Frugal Living

There are so many good coupoons available for restaurants and businesses right now, both printed and on line. Why pay full price when the same meal can cost half as much?

#59 Halving

Look for ways to divide things in half for savings.

I found a special on big dog bisquits, but my dog eats medium ones, so I bought them and break them in half for my dog to eat.

Some people order a prescription double dose of what they need and split the pills so they last twice as long for the same price.

There are people who cut a dryer sheet in half and only use half for each load of laundry. For clothes that are not really dirty, half the amount of laundry soap may be enough.

There are times when a product is on sale and you and a friend can split it half and half, each getting what you need and only paying half.

Some restaurants have very large servings for a good price. Split a meal. Some restuarants charge extra to put it on two plates for you but almost none charge you if you split it yourself. Splitting it yourself gives you more control over the amounts of each item that each person gets in accordance with their preferences. For large servings and small appetites, you might even want to consider splitting an entree 3 ways. Ditto for desserts.

#58 Dollar stores

Check out the "everything for a dollar" type stores. They sell many things, that cost as much as $3 to $5 at other stores, for a dollar each.

#57 Bird Feeder Kit

I bought a bird feeder kit at the hardware store for a little over $2. It amounted to a handle and a cap that fastened to a 2 liter bottle with a place for the birds to land, a small saucer for the birds to feed out of and small openings for the seed to drop through. The birds are loving my cheap, 2 liter plastic bottle, bird feeder.

#56 Bring Your Own Bags

I've started bringing my own bags shopping and stores take off a nickel a bag. One of our stores had a special sale, 3 for $1 cloth bags and I had coupons for a few dollars off any purchase from another offer. At that rate I save around a dollar a week, sometimes less.

While I am at the store, I shop in all the bargain bins for reduced merchandise of the things we can use. If it is not half price or lower, I do not consider it a very good bargain since it is overstocks, discontinued items, items close to or past date, dented boxes and cans, ripped bags and that sort of thing. Recently I was able to get bird seed that had been repackaged due to ripped bags at a very good price. Birds don't care even if the ripped bags had to be gathered off the floor.

#55 Fresh Herbs

Grow your own fresh herbs in a small flower bed or in indoor pots. Small plants or seeds are inexpensive and will grow and furnish you with fresh herbs, sometimes for years to come if they are perennials.

#54 Rent

When you need something for one event or task, check into renting what you need rather than buying it and storing it. This might be party or entertaining supplies, home or yard improvement equipment or tools, sports equipment, special clothes for a special occassion, camping supplies and more.

#53 Birthdays

Make your own birthday cakes from scratch or from a box mix. The ones you make yourself taste great, cost less and are probably healthier (bakery cakes often contain a lot of shortening or fats). Decorate with inexpensive candies in the frosting.

Start some traditions such as a birthday table cloth or placemat, a special plate for the birthday person (one plate that birthday people get to use it on their birthday) possibly from a dollar store, maybe an inexpensive birthday hat for the birthday person, maybe an inexpensive banner that appears whenever a person in the house has a birthday, a few balloons on the table or in a place where they can be seen, and maybe making the birthday person's favorite meal on their day. Making someone feel special has more to do with getting special attention than it does spending a lot of money.

#52 Offspring

Instead of rushing around to take the kids to all their various activities, limit the number of activities they participate in to those that are most important to them. Decide to live a lower key life. It will save you money on gas, on equipment, on travel expenses, on registration and other fees and many more related expenses.

Everybody needs "down time" just to relax. People who are constantly on the go develop stress related illnesses like migraines, ulcers, acid reflux and many other things. People who do not stop to rest and let their mind and bodies renew themselves pay for it in less creativity, less ideas, often more heart troubles and may even go to an earlier grave. The effects of long term stress are well documented.

Overscheduling kids does not give them the opportunity to make choices. As an adult, they will not be able to do everything. Limit setting ability is best taught early. When a kid is overscheduled, the world of the family revolves around them. That is setting them up for an unrealistic idea about how life works. Not only that, all that overtending of the children sends Mom (and Dad)to an early grave and to a host of stress related conditions on the way. Parents do not usually give birth to children so they can become slaves to them. That's crazy. Past generations did not behave that way.

Save money on medications for stress, anxiety, reflux, headaches, body aches, sleep problems and much more for the whole family by slowing down and letting your body and soul renew themselves.

#51 At Home

Spend more time at home. Fix your meals there. Do not go shopping for recreation. Do not cruise town and do unnecessary driving. Enjoy your family. Enjoy your home. Spend time out in your yard. Rearrange your furniture if you have the health. Be content with what you already have. Use up those things you have been saving. Adopt a simpler lifestyle.

Thoughts

The news reports are getting worse and worse. They say more people are losing their homes, many people are losing their jobs, businesses are failing and lots more. The news is continually bad. The stock market is pretty far down.

Oddly, I'm not seeing much more of any of this here than I have ever seen. The only thing that is different is that our retirement account lost value along with everybody else. It will come back up in time. People have cut back on their spending and the stores and roads are less crowded, but not so much.

Congress has just passed an economic stimulus bill quickly, that is over 1,000 pages long we are told, and almost none of our congressmen read the thing before voting on it. I wonder what it contains, especially the little hidden surprises? Politicians always include hidden surprises. I think they call them pork.

Being frugal is good no matter what the economy but I wonder if all the doom and gloom are really coming or if it is mostly hype and political posturing. Fear sells newspapers and air time. The American people are very resilient and smart and wind up solving about any problem that comes along.

I am fascinated with the 1,000 gardens project. Larger communities are encouraging citizens to add 1,000 or more new gardens in their communities. I'll have to say it will be healthier if more people eat fresh produce and that would be a good thing.

There is a lot more dishonesty and greed than it seems like there was in the past, but maybe it seems that way because it is making the news more.

As we were out driving the other day, we passed by rows of storage buildings, the kind that people rent to put stuff in. Our homes are full of stuff, our garages are so full of stuff we can't park the car in them, our basements are full of stuff and we still have so much stuff we have to rent storage buildings to store it all. And what are the experts telling us to do to get the economy going better? Buy more! Where are we going to put it and do we really need that much stuff? It seems a bit crazy to me.