View Full Version : Evidence of My Frugality
The idea for this thread came to me this morning as I was preparing to go outside to work in the garden. Everywhere I look there is evidence of my frugality. Most of it is small, but it is there. And I realize that no one else is noticing these acts of frugality because they are happening completely under the radar. Yet it is these many small frugal measures that ultimately keep my monthly expenses low and allowed me to retire in my 30s. Here are just some of the things that caught my attention this morning:
-the t-shirt I was wearing was free from a giveaway several years ago at Whole Foods; the shirt itself is quite ugly as it's a hideous shade of neon green, but it is lightweight and long-sleeved so it provides some protection from the sun, which saves on sunscreen :D
-the pants I was wearing were purchased at a thrift store 7 years ago for $4; they are lightweight cargo style pants so I have lots of pockets for carrying stuff about, once upon a time the pants were an off-white color, now they are more of a dirty grey, despite the fact that there were clean this morning :~)
-the gardening hat I donned was a freebie from my SIL, who got it at the summer party her law firm held a few weeks ago -- she thought it was ugly, I took one look at it and thought, "That is a perfect hat for gardening!" so I took it off her hands
-my gardening gloves were purchased new at the thrift store for $1
-the LL Bean shoes were another thrift store purchase costing me a whopping $8 at least 5 years ago
I'm sure I am quite a sight when I am outside gardening, stacking firewood, mowing the lawn, or just working outside. But I live in the woods where few, if any, people will see me. Why should I care what I look like? ;)
But my frugality isn't just about what I was wearing.
-I walked down to the compost pile to empty the compost "bucket" -- a plastic tub that once held store-bought lettuce
-I put my headphones in so that I could listen to music while I worked -- headphones that a week ago I accidentally caught while stacking firewood and ripped from my ears, but not without causing damage to one of the headphones -- Crazy Glue fixed those up good as new :D
-I enjoyed listening to music that I had downloaded for free
-I noted that I had purposefully parked the car in the shade of the cherry tree so that when I drive it later today I won't need to crank the A/C
-on the deck in the blazing sun was a load of laundry hanging to dry
-the plants adorning the deck are primarily succulents, requiring little water or care even in harshest of summer conditions
Later on, back in the house...
-a quick snack of peanut butter on a rice cake -- the last of the peanut butter scraped from the jar with a spatula -- waste not, want not
-there are coupons on the counter for the pet store, which I'll stop at later on my way to Tae Kwon Do; I'll be able to save on both flea and tick spray and cat food
-my bag to carry my Tae Kwon Do gear is more than 10 years old, once bought to hold triathlon gear and since re-purposed
-the Nalgene water bottle I use at Tae Kwon Do is so old the strap connected to the screw top is broken and the logo of my alma mater has long since been scratched off through repeated use
-the book we're reading for my Tae Kwon Do reading group should arrive this week -- free of charge, courtesy of paperbackswap.com
Of course there are all the "big" frugal things I do, too, like doing my own gardening and yard work instead of paying to have it done, investing in solar panels and a high-efficiency outdoor wood boiler, buying a fuel-efficient car and not driving it unnecessarily. But those things aren't everyday things. The everyday things -- the little places where money can so easily leak out -- those are the things I noticed today. The small wins that ultimately make for the big wins.
What are your small wins? Where do you see evidence of your frugality? Please share and help to inspire me and others!
Small things include:
*washing in cold water and line drying
*combining several trips in one and rarely making trips to town from the farm
*buying fabric that has been marked down 30% or more and then 50% off that price on the special sale weeks and making many gifts and household items
*replacing the elastic on good quality underwear for a huge saving
*watching the time-of-use electric meter and using power accordingly
*catching and using the water from the sump pump to water the garden especially in this heat
*monitoring what we eat and measuring portions with care so that food does not get wasted or that we overeat
*drinking tea in the morning and water the rest of the day
*buying used and driving vehicles until they pass 300,000 km or they are no longer safe to drive so at least 10 years more
*growing some veggies, harvesting local fruits and preserving food bought locally in the growing season
* since we watch little TV, we use the ministate antenna for free channel programming which is ample for us
*we rarely buy processed food but make our own bread, pickles, homemade yogurt, laundry detergent etc.
Maxamillion
7-1-12, 3:44pm
* I don't have cable TV. I do have a TV antennae, but it doesn't pick up much, so I go online and watch tv episodes online and will watch stuff on Youtube. There's lots of craft tutorials on Youtube, which is how I learned to knit.
*I like making patterns for doll clothes and I'll use fabric from a sheet from the thrift store to test the patterns.
*Some of my craft supplies and one of my sewing machines was given to me by my sister.
*I drink water a lot, which is practically free
*I do garden but the veges haven't done well at all this year. I'm still hoping for some tomatoes and watermelon though.
*I can't remember the last time I bought new clothes. And when I do, they're almost always on sale. I also buy from thrift stores occasionally but I haven't bought any in awhile.
*My newest bookshelf had been put out on the side of the road with the trash. The top two shelves were broken, but the bottom half was perfectly usable and looks great in my living room. My dining room table and chairs were given to me by a friend. My dresser, couch, and living room chair I got at thrift stores (and the chair and couch actually match! I was so excited about that lol). My media shelves I got on sale at Walmart for $10 each (they had been $20 each) a few years ago. The large desk where my sewing machine and embroidery machine sit, I got off of craigslist. I have a small table that my old laptop sits on, that I got at a yard sale for $3. And my TV stand I got at a thrift store, also $3. The only piece of brand new furniture I have that I paid full price for is a small bookshelf from WalMart that I got for $11 and a buffet table from Fred's that was $18.
*My VCR and TV are close to 15 years old.
*My living room curtains are bed sheets that I got at the thrift store for $1. I'll end up making some curtains to replace them, as soon as I can decide on what theme I want for the living room.
*I use coupons at the craft stores. I signed up for a flyer that's mailed out twice a month from one of them that has coupons in it.
*I'm using a rack for drying baby bottles that I got at the thrift store for $1 to hold some of my embroidery thread.
*Once I decided on the theme for my living room, I'll get some posterboard or foam core board and paint my own art for the walls. I may use some foam board to make frames for it to, which has the advantage of being lightweight.
*The shelf that holds my video tapes, I made from two cardboard boxes and painted them.
Oh, I love playing this game! Let's see, looking around I see
--the television was a hand-me-down from a brother
--when I got my diplomas framed, someone gave me the trick of buying my own frames and taking them to a professional framer to have the mats cut and the hardware put on (we had tried DIY mat cutting first and it did not look good)
--my good dishes and glassware, chest of drawers and kitchen table and chairs are all inherited from family members
--my computer speakers were purchased at a charity that accepts donated computer hardware, fixes it, and then resells or donates it
--magazine subscription via a friend who got a buy 1, get one for a friend deal
--sitting here with the AC turned off, in Texas in June. I have found that when I am home, I am most comfortable with it on about half the time.
--all four of my apartments have been tiny, and I have bought simple furniture as I went along that doesn't date. So I have a lot of things that are 10-15 years old and still going strong
--no cable--just online streaming (going to get a converter and antenna soon, though)
--the couch was $75 from Goodwill--ugly, but slipcovered
Fun thread!
- Four of my five children are wearing at least one second-hand item. Three of five are wearing entirely second hand clothes.
-Two of them are watering our tomatoes and lettuces right now for some inexpensive food. Dinner tonight is BLTs.
-One of them is working on laundry, washed in cold water with homemade laundry detergent.
-I am sitting in a living room full of furniture, all of it hand-me-downs except the desk I am using, which was $25 at IKEA. Come to think of it, the computer is second hand also.
-I am drinking water out of a mason jar.
-The two napping children are napping in a second hand bouncy seat and a pack-and-play that has been through multiple children. All of the furniture in both the boys' room and the girls' room was either secondhand or a gift except the lego desk in the girls' room. Some of it was both second hand and a gift. The lego desk is the same as the desk in the living room, a $25 IKEA desk.
-Almost all of the kids' toys have been second hand or gifts from friends and family. Ditto most of our books. A lot of the books were mine when I was a kid.
-I have the drapes drawn in the living room to keep the house frmo heating up on this nearly 100 degree day. As I think of it, the drapes are the same ones my grandma bought my mom when I was seven years old. They still look good.
My closet is full of hand-me-down, but very nice, clothing I received from a generous in-law.
My roots are showing and my ends are split...I haven't been to a hairdresser for four months and my DIY hair color is growing out!
I think the greatest evidence of my frugality is, however, what is unseen in my life. All the crap I stopped buying once I figured out that being debt-free was my first priority, for example. The absence of the cars we got rid of, the sports equipment we didn't use and so we sold off, the tech gizmos we've refused to buy, etc. Oh, and the glorious absence of balances on ALL our credit cards! Yahoo! :)
domestic goddess
7-2-12, 2:11pm
I really have to think about this a bit, as I don't go around thinking of ourselves as frugal. But all the living room furniture, except for one end table, is second hand. Dsil brought home the couch, computer desk, coffee table from various places he has worked. He built the entertainment center from left-over lumber. The recliner belonged to my mil; dd asked for it when she sold her house and moved into a retirement community, and didn't have room for it. There is a bookcase that I bought for storage in my room. Pictures are either family photos or artwork the girls have done. Speaking of the girls, their mother just picked them up some clothes from Goodwill, and they are thrilled with them. Our refrigerator was obtained by dsil, but I forget where. It is a nice, big side-by-side with ice and water in the door. It was too big for the space the original fridge was in, so dsil moved a cabinet and cut the counter. Now it fits perfectly. It was free to us. Our washing machine recently died, and was replaced with a free to us used machine that was offered to dsil by a client, who also delivered it. It works like a new one. Now if we can just keep one of the people who live here from over-loading it, we'll be set for years. My car is no longer used, but we have it for parts. DD and I share a car; since I work at night, we rarely have a conflict. Our cat was a gift from dd's best friend to dgd1 on her 3rd or 4th birthday (I forget which one now). For a couple of years she gifted us with litters of kittens, until I put my foot down and had her spayed. The other tenant in the house has a cat, which is rarely seen. During a time when money was tight, dsil's brother's wife gifted us with a lot of canned goods, some of which we still have, but are using up. I'm not real big on canned food, but this was very helpful at a time when we needed it, and it is still filling us up. Oh yeah, dd and dsil made a headboard from part of a piece of furniture dsil found that was being discarded on a job site. It looks to me as if it might have been part of a china cabinet or something similar, but now it looks great as a headboard. It is pretty tall, and dgd2 likes to get on top of it and jump onto the bed. She does flips and all kinds of tricks. DD's desk from her childhood days is in use in their room. Our deck furniture came from my mil as well. Dsil loves video games, and he usually buys them used at Gamestop, as do the girls when they want games for their Nintendo DS. I download free books to my kindle, and listen to the music I like on Pandora. I can handle a few ads for free music. DD just got dsil some work clothes from Goodwill, and some beach towels for the girls for swimming (we like those big towels.). We don't have cable or a landline, so everyone pays for their own phone use. There is not a credit card in the house.
awakenedsoul
7-2-12, 5:23pm
cdttmm,
What an inspiring thread! I love to hear from people who have retired so young. You are walking the talk!
Here's what I see:
A woman at the park gave me my purebred German shepherd. She's a great watchdog and protector. She came with eveything she needed: a bed, crate, toys, leash and collar. She already had her shots. She was spayed, and microchipped, as well.
All of my furniture was either handed down from my parents, or bought at the Salvation Army. It's almost all antiques! My couch was given to me for free by a neighbor. They even delivered it at no charge!
My bicycle I got for $79.00. I use it for almost all my errands.
My car is a 2004 used Kia Ria that I got at a $1,500. discount. (My brother works for a rent a car agency and they gave me a family discount.) It will last me at least another 20 years.
My chicken gives me eggs and manure for my compost.
My compost feeds my orchard and vegetable gardens for free.
I bought my yarn and needles for 40% off with a coupon. My knitting class is only $5.00 for a two hour session! It may even be one on one! I joined a group at the library that meets and does fiber arts together. It's free. I love socializing with the people there. They are so warm and funny!
My walls have framed photographs from my dance/yoga studio that I closed. The pictures are of people I love and admire. The frames were all donated.
My books are from the library and I return them on time!
My television and DVD player were handed down to my from my parents 15 years ago. They work just fine.
My bath towels are repaired with blanket binding. I bought it with a coupon and sewed it by hand along the edges. They have lasted for 15 years! They look beautiful! (The line drying seems to really help my clothes and linens last a long time.)
My socks are darned with embroidery floss that I got with a 40% off coupon at the fabric store.
My hiking boots are resoled and feel good as new. I've had them over 10 years.
My dog leashes are leather, and were a gift from my mom. The first two dogs who used them have passed away. I walk my current canine friends with them. I will continue to reuse the leashes. (Same with the dog beds.)
My bread is baked from scratch. The flour, butter, yeast and salt was bought in bulk at Costco. It costs me pennies per loaf.
The oven I bake the bread in is a restored O'Keefe and Merrit stove I bought through the Pennysaver for $230.00.
My washer and dryer I got used throught the Pennysaver for $100. for the pair.
My fridge was $400. from Sears. It's a Kenmore, has lasted 15 years, and is going strong.
I have a phone like Mrs. Brady had on the Brady Bunch. I don't text or use a cell phone.
My laundry is hanging on the line, and I use homemade laundry powder.
My sewing machine is a 1950's Singer Featherweight that I bought used. I made my own curtains, cloth t.p.m napkins, and cloth menstrual pads with it.
My dog food I buy in bulk and it's stored in tins.
My car is covered with a cloth cover that I've mended five times.
My decorations I got used at the thrift store for very little. They are vintage and very charming!
My potholders and dishcloths are homemade. I crocheted and used yarn with a 40% off coupon.
My dog treats are homemade with peanut butter from Costco. The eggs are from my chicken.
My other dog treats I bought with a coupon at Costco. Same with my charcoal briquets.
My bbq was given to me by a friend who didn't want it anymore.
I could go on...guess that's why I was able to retire young, too. It all really adds up! I approach simple living as a job. I'm looking forward to hearing everyone else's stories.
Tussiemussies
7-2-12, 5:47pm
DH and I are on staycation since Sat. And have only spent $67.00 so far. For us that is really good!
These are wonderful examples of the big and small decisions that add up to huge financial benefits and the peace of mind that comes with not being in debt. I see a huge theme of self-reliance, too. This inspires me to sit down and think through my day and look for similar changes that might be possible for me. Thank you!
Yes, this is a fun game. Visible around our house and yard...
The clothes umbrella outside, which can hold up to 4 loads of laundry.
The organic vegetable and fruit plantings, which have yielded many pounds of food already this spring/summer.
The reel mower. no gas, no noise, no emissions, no parts to break.
Flowers started from seeds.
DD's jungle gym: 4 crabapple trees that were planted by previous owner. They've grown with her since we moved here and are now the perfect size for climbing.
The sole TV has an antenna and no other channels. We rarely turn it on.
In the fridge: several jars of the last bits of jam that wouldn't fit in the full jars that I canned. There is no soda and almost everything inside is a whole food.
In the pantry: legumes and other foods stored in jars from pasta sauce. More whole foods. Homemade granola in place of boxes of branded cereal.
DD's toys: nearly all were either second-hand or gifts.
Crafting corner: in general crafts are frugal; they take more time than other forms of entertainment plus they can result in gift creation.
Pretty much everything in our house was bought on sale/clearance or second-hand.
Soon we will have a table for our patio that a friend is giving us. It's very weathered wood so I'm planning to stain it.
In the shed: DH's bike is about 20 years old; mine and DD's were obtained for free from friends. My old bike, which created a bad angle for my back, is at DH's work so he can use it for getting around in the metro area.
CF lightbulbs for energy savings.
Drapes that came with the house were modified for energy savings. They were formal and pleated and just decorative; they didn't close. I took out the pleats and added drapery rings to them so that they cover the windows when we need them to. They are heavy, nice fabric with a heavy lining.
Insulation added to the attic for energy savings - done at a time when there was a very generous rebate program. It was almost free.
Landscaping - many plants from friends and split from the plants we had.
Gift cabinet: I hate buying or making gifts under time pressure. I get and make gifts when I find appropriate things on sale/clearance and as I make items I put them in a particular closet, and keep a list of what is in there. Christmas and birthdays are a lot cheaper this way, and a lot less stressful for me.
Rosemary, your list is impressive! Sounds like you've got everything covered - is there any other thing you're working on in the frugal area? just curious
Awesome lists!
Our compost bin
My clothesline
My 24 year old top-loading washing machine/electric tumble dryer!
Our old stove (kitchen) that so desperately needs replaced
Me and my youngest daughters cloth pads
My canning jar collection
Our quaint garden out back that I wish was bigger
The abundance of wooden clothespins I have on hand
A portion of my stash of household diaper-wipers for general household cleanup, washing, window-cleaning, dusting, etc.
http://www.simplelivingforum.net/attachment.php?attachmentid=805&d=1341329709
Re-purposed diaper pail, turned, storage receptacle, for us girls cloth pads!
http://www.simplelivingforum.net/attachment.php?attachmentid=806&d=1341331076
awakenedsoul
7-3-12, 2:28pm
Awesome thread! I love your photos, Mrs. M.! I use a diaper pail for my cloth pads, too. I got mine at the Salvation Army. I thought of some more:
My energy efficient gas heater that The Gas Co. gave me for free! They also installed a low flow showerhead, aerated my faucets, and put weather stripping on my doors. Because I live simply, they see me as low income. They offer these services to people who live on less. (at no charge!!!)
The glasses I drink water out of I got at the church thrift store for 25 cents a piece.
The hummingbird feeder was a gift from my neighbor 15 years ago.
The air conditioner I got for $30.00 at the Salvation Army. (Most evenings I just open the windows, but it's nice to have the air conditioner when our heat is in the triple digits.)
My chicken was given to me by a neighbor who couldn't take care of her. (She gave me a pair, but one died.) This one is fourteen!
My chicken coop was built by the previous owner of the cottage. He used old French doors and windows. It's gorgeous and was free.
My swing that hangs on the porch of the chicken coop was given to me by neighbors. It's old, comfortable, and looks out on my orchard.
Can't wait to hear more from others!
Awakenedsoul. Thanks! :)
I forgot to mention pee-cloths. Us girls use pee-cloths, and the pail (beside the toilet) also serves as storage for the cloths.
P.S. Re: The Salvation Army and Hospital Auxiliary Thrift Store, those are two of my very favourite places to drop-in and snoop! Seldom am I disappointed...
rosarugosa
7-4-12, 12:39pm
You can see evidence of frugality at our place - as long as you don't look in the closet! ;)
A few of note:
The big Patton fans cooling the house instead of a/c
The $1.00 Salvation Army denim shirt that I'm wearing today
My 17 y.o. car in the driveway
The 19" old-style TV with converter box and rabbit ears - that is usually turned off
The basket of damask napkins in the kitchen
The kitchen itself, which won't get remodeled until we can afford to do it without any financing
Ok let me try this-what a fun thread!
Washer has a piece of cardboard in the on switch area. It stopped working correctly without it about 5 years ago. Works fine this way.
Our telephone sits on a wood tv tray that was a wedding present. Ds has a matching one in his room for a bedside table.
The table beside my chair was found in one of the houses we've bought over the years. Dh refinished it and it looks fine.
We have 3 dressers, all of which are solid wood and from the '50s or '60. Some day I might refinish them but for now they are just fine and they aren't evr going to break like the cheap stuff.
Ds has a huge metal desk in his room. I'm not sure how old it must be. It takes 3-4 grown men to move it. It came with the building and ds adores it for all of his art work.
I have a brand new food processor and a slow cooker in boxes in the laundry room-free from a rewards site.
The flooring in the laundry/mud room is the same that was used when it was a public men's bathroom We did see the point of putting new flooring in the area designated for mess making.
Our back yard is has a 6 ft high wooden fence around it. We did it ourselves-including mixing the cement. We stained every inch of it my hand with stain we bought on sale and using rebates. This would have cost us way, way more to do if we'd hired it out. Its added so much beauty and value to the property.
Bookshelves-one was free and the other I bought at an estate sale for $10.
Tomatoes and peppers are growing if free containers-wine barrels, and assorted other planters. Even some of the potting soil was free.
Our bed set was purchased using a Christmas gift card. Years of use instead of a temporary indulgence with the money.
Free beach towels hanging up to dry-all of which were free through various promotional offers.
5 containers of free laundry detergent as well as lots of health and beauty products sitting around. If its free or darn near, I stock up. We never, ever have to make a trip to the store just for something like toilet paper or shampoo.
Partially used spiral notebooks from when I was in college 15 years ago being used for various things. Check stubs used for scrap paper.
Handicap bars from what were public bathrooms re-hung and used for towel racks. One of those big-roll toilet paper despensers in my bathroom because it was already here and we can by paper for it cheaper than we can the normal stuff at the store.
An electric heater in our bedroom because its the one place that gets cold. Its cheaper that redoing the duct work.
Ds has a case of outdated paper place mats in his room. Lots of free over-sized drawing paper. A roll of meat-wrapping paper that came with the business when we bought it sits in another corner of his room. I wrapped it and gave it to him as a birthday present one year. Its for the special, really big projects and rates as "one of the best presents ever!"
domestic goddess
7-4-12, 7:21pm
awakenedsoul,
We have some bath towels with frayed edges that I have been wanting to repair, but didn't know what to use. Thank you for the idea of using blanket binding! I wouldn't have thought of that, so I can now fix them so they will last longer. Thanks for the idea! This thread is fun, and I am learning so much.
early morning
7-4-12, 9:00pm
Fun! Almost everything we have is/was used - but I have to admit some of our antiques were rather expensive. Still, they will last beyond our lifetimes and are worth, even in this economic climate, more than we paid for them. Most of our clothes, and we have plenty, were yard or thrift-saled, or gifts. Our downstairs is cooled by ceiling fans and box fans that were trash-picked or yard-saled. Our bathroom vanity top was trash-picked and fit the vanity we already had, perfectly. Our kitchen "remodel" consisted of repainting the 1940s cabinets black, installing new door handles, and putting on a piece of standard counter-top, ourselves. Oh, and I stripped the painted built-in pine wall cabinet. We need to redo the ceiling and floor, but it can wait. My lovely long dining room table is flanked by three pairs of chairs, all antique, all free. Dsis and I wove new seats on one pair. Our patio, brick and sand, was accomplished over several years, as we found and hauled in free bricks. We used free skids on the balance of it - as we got enough bricks, we would pull up a skid and fill in another square. It looks wonderful! It started out being edged with free barn beams, but as those rotted, we replaced them with used railroad ties, which we did have to buy. Our clothesline poles, which hold three long lines, were free - just a little cost for the concrete to install them. Our summer kitchen turned shed was re-roofed with metal siding cabbaged from various spots. It's red, white, and blue, but not on purpose, lol. Someday it may get painted, but in the interim, we just look uber-patriotic, especially from the air. Our barn is full of free or cheap items to use up or resell. Our truck is 17 yrs old, and has almost 200K miles. My car is 7 years old, and has almost as many miles. We did buy a new freezer this spring, as our old one conked out and almost cost us our side of beef - but we were able to shop around for a good deal, thanks to a neighbor with 4 HUGE basement freezers, who let us stash our freezer contents with him until we were up and running again.
awakenedsoul
7-4-12, 9:17pm
awakenedsoul,
We have some bath towels with frayed edges that I have been wanting to repair, but didn't know what to use. Thank you for the idea of using blanket binding! I wouldn't have thought of that, so I can now fix them so they will last longer. Thanks for the idea! This thread is fun, and I am learning so much.
You're welcome! I love the way it looks. I tried to do it on my sewing machine, but I had trouble with the thickness, so I did it all by hand. I'm glad you're going to do it. Usually the rest of the towel is in great shape. When I went to the fabric store and told the lady who worked there what I was doing, she acted like she thought I was nuts. Once I explained that I wanted to stretch my dollars, she helped me find the right colors and showed me what was on sale.
awakenedsoul
7-4-12, 9:21pm
early morning,
What a nice neighbor! I love hearing stories like that. I love antiques, too. They are so well made.
Looking around this room where I'm sitting right now:
* I am wearing shirt and pants from a thrift store
* there are at least two things in this room from relatives of my grandparent's generation
* my wine glass is one I picked up on a sidewalk
* the cat lazing about in this room was free!
* I am looking at a beautiful vintage black velvet theatre coat I rescued from the Goodwill Final Stop store for $1--I can easily get $10 for it, but mainly I took it because I couldn't bear to see it in the rag bin, it is perfect condition
* the 5 framed, matted with glass covered art prints were $10 each at Goodwill. While that's not exactly cheap, the uniform look of the frames is what I want in my living room and I will be getting inexpensive prints to replace the motel art in them. I will probably paint the mats as well, have done that before.
* am typing this using a computer with cheap dsl--we got a deal some years ago when the phone company wanted to move people off dial-up
Blackdog Lin
7-6-12, 9:02pm
I am going to go into the bathroom to check on some evidence of my frugality.
- the soap in the bathtub is a conglomeration of 1 new and 2 old bars. I always squish the old bars onto the new one, to use it all up.
- said soap is always used for shaving the legs, in lieu of shaving cream. A good large-pored sponge and a bar of soap and I don't know why ANYONE, man or woman, would spend the money on shaving cream.
- re: shaving. My razor is 15 years old, a free sample, still working well enough. They did sucker me into buying their blades, since I still use their razor, but I only use about 2 blades per season (I don't shave during the winter.....sorry, I'm not much of a girly-girl).
- my day-face-cream is an affordable $7.00 one. I keep seeing the Avon books, and the commercials, for face cream that will take 20 years off my face. I will not buy into this commercialism. My face is okay for 55 years of using, and I will not buy into the idea that spending $38.00 (or more!) for face cream will magically make me look that much younger.
- my night cream is the even-more-affordable $3.50 one, the ultra cheapo stuff. It moisturizes overnight.....and that's all I can ask at this stage of my life.
- the towel hanging on the back of the door has been used since Tuesday. I only use the towel to dry myself (when I'm CLEAN!), so why would I pitch it into the laundry? It dries during the day, and is clean-enough and ready for the next use. I save a lot of time and laundry products with only using 1-2 towels per week. (I confess, I do the same with washcloths).
I think I could tell more, but company has shown up, and I have to go play hostess.....sigh.....
fidgiegirl
7-7-12, 12:08am
Ds has a case of outdated paper place mats in his room. Lots of free over-sized drawing paper. A roll of meat-wrapping paper that came with the business when we bought it sits in another corner of his room. I wrapped it and gave it to him as a birthday present one year. Its for the special, really big projects and rates as "one of the best presents ever!"
This warms my heart. We always had this type of supplies around as children, as well. In our case, it was one-sided paper from my mom's place of employment that was no longer needed. Later, it was the dot-matrix printer paper that became obsolete. Because of these, there were never limits placed on our creativity. Who cared if we used the whole thing?! We were happy campers.
The clothes umbrella outside, which can hold up to 4 loads of laundry.
Uh oh!! Look out, DH, I may just get my clothesline yet . . . had never thought of this, but super perfect for our yard. Buahahahaha . . .
Hopefully over the next few days I'll have a chance to respond myself. For now, bed calls . . . :)
early morning
7-7-12, 6:26am
Wandering outside early this morning (why was I up at 4 AM on a Saturday???) I realized I had neglected to mention that most of our yard is evidence of our frugality. :cool:We don't weed-n-seed, spray for weeds, fertilize, or water - we get what we get. We do mow, though. We don't rake. Most of our plants and trees that we put in were either free, trades, or purchased on sale. A few were gifts. I have a small pond right off the end of our porch, by the patio. It's one of those little pre-formed plastic ones, given to us by a neighbor who moved. The pump is now 10 years old. The plastic part that holds the little piece of filter material (cut from a scrap of our furnace filter material) broke years ago, and is held on by a rubber band. Mr. Fish was a 19 cent feeder-fish who managed to survive the winter. The water circulates through a pitcher-pump that was my aunt's, which probably means it was from my grandparent's farm. Sadly, there is no one left to ask about that. Our patio furniture was all free (a glass top table, umbrella, umbrella holder, four metal chairs, cushions for said chairs, and a whole stack of the plastic, molded chairs) was all culled from various trash piles. Our bistro set on the porch was purchased for $10 years ago. The glass top has since broken and been replaced with an old, legally removed STOP sign. The chairs have been victims of several large falling objects, and I am looking for suitable (free or cheap) replacements. Our front porch wicker rocker cost me a dollar at a yard sale, and several cans of red spray paint - the metal glider was free from a relative and is covered with two throw rugs, instead of cushions. The swing in the yard was trash-picked. Its cushions were picked from a different pile, different summer. I am pretty patient - I figure if I want something non-critical, it, or a reasonable substitute will appear, if I wait long enough. So far, so good, lol!
early morning
7-7-12, 6:33am
awakenedsoul, yes - he's a great neighbor. Semi-retired old farmers are the best! Especially if you like listening to their stories. Many times. They have much wisdom to impart. I pretty much like old. Antique stuff, old people, old ways of doing things - it's all good! (Ok, it's mostly good...;))
Fidgiegirl, I think that clothes umbrellas are the ideal solution for drying outside, especially on city lots. When you don't want it there, for instance if you're having a large gathering, you simply remove it, fold it, and stick it in a corner or shed. We store ours in the winter to keep the plastic line in better condition.
awakenedsoul
7-7-12, 8:45pm
awakenedsoul, yes - he's a great neighbor. Semi-retired old farmers are the best! Especially if you like listening to their stories. Many times. They have much wisdom to impart. I pretty much like old. Antique stuff, old people, old ways of doing things - it's all good! (Ok, it's mostly good...;))
Me too. I have some older neighbors where I live who are really nice people. They have nice manners, and they always like to stop and talk...
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