Seriously, is there ever any way to get ahead?

[debilorrah]

Quote:
Good gravy - you made my tummy rumble with the mention of gravy and biscuits

We had chicken dinner last night - blue roo

Speaking of gravy, I have come to the conclusion that I need a sifter, because I ALWAYS use Wondra and that stuff is expensive. I am soooo hungry right now. MOMMY!!!!

 

[A Dunne]

I read this entire thread. Wow.

I did learn a lot and going to register over at the self sufficiency forum.
HUGS of sympathy to everyone who needs them.

Its good to see there is still a place where people (for the most part) lend an ear and give advice without tearing someone down.

 

[debilorrah]

Alot of good has come from this thread. A new crockpot recipes page is a goldmine for me.

 

[feathersnuggles]

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Oh, Thank You for making me snort my coffee!!

 

[debilorrah]

Quote:

Oh, Thank You for making me snort my coffee!!

I miss that comment!!!!!

 

[ChickensAreSweet]

The things I like to do are:

We use handkerchiefs. I cut up old sheets (and have even gone to the fabric store in the past to buy fabric) and sew handkerchiefs- lots of them. We don't buy kleenex any more. I have so many handkerchiefs in bowls all folded up around the house that my 2 sons and husband (and myself) never run out or have to use a dirty one. It is very sanitary as I wash them on hot (which is expensive but I MUST have my boiling hot water for my very dirty clothes). My mom says when she was a girl her mom actually boiled the clothes over a fire in a giant cauldron. I use warm and cold water for the clothes that aren't very dirty (most of them).

I cut up old worn out clothes for rags and use them in the kitchen and for scrubbing the house. We don't buy paper towels any more.

I buy rice and other staples in bulk at Winco. Spices too. Then I put them in my own saved containers. We eat a lot of pasta, rice, and cheap 88 cent white bread (kept in freezer- I buy about 6 loaves at a time). I freeze my butter and buy about 12 at a time. I have frozen cheese and milk too but prefer them not frozen. The fewer trips to the grocery store, the cheaper our monthly groceries are.

I don't use coupons- but I don't tend to buy the things the coupons are for anyways.

We buy frozen meat to save money (DH about hit the ceiling when I didn't know that this was cheaper and bought some chicken drumsticks fresh once).

We buy frozen vegetables (except for tomatoes and lettuce etc.) because there is NEVER any waste. I found that if I bought corn, peas, or broccoli fresh, I would end up throwing away some of it. This is because I would forget it was there and it would go bad.

We do have a Costco membership- but if it were me I would drop it. Everything is $ 10 in there. And it leads to impulse shopping for my family. I can shop so much cheaper at the grocery store, buying small quantities that we are SURE to use up. My DH LOVES his Costco membership, and I have brought it up before, that it would save money to not have it. But he really got upset so I dropped it. I do love their pizzas and hot dogs, lol. Their pizzas are only $10. That is our favorite treat.

I make my own laundry soap with shredded soap (bits left over from other uses and also brand new Fels-Naptha bars), washing soda, and borax. I still buy some regular powdered detergent in large sizes as I don't want to ruin the septic (I have a family member who had to have his repaired after switching to just "soap" in the laundry for allergy reasons).

I buy the cheap Pine Sol knockoff which is $ 1.50 per bottle. Then I dilute it way down to scrub the house. I also use Comet and bleach diluted. I use Dawn dish liquid for scrubbing the toilets (works great!).

I split our firewood with a maul. I cut a lot of it myself with the bow saw. My FIL cuts some for me with a chainsaw in the summer (God bless him). We use a woodstove to heat the upstairs. The downstairs is my DH's choice- about how cold he wants to keep it. We run the heat pump for that.

I do spend a lot on chicken feed- I'll admit. This is the one area of my life that I just really enjoy so much. I don't even watch tv or movies- but the chickens are my joy.

Everywhere else I am so frugal. We buy our clothes at Goodwill or Walmart mostly. Thank God I have two boys so I can recycle their clothes down to the younger one. Then I sell them at the consignment store (where I also buy some) if they are in good enough shape.

For hand soap around the house, I go to the Winco or dollar store and buy bubble bath in huge containers. Then I put it into saved hand pumps for the bathroom sink areas.

I have fake roses and lillies, etc. that I bought at Michaels a long time ago when the economy was better. I just rearrange them and put them in different vases that I have to make the room cheerier. I don't buy fresh flowers any more.

I hose out my chicken coops now once a week instead of using the deep litter method in the coops with slatted floors. This is saving me big $ in shavings!!!!

In my shed coop, I scrape the floor with a rake and treat the whole floor like a poop board instead of putting shavings in there. The edges of the shed were getting the shavings wet anyway. But it saves a lot of money too.

We buy the large cereal bags instead of boxes now. Also I bought a wafflemaker maybe a year ago. It makes very cheap breakfasts and we use it a lot.

We buy the frozen juice cylinders and mix it up in a container instead of buying juice bottles on the shelf, which we used to do. We don't buy fresh orange juice anymore (unless DH splurges on it- rare).

 

[MysticScorpio82]

Quote:
Yeah it is!! I already had the budget101 page saved in my favorites. If you have the freezer space, then I would definately go for "make a bunch of meals to pull out on the nights you don't want to cook" but alas, I only have the freezer that is part of the fridge.

I know the economy is tough right now, but hang in there Deb, we can pull through!

 

[PaulaJoAnne]

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Generic yes, necessities yes, sale items usually, scratch mostly (We both work full time), grow/raise food not so much. Our soil here is hard as concrete, called colicci, we need a jack hammer to make a hole. Make cleaning supplies gotta look into that one. Lights off, as much as possible, but we do have a 3 year old.

I appreciate everyons comments and suggestions.

I have not read the whole thread, but making your own raised beds is the way to go. We are on a filled acre, and by bringing in dirt, old hay, straw, lawn clippings, manure and cardboard, we are well on our way to having a huge garden.
Potatoes grow very well on straw and leaf mulch. No dirt needed.

Come on over to SS and dive in!

 

[HorseFeatherz NV]

I do not have a sifter either - but I do have a metal mesh strainer which I use

Ok, I am basically worthless in the kitchen - I mean I can follow a recipe and feed us but what is Wondra? Is it a type of flour?



We only go to "town" twice a month to do the shopping and purchase animal feed. Honestly, if we did not live in the high desert with a superbly short growing season - I would try to never go to town.

I can certainly understand everyone's worry. DH has been out of work since November and we have no income coming in - for me, I was raised with little to no money when I was a kid so it is like falling back into something I understand and feel comfortable with - being frugal - DH was not raised like I was and he has had a bit hard adjustment period. Like papertowels - he still makes comments about not having paper towels - they are so convenient and easy he says – use clothe kitchen towels I insist, they wash well and we can use them again. Buying paper towels is like throwing your cash right into the garbage to me.

 

[kuntrygirl]

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I would love to have that as a reference. I'm always looking for new ways to save money and cut back. I wish that there was a little book to reference with all of these cost saving methods so everyone could use as a reference. I will try to copy and paste everyone's idea and use as a handbook to reference. A lot of great ideas being discussed.

Another little thing that I do (most people may think that it's yucky) is that I use my tea bag at least 3 times before throwing it away. The 3rd cup of tea is just as good as the first. I get a lot of tea bags from family, friends and co-workers who buy "new flavored" tea bags and wind up not liking them. So, they know that I like to re-cycle, so they will bring me a box of tea bags with only 1 tea bag missing from the box and I will use it. Tastes good to me.

Co-workers are friends will bring me bags of fresh lemons from their trees and I squeeze a nice pitcher of lemonde for the first go round. For the 2nd and 3rd go round with those same lemons, I get a glass of water or a large pitcher of water and let the used lemon rinds soak in the water for a couple of days. On that last day, I make a nice potion of more lemonade. YUMMY!