Tell me how to be thrifty

BillyMollyEmmy · November 2013

I consider myself a kinda thrifty gal. I buy my daughter's toys used and some of my clothes. I cloth diaper. I don't have cable or satellite TV, we live in a tiny house, I ride my bike to work.... but I want to save more money.

We are in need of a second vehicle that would put us about $5,000 in debt. Since I hate debt, I want to pay it off as soon as possible by saving money in other areas.

What say you about things like making your own laundry soap or using family cloth (oh yes, I said it, washable toilet paper! For shame!)

Tell me your secrets to saving moola.

danabsd · November 2013

Family cloth. :-&

I just can't.

tyrannasaurusjess · November 2013

We were paying $35 for our internet per month, and then it jumped to $50, so I called to see what was up with that. I asked if they had any specials, and they did--- $25 a month for 6 months. So we now pay less than we did originally! She said once the 6 months was up to call back because they are always running deals that they don't really advertise. I know you probably can't negotiate your mortgage, but internet, phone..things like that you may be able to bring down a bit?

BPer · November 2013

danabsd said:

Family cloth. :-&

I just can't.

Yeah. This.

BillyMollyEmmy · November 2013

danabsd said:

Family cloth. :-&

I just can't.

I know. I mean I do cloth diapers (maybe you do too!) and so poop doesn't really gross me out anymore. It just doesn't. I do cloth pads so maybe I am just numb to bodily fluids? Give me all the cloth! It doesn't weird me out.

BillyMollyEmmy · November 2013

jessk86 said:

We were paying $35 for our internet per month, and then it jumped to $50, so I called to see what was up with that. I asked if they had any specials, and they did--- $25 a month for 6 months. So we now pay less than we did originally! She said once the 6 months was up to call back because they are always running deals that they don't really advertise. I know you probably can't negotiate your mortgage, but internet, phone..things like that you may be able to bring down a bit?

I think hydro is our biggest kicker. And water. My mom loves to give the baby "play baths" during the day... I have a water meter, mom! I think I need to bring those bills down a little.

BPer · November 2013

BillyMollyEmmy said:

danabsd said:

Family cloth. :-&

I just can't.

I know. I mean I do cloth diapers (maybe you do too!) and so poop doesn't really gross me out anymore. It just doesn't. I do cloth pads so maybe I am just numb to bodily fluids? Give me all the cloth! It doesn't weird me out.

I feel like baby poop is one thing, H's poop? No thank you.

PenelopePond · November 2013

I use cloth wipes just for me and just for pee. We went six months without having to buy toilet paper.

Pokedot · November 2013

I'm all about saving money but being able to enjoy life as well. Family cloth is NOT for us but we try to cut back in other areas especially grocery shopping. We use the envelope system for gas and groceries and starting in January we'll be using it for all facets. Right now we budget for groceries/gas and use cash. When it's gone, it's gone. We don't go out to eat, only on special occassions. We did no spend October and saved all of my take home income plus some of DH's just buy sticking to a strict budget and not spending on anything other than gas, groceries and bills.

redneckmomma25 · November 2013

If I had @cherrycrepe 's toilet I wouldn't mind family cloth.

My friend makes her own laundry detergent. Doesn't take her long an lasts months. Go for it. I know a bunch of people here make their detergent as well.

BillyMollyEmmy · November 2013

Pokedot said:

I'm all about saving money but being able to enjoy life as well. Family cloth is NOT for us but we try to cut back in other areas especially grocery shopping. We use the envelope system for gas and groceries and starting in January we'll be using it for all facets. Right now we budget for groceries/gas and use cash. When it's gone, it's gone. We don't go out to eat, only on special occassions. We did no spend October and saved all of my take home income plus some of DH's just buy sticking to a strict budget and not spending on anything other than gas, groceries and bills.

So, what do you budget for groceries on any given week? I love the idea of a "no spend" month.

jbBeans · November 2013

BillyMollyEmmy said:

jessk86 said:

We were paying $35 for our internet per month, and then it jumped to $50, so I called to see what was up with that. I asked if they had any specials, and they did--- $25 a month for 6 months. So we now pay less than we did originally! She said once the 6 months was up to call back because they are always running deals that they don't really advertise. I know you probably can't negotiate your mortgage, but internet, phone..things like that you may be able to bring down a bit?

I think hydro is our biggest kicker. And water. My mom loves to give the baby "play baths" during the day... I have a water meter, mom! I think I need to bring those bills down a little.

Do you guys have smart meters? We do here, so I try to only do laundry during the low-cost hours (which is basically nights and weekends).

ummm.... I realized a lot of cleaning supplies are unnecessary. I pretty much only clean with vinegar and water now, and reuseable cloths instead of paper towel.

Eat less meat--plan a few cheapie meals each night (beans and rice, etc). I think you mealplan, but if you don't, start. It definitely saves $, IMO.

I don't make homemade laundry detergent, but I do buy ours at Costco and it's definitely a savings.

Question: your, um, personal cloth. How/where/with what do you wash it? I kind of want to do this, but feel like I wouldn't want to wash it with anything else, and then that seems hard because it would be such small loads. Sorry, to the mama cloth/family cloth haterz :P

Pokedot · November 2013

BillyMollyEmmy said:

Pokedot said:

I'm all about saving money but being able to enjoy life as well. Family cloth is NOT for us but we try to cut back in other areas especially grocery shopping. We use the envelope system for gas and groceries and starting in January we'll be using it for all facets. Right now we budget for groceries/gas and use cash. When it's gone, it's gone. We don't go out to eat, only on special occassions. We did no spend October and saved all of my take home income plus some of DH's just buy sticking to a strict budget and not spending on anything other than gas, groceries and bills.

So, what do you budget for groceries on any given week? I love the idea of a "no spend" month.

We do. We base it off of DH's pay period. He gets paid biweekly so every 2 weeks we take the money out of the bank and put it in the envelope. The change goes back in and after the 2 weeks is up we see what we have. If we have surplus you can save it or put that much less in for the next 2 weeks. I usually try to do $150/2 weeks. For gas we know what we use and it's usually less than $120 every 2 weeks so we put $120 in the envelope and usually have some left over that we then roll over into the next 2 weeks. The no spend month was actually a lot of fun! It was kind of a game of how much we could really save. Our goal was my entire 2 checks but we surpassed that and put some of DH's in too. He's been working tons of OT so we knew we needed to mix things up and save it instead of be frivilous! He's put in over 460 hours of OT this year!

PenelopePond · November 2013

I wash my cloth wipes either with the cloth diapers or our towels (only if I forget to throw them in with the diapers).

jbBeans · November 2013

BillyMollyEmmy said:

Pokedot said:

I'm all about saving money but being able to enjoy life as well. Family cloth is NOT for us but we try to cut back in other areas especially grocery shopping. We use the envelope system for gas and groceries and starting in January we'll be using it for all facets. Right now we budget for groceries/gas and use cash. When it's gone, it's gone. We don't go out to eat, only on special occassions. We did no spend October and saved all of my take home income plus some of DH's just buy sticking to a strict budget and not spending on anything other than gas, groceries and bills.

So, what do you budget for groceries on any given week? I love the idea of a "no spend" month.

We do cash jars, too. We budget $240/two weeks in High as fuck COL Toronto. You might need to take a few weeks to figure it out and adjust accordingly.

BillyMollyEmmy · November 2013

jbBeans said:

BillyMollyEmmy said:

jessk86 said:

We were paying $35 for our internet per month, and then it jumped to $50, so I called to see what was up with that. I asked if they had any specials, and they did--- $25 a month for 6 months. So we now pay less than we did originally! She said once the 6 months was up to call back because they are always running deals that they don't really advertise. I know you probably can't negotiate your mortgage, but internet, phone..things like that you may be able to bring down a bit?

I think hydro is our biggest kicker. And water. My mom loves to give the baby "play baths" during the day... I have a water meter, mom! I think I need to bring those bills down a little.

Do you guys have smart meters? We do here, so I try to only do laundry during the low-cost hours (which is basically nights and weekends).

ummm.... I realized a lot of cleaning supplies are unnecessary. I pretty much only clean with vinegar and water now, and reuseable cloths instead of paper towel.

Eat less meat--plan a few cheapie meals each night (beans and rice, etc). I think you mealplan, but if you don't, start. It definitely saves $, IMO.

I don't make homemade laundry detergent, but I do buy ours at Costco and it's definitely a savings.

Question: your, um, personal cloth. How/where/with what do you wash it? I kind of want to do this, but feel like I wouldn't want to wash it with anything else, and then that seems hard because it would be such small loads. Sorry, to the mama cloth/family cloth haterz :P

like @PenelopePond said, I would wash with my cloth diapers or towels. The truth is that there's not going to be very much waste on the cloth itself. You use it, drop it in a decorative laundry basket with a lid, and dump it in the wash. You don't even have to touch them if you do it right

I am going to do what I used to do and begin cleaning again with vinegar and water and cloths. It doesn't make sense to spend money on paper towels when, again, my mom uses them by the hundreds. So, you could wash with those and then you have the added vinegar already in the load.

Hyaline · November 2013

*Meal Plan. And meal plan smart--like plan buying one ingredient for two dishes (like that you'll need only half the carrots in the bag for the soup so you're making a shredded carrot salad the next day). Make enough of soups, stews, etc for leftover lunches.

*BUT have a couple convenience food stashes for mistakes and poor planning, like frozen pizza or those Chinese food in a bag that you warm in the skillet things. It's cheaper to do that than eat out or order in if you have an unforseen time crunch or your meat went bad or whatever.

*Buy in Bulk. Our Sam's membership has more than paid for itself. But buy in bulk smart, too--some things aren't cheaper, or it's cheaper to buy grocery store generic than bulk brand name.

*I buy a lot of stuff secondhand. I never buy new furniture--I'll buy something cruddy and paint it. And I have really good luck getting high-end stuff at Goodwill and the like--I'm wearing a $7 JCrew cashmere sweater right now.

*Speaking of which, don't confuse cheap with thrifty. Cheap is buying inexpensive stuff. Sometimes thrifty means spending a little more on something that will last.

Stasi · November 2013

How many times a week do people who are doing cloth diapers and/or cloth mama and/or cloth family do laundry? I'm just curious?

AKB090609 · November 2013

Stasi said:

How many times a week do people who are doing cloth diapers and/or cloth mama and/or cloth family do laundry? I'm just curious?

We do a load of diapers every other day. We throw them in as soon as DD goes to bed and hang them to dry right before we go to bed.

terri_doula2010 · November 2013

BillyMollyEmmy said:

danabsd said:

Family cloth. :-&

I just can't.

I know. I mean I do cloth diapers (maybe you do too!) and so poop doesn't really gross me out anymore. It just doesn't. I do cloth pads so maybe I am just numb to bodily fluids? Give me all the cloth! It doesn't weird me out.

Making your own laundry detergent is easy and VERY cost effective! You can look up recipes online, but what I used before was borax/washing soda/fels naptha. When I do it again I'll use liquid castile instead of fels naptha.

I really

family cloth. LOL and I hate mama cloth. When we have an easier time washing clothes regularly I'll happily go back to family cloth. I bought a bunch of cloth wipes from Etsy.

Even if you only use it for pee it cuts WAY DOWN on TP usage, but it isn't bad for poop either really. I would use my peribottle and "bidet" myself before wiping so it wasn't super messy at all. My H loved it too.

I make a lot of stuff like bread, granola bars, etc. You can eat much healthier snacks and they are cheaper. Win win!

We only have one car, but that is hard as hell for most people. It is hard as hell for us too.

Dunno if you guys have access to Straight Talk but we are switching to it for cell phones. It will cut our bill WAY DOWN.

We buy things in bulk and use Amazon Subscribe & Save. Oh and things like buying a big block of cheese instead of shredded and sliced. Oh, and we don't always get the cheapest of whatever. As an example, if I bought paper towels from the dollar store, I'd end up needing to use more and there aren't as many so it is more affordable to buy UP&UP PT than the stuff that seems cheaper in the beginning...so all of that to say we try to balance up front price with over usage.

tyrannasaurusjess · November 2013

AKB090609 said:

Stasi said:

How many times a week do people who are doing cloth diapers and/or cloth mama and/or cloth family do laundry? I'm just curious?

We do a load of diapers every other day. We throw them in as soon as DD goes to bed and hang them to dry right before we go to bed.

This for us, too.

Stasi · November 2013

I only do laundry every other week. I can't imagine doing a load every other day!

KellersPrag · November 2013

SpoofLeJones said:

PenelopePond said:
I use cloth wipes just for me and just for pee. We went six months without having to buy toilet paper.
Does your H not wipe his ass? What am I missing? How did you go six months without buying TP if only you were using cloth??

I'm assuming she started out with a large quantity. We do subscribe & save, and I only have one delivery for $20 every 6 months. and we don't do family cloth.

KellersPrag · November 2013

Stasi said:
I only do laundry every other week. I can't imagine doing a load every other day!

I cloth diaper and I only have to do one extra load of laundry a week.

PenelopePond · November 2013

SpoofLeJones said:

PenelopePond said:
I use cloth wipes just for me and just for pee. We went six months without having to buy toilet paper.
Does your H not wipe his ass? What am I missing? How did you go six months without buying TP if only you were using cloth??

He works 10+ hours six days a week, so he's not home a lot. He poops at work occasionally, so he's not using TP here every day. We bought a mega huge pack from BJs. I don't remember how many rolls, but it was probably 30ish.

KellersPrag · November 2013

PenelopePond said:

SpoofLeJones said:

PenelopePond said:
I use cloth wipes just for me and just for pee. We went six months without having to buy toilet paper.
Does your H not wipe his ass? What am I missing? How did you go six months without buying TP if only you were using cloth??
He works 10+ hours six days a week, so he's not home a lot. He poops at work occasionally, so he's not using TP here every day. We bought a mega huge pack from BJs. I don't remember how many rolls, but it was probably 30ish.

Yup. My husband works 7 long days. That's how ours lasts, too!

bonjourbelle05 · November 2013

I make my own bread, English muffins, muffins, bagels, rolls, tortillas and granola....it's a lot cheaper, I know exactly what's in them and a lot of times we use less because the homemade is more filling!

Unknown · November 2013

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BillyMollyEmmy · November 2013

Thanks ladies! I didn't mean to run off. I was out tonight! Lots of great tips! And I think I might try family cloth... despite those who are grossed out! lol

beckcour · November 2013

I've started shopping at Aldi's for food. Not sure if there are any in your area. I started with fresh fruit and veggies and didn't have any problems so I've branched out into trying their dairy and meat products. We like everything I've bought there so far and our grocery bills have gone way down.

jayja2007 · November 2013

bonjourbelle05 said:
I make my own bread, English muffins, muffins, bagels, rolls, tortillas and granola....it's a lot cheaper, I know exactly what's in them and a lot of times we use less because the homemade is more filling!

Do you mind sharing your bread recipe? Ive tried maybe 8ish recipes and I still haven't found one I liked or that's sturdy enough to use for sandwiches.

bonjourbelle05 · November 2013

@jayja2007 YGPM

melody921 · November 2013

origamipoppy said:

On Hyaline's meal planning note, I also try to meal plan using something I already have in the cabinets. It's easy to say "guh we have zero food in this house" but if there is an errant can of beans, a small amount of cheese, or a half a jar of pasta sauce, I'll make sure to use that in a meal so that I'm not rebuying everything when we do have food, it just needs some assistance.

I was just telling DH we need to work down what's in the pantry and freezer. Time to get creative.

opaque1997 · November 2013

Just try and look at what you are actually spending and where. I went down the path of making my own dishwasher detergent - then when I wasn't happy with it - I realized I was spending $25 a YEAR on dishwashing detergent - sure I could make it for.. $12 but really $13 a year isn't going to break me. I've started trying to look at where I was spending my real money. Clothes for sure - for me, for my daughter, even for the husband - so we've gone to trying to buy used for us all and I really try and hunt for a solution in house before I look elsewhere. I've dug out my sewing machine and that has helped. I also try and ifgure out food from what I have, etc.

bonjourbelle05 · November 2013

I don't buy flour in bulk primarily because we don't have a Costco (we have a Sams but I wouldn't buy enough there to make the membership worthwhile. I have a friend who buys it in bulk and she puts it in the freezer (my mom does this as well).
I don't actually make homemade English muffins, but English muffin bread, which I use like you would English muffins. This is the recipe I use for that:
https://www.tasteofhome.com/recipes/english-muffin-bread-2

BillyMollyEmmy · November 2013

LOL @kemare20 I would allow my guests to use the TP

jbBeans · November 2013

bonjourbelle05 said:
I don't buy flour in bulk primarily because we don't have a Costco (we have a Sams but I wouldn't buy enough there to make the membership worthwhile. I have a friend who buys it in bulk and she puts it in the freezer (my mom does this as well).
I don't actually make homemade English muffins, but English muffin bread, which I use like you would English muffins. This is the recipe I use for that:
https://www.tasteofhome.com/recipes/english-muffin-bread-2

I want this right now, with a runny egg, cheddar, and a slice of pea meal on top. Right. Now.

jayja2007 · November 2013

I buy flour in bulk and I put it in a dog food container (cheaper and bigger than a regular food container). Im just recently getting into baking and I'm on my second 25 lb bag.

melody921 · November 2013

bonjourbelle05 said:

I don't buy flour in bulk primarily because we don't have a Costco (we have a Sams but I wouldn't buy enough there to make the membership worthwhile. I have a friend who buys it in bulk and she puts it in the freezer (my mom does this as well). I don't actually make homemade English muffins, but English muffin bread, which I use like you would English muffins. This is the recipe I use for that: https://www.tasteofhome.com/recipes/english-muffin-bread-2

I've started making bread too (just in the bread machine), but I don't buy flour in bulk. It's only a couple of cups in a loaf, so it lasts a little while even if you just have normal sized bags.

melody921 · November 2013

jbBeans said:

I don't buy flour in bulk primarily because we don't have a Costco (we have a Sams but I wouldn't buy enough there to make the membership worthwhile. I have a friend who buys it in bulk and she puts it in the freezer (my mom does this as well). I don't actually make homemade English muffins, but English muffin bread, which I use like you would English muffins. This is the recipe I use for that: https://www.tasteofhome.com/recipes/english-muffin-bread-2
I want this right now, with a runny egg, cheddar, and a slice of pea meal on top. Right. Now.

What is pea meal @jbBeans?

jbBeans · November 2013

IndigoVader said:

melody921 said:

jbBeans said:

bonjourbelle05 said:
I don't buy flour in bulk primarily because we don't have a Costco (we have a Sams but I wouldn't buy enough there to make the membership worthwhile. I have a friend who buys it in bulk and she puts it in the freezer (my mom does this as well).
I don't actually make homemade English muffins, but English muffin bread, which I use like you would English muffins. This is the recipe I use for that:
https://www.tasteofhome.com/recipes/english-muffin-bread-2
I want this right now, with a runny egg, cheddar, and a slice of pea meal on top. Right. Now.

What is pea meal @jbBeans?

It is one pea sliced to make a complete meal. At least in my mind it is. @JbBeans wins at being thrifty, LOL

Lol. Thanks IV. it's a type of bacon. Thicker, cured in cornmeal, not as fatty as regular bacon. It's delicious.

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