Several years ago I wrote a series of post on how to live without a bunch of crap clogging up your life and how it can save you a lot of money. I had no idea how much traffic those posts would get day after day, year after year, but these are some of my most read posts. They are not well written nor do they contain any kind of brilliance. They are just posts that state some basic strategies for living with less.
Since I’ve been working this year a lot of my previous time spent in the kitchen has been sacrificed and I find myself purchasing more and more convenience food items for my kids to pack in their lunch boxes. But one thing that has not changed is my ability to skip the mixes. We don’t use mixes. I say we, because by some miracle my children have been able to learn a thing or two about baking and they are not afraid to open a cookbook and follow instructions for pancakes, waffles, cookies, biscuits, cakes etc. Really, it’s just so basic.
I know my boys are not going to call home and ask me how to make biscuits or pancakes or cookies or any other kind of baked good. I also know my youngest will probably be 6’7″ tall and still want to sit on the counter to help and that’s okay because he’s my little tiny biscuit eater forever and ever and ever no matter how gigantic he gets.
So, they know how to cut butter into flour, but they do NOT know how to clean the friggin’ kitchen. I’m just sayin’, they find baking easy.
Now share with me a simple money saving tip that you have used over the years that most folks don’t consider easy or convenient.
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I don’t use canned beans. Dry beans make so much sense to me. Dry beans are cheaper, they have better nutrition, they take up less space, they are lighter, and they have less packaging. Oh dry beans how I love you, let me count the ways.
(Dry garbanzo beans soaked and water over night then rinsed and boiled in water with a teaspoon of baking soda is the secret to smooth creamy hummus.)
However, I notice canned beans are so easy and available that some people have never hydrated their own beans. All it takes is a tiny bit of forethought. Soak the beans overnight or allow some extra time boiling on the stove. Seriously dry beans are worth the effort.
I’m getting down off my soap box now.
I started taking my own portraits of my kids. I just have a regular point & shoot digital camera and I try to copy cute poses/backgrounds that I’ve seen professionals use. Printing my own 8×10 at wallyworld is $4 compared to the $20 I’d spend for one at the studio. I still get a package deal at the studio once a year, but the rest of the pictures on my walls are my own. Makes it that much more special too.
We don’t use many mixes, either. I make old-fashioned oatmeal on the stove, adding walnuts, raisins, cinnamon and honey.
And, twice a week, my husband makes fresh, whole-wheat bread in the bread machine…no mixes…he measures it all out from scratch.
On the weekends, I make whole-wheat pancakes or waffles, and sometimes biscuits, from scratch. We all like the homemade variety much better!
I cook almost everything from scratch. One of my kids has some chemical sensitivities and food allergies, so at first I did it to protect him. It saves us so much money and it really is easy. I can make a pie crust for half the price of a store bought one, without any chemicals in about 5 minutes. I have a recipe for pie crust that is made in a food processor that turns out perfectly every time.
I make everything from scratch too, including homemade bread once a week.
But I think my biggest money saver is cloth diapers. I was fearful, thinking it would be too much work, or too nasty. But it’s not.
Basically, cooking from scratch. I’ve always made my own cornbread, and recently returned to biscuit-making. I now make all of our bread and pasta. Plus, I cook with whole chickens 98% of the time and use the bones to make my own stock. Most people don’t see the point – but, it works for us.
Vinegar and baking soda can clean about anything way cheaper then the other stuff.
I make a lot of things from scratch and I use dry beans. So it looks like I’m a copycat! Umm…what else? Does letting your kids wear their shoes to rags count? Cuz it should!
Like everyone else here, I make almost everything from scratch.
I made the mistake when I met my hubby of showing off my mad pie crust skills and mad biscuit making skills. Now we can’t have either one of those things ‘out of a box’. My son has gone so far as to call them ‘fake.”
I bake the bread, pizza dough, cookies, biscuits, make the pancakes…you name it, I bake it from scratch. We also have a great garden (my husband is the gardener) every year and we’re able to freeze vegetables for use through the winter. We make our own chicken stock, beef stock, and so on. And in the summer, we also dig our own clams (we live in RI) and freeze those and their broth for use throughought the year. My husband also brews a wide variety of excellent beer over the course of the year as well. I also hang the laundry out instead of using the dryer, when the weather is agreeable, in order to save money on the electric bill. I’ve been making my own laundry and dishwasher detergents, too. The best thing, I think, about a lot of this isn’t necessarily to do with money. It’s that my kids participate in a fair amount of this, and so they, like yours, will know how to make bread and biscuits and cookies, etc. Moreover, they know that vegetables come from the earth, and from care and hard work, and not just from a bin in the grocery store.
Well, I certainly went on and on, didn’t I?
We use cash for all purchases and it’s worked wonders for us. We’ve paid off over $20,000 in debt thanks to Dave Ramsey. Only $6000 to go!
Like lots of others here, I’ve quit Bisquick and pancake mixes and am oddly proud of my homemade laundry soap (no lye involved.) Besides the PERFECT biscuit recipe we finally found after much trial and error, and the whole wheat bread that we devour, my next favorite thing is grinding popcorn for our own cornmeal. I throw the popcorn in my wheat grinder (Nutrimill) and it is the deepest, richest yellow orange and makes the best cornbread and corn pone. Oh, and homemade buttermilk syrup has become a huge, fattening hit at our home, too.
Teri, care to share the laundry soup recipe???
And share the PERFECT biscuit recipe? I just can’t get the hang of biscuits from scratch.
My son (18) prefers I make things from scratch. He is more conscientious of the cost and nutritional value involved than I would have been without him….and he makes the biscuits himself. I have found with a most of his girlfriends the last few years, that a LOT of girls don’t know how to boil water, so he has been taught. I need to make sure my baby is fed!!!
Like others here, I use very few mixes. I love dry beans and homemade soups. I’m in the process of cleaning out one shelf of my freezer to be devoted to having beans and soups frozen for my convenience.
The BIG things for us is that in the 20 years we’ve been married we’ve been a 1 car family for 16 of those years. Certianly not always convenient, but we’ve found ways to make it very doable.
What works best for me is not leaving the house! Oh and less convenience foods…I’m transitioning to mostly “scratch” cooking…I’m gonna have to try the dry beans..thanks for all the great suggestions.
Keeping sweet tea made in the refrig all the time saves on splurging for canned drinks. I do caffeine free and I live in Alabama so it MUST be sweet tea!!!
Ditto on old fashioned cooking from scratch. I soak a lot of grains overnight and make our bread by hand each week. Less convenient? Making my children participate in helping cook and clean. Money saving? taking my husband’s Costco card away from him.
If you are looking for a new suggestion to save money I would suggest that you STOP letting your Little Tiny Biscuit Eater get up on the counters! Think of the money you would save in disinfectants and cleaners…and cold/flu medicines!
If I don’t have the money I don’t buy it…I have stopped using credit cards and recently paid off my credit card debt. A weird concept to some, but I have less bills to pay and as it turns out…more money to spend with no interest payments.
And I love everyone’s tips. I think I will can the canned beans and start making my own.
I make cake icing using powdered sugar, margarine and milk; just combine all of the above until desired consistency~much better than that “can” stuff!! You can add melted chocolate, or any flavorings you like~vanilla, etc. This is not genius, but it’s GOOD!! That’s my single contribution and I’m stickin’ to it.
Your boys are adorable, and my great granddaughter, Hunter, can sit on my counter until she’s 6′ 7″.
We make many things from scratch but one thing we do, that I don’t see much in “green”Portland, is patch our used clothing. I know many mamas who buy 2nd hand, etc, but boy if one of the kids blows out the knees in the jeans (as they almost ALL do) those ripped jeans are gone. We find fun patches and make the pants cool. Then we cut them down to shorts in the summer. It’s more fair on the 2nd & 3rd boys in line for hand-me-downs.
We grow our own meats. Pork, poultry, and some beef this year. It isn’t cheaper; sometimes it costs more. But I know what goes into each yummy bite!
We grow vegetables in the summer. Well, we used to; the past two summers have been too cold and wet. But I buy the best and freshest stuff from local growers, and hit the produce market afterward. It’s not necessarily cheaper, either.
I make most everything from scratch. I buy ketchup and BBQ sauce, and sometimes soups, and I buy cold cereal. But I haven’t bought a cake mix in I don’t know how long. I felt really sorry for a friend’s kid yesterday. Old enough to cook and bake, but she said, “I want some brownies, Mom, but there’s no mix!” We don’t need no stinking mix.
I spend more on food than most families I know. But I’ve learned, through experience and watching our animals, that we actually save money by applying good nutrition rules. If you eat right, you call the doctor less, take less meds, lose less time from work, etc.
And I can. It’s hot and messy, but I never feel so rich as when I open my pantry and see rows and rows of cans. I can jams and jellies, tomatoes, and, when the hens get old, I put them in the soup pot and make broth. I love walking right past those salty cans of what the store calls chicken broth for $1-1.70, and heading home to my pantry, where a pint costs me maybe 50cents.
I make our yogurt using organic milk, sometimes plain, sometimes vanilla, always good with a little fruit or honey stirred in. It costs 30 cents a cup, (or if I strain it like Greek yogurt it is 60 cents a cup) Anyway it takes little attention,and since we were going through Stoneyfield at 4-6 cups a day at around $1 a pop it is much cheaper and even better tasting!
I am doing more and more from scratch and I just bought my first package of dry beans!
I use no paper products except toilet paper. I diaper my kids in cloth diapers, use cloth dishtowels, dishcloths etc. I’d love to find a good replacement for TP. When I’m outdoors and can find it I use Mullein, but it is kind of itchy if used in the wrong direction!
I am a REAL cook also. I enjoy cooking and have found that many women my age (early 60′s) have all but given up cooking. I enjoy making fresh salsa for our chips, from scratch desserts, and my daughters are following in my footsteps. I also think from scratch waffles and pancakes are so much better.
ha ha find it funny that things that were just my way of life are now considered “green”.
Back in the day—we ate what was in season in our garden or we had canned at some point–we used cloth diapers—paper plates were for a couple of special occasions during the year and a box mix or prepared food were never seen. I never got out of the habit–save $$ by eating homemade food at home– a bag of potatoes cost me 79 cents and it can be made into many wonderful meals.
Lunches were getting a bit out of control with the slices of bread required and the expensive bread was nuts. So like many here, I make our bread. But my twist is that I make buns. I use our bread machine but I don’t let it get to the baking stage, I pull the dough out and make buns that I let rise a third time (very light and fluffy!). They are great for lunches and dinners.
I also take all those online surveys and do the click through nonsense online. I amass points in some marketing scheme to attract me (doesn’t work) and then I cash in the points for gift certificates. I use them for gifts or our needs. Easy! Free–just a little bit of time.
I don’t like to cook, so I don’t save a bit of money on food. I do save a *lot* by making my own Swiffer spray. If you put just a splash (maybe a tablespoon or two) of Lysol or Mr Clean or whatever into a spray bottle with the rest water it will clean so much better than Swiffer does. Swiffer pads and mops leave a lot of cleaning product on the floor which attracts dirt, making your floor look dirty faster, making you need more of their products. Also, the cheapo 18 for $3 washcloths at WalMart fit perfectly on a swiffer mop-the non spraying kind. A bottle of cleaner and a pack of wash cloths costs maybe $7 and lasts a year, I was spending that much a week when buying Swiffer cleaning pads.
For Suzanne looking for an alternative to TP, look here: http://www.ecohuddle.com/products/bathroom-sprayers-standard-103-bathroom-bidet-sprayer Just pat dry with a washcloth or air dry, no TP needed.
Besides cooking from scratch…I cut my boys’ hair. I read an article in Martha Stewart Living many years ago about trimming a boy’s hair to keep it neat. There was enough how-to information in that one little article to teach me how to layer and shape. We bought high quality barber shears and have never looked back.
Here’s a link for homemade laundry soap:
http://wecanprepare.blogspot.com/2009/05/make-your-own-laundry-soap.html
Super easy and super efficient!
I get my grocery “allowance” every other Friday which is payday in CASH and that is all I have until the next payday. I use it for all grocery, thrift store finds, and wine (which tends to be around $12 because I don’t have that much cash). We bought me a brand new vehicle in 2000 and hubby says I have to drive it until the wheels fall off, we paid cash for it. We do not finance anything and we pay our American Express in full every month. I don’t have the cutest, trendiest clothes nor do I eat out or go to movies every week (hey I live on a state park). But, what I do have is peace of mind that we owe noone; we own 92 acres and are building a cabin on it debt free. And, we are not even 40 yet. It is doable, it just take a little bit of simple living and not a yearning to keep up with the Joneses (whoever they are).
The Park Wife
Money saving ways? Not too much out of the ordinary …
- cook from scratch
- bake all our breads
- homemade yogurt
- gardening & canning
- wash everything on the cold cycle in the washer
- one thing a little unusual that I did was buy some good quality microfiber cleaning cloths and ditch all the cleaning chemicals. I clean all my everything (floors, windows, counters, everything) with a microfiber cloth and water. Everything gets clean and there are no more chemical residues to worry about. Plus, I feel more free to let the kids help me clean, knowing there are no chemicals involved. And I don’t have to pay for all the cleaning supplies.
Have a beautiful day!
I make my own seseme sauce for asian based dishes, it is quick, it is simple, everyone, even the fussy picky middle child will eat it and love it.
So at what point does the recipe call for you to add the toe cheese of a tiny little biscuit eater? I am sorry all that I could focus on was how cute/silly/funny to see a little boy foot right next to the biscuits. Sitting on the counter when I was little is on of my most favorite memories from childhood. I liked how sitting up there made me feel bigger, more grown up, important and that I was a part of the world that normally loomed over my head. Your pictures brought back some good memories.
Cutting fabric softener sheets in half…same results, but now twice as much product.
Repurposing school memo’s (one sided copies) and turning them into envelopes. Great for sending things BACK to school! Using the memo’s to print school emails on, lunch calendar, etc.
When tubes of shampoo, lotions, etc, get low, cut off the end, and you will find several more uses of the product. You can use the end as a lid too, just squeeze over the cut end.
I take my shoes to the shoe repair guy (the cobbler?)!! I used to buy nice work shoes for about $30-$50, & when a heel thingie would come off, or the leather/pleather would get scratched, or the sole would totally come off (! it happened once), I would go shop for a new pair of $30-$50 ($60? $70?) shoes! I haven’t bought new, nice shoes in years, & I’ve taken a couple pairs to the cobbler TWICE! It costs about $10 a pair, but well worth it!
enjoyed reading everyone’s suggestions… I’m single working mom and I do do a lot of the suggestions above (dry beans, making pancakes and biscuits from scratch) but I’ve found it a really money saver to just check my receipts and of course I buy most stuff in bulk. And while I would never drive miles to save on one item, I do go to the cheap veggie and fruit store (where you have to pick through stuff and clean your lettuce well – oh and the apples are smaller but $0.69 a pound instead of $2.00) before going to the one with everything I want. If I must have something I couldn’t get at the first store, then I can still go… THIS IS A HUGE COST CUT.
We ditched fabric softener sheets altogether. You would not believe how long it took to get that gunk out of our clothes. We use a simple washing powder and/or vinegar.
And vinegar? Is useful for everything. I make this all-purpose cleaner out of 1 c. vinegar, 2 c. chamomile tea and 1-2 tbsp. of whatever extract is handy (orange, peppermint, vanilla, whatever). It rarely lets me down – counters, windows, walls, bathrooms, etc. – and I no longer freak out when my 3-year-old decides to go all Happy New Year! with the spray bottle.
I make my own laundry soap. Really easy, and SO much cheaper than store bought. Works great and all ingredients can be bought at the grocery store.
I live on an island with no stores, bridges, mail, no nothing! I have to schlep everything here having handled many times….
*I make my own laundry detergent and it’s wonderful!for many reasons. Laundry detergent is expensive, mostly water and packaging. So, the recipe I use is a combination of Borax detergent, Arm & Hammer WASHING soda and Fels Naptha bar soap. If anybody wants it, I’ll be glad to share, but most folks don’t want to bother.
*I have a good bread maker and always make my own doughs,etc.
*Always use dried beans,etc.
*Always make broth/stock from bones and freeze.
*I have chickens, which recycle scraps/stale food into eggs.
*I have a garden. Can tomatoes, freeze bell peppers,etc.
*We burn wood as much as possible because we can make heat, but not cold. Also, our elec. has a 50% surcharge!See, you thought your bill was high!?!?
*I buy pecans from a local here in GA and then crack and freeze~MUCH CHEAPER!
*Oh, you can freeze milk, butter, spices,etc. This is especially handy when butter is buy one get one free! STOCK UP on sale stuff! It’s money in the bank.
*Quilting! Our pioneer grannies were “green” and didn’t even know it! Yeap, get those ole blue jeans out, cut em up, add some flannel shirts. FUN!
I use the same laundry recipe and it’s awesome! My husband thought I was nuts, but it’s incredibly cheap to make and works better than any other detergent I’ve ever used. I had set in stains (washed and dried a couple of times) that CAME OUT after being pretreated with the homemade stuff!
EMILY Walk’s recipe is the same as mine for laundry soap (see her above post) LOVE IT! it cleans well, is gentle enough for a baby and best of all for me, it’s less to haul.
http://wecanprepare.blogspot.com/2009/05/make-your-own-laundry-soap.html
I plan our menu for the week and then shop for everything once a week, it makes our life much calmer and saves us money. I cook everyday, but not always from scratch, I would love to have your biscuit recipe, they always turn out like rocks when I make them.
Getting snowed in. Definitely not convenient, but I don’t burn any gas running around and can’t go to the store.
Oh, I make my own refrigerator jelly each week — cranberry/apple with spices. yum.
When the toothpaste tube is empty, I cut the back end off and spread it apart and punch a hole in it and hang it up (making sure the lid is on the front part)upside down and can probably brush my teeth for another 2 weeks by swiping the toothbrush inside the tube. Same with hand lotion in a tube
We use dry beans. I can’t believe I went without them for so long!
I use vinegar, water, and essential oil for my hair instead of conditioner. I love it! I would go for the baking soda mix instead of shampoo, but we have so much stored in our house, we certainly won’t be buying it for a long time.
My husband is the pancake maker in our house. He’s found a delicious recipe for an oatmeal pancake mix that we all love, and it saves us money, too, because it’s so much better for our health.
We also use vinegar in the laundry instead of fabric softeners. It’s much cheaper and healthier for our skin.
When we can, we buy certain things in bulk. We don’t have much storage space in our house, but certain items save us a lot more money, so we make room for it.
Those are a few tips we use. I love all the great ideas!
I am linking you to my post on homemade savings.
http://pollyspath.blogspot.com/2010/01/hobby-farming.html
The only thing I seem to make from scratch is bread. I started this a few months ago and I’m still amazed at how easy it is. I don’t have a bread machine but I don’t see the need for one. After reading all these comments it seems I have a long way to go.
For those of you who aren’t interested in making your own detergent, remember the companies want you to buy more. It only takes a fraction of the amount the box or bottle suggests. Unless your kids have been playing in the mud, most laundry is not really that dirty. Also, it only takes about one tablespoon of dishwasher powder to clean a load of dishes.
I made detergent and liked the way it cleaned, but it left a dirty “bathtub” ring in my washer. Has anyone had this happen?
Vinegar rinse, maybe? I have used shampoo once in the last 9 months. One of the reasons people got away form using the old timey soaps was the chemical reaction with the minerals in “hard” water. I read this on sites when I was researching the “no ‘poo” routine for hair. As a high school science teacher it made sense. Vinegar in the dishwasher occasionally and washing machine helps with hard water deposits. Good luck.
NOODLES!!! We love homemade noodles & I think they are just too easy to not do yourself & much faster to make than a run to the market. Oh, & my dork of a spouse claims the whole ‘homemade noodle’ thing was entrapment. The way to a mans heart…..MWAH HAHAHA!!!