Resources

My frugal bible right now is “The Complete Tightwad Gazette” by Amy Dacyczyn, which I loaned from the library. It will inspire you towards creative “tightwaddery”. (Like purchasing a 3-4 lb chicken, on sale at 1.69/lb, roasting it for dinner [two dinners for this small family], than using the carcass for making 16 cups of chicken broth, which are in plastic yogurt containers in the freezer!)

I love Herbal Homekeeping by Sandy Maine.  The recipes are simple, safe, and effective.  A must for anyone who wants to save on cleaning supplies.

[I have found the Library to be quite fulfilling in terms of my book/magazine jones. I love reading. If I go into a bookstore, I most likely will not walk out without buying something. I cannot justify buying a new book, when I can get a perfectly good used one for cheaper, which was what I was doing with Amazon for a long time. But now, I can't justify paying $4.95 for a used book that I can get at the library for free! I can renew it twice, and put it on hold again if I want, all in the comfort of my home via computer! My library allows me to check out 100 items. I think I have about 85 right now, although I'd hazard to say that 10 of them are children's books/DVD's. I've paid a total of $0.45 in overdue fines because I wasn't on top of things.]

*I’ve linked both books above to Amazon, however, check your library first, and if they don’t have it, ask them to get it!*

Live on Less and Love it! is an article I read in a back issue of Mother Earth News. It has 75 great tips on how to spend less without sacrificing a whole lot.

Mothering magazine’s March-April 2008 issue has a whole section on cloth diapers. I love Mothering and am excited that I can check it out at my library. It is, in my opinion, one of the best parenting magazines.

Zen Habits has a great list of 73 Debt Elimination Tips. There were a few new ideas, and some recommended reading that I’m going to pursue. Also read: The Cheapskate Guide: 50 Tips for Frugal Living.

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Economical ecological products

Reusable hemp coffee filters. I wandered into a local alternative kitchen store that came highly recommended in a class on Sustainable living and found one for $6.00. They are listed on Greenfeet for $4.95. Given that I would have had to pay shipping/handling, the cost difference is negligible, and I don’t mind supporting a small, local business. Cost comparison with the cheapest at my grocery store is $1.95 for 100 count paper filters. I have coffee every day, which means that over one entire year I would use 365 filters. At $0.02 per filter, I’d be spending $7.30 a year. So, for the first year, I’d save $1.30, which isn’t much, but after that, $7.30/year. This will ease your conscience more so than buying recycled filters, as you won’t be contributing to a landfill.

Reusable Grocery Bags. We have five Ecolution Hemp Grocery bags that I purchased at Rawganique, a Canadian company that makes a variety of products from organic hemp and organic cotton. Ok, so it won’t save you much, unless your local grocery store is willing to give you a $0.05 credit for each bag you bring (on average, I probably save about $1.00 a month this way). But, I’ve found it’s a much easier way to prevent plastic bags from ever entering our house, and keep your recycling bin a little tidier. And, you can use them for a variety of other things; I use them as a diaper bag, library book bag, purse (can you tell I’m not particularly organized?).

Cloth Diapers. I have a love-hate relationship with cloth diapers, although usually my love wins over my hate…except for laundry day! Long before Seth was born, I decided I would be a cloth-diapering mama. I got excited when I saw the new innovations that have led to a variety of cloth diapers with snaps, velcro, bright solid colors and cute prints. I finally decided on two kinds: Fuzzi Bunz and Wonderoos. I loved the Fuzzi Bunz because of their colors and the fact that they had a cute bug print diaper. The only drawback was that they came in different sizes, which was different than the Wonderoos, which are one-size-fits-all. They both use the same type of insert, so that avoided any confusion in that area. Why Choose Cloth Diapers is a great article that includes some cost analysis.

Reusable Sanitary Napkins (aka Cloth Pads), etc. A few years ago, I started using cloth pads during my period, in part because I hated throwing pads away, and also because of the harmful ingredients used to bleach them (dioxin = carcinogenic). I also found that by using organic cotton cloth pads that I had less itchiness and irritation than I did with disposables. And, it turns out that you will save $$ by using them as well! I got my pads from GladRags, which I am also happy to support/promote as they are a local company, located here in Portland, OR! But you can also get pads from Lunapads. Both are larger companies that specialize in this product, but also carry such things as the Keeper or DivaCup, neither of which I’ve tried yet, but have heard great things about (you don’t have to worry about toxic shock syndrome).

*I am not being reimbursed to promote any of these products.

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Free and Fun Stuff

Chore Wars – for those of us who have a bit of kid in us, and hate doing chores! Based on popular fantasy role playing games, points and rewards are awarded for completing “adventures” (aka chores).

Hathor the CowGoddess – A wonderfully humorous graphic commentary about breastfeeding, cosleeping, natural birthing, and other attachment parenting stuff.

Wondermark – Another hilarious comic. Updated twice a week.

Using brown paper bags from the grocery store to send things via the mail in. Just cut to size, turn inside out, wrap up like a present! You can even decorate them with original designs!

Doing our Tax Returns ourselves. Sure, it took me several days to work on them, but it was empowering to know that I not only saved us over $250, I actually was capable of doing it!

Our Local Library. This particular one is extremely child-friendly. With weekly story-times, fish, puppets, and loads of fabulous books, we make a trip more than once a week. I can check out up to 100 items, 25 of them audio/visual.

Making my own Play-Dough. All you need is a few simple ingredients, maybe 30 minutes of time (if you aren’t particularly adept in the kitchen) and you have one of the most versatile and fun activities for children. If I can find my recipe, I’ll post it. Otherwise, just Google it, recipes abound.

Freecycle – This is my favorite place to give things away. Usually, someone wants what I have, and after an attempt to sell it has failed, I just offer it up. I’ve managed to get something once (a bunch of pots and pans, half of which were unusable, the other half which needed major cleaning), so remember that you get what you pay for here. (My plans for the unusable pots? Paint them and put them in Seth’s kitchen.) I’ve seen some pretty interesting things listed (25-foot boat), so if you are able to respond quickly to the post, you may hit pay dirt.

Nursing our child(ren). Breastfeeding is the best and most complete food for a baby, and, once I got the hang of it, the easiest to do anywhere at anytime (especially if you co-sleep = don’t even wake up!). The World Health Organization suggests that children ought to be nursed for two years and beyond. We didn’t last that long (we made it a year), but if you can, there’s money to be saved by not buying formula (which, from what I’ve read, has some dicey ingredients). Kellymom is probably the best site for information about breastfeeding that I know of. Check out Hathor the Cowgoddess, to see my breastfeeding superhero!

Homemade baby food. It’s so unbelievably easy, I think I could have whipped up a whole batch of avocado cubes in the time it took me to decide which brand and type of jarred baby food I was going to buy. My mother sent me a food mill that she used for us as children while I was pregnant, so I was prepared. I ended up buying special ice-cube trays with lids, that I later realized I didn’t need (we had plenty of trays, and you just cover them with foil or plastic wrap – when they’re frozen, take them out and put them in a container). I also purchased, brand new, a copy of Super Baby Food, something else I didn’t need to do, because there is Wholesome baby food (a site that offers free information on how to make baby food), and I probably could have gotten it at the library.

Learn to cut hair. There’s not much hair-cutting happening at our house these days – I don’t happen to believe the idea that a boy must have short hair, and Nathan, fresh out of the military wants to see who long his hair can grow (and he’s looking pretty darn attractive with all that thick, wavy strawberry blond hair, if I may say so). But, while he was in the military we calculated that if I learned to cut his hair, we’d save over $140 annually. Here’s how we figured: based on the requirements of the military and how fast his hair grew, we figured he’d have to get his hair cut every two weeks. That’s 21 hair cuts a year. At the military barbershop, a haircut for men was a flat rate of $7. So, $7 x 21 = $147. The clippers cost us $30.00. So the first year, we saved $110. Of course, the first several cuts were somewhat embarrassing, but, practicing every two weeks certainly helps one improve. So, if you have boys, whose hair you must have short, do it yourself. By the way, as a teen, I cut my own bangs (I had a head start when I tried cutting them as a preschooler. I’ll show you the photo if you show me yours!) and my mother trimmed our ends. I recently had Nathan cut my ends, and it wasn’t so bad.