Are your dollars not stretching as far as they used to? I know mine aren’t! So I thought I’d start sharing some frugal things that we do as a way to encourage myself and maybe give someone in a similar situation some ideas.
Disclosure: This post may contain affiliate links to Amazon and/or Etsy, which means that I may earn a small commission from some of the links in this post. Please see our Disclosure Page for more information.
Be sure to check out the comments in Home Sweet Frugal Home # 1 here for more money saving ideas!
Here are a few highlights of some recent frugal things I’ve done:
This may seem like an odd thing to include in a frugal roundup post, but one thing I’ve started doing is wearing an apron while cooking. I have about 5 or 6 cute aprons and used to rarily wear them. Then I’d be making tomato sauce (it always splatters) and I’d get sauce on myself or somehow I would get whatever I’m cooking on myself. I’ve ruined so many perfectly good shirts this way! This should help me save money in my clothing budget!
–cut my husband’s hair (I’ve been doing this for years)
–froze leftovers instead of keeping them in the fridge where I’m bound to forget about them and then had leftover buffet for lunch one day. Wasted very little food this way!
Went to the library and checked out a few dvd’s and books. Also got the last 5 issues of Real Simple for 50 cents at the library (all magazines are 10 cents each at my library). I was quite excited because I never buy this magazine and the cover always looks good. I think I spent 50 cents too much 🙂 !!
–saved my orange and lemons peels and added to them to white vinegar to soak for when I need to make some more scented all-purpose cleaner
My amazing daughter made homemade whole wheat tortillas and then used them to make taquitos. This was all inspired by the fact that I said no to buying a box of taquitos when we went grocery shopping. Her homemade baked version was delicious and much healthier than buying a box of frozen ones. I also froze the tortillas she didn’t use.
She also made homemade crackers. This was her first time for making both! They were also delicious!! She had a bit of trouble trying to roll the cracker dough thin – any suggestions?
-In the garden -I harvested more tomatoes , a handful of green beans, 2 bell peppers and enough leaves of kale and swiss chard everyday to add to our morning smoothies. Also planted some lettuce, spinach and radishes. It’s been too hot for lettuce to grow so I’ve had to buy some all summer, but now that it’s cooling a bit it’s a perfect time to seed some.
I pulled the garlic I planted last fall about a month ago and have been letting it dry in the garage. I think I have enough organic garlic to last a few months 🙂
So that’s just a bit of some of the frugal things we’ve been doing lately.
What have you done lately that’s frugal?
Great tips! Especially the apron one!! I have a ton of aprons that are pristine but a ton of shirts that are stained and ruined!! I try to remember them but at this point who cares. I make all my own detergent and cleaners. That’s a huge savings. Can’t seem to get over the paper towel addiction, however. All of the plants in my new garden bed came from the markdown/sale table at Lowe’s. They are much happier (and alive) with me!
Thanks for sharing some good ideas. Sounds like your daughter is a good cook! I agree about the real simple mags. I used to get their emails with suggestions….. Emphasis on “used to”. My daughter trimmed her husband’s and children’s hair last weekend – saved a lot!
Enjoy your evening.
She’s been very into making everything from scratch this summer (which is when I put her in charge of baking our bread). Don’t know if this will last while she’s at school but I’m hoping so!
What terrific ideas! You’ve inspired me to get out my aprons!
Great ideas, as always! I need to get some aprons that fit me. The ones I have were my Grandmother’s and she was a bit more petite than me 😉 I usually wear old clothes around the house anyway, so I don’t ruin my ‘out in public’ clothes.
I’ve been pressure canning all the veggies from my garden as I harvest so we can eat them this winter. I prefer them frozen, but I’m filling the freezer up with pork and beef from local farmers. I save a lot of money by buying a side of beef and a whole hog every fall.
Keep up the good work! I’ve always wanted to try making my own crackers, but haven’t attempted it yet. Maybe when it cools down a bit!
I love love love this Manuela! In fact, I have been thinking about doing a similar thing on my blog as well…I was inspired by Terrie at PennyAnnPoundwise who’s been doing a list of her frugal accomplishments every week for years!!! I asked her if I she minded if I did something similar to it and, of course, would link back to her. Now I can link to you too (if you don’t mind)! Maybe we could make it a blog hop (if I ever could figure out how to do that ;).
Love,
Tracey
x0x
P.S. I am sooo loving your daughters tortillas and the garlic has me sooo jealous…that’s one of my things I want to learn to do…grow garlic! I think this fall I will actually try planting some!
Tracey – no need to link back to me – lots of people do a weekly frugal roundup – I actually plan on doing mine every two weeks or so.
I would love love love to read all about what you’re doing!
I love wearing an apron to protect my clothes while cooking, plus it makes me feel very domestic. Menu planning saves us money, especially when I make extra on purpose so that one dish lasts for several meals.
Hi Manuela,
What a wonderful and helpful post. For the past four years my husband and I have scaled back on everything. It has been a necessity, but it has also felt good to live more modestly.
Thank you for your frugile tips….
Blessings,
Carolynn
Thanks for sharing! I am always looking for ways to save some $$$! Have a blessed day dear friend, HUGS!
All great ideas, Manuela! One of my biggest money wasters has been buying magazines. So now I just check them out at the library, which is pretty easy since I work there! I also cut my husbands hair and freeze leftovers for his work lunches.
Finally have gotten around to making my own laundry soap. I prefer TIDE, but I’m making do. We eat all of our leftovers if we eat them every day until they’re gone. That’s it. I’m not tossing food. I try to make corn bread or serve it with a different salad or vegetable, but we’re not wasting things. Have always worn an apron so totally agree with you there, even for gardening. I had homemade crackers once and they were the most delicious things. I don’t have any tips for rolling other than to keep turning the dough and rolling in one direction only.
Good for you for making your own laundry soap! I just wear old clothes to garden in 🙂
Lots of great hints here, Manuela! We do a lot of re-use here! Makes me want to double my efforts to be more frugal in the house!
I have made crackers before and here is what I do. I use jelly roll type baking pans (with sides) and spray them good with cooking spray. I then divide the dough and start out pressing it out with my fingers. I also spray my fingers. When I can’t spread it out anymore I get a drinking glass. I don’t use my rolling pin because of the sides of the pan. I spray the glass and then roll out some more. I can get them pretty thin. I score them before cooking. Watch them carefully because the outer edges brown first.
Thank you! We’ll try that next time we make them. We had some that were thin and some that were a bit thick. They all tasted great but to get a real cracker texture they have to be thinner.
Hi Manuela
this topic is always on my mind these days. I am so impressed with your daughter’s scratch cooking!
I do wear aprons anytime, well 95% of the time, whenever I am doing housework or cooking. It prevents those stained clothes and since I use bleach on some laundry and to clean our white kitchen sink, aprons can prevent bleach spots from ruining clothes too.
I used to love magazines but not anymore, blogs like yours are much better and pertain to my life much more than glossy New York magazines.
Right now, we are on the last day of 4 days of houseguests. feeding these crowds without blowing our budget is keeping me on my toes!
We have been renovating our kitchen ourselves. We completely refaced the cabinets with wainscotting and new trim, painted inside and out, added a new backsplash and are just now doing the final touches. Our kitchen looks brand new and by repurposing our cabinets we saved about $20,000!
I always strap in an apron, I’ve learned the hard way that I ALWAYS get something on my clothes if I don’t, besides, like you I have some really pretty aprons that make me feel a little fancy when I wear them:>) I have been making pesto from the basil patch, and I love to hang my sheets out to dry. We buy whatever is on sale and stock a pantry, just like you. The biggest thing we do to be frugal is think twice about purchases. Deciding the difference between a need and a want is the biggest step you can make in being frugal.
hahaaaa….our whole life is frugal. We are on such a strict Social Sec. budget, we find every thing we can to cut back on expenses.
Guess I better do a post about it, too. 🙂 ]
I love that we can all learn from ea other.
Good tips. What I’ve been doing lately is working on cracking the code at the library to know how to search for movies on dvd. It turns out the magic term is “fiction movies”. Today I picked up a fairly recent release we can watch over the weekend.
Those are all great ideas for living frugally. The apron one might be the most important one, I do the same, if I don’t wear one I unwittingly splatter grease or something equally staining on my blouse.
What do I do? I re-use plastic bags instead of buying expensive bags for small garbage cans and I take my own bags to the grocers, I also eat left overs for lunch, often freezing them.
Have a wonderful day!
Hugs, Cindy
I love this, too!
I may have to do a post about this as we have been simplifying and becoming more frugal every year!
Now that it’s necessary with the economy – I’m so glad we have been practicing!
I think all of your ideas are great! I really want to grow more veggies, including garlic, next year. I am also going to make some aprons. I have tons of fabrics stockpiled, and I may make some for Christmas gifts for my sisters too.
I’m embarassed to tell you, but I scraped out all the worn-down lipsticks into an empty lipgloss pot, and I use it all up.
I bought flowers late in the season at half price or less, begged for cuttings of coleus from my friends and rooted them.
I always save stale or leftover bread in the freezer and when it accumulates, I bring out the food processor and grind up my own bread crumbs.
I bought a vanilla bean and made my own extract.
Thank you so much, Manuela, for visiting my blog and leaving me a nice comment!
Nothing embarrassing about using things up. Good job!
Such wonderful tips! You have always had some wonderful advice in this department. I managed to can quite a few jars of tomatoes this summer that will last us through a season of soups and stews this winter. I also put up peppers and we are in the process of drying lots of fresh herbs. Our big thing is food waste around here, so I am trying to use up fresh food I buy or have a plan for what I am buying as to not waste so much. There is no worse feeling than to throw out vegetables that you forgot in the fridge. Of course getting back to menu planning would really help here!
Have a wonderful weekend!
Where I live in South Australia the summer is hot, dry and windy, not ideal conditions for growing lettuce so I up until last summer I hadn’t bothered to try. But as I am trying to be more self sufficient I thought I would try growing some under shade cloth and it worked, I had more lettuce then I needed. This year I am going to try growing them under a cucumber trellis similiar to the one here; http://www.floridavegetablegarden.com/?p=398. Cucumbers need the sun and the lettuce should do well in the shade the cucumber vine provides. You also need to water lettuce everyday in the summer otherwise they will be bitter.
I would love to start the blog hop that Tracey mentioned. I’ll see what I can do on that end, especially since I began doing PennyAnnPoundwise over on Xanga and Chronicles of a Thrifty Homemaker once again.
My frugal thing this week was to MAKE my own Creamy Italian dressing to use in a recipe instead of purchasing a bottle just for one use. It worked out pretty well but the salt content was lower than store bought (a good thing usually but not for the recipe, it didn’t call for extra salt and needed it!).
Great tips Manuela,
another reason aprons are frugal is because when I put on a cute apron I want to cook, clean and do frugal things ;-P xox Clarice