially my nephew and his family of 6. I almost feel like the family is gathering around the farm in preparation for even worse.

I am also looking into foraging skills. I already have a friend of my husband ready to take me morel hunting. His family has done it forever and he used to go with his grandfather. He still hunts for them so his grandpa can have some. Anywho he has agreed and my husband is all set to tramp through the woods with us. I know when my grandmother was living in europe during the occupation that she managed to keep herself and my mother well fed but she raised rabbits, worked for farmers, and foraged like a pro. She grew up doing it so she had the skills when she needed them. I don't yet but I plan to fix that.

 

[lucky123]

Your off to a great start Heather. Don't worry about most out of date items. The dates are not the day they go bad, but a reference to shelf date. I owned a bent and dent store for almost 15yrs, and you don't have to worry about any canned goods going bad. I have had many box goods that were still good a year after the shelf date also. I have barrels in a back room with bags of rice,assorted beans, sugar,coffee,gravy mixes and other items that are re-bagged with a sealer to take out the air, and the barrel rim seals good also. I could feed around 10 people for 3 months on just three barrels. Rice and beans are a very good food to store. Everyone needs to invest in a food saver for storing food if they don't already have one. Frozen fish, and meats taste so much better when completely sealed before freezing.

 

[newfoundland]

I am intrigued HeatherLyn. Why do you keep so much food in reserve? Do you live a long way from the shops? Is it harsh winter weather or maybe you live in an area where there are natural emergencies like huricanes? And you lucky123, is it the same for you? I have a sense that you are preparing for something, but what is it? You have both obviously thought long and hard about stock piling food. I hope I don't sound to inquisitive.

 

[zzGypsy]

Quote:

I am intrigued HeatherLyn. Why do you keep so much food in reserve? Do you live a long way from the shops? Is it harsh winter weather or maybe you live in an area where there are natural emergencies like huricanes? And you lucky123, is it the same for you? I have a sense that you are preparing for something, but what is it? You have both obviously thought long and hard about stock piling food. I hope I don't sound to inquisitive.

don't know why they (personally) do, but there are lots of reasons why folks prepare in general. Huricane Katrina is a good example - so was the Northridge Earthquake in CA - my hubby lived at ground zero for that and they were without power and water for almost a month - but because they were prepared (food, water, gasoline, generator, etc.) they were able to stay in their house while lots of folks in northridge weren't able to - and lots of folks lost things due to looting.

we're in the process of moving from CA to MO and let me tell you, moving a farm and two businesses is *expensive*... having 2 people/4 months of food on hand has really helped financially ease the stress. my hubby has been using those supplies while he remains in CA to complete our business there.

some folks do it on general principles - if there is an emergency or civil unrest (for instance the Los Angeles riots) it provides a buffer of security, allowing one to stay home, protect and provide for their family at lowest risk. some do it for religious reasons - the mormon church has always encouraged preparation. some do it because they're OCD and compelled by anxiety. some do it to take advantage of sales and bulk buying, along with reduced impulse buying and increased food planning so they're making the best financial choices and saving money. some do it because they fear the end of the world - for religious or cultural reasons.

it's really a bit shocking to me that more people *don't* prepare. in the northridge quake, my hubby's was the only family within 3 blocks that was able to stay in their house, noone else had the ability to stay put for a month without access to public services, groceries, government help. a month is really not so long a time to have to do for yourself, and yet extremely few people were able to do it.

consider how quickly you'd be unable to provide for yourself if you worked and lived in an area that was shut down by any sort of infrastructure emergency - hurricane, earthquake, tornado that shut down power and roads and water. it sounds extreme, but it happens more than you think. a few years ago MO had a record ice storm which took out power lines and some folks were without power for about 3 weeks, more recently that was true in new england - an adventure if you're prepared, and a disaster if you're not. what if you and your spouse were both out of work at the same time? what if the local water supply was compromised? what if the roads were impassible? what if the stores were empty because of people's panic?

I live in a farm community, although I don't come from a farm family. farm families have always put up supplies - you grow it / harvest it / slaughter it / preserve it when you have it, and you use it the rest of the year - it's what human beings have done for thousands of years, prior to the quick-mart on every other corner making us lazy and permitting us to live on impulse instead of on planning.

I think personally it's "what if" that motivates me, along with a general sense of anxiety. there are things I can control, and things I cannot... however if something *does* go badly wrong, whatever the reason, and I'm suffering because I have not controlled what I can, I will feel like an idiot. people may think what I do now is paranoid, but if something *does* happen, that paranoia is suddenly going to look a lot like prudence.

 

[HeatherLynn]

I like to be prepared is a ton of it. I have always been that way. As early as 10 I was already packing a go bag just in case something happened. It made me feel safer to be prepared. I also have parents who were raised during the depression and european occupation, they get just as nervous if there is not a bit of a reserve in the house. Its habit for them. We always had several months of food in the house. Always

As to what I am preparing for now, pretty much society going to crap. The economy is not far behind that I think. Lots of people are sorta holding their hopes on elections. I prefer to get hope from being prepared and responsible for myself and my family. The only really new part in any of this for us is our goal of becomming debt free and I have said before that was more divine inspiration than me. We have always been this way. So have my parents and grandparents and great grandparents. Tons of family stories. Even some of my husbands family is this way. Mostly on his dads side. His grammy kept probably 6 months of canned goods and even more than that of things like matches, candles, and tons of canning supplies. I just can't imagine depending on anyone else to provide if things ever got tough.

Anywho those are my reasons. Be prepared is a great motto to live by.

 

[hispoptart]

I am intrigued HeatherLyn. Why do you keep so much food in reserve? Do you live a long way from the shops? Is it harsh winter weather or maybe you live in an area where there are natural emergencies like huricanes? And you lucky123, is it the same for you? I have a sense that you are preparing for something, but what is it? You have both obviously thought long and hard about stock piling food. I hope I don't sound to inquisitive.

I can't speak for HeatherLyn or lucky123, but I too am working hard at getting a large reserve of food. For my family and I it means a sense of security. With the economy going the way it is, prices are only going to get higher. I look at things like a possible power outage, job loss, large scale natural disasters. They don't have to happen where you live. Look at it this way, what if a massive earthquake hits CA. cities are totally destroyed, where do you think all those who do survive not only the earthquake it self but the massive panic that will happen when they realize they have no food , water, shelter and no means of protecting their family. Well they are going to go to the cities or towns that do still have the things they need. When they get there, the demand for things will rise thus causing prices to rise. Not to mention all things that were made and shipped from said destroyed cities will no longer be that easy to get. My last reason for getting prepared most find inconceivable but it's not an inconceivable notion, the total collapse of our system.

I belong to another forum where you can get great info on the why you should be preparing, but even if you are not interested in that and to keep with the reason for this thread, you can also get great ideas on saving money and ways to reuse items. If any one is interested, just pm me.

 

[newfoundland]

Please don't misunderstand my reasons for questioning, I am just curious. We don't have hurricanes here, or earthquakes. I also live in a farming community and we all have our own borehole for water, septic tank etc. I do keep some food in reserve, in the winter, in case the weather is severe, but nothing like one month's supply, let alone 6 months. We do lose our electricity sometimes, in storms, but we just manage with candles until it goes back on. We are never concerned about civil unrest. Even when I lived and worked in London, we were never afraid of house break ins or burglaries, although of course they do happen. Earlier in the year we had some riots in a part of London. There was quite a lot of looting I remember, but it all fizzled out, as the culprits were rounded up. I think preparation is a good thing on the whole as long as a person doesn't become obsessional about it. That would be very sad.