Creativity - your biggest asset in frugality

[Keep_It_Simple]

When I first embarked on my frugality journey, I read a lot of books on the subject - Tightwad Gazzette, etc.. I had a hunger for saving in more ways and looked online. I was often frustrated with the same-old tips that may or may not work for me. After reading so many articles and blogs on frugality, it is harder to learn something new - even though I still yearn for more. Then it dawned on me - those books were meant to stimulate your own creativity and imagination. Those "outside the box" ideas are what hard core frugal people really yearn for. We don't want to hear anything more about coupons or about how dry mac and cheese dinners are cheap and great when you add hamburger (are they really that great and are they healthy?). I like to sit back and think out a problem at our house and will come up with a cheap solution more times than not. Here's an example - I live in Georgia and in the summer - we bake - especially the side of the house that sits west. We get a harsh afternoon sun. I was beginning to think of shutters - awnings - anything to keep that sun from coming in while our trees that I planted outside grew. The home improvement centers have window film to stop the radiant heat from coming in your house and, yes, it is not cheap. Then it hit me - aluminum foil! Yes, it is not attractive, but it works fabulously and is extremely cheap! Plus, those windows are all in the back so the "curb appeal" of our house would not be diminished. I put the stuff up and my family thought I had lost my mind until they, too, felt a difference immediately and liked the much cooler house. I told my relatives and they laughed at me. Well, this year, they all put aluminum foil on their windows and said how wonderful it was. My sister in Texas said her husband's grandmother had always put some on her windows that got too much sun. (I am always amazed that my "brainstorms" come out to be ideas people had in the "olden days" when, in my opinion, people were a bit smarter, or at least had a lot more common sense. ) This year, our electric bill is lower than last year even though the cost of electricity has gone up. That is saying something. Please, send some of your best "outside the box" ideas. Something that is really different. Here's a few more: I cut the sugar content in all recipes in half. It still tastes sweet, it is better for you, and you save on sugar. If it is a chocolate item, I usually reduce the amount of chocolate in it also - especially cocoa. To add a little more body and nutrients to my desserts and baked goods, I also substitute oats (quick or regular) for part of the flour. You can do this by as much as a third and it comes out great. I also substitute whole wheat for some of the flour. It may take a little getting used to and you may want to do it gradually if your family is used to running on high test sugar and flour. My kids love my baked goods and their friends eat up when they visit. I find they eat less because they are more satisfied with the oat/whole wheat added.

[Dividends]

Great ideas! *

Here are a few other ideas:
Inexpensive hand sanitizer: *mix rubbing alcohol with aloe gel. *For the aloe gel, we buy the least expensive aloe sunburn relief lotion we can find. *Mix the aloe gel and rubbing alcohol to the same consistency as store bought hand sanitizer. *We have determined that this is much less expensive than store bought hand sanitizer. *With several children in the my home, this homemade sanitizer has saved us some money and keeps hands clean when away from the house.

Another idea for keeping your house cool (best suited for warm climates--I'm in the southeastern U.S.): *Paint your dark asphalt shingle roof with white elastomeric roof coating. *The white roof reflects the heat rather than absorbing it all day long as our dark roof did. *We noticed a significantly cooler house when we did this. This has cut our cooling bills way down and it didn't cost much for the savings we've gained. *This idea isn't for everyone--I live in a very rural area with no neighbors. *Others may not appreciate your brilliant white roof. * We bought our roof coating at Wal-Mart—you can also get it at most any home improvement store.

Install a timer for your electric hot water heater. *This has saved us a ton of money on our electric bills over the years (for us, we saved about $35 off of a $80 electric bill). * The timer simply turns your electric water heater on/off at times you pre-set. *We noticed that we only used hot water in the evening, so we set it to turn on at 6pm and off at 10pm. These timers come with at least two on/off sets, so you can have it turn on/off in the morning, then on/off again in the evening if you like. *Also, you can manually turn on the heater if you need hot water outside of the usual time range. *My timer cost about $35 back in the mid-90's (purchased at Lowe's) and was easy to install myself. *In my opinion, it would pay for itself even if one had to pay an electrician or plumber to install it. *Only downside is when the power goes out, you have to reset the time. *This timer has been our best money saver yet, and we notice no difference in lifestyle since we still have hot water when we need it.

[Keep_It_Simple]

I LOVE the hand sanitizer idea! That sounds great! My guys are going camping this weekend and I think I will mix up a batch! I would paint my roof white but I don't think my neighbors would like it. I know that is a biggie for heat coming in. My neighbors already notice I am the only one who does not compulsively water the lawn! Oh well!

[JAK]

My biggest asset in frugality has been poverty. ;)

[bookwormom]

quote:
Paint your dark asphalt shingle roof with white elastomeric roof coating. The white roof reflects the heat rather than absorbing it all day long as our dark roof did. We noticed a significantly cooler house when we did this. This has cut our cooling bills way down and it didn't cost much for the savings we've gained.

this will also prolong the "life" of your roof by many years. we have a white roof , the roofer who put on our torched down bitumen roof said he would not guarantee it if we did not put Kool Seal on it.

I am going to put alu foil on my windows tomorrow. do you just scotch tape it on?
I have got it made, nobody cares what I put on my windows, and if someone does it is toughsky on them, they are not paying my electric bill.

[countryjo]

Bookworm, do what ever to save, so many years I decorated my house and bought things I could have went without, just to have everything look nice. I didn't buy really expences things, but I did charge them, so always more debt.
I'm not changing things now and I'm using what I have.
This winter I'm putting plastic on the outside of my windows and quilts and blankets on the inside, they will not all match. Propane is going higher every year......
we are retired and I like to travel .....I don't like giving all my money for utlities.
I hope you save money too.

[Keep_It_Simple]

Bookwormom: I hung the aluminum foil onto the back side of my curtains at the top and then, on the bottom half where the screen is and the window opens, I put the aluminum foil between the window and screen. Thus, it is hanging on the inside on top close to the glass (this is not the most effective since the radiant heat comes inside first to be reflected out) and on the bottom, it is on the outside of the glass but the screen is holding it in place. I have a few windows without screens and I hang then on the outside on the bottom half like the other windows, but I have a piece of tape that goes across that keeps the aluminum foil from blowing around. The tape piece is very long and is used more as a "flat rope" to hold it in place than to tape it in place since the tape goes around the window too and to the inside (I have the kind of windows where you can tilt the bottom half in to clean them and thus makes this arrangement easy to do). If you wanted to tape it to the outside of your window, you could see if duct tape works. Good luck!

[flatwater]

The biggest asset in frugality is to stay as healthy as you can. I just had an emergency trip to the hospital , over night stay for a gall bladder attack to the tune of 3000 dollars. All because I didn't eat right the week before.

[bookwormom]

like my grandmother said, Health is Wealth!

[MYellowRose]

My daughter has foil on most of her windows to keep it cooler and in the girls bedroom they have styrofoam in the two tall skinny windows. I've been staying with her since Monday evening and I sleep in the living room on a cloth short sofa/ loveseat or whatever the correct name is. I had to ask her for a blanket and I wear a nightshirt over flannel pajama bottoms even though the window a/c is on low cool and cranked down to about 2 or 3.

[Katrina-Sisu]

I agree being creative and being able to think outside the box is a big advantage when you're pinching pennies.

I cut salt in half in most of my recipes. One bouillion cube instead of two and I don't really notice the difference.

Our stove is olde (so old it needs to be spelled olde lol) that I have to preheat the stovetop LOL! I turn the two working burners on high and then towards the end I turn them off. The food continues to cook and boil so that's not a problem. It saves on electricity too.

Also if you have a slow heating stovetop, use hot water in all your cooking. It boils faster and there's no difference in the food taste.

All I can think of now.

Kat

[Shamrock1121]

1. Room deodorizer - boil a few whole cloves and a chunk of cinnamon stick (get the discounted ones after Christmas in the craft department) in a pint of water for 10 minutes. It can be used several times.

2. Cleaning without buying dozens of high-priced (and toxic) cleaners....

-A mixture of half water and half alcohol in a spritz bottle, will sanitize the bathroom sink/faucet area.

-ZOTE soap is a bar laundry soap from Mexico, and I can get it for around 70 cents for a huge 14 oz. bar. You can slice it into 3/4-inch slices and use it as a bath bar. I grate it and mix it with Borax and Washing Soda for dry laundry soap, or you can use it to make the homemade liquid laundry soap, instead of Fels Naptha Soap, which is much more expensive.

-A little cornstarch in water, a squeegee and a rag make one of the best window washing trios.

3. Use vinegar in the laundry rinse, instead of fabric softeners. Drying clothes on a line/rack is a given for the frugal. If you do use a clothes dryer, put a pair of those dryer balls in it. They reduce drying time by 25-50 percent. I personally didn't like using tennis balls (even though they are cheaper than dryer balls) because the toxic smell from them bothered me, but they are another inexpensive option to the laundry balls.

4. I cook and bake as much as possible in my Solar Ovens. It requires nothing more than the free energy from the sun.

5. I'm putting bubble wrap on my windows for insulation for the fall/winter. Cut the bubble wrap to size, spritz the window with water (I'd suggest distilled so that all mineral particles are removed - mineral salts in tap water can etch glass) and apply the bubble wrap to the window. I've also done window quilts, which was also mentioned earlier.

-We replaced all the screens on our house with UV filtering solar screen to keep more heat out during the hot months - especially on the west side of the house. The screen is much thicker, darker, and a denser weave than regular screen. We bought it at Lowe's and had new, full-window screens made for the house. In the winter we put back the half-screens that came on the house, which allows the sun penetration in during the cold months.

On the west side of the house, we plant vines on trelis to add one more layer of shade for the windows (from seeds collected each year from the previous years vines). The vines come down in the fall.

6. Collect free sand from a beech and use it on your drive way and sidewalks for de-icing. When the ice is melted, sweep up the sand and put it back in the sand bucket.

7. I use whey-based milk substitutes instead of expensive commercial milk. (Morning Moo's - www.moosmilk.com). Much cheaper per gallon and the taste is just like regular milk.

8. I make my own kefir with real kefir grains in milk (which last virtually forever). Kefir is a fermented dairy product similar to yogurt - fermented at room temperature in a canning jar with a plastic lid on it - NO special equipment or electricity needed like you do for yogurt. Depending on how long you ferment it will determine how solid the curd is. I can use kefir as a substitute for buttermilk, plain yogurt, cream cheese and sour cream. Once the curd is separated from the whey (drained like you do yogurt cheese), and depending on how long you drain it, will produce a good substitute for the dairy products mentioned above.

9. Save the price of baker's yeast and learn how to make sourdough breads. Milling your own grains/seeds/beans will also help keep the price of baked goods down.

-Karen