What are your frugal and sustainable tips and tricks?

[Jabroni]

My family doesn’t buy eggs, and save egg cartons. We also cook on our wood stove in the winter to save fuel and money.

I try to mostly cook on the firepit in summer (we have a schwenker) but mostly for keeping the house from getting hot. This past summer we didn't run the air conditioning at all to cut the electric use. I kept the kiddie pool on the deck for the kids and it was a tremendous help to have freezing cold well water. It never gets too bad in the yard because we have lots of shade.

 

[ChicksnMore]

I would love to add horse manure to my chicken run composting system. Very nice of you to let people take as much as they want.

I don't think I would put manure inside my coop. I try to keep my deep bedding in the coop as dry as possible. If you have a deep litter (moist, composting) setup in your coop, I think horse manure would be great for that.

I do all my composting out in the chicken run, and the chickens love to dig in the compost and find all kinds of bugs and worms to eat. In the summertime, when my chickens can have access to the chicken run compost, my commercial feed costs are cut in half.

Ya...I should have said run. Definitely not coop material.

 

[gtaus]

This past summer we didn't run the air conditioning at all to cut the electric use.

Where are you? Recommend you update your member icon with your geographic location. It helps to know where a person is from when talking about a number of issues. I know, for example, my chicken coop needs here for northern Minnesota are probably a lot different than someone living in southern California.

I think last summer I only turned on the air conditioning less than 10 evenings. Dear Wife goes to bed early and gets up at 4 am for work. Sometimes I have to turn on the AC because the house has not yet cooled down for the evening at 8 or 9 pm. I don't run the AC otherwise. We have ceiling fans in all the bedrooms, and they are usually more than enough to keep everything cool for sleeping.

 

[Sally PB]

We have a window unit A/C that hubby installs when it starts getting too warm for his liking. I would probably skip it, if it were just for me.

My favorite way to cool the house down in to have a window fan blowing OUT in an upstairs window, and have the downstairs bedroom window open. Even better, put a window fan in both of the upstairs bedroom windows. (Two BRs up, one down, in our house.)

Important: If the fan is blowing out in only one of the upstairs windows, the other room's window has to be closed. Otherwise, the air just comes in from the other upstairs window, and is not pulled up from downstairs.

 

[saysfaa]

We have a window unit A/C that hubby installs when it starts getting too warm for his liking. I would probably skip it, if it were just for me.

My favorite way to cool the house down in to have a window fan blowing OUT in an upstairs window, and have the downstairs bedroom window open. Even better, put a window fan in both of the upstairs bedroom windows. (Two BRs up, one down, in our house.)

Important: If the fan is blowing out in only one of the upstairs windows, the other room's window has to be closed. Otherwise, the air just comes in from the other upstairs window, and is not pulled up from downstairs.

The next best thing to an attic fan!

 

[gtaus]

We have a window unit A/C that hubby installs when it starts getting too warm for his liking. I would probably skip it, if it were just for me.

I think I could easily get by with a window AC unit for our bedroom. Lot less money to cool down one room than the whole house. Unfortunately, we have those horizontal sliding windows so a typical window AC unit would not work.

My favorite way to cool the house down in to have a window fan blowing OUT in an upstairs window, and have the downstairs bedroom window open. Even better, put a window fan in both of the upstairs bedroom windows. (Two BRs up, one down, in our house.)

I usually have the deck sliding door open all night and blow cool air into the house. In the morning, I shut the sliding door and close all the blinds to keep the cool in the house. Usually, that's good enough to last the entire day and then I open the doors and put the fan in it again when it cools down in the evening.

We have ceiling fans throughout the house, so that is usually running 24/7 in the summer circulating the air. Much less expensive than turning on the AC.

Although not running the AC saves me lots of money, the other reason I don't like to run the AC is because I am usually working outside, sweating up a storm at times, and there is nothing worse than coming into a cold AC'd house and getting the chills. That's a good way to ensure you get a summer cold.

Over the years I have developed a habit of changing out of my wet tee-shirts when I come into the house, for lunch, or a break. I might go through 4 tee shirts in a day. But I don't want to cool off inside the house wearing wet clothes.

Speaking of changing out all those tee-shirts, I have on my list this summer to install a umbrella clothesline to hang out our clothes. No need to waste money on a dryer if you can air dry the clothes. Having said that, Dear Wife does almost all the laundry and she likes the convenience of just transferring the clothes to the dryer next to the washer. Maybe she will have change of heart if I get the clothesline installed out on our back deck. I really like the fresh smell of clothes dried out in the open air, but I know it means extra steps and more work for us if we do that. To me, it's worth it. But as I said, Dear Wife does almost all the laundry.

And before anyone jumps on me for not doing the laundry, I will tell you that Dear Wife does not want me to wash her stuff. I am allowed to wash my dirty clothes, if I want, but it's hands off on her clothes.

Would you believe we even have separate clothes hampers for our dirty laundry? Her basket fills up every two days, mine can go a week or longer before full. Does that make me more frugal than her? Or not?

Post your insults if you must, I can take it.

 

[ChicksnMore]

I think I could easily get by with a window AC unit for our bedroom. Lot less money to cool down one room than the whole house. Unfortunately, we have those horizontal sliding windows so a typical window AC unit would not work.



I usually have the deck sliding door open all night and blow cool air into the house. In the morning, I shut the sliding door and close all the blinds to keep the cool in the house. Usually, that's good enough to last the entire day and then I open the doors and put the fan in it again when it cools down in the evening.

We have ceiling fans throughout the house, so that is usually running 24/7 in the summer circulating the air. Much less expensive than turning on the AC.

Although not running the AC saves me lots of money, the other reason I don't like to run the AC is because I am usually working outside, sweating up a storm at times, and there is nothing worse than coming into a cold AC'd house and getting the chills. That's a good way to ensure you get a summer cold.

Over the years I have developed a habit of changing out of my wet tee-shirts when I come into the house, for lunch, or a break. I might go through 4 tee shirts in a day. But I don't want to cool off inside the house wearing wet clothes.

Speaking of changing out all those tee-shirts, I have on my list this summer to install a umbrella clothesline to hang out our clothes. No need to waste money on a dryer if you can air dry the clothes. Having said that, Dear Wife does almost all the laundry and she likes the convenience of just transferring the clothes to the dryer next to the washer. Maybe she will have change of heart if I get the clothesline installed out on our back deck. I really like the fresh smell of clothes dried out in the open air, but I know it means extra steps and more work for us if we do that. To me, it's worth it. But as I said, Dear Wife does almost all the laundry.

And before anyone jumps on me for not doing the laundry, I will tell you that Dear Wife does not want me to wash her stuff. I am allowed to wash my dirty clothes, if I want, but it's hands off on her clothes.

Would you believe we even have separate clothes hampers for our dirty laundry? Her basket fills up every two days, mine can go a week or longer before full. Does that make me more frugal than her? Or not?

Post your insults if you must, I can take it.

Me and my hubby are similar in that. I scoop his clothes up to wash and he gets grumpy though. It is frugality on his part...but I do like clean clothes! Still, I am trying! I grew up with wear once and wash. I have learned to re-wear work clothes, bed clothes and some other stuff. And hubbies learned to let me wash his when I'm afraid they'll go for a walk by themselves.

 

[Sally PB]

I like my clothes filed in small piles on the floor.

I do the laundry. Fortunately, DH likes the smell of line dried clothing.

Speaking of that smell... I looked up "why" clothes dried on the line smell like that. It's because of the sunlight. Which explains why sometimes my line dried clothes smell better: more sunshine. I wish I could move the clothesline into a more sunny spot, but it is where it is because that's where there's room for it.

If I could I bottle that smell, I'd spray it everywhere!

 

[alwaystj9]

I love that smell also and line dry everything. I started doing it when my dryer broke and just continued doing it...my (grown) children still think the dryer's broken and that I am too cheap/goofy to fix it. But it was just a belt I fixed it that first week. One of my old T poles that held up my original laundry line broke off and I got one of those "solar dryers" that are like umbrellas. I have had some issues with it blowing over and it's a poor design. The tips at the ends of the pipe that actually hold the line have all snapped off. I had to redo some of the line and it's a bit smaller than it used to be. I try to fold it up during storms & very windy days but don't always catch it in time. I also have it in a pvc pipe in a cement filled tire. I must need a bigger cement filled tire....Or maybe set up new T posts.

 

[ChicksnMore]

I do the laundry. Fortunately, DH likes the smell of line dried clothing.

Speaking of that smell... I looked up "why" clothes dried on the line smell like that. It's because of the sunlight. Which explains why sometimes my line dried clothes smell better: more sunshine. I wish I could move the clothesline into a more sunny spot, but it is where it is because that's where there's room for it.

If I could I bottle that smell, I'd spray it everywhere!

I set my line dry area up in full shade. Afraid the sun's going to fade my clothes, but I haven't actually tried drying in the sun. Any hints or tips to sun dry without fading the clothes? The smell sounds lovely.