Making any changes to save money?

[Rhett&SarahsMom]

getting chickens for the eggs.
My hose is now in an in/out situation so I dont have to spend money on bedding for him. I see him only once a day. My barn owner feeds him in the morning. I feed at night
My husband has been taking the commuter rail to work for years now (he works in Boston, about an hour away from home)
We are now planning on taking the train to visit family and will be making fewer trips, but staying overnight when we make the trip. And using my moms Camry when we are there to go to the movies and such.

I am praying that I can work for my husbands company from home starting in the fall.
I quit my job 6 years ago to stay home with our daughter because daycare was so expensive. Well. Now she will be going to school and after school daycare? That is even more expensive now since the providers have raised their rates as well.

I am putting up a clothes line in the back yard.
Have been washing clothes in cold water for years anyway
Will be cooking on the charcoal grill this summer when it gets hotter out.
Am trying to grow veggies. Will have to see how that works. But with luck my neighbors will want to trade eggs for veggies. And I am thinking of getting more chickens than originally planned.
I am also thinking of getting my daycare license again and offering care for a "fair" rate that people where I live CAN actually afford. No one I know can afford $175 a week for childcare
Lights are OFF when not in use. I am dragging out the hurricane(oil) lamps
We are going to be putting the TV etc on a seperate "outlet" from the TiVo so we can shut off some things while other can remain on. Same with the Fridge and stove
I have been cleaning out the house and selling everythign we do not NEED at the local flea market. Will be using the extra space for storing dry goods and canned goods I can buy in bulk from the warehouse store.

 

[Cheep Mama]

I enjoy hearing about what everyone is doing. Every penny saved really helps out!

 

[Josie]

I am moving to be closer to jobs and school.

 

[fullhouse]

We haven't moved out of our little house and I am planting a huge garden, and adding 3 more fruit trees.

 

[blessedchickenmama7]

I started making my own bread. We don't eat out as much and when we do, it's usually cheap, cheap, cheap. I shop at discount grocery and warehouse stores. I am working on a food storage. Have a nice little container garden on the deck. Shopping the farmer's market a lot. Learning to can this year. Shop yard sales. And have asked hubby to put up a clothesline in the back yard. Also, the dogs no longer eat the high priced dog food. They eat our left overs and some lower quality dog food when there's not enough left overs. Also, trying to use meat in combined foods like soups or casseroles most nights to keep from having it as a main course.

That's about it. I am trying to figure a way to make money from my home. I have an etsy site and have sold a few handmade items there. But I wish I could do more. Like everyone, it's getting really tight here.

 

[mangled]

Well, let me see...

I have a clothes line, and mostly do laundry on days I can hang out. The washer only gets cold water, except for whites.

We have bought a bator and are raising chickens for meat as well as eggs.

We're planning on adding a pair of milk goats for our dairy consumption.

We have a huge garden this year, and I plan on canning most of it. I, too, have began baking our own bread. The last time I bought bread, it was $1.79 a loaf. I was paying $0.84 just a few months ago!!

I go into "town" twice a month. Our nearest large retail area is about 35 miles away. I keep a list, buy bulk, and use the local stores for supplementing in between.

My husband is now carpooling to work. Instead of driving that 47 miles round trip every day he has to work, he drives it 1 week a month. He and three co-workers meet about 4 1/2 miles down the road, leave their cars and take turns driving.

We've eliminated our land line and are all cellular now. Saves $61.89 a month.

We've dropped to the lowest speed on our satellite internet. It's saved us $19.00 a month.

We've dropped our satellite TV programming to a lower channel plan, it's saved us $7.00 a month.

Every light bulb in the house is an energy efficient bulb, even the outside lights. I turned the heated dry off on the dishwasher. I unplug the microwave and coffee maker when we're not using them. TV's (we have 3

) are only permitted during certain hours. The kids are good at turning them on and walking away. The breaker on the hot water tank is shut off at night. My dad has been doing this since I was a kid with his. I turn it on when I get up in the morning.

Our electric bill has gone from approx. $150 a month to $83 last month - almost a 50% reduction.

Also, we used our income tax and savings account to pay off ALL our credit cards. We are now only paying on secured debts - the mortgage and the car. It's a HUGE risk to use your savings for this!!!! But, we've been lucky, and without the credit cards, we've been able to put about $35 more a pay into savings.

My husband says I can pinch a penny until it screams, LOL. But, we're not as near strapped for cash as we were since I had to quit working, and far less stressed out.

Em

 

[gumpsgirl]

I to am hanging the family laundry. I am also driving A LOT less. I live way out in the country and it takes me at least 25 minutes to get to the grocery store. I try to plan my grocery trips around appointments that make me go into town. My family is also learning to deal with warmer temperatures inside the house, as we have bumped up the thermostat and we are not using the heat anymore unless it gets down into the lower 40's at night. We just layer our clothes! We have changed all of our light bulbs to the CFL's and try to limit the number of lights that are on in the house at the same time. We are also growing a large garden and raising chickens to help out with food costs. I also am no longer buying snacks or other useless items from the store. We make our own snacks, which is healthier anyway! I am mailing more bills from our country P.O. rather than spending the gas money to drive into town to pay them. We also do the Goodwill for clothes, etc... I think everyone is just doing the best they can it sounds like! Way to be thrifty everyone!

I forgot to add that everyone is limited to 3-5 minute showers, we rinse the dishes in cold water only, and I only do laundry in cold. Those 3 things help tremendously!

 

[backintime]

Was really motivated by a sentence I read in a book recently: Waste is a resource, misplaced. So I'm trying to find uses for a lot of things that used to end up in the garbage. Using fewer plastic baggies and containers by putting things in bowls with plates as lids. We live on a lake and are going to eat FISH more often, so I started a worm composting bin. They multiply, so we can take as many as we will need for fishing and not have to pay big bucks for bait -- which is often half-dead anyway. Worm bedding is made from torn up cardboard boxes, paper grocery sacks, and shredded newspaper. Going back to hunting deer and grouse. Feeding food scraps to chickens will give us eggs in return, and giving coffee grounds and other non-chicken scraps to the worms will give us rich compost. Using library instead of buying at the book store (my weakness!) Much less driving. And my favorite: Riding the Harley instead of taking the big Tahoe!

 

[CoyoteMagic]

My biggest thing is medications. I've gone generic where I can but some of the stuff is brand new and costs me $50 each even with a prescription plan.

We have the chickens for eggs. I'm looking into meet birds. I grow a garden every year and will be possibly expanding this year just to make ends meet. We have a deep chest freezer so we buy in bulk. Have washed in cold for years. Need to get a new clothes line up. The last one was taken down by a storm. Been hanging all of it in my sewing room.

Going back to the basics. Out to dinner will be date night maybe once a month. I buy shoes maybe once a year at a discount store.

Use up, make do, do with out.

 

[SeaChick]

I have really changed my grocery-shopping habits. I started doing this when we started eating organic, because it was too expensive otherwise, but now with everything so expensive I'm even more careful. What I do is keep a really stocked freezer (got one on Freecycle) and pantry. I don't, for example, buy staples like laundry soap, canned beans, coffee and meats on a weekly basis. I wait until there's a great sale and then I buy several months worth. This is the only way we can afford to buy the organic stuff!! Plus, we buy a quarter cow and pig from local farmers and keep them in the freezer. We grow a lot of our own veggies, and at the end of summer we do a big freeze/canning session with our own stuff and farmers market stuff. We're still eating green beans and tomatoes from last summer, and now the spring garden is starting to feed us.

Also, since we cut out packaged/processed foods and started eating more whole foods, we've been saving money.

I also bake bread. (If you're lazy, no time, or scared of bread-baking, I highly recommend the book "Artisan Bread in 5 minutes a day.")

I also carefully plan my errand days to save gas. I make a list of all the places I need to go and figure a route that involves the least driving, and number my route so I know where to go first, secon, etc. I'll go to a different supermarket than normal if it's on the way someplace else, too.

And all the normal stuff: compact flourescent bulbs, turn the lights out, etc. We keep our house at about 65 in the winter, most of the time. 58 at night.

We also don't eat out more than 5-6 times a year. But we cook fantastic meals so it's usually dissappointing, culinarily, when we do, so we don't miss it much!! (The exception is when DD gets high honors on her report card we take her out to lunch- she always gets high honors and she always picks sushi!)

Sadly, another cost-cutting thing is that we drink much cheaper wine now...