Being frugal takes creativity.
Being frugal takes time.
Sometimes it is time I don’t have.
I remember when I used to hang up my laundry…ALL my laundry. Any guesses as to how many children I had?
Two.
I remember how mortified I was when I found out my friend with 5 children did NOT hang up HER laundry. Surely that was a federal offense! Surely ALL large families hang up their laundry.
I was surely wrong.
I have 6 children in my home. I have 24 hours in a day. There are a few things that have had to go. And yes, some of those things could save me money.
But my time is worth something.
I don’t hang my laundry anymore. It doesn’t make sense. I do hang my diapers to sun on occasion. THAT makes sense.
I don’t clip coupons. I don’t have time. But, I do let other websites tell me where the deals are and then print the coupons from there. I have the time for that.
Sometimes I feel bad about the frugal things I don’t do because I don’t have time. But, I have to remember there are things I do that save us money that others don’t do. It’s a balance. My balance is all dependent upon the time I have versus the time I don’t have versus the priorities I have set.
So, in case you are curious, here is a list of some of the frugal things I do, some of the frugal things I used to do and don’t do anymore, and some of the frugal things I have never done and don’t plan on starting any time soon.
I DO:
–Make and use cloth diapers and wipes
-Cook from scratch
-Use Sears KidVantage program
-Shop Aldi
-Make my own natural deodorant
-Make my own dish detergent
–Garden (since we have moved, I’m hoping to have a garden in my OWN backyard!)
-Keep my hot water heater turned down and my heat and AC turned off as much as possible
-Share bath water/towels
-Try to figure out ways to make homemade things that are expensive to buy, but easy to make (baby slings, baby shoes, baby legs, etc)
I USED TO:
-Hang my laundry
-Make my own laundry detergent (although I am considering doing this again soon)
-Make my own hand soap (again, gearing up to start doing this again)
–Buy raw milk and make butter (the place I purchased raw milk from was cheaper than buying milk in the store–I haven’t found that resource here yet)
-Make my own baby food (I no longer do this regularly enough to count)
-Buy block cheese and shred it myself
-Shop several different stores to get the best deal
-Cut my husband’s hair (3, soon to be 4 boys is plenty)
I’VE NEVER DONE:
-Raised my own animals for meat, eggs, milk, etc
-Washed & reused ziplock bags
-Clipped tons of coupons (I only clip certain ones and usually only ones that are pertinent to my shopping list. I use the coupon database and deals listings from Money Saving Mom and other strategies I learned from Grocery University)
-Drank only water (I like my soda 😉 )
-Darned socks
-Made things homemade that are relatively cheap to buy (thus the reason we do not make our own bar soap-Ivory is pretty cheap and pretty natural)
-Take too much time researching how to do things cheaper (if the information comes my way, so be it, but I really do not have the time to search it out)
I’m sure there are many more things that could go into these lists and I’ll probably add to them as I go, but I like having a tangible reminder that I do save a lot…including my time.
So, how about you? What things do you do to save money and what things do you avoid? Are there other reasons that go into your decisions? Have you felt guilty or have you found peace with those decisions?
Amy Mac says
I whole heartedly agree. And what we each let go of as our family size increases is different. My husband says to way the oppurtunity cost. (His undergrad is Economics)
Melody says
What an interesting post! Thanks so much! There was a time when we did more frugal things, but it was so much out of necessity that we made the time to do them. Now our finances have loosened considerably, and with more children, I’m learning that for convenience it’s ok to let up in some areas.
I have a question for you though. Do you have a post about your diaper laundry process anywhere? I looked and couldn’t find one. We currently have 1 in diapers, with #4 due in October. Hubby and I are currently discussing cloth vs. disposables for this one. We used cloth for the first 3 but now that laundry is getting harder to stay on top of, we don’t want to make it even worse by having 2 in diapers at the same time again. We tried that before, but well, Mount Washmore got HUGE.
Maybe I just need to get better at keeping Mount Washmore smaller……
Anyway, thanks for your post!
Amy says
I’m actually in the process of writing a post on that very thing! Stay tuned!
Melody says
Yay! Thank you!!!
Amy says
A post on that would help me too! I LOVED using cloth but it gave Lexi a horrible bleeding rash everytime I would put her in cloth! I switched back to DD and the rash cleared up everytime! I didn’t understand it, CD are supposed to help not break a baby out in rashes.
I was told that we had bad build up so I tried stripping them with Dawn, Bio-Kleen, HOT water, and drying in the sun. Nothing helped… : (
Melody says
Amy, we’ve had issues with buildup too. We found out later it was caused by the Purex we were washing their diapers in. We switched detergents and stripped the diapers – cleared the rash for our son but started one for our daughter. What worked for one didn’t work for the other. It was a mess. Now our son is out of diapers. We went back to homemade detergent and our daughter is pretty much rash free now (unless we forget to change her soon enough).
Two other things that have helped us were to add extra rinses to our diaper washing process. It takes more time to do a diaper cycle now, which is why hubby isn’t wanting to do cloth this time around. Then a friend suggested washing diapers in with regular laundry. It was a strange thought to me, but I figured it wouldn’t hurt anything to try it. It’s weird – now that diapers are getting washed with every load, they don’t have nearly as much time to build up as much ammonia stink, AND they’re not really causing rash issues on DD’s backside. Even though they’re only going through one cycle in the washer! It seems to be working…..but we’ll see……
Christy dR says
Have you tried ” Rockin Green” detergent? It’s relatively cheap and last quite a long time. It’s made for cloth diapers and your cloths rarely need to be stripped. I always do an extra rinse cycle also. Hope you find what’s bothering her!
Melody says
Oh yeah! That stuff is great! We ordered a sample and really liked it. I just never got around to ordering more. Thanks for the reminder!
Christy dR says
Glad it was helpful!
Helen says
We love Rockin Green too! I especially love their Funk Rock soak that gets out the built up ammonia. Switching to that detergent really helped get rid of lingering rashes. I also use their cloth safe diaper cream. I don’t have to strip my diapers very often anymore.
Amy says
I use a lot of coupons and shop sales and just recently started making my own household cleaners and laundry soap. We did cloth diaper and stopped due to horrible build up issues that I couldn’t get under control. I will start CDing again with the next baby.
I am a SAHM (with a home daycare) but I am lucky that I do have lots of time to be frugal. If all kids nap at the same time(which normally they do, they are a bunch of GREAT kids!) then I will spend two hours each afternoon clipping coupons, cooking things from scratch, or doing other things that I enjoy that save us money.
Saving money and being frugal has become my ‘hobby.’ I don’t scrapbook, watch tv, or do any of the other things that some people enjoy to do with their extra time.
I also have time in the evening after my own kids are in bed to do things that I enjoy doing.
Staci says
I got out of the habit of couponing because we were building a house. Now we’re all moved in and I do want to get back to couponing. When I do it right we save good money. I’ve never made our own soap. I still shred the cheese. I try to talk myself into buying pre-shredded, but since I use the food processor it’s too easy to shred! My favorite money saver is home haircuts. With a husband & 2 sons, that’s at least $45 of tax-free income generated every time I cut their hair! I’m too chicken to do my daughters, though. This was a good story. Thank you for sharing.
Mel @ Trailing After God says
My mom always made us wash out the bags, I refuse to do that. I’ve made my own detergent but haven’t in a while. I use coupons but only when I happen to have the right one and see a good deal. I just don’t have the time. I’ve tried and either I make a special trip to the store to get something with the deal and coupon and the shelves are wiped clean or I end up spending more than I would have anyway. I don’t feel guilty either 🙂 LOL
Blessings,
Mel
Please feel free to stop by: Trailing After God
Mel @ Trailing After God says
Oh and I couldn’t hang clothes even if I wanted to. It rains most of the year here. I don’t have a big enough house to hang dry all the clothes but I do the ones that have to be. I also don’t really care for the crunchy feel of clothes that have been hang dried. Is there a way to avoid that?
Amy says
A little bit of vinegar in the rinse helps, but a lot of people finish-dry them by throwing them in the dryer for a few minutes.
Amy on the Farm says
We live on a farm (204 acres on a river) in the poorest county in our state. I homeschool our four kids and tend to the farm while DH is at work. Some of the things that we save on….
Groceries….buy in bulk things that will keep when its on sale…for example…Sugar was on sale the other day for $2/4#…so we bought 50 bags. Store it in the pantry. It’ll last us a year. Have been hearing rumors that it’ll be up to $5/4# by the end of summer. I buy the store brand…WHEN it is cheaper. I have a knack for remembering numbers…so prices stick in my head. I can usually remember how much something costs from one store to the next and that helps. I don’t clip coupons…b/c I have found that most of the coupons are for things I wouldn’t have bought anyway, or even with the coupon..I can get the store brand cheaper. Just not for us!
Garden….we have a large garden, AND we can everything. We made 250# of potatoes out of 25# planted last year. We made jelly all summer long out of fruits that we went and picked. Also canned a lot of fruit. Kids had a fun day picking blueberries, pears, peaches, etc. and we got to eat great tasting fruit all winter.
Raise it…..we’ve raised hogs here for 12 years. We always pick out two and have them butchered and put in the freezer. The cuts of meat are cheaper overall, and I know where they came from and what was put into it. We hauled two calves to the butcher yesterday. We raised both of them, fed them out, sold one to a neighbor and that paid for the feed and the processing on our calf. Made him essentially FREE. 😉 We also raise sheep, and have butchered a couple of them, but I’m not a fan of lamb. (Tastes like they smell to me….maybe I spend too much time in the barn!) We also have chickens (eggs and meat) and I have 8 dairy heifers that will have calves this fall, so I’ll have lots of fresh raw milk to drink, make cheese, and make butter!
Electricity….we keep the lights off. I hate the TV, so it stays off most of the time. I would save us more by turning the DISH off, but DH is holding me back there. (He likes the Food Network!) I keep the thermostat down in the winter, up in the summer. We open windows in the summer and run ceiling fans on low. We spend a lot of time outside, so not a big issue.
Cooking and Making it yourself…..I cook at home, and we try our best not to eat out….I loved your post the other day about eating out, b/c when we do…we share and we drink water! I have an I cooked it, your gonna eat it policy. We put leftovers in the fridge and Wednesday’s are leftover days. I’ve made our own detergent, but I have to confess….I got busy and ran out and happened to find some on sale so right now, we are using that.
I could go on and on about ways we are saving! We made a choice to do this so we could get our farm paid for. It has been worth it! 🙂 Sorry to go on for so long!!! This is one of my FAVORITE subjects! LOL
Carrie says
I like you. Anyway, I have 4 kids and my husband cuts his own and the boys’ hair, but the girls and I get to have someone else do it (yay!). I make a lot of things from scratch (it helps that I am a food snob, so I want to make my own everything as it’s generally much tastier). We share bathwater, too, and I have been known to wash and reuse ziplocs. I don’t do that all the time though. One thing I did to be a good steward of my time is to give up Wal-Mart. One day I realized that the time it took to drive there, shop (I NEVER could find everything), and stand in line, combined with how angry I was at the end, was not worth it. I am much happier now. It’s funny how often people don’t value their time. They only want the deal. I took a lot of flack when I gave up Wal-Mart (how can you afford to live?!?). Weird. I suppose it doesn’t bother them as much, or they have the time. As for me, I’ll shop elsewhere and be happy. Off to shower, using the “no poo” method.
Anita says
With you there Carrie!! There are some things I just won’t do anymore because it doesn’t work out to be a really good deal once you include things like that.
Sara says
We have 6 children aged 9 and under in our house right now. I have 2 in cloth diapers. We soak our diapers in rain water that we collect in barrels, which helps because we have such hard water from our well, and keeps any buildup from causing rashes so that has helped. We pretty much make everything we use and are pretty self sufficient from the store now.I shop about every 3 months or so. We do have electricity and use a washer and dryer, but I make pretty much every thing that we eat, clean with, and even a lot of stuff we wear 🙂 We do have our own animals for meat and eggs too, but we still travel to get milk from the farm. We also preserve all our food each year. I also make all of our medicine and vitamins from herbs. It is a lot of fun for us as we are homestead/survival junkies, but for the most part it also saves us a ton of money. :)We were on a 5 yr plan to go off grid, and this began our 3rd year. It is a lot of work, but it is very rewarding, and the more kids I have….the more of a necessity it is!! LOL! 😀
Sounds like you guys are all right on track with doing things the *simple* way! 🙂 Love the post! :)–S
Hope says
Hi Sara,
I remembered finding your blog through this comment on this post, so hopefully you’ll get an email about this comment as I’ve tried to reach you online and this is sort of my last-ditch effort. I used to be your blog reader, until you went to invited readers only. I did receive my invitation and was able to access your private blog once, but ever since then, it hasn’t let me on, even when I use the invitation link I received. I would love to read your blog again. Please email me at hopeklein at gmail dot com.
Thanks!!!
-Hope
p.s. Thanks, Amy, for letting me use your blog to hopefully get back in touch with Sara!
Amy says
No problem…I hope you can find her. 🙂
Rebecca says
I love being frugal. I love couponing, hanging my laundry and the challenge in this day and age of being frugal. I buy things on sale, I yard sale, I wash baggies. I make my own laundry detergent, unless I can get it for almost free–as I have done a couple times last month with coupons and sales. I have 2 gardens, I can and freeze food and we buy our meat a side at a time straight off the farm. My kids help me do all of this….they hang out the laundry, they garden with me, they yard sale with me, etc. The more kids you have, the more you enlist their help. It’s usually fun and even if it’s not, it’s just a life lesson and a good one at that. The older they get, the more they are realizing what a sacrifice their dad makes to work such long hard weeks and the privelige it is for me to be home with them. I feel like it is a reinforcement to take the income and be as resourceful as possible. I am with you….I don’t drink strictly water. I drink quite a bit of water but I do reward myself with sweet tea in the evenings, especially in the summer, sitting on my front porch watching the kids. I love my tea and I just buy it on sale and with coupons. Great topic and have especially enjoyed the last week or 2 of topics! We think alot alike!
Andrea says
We currently make our own laundry detergent and I try to make all of our food from scratch, including syrup and ketchup. Right now, however, I am in the throws of severe morning sickness and there are a lot of issues with food (smells, textures, etc.) I feel like I am dropping the ball on most of my responsibilities at this time. Sigh.
We have a “do we NEED it or do we WANT it” mentality when we shop and try to stick with what we need.
The heat and air are policed very strictly, lights off, don’t do tv. We buy in bulk anything that we possibly can IF it is actually a deal. Wheat Montana is great if you have a group/co-op purchase. We have tried cloth diapers in the past but my husband was very dissatisfied. And there was a nasty rash (sorry other children have had it but glad to hear it isn’t as uncommon as I thought). We do thrift stores for almost all of our clothes, but we buy shoes new and we buy good ones for everyone who can walk. We share bath water, we shop Aldi, we reuse our bath towels until they fail the sniff test (which is actually for a mildew smell, not body funk). We garden (although it is small, a bed that is about four feet wide and about 30 feet long – tiny, tiny yard!)
One of the most important lessons we have learned is to pay for things with cash. If we don’t have the money to buy it, we don’t get it. That includes cars, houses, etc. We feel very strongly that the Bible is clear about debt. I don’t say that with an air of superiority, I say that after we went through a difficult time of partial unemployment. As soon as that period ended, we became debt free. We are enslaved to no one, and it is a wonderful feeling.
It is our dream to sell this house in the city and move to the country to raise much of our own food. We currently have 5 children with three of them under the age of 5, we homeschool – I don’t know how everyone does all the things they do with little ones and homeschooling. That has me really curious. I am generally holding someone, so canning and preserving is a complete pipedream. I love to sew, but, again, with a one year old on my hip…
Amy on the Farm says
I have two little ones…one is 2 years old, one is 6 months old…and we homeschool. As far as canning and preserving…I let them help. I doubt that many 5th and 3rd graders know how to can something….but mine do. It may not be in a textbook, but it’s a lesson that we felt they needed to learn anyway. 🙂 We try to make everything a learning experience! When it gets really hectic, I send the big sisters outside (right outside the window) to “play” with little sister and little brother. They get to sit and swing…and I get some other stuff done. That’s how we do it around here anyway.
Amy says
When I had only littles, I canned with friends and the kids played and the baby sat in a bouncy nearby. Now, my big kids either help with the canning or watch the baby for me. Also, I don’t can a lot of things…I tend to freeze whatever I can (we have 3 freezers).
clarissa says
love this post!
i have so many dreams and desires to live more frugal and to be self sufficent, etc… doesn’t seem possible while caring for a terminally ill/special needs daughter plus 3 other kids 6 and younger (and homeschooling our oldest).
this is our life… and we simply must choose convienence over simplicity at this point.
i do print coupons from the web (only for things i usually buy)… we do buy all of our non food items in bulk from costco each month… i have 3 in diapers, so i don’t even want to think about doing cloth although i know it would save us a lot of money! i have done some canning, but don’t do it regularly. we do live as cheap as we can considering our circumstances… we never buy things on credit. my kids wear mostly hand-me-downs from their older cousins.
BUT, we eat out quite often (1-3 times a week most weeks and its unhealthy, fast food), we don’t make our own soaps or cleansers (but i do use vinegar for some of my cleaning), we don’t hang dry clothes (we live in a rainy state and i don’t have time to hang up clothes anyway).
i do feel guilty and sometimes feel frustrated that we can’t do things differently. would love to grow a garden, raise animals, learn to sew/make things, etc. but can’t see how to do it when hubby is working hard all day while i’m caring for our children, etc.
maybe i’m just too lazy?
Amy says
Not lazy at all, Clarissa. It’s all about priorities and your season. When I am pregnant, things change. When we move, things change. Tomorrow…something could change. As long as your life is God-honoring, the choices you make concerning finances are the right choices for you and your season of life.
Christine says
I love this reply. This same mindset was brought to me by my cousin, and up until that point, I always had a guilty conscience about being in one of those “seasons” that I didn’t want to be in. Not making things as homemade/eating out more (particularly during pregnancies), not finishing sewing projects that my daughters could be wearing (and buying something instead), spending more on cleaners & hygiene products because I don’t have the time/energy to make them all again… Every now & then these seasons come up, and I’m learning to deal with them (as is pleasing to the Lord) without the burden of being a bad mother/wife! And learning to be accepting of the fact that some things may never return to my life as our family grows & circumstances change. Praying for peace that my priorities are not inferior to others’ way of being frugal. And resisting the urge to change our way of doing things, just because I hear it is working for someone else (IE, “It didn’t work for me in the past, so I must not have been doing it right.”).
p.s. Back when I would feel guilty about not clipping coupons anymore, I heard the phrase: “You can either have time or you can have money. You can’t have both.” 🙂 Usually, time wins me over! 🙂
Lora Greene says
I loved this article. It’s so important to prioritize according to the season of our lives. I was wondering if you could discuss how you wash diapers if you keep the water heater turned down. I found that I needed very hot water to clean my diapers, and with another baby on the way, I’ll soon be dusting off my cloth diapers and, hopefully, not turning the water heater up again. Thanks!
Amy says
Later next week I hope to have a post up about my diaper washing habits…I’ll be sure and include what I do with the heater.
Lora Greene says
I’m looking forward to it!
Rachel says
Thanks for the post! I only have two, but I also struggle with what I have time to do. I do hang laundry (and we just bought a 5-line retractable clothesline), but part of that is that it keeps me accountable with putting laundry away. Otherwise, it can hang out in the dryer far too long. 😉 I also make my own detergent, bread (quick bread), and cloth diapers (flat folds).
However, I do buy pre-shredded cheese. Why? In my area, it’s usually cheaper per ounce than block cheese. I do not clip coupons, but I do hunt out deals. I do not cut my husband’s hair, but I’m learning how to cut hair on my toddler. I do make my own soup stock and catsup, sweaters and blankets, apple cider and diaper covers.
Dawn says
This was a great post, and the comments are full of great ideas! We only have two kids, but as you mentioned in some of your other posts, we’re trying to train ourselves for when we have a larger family. Besides that, we’re pretty low-income, so extravagance is not an option.
I’m a ziplock re-user (and proud of it), but we buy the store brand bags. I’ll reuse the foil too if it can be salvaged! I cut my husbands hair (or at least help), and as far as me and my girls, we have dreadlocks, so there’s no cutting needed! I don’t clip coupons (mainly because I really don’t know how) and we don’t do cloth diapers (I don’t have a washer/dryer in my apartment). But as far as laundry I do hand-wash and hang-dry whatever I can.
We try to limit our car usage to church, trips to the store, or visiting friends. We live in a great spot where many things are within walking distance, and even if they aren’t, sometimes it’s more cost effective to just catch the bus or light rail to get across town than driving in the traffic. I make my own bread (mostly), cook homemade meals, and pack both of these girls in the bathtub at once. We share towels, clothes, and pajamas, but we are very blessed with friends who have children bigger than ours and want to unload, or just want to bless us with new clothes. We don’t have a landline telephone, but my husband’s job provides a cell phone for all employees and my cell phone is a fixed $50/month through Boost Mobile.
We still have our “tight” days (and weeks and months), but overall we make things work! It’s humbling, but we know this is what’s best for our family and for surviving with our future large family.
natalie says
On homemade laundry detergent- I found that using soap nuts was cheaper and far easier. I found good deals on pieces, which are just as good, on Ebay. I would still be using them, as they were awesome on my husbands VERY dirty work clothes, but I started having issues with our PUL cloth diapers due to our hard water and soap nuts combined, and I decided I needed one laundry solution that worked for everything and now i’m using Ecos (ordered a big pack from Amazon). But if you don’t have hard water, look into soap nuts as an easier alternative to making your own! 🙂
Amy says
I’ll have to look into that!
Serenity says
Can I second the vote for the soap nuts? They are AWESOME and nothing makes cloth diapers softer. Plus, a years worth of nuts can fit in a gallon size bag 🙂 The Tide it would take to keep us clean would take up my whole laundry room!
Natasha Miller says
Appreciated this post. I’ve had to give up many of my idealistic notions when our family grew. For a time I gave up hanging out the laundry all together. Now I don’t feel guilty when I can’t, but when the weather is nice I really enjoy hanging the clothes out. I just don’t hang out all the socks, underwear, and washcloths. It’s too time consuming. I save them for one load and dry that load in the dryer. I also shop Aldi’s, do Sears KidVantage, bake my own bread, and garden. There were so many similarities between our do’s and don’t, I had to laugh. You would think we were twins. :0)
Lisa~ says
My list would be frighteningly similar to yours. Except that I don’t make any of my own soaps.cleaners. Also, we do raise our own eggs and goat milk. But I don’t know if we’re really saving much money. I guess if you compare it to buying farm fresh it is cheaper, but a LOT of work.
I know for sure I’ve switched from magazines to blogs….free and relationship building. 🙂
Great post! Food for thought. Lisa~
Amy says
Good point on the blogs! 😉
Mama Mirage says
Lol I used to darn socks when I was a teenager. I grew up poor so I’ve done alot of things to save $ that most people wouldn’t dream of. Like washing out ziplocks, darning socks, and glueing our shoes back together when they fall apart. I’ve also had to save money by doing without things like meat, fresh fruits and veggies, electricity, running water, baths, and indoor toilets. I’ve crochet rags into rugs, made clothing out of the least worn out pieces of other old clothing, worn clothes until they had more holes than a fishnet, and gone winters without a coat and only flip flops for shoes. Not fun, but definately an adventure to tell about. I never had air conditioning in a home or car until I got married! I feel so rich now because we have soda in the fridge and high speed internet and air conditioning! 😀 It’s awesome!
Amy says
We glue shoes all the time here! I knew there were things we do that I don’t even think about. I’m sure you are very thankful considering where you were as opposed to where you are now. 🙂 (I think being poor makes for very resourceful people!)
Anita says
Great post Amy, thanks! God has been teaching me about having a “poverty mentality”- that I need to make sure that what I do doesn’t come from a mindset that “I have to save money because we might not have enough.” God is my provider and he is generous to me. I can be frugal and wise with my decisions and work hard, but it must not be out of strain and striving or there will never be enough anyway, even if there is enough! If you get what I mean!
So for us- I make my own laundry detergent and am looking into home-made shampoo and dish detergent- just bought the ingredients for it.
I make my own sourdough bread, get milk straight from the dairy, garden, buy veg direct from an organic farm, buy meat from the farm butcher’s outlet (they farm their own and butcher it and sell direct to the public). We use cloth nappies (Aussie here- diapers) and wipes and I do hang them (we have 3, maybe one day that will change), we have solar hot water and solar panels (recently installed- exciting!!)
I buy store brand staples, cook from scratch and frugally, as well as planning what we will eat. We have our own chickens for eggs and buy apples direct from a local orchard.
We don’t use a curriculum yet, we just borrow lots of books from the library including “Teach your child to read in 100 easy lessons” which I find is really good so far.
I mend our nappies (diapers) as they get worn around the velcro (hook and loop tape?) and we buy our clothes mostly from the op-shop (goodwill? Charity store anyway) or get given them as hand-me-downs. I also make some of our own clothes, often out of old clothes (pjs for my daughter out of my worn pjs from the non-worn bits) or out of material, sheets or doona covers bought from the op-shop.
I get the bedding litter from a local pet store as mulch for the garden (just wood shavings and guinea pig or rabbit poo) and all our scraps go to our chickens or our worm farm (which supplies us with home-made liquid fertiliser for the garden).
But my husband loves buying us take-away for dinner (maybe twice a week) and I am learning not to let that worry me… he does a great job of our finances and we’re never behind on our bills… it’s something that makes him feel like he is providing well when he can get us take-away (as a break for me and a treat for everyone) and so I work on not feeling bad about the “waste” of money.
It’s a learning curve I think!!
Hope says
Love this post and this whole blog. I’m a new reader and I’m addicted. Just wanted to let you know what a blessing you are to this nanny (and hopefully a future wife and mom).
Serenity says
Thank you so much for this post! I have been struggling with this issue a LOT lately and you encouraged me 🙂 Tonight I am going to make a list of what I do (and how much it saves us) and a list of what I don’t do. I think I will feel better after seeing it on paper.
My parents and two teenage brothers moved in with my family of 7 a few months ago. My mom does the grocery shopping (she feels like she needs to get out 🙂 and she does it totally different than I used to. She shops at Sams and buys everything in bulk there. I used to shop at 3 different stores to get the best deal so it drives me slightly crazy to see how much more she pays for the convenience instead of waiting for a sale. I really need to work on my attitude and your article encouraged me that I don’t have to save money in EVERY way possible. This might be a season of not saving as much at the grocery store 🙂 Thanks again, this was EXACTLY what I needed to adjust my attitude!
Brandy says
well, I’ll probably be following this blog now too….Its hard to find the ones that seem real…and “used to” hang my laundry and now don’t-that’s pretty real. I genuinely appreciate what you wrote about. Have found that the things-like matching socks…used to be easy. Now I have bins-fold the clothes-the socks go in the sock bin…you get the idea. But I like how you point out its about priorities. My kids’ hair looks great-and it cost me the water to run the comb under-and I get to squeeze em before AND after!! <3
Thanks!
Valerie says
What a great post. We mommies tend to think we are all “judged if we do, judged if we don’t…” regarding these choices. You are so real and down-to-earth. Thanks Amy!
Anna says
It is hard because you want to do everything to save money, but then time is money too. Different life circumstances play a huge part in this as well. I exclusively cloth diaper almost all the time, except if we are doing something like traveling or moving halfway around the world, then it doesn’t make any sense, no matter how much it would save.
Amy says
Exactly, Anna!
Reggie says
Whoa, you do WAY more frugal stuff than I do. I did see a few items on your used to/never lists that I do, namely that ziplock washing bit. I told my man if we ever became wealthy, I would never wash another baggie again! I’ve come to this same conclusion though: mama’s time, sanity and energy ARE worth something and it doesn’t make sense to live in the dark ages where technology is concerned just to prove you can do it all AND get five loads of laundry hung by noon.