This weekend, I was reading some of the older threads and just loved hearing about how others save money, simplfy, conserve, etc. Being a new contributor to this forum, I was thinking perhaps other new contributors would also be interested in how Countrysiders are making these life-changing decisions to be more conservative.

Some of the older posts indicate cooking from scratch, baking bread, hanging clothes on the line, etc. What else are we doing that we could pass along to others? How did you save this week? Can you go a whole week without spending ANY money at all? A month? What's your average grocery bill (weekly)? How far can you go on a tank of gas? Any hints to improve these figures?

I wrote a while back about preparing monthly menus that are made up from what I have in the freezer and shelves. This method incorporates using all leftovers, no matter how little. I prepare leftovers into 1 or 2 servings and write on the date I plan to use the dish, not the date I put it in the freezer. Twice a month, we have "leftover" night.

When I bake bread, I have several other dishes ready to cook at the same time and I turn my oven/burners off a few minutes before the end of the cooking time to save electricity.

My daughter discontinued her long distance phone carrier and opted for phone cards. I have a 1500 minute per month plan which I use only for long distance. (Most of my family lives out of state.)

I try never to head out to do errands without having at least three things to do to avoid making unnecessary "short" trips.

I gave up cigarettes (hard) and all but one Dr. Pepper per day (I don't drink coffee).

Last Spring we finished paying off the house. However, we still put the housepayment amount (plus cigarette money and soft drink money)into a savings account.

Somehow, when I do all these conservative things it makes me feel like I'm putting one over on the grocery people or the electric company or the phone company.

I'd love to hear what others are doing. After all, it isn't what you make, it's what you don't spend.

Thanks for reading.

-- Dianne in Mass (dianne.bone@usa.net), April 23, 2001

Answers

Response to Saving Money

Dianne, Most of my family and friends think it's funny because I've made a game out of saving( really beating the utility companies, grocerystores etc...) As I've posted before when we installed our woodstove we got a lots of razzing, " What you turning Amish or something?" When Y2K rolled around a year later we were accused of doing it for that, well it had crossed our mind but that isn't why we did it. This winter all those same people where crying about $200 + gas bills while ours was $29.10( that was our highest) and we were OH! so toasty warm and they were all freezing with their thermostats turned way down. Now here in Montana were feeling the power crunch, as of July 2002 our rates will for sure double, may even triple. Our power bill runs $22 a month now, I refuse to pay $ 44 or $66 a month so we are looking at ways to be more efficent in this area also. We are talking about getting a few Alladin lamps, a more efficent refrigerator( newer and downsizing on cubic ft) We are looking for a place in the country so we don't want to put money into solar, wind or anything like that because we'd never recoup the cost of installation when we sell. I cook from scratch and buy in bulk. My family has gotten so spoiled that eating out isn't a treat any more. LOL!!! My ds is always paying compliments to other peoples cooking but usually adds, my Mom's is better. We're working on that, I mean his giving a compliment without the last part added. LOL!!! The thing we've noticed is that we feel better, have more energy and now know what food really tastes like with out all the preservatives and salt. On Easter my mom served store bought green beans , both the kids took some but after one bite didn't touch them. My mom asked why they hadn't eaten the beans, they told her they were way to salty and tasted funny. Her reply was, "They tasted fine to me" Both my dh and I agreed with the kids they were awful. I have a few friend who I share sales( grocery) info. with, the rest look at me like I'm nuts. Just remember it can be fun cutting down and not spending, if you have the right mind set. :o)

-- Kelle in MT. (kvent1729@aol.com), April 23, 2001.

Response to Saving Money

Iwould love more information on spending less. We are putting in a large garden - lots of leftover to sell. I will can and freeze all I am able. We also get asked about turinig amish with our woodstove but everyone gathered around it to keep warm. Gatherings of friends tended to be in the kitchen even though the rest of the house was warm. Thanks, Joanie

-- Joanie (ber-gust@prodigy.net), April 23, 2001.

Response to Saving Money

Well... Haven't given up the caffeine and nicotine yet... But its looking like pretty soon...

Let's see... saving money... Well, I wish I could get Rich to work closer to home... But -

I unplug everything when I'm done... TV... Radio... computer. I don't have any other electric appliances, cept for the fridge. We don't generally use lights all that much... Maybe just before bed. There are several breakers that we turned off - we just don't need all those lights!

Rich cooks. He uses a grill or an open fire if he can, and uses the stove inside only as an emergency (thunderstorms, etc). So, the pilots are turned off. heat's down on the water heater, and the thermostat stays between 60 and 65 unless one of us gets sick.

We don't have a freezer, so we still have to shop more than I'd like. Because I moved out here with no preserves or seeds, we are buying canned goods too... That really burns me up!! But, we shop at a discount place (I miss my Aldi's!!). Hopefully by the end of the gardening season, I'll be set for at least a few months!!

We also hunt, fish and raise rabbits. Soon, there will be a dairy goat or two and chickens....

I don't grow my own food because of price. If you really LOOK at it, it is many times actually more expensive.... By the time you figure in jars, time, salts, sugars, etc. and water, you actually lose money. It helps if you save jars and seed, but not all that much... But, it is a zillion times healthier than store food. THAT is the best reason in the world!! Plus - there is a feeling in growing your own food that just can't be beat!!

I wash clothes by hand, more from the fact that I don't have a washer at home than for saving anything. To me it is a waste, but till I can find an old non-electric wringer washer - I'll continue. Looked in Lehmans... No way...

As for the phone - I'm always checking out new plans. My daugher is back in IL with my folks going to school, so there are tons of LD calls. Help HERE would be greatly appreciated... Right now I get 10 hours per month for $10.

-- Sue Diederich (willow666@rocketmail.com), April 23, 2001.

Response to Saving Money

Buy in bulk, intensive couponing and premium refund redemtion, home build from picture or plans instead of buy when possible, dedicate half of our produce yeild for bartering, recycle and try to reduce existing yearly bills by the same amount as my yearly raise is to free up twice as much for savings.

-- Jay Blair in N. AL (jayblair678@yahoo.com), April 23, 2001.

Response to Saving Money

go to www.cheapsk8.com they have really opened my eyes. redhen

-- redhen (redhen@fiberia.cim), April 23, 2001.

I have an answer to this in the archives and it pretty much covers what others are saying here so I won't go into all that. One thing that I forgot before that is something a bit different is that I started what we call a Simple Living group. It has been great fun and we have learned and shared much together. It started with just three of us and has grown as people have heard about it. We still have only about 10-12 people now. More were coming preY2K. We sometimes order from places in 50 lb. bags and share if we don't want the whole bag. It has been very encouraging just like this website.

-- Deena in GA (dsmj55@aol.com), April 23, 2001.

Hello Dianne, Experience and lots of reading are keys to frugality. These are the only two ways to learn it...1) from your own experience and, 2) from others. Time will only tell if your frugality will pay off. Meli and I decided to become self-reliant in the Ozarks and knew very well the hardships that we may be facing to gain our self- reliance. We planned every phase of our relocation and every phase of the development our our new homestead. Now, after one year of said self-reliance we are very proud of our successes. A basic philiosophy of Henry David Thoreau's "Simplify!" and of Scott Nearing's "Pay as you go!" has brought us to the start of near nirvana. Why pay others to do the things that you can do yourself. I do not think that one should pay others for a satisfaction of a job well done. Why let them enjoy that satisfaction when you can enjoy it yourself and keep your money too. Meli and I have cleared our land using basic tools. We never hired a contractor or any crews to help us build our house. If a small engine or our vehicles need repairs, we do it ourselves. Many of these things were new to us but, experience and reading other people's experiences have taught us to at least try and do it ourselves. Over the year that we have been homesteading Meli and I have learned so many things that we were not capable of doing, that we never dreamed of doing when we both had good paying jobs in the city. I have bought non-working machinery (rototiller and bushhog) at auctions and come home and figured out what was wrong with them and got them working. This has saved me hundreds of dollars in machinery and labor costs. Meli learned to can vegetables and now we have a pantry full of fresh food that no way could have been any better or cheaper than what we would have purchased at the supermarket. That has saved us hundreds of dollars alone. Seeds are cheap and really all you have to do is plant them in the ground and keep the soil maintained and weed free. Canning jars can be bought at yard sales. We have hundreds of them, not to mention the ones from mayomaise that we have collected. Recycling plays a big part of our self-reliance as we do not have garbage pick up in our area. So, instead of hauling the garbage to a landfill we utilize the waste in various ways. The tin cans (only a few), aluminimun cans, and other bi-metals are saved and carried to a recycling center and sold for cash. Glass bottles are recycled into various containers for storing food, vineagars, etc. Kitchen scraps are fed to the chickens or composted, thus saving feed for the chickens and fertilizer for our garden. Paper is burned in our burn barrel. When the burn barrel is full of ash, I sift it through a homemade sifter and use the ash for the gardens, outhouse and during the winter on ice and snow. All of these saves countless dollars and helps the enviroment as well. Other ways I save money are to use salvaged materials for building projects. I am self-employed as a handyman and get many opportunities to haul off used material from people's land. Much of it is still in good shape and I have built my toolshed, outhouse, and chicken coup with it. The rest goes to the recycling center and is sold for cash. Again, this saves us countless dollars and helps the enviroment. Meli saves us money by staying at home and raising our daughter. We figured that wear and tear on another vehicle, clothes for working, lunch, and daycare would only net her about $35 a week clear. So, instead of wasting her time with all of that Meli stays home to raise our daughter this has proven to be better for kids emotionally and physically. She makes quilts, cans, makes soap, cooks all our foods from scratch, makes bread and pizza dough from scratch, and runs a part-time business of reselling yard sale finds on Ebay. During the winter we spend our free time craft building and selling the crafts through ebay and our website. The crafts are easy to make and sell quite well. We keep several pair of shoes as rotating their use tends to make them last longer. I was skeptical when I first read this in Amy Dzeycyn's book The Tightwad Gazette years ago. Now, after the prastice of it we have discovered that we get years and years more use out of them this way. We change into work clothes after going out dressed up. That way we do not wear out our "dress up" clothes. Our work clothes are worn until they are tattered beyond repair, then they are recycled again into quilts and shop rags. We do not use paper towels. We went down to Walmart and purchase a couple of stacks of 30 dishrags for $5 a stack. These are used as napkins, babywipes, washclothes, etc. Then they are washed and dried and used again and again. We both smoke but, our solution has been to switch to less expensive brands. We use to smoke Camel non-filters but, the price of a carton is nearly $30.00! We found a non-advertise brand that is equally satisfying. The non-advertise brand is about one inch longer than the Camels and cost only $11.74 a carton! This saves us about $18.00. Some brand name items are better than non-advertise when it comes to foodstuffs. Taste is the deciding factor with us before price. But, we took time to try different brands and compared. Stuff like salt, baking soda, vineagar, spices, etc. were cheaper but, the taste was the same. Other items like canned vegetables, cookies, etc. sometimes lacked the flavor we like and were not tried again. But, you may find a great savings in this kind of shopping as we have. Coffee is a must in our household! Espresso is the only coffee we like and do not want to pay the high prices for Starbucks or other like brands. We are use to Spainish brands like Bustelo or Carribe. These cost $1.99 to $3.59 a bag. They go a long way and allow us the luxury of espresso coffee drinking. We quit eating out since we moved to the country. Maybe, once every other month we will eat out if we happen to be far from home on a particular outing to the nearby city for shopping. We do not scrimp on food at home however. To me it is better to pay for a good quality cut of meat and eat less of it less often that it is to buy a cheap cut and eat it all of the time. Sirlion was on sale at Walmart and we stocked up on it. Now, when the urge to eat steak comes along we have it waiting for us in the freezer! Finally, I look at my interest coming in verses interest going out. If my savings account interest is 3% and my other investments are 7%, that is 10% interest I am making on my money. If one credit card is 23% and another is 18% and I have a balance on them, then I am paying out 43% interest to someone elses profits. Now, if you subtract my 10% profit from the 43% outgo you have a negative of 33% outgo. Simple, you are in the hole 33%. Now, if you pay off all those credit cards and were still making 10% on your interest coming in, you will be debt free and earning money too. Keep out of debt! Sincerely, Ernest

-- http://communities.msn.com/livingoffthelandintheozarks (espresso42@hotmail.com), April 23, 2001.

Ernest, congrtulations on everything you have accomplished. I dont mean to nit-pick, but if you are making 3% on your savings acount and 7% on your investments, that does not equal a 10% return. You are making an average of something between 3-7% depending how much you have in each account. But you have the right attitude. Keep it up. You are an inspiration to all of us who have not yet gained the courage to make the leap to the homestead lifestyle.~~Dave

-- Dave (dkmcd@msn.com), April 24, 2001.

Cheap long distance service through "Opex Communications" in my area its 6.4 cents a minute interstate, intrastate is 6.7 cents. I talked 100 minutes on my last bill and it was $6.16 for the calls and $2 for under use fee. That to me is way cheap. You have to sign up with them on the internet. I have used them for a few months and am completely satisfied. Now if I only had those rates for the overage on my cell phone instead of .25/min.

Blessings,

-- Judy Murray (nomifyle@yahoo.com), April 24, 2001.

You can get 60% off everything you buy! How? By not paying taxes! Here is the math: assume you have $100. Fed's take 30%, State takes 9% of your income plus 7% sales tax. And here is the kicker. The goverment taxes companys 30%, which mark up there product to make a profit after taxes so that is included. So, when you buy a $100 widget it realy cost $60 dollers more than it would if there were no taxes! How can you not pay taxes legally? Do-it-yourself. Figure how much you get paid per hr. multilply that by 1.60 and that is how much you would be making per hr. if you did it yourself.

-- Storybook Farm (mumaw@socket.net), April 24, 2001.

I'll will try to explain this so you can understand. We signed up for free phone services through the internet at dialpad.com It is free. You type inthe phone number you want to dial and then you can talk to the person just like you were on the phone. You need a mike and speakers. It works better if you use a head set that way if the other person is on their phone they won't get echos. Because the speakers will pick up what you are saying twice. Once because of the mike andthe other your voice. Don't know why but it does. If your already paying the monthly fee to be onthe internet you might as well use the dial pad.

-- michelle (tsjheath@ainop.com), April 24, 2001.

For long distance I use Net-2-Phone through Pricline.com. All long distance calls are 4.9 cents. I am originally from Germany and get my calls to there for only about 7.5 cents per minute (which is quite low).

Good luck

-- Bernd in NC (Bernd001@aol.com), April 24, 2001.

I bought a calling card at Sam's Club. It costs 4.16 cents/min and there is no expiration date. I also use Dialpad. The sound quality is lacking but it's free!

-- Diane (dshogren@uswest.net), April 24, 2001.

E - you certainly ARE an inspiration!!! Especially to me!

I was noticing all the phone savings... I really need a new computer - no speakers OR mike..... I pay 5.9 cpm through AT&T, 24/7. My cousin pays 4.9 through Nextel. I'm still looking for something 'traditional' (till I can get a new machine, anyway!) that's cheaper...

-- Sue Diederich (willow666@rocketmail.com), April 25, 2001.

To save money, What about turning off the hot water tank?? Over 4 years ago my husband put a switch like a light switch under my kitchen sink to turn the tank off at night or whenever we went to town or even out of town. The engineer at the electric company told me next to a furnance the hot water tank was the biggest user. He compared it to having a giant tea kettle (50 gal.) on 24/7. I can get up in the morning and have hot water within 5 min. The night before last we had it off and in the morning I did four loads of wash with warm water wash, filled a tank with 20 gals to butcher chickens, three people showered and I did two dishdrainer loads of dishes and we never ran out of hot water. That has been the most useage of hot water for us after a night of the tank off. This was all before 9:30 A.M. I was told that it might burn out the element on the tank to turn it off and on, but we haven't found that to be true. I believe my husband did put some kind of something in the breaker box, but I have no clue what that could have been. I just know having the switch underneath the kitchen sink is very handy. We live in the Northwest and our electric bill in on a year around payment of $47.00 Marie

-- Marie Fila (Mamafila@AOL.com), April 25, 2001.

This is maybe not quite what you had in mind, however, it does save money in a different way. It's the old change-jar trick. You get an empty jar or bottle, and every night you put your spare change into it emptying out your jeans pockets. I try not to spend the money in the change jar unless there's a real problem (in which all bets are off and I'll take the money out to cover the emergency), otherwise, I leave it in there, and when one bottle is full, I stash it away in a closet and start another.

A while ago, a friend asked if I wanted to go to England for a week, she'd found a great deal where we could get round trip airfare, train fare, unlimited use of the buses or underground, our hotel, and breakfast every day for $866 total apiece. Ordinarily I would have gulped and said 'Sorry, can't afford that!', but in that instance, I took a big load of jars to the bank, had them run it through their sorting machine, looked at the final haul and said "Let's go!" It was an experience that I will never forget having, and possible because of the change jars.

Other change jars have given their all for vet emergencies, car repairs, etc., that jump up and try and whack me between the eyes over the years. It can be quite a peace of mind.

-- julie f. (rumplefrogskin@excite.com), April 25, 2001.

Julie - I'm with you on the chage jar. We have done that for years and it really is like finding money you never knew you had. A few years ago my husband needed a cornea transplant due to a work-related eye injury. At the time we had no medical insurance as we could never afford the monthly premiums for a family plan (self-employed). With a situation such as this type of transplant, you have to be "ready" on a moments notice because when they find a donor, you must have the surgery within a matter of hours. We knew that this surgery needed to be paid in advance (hospital won't admit you otherwise). My husband was in despair and ready to call the surgeon to tell him we just couldn't afford the surgery when the three kids and I scrambled around looking in the car ash trays, emptying out the baby's piggy bank, draining the few hundred dollars from the older one's bank accounts (holiday and birthday money sent to then from relatives etc.) and even accepting our oldest daughters first refund check from her income tax return. (She was about 17 years old at the time). We then went to the change jars and proceeded to roll up the balance of the money needed for my husband to have this transplant surgery. Other times we have used the "change jar" money to pay the rent, buy groceries, fill the gas tanks for our vehicles and a host of other things that would not have been possible otherwise.

I can't really contribute further to this post as I feel our family's spending is rather excessive. I would like to see much less waste around our place and much more attention placed on recycling, and plain old common sense. Like turning out the lights when you leave the room, keeping the a/c thermostat at a normal temperature, spending less money on gifts for holidays, birthdays etc., buying cheaper brands of things like shampoo, laundry detergents, and a host of other products, going outside more and getting off the couch so we can TURN OFF THOSE BLASTED TELEVISION SETS!!! etc. I think I can learn alot from this post but the REAL challenge will be implementing it into the daily lives of each of my family members!!

-- Greenthumbelina (sck8107@aol.com), April 27, 2001.

Well, for one thing a lot of times we throw things away that we could be creative with. For instance, the little dibbles and dabs of leftovers, (1/4 cup creamed potatoes, tsp. of lima beans, half cup of English peas, etc., anything leftover) can be put in one container and add every dibble to the same container until the end of the month, you just dump the whole container full into a soup pot and you have a delicious pot of homemade soup with all kinds of vegetables and meats in it. - For a while now, we give the dogs a good amount of the leftovers, but it saves us on commercial dog food. If you don't have a dog, of if you do, the leftovers soup is delicious and a solution to what to have for dinner when you add some crackers or cornbread and a drink and fruit.

Just one suggestion for something neat to do.

-- Wanda King (wanda7@edge.net), April 27, 2001.

this is my husbands goal to not spend any money....ever. i haven't figured out how to do this but............ we have a huge garden and i can lots and lots of produce. we raise lamb, chicken and turkey. last year we raised 6 turkeys and got 200 lb. of meat. my husband spent about 3 hours cutting all the turkey up in to "pieces parts" that are much more useable than just popping a whole turkey into the freezer. we also raised 6 lambs, sold four and kept 2. selling the four paid for their grain and processing fees...so we got our lamb free. we raised 24 chickens and did the same with most of them as we did with the turkey. we also have a greenhouse in which we raise greens all winter....

we also make wine and beer. i have an herb garden, ducks for eggs, goats for milk. honey for sweetener.

our grocery bill is about $40 a month for staples.

i don't buy any processed food (which my friends can't figure out)i make all my own bread, rolls, etc.

this is what we are doing...plus working ....

-- Mary R. (cntryfolk@ime.net), April 29, 2001.