What are your frugal and sustainable tips and tricks?

[fuzzi]

I have to buy clothing and dry goods (sheets, etc) online, everything local is made too cheap, and have few options for all cotton.

Here are my recommendations:

Land's End
Their towels are good, have cotton options, very good outerwear (coats, etc.), clothing not as good as in the past.

Vermont Country Store
They have good kitchen stuff, women's clothing, but cotton sheets ripped after 1 year. I love my cotton blankets.

My Pillow
Everything I have purchased from them was excellent quality, made from cotton, slippers have lasted, love their sheets!

LLBean
They have good outerwear, and I love their Waterhog mats.

Maggie's Organics
They have great socks and clothes. They also have very good customer service and return policies. My only complaint is that their selection is limited.

Golden Touch Naturals
I have purchased alpaca gloves, other outerwear from them, very pleased with the quality.

Most of these companies have prices higher than Amaz0n and Walmart, but I watch for sales. I also consider that what I want might cost more, but it's probably worth it, like an investment.

 

[MotherofOrpies]

I buy a lot 2. hand, first it is cheaper and also sustainable cos you reuse stuff

 

[gtaus]

Free Mix Music For Your Audio Device

Back in the 1970's when I was growing up, we used to record the radio stations and save our favorite songs to a separate cassette tape. Good times!

I was one of the cool kids in school that always had the latest songs on cassettes to play in the car. Then, we had the cassette walkman in the early 1980's and you could have your favorite music with you all the time. Imagine, all your favorite songs on a 90 minute cassette!

Of course, I went through any number of audio devices through the years, but the concept of mixing my own music lists was something I have always done.

Well, fast forward to today. I recently found a nice little free program called StreamWriter that will record internet radio stations, automatically cut the songs out of the recording adding the artist and title to the filename, and put them into separate .mp3 files that you can load up into your various audio devices.

For the past couple of days, I have been recording some Blues internet radio stations in the background on my computer. It only takes about 3% of my CPU processing, which is almost nothing even on my old laptop. So far, the program has been recording 3 separate internet radio streams and saving songs to the hard drive. I now have hundreds and hundreds of songs in my folders that are already labeled and ready to transfer into my smartphone audio player.

There are all kinds of internet radio stations to choose from, broken down by the genre of music they typically play. There is a feature to add your own favorite internet radio station if it's not on the list already. I have not used that feature yet, but maybe I'll find some other great internet radio station that specializes in a particular content I might want.

I have been listening to some of the saved songs that are new to me. If I don't know the artist, or the song, I like to check it out. Already, I have discovered a number of new artists (to me) in the genre of music that I want to hear more from. Having the artist's name and the title of the song on each .mp3 file is much better than listening to the radio and wondering what song is playing.

Anyway, free stuff like this has value to me because I almost always wear Bluetooth Safety Headphones when I am outside working in the yard or in the shop.

I have all kinds of recorded radio programs, audiobooks, and educational programs to listen to while I work. Now I can remix some of my favorite songs and have another option to enjoy while I work.

I might not be a teenager anymore, but it still feels cool to load up a digital mix tape for the on the go listening!

 

[Sally PB]

Here's my tip for the day.

Put on your favorite music. Sing along. Work goes faster and is easier, and you smile more.

Plus, singing is good for you.

 

[gtaus]

Here's my tip for the day.

Put on your favorite music. Sing along. Work goes faster and is easier, and you smile more.

Plus, singing is good for you.

Most of my work these days is things I enjoy doing. But I almost always have my safety headphones on to protect my hearing. Plus, I enjoy listening to stuff while I putz around the yard mowing the lawn or working on projects in the garage/shop. I wear my headphones and listen to stuff even when I don't need the headphones for hearing protection.

Singing is good for you, but I will say, however, that when I was in Nursing School, I would load up my mp3 player with educational lectures and readings on topics that I was studying at the time. You can never study too much when you are in Nursing School, so I was able to review lots of stuff via audio recordings while I was gardening, cutting down trees, etc... It's not the same as focused study, but for study review, listening to educational lectures and material while working outside at home was a good use of that time.

Lately, I have been studying some foreign languages. I always have some of that stuff loaded up in my smartphone to listen to while working. I might not be singing while I work, but I will be repeating back the foreign language and working on my pronunciation while I work. I only wish I had these tools when I was studying in university back in the 1980's!

The most amazing thing, for me, is that so many of these tools are free if you know where to look. Back in the day, I had to pay big money for my language tapes and textbooks. Now, you can get all that and more for free if you look around. And I would never have thought of having that stuff loaded up on a smartphone ready to listen to whenever I wanted. We live in good times.

At any rate, I checked my computer this morning and in the past few days the StreamWriter program has downloaded and recorded more than 2,400 songs! All in individual .mp3 files ready to transfer into my audio program on my smartphone. I'll probably just load them up into the smart card memory on my phone and hit the shuffle button on my audio player. Hours and hours of great music with no commercials!

 

[SmiYa0126]

Soo, I've been eyeing up those kitchen composters for winter kitchen compost and I was always thinking it looks like a bread machine....Soo can I get a cheap one at Goodwill and try it? What do you guys think?

 

[SmiYa0126]

Most of my work these days is things I enjoy doing. But I almost always have my safety headphones on to protect my hearing. Plus, I enjoy listening to stuff while I putz around the yard mowing the lawn or working on projects in the garage/shop. I wear my headphones and listen to stuff even when I don't need the headphones for hearing protection.

Singing is good for you, but I will say, however, that when I was in Nursing School, I would load up my mp3 player with educational lectures and readings on topics that I was studying at the time. You can never study too much when you are in Nursing School, so I was able to review lots of stuff via audio recordings while I was gardening, cutting down trees, etc... It's not the same as focused study, but for study review, listening to educational lectures and material while working outside at home was a good use of that time.

Lately, I have been studying some foreign languages. I always have some of that stuff loaded up in my smartphone to listen to while working. I might not be singing while I work, but I will be repeating back the foreign language and working on my pronunciation while I work. I only wish I had these tools when I was studying in university back in the 1980's!

The most amazing thing, for me, is that so many of these tools are free if you know where to look. Back in the day, I had to pay big money for my language tapes and textbooks. Now, you can get all that and more for free if you look around. And I would never have thought of having that stuff loaded up on a smartphone ready to listen to whenever I wanted. We live in good times.

At any rate, I checked my computer this morning and in the past few days the StreamWriter program has downloaded and recorded more than 2,400 songs! All in individual .mp3 files ready to transfer into my audio program on my smartphone. I'll probably just load them up into the smart card memory on my phone and hit the shuffle button on my audio player. Hours and hours of great music with no commercials!

Also the big ivy league colleges offer so many free courses too. It doesn't go towards a degree but it's a great way to expand knowledge for free.

 

[gtaus]

Soo, I've been eyeing up those kitchen composters for winter kitchen compost and I was always thinking it looks like a bread machine....Soo can I get a cheap one at Goodwill and try it? What do you guys think?

I have looked at the Lomi kitchen "composter" for a number of years...

They were over $500.00 when I first heard of them. So, they have come down in price over time. Also, I think there are other brands similar to Lomi and sell for even less.

As far as I know, they all operated on the concept of dehydrating the food waste and grinding it up into an almost powder-like substance. Lomi calls this a "pre-compost" product that you would use to mix into a "regular" compost pile for aging and finishing off into real compost.

I like the concept of being able to recycle kitchen food waste. These kitchen composters are one way to do that. I hear that they work well and basically perform as advertised. You would be recycling your kitchen waste that otherwise might be dumped into a garbage bag and sent to a landfill. If that fits your needs, then I say go for it especially if you can find a used one at a Thrift Shop that still works well.

Personally, I have a backyard flock of chickens. We put our kitchen scraps and unwanted leftovers into an empty ice cream pail, and I feed that to our chickens every morning. They eat the food waste, processing it into chicken poo, which is used in my chicken run composting system. Letting the chickens eat our food waste cuts down on the commercial feed costs a little bit. Plus, the chickens give us eggs. For me, that is a better deal than having to buy a Lomi kitchen composter. But I understand that not everybody might have backyard chickens and feeding kitchen scraps to them might not be an option.

If you do get a kitchen composter, just remember that it basically dehydrates the food waste and grinds it up. It's not true compost. I read a university study on using this ground up, dehydrated product on flower beds. They discovered that if you sprinkled the Lomi "pre-compost" on the topsoil of a garden bed, and then it got wet from rain or watering, it would rehydrate and grow mold. You either have to work the Lomi "pre-compost" into the soil or actually mix it into a compost pile for real composting - which takes time.

If you are interested in some more info and feedback, you might want to check out the thread

Composting - $500 Lomi v. FREE Chicken Bucket?​

 

[gtaus]

Also the big ivy league colleges offer so many free courses too. It doesn't go towards a degree but it's a great way to expand knowledge for free.

Yes, and YouTube also has university lecture series which is also a great way to learn without having to pay university fees. No credits towards a degree, but a great resource if learning is the only objective.

I use 4kVideoDownLoader to download YouTube videos to my computer for off the internet use. The free versions limit you to about 5 downloads per day and don't support playlists.

I purchased a "lifetime" license for 4KVideoDownloader a few years ago because I found I used the program a lot. Unfortunately, the "lifetime" license turned out to be only a few years because they don't support that version much anymore. They now have 4KVideoDownLoader+, which they claim is a new product. Essentially, my older "lifetime" license is still valid, the program just is no longer updated and supported like I expected. I don't want to pay for the new version as long as my older version works good enough. The newer version works better and is frequently updated.

I hate it when these companies sell you a "lifetime" license and then stop supporting that software release, forcing you pay again for their "new program" which does the same thing. And I just won't pay for a monthly "subscription" for software. I really hate that whole subscription concept as it has never worked out for me.

On the other hand, you can download free versions of the 4K products and use them in a limited fashion. That might be all you need. Free is good, especially when it's all you need. If you find you use it more than that, or if you really want those full license features, you can buy a license. I know I bought my license around Christmas time a few years ago and got a good discount.

I am so old that I remember when a "lifetime" license or warranty was actually backed by these companies. Now, it just seems to be a marketing slogan with no real commitment.

 

[fuzzi]

Yes, and YouTube also has university lecture series which is also a great way to learn without having to pay university fees. No credits towards a degree, but a great resource if learning is the only objective.

I use 4kVideoDownLoader to download YouTube videos to my computer for off the internet use. The free versions limit you to about 5 downloads per day and don't support playlists.

View attachment 3982204

I purchased a "lifetime" license for 4KVideoDownloader a few years ago because I found I used the program a lot. Unfortunately, the "lifetime" license turned out to be only a few years because they don't support that version much anymore. They now have 4KVideoDownLoader+, which they claim is a new product. Essentially, my older "lifetime" license is still valid, the program just is no longer updated and supported like I expected. I don't want to pay for the new version as long as my older version works good enough. The newer version works better and is frequently updated.

I hate it when these companies sell you a "lifetime" license and then stop supporting that software release, forcing you pay again for their "new program" which does the same thing. And I just won't pay for a monthly "subscription" for software. I really hate that whole subscription concept as it has never worked out for me.

On the other hand, you can download free versions of the 4K products and use them in a limited fashion. That might be all you need. Free is good, especially when it's all you need. If you find you use it more than that, or if you really want those full license features, you can buy a license. I know I bought my license around Christmas time a few years ago and got a good discount.

I am so old that I remember when a "lifetime" license or warranty was actually backed by these companies. Now, it just seems to be a marketing slogan with no real commitment.

Same concept with e-books, they're not yours. The seller can pull the plug and make it impossible to read. I still prefer paperbacks.