First and foremost, I do enjoy trying to be more frugal these days. In part because we have to and it’s good to save money where you can but also because it’s teaching us to live with less… less stuff, less conveniences, less need for all that consumerism has to offer.
Second, I’m afraid there’s only so much I can do and talk about with regards to being more frugal. I know I can go all crazy cheapskate like the people on Extreme Cheapskates but I’m not ready for that level of money savings. 😉 With that in mind this day, Frugal Fridays, may find need to go bi-monthly and possibly share space with another topic. We’ll see how it goes.
Now, about my thoughts on recent frugal efforts over the past few months…
- The 3-ingredient homemade deodorant that I’m fan of has a problem: it melts! Since our house doesn’t have air conditioning it can get a bit warmer than we’re used to and, consequently, I’ve found that when I try to use my homemade coconut oil based deodorant that it isn’t quite as solid as I need it to be. The easy solution is to put it in the fridge.
- Even though I haven’t posted about it as a “frugal Friday” idea, I really do enjoy making my own homemade cleaners. That said, I noticed we go through them rather fast, in particular, the all-purpose cleaner which I tend to make a lot. I have noticed that the cheap $1 spray bottles I bought from Walmart aren’t the best and they tend to leak. My suggestion would be to save the quality spray bottles from commercially-made cleaners and re-purpose them.
- Staying away from paper goods and plastics is becoming difficult. I have found myself going back to “old ways” and tending to use more and more plastic bags, not waiting for the garbage to get completely filled, and what not. I can say that we’ve stuck with using cloth napkins, not using paper towels, and certainly not using paper plates and the like.
- We’ve been pretty good still about using less utilities and other silly things.
- The dishwasher tabs that I posted about last week have completely turned to powder. Regardless, I’m getting excited to make a new batch or two and see if I can get them to stay as tablets longer.
- While using coconut oil as lotion is ok–though it tends to feel “slimier” in the summer–I sure would like to find an recipe for lotion that’s more like the lotion we use and NOT terribly expensive.
- When I posted about trying to stay cooler without breaking the bank, those strategies are still working relatively well. We did choose to purchase a set of Instant Screen Doors which I didn’t even know existed that have been very helpful of late. Now we can keep the doors open and keep the bugs out!
- Though I hadn’t posted about it recently, switching to a Double Edge Safety Razor and buying 100 blades in order to save up to $100 on shaving has been a very good decision. In fact, when we went on vacation over the summer I brought my old Mach3 razor and found I missed my double-edged razor.
- I wound up activating that debit card I said I didn’t need. 🙁 On the up side I haven’t used it yet and actually don’t plan to but there’s something about the prepper inside me that says I should have options.
- Saving money grocery shopping is easy, especially when my wife does the shopping! Of course, we’ve added THRIVE foods to our repertoire which has helped a lot too.
Looking back, that’s quite a bit. 🙂 Of course, I do have a few more things to conquer, such as homemade laundry detergent that we actually like. I’d also like to make some hand soap on my own. Oh, and I have to figure out how to make toothpaste that my wife will use.
Hope that helps!
Leave a Reply