Just curious who else is living super frugal

[domino7]

http://www.diylife.com/2009/08/03/how-to-make-your-own-dish-soap/

this seems to be a good article

Personally, I don't consider that to be making soap, since the main ingredient is soap. We use store bought dish soap, but we dilute it dramatically. I don't measure it, but I would guess 9 parts water to 1 part soap. It works just as well, we think, and it seems like it lasts forever.

 

[HeatherLynn]

Go shopping! But leave all your credit cards at home, and put $10 in your pockets. You'll probably only be able to get one thing, so you'll spend a lot of time thinking about what to buy, and why you want it. You may even leave with the $10 still in your pocket.

I sorta did that. I set myself a limit and did books at goodwill. Books more than anything are very satisfying to buy.

 

[ChikeeMomma]

Just have to say that I love the local consignment shop! I've taken some children's clothing in there to sell on consignment. I went in to look at some jeans for myself and I had $10.00 available in my account. I bought a very new looking pair of jeans, a summer outfit for baby boy and a shirt for him, too. I still have $3.00 in my account! Yahoo! I had discovered the shop while pregnant and I bought all my maternity clothing there.

 

[HeatherLynn]

I have an aquaintance that I have baby sat for a few times who called to invite us to dinner. Came home with a huge bag of clothes for one of the younger kids. I won't have to buy him clothes for at least a year now. Nice. Even plenty of grow into stuff.

 

[HeatherLynn]

I hope we are all still quietly being frugal and maybe spreading our frugal ways to our friends. I went through a nightmare tonight with grocery shopping and teenagers. I am a troop leader to several girls and we had to buy camp supplies for a camp out. Comparison shopping was chinese to them. They just kept looking at me funny. They were horrified that we were going to use plain cheap napkins and plates at meal time. They both come from homes that are very low income but they are used to food stamps and such. Apparently they are just not learning any skills to shop frugally at home. I mentioned that someday they might have to think about these things. One sorta laughed and said she didn't think she needed to worry. She was sure she would always qualify for food stamps.

Ummmmm step one. Teach this child about ambition and fulfilling her potential. Step two, teach this child about saving money. In the world we now live in, how can anyone ignore the need to shop a bit smarter and to save money.

 

[reveriereptile]

I've been looking more into living frugal. I grew up with my parents using food stamps and showing at Goodwill so I am use to using cheaper items. I actually prefer cheaper food brands unless it is meat. My husband's mom spoiled him with the high pricey stuff but he will have to get out of that habit.

One problem I've found is that since I moved to NY with my husband since his family is up here is there isn't a Goodwill store around here or even any good yard sales. I love going to them. Some of my best childhood toys were from going to them.

I do look for deals and the cheaper places to buy stuff that I need. I try to buy groceries when they are on sale and get the larger amount if it is something that we use all the time. The stores around here don't really have any coupons even if I look online for them.

Right now my husband plans on building a house this year which luckily his dad owns the land and owes him money so we will get it cheap. We are going to try and build most of it ourselves to save on money. I also plan on trying for a baby either next month or the month after. I've been putting it off till I knew we were going to move out and don't want to wait any longer since I just turned 28.

Once I become pregnant I plan on doing some yard sale shopping which should be easy since that is mostly what people have for sale around here. If I can't find what I need at them I'll ebay shop for clothing lots. My mother and sister can get me items from the Goodwill near them and ship it to me. I have to go down to IL this August anyway for my sister's wedding so if I'm pregnant by then I'm going to pack the car with Goodwill and yard sale stuff.

I plan to feed natural and have been considering cloth diapers for at home and disposables for outings to save money. I may make some items like a boppy pillow.

 

[RHRanch]

Well I am still living frugal, have no choice. Saving money is not going to happen. You can't get blood from a turnip. lol Always looking to cut corners, but live a pretty bare bones existence... even selling most of my birds now. Been working on a garden, its taking a lot of time and is really hard as mostly doing it myself by hand in between all my other obligations. Finally got some planting done this week. Hope it gives us a lot of crops to freeze, can, etc. Have 2 more plots to go. Have almost finished the cornfield. Planting the "Three sisters": beans, squash, corn. Sunflowers at the ends of the rows. Raising some meat chicks for first time this year. Don't really think it will end up saving $, but at least I know how they spent thier lives, happy. I always shop garage sales and thrift stores. I can feed 5 adults on about $120 a week. Not too bad. The garden should lower that price I hope.

 

[HeatherLynn]

I've been looking more into living frugal. I grew up with my parents using food stamps and showing at Goodwill so I am use to using cheaper items. I actually prefer cheaper food brands unless it is meat. My husband's mom spoiled him with the high pricey stuff but he will have to get out of that habit.

One problem I've found is that since I moved to NY with my husband since his family is up here is there isn't a Goodwill store around here or even any good yard sales. I love going to them. Some of my best childhood toys were from going to them.

I do look for deals and the cheaper places to buy stuff that I need. I try to buy groceries when they are on sale and get the larger amount if it is something that we use all the time. The stores around here don't really have any coupons even if I look online for them.

Right now my husband plans on building a house this year which luckily his dad owns the land and owes him money so we will get it cheap. We are going to try and build most of it ourselves to save on money. I also plan on trying for a baby either next month or the month after. I've been putting it off till I knew we were going to move out and don't want to wait any longer since I just turned 28.

Once I become pregnant I plan on doing some yard sale shopping which should be easy since that is mostly what people have for sale around here. If I can't find what I need at them I'll ebay shop for clothing lots. My mother and sister can get me items from the Goodwill near them and ship it to me. I have to go down to IL this August anyway for my sister's wedding so if I'm pregnant by then I'm going to pack the car with Goodwill and yard sale stuff.

I plan to feed natural and have been considering cloth diapers for at home and disposables for outings to save money. I may make some items like a boppy pillow.

One thing you might consider up north is all the charities and thrift stores. When we went up for a funeral and ended up needing a replacement suit everyone told us there was no where I could get it like goodwill. There were Catholic charity thrift stores and then just little shops. We ended up getting a custom made wool suit for $5 that fit my husband perfect. Not sure who it was custom made for but DH looked so nice it in. It looked like it had never been worn. His entire family asked where all we went so they could try to start thrift store shopping. It just takes a bit to find a new way of shopping frugally up there. I think the one we found was St Vincent DePaul? Maybe We just drove around really until we found several places that sold consignment and thrift.

 

[TarainNC]

I hope we are all still quietly being frugal and maybe spreading our frugal ways to our friends. I went through a nightmare tonight with grocery shopping and teenagers. I am a troop leader to several girls and we had to buy camp supplies for a camp out. Comparison shopping was chinese to them. They just kept looking at me funny. They were horrified that we were going to use plain cheap napkins and plates at meal time. They both come from homes that are very low income but they are used to food stamps and such. Apparently they are just not learning any skills to shop frugally at home. I mentioned that someday they might have to think about these things. One sorta laughed and said she didn't think she needed to worry. She was sure she would always qualify for food stamps.

Ummmmm step one. Teach this child about ambition and fulfilling her potential. Step two, teach this child about saving money. In the world we now live in, how can anyone ignore the need to shop a bit smarter and to save money.

Unfortunately we have raised generations of children who do not have any basic skills like budgeting, comparison shopping or a work ethic! I don't understand why they would be offended by cheap napkins and plates as food stamps do not pay for any paper products. Children do learn what they live. My oldest two children spent 8 years being the children of a divorced/single mom and now as young adults they are very frugal with their money and resources. We never went without, but we certainly learned to make do. With the economy the way it is- everyone needs to be as self sufficient. You can't depend on food stamps or other government programs. They may not be there forever.

 

[primalchick]

Hubby and I are acreage shopping right now. By living frugally we have been able to save up a pretty big down payment over the last 3 years We are still being frugal of course, especially as we would like to be mortgage free in 3-5 years which is possible if we buy the right place. We are looking at older acreages with older houses that need to be renovated. We found one that we are quite interested in and with how little they are asking we can definitely afford to gut the whole house and renovate it.

I haven't read the whole thread so this may have been brought up before, but do any of you use more natural beauty methods? I've been doing a honey and baking soda face wash, the olive oil to remove eye make up if I am wearing it that day, apple cider vinegar as a toner and coconut oil as a moisturizer after. My skin has been wonderful! I usually break out at that time of month, and I didn't this month. My skin looks so glowy and healthy. Cheap on the wallet and good for you too I know a few others who use oils to clean their skin instead of honey and they swear by it.

I also make my own body and foot scrubs The body scrub in my shower right now is white sugar, olive oil and some lemon juice for scent.