Money Saving Ideas

[me&thegals]

Several have mentioned gardening. How about sharing seeds with friends and neighbors? After all, how many people actually need 25 tomato plants of each variety, which is about how many seeds are included? Or, save seeds to be used for the next year, thereby cutting garden costs in half.

Beekissed--I feel like I'm living life as your long-lost twin

I already do almost every single thing! I would love to get into bees, too. Are they difficult/expensive?

 

[Beekissed]

me&thegals :

Several have mentioned gardening. How about sharing seeds with friends and neighbors? After all, how many people actually need 25 tomato plants of each variety, which is about how many seeds are included? Or, save seeds to be used for the next year, thereby cutting garden costs in half.

Beekissed--I feel like I'm living life as your long-lost twin

I already do almost every single thing! I would love to get into bees, too. Are they difficult/expensive?

If you get on Beemasters forum you can get a lot of info about bees. I have a fellow that lives 3 hours away that wants to give me a nucleus (a queen, some workers, some pupae in sealed caps) to start a hive but I have yet to find some equipment cheap. I don't like the idea of buying it new if I can find someone getting out of the business. I've already located some empty hives at a house where we pick up the free wood chips. I think I'll stop and ask if they will sell them and if they have other beek equipment! No harm in asking!!!

I will be growing all my plants from seeds next year... after I got the sticker shock at the local nursery!(a six pack costed $2.49!!!!!!) That way, I can grow just what I want and not have to search the nursery for something kind of like it.

I would love to have a long, lost twin!!

I get so lonely sometimes just being my singular, individual self!

 

[me&thegals]

My memory is failing me and I'm too lazy to go back through all the posts. Did anyone mention swapping? I was thrilled to find a friend with gobs of rhubarb and maple syrup and she was thrilled to get my extra asparagus and eggs. It's like being a kid on your birthday again

Everyone feels like they got the best deal!

For those of you who live on some land, sometimes the land has so much more than 1 family can use. For example, on my in-laws property there are about 10 acres of black raspberries. Obviously I cannot possibly use that all. But, someone else might be delighted to come pick and maybe even willing to swap something for the privilege

Also, rotating books and toys among friends and family is one way to keep things "new" and interesting without actually having to keep buying more stuff. Or, just putting some books and toys away for a while accomplishes the same thing. The kids think it's so much fun to "discover" them again!

 

[tiki244]

I have a question: What is a dryer ball?

and a comment: That hardware place thats not orange probably puts a chain and lock on their garbage too

crazimess

 

[tiki244]

Quote:
I know,,,,,,I got my daughter a really nice anyique dresser for one of her children (she has 5 so that is hard to supply that tribe). Then I had a solid oak desk that I have been trying to give away for a year and nobody wanted it GEESZ My daughter took that too and sanded it down and refinished it.

 

[masschix]

tiki244 wrote:
I have a question: What is a dryer ball?

They are these wonderful little ball with nubs all over them. If you put two of them in your dryer, they help to circulate the air by keeping clothes apart. In short, they are supposed to cut dryer time a little and eliminate dryer sheets. Do they work? In my opinion....yes, if you ask my MIL...no. To each his own.​

 

[morelcabin]

Quote:
That's correct. I neglected to point that out. Thanks for the reminder!

However, since the amount of mercury is relatively small, about the size of this >>> . <<< per bulb, it's only an issue IF, you drop one (the vapor is the problem, leave the room, and carefully clean up after the air has settled) and IF you dump them in the regular trash so that multiple sources of mercury begin leaching into the system. Treat them as you would your spent batteries, then the mercury will be reclaimed and recycled, plus less mercury is being released by the electric company to power the higher wattage bulbs!

I've changed nearly every bulb in my house to CFLs and have cut my electric bill significantly. It's now down to just about $50 a month!

A few months ago someone also told me that the EMF? I think that's the term, anyway, they emit and electro magnetic feild that is very harmful and can cause cancer. If you do a search on the health dangers related to those bulbs you wouldn't be using them. They are starting to figure out that these bulbs can also cause skin cancer and other illnesses.
I just did a quick search out of curiousity and it seems they are finding more and more reasons NOT to use these bulbs! My health and that of my family is not worth saving a few dollars in hydro costs.

 

[morelcabin]

Quote:
They are these wonderful little ball with nubs all over them. If you put two of them in your dryer, they help to circulate the air by keeping clothes apart. In short, they are supposed to cut dryer time a little and eliminate dryer sheets. Do they work? In my opinion....yes, if you ask my MIL...no. To each his own.

I think they work quite well...been using them for a couple of years now...just gotta watch the dogs with them, they think they are an awesome chew toy:>)

 

[jnjross]

ohhhh my i just did my monthly shopping and i spent $410!!!

and i didn't buy diapers, only 1 bag of cat food, and one dishwasher powder. I can believe this i've never spent over $350 that with 2 cases of diaps,

all of those who planned to replace meat with dry beans well... walmarts on to us the price of dry beans is up 100-300%

i can belive it i can't , from 45cent to 98, 52 to 1.78 oh and my walmart stuck little white stickers over ALL the per unit price.

i smell a snake a rat snake

 

[chickenannie]

Around here, the Walmart put all the great mom-n-pop stores out of business. Our downtown is now a dead zone in terms of business. Everyone drives down to the Walmart. We used to have a locally owned hardware store, drugstore, paper store, art supply store, camera store and since Walmart came, they all went out of business. Boy do I miss them. At least they were accountable if something went wrong with the product you purchased. I don't think the products Walmart sells last long at all -- a lot of them are cr** and Walmarts doesn't care if it breaks. So my philosophy is buy quality and it will last a lifetime. You can get better quality second hand and thrift shopping and then it's not expensive.