View Full Version : What are your frugal failures?
Cdttmm's, thread post, "Un-Frugal Behaviors I've Been Tempted By Recently", entered in the Frugality, Products & Purchases, Forum, got me to thinking.
As SL/frugal practitioners, we all strive to be our best/do our best when it comes to reusing, reducing, and recycling, but even then, sometimes it's hard to be 100%. So, where do you fail in the frugal/simple department when it comes to product use, etc?
My two fails...
Paper towels
Ziploc plastic bags/baggies
Re: my paper towel habit (infraction), this is more the result of being chided by family, their argument being, "paper towels are cleaner/quicker/easier", and related to Ziploc bag use, I need to be more strict/regimented when it comes to using my reusable Rubbermaid/Tupperware resealable containers (more).
How about you?
IshbelRobertson
4-22-12, 5:52pm
I use LOTS of paper towels per week.
BUT, I've discovered microfibre cloths... I am using them to replace MANY chemicals products. So, it's a trade-off, lots of paper products, less chemicals. It's a win/win situation!
I never used to use paper towels, but we've got a couple messy pets, so now I do.
My new hobby is remodeling my bus, which requires fabric and paint and posh pillows and lots and lots of fringe.
We recently got two guinea pigs and they eat a LOT and use a lot of cage litter.
Eating out. Even though I have a restricted diet (vegetarian/vegan) I can still manage to spend too much $$ eating out.
I just enjoy the experience...!
Wasting food. We are really bad about not eating our leftovers, forgetting the veggies at the back of the crisper, etc.
Driving to work instead of riding my bicycle. I was so good last year - not so good this year.
My name is Rogar and I have a paper towel problem, too. I do try to buy towels made from recycled sources. Books are probably another one. I'm a slow reader and tend to buy books rather than use the library.
In a bigger scheme of things I have failed so far in doing some landscaping to reduce the size of my lawn. Our arid climate requires routine watering and I am in the primitive school of dragging a hose and sprinkler around rather than a sprinkler system. A waste of time, water and money, but just haven't gotten to a landscaping project that would use less.
I drive my big diesel pickup to the country club to play golf to many times instead of driving one of our smaller cars. And the airplane is probably not to frugal.
I have paper towels ready for use for horrific dog messes. Every few weeks one of the dogs has diarrhea, and I am not going to put that mess into the washing machine.
DH uses paper towels for occasionally cooking bacon in the microwave oven.
Let's see, my frugal failings of which I have many I'm sure:
Probably my main thing (and DH would agree with this) is that I don't take care of things. I am hard on clothes, they get stained easily, so I toss them. My car, only 3 years old, is a wreck--has dirt from top to bottom from hauling plants and soil around in it. Our wood parquet floors are beat up, the carpet upstairs is wrecked. I pretty much think of things that come into my house as leaving out the back to the alley since no one will want them after I am done.
Also in recent times I'm not frugal at the grocery store. While I do not buy gourmet or prepared foods, I will buy things such as Gulf shrimp because it is low calorie and supportive of American industries. It can be a very expensive protein.
Oh yeah, wine. Nothing frugal about my wine habit although I DID find a new red blend for $17.99 a bottle that equals my old favorite at $20.95 a bottle.
How much time do we have?
Paper towels, which I use more sparingly now than I used to, but I still use them. I also have cleaned up some things that I don't want to put into the washing machine!
Disposable wet wipes for cleaning dirty kitten bottoms and the occasional PTA bath if I'm in a rush.
I have a camera that will not take rechargeable batteries, so that wastes a lot of money and generates pollution. However, I'm replacing it with a camera that better suits my needs AND takes rechargeable batteries--DH will use the old camera as a second one, or as a backup, if necessary.
I also still use ziplock bags, but have learned to wash and reuse them if they haven't contained meat or dairy.
I broke down and finally bought some new clothes, since there aren't any thrift stores in my town (and hardly any at all in the country I live in), and we don't have a car.
Gardenarian
4-23-12, 5:21pm
Driving. I don't even like it, but I find myself getting in the car almost every day.
I take my lunch to work in one of those cheap cloth lunch bags that they sell these days. The bag is generally less than 10 bucks and it lasts me a couple of years. Well, I got tired of replacing it every so many years and decided to go out and buy a heavy duty metal box for taking my food!
Guess what.... it broke in 3 months!!!!!!!!!
The money I spent on that thing would have bought me like 10 of the cheap bags!
Our apartment. It seemed ridiculously expensive at the time we bought it, and now that it has more than doubled in value (on paper, at least) it seems even MORE ridiculously expensive. We could never afford to rent a similar place in this location, though, given current rates (which are easily 2x our mortgage payments) and the other day I told DH this is basically our lottery ticket whenever we feel like cashing it in and moving to Costa Rica or something crazy like that....
Taxis home from work every day. It takes me about 40 minutes by taxi, and costs $6-7. If I did the commute by public transit, it would take 1.5-2 hours, but only cost me about $.45. Since taking the taxi saves me lots of stress and means I get home in time to work out before dinner, I think it is worth the investment, even if it isn't the most frugal way to do things.
Regular travel to visit family. This is a huge line item in our budget, but worth every penny.
Good food. I'm spending a lot more on groceries these days, partly due to inflation but also due to different choices. Worth every penny.
Good coffee. Splurged on a fancy espresso maker a couple of years ago -- used, but still quite expensive. Aside from the apartment it lives in this is probably the best purchase we have ever made. LOVE IT and the coffee it makes.
Music for running. A recent splurge. Spent about $30 to download about 20 songs from itunes to make a running playlist. Has kept me motivated for the first four weeks of my 8 week 10k training program. I'm starting to get a little tired of the song mix, though, so may splurge on some new ones to add in/mix it up a bit.
Kindle. This has actually saved tons of money in the long run, so isn't really a frugal failure.
lhamo
Food. Food in good restaurants. Great food at home. A pantry and spice rack designed to make sure almost anything can be whipped up at home at any time. It is the one splurge DW and I completely agree on and enjoy.
iris lily
4-24-12, 10:41am
Yesterday it was chilly and I ran in and out of the house and left the doors open. The furnace was blasting. bad bad bad me.
Forgot we had windows open last night and left them open all night, kept wondering sleepily why the furnace kept coming on......sigh.
Besides the previously stated "failures", we have been known to have the A/C come on while the heater is going! Where we live we pretty much go from heat to A/C over night. Strictly an accident.
We are not frugal with food. We eat out way too much and I very seldom bring my lunch to work. Not healthy, either. :(
I love the feel of driving on a warm/hot day with the top down and the AC blasting. It's so terrible and I always feel guilty, but man that's living!
While I generally try to get the most value for my money, I don't really qualify as frugal on my best day. So I guess I am my own "frugal failure." Uh, whatev...:cool:
Without a doubt I am not frugal when it comes to buying plants. It totally confounds me that I don't care what the final tab is because it is so worth it to me to have more plants.
We don't skimp on food either.
I normally get most of my clothes from the thrift store but the hunt for a new pair of black pants for work was much too time consuming so I bit the bullet and paid $30 for some black pants at a Stein Mart store.
Driving a gas guzzling truck with a shell and racks and with all sorts of bikes and kayaks and just "stuff" on the racks. The truck - a Ford Ranger extra cab with a V-6 - get around 17 to 20 mpg on a good day (maybe 25 if downhill on a freeway with the wind behind me and everything taken off the truck) and I drive...alot. i'm a big road trip person so not only is gas costing me a huge amount, it's very environmentally bad . I had a compact car for years but it died and I needed more room (camp in the truck often) and probably should get another to reduce my expenses, gas use, and pollution factor. But.... I really do need the room... my dog likes the truck... I can haul stuff for friends... um... what other excuses can I find? :devil:
Fun reading everyone's entries. Thanks for sharing with me. Speaking of the heating/cooling process this time of the year, it's hard for us to maintain a happy balance, At night, temperatures drop, so we need a little warmth in the morning, but by afternoon, the house starts getting warm, so windows are opened. It's usually like this until May, at which time furnace heating is no longer required.
I detest shopping in person and mail order everything possible. I'm tempted to try Green Pea, which takes your grocery order and delivers it, but it's affiliated with a supermarket that I don't like much and which isn't locally owned.
I spare no expense when it comes to good food, organic whenever possible, free-range eggs and chicken, et cetera. I'd rather spend the money now than pay it to doctors later.
Tussiemussies
4-26-12, 7:07am
This is going to be a big failure in many ways...my DH does not want me to use the washer to clean rags that I have cleaned the house with. He threw them out as he does the laundry now. What I have to do now is either use disposable
Cloths or buy cheap washcloths and throw them out when done.
I am not going to argue with DH on this as he never asks much of me. But a big environmental and frugal failure for me...
Hi, Jemima and Tussie. Wise, healthy diets, I couldn't agree more. Well worth the investment and spending. Sigh... I will never understand some people's concerns over washing certain things in the washing machine. How about filling the bathroom sink with a dash of detergent and warm water, then handwashing your household cleaning cloths, following up with hang-drying them? The nice part about household cleaning cloths, they never really get that dirty, so little in the way of cleaning is needed to freshen them up afterwards. Economically, it would save you a bundle.
Short side-note, having everything needed to get the job done in a home, kept conveniently close at hand, and readily available, makes for the best homemaking experience ever. No running out of, no emergency trips to go get this, or go get that... Additionally, laundry room wash-tubs/bins, are so indispensable when it comes to homemaking. Tussie, when you and your husband start looking for a place to buy, keep your eyes peeled for a laundry room equipped with built-in wash-tubs. In your case, wash-tubs will be a blessing.
AmeliaJane
4-26-12, 5:20pm
I think we have a couple of different discussions going here. To me, "frugal failures" are things that go wrong, oopsies, good ideas that don't pan out. For instance, when you carefully pack your delicious leftover lunch in your reusable lunch bag...and then walk out the door without it, and have to toss everything at the end of the day because it's been sitting out of refrigeration (not to mention, buy a replacement lunch). Not that I've ever done that, of course...:)
It seems like a lot of people are mentioning choices which other people might or might not agree with, like eating out or buying organics. If you choose to eat out or buy organic even though it's not the least costly option, for whatever reason you have, you are making a choice that places some other priorities over saving money. But I wouldn't call that "failing," so much. Just choosing.
AmeliaJane. I have a hunch you're hiding a dirty-little secret from us, Re: a certain squashed bagged-lunch that happened... This is my laugh of the day, and boy does it ever feel good. In fact, it's my laugh of the week.
You're right about not really being "failures" of sorts, but rather, "choices". I really, really, r-e-a-l-l-y, hate my paper towel habit. Every time I load a package of paper towels into the shopping cart I think, "what a waste". Hence the failure idea. So hard on myself I am.
Re: this topic, after I hit reply (upon originally posting this thread), I thought, "should have/could have named it better".
rosarugosa
4-26-12, 6:40pm
AmeliaJane, I think you're right about that. To me, a frugal failure would be something like the breadcrumb cookies that I finally persuaded DH to make (I think the recipe might have originated with Amy Dacyzn), which we concluded didn't taste even the least bit better than they sounded . . .
I guess you're right -- sorry if I took things off track above!
I have food-related frugal failures from time to time. LIke a couple of weeks ago DH had purchased a big block of tofu that needed to be used up, so I tried a new (to me) recipe for tofu curry from Super Natural Everyday. It was definitely not Super, though it may have been natural, but I sure as heck wouldn't want to eat it every day! or ANY day for that matter. It was horrible, really. We ate a bit for dinner, and I had one lunch meal of the leftovers, but it was even worse reheated. Threw the rest out.
A couple of times early last winter I overslept and then had to take a taxi to work. I fixed that frugal failure by buying an Ipod touch -- now use the alarm feature, and haven't missed a bus by mistake since (though I did hit snooze a couple of times..)
lhamo
Originally posted by Lhamo.
I guess you're right -- sorry if I took things off track aboveDefinitely not. I think it's completely subjective, the way one wants to view the OP intent. Yes, it can be construed two different ways, but that doesn't make any replies wrong or "off track". I still stand firmly behind the idea of this thread topic, that being choices (failures), as in areas where one does not ideally conform to simple/frugal practices. Your post was great.
Mighty Frugal
4-27-12, 12:54pm
Well, just so I don't get into trouble here are my frugal failures for both instances
choice-I just spent $35 for Lindt chocolate. We are die hard chocoholics (and dark choco is good for you so that's my excuse) and I like to buy the good stuff-with real cocoa-not just sugar. It is one of our only treats and we loveeeee it
fail-We bought our new vehicle right before vehicles went down in price. So our 2006 was more costly and not anywhere near as loaded as my friend's 2010 vehicle was (and it's the same maeke and model) grrrr-had we only waited a year or two-and we could have-nothing wrong with the previous car
So sorry, Mighty Frugal, this thread escaped me for a time. Lindt Chocolate, so good!!! But holy smokes, you don't mess around when you buy it. :) Re: vehicles, we need a newer vehicle (now), so have been on the hunt. Something extra clean, lower mileage, and one-owner (preferably).
In the mood for pictures tonight!
http://www.simplelivingforum.net/attachment.php?attachmentid=829&d=1341886880
paper towels (selectively used)
ammonia (selectively used)
Scrub-Free (used regularly)
Pine-Sol (used regularly)
Vim (used regularly)
Glad plastic garbage bags, (used regularly)
disposable pads/liners, much by wayside (replaced with cloth pads)
awakenedsoul
7-11-12, 3:11pm
Funny thread! Opening a dance/yoga studio in the recession. I thought, "This is the perfect time to open my own business!" Rents were low, landlords were offering first month's rent for free, I got the SBA loan right away, and all my students followed me to my new location. Fortunately, I got out in time so I didn't lose any money, but, boy was I wrong! I did learn a lot, though. Running a business really showed me my strengths and weaknesses.
Originally posted by Awakenedsoul.
Funny thread!I call it the "shame on me" thread. I wish I could whittle-down my store-bought cleaner and plastic garbage bag use, but it seems those are two things I have a firm hold of and am not willing to let go. I used to use supermarket plastic bags for garbage bags, but too many leaks and bags letting go, so I made the switch to Glad, and as far as cleaners go, I fancy the convenience of being able to pour/use at a moments notice, no mixing, no fussing, etc.
So happy to hear you were able to get-out without a loss.
awakenedsoul
7-12-12, 5:37pm
Mrs. M.
Thanks! I've started dumping my trash out of the plastic garbage bag into the dumpster. I re use the bag. (I buy them in bulk at Costco.) They last a long time this way. I re use my vacuum cleaner bags, too.
Now that I'm used to my homemade cleaners, I just love them. I use mostly baking soda, and vinegar and water in a spray bottle. I also make a citrus cleaner with vinegar and my home grown lemon rinds. I'm surprised you don't make your own...you seem like the type of housekeeper who would be enthusiastic about all that kind of stuff...
happystuff
7-13-12, 7:03am
frugal failures... I look in my pantry at the soymilk making machine and the three hugs containers of soy beans. Maybe if I make it and add chocolate they will start drinking it again??
Nifty tips on the plastic garbage bag/vacuum-cleaner bag use, Awakenedsoul!
I think my own mom turned me off household cleaners, as she has always used vinegar as a floor wash. I need to reinvent the homemade household cleaner idea. Thanks to you, I'm going to give your lemon rind- vinegar cleaner a try! Thanks for that!
Happystuff. Re: the chocolate addition, give it a try! Sounds like a marvel idea to me. :)
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