Co-housing to ease financial loads

If you would have asked me years ago, I would have replied I could never share a house with another family. But when we made the decision to move to Oregon, that is exactly what we did, as we had grown tired of trying to shoulder everything ourselves. No community to lean on, fighting not just our fight with having cancer but our financial struggles as well. We were given an opportunity to share a really large house with another family who also has their fair share of financial struggles.

It was not easy at first, it was a huge adjustment period, learning everyone's personalities, laying expectations out on the table and communicating everyone's needs and looking for solutions to  live peacefully within a tribe. Over time we have become family and bonds have been built which is different than simply a friendship when you share living space with others.

In many ways it quickly became a blessing especially with news of my cancer spreading again where I would need treatments again.  Housework is shared, rent , electricity and internet is split, food is kept separate with the exception of occasional community meals. We have our private spaces but share great company when we are up to it, regardless of weather conditions. There is an abundance of laughter and genuine caring about everyone in the household too.

 It is really nice to share the financial loads and is allowing hubby time to try his hand at entrepreneurship and grow a business. It also allows our room mate to try to grow her home business as well. While Co-housing certainly is not for everyone, we are finding it beneficial on many levels and for both families, not just one. By leaning on each other for now, we are raising each other up and allowing us this opportunity that otherwise never would have been able to happen. By leaning on each other, we were able to raise the bar in a standard of living, we did not have alone.

It has really been an amazing experience to open our minds up to this kind of lifestyle. How long will we co-house together? Nobody really knows, but for now it is working very well for our families and that is all that matters.

Saving $100 a Month by Mowing Ourselves

I am starting to smell a theme this year ha ha, one that states, we will spend money on items that in return will save us money or make us money!

This week it was time to mow the yard, so we purchased a mower, not a fancy riding one or anything like that, but just a decent push mower with a grass catcher on it. The grass catcher makes it so we will not have to rake ( or bring in loose grass all over the house which happens when the person we use to pay, cut it with a riding mower!) and also makes it so it is easy to dump in the garden, in the chicken pen or in the mulch pile.


For the last 2 years we paid someone to do it as it was convenient and well, me and hubby just had too much other things going on for summer to survive on low wages. Yet we struggled to pay him and many times bills would get behind in order to keep our yard mowed. We have about an acre sized yard so it is a tiny yard to mow and even though he charged a very small rate, it would always become a difficult bill to keep up with, without letting others go. ( He charged so little as he is our neighbors son, who are related to our landlord)


So this year we bought our mower for $200 and it will pay for itself by the end of June! I also felt this would be good exercise for me on my road to recovery. Well I did try today and sent me into a 30 minute coughing fit, and for a small square had me drinking a whole gallon of water and taking about 5 breaks! So perhaps I need to still work up to this but I do have hubby, a 15 year old son and a 12 year old daughter who all can mow if I can't.

Oh and I am also very sore now, these muscles of mine really need to get built back up again, it is amazing to me how weak I really have gotten!

On a good note, we are still on our $880 a month budget, easily staying on track and using all extra income streams that come in above that on all our funding envelopes.  As you can see in that budget, there was no room to pay someone $100 a month for mowing! So yeah score for us in not breaking the budget for the convenience of someone else mowing this year!

Is there a way you have come up with recently to save on a monthly basis?

Back to the Basics: DIY Laundry

 

 

While most don't sit around dreaming of the good old days in the form of washing laundry out by hand, this is what I have been doing all week! For us it is a savings of $20 a month as I typically hauled it to the laundry mat once a month.

 

For every way I find a way to save a few dollars, I plan on putting the savings up in a sealed jar and ear marking jars for a few certain funds.

 

Here is how I am doing it:

 

1.) I found an old phone line cord I do not need and tied it up in our bathroom indented closet that is the area meant for a washer and dryer to go in our place. I tied it around the middle wood piece that divides the cupboards that is meant for laundry soap and other laundry types of storage. The phone cord fit perfect from one cupboard across to the next forming a very small but usable clothes line for winter drying.

 

This makes it to where I have to wash something daily for my family of 5 BUT I should be able to do it in one day in the summer when I put up an outside clothes line and can hang  a lot more clothing!

 

 

2.) I take dirty clothes and hang them across the line to see how much will fit, when they reach across the line, I then take them and put them in a 5 gallon bucket. This ensures I do not put more in the bucket than I can hang to dry.

 

3.) I put a little laundry soap in and put hot water in, let soak for 10 to 15 minutes.

 

4.) I take a plunger and then plunge the clothes ( the bucket sits in the bathtub to make sure I don't make a mess and for easy filling and emptying of the bucket.  I plunge about 10 minutes.

 

5.) I empty the whole bucket in the tub, then wring the water out of the clothes putting them back in the bucket.

 

6.) I fill with cold water and plunge again about 10 minutes.

 

7.) Again I empty the whole bucket into the tub, wring the water out of the clothes and put them back in the bucket.

 

8.) Fill again with the cold water for a second rinse, plunge 5 to 10 minutes, empty bucket and wring the water out of the clothes really well and hang on the line.

 

9.) I have a large plastic sheet left over from winterizing the windows I cover the floor with under the line to make sure any clothes that may drip, will not ruin the floor.

 

 

The next morning I turn the clothes over on the line and put up when dry and get another batch done to hang.

 

 

No it is not romantic, nor is it convenient but it will save some money and I actually prefer doing them this way for the main point that I HATE going to a laundry matt where I feel like it is 2 hours of idle wasted time. I also hate hauling several bags and baskets all around in blustery cold weather which is NOT my idea of fun.

 

I like doing laundry at home on MY TERMS in between doing other things!

 

This way though does get them just as clean as a $2 washing machine and I don't need the $1.50 per load to dry!

No Fridge Update

Well for November we went 12 whole days without the refrigerator and for the most part did not miss it although we did use a cooler ( free ice from hubby's work) for milk and plain yogurt. Eventually I would like to get rid of the cooler as well but not sure if this would work in my family as they do not like almond milk that I could make as needed.

At the end of 12 days however, I did plug it back in, for a couple reasons, one of which I already had wondered about starting it in November.  For one I needed the freezer portion because to be honest I DID NOT want to wait the day before Thanksgiving to get my Turkey while I could get it NOW on sale.

I did miss being able to buy meats on sale to put in the freezer.

The other reason was I had gotten a surprise phone call from our Landlord asking me if we liked Venison. He plans on shooting one for us during this season so I wanted the freezer on knowing I could get venison any day during hunting season but not knowing if or when.

Looking at it from a mathematical stand point, do we want to save $8 off our electric bill or save $40 or more on meat?

The obvious won out.

Knowing December will bring another holiday meal I do not think we will be trying this experiment again until January although I do not know, my family really likes their refrigeration and I really like the freezer portion of stocking up on meats.

Yes I could totally rearrange and change the way we eat, but to me old habits die hard and I do not at this moment WANT to change eating Turkey for Thanksgiving, I LOVE turkey as does the rest of the family!

Yet it was interesting to do the 12 days and I applaud the others that have given it up, I am not really sure that this family wants to give it up as a permanent fixture.

Maybe cheap homemade vegetable oil burning tin can lamps in lieu of electric lights is more up our alley?

But then again I have not given up completly on this project and as I said, perhaps in January we will try again...........

For now I am drooling over the Turkey in my freezer and the possbile venison that will be joining it soon..........

Ummmm 40 lbs of Bananas? Say What?

It was grocery shopping day here at my home today, a good way to release the left over nerves of last nights violent,  dangerous lightening, high winds, damaging hail (but much needed rains!) that when you are in a trailer is nothing short of SCARY! When you have record high temps that are lasting forever and creating droughts, the storms that do come are always violent. The scene in Machine Gun preacher ran through my head as the trailer was plummeted with hail and shaking so hard you just knew you were gonna blow over. In the scene they are in a trailer (Machine Gun Preacher) and a tornado hits, the big dude smashes a hole in the floor and quickly assists his wife and daughter into the hole just as the tornado hits and the only thing he can do is throw his body over the top of the hole to protect his family. I feel so vulnerable in a trailer when severe weather hits!

At any rate we made it safely through and went to Walmarts today.  Now my goal was to only spend $80 this month which I was real doubtful I could do but up for the challenge. Bananas put me over the top!

Here's how...... We make our way carefully selecting items to stay within budget and finally get most way through the store, in the bread section where I see crates and crates of slightly over ripe bananas sitting there! I "forced" okay suggested in a way he had no choice to find the man in charge and find out what was up with the bananas!

To find out they did not sell as much as they had hoped ( who would buy a bunch at 59 cents a friggin pound?) so they went ripe faster than they had hoped and put all new fresh ones out. HOW MUCH? we asked hoping if they were throwing them out we would get them for free.....not exactly BUT they offered them to us a 25 cents a pound! That NEVER gets that low here so we took a whole crate which is 40 pounds of bananas for 10 bucks WOO HOO SCORE BABY!

Then I looked in the cart and laughed as the kids were screaming in TOTAL DELIGHT about all the banana bread that meant and said........hmmmmmmm that 5 pound bag of flour is NOT gonna cut it! So off I sent my adult son to put the 5lb bag of flour back and bring me a large 25# bag! Which upped my price again!  I KNOW I KNOW but I could NOT RESIST THE PRICE!

My total for groceries today (including toilet paper and pectin for more jam making) was $103 so even though I did not hit my $80 goal, I am pleased. I also know I did forget a few things but if can keep groceries at around $150 this month for 6 people? I WILL DO A VERY HAPPY DANCE!

I will post my grocery list later of course!

So my question to you.....ideas of what to do with 40 lbs of bananas?  

Ours include smoothies, custard, banana rice pudding, bread, cake and muffins and dehydrating..........I am even thinking of cream puffs with a custard banana filling.

I would love some fresh ideas though!

Waste Not: Want Not

I grew up with the phrase Waste Not Want Not and is a phrase that has not only stuck with me but has served me well over the years. There are many things that we use up or re-use or find a new use for it altogether that makes us a very low-impact/Low Waste home.

• Food Waste- I know others have a Friday Food Waste Challenge and while once in a great great blue moon, I have to throw something out that got neglected in our fridge, we typically just simply do not have any food waste. My family hardly ever leaves any left overs from a meal and on the occasion they do, one of our 6 members will just eat it the next day for a lunch or breakfast. There are even times I swear I am cooking plenty to have left overs, it ends up being something the family loves so much that they eat it all up and not leave anything for left overs. When it comes to food debris, such as carrot tops, egg shells and such it just all gets composted or food scraps that get fed to the chickens..
• Chicken Debris- Our chicken hutch has a removable cleaning tray under the hutch where wood shavings get put to catch their droppings with night time roosting. Once or twice a week this must get cleaned out and fresh wood shavings put in. I take a couple shovel fulls of their poop and throw in a 5 gallon bucket, the rest gets put in as mulch for the garden. The manure in the 5 gallon bucket then gets filled with water and left to sit in the warm sun to make a fertilizing Tea. This then gets distributed among vegetable plants in the garden that would benefit from this rich fertilizer.
• Aluminim Cans- All cans from cooking get rinsed and thrown into a box, building up to turn in with all other metal collected for extra cash. While it does not give much, it does help add weight to our steel pile, gives us a few extra dollars and keeps it out of the trash.
• Old or Torn Clothes- These usually get thrown into our crafty daughters material bin for all her delightful sewing projects she comes up with. She spends quite a bit of time sewing purses, doll or stuffed toy clothing or these little toys she calls "plushies" and is always in need of new cloth material it seems. So any clothing no longer wearable or items people gives us we can not wear all go to her material pile. Nice clothings gets added to garage sale boxes to be put in the garage sales.
• Newspaper- Newspaper gets saved for paper mache projects
• Bread Bags and Plastic Walmart Shopping Bags- Bread bags get saved so we do not purchase zip lock bags. They get used for our freezer bags or storing homemade biscuits, breads or cornbreads in. Walmart Bags get saved as our trash bags and we do not purchase trash bags. We also use  these for our long hikes so when we are walking we get the added bonus of picking up returnable cans with.
• Plastic containers- Such as Ice Cream  Buckets, cottage cheese, yogurt or butter plastic tubs all get saved. These make wonderful storage containers without the need to purchase any for left overs, food for the cooler for camping with, berry containers or anything that will need to be put in a container and in the freezer with. Freezer jam, homemade ice cream, chicken broth ......they work wonderful for!

While this is not a complete list, these are just some of the things we do that either go a long way in saving us money, making us a little or not wasting money.

In a household where every cent counts, these few steps are a great beginning in watching pennies.

My Thoughts on Couponing

I know there are a lot of avid couponers out there, even some like the Coupon Queens that are considered extreme, but does it really save you money?

To do what the Coupon Queens do, you must be willing to give up considerable time to save like they do, not too mention it is all about the area you live in. For example, I would have to travel 35 miles to reach a store that does double coupons. These woman have access to stores that not only double but sometimes triple coupon as well as allows stacking-using manufacturers coupons on top of the stores coupons.

They also need to buy newspapers in bulk then spend hours clipping, sorting and searching store flyer's and sales online to get the most bang for their buck. Yes they walk out with chests puffed out like a proud rooster spending $10 for $200 or more in groceries.

But now, take a look at what coupons mostly buy, while some may be for meats and dairy, many coupons are for things like frozen pizza, pop tarts, sugary cereals and drinks, cookies, candy and a whole lot of what I would consider JUNK.  How many pudding cups does one really need?

I thought I would experiment and in December had hubby every Sunday bring me several newspapers. I clipped and sorted then pulled them out several times and sorted through them and yet certain thoughts kept running through my head.

Am I saving money if I get $1 or $2 off of 3 frozen pizza's  of their original price of $10 when it costs me $4 to make 3 whole pizza's from scratch? (bread from scratch, sauce made, a block of mozzarella and hot dog pieces)  Okay well NO it is costing me money in that example.

Is canned muffin mix, cinnamon rolls or sugary cereal saving any money or healthy choices? NO to both! I can make muffins from scratch that are way more healthier and cost effective. Oatmeal or whole wheat hot cereal with a little honey and cinnamon or molasses and fruits added are more healthy and much much more cost effective.

Is saving $1 on batteries a savings? Well YES we go through batteries like their is no tomorrow, I can not make them and I would purchase them with or without a coupon so YES a coupon to save a buck would be worth it to me!

If I look at my coupons for February and March I have ones for

Crescent rolls
cookie mixes
cinnamon rolls
pie crusts
chip dips
organic eggs
cough drops
Robitussin
cake mixes
muffin mixes
gourmet coffee


The only thing on that list I may be tempted to purchase would be the Organic Eggs if the 50 cent coupon that can not be doubled brought the price down cheaper than the eggs I normally buy would be.

The rest? MIXES and to pay for that convenience of having flour and baking powder with dried blueberries or whatever in it the price is already hiked up and using a coupon still does not reduce the price to what the making it from scratch counterpart would be if bought in bulk quantities (like 25 pound or larger bags of flour.)

Not to mention mixes are loaded with sugar, much more than what I typically add in my baking.

Other than the organic eggs, the list is JUNK.

Even if I could go and get $500 worth of groceries on $20 or less, I could not reason out the fact that I would not be willing to take such a health risk on the foods that most coupons cater to.

I know we do not always eat the healthiest ( I am working on it!) BUT we also eat a wide variety and still eat healthier than a lot of folks in America do.

Our worst area is processed or refined foods that we are trying to move away from.

My point is though that I see coupons costing far more than actually saving would go.

So I shall continue for now, shopping the way I do buying a few bulk items and making it all from scratch where it costs less and tastes far superior in the meantime......coupons lose for now.

Day 22 No/Low Spend Update

Lets see, so far we have had a total of 16 NO SPEND days out of the 22, I would say that is pretty darn good!

The 6 days that we spend days were mostly typical days for food, rent and utility bills, the one exception being the night we went out to eat and rented a couple of movies.

This week, the only thing we have spent money on is a gallon of milk and about $30 in gas for our vehicle for hubby to get back and forth to work.

We have not gone anywhere this week either but when temps hover in low single digits, that is pretty easy for me to stay huddled nice and warm inside the house!

So not much to report this week, to many this may seem a tad boring since we have not spent hardly any money this week, and we certainly have not gone anywhere! But then again..............I think that is the point of this challenge! LOL

Low/No Spend Challenge Update

Okay I really have been sabotaged on my NO FRIDGE aspect, my dear Aunt showed up the other night with a whole trunk full of groceries as a belated Christmas gift to us! I mean a whole trunk, not sure how much this totaled up to as there were many things she brought I would never ever buy like syrup, pancake mix, potato strings (think they are called shoe strings?) and instant oatmeal.....all in huge value family packs.
But she also brought tons of things that required a freezer or refrigeration like hams, butter, flavored cream for coffee and such. So the whole No Fridge is a definite no go, this is how it goes when you plan though, you plan and something comes to change those plans EVERY TIME!

I also have been spending more than I usually do or would of liked.

We went out to eat at  Arby's the other night, but but but I do have an excuse! I finagled our finances around this month which freed up some extra money, so we had the money to  go. Ponderosa closed a few weeks ago, Big Boy's is also closing soon and hubby came home with the  news that Arby's was also closing! So YEAH our town is dying quickly and I wanted to take the kids out to eat at Arby's before they closed! We are losing our options for eating out! Small town don't have that much to begin with! That will leave Burger King, Taco Bell and a very dying horrid Subway!  So we decided to go before they closed and spent $30 Bucks.  To REALLY spoil the kids we went and spent $8 on movie rentals too! We rented the whole 4rth season of Lost, Gnomeo and Juliet and Disc 1 of Season 1 Walking Dead

So $38   we also spend $25 in Gas that night on word gas prices would increase the next day by 20 cents a gallon.

After my aunt brought the free groceries, that freed up some more money for us. We did need dog food and milk so we went to get that but my 10 year old daughter desperately needed a belt, underwear and bras, she is developing far faster than I originally thought she would and that Daddy would like ( he would like to see her never develop at all! LOL) and she will take after his families side it looks of the well endowed!

So here we spend $29 for our daughters needs.

Total $67 unplanned spending where really only the $29 was needed.  As far as Arbys goes though, I can not remember the last time we went to sit down to eat out, sometime this past summer.


Also somehow  while I am looking at needing to get propane soon again as we have 44% in tank right now, I made these purchases while totally catching up on our way behind utilities for when hubby was only getting 20 hours a week. I have paid $139 in electric...............$280 on phone.........And did our $100 investing in Sharebuilder funds!

So all in all I am happy with how this month has been going, we also have a few dollars growing in a coffee can from pop bottle returns. I am also confident I will be able to put some towards our savings/emergency fund this month!

So there ya have it SUPER REAL!

How are you doing with your Low/No spend month?

No/ Low Spend Challenge Day 6 Re-cap

Well....................... Lets see other than another $10 for gas we have not been spending anything! Well I did pay Rent and sent in an electric payment of course and we went to town Wednesday in order to do that. We had to get money off our debit cards and throw it into our bank account to cover the checks sent out for Rent and Electric. (This is NOT an errand I can send hubby along on, he always screws it up majorly somehow! Not his fault, I guess you can only get electrocuted so many times before it does something to the brain cells LOL)

Anyways we have not purchased any more food right now, or bought anything we can do without.

I took my yellow bellied pup for a 3 or 4 mile walk yesterday as sunshine and exercise is always a joy and free to do. She is a sweet pup but scared of everything and I thought I was gonna hang her just trying to get her by a yapping little Chihuahua dog. Ours is a border collie and sweet as can be but not one brave bone to her name! Anyways once I got her past the dog, traffic, and chirping birds she actually enjoyed the dirt country road!(I was totally out of breath fighting her past all this as she tried to choke herself to run home to safety!)

So all in all there you have it, no money spent, even got a free dinner as my sister and mom came to visit today and my mom says she gets a great deal is she buys and I cook! This does not help my NO FRIDGE goal though as they added more stuff that has to be kept in the fridge! Our weather has been really mild too so not cold enough for outside storage!

So how is everyone else doing?

Day 1 and 2 of the No (low) Spend Challenge

K I did go December 31 for shopping but it was actually for the First of the Month shopping that I typically do for our major once a month grocery shopping.

So I will log that expense for the first, the only reason we went a day early is because, well I was a good Mother Hubbard here and a storm was brewing for the 1rst so best not get caught without a bone to chew on! As noted on my grocery list I had a total brain fog and shopped like I always have totally forgetting the no Fridge part of my plan! Yeah I know MY BAD MY BAD!

So

January 1rst  Spent $136 for most the months food for a family of 5
January 2nd $10 for the couple things I forgot.......apple juice, batteries and Dish Soap.

However hubby worked today so we did not take a trip to town to get the forgotten items. He works right across from the store so he just picked them up for me after he got off work on his way home. He did forget yesterday and asked if I needed him to run back to town only to be answered with a fairly loud, stubborn and firm NOOOOOO THAT IS A WASTE OF GAS! Of course love still crinkled the edges of my eyes as I am hopelessly in love with the man I was yelling at LOL.

So that totals $146 and I am hoping that the next few days we do not have to spend anything, I would love to see at least 15 days this month are no spend days.

But hey $146 for most the food for the month for a family of 5..........whatchya all think? Fairly good?
I  would like to think so considering that is on a no coupon way of shopping!

Just let me know if you plan on dropping in for a cup of coffee.......... I may have to buy more coffee soon!

Not Buying Anything January Challenge!

Wanna join in for January of Not Buying Anything challenge?  I am joining in with 1/2 Dozen Daily

So if you have a savings goal or to reduce expenses in half, or not buy non-essentials join in with us as it starts January 1 just a couple days away now! Be sure to comment and let me know if you will be joining and be sure to link up with 1/2 Dozen Daily  and here at Poor to Rich a Day at a Time! I will get a page put up with the links!

If you write up a post about it be sure to let us know as well so we can all keep up and help support each other.

The rules? Your challenge, Your Rules!

This is a really hard challenge for me as I already spend so little a month! I will pay all my regular bills you know rent, electric, phone blah blah boring things that keep a roof over our heads

However here are the rules I am going to follow and see how much I can save over the month!


MY CHALLENGE

No Netflix or Gamefly for January

No REFRIGERATOR yup you heard me I will go the whole month without a refrigerator and it will get UNPLUGGED

No Little Ceaser $5 dollar pizzas  ( we usually get this once a month for dinner for a total of $20 for 4 pizzas)

If I can make it from scratch do not buy a store counter part!

No NON-essentials PERIOD

No extra trips to town wasting gas for something that could wait!

If hubby brings home more than his $430 every 2 weeks paychecks, save the extra!



I will put any money saved into a coffee can and total it up to see how much it is at the end of January and give a full report!


Care to join in on the frugal fun? Leave a comment and let me know!

A few more ways we save

I am well aware that the things my family does to save is really not anything new, as there really is only so many ways to save. Many of these ideas have been shared in books or online over the years. But, these are the things WE do and have done over the past several years which falls in our comfort zone of how extreme we are willing to go in our savings and living within our means.

So with  no further ado, here are a few more things we do in our savings that I have thought of since the last post on Ways we Save!

1.) Wash laundry out by hand or make own laundry soap (While I no longer do this, I HAVE done it and then hung up on line outside or hangers on the shower curtain! got to hard on my back though so no longer do it and also decided it was not worth the time spent to do it for 5 people!)

2.) Unplug the Computer from Wall at night- ( not a large savings, only saves 2 kilowatts a month but hey it does save!)

3.) Drink WATER- we drink a lot of water here, no kool-aid, pop or other flavored drinks however in summer there is one I will buy on occasion- a mango flavored tropico drink that comes in gallon jugs oh and break down for root beer float items for 100 degree days! LOL ever spend a summer in a trailer with no air conditioning or shade?)

4.) Keep hair short and do our own hair cuts- ( just started keeping mine short but it does save on shampoo and conditioner!)

5.) Buy everything USED- not much I buy brand new other than underwear, swim suits and shoes ( shoes is only because me and my girls have a large size not commonly found at garage sales!)

6.) Buy LITTLE meat- we use small portions of meat for meals usually for meals such as in stir frys, casseroles and such, very seldom have meat as part of main course like for country fried chicken or something!

7.) Eat at home mostly and do not go to town very often- We hardly ever eat out and when we do, it is the most exciting thing to do for the kids! We also plan our trips so we are not having to go to town that often to save on gas.

8.) Use dial-up Internet= Yup it sucks and slow but only 10 bucks a month, however I would love to get high speed eventually!

9.) Not too quick to replace items- I just replaced my slippers after the soles were flapping so bad I was tripping all over the house and it started to become a real danger to walk in them! LOL) So we do not replace something that may not be working perfectly until it becomes a total break down or falling off. When my coffee pot quick working I went a week of boiling water and ladling it through the coffee filter on my pot to get a pot of coffee!)

10.) Find another way!- For example we bought wine without knowing it had corks instead of screw top and we had no wine bottle opener. Hubby simply screwed a screw in the cork and used pliers to pull out the cork- worked great no need to ever buy a cork bottle opener!

11.) Make up our own fun- make up our own games and fun, some which we play again and again because they turned out so fun. My 10 year old came up with a car game she named confused and we play that one quite a bit when we go places!

12.) Price Compare EVERYTHING- While hubby is horrid and will jump the guns on purchases sometimes, I price compare EVERYTHING to get the best price. Sometimes however depending on what we are wanting to purchase, I will spend a little more to get a good QUALITY item. Sometimes Cheap is NOT the best buy and quality really needs to be taken into consideration.

13.) Non-Consumer Mentality- This means I am blessed and happy with what I have and I feel no need to keep purchasing things to add to that. Do not get me wrong there are a few things I do want such as our own house, a tent, and such BUT it is limited to my not wanting to spend on STUFF. My wants and needs are very conscious decisions. No matter what we ever end up making in any given year for income, I believe one can live quite well on around $20,000 a year and have a low impact lifestyle. Consumerism adds to the environmental problems of waste and pollution in huge ways. By consuming less and recycling items ( buying at garage sales and such) we are being much more kind to the environment with much less impact.

Some Things We Do To Save

Garbage
wet food items like banana peels, coffee grounds, egg shells ( no bones or meats) are placed in a gallon jar (pickle jar originally) and when full taken outside and placed on compost pile.

Tin cans from vegetables, spaghetti sauce, tuna or whatever are all rinsed, paper label removed and thrown into a box. When box is full it is taken out to shed. We save them all winter and turn them in to the scrap metal yard with our other accumulated metals for money.

Plastic containers from cottage cheese, yogurt, dips whatever are all washed out and saved rather than buying storage containers.

We do not buy garbage bags, we use the ones we get from the store when our groceries are bagged.

This leaves very little other garbage, mostly cardboard or paper items which get burned in a burning barrel.


Aluminum foil I only buy maybe 2 rolls a year as it is washed and reused as many times as possible. We store it folded in empty oatmeal containers

Bread Bags- are saved in empty oatmeal containers and used for storage bags, freezer bags or for putting homemade bread, or leftover biscuits in.

Cleaning Products- The only cleaning product I buy is Toilet Bowl Cleaner, other than that I use baking soda and vinegar to clean everything else. ( it don't work where I live for my toilet...too many minerals in the water leaves stains unless I buy toilet bowl cleaner)

Water- I do not have a water bill, we live in the country and have well water however where we live at the moment it is HORRID so hubby fills up empty well cleaned milk jugs at his place of work for free. It is filtered 3 x there and we can drink it just fine!  So we do not pay to drink water however I do plan on buying a few cases for emergency stash.

Laundry- I have no washer and dryer  but I pay about $18 as we only go to the laundry matt once a month. We have plenty of underwear and socks but practice a minimal wardrobe other wise and where our clothes more than once.

Eating Out- Whats that? LOL something that happens VERY RARE , a precious gem in this house where going out is very appreciated when we get the rare chance to do it.

Cooking- Almost everything we eat is all made from scratch, also when I go to the store and price things on unit prices, I also calculate how much in total for a meal and use that as my gauge. I typically like to fix dinners between $2 and $4 for a complete meal and will usually NOT buy things if they will cost more than that to make the meal..........exceptions are holidays, our holiday meals will run around $20 for the meal but usually also is more than one meal worth with all the leftovers!

Propane Heat- Hate it but can't change it in a rental and a Trailer can WASTE a lot of heat and paper thin walls means my 70 degrees will seem much cooler than your 70 degrees in a well insulated house. We plastic off the windows and back door.  Then we keep the thermostat set at 65 for day and 55 at night! Brrrrrrrrrr I KNOW!

Slippers are a must have in a winter climate living in a trailer ( I swear if your feet were wet they would instantly freeze to the kitchen floor!  We each have 5 blankets on our beds which keeps us plenty warm at night. During the day we wear a T-shirt then a sweat shirt, then a hooded jacket over the sweat shirt! Keeps us comfy. I only turn the heat up to 68 when kids take thier baths.

Also if the sun is out, I open the curtains to allow the heat in, cloudy days I close the curtain or hang thin blankets over the plastic.

Returnable Cans- When we walk , bike or drive anywhere we collect them so we can return them for 10 cents a piece when we have a lot or need a few extra bucks. Unfortuantly I know every state does not offer refunds for pop or beer can returns!

Homeschool- I purchase 30 notebooks, crayons, markers, colored pencils, regular pencils, pens and glue at the back to school sales when all this is dirt cheap. I then get interesting books or supplies  from Amazon Gift Cards I earn for free from Swagbucks.  For example I got a poetry magnetic kit, a book on the Quipu and how to make them and use for accounting and record keeping, Japanese language CD and more!

I also take full advantage of Garage Sales for supplies , the library and a membership to Netflix where I can get ANYTHING including biology and chemistry courses from

I spend probably no more than 200 a year at the moment including the membership to netflix fees. I would like to up this as money improves to offer more experiences though!

Also try to invite interesting people over on a regular basis! Kids learn an amazing amount from discussions and interesting people!

Gleaning/Foraging- I admitt, I love to glean and forage from climbing apple trees on the side of a road, to dandelion greens, moral mushrooms and even puff balls! Can't wait til spring for wild asparagus to be in! I will also glean from farmers fields after they have been harvested ( ask permission first) for cucumbers , pumpkins and such!


Well for now that is a few things, so much is habit for me, I do not always think of it as helpful so I will do another post if I think of more things or add them in the comments sections

So what are a few things you do that you find saves a lot of money?

Stop! Don't Peel That Potato!

A couple weeks ago, I was preparing dinner and doing what I had done since I was taught as a little kid. Peeling potato's for mashed potato's, when a thought occurred to me, as I watched my composting jar slowly filling up with the potato peels!

What the heck? If most the nutritional value in a potato, is in the skins, why the heck am I peeling them and wasting all the peels? While I do not ALWAYS  throw peels in the compost, as sometimes I use them to make yummy potato skins for dinner but many times I do throw them in the compost jar! WHY? because that is simply how I was taught and never stopped to think about it but it is wasteful not only in throwing out food but also throwing out any nutritional value there is!

So now I simply wash the potato really well, cut it up, boil them and them mash them as I normally would for mashed potato's, skin and all and they are YUMMY! Nobody in the family has complained once I pointed out my revelation and nothing is being wasted which for me is always a good thing!