F is for Frugal Living

This is how my family and I try to live as frugally as we can. It doesn't always happen, but we try.

I make our laundry detergent and fabric softener. This alone saves us a ton of money. I try to only wash and dry our clothes in the evening. It uses less electricity in our area to do that. In the summer I hang our clothes out and try not to use the dryer. The dryer makes it hot inside, which makes our ac work harder in the summer. It's nice in the winter to have the extra heat though. Our dryer is in the bathroom, which is between Matt's room and our bedroom.

I also make our own household cleaners. I do have some Method brand spray however. The hubby feels more piece of mind knowing there is something brand name he can clean with. hehe

We do have oil heat. While we don't have control over how much we pay for the oil, we do watch what the temperature it is inside. I tend to like it a bit colder than the hubby. I will keep the house around 66 all day in the winter. Hubby likes it around 70. I just throw a sweatshirt on or curl up with a blanket instead of touching that thermostat. At night, I turn the heat down to 62-64. We also put plastic on all our windows. Our mobile home was built in 1969 and still has the original windows. We need to replace a few that are broken this year though.

We use an AC in the summer, but only for days that is really humid. My asthma and RA hate the humidity, I can handle the heat with just a fan, but not the humidity. I try to keep the AC temp at 70-72. I do use a fan in the living room to help the cool air circulating around.

I use coupons, but only for foods that we actually eat. I cook just about everything we eat from scratch (I have some boxed stuffing and cans of beans in the cupboards), I don't use all those coupons for the processed boxed foods. In the warm months, we grow all our veggies for the year. I can, freeze and dehydrate it all. The hubby hunts and fishes.

Meal planning is a must. I plan my meals around the sales in the grocery store and if I can combine coupons, all the better. There have been times when money is tight, so I just shop my freezers. We do stock up on certain things. For example, after Thanksgiving when the turkeys are on sale, I will pick up like 6 of them. We have two chest freezers, so I have no problems storing them. I did this for a month once only having to buy milk, bread and eggs.

We shop thrift stores for clothes, sheets and blankets. With a teen boy who is growing like crazy, it has been easier on my wallet to shop for his clothes second hand. He is starting to ask for clothes not from a thrift store though. I have bought him some jeans from other stores, like Target and Old Navy, because it is so hard to find his size at a thrift store. Just yesterday, I bought Matt 9 shirts and 5 pairs of shorts for 56.00. Most were brands like Old Navy and Hollister, but they were bought at a thrift store. All were in super nice condition. He is all set for summer now.

We also hit yard sales in the summer. It amazes us what people sell and for the prices they do. We got a huge outdoor table and chair set complete with 6 chairs with thick padding (I need to replace it though) and a huge glass top table for 30.00! It goes for like 300.00 brand new. Lots of our garden tools, pots and other containers I use to plant in also come from yard sales. I got another Presto pressure canner last year for like 15.00 or 20.00. It was only used once to can jam. Even though I have one already, it is nice to have two going at once.

I am still trying to convince my hubby to ditch cable and just keep the internet. We have Netflix and Amazon Prime. I want to get a Roku as well as sign up for Hulu Plus. Now that we can get HBO outside of a cable company, that will be a plus. I love my Game of Thrones. Just need to pray that Starz follows suit so I can keep up with Outlander.

What are some things you do to help save money?