Are you Frugal?

[JustAskJulie]

A friend of mine sent me this link, and I actually thought the ideas were pretty cool. It got me wondering, what ways are you cheap/frugal? Do you use coupons to save money at the grocery store? Do you re-use ziploc baggies (granted that could be a recycling thing more than a frugal thing)?

I'm thinking about melting down the left-overs of our old candles and making new ones.

[prettylady]

Never gone so far as to melt soap down. But I am pretty frugal, have to be as a single mother.
I do reuse ziplock baggies, I also don't buy juice boxes for my kids school lunches they have sipcups with milk or juice that we have already at home.
One more thing that I do that most people find way to time consuming is I shop 3-4 times a week. I find that I waste so much less produce this way. Our lives are so busy here that just because I plan on having green beans on thursday doesn't mean that is the way it will turn out. So I plan for a day or two ahead and my produce is always fresh and never thrown out.
My daughter also keeps just about everything that can be used for as crafts, so I rearly have to go out and buy craft supplies for the kids.
Your coupon clipping friend,
Prettylady

[havefuninsun]

I'm frugal. I don't buy soft drinks in the cans because it drives me nuts to find 1/2 cans of soda and I have to throw it away. Actually, we don't drink a lot of soda anymore. Our water is really yucky tasting, and we buy the bottled water to put in the cooler (we buy it at home depot and if you turn in your plastic bottles, you get the next ones at 1/2 price).

I've always been very budget conscious. I only use coupons for what I actually USE. And like PrettyLady, I shop often because I hate throwing out produce and fruit. If I could only buy loafs of bread as 1/2 a loaf ...

Mr. Fun has not always been as budget conscience, so I've taught him my way and he's shown me that sometimes, my time is worth more than saving a buck or two.

[LikeMinds321]

I consider myself frugal, but not to that extreme. Something I think these "soap shavers" don't consider is the time involved to do such things. Really, isn't there something better, more productive, they could be doing?

People usually think they're saving money by doing these things, but I always consider what I could do with my time to make more money so I wouldn't have to save itty-bitty soap pieces.

Speaking of soap, we don't buy bar soap and what a wonderful thing that has been. We use the liquid soaps AND we dilute them, so the cost is no more than the bar soap, plus, NO MORE SOAP SCUM TO CLEAN OFF THE SHOWER WALL! Now that's a time and money saving idea I like. Another added benefit to liquid soap is we've nearly ellimated dry skin, and therefore, spend way less on lotion. Ding, Ding, money in my pocket.

I could talk about this forever. Maybe I'll come back later with more.

LM

[two4youinswva]

I grew up in a very frugal household.

Me? Not so much.
I'll turn the lights out when not in use, and I'll buy the cheapest gas, as long as it's on my way, but that's about it.
We grocery shop about 1-2 times a month (besides picking up odds/ends). Why? Because we eat out all the damn time.

I should do more to waste less cash, but I guess I'm still rebelling, even though I should be beyond that.

Mr two4you
(Hates Sears Toughskins Jeans)

[JustAskJulie]

One area I am frugal in is water. I like bottled water and I almost always have a bottle of water with me, but I rarely BUY bottled water. I don't like the taste of our local water but my fridge has a water purifier built in so I will drink the water from there. So I buy a bottle about once a week and just refill it from the fridge until I either lose the bottle or it's about a week old.

[Tia Vampire]

He is more frugal than I am. Now that we are in this "recession", I've become more frugal than ever.

[celtic239]

I consider myself frugal, yet I've heard the Mrs mutter under her breath that I'm cheap. I guess I just hate waste. I do the food shopping and most of the cooking in the house. I found that my prehistoric genes of a "hunter/gatherer" come in handy when battling the desperate housewives in the supermarket aisles. Every Sunday, for at least the last 20 years I get the paper, a used envelop (save the ones from the junk mail that don't have writing on both sides) as my devise to write down the sales of the week and to also hold the coupons and my sissors. I've had cashiers look in awe as I knock off 20-30% off my grocery bills over the years. I consider this the "poor man's commodities market". Many alleged high rollers throw money into commodities futures (corn, pig bellies...) and every one sees them as successful if they turn a profit. Yet cutting the grocery bill by 25% by clipping coupons is viewed by some as being cheap. I calculated that it cost, on an average $5,000 a year to feed my family of five when all the kids were growing up. By only purchasing items on sale and freezing the meats for later use I probably saved over $1,500 a year and multiply that my 20 years, well that's $30 grand profit/savings. I have to remind the Mrs my frugality pays for her trips to those clothing optional resorts in Mexico.

[rpu3]

I'm frugal - in some areas.

I buy coupons for items I actually use from thecouponclippers.com (I don't clip coupons). I'll buy $7 worth of coupons once every two months, and save $15 on the first trip alone, with coupons remaining for the next trip or two. I know the gas price pattern around here well enough to get gas only on Monday afternoons or Sat-Sun. I get my yearly Entertainment Book (after the first of the year when it's half price and I get a $20 restaurant gift certificate) for discount dry cleaning, restaurants and the rental car coupons. I use Hotwire when the price is lower than the rental car company or Expedia. We are more inclined to eat lunch out than dinner, if we eat out at all. I'm trying to cut back on lunches out at work.

But, like many posters before me, I'm more cognizant of my "hourly rate" and I have cut back on money savers that kill more of my time than the savings are worth.


The spousal unit has a second job of sorts, half of which is invested, and a portion is his "mad money".

Half the money I save is put away into savings or investments. The other half is my money, and I use it for "me time", which will be a night out for our anniversary this weekend and a night out at the symphony and dinner next weekend with a friend. It's my incentive to save more money.

[MRnMSbhaven]

Frugal? In the sense that I will never spend more money than I have to or I deem reasonable, yes. We do save and have investments of course.

However, I am greatly opposed to anything involving manual labor or exertion (other than sex of course). If I can pay someone else to do it for me or buy something that will make it easier, you bet I will!

Ms B.

[cubnamy1995]

While I would not consider myself frugal, Amy is The Duchess of Frugal. If you tell her to get $250 worth of grocieries, she can do it in about an hour and be within $2 of budget. I also don't think she has ever bought a single article of clothing for herself that she paid more than $30 for. The only thing I've done is stop buying all my clothes at American Eagle Outfitters and started going to Walmart.

One thing we do that has helped immensely is we help Amy's dad with his huge garden. We get lots of frozen and canned veggies out of it, which really helps considering there are 4 men in our house.

[Thrax]

I think I'm frugal by both nature and nurture. My parents were adolescents during the Great Depression, and if my dad's spending habits -- and constant complaints about the cost of things -- are any indication, the Great Depression has not yet ended. (My cousin, one of my dad's favorite nephews, told me that he doubts my dad ever spent his First Communion money. Btw, First Communion for my dad would have been about 1926.)

I clip and use coupons. When I get the opportunity I shop at a "scratch & dent" supermarket, a local one-site operation that buys cases and truckloads of damaged goods. A bunch of the cans or jars might have been damaged, but a lot of the remaining items are still okay. So I can get Tom's of Maine toothpaste (for my friends) for $2 a tube (Whole Foods charges almost double that, according to my friends), or 16 oz. jars of salsa for $1.49, etc.

I guess it's more of a conservation thing, but I use some plastic shopping bags for trash, but only after they've been used for several trips to the grocery.

I sell stuff on eBay. Rather than buy boxes or packing peanuts to use to ship the fragile items I sell, I get some of those packing materials from neighbors, and I do some dumpster diving every week or so to accrue more packing materials.

On occasion, I have purchased clothing or other household items at thrift shops, consignment stores, or flea markets. I got a $15 tea-kettle for $4. I got a pair of $25 cargo pants for $10. I got a $15 can-opener for $6.

I use other coupons that I find in the newspaper and online. I volunteer at a local public radio station, and when I volunteer at their events I get in free. (Most of you might not know the popular Brit band Gomez, but I got to see them for free. And you Canucks might be aware of the Cash Brothers and Kathleen Edwards: I was a one-day "roadie" for the former and chauffeured Kathleen to a Pgh gig a few years ago, so I got to see their concerts close-up and for free, too.)

I spend a little money in the spring to buy good tomato and pepper plants -- I prefer the heritage varieties that give me something different from what I can get at the supermarket -- and I nurture them so I have ivory-colored cherry tomatoes and gigantic sunset-colored beefsteak-type tomatoes along with the standard plum tomatoes and others. The gardening gives me some exercise and a reason to get out, and a product to boot.

More frugality to follow, I'm sure,

Thrax
P.S. I do NOT buy any condoms at discount retailers.

[Thrax]

And then there are the freegans.

But for those of you who are truly frugal, and conservationists to boot, you might want to look into freecycle.org, a website which is mentioned in the article and one I've been meaning to explore.

Thrax

Originally Posted by havefuninsun

If I could only buy loafs of bread as 1/2 a loaf ....

I have just recently seen on TV advertisement now for 1/2 loaf of bread Someone from that company must have seen your post

MrsVan

I would say that I am somewhat frugal. Before shopping at Sam's Club I would use coupons all the time and MrVan would just look at me like "why bother?" but I was saving money. I also try to make sure that when we empty something that we make sure it is completely gone. As for the hershey syrup for my chocolate milk..If it is barely coming out, I will suck up the milk into the container and shake it to make sure I get the last of it

I try to get the best deals on things and do not like to pay more than I need to. Growing up in a house where money was tight, has shown me how I need to be with my money..Now if we could only get our daughters to see this.

MrsVan