Thursday 26 March 2009

Frugal Friday - Next Frugal Steps


We already do several things that are frugal, such as:
  • Rarely eat out
  • Cook from scratch
  • Keep lights off when not needed
  • Keep heat down, wear sweaters
  • Keep showers short
  • Use less than recommended amounts of shampoo & laundry soap
  • Alway price check and buy generic
  • Wash everything in cold


I have to come up with some new frugal things to do as well.
I have been thinking of doing the following:
  • Having more meatless meals (DH will fight me on this one a bit)
  • Bake bread more often. I have a bread machine so it isn't difficult. The no name bread is up to $2.49 a loaf now.
  • Make more cloth napkins.
  • Make matching placemats instead of buying new (using fabric I already have).
  • Start using rags more instead of papertowels for spills and such.
  • Figure out how to create a garden bed that the dogs can't get into (inexpensively) and plan what to plant (herbs, tomatoes...)
  • Find a local farmers market (in a couple months once they open) and compare prices to grocery store.
In the past couple of weeks we have stocked up on several sales.
We bought a lot of the following:
  • chicken leg 1/4s
  • lean ground beef
  • pasta - all shapes and sizes
  • pasta sauce - several flavors
  • Shrimp - frozen raw
  • Kraft Dinner (reg price is $1.59...we got them for 12/$5.99)
  • Toilet paper
  • Butter (I've been doing a lot of baking and that uses butter faster than we normally do)
  • Cereal - a few different kinds that we all like.
I am planning on doing more baking/cooking and freezing too.
Some of what I have planned:
  • Cheeseburger hot pockets
  • Whole wheat bread
  • Cinnamon rolls
  • Brownies
  • Italian bread
What are you doing to save a buck, stretch your dollar or make do?

For more frugal hints & tips, go to Life as Mom

11 comments:

Frugal Sara said...

Great post! We do alot of the same things you have listed. This is a wonderful list of frugal ideas!

FishMama said...

This is a great collection of ideas. Thanks for sharing it!

Hoosier Homemade said...

Great ideas! Thanks for sharing!
~Liz

mommanator said...

on the lighter side
1. we take showers together
2. we dont flush the toilets unless we do #2
3. TURN OFF THE COMPUTER NOT!

mommanator said...

Seriously
1. We are hanging the clothes outside to dry every chance we get
2. some folk are making hteir own laundry detergents & softners-if ya need a site let me know\
3. We are on a "vow of poverty"
as I call it. We can only buy necessities! use up the things ya have in the cupboards, no new clothes etc. I have been bad while I have been away, but as soon as I get back to Florida will start over

Bird Stalker Photography said...

I need to do a lot of that also. It is just making the time to do it! :)

Brianna said...

We started shopping with cash only--this has made a big difference. Truly this is actually the biggest change we've made recently. We've also been looking into ways to simply increase our income a little bit, since we've pared down to only the bare essentials already.

Sherry @ Lamp Unto My Feet said...

We do a lot of the same things, too. :D Great post!

Brenda said...

That's funny. My list is almost identical to yours!
I'm on my last roll of store-bought paper towels. We use cloth napkins.
We clean an office building and get to take home the paper towel roll ends. Not soft enough to use for napkins but work great for spills etc.

Mom2fur said...

You sure are making a great effort! BTW, did you know you can freeze butter? I stock up when it is cheap and try to keep several boxes in the freezer, and one in the fridge.
Farmer's markets...sigh...I can't wait until it is warm enough for them to open again!

Anonymous said...

Great suggestions! I bake my own bread. I wanted to know that I could in the event I ever had to, and it's delicious! Here's my recipe: http://tinyurl.com/cd2vz9

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