Old School

Live on Less and Love It!

2009-08-12T12:03:00.000-07:00

Try these 75 inspiring ideas and enjoy life more while spending and consuming less.
If you live in a forested area, cut your energy costs by heating with wood. And wherever you live, never skimp on insulation — you’ll save money and energy.
Good Cheap Food
1. Buy raw ingredients instead of prepackaged foods. If you don’t know how to cook, learn. You’ll save on food bills, and your body will thank you for it in the long run.
2. Buy in bulk from a local health food store, or place bulk orders directly with mail-order companies. If you can’t meet their minimum order size, go in on an order with another family, or organize a larger food buying club.
3. Avoid the middleman and buy directly from farmers. Look for farm stands, community supported agriculture programs and farmers markets.
4. Eat fruits and vegetables in season, when they are least expensive. (Once, we found organic watermelon for three cents a pound!) Stock up when they’re cheap and freeze or can any excess for later use.
5. Keep up with what’s in your refrigerator and make sure nothing spoils. Once a week, make soup or casseroles to use up vegetables and other leftovers.
6. Calculate the price of food per pound when you visit supermarkets. Doing the math will help you spot good deals.
7. Don’t overeat. When you do, you’re flushing money down the drain.
How to Avoid Rent
8. Find a live-in elder care position and help someone stay out of a nursing home. There’s always someone desperate for reliable help, and often there are no qualifications needed other than compassion.
9. Help renovate a house in exchange for lodging. This is how we came into our current home.
10. For short-term stays, become a housesitter or pet sitter.
11. For long-term stays, become a caretaker. A good place to find such caretaking jobs is The Caretaker Gazette.
Find and Build Your Nest
12. Look beyond realtors’ listings to find cheap property. Try local penny papers.
13. Don’t be afraid to ask. If you see a piece of land you like, find the owner and ask if it’s for sale. It might be cheaper than you think.
14. Salvage materials for your new home. There are lots of possible sources: Look for someone who’s renovating a house and might let you cart away old materials; check the yellow pages for used building materials; or look for online groups, such as Freecycle, where people trade all kinds of unwanted items.
15. Never skimp on insulation or good windows. Build your home tight enough, and it will cost much less to heat. You may even be able to get away with a woodstove or other supplemental heating and avoid the cost of buying and running a central heating system.
16. Barter for services with carpenters. Some communities have organized time banks, to make bartering these kinds of services easier. You can learn more about them here.
17. Buy into a piece of land with another family. Be sure to check local zoning ordinances to be sure you can legally subdivide a property before you buy it.
18. Build with natural materials found on-site. If you have wood, the equipment to mill it yourself is relatively inexpensive, compared to buying lumber. (You can resell the sawmill after you’re done with it.) Building with stone or straw bales and using clay for plasters are other relatively inexpensive natural building options.
Keep Home Upkeep costs Down
19. Close off unused rooms to save on heat and air conditioning.
20. Be efficient with your appliances. Have a big baking night when you’re going to use the oven. Let your woodstove also be your dryer and water heater.
21. Take advantage of natural weather patterns to heat and cool your house. In the summer, open the windows at night and close them again by noon.
22. Place your refrigerator in the coldest part of the house so it requires less energy to keep the temperature low.
23. Wash your clothes in cold water. It’s the friction that does most of the cleaning, not the heat.
24. Switch off your water heater when you’re not going to use it for extended periods of time.
25. Buy energy-efficient light bulbs. The savings on your electric bills add up fast.
26. Unplug any unused electric items with lights, clocks or timers. They use an amazing amount of power just sitting there. You can plug multiple items into one power strip to make shutting them all off faster.
Creative Transportation
27. Carpool with friends or co-workers. Some cities maintain online listings to help people connect with other carpoolers.
28. Ask if your city has a carshare program or start one with people you trust.
29. Convert a diesel car to run on used vegetable oil. You’ll pay once for the conversion or kit, but after that all your fuel can be free. All you have to do is find a restaurant that wants to dispose of their used oil and will let you cart it away.
30. Keep track of your gas mileage and look for ways to improve it — keep your tires properly inflated and don’t speed.
31. Do as many errands as possible with each car trip around town instead of making multiple trips. You’ll save a lot of gas.
32. Book any airplane trips well in advance to get the lowest possible fare. Then show up early and offer to be bumped in exchange for free tickets if a plane is overbooked.
When You Can’t Avoid Shopping
33. Don’t go into stores unless you need something. Always carry a shopping list. Remember, stores are designed to get you to buy things you didn’t know you needed.
34. Hit end-of-season sales for as many items as possible, from kayaks to gardening supplies.
35. Before you shop, try borrowing the items you need from family or friends. Check out local Freecycle groups to find out what people are giving away. Set up borrowing co-ops for tools.
36. Try to find it used before you buy new. You can find a wide variety of items online, in the classifieds or penny papers, and at garage sales, estate sales and thrift stores.
37. When buying new, choose high-quality, durable items. It’s often cheaper to spend more upfront if you won’t have to replace the item in the near future.
38. Instead of shopping, scavenge. Watch the curbs at the end of the semester in a college town. If you live near a high school, try talking to the janitor the last day of school when they’re cleaning out the lockers.
Get Some Clothes On!
39. Buy clothing used whenever possible. You may have good luck finding clothes at garage sales, or find a wider selection at thrift stores, consignment shops and on eBay.
40. Have a clothing exchange party to trade unwanted clothing with friends.
41. Try sewing. Look for cheap material in thrift stores, or try reincarnating your outfits into something new.
42. Watch the clearance racks. It’s always amazing how much stores are willing to mark down unsold clothing.
43. Ask a doctor or dentist if they have sliding-scale fees.
44. Look for free or low-cost clinics and/or medical schools for treatment. (But be warned, sometimes you get what you pay for. I have a couple of bad fillings from a new dentist.)
45. Do preventive maintenance on your body. Exercise and eat well. Try yoga to reduce stress. Quit smoking.
46. Campaign for a national health care system!
Cutting Education costs
47. For the college bound, take some general education classes at a state school or community college where the tuition is low, even if you plan to take most of your classes at a more expensive college. Just check carefully with your school of choice to make sure the classes will transfer.
48. Attend an in-state college. Establish residency for a year or two beforehand, if need be. The money saved can be well worth the time it takes to establish residency.
49. Buy your college books used online. Don’t give in to the monopoly of the college bookstore!
50. Watch for unique scholarship opportunities, including those that involve resources other than cash. (I once received a case of organic macaroni and cheese for making the dean’s list.)
51. Audit classes that you only want for the learning, not the credit.
52. For lessons, try bartering. For example, my wife is planning to do some photography in exchange for dance lessons.
Cheap Entertainment
53. Discontinue your Internet service and utilize a wireless “hotspot” where you can connect to the Internet for free. Even the smallest towns tend to have at least one.
54. Rediscover the radical notion of the library. Imagine Internet access and thousands of books, CDs and DVDs for free!
55. Volunteer to usher for concerts, plays and other events. (I haven’t paid for a play in years.)
56. Find low-cost fun in your local paper. Take full advantage of free concerts, events and movies.
57. When at a concert or movie, avoid buying anything to eat or drink. Some places even let you bring your own snacks.
58. Take turns entertaining with friends holding parties, potlucks or music nights.
59. Occasionally, go ahead and spend the money. Saving money’s like going on a diet: If you try to starve yourself, you’ll end up consuming more in the long-run.
If there’s a form of entertainment you value, that’s a good place to consider splurging.
See the World for Less
60. Volunteer for organizations such as Willing Workers on Organic Farms (WWOOF) that provide food and lodging in exchange for a reasonable amount of daily work.
61. Trade your home with friends around the country and enjoy free lodging in a new location.
62. Go camping, or rent a cabin. Don’t overlook state parks and national forests, they’re often less expensive and less crowded than national parks.
63. Try a local vacation. Chances are, there’s something great to see within a 100-mile radius of where you live.
64. Ask hotels about discounted distressed-traveler rates, especially if you hadn’t planned to stop but must because of inclement weather.
65. There’s no law against haggling with a hotel on the room rate!
66. Make your vacations pay for you by combining them with work. I once volunteered for my school to check out an innovative learning program in Vermont and got to stay in a bed and breakfast with my wife for free.
67. Buy food at local supermarkets when traveling. It’s much cheaper than eating at restaurants.
68. Choose a vehicle with fold-down seats if you’re renting a car or truck. Find a safe place to sleep for the night, and you have instant, snug lodging.
Happy Families for Cheap
69. Definitely choose used clothes for babies. They’re so cute, they don’t need to be stylish.
70. Trade babysitting time with other couples and have rotating playgroups with other families.
71. During the holidays, draw names for gift giving with groups of family or friends rather than buying a gift for everybody. A fun variation or addition to this is the white elephant holiday party, where everyone brings unwanted items and other joke gifts.
72. Invoke a gift giving spending cap.
73. Give homemade gift certificates for a home-cooked dinner, massage or babysitting time.
74. Donate to a good cause that a friend or family member supports instead of buying a gift they don’t need. Not only do you support a worthwhile organization, but you’ll save on sales tax and transportation costs.
75. Swallow your pride; accept your family’s help every now and then. It’ll make them feel good.

These suggestions are just a starting place. You’ll find lots of new ways to save that work best for you. Make a game of it if you can, and keep it fun. After all, it’s only money. Happy penny pinching!

Have more ideas for saving money? You can add them below.

Frugal Cooking Tips For Large Families

2009-07-21T11:50:00.000-07:00

Cooking for a large family can seem impossible in a time of shrink wages and growing food costs. When you are trying to feed a family of six, eight or even more you have to get creative. Many of us do not have the room to have a garden, though this is the best case scenario, so we rely on grocery stores to get our food. With the unstable food market prices and quality are constantly changing. It becomes more and more expensive to try and feed our families healthy meals, especially when you have a large family. There is a way to save money and feed your family well. If you don't coupon, now is the time to start. More and more brands and companies are putting out coupons to help American families get by. You can take a few minutes every Sunday morning to clip or you can use printable coupons found online at the very companies that offer the inserts in the papers.

With printable coupons you can save time and money. With a busy household both are precious. Take the time to download the free printable coupon software, it's free and easy, then you are ready to print coupons. Simply select the coupons you want, print them and take them to the store just like any other paper coupon. Some companies are also starting to experiment with paperless coupons, where you can download the coupons you want onto your store membership card and simply scan it at the register. This will surely streamline everything we know about couponing and offer amazing conveniences. Until then, take the time to clip and print coupons in order to provide better for your family.

When you have a large family you take every penny into consideration. Printable coupons and clipped coupons can help you with this goal. To cook frugal for your large family you need to stock up when the prices are low and meal plan to buy only what you need each week or month. If you can get down a meal planning, stockpiling and deal shopping routine you can save hundreds on your monthly grocery bill.

How to make your own laundry detergent

2009-07-17T20:06:00.000-07:00

I’ve been experimenting with making lots of cleaning supplies at home. This one works! And saves a ton of money! Making your own laundry soap is very easy!

Here’s what you need:
- 1 bar of soap --The most typical type of soap to use is Fels Naptha. It is an old-fashioned type of soap usually found in the laundry aisle. The other options for soap are Ivory. Any of these will work.
- 1 box of washing soda (look for it in the laundry detergent aisle at your local department store - it comes in an Arm & Hammer box and will contain enough for six batches of this stuff)This is not to be confused with baking soda. They are not the same thing.
- 1 box of borax (this is not necessary, but I’ve found it really kicks the cleaning up a notch - one box of borax will contain more than enough for tons of batches of this homemade detergent - if you decide to use this, be careful)
- A five gallon bucket with a lid (or a bucket that will hold more than 15 liters - ask around - these aren’t too tough to acquire)
- Three gallons of tap water
- A big spoon to stir the mixture with
- A measuring cup
- A knife

Now that you have assembled all the needed ingredients here is the recipe:

Step One: Put about six cups of water into a pan on your stove and turn the heat up on high until it’s almost boiling. While you’re waiting, whip out a grater that you won't use for food later on, and start grating off of the bar of soap into the water, whittling it down. Keep the heat below a boil and keep shaving the soap. Eventually, you’ll shave up the whole bar, then stir the hot water until the soap is dissolved and you have some highly soapy water.
Step Two: Add the washing soda and the borax and stir until it is dissolved. Remove from heat. Pour 4 cups hot water into the bucket. Now add your soap mixture and stir. Now add 1 gallon plus 6 cups of water and stir. Let the soap sit for about 24 hours and it will gel. You use ½ cup per load.

~The finished soap will not be a solid gel. It will be more of a watery gel that has been accurately described as an "egg noodle soup" look.

~The soap is a low sudsing soap. So if you don’t see suds, that is ok. Suds are not what does the cleaning, it is the ingredients in the soap.

The cost of making the above recipe of laundry soap was .71 cents. That was amazing to me! With this 2 gallon size recipe you will have enough to do 64 loads of laundry. That translates to about .01 cent's a load.

3 Homemade Natural Cleaning Products

2009-07-17T19:56:00.000-07:00

Using lemons, vinegar, and baking soda as natural cleaning products in your home
One of my earliest memories is of my mother cleaning with what looked to me like cooking ingredients. She would be listening to the radio as she poured baking soda, lemon, and vinegar combinations on the surfaces of our home. Magically these natural cleaning products kept our home clean and smelling fresh, without stretching an already thin household budget. Here are a few basic household ingredients and items you can use to clean your home.

Vinegar
Uses:
Vinegar naturally cleans like an all-purpose cleaner. Mix a solution of 1 part water to 1 part vinegar in a new store bought spray bottle and you have a solution that will clean most areas of your home. Vinegar is a great natural cleaning product as well as a disinfectant and deodorizer. Always test on an inconspicuous area. It is safe to use on most surfaces and has the added bonus of being incredibly cheap. Improperly diluted vinegar is acidic and can eat away at tile grout. Never use vinegar on marble surfaces. Don't worry about your home smelling like vinegar. The smell disappears when it dries. Here are some uses for vinegar in the rooms of your house. Use it in the…
Bathroom - Clean the bathtub, toilet, sink, and countertops. Use pure vinegar in the toilet bowl to get rid of rings. Flush the toilet to allow the water level to go down. Pour the undiluted vinegar around the inside of the rim. Scrub down the bowl. Mop the floor in the bathroom with a vinegar/water solution. The substance will also eat away the soap scum and hard water stains on your fixtures and tile. Make sure it is safe to use with your tile.
Kitchen- Clean the stovetop, appliances, countertops, and floor.
Laundry Room- Use vinegar as a natural fabric softener. This can be especially helpful for families who have sensitive skin. Add ½ cup of vinegar to the rinse cycle in place of store bought fabric softener. Vinegar has the added benefit of breaking down laundry detergent more effectively. (A plus when you have a family member whose skin detects every trace of detergent.)

Lemon Juice
Uses:
Lemon juice is another natural substance that can be used to clean your home. Lemon juice can be used to dissolve soap scum and hard water deposits. Lemon is a great substance to clean and shine brass and copper. Lemon juice can be mixed with vinegar and or baking soda to make cleaning pastes. Cut a lemon in half and sprinkle baking soda on the cut section. Use the lemon to scrub dishes, surfaces, and stains. Mix 1 cup olive oil with ½ cup lemon juice and you have a furniture polish for your hardwood furniture.
My favorite use for the fruit is to put a whole lemon peel through the garbage disposal. It freshens the drain and the kitchen. Orange peels can be used with the same results.

Baking Soda
Uses:
Baking soda can be used to scrub surfaces in much the same way as commercial abrasive cleansers. Baking soda is great as a deodorizer. Place a box in the refrigerator and freezer to absorb odors. Put it anywhere you need deodorizing action. Try these three kitchen ingredients as natural cleaning products in your home.