Living Frugally - Sharing Ideas

I think living frugally is not being cheap but not wasting money. What are some of your philosophies or ideas from obvious to maybe even whacky? From shopping to conserving energy to cooking and dining out, what do you do?

Just one of mine:
I used to buy the highly advertised, "eye level" on the shelf shaving creams. They sell for $3 to $4 or more. Then I started comparing and actually looking at the choices. The regular Barbasol shaving cream was 1.35 for 11oz so I bought it and used it. It worked fine and lasted longer. Then when I ran out I was at the store and noticed the store brand was $1.09 for 14oz and the labels says it's "comparable" to Barbasol. So I bought it. I got 3oz more for a lower price.

At the grocery looking for the store brands you usually have to look up high or down low on the shelves. Many store brands are available and the same quality as the heavily advertised brands but you have to really look to find them sometime.

[Robin Garr]

shaving creams.

Grow a beard and you'll never need shaving cream again.

How appropriate. I'm reading a book on living frugally that I got from the library. Keep em coming!

Robin, there is a difference between living frugally and being a cave man

[Robin Garr]

More seriously, some of the small things we try to do: Use cloth bags at the grocery store. Compost and recycle as much as possible. Use the new swirly fluorescent bulbs in place of incandescents. Choose a smaller car with good gas mileage. Take advantage of plantings and the pre-air-conditioning architecture of this old house to avoid powering up A/C any more than we absolutely need. Okay, these aren't necessarily "frugal," but it seems to me that going "green" saves us and everyone.

Along similar lines, support local independent businesses. They may (or may not) be cheaper than their corporate competitors, but we keep the money local and in the hands of entrepreneurs who have a stake in the community.

[Robin Garr]

Robin, there is a difference between living frugally and being a cave man

I prefer to think of that style as "professorial" rather than "cave man," thank you ...

We knew that we wanted to save money but we never wanted to feel deprived or poor, so here are some things that we have done.

Never pay cash. Get a debt card and use it. You are much less likely to spend a couple of bucks on a coffee or soda if you are using a card. Make sure you get receipts. Set up a spreadsheet and record EVERY ONE of your expenditures at the end of every week. This is the most important step because you'll see where you can cut your spending.

No cable. We don't watch much TV anyway but we have never missed it. You can watch a lot of shows on hulu.com and it's a lot of fun to buy and trade dvds at the Book and Music Exchange. The library also has free rentals and even better, they have BOOKS and the let you read them for FREE!

Set a budget and stick to it. Our grocery budget for the two of us is only $50 a week. It's really hard to stick to it and avoid convenience foods so here are some things I do:

Coupons. They aren't always great for foodstuff since they are mostly for junk food but they're great for cleaning supplies. All the local stores double coupons under $ .50 and the Kroger website allows you to load coupons directly to your Kroger plus card so they are also paperless. I cut all the other coupons too and share them with people that I know that are less finicky about what they eat.

Buy frozen produce. We get a CSA share in the summer and when that ends we use frozen.

Buy the meats that are on managers special and freeze them when you get home. They'll be fine. Buy whole chickens and cut them up. When the pre-cooked rotisserie chickens are on sale they are sometimes less then uncooked chicken and I can get three meals out of one.

Trade with your friends and family! Home decor, books and magazines, music, even clothes. You may be tired of it but that doesn't mean it might not be new and fun to someone else.

We don't go out as much as we like, but we will sometimes eat a light meal early and then go out later for drinks and apps so we don't feel stuck at home. Drinks, apps and meals at most places we like will run us around $80 for both of us. Not eating a meal cuts that in half. We should probably not spend as much on booze, but we like it. I would feel guilty doing this during dinner rush but since we go later I don't feel bad taking up a table.

Want to go see a show at The Palace or KY Theater? If the show isn't sold out and you call the day of the show they will sometimes cut the price of tickets by as much as HALF!

One Word: Craigslist.

Reuse and recycle. Get creative and turn that ugly pie safe your mother-in-law gave you into a cool place to store DVDs. Get out the sewing machine and turn an old shower curtain into a fun 50's style apron to give as a gift. Here's a favorite site that stirs my creative juices. http://www.craftster.org/forum/index.php?board=363.0

We don't go out as much as we like, but we will sometimes eat a light meal early and then go out later for drinks and apps so we don't feel stuck at home. Drinks, apps and meals at most places we like will run us around $80 for both of us. Not eating a meal cuts that in half.

I trust you read Robin's article in this weeks LEO??

Wow, Michelle, you have a lot of great ideas! I try to buy meat on sale now, and stock up. Cut it into portions for 2, and vacuum seal it, date it, and freeze it. (This almost bit us in the butt when our lights went out for 9 days, but we had a friend w/electricity and a deep freezer, thank goodness!) I'm trying to make more meals to take to lunch, so we don't waste money on the crappy food in the downstairs cafeteria, and we end up with better food to boot. Also, I work with some girls who are doing some serious coupon shopping. They started following the 'coupon lady' or whoever, and clip coupons for everything. They put it in a binder in baseball card sleeves, organized in the way the aisles are set up in their grocery store. They never buy anything that isn't on sale, and always try to use their coupons. They have saved hundreds of dollars using this method, impressive savings for real, but I'm not very successful with it. Most of what we buy is meat and veggies - no coupons. They also have families, and do more convenience foods, Hamburger Helper, that kind of thing. Not our style, but I'm also just not very good with coupons. They're great for cleaning supplies, as Michelle noted. We also belong to Costco, which saves us a lot on GAS, mostly, and paper towels, tp, kleenex type tissue, etc. We've probably paid for our membership with the gas savings alone. Sometimes, it's just a few cents, but it has been as much as a quarter lower per gallon.

Robin, there is a difference between living frugally and being a cave man

I prefer to think of that style as "professorial" rather than "cave man," thank you ...

I think of it as caveman, but that's because I've got a grizzly adams look going.

Managers specials on meats are great. Found ground lamb for a couple bucks last night and had lamburgers for dinner and lunch the next day. As long as it doesn't look bad I have no problem with it. I have seen some that looked ready for dumpster though.

These are all fantastic suggestions!
I did get a smaller, more fuel efficient auto that gets me about 12 more MPG and I've been amazed as to how much money a week it's saving me. It's saving me almost $260.00 a month just in gas.
I moved into a third floor condo from a house (yes, less space but I really wasn't using all the space in my house anyway) and I'm saving over $125 a month in heating and air expenses.
I buy organic milk a gallon at a time now too. It costs more than buying half gallons of regular but lasts MUCH longer in the fridge so I never have to throw any out. This may be a break even point but I feel better since I'm not wasting anything.
Did away with my landline phone and just use my cell. (This WAS a bite after the storm but it was worth it.)
Nothing but basic cable. No added movie channels. I augment my tv entertainment with Netflicks and see more (and better) movies when I want.

One of my best purchases recently was an upright grocery cart like this: http://www.overstock.com/Home-Garden/La ... oduct.html that I can roll to the grocery store 4 blocks away. It has eliminated the need to drive to the store and saves a bit of gas-my husband is a cook and likes to cook fresh, so we visit the store pretty frequently.

[Robin Garr]

One of my best purchases recently was an upright grocery cart like this:

Oooh, just like when we lived in NYC! It wouldn't work for us here, though, I'm afraid ... I love Crescent Hill, but it's a little too far to roll a cart to Lotsa Pasta, Rainbow Blossom, Doll's or Dirty Kroger. What Frankfort Avenue needs is a Gristede's or a d'Agostino's!

I got the idea because I used to live in Paris and I saw them there all the time. When we bought our house in Schnitzelburg I know it would be perfect. I agree that it might not be ideal to roll one down Brownsboro Road though!

Most of what we buy is meat and veggies - no coupons.

If you buy a lot of meat at Kroger and use your Kroger Plus card, your purchases get tracked. Eventually, they begin to send you meat and produce coupons that are specific for the store.