What are you doing to stretch a dollar?

[miss_jayne]

my husband drives my '73 VW bug to work....super gas mileage!
(it's baby blue and he's a real man for driving it!)

i have been trading meat chickens for pork, beef and soon wood for the fireplaces.

we are pretty thrifty in the first place. we are home bodies, we don't 'go out' and we don't do fast food unless it's some kind of unforeseen issue where we were gone longer than planned somewhere.

we run both fireplaces and it gets to be about 75 degrees in the living room!

we don't have premium satellite or extra phone services. we do have cell phones because of my health, but only the minimum needed.

we plan menus and make homemade bread/biscuits/rolls.

i do the homemade laundry soap and dishwasher detergent. i made my own recipe for the dishwasher detergent because the popular one floating the net seemed to leave a weird residue.

i use the same recipe as the dry laundry soap, minus the fels-naptha. works great!!!

 

[the1much]

i steam mine first,, before stretching

 

[blueskylen]

i guess that we have been thrifty for years, but are now seeing the real need to be even more thrifty.

i go to auctions and buy used furniture to refinish and small appliances plus anything else that we can use. My husband also builds a lot of furniture himself and also built our kitchen cabinets.

we built our log home out of a shell kit, and then bought primer/paint at the oops section of Lowes. went to all of the local discount building supply shops for cheaper flooring,toilets/sinks/baths. shopped every sale for furnishings that we could find - never paid full price for anything.

make our own bio-diesel for .75 per gallon.

raise a big garden and can veggies and meats.

the only real extravagance that i have is paper towels - use a ton of them - and need to use more hand towels.

 

[ChickenToes]

My husband drove his motorcycle to work all summer, and then he bought a little beat up car that gets 30 mpg. That's what he drives now, but I cannot give up my truck. I love my gas hog, what can I say?

Shop at Goodwill and other thrift stores.

I make my own soap and laundry detergent.

We no longer drink soda. We don't eat processed foods, everything is cooked from scratch. We only eat homemade bread. I plan out our meals in advance, then go grocery shopping. That way I only buy what I need.

Yes, it can be a lot of work to make bread and cook everything from scratch - but we eat like kings!

We have breakfast for dinner at least once a week. This summer we had a garden and I canned and froze as much as I could. My husband has been hunting so we can fill the freezer with wild game.

I made linen napkins so I could stop buying the paper ones. We use rags instead of paper towels. I clean the house with vinegar, water, and bleach.

We burn firewood, and that saves us so much money it's unreal.

 

[sundance]

I buy the pump dispenser for soap from walmarts and then buy the large size to refill.also put a rubber band around the top of the pump so only get about half of the soap, still enough to really clean your hands and last twice as long. since there is just the 2 of us we have cut down on both meat and usually eat about 10.30 in the morning and about 6at night so 2 meals not three and lots of time its breakfast for dinner.We have enough clothes to last us the rest of our life so my CAN'T DO WITHOUT is books,so have found both paperback swap( thanks writer of words) and also book mooch.Thrift stores, yard sales,flea markets. marrie

 

[Sugar Sand Farm]

We cut down on trips to town,started shoppping at Save Alot, buy in bulk freeze what we can. Had a big garden this past year and canned for the first time. Recently butchered two pigs (had two friends do it and saved 500.00 the butcher wanted.) Have over 350 pounds of pork in three freezers. Stopped buying soda and snacks, if DH has sweet tooth I make him donuts or sosmething from scratch. Put the AC up to 78, always washed in cold water,make my own detergent.Buy clothes on sale. Just got two pairs of shorts for 1.00 each I'll put them away for a few months Can't cut down on animal food especially dog and cat. I changed the dogs food to Old Roy and his coat became dry and rust colored. The cat is 21 years old and I can't change her eating habits now. Coupons, coupons coupons.

 

[hennypenny9]

Quote:
I'm going to put a rubber band around my soap pump right now! So far that's been the only "new" idea for me, which is saying something as I work and go to college! I do what everyone else does, like cutting out meat, turning down the thermostat, etc. But some other things.

-Shop only with cash. If you only have a limited amount, you can't over spend.

-Close all the curtains at night. It helps keep out any cold drafts.

-Hand make all presents. Before I would spend $20+ on a present. Now I can crochet a scarf from one skein of Lion Brand Homespun yard, which I get on sale for around $3.00 each. Or for a baby present, instead of expensive baby cloths (ridiculous, honestly) I can make a 100% cotton receiving blanket (40"x40")for $6.25. If that's too big, then (36"x36") for $5.00. All on sale, of course, and everyone oohs and ahhs over home made things.

-http://www.couponcabin.com/

-If you have recycling, go online to that company and read everything they allow. I was amazed at some of the things they will take, and now I only have garbage picked up once a month because of all the things I can recycle for FREE.

 

[TerryLee]

Get this, I just sold a business I had for 20 years, the owners are changing the phone #, we couldn't transfer it, so I called to have it disconnected and they nearly begged me to keep it for $14 a month instead of the $54 it has been for the last 20 years for the same exact service. (Verizon) So just on a lark I called to disconnect the home phone (with no intention of doing so) to see what would happen, same thing again, begged us to keep the service for $14 a month instead of the $45 it has always been, with tax the entire bill is less than $17 a month. That's almost a $30 savings a month for the same exact service, I was shocked!

I also sign up for all the free samples online, if you don't know about it Walmart has free samples all the time. They change them regularly, I've gotten snacks, feminine supplies, detergent, toothpaste, shampoo, conditioner, moisturizer, they also usually have diapers for all of you out there with little ones. http://walmart.triaddigital.com/In-Stores-Now-free-samples.aspx

Good thread idea!

~Terry~

 

[eggzettera]

Hey Terry

I have my hot water tank wrapped in a insulating blanket & turned down to the very lowest setting I turn it up right before I need it 5-10 minutes /shower or half an hour before a bath (big tub). I hand wash dishes & @ the lowest setting its hot enough. I really should go under my crawl space & insulate the hot water pipes going to the kitchen sink, it takes a while to heat up. The bathrooms are right nest to the water heater so they get hot fast - not travelling any real distance.....

The only thing pulling power right now (I am at work) is my alarm clock, a small stereo, fridge & the furnace. The dryer & washer machine are plugged in but the don't pull phantom power. Everything else (tv, dvd, etc) are on power cords that have been shut off. I have a gas stove top so that is not an issue but my double oven would pull phantom power, so I shut the breaker to it off. Since I live alone don't use it often enough to warrant & I use my toaster oven.....

Hang clothes to dry, cold water for washing clothes, all the other things mentioned here....

My biggest problem is my house has the old single pane glass for the windows. I don't use 2 rooms so the heat vents have been turned off & the doors closed. Didn't even bother getting the swamp cooler gong this year & in Utah that is no small thing....

 

[opps00]

my family dont need to save money lol. cuz we got lots of it