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By the author of the FREE online course Growing Self-Sufficiency: The Whole Picture
Is a Frugalite born or made? In a recent article, I considered the impact of my Frugalite Mother on my habits. This week, I got to thinking about some of the things I do to save money that, well, just seem easy to me.
Even though times are tough for everyone these days, I know that there are some things that would be difficult to give up. For example, I have considered cutting off my internet service, but I’d find it pretty tough to live without that in my rural area.
The thing is, what’s easy for some is hard for others, and vice versa. So, I thought I’d share my own easy ways I save in the hopes that other Frugalites would share their easy wins on the pocketbook, too. That way, we can all save a bit more by helping each other.
Non-Drinker
Ya, I know that this one may not be easy for everyone. There are no right or wrong answers here. In my own childhood, alcohol had a negative impact on my family. I have seen relatives suffer because of it. For these reasons, it’s not difficult for me to stay away from it. And I know that these days, it’s darn expensive!
On a hot summer’s day, however, after mowing the lawn, I still crave an ice-cold beer as my reward. My solution? I drink a fake beer, or “near beer” as some folks call it. I can get one of these that, at least to me, tastes exactly like a beer for less than $1.50. Ya, that’s a savings of around 25% for the same premium beer with alcohol. One local grocery store has them for around $1.20 apiece. The fake beer also has fewer calories and doesn’t make me sleepy. Win-win. By only having one of these as a special treat and by drinking my own filtered well water the rest of the time, I end up saving a lot of money over the course of a thirsty summer.
Nature’s Medicine Cabinet
Now, a lot of my friends and family think I’m an outright wacko for making my own medicines. However, to me, this is one of the most important things that I do for myself. While I am not a professional herbalist and not licensed, I have been learning about herbal medicine for over 20 years. Herbs are always my first choice when I have a health issue, along with the basics of diet, sleep, and hydration. One of my inspirations here is my own mother, who is in her eighties and doesn’t take a single prescription medication. Gee, I hope I got those genes!
Over the years, I have learned that nature’s medicine cabinet can work special magic that isolated pharmaceuticals cannot. It is easy for me to trust plant medicine because I believe there is more power in the whole plant, which contains many chemicals, minerals, and vitamins in a unique combination. The more I learn about herbalism, the happier I am to always make it my first choice.
One day, I decided to try a cup of my roasted chicory root tea. I ground up the roots by hand and made a cup. After a short time, I realized something was different. Hey, my headache was gone! I checked one of my herbal reference books on chicory and learned that there are references in Egypt dating back thousands of years describing how to use chicory to relieve a headache. How cool is that? Here’s a link to that great reference book by one of my mentors, Dr. Patrick Jones.
Hey, I’ll Trade You for That….!
Last week, I was over at a friend’s house. She has a beautiful kitchen island, just the right height for a chair that I was thinking of selling online. I asked her if she wanted the chair. I sent her a couple of photos of it and she loved it right away. She offered to trade me soup and a container of shepherd’s pie for my chair. I was delighted!
To make the deal even sweeter, when I popped over to drop off the chair, she offered me some supper. (Did I mention she is an amazing cook!?!) So, for a chair that I no longer wanted and really didn’t have space for, I was able to trade for some delicious food. As I’m a single Frugalite chef, any holiday from cooking is much appreciated!
More and more, I’m convinced that we will all need to have good bartering skills in the future. Here are a couple of articles to help you in that direction: Cashless Exchanges and Creative Bartering.
Happy Bartering to All!
Easy Peasy Cash for Measy!
Saving doesn’t always have to be difficult. Could you see yourself trying any of the three thrifty habits offered here? Do you have your own easy examples you can share with us? Please tell us in the comments below.
About Colette
Colette is passionate about sharing her knowledge of thrifty living and self-sufficiency. She has developed her skills in self-reliance living in the suburbs, the city, and more recently, on her own Half-Acre Homestead. Colette lived five years completely off-grid and without running water in an eight by 24 foot tiny home while designing and building her own 18 by 24-foot eco-cabin. Her website, Half Acre Homestead is attracting followers from around the world who want to become more self-sufficient. Colette invites you to stop by the Homestead and check out all of the great resources including the practical How To Guides, A Tiny Home Resource Center and her organic gardening stories on her blog. She shares her wholistic model (body/mind/spirit) for achieving self-sufficiency in her Free Course, “Growing Self-Sufficiency: The Whole Picture.” Stop by the Homestead today to register free of charge!
8 thoughts on “3 Easy Things I Do to Save Money”
I am a non-drinker now. In the past I liked a particular brand and variety of wine. When I moved to another area I found that I couldn’t buy it in my new location. Rather than settle for something else I quit drinking any alcohol. I love a particular kind of soda, but hate spending the money on the empty calories and dislike artificial sweeteners. Instead I drink iced tea which is great unsweetened.
I love cheesecake but am not too good at making them and refuse to pay the bakery price. A good neighbor makes them extremely well. She hates making cookies. Over a period of time I make her a batch or two of different kinds of cookies and she makes me a cheesecake.
Hi Mary, Thanks for these. Like you, I’m not a big fan of soda, ever since I heard that a can of it contains no less than 10 teaspoons of sugar. Yesterday, our local thrift shop was giving away cans of my favourite brand. I peeked in the box to see two left, but decided to keep walking. I’m with you about the cheesecake, too. I love to eat it, but have actually never made one. In our family, my sister was quite good at that! Wishing you the best. Keep on savin’!
If you have the option at home to dress like an Indian in summertime and dress like an Eskimo in wintertime … you can save a lot on heating and air conditioning bills without the need to heat and cool whole rooms or whole houses.
If you buy, use and maintain older vehicles (as long as you can still get replacement parts) your total costs of ownership can be a lot less than what new vehicles will cost you. As the cost of housing skyrockets many employees have even moved into their vehicles and are living in a parking lot close to their employer. The YouTube channel of CheapRVliving is just one of several how-to resources to learn about this.
If in town you have the option to walk (instead of driving) to some of your regularly visited destinations, the exercise and Vitamin D from sunlight that you get is good for your health and saves on vehicle gas and maintenance costs. When houses are close enough to such destinations the real estate community rates them higher in value with a walkability rating.
If you have the space to learn and use solar cookers (some are even cheaply DIY buildable), you can save on power bills AND have a useful Plan B strategy for power blackouts to conserve and save on the use of stored fuels like propane, alcohol, kerosene, charcoal, wood, butane, etc, etc for camp cooking gear.
As you accumulate flashlights, portable radios, headlamps and other such gadgets … make sure they can be powered by rechargeable batteries whether Nimh, Lion or even ancient NiCads and acquire the chargers (both AC powered and solar) so you can reuse such batteries over and over — in both good times and in power outages. What’s largely forgotten now is that the now-ancient AC-powered BuddyL battery charger can recharge both NiCads (many times) AND even alkalines (at least a few times). That saves a lot compared to throwing away alkaline batteries after only one use — AND gives you a reliable backup Plan B during power outages.
If you have a sleeping bag for camping or winter use to minimize heating bills …. and the zipper begins to stick … keep some Chapstick handy to lube that zipper and save having to replace that sleeping bag.
If you want your clothes to last longer … washing them in cold water works well if you use a compatible detergent. The ALL brand that Walmart carries works well but there are also DIY instructions online that are easy to find. Saving via longer life for your clothes plus a lesser hot water bill is win-win. Also … more and more clothes are being sold today with instructions to be washed ONLY in cold water.
For many families their greatest financial fear is the possible need to file for bankruptcy as the result of sky-high medical bills. It’s highly worth knowing that there are companies in the business of either negotiating such bills downward OR teaching you how to do that. Another approach is to maintain a US passport so you can use “medical tourism” to get medical treatment in some of the many countries Americans have long used to avoid sky-high US bills and/or get proven treatments that the Big Pharma-captured US government has banned inside US borders. It’s an easy search online to hunt for medical tourism encouraging countries.
–Lewis
Hi Lewis, I built my eco-cabin for the planet, not for the ultimate in human comfort, so I dress light in the summer and wear a hat indoors for a large part of the year to keep warm. I don’t have AC, which I’m sure saves me tons on my electrical bill. When the heat gets unbearable, I drive five minutes to our local swimming hole and jump in. I feel refreshed for hours. Alternatively, I dunk myself in a few buckets of ice cold water from the hand pump on my well. I can attest that this is much less pleasant, however! In the long term, I have set aside some 3 inch thick sheets of styrofoam to make external shutters for my passive solar windows on hot summer days. I am hoping that will greatly reduce the afternoon temperature in the eco-cabin. Thanks so much for your thoughtful tips. Wishing you the best this summer!
The ability to objectively determine the difference between a want and a need. Do I need shoes – yes I do. Do I need the latest Nike brand tennis shoes – no I do not.
Hi Selena, YES! That’s the skill that we all need to have. IF only all of these name brands were forced to put the “real” price tag of their item on the label…So, you look at those Nike-brand tennis shoes and want them (perhaps because all of the other kids have them), however when you see that the ACTUAL cost of the shoes is $2, it might give you pause…..who is benefitting here? Would something like this help people resist the high priced name brands? I don’t know…maybe I’m grasping at straws here….How can we help people with this skill….this is my need….and this is my want? Thanks so much Selena! Wishing you a great savin’ summer!
We put every $5 dollar bill we get into an undisclosed piggy bank. You’d be surprised how fast it adds up.
Hi Pam, That’s a a great way to save! I would love to hear more about how you use that money that’s adding up: An emergency fund? Family trips? Thanks so much for sharing. Wishing you a great Frugalite savings summer!