cftwo,
I was talking yesterday with the lady I “work” for about how I didn’t used to be so cheap. I think it started with my husband when we got married. It was a hard adjustment but I’m getting there (7 years so far). First thing he did was have me (“us”) sell my (“our”) brand new car for a used one. But if it wasn’t for the way he handles money we would have never gotten thru when he got laid off 4 years ago.
*Paperback Swap rocks. No way around it, great site.
*If there is a movie we’re dyeing to see, we buy the tickets at Costco, save $,and a bit of chocolate goes into my purse, no concession stand inflated price stuff.
*Dilute your shampoo by half, use same amount. My family can’t tell the difference. I do buy [I]good[/I] conditioner.
*We buy in bulk, then split stuff with my son’s family.
*I still cook for four, then Dh and I eat the leftovers the next night. Can’t cook for two after all these years, unless it’s steak or something like that.
*Fill dishwasher FULL, let air dry. If there are a few spots, who cares?
*Dog is 14, she gets the best food available. 
*Swap DVD’s with friends and family. Same with magazines and books.
*We planted a large garden, I’ll fill the freezer with my son’s help. We swap my baking with what a friend bags in the Fall. That is a real help for both families.
*I’ve been wearing the same clothes for four or five years running now. I simply don’t care, as long as I’m clean and not wrinkled! The clothes that is.
I do quite a bit of “batch” cooking. I buy mass quantities of certain things (like when chicken thighs are on sale for $.69lb or something) and cook the whole batch. Some items are always a good buy, like beans, potatoes, cabbage, or eggs. Lots of nutrition for a good price. Refrige/freeze in whatever portions are sensible for the way your family works.
The way our family works is, we have 4 adults on totally different schedules and no one eats together. So we have mass quantities stacked up in the 'fridge. When they come home and are hungry, they go make themselves a plate.
Ideas for batch preparations:
[B]Side Dishes[/B]
Bean salad
Tabbouleh salad
Fruit salad
Rice salad/pasta salad/potato salad/coleslaw/you-see-where-I’m-going-with-this-idea salad
[B]Proteins[/B]
chicken thighs/breasts
salmon fillets (on sale)
hard boiled eggs
hummus (garbanzo bean dip)
Chicken/Egg/Tuna/Salmon salad
[B]Veggies[/B]
Baby carrots/carrot sticks
celery sticks
red bell pepper strips
chopped tomatoes
diced onions
trimmed broccoli, cauliflower, etc.
(the person can then cook or not cook the veggies, as desired)
[B]Green Salad[/B]
a large container of washed and spun salad greens - no dressing
a quart sized canning jar of homemade salad dressing
A creative person can cut up a chicken breast, throw it on top of the salad greens, add a few veggies and spoon on a dressing.
Or saute onions & peppers, strip the chicken breast and roll up in a tortilla,
Or make a super-quick chicken salad/egg salad sandwich.
Check your containers to make sure they fit in your fridge and in your dishwasher. Large, shallow (about 3-4" deep), rectangular containers with resealable lids seem to work the best. Train the ‘fam’ to burp the containers after they scoop out their portion. Spend an afternoon making whatever a week’s supply would be in your household.
Awww, I totally understand! I still buy mine and the fosters good food but luckily there’s a mill that sells the broken open bags at a huge discount. It’s just hit or miss so you have to stop in often, and sometimes mix foods.
MoniDew, you’re welcome to cook for me and ship it! I don’t have the patients to cook lately, and I went to culinary school!!! :teehee:
Brings back memories of my early days of marriage in the 70’s and 80’s when we struggled to survive. We really don’t plan to cut back as we did that for the last 30+ years and have just started adding fat to the budget in the last few years. We now have cable and internet. I use a prepaid long distance card for home phone, it’s about 7 cents a minute cheaper. I buy most of my clothes from Good Will or Value Village. I get my underwear from Costco. I grow a garden and have fruit trees. I bake my own bread and pizza and rarely eat out.
We’ve gotten most of our furniture and a lot of odds and ends at yard sales and 2nd hand stores. My husband can fix most anything and I’m pretty good at mending clothes right down to darning socks. We have not had any debt aside from mortgage in 35 years, if we can’t pay cash we can’t afford it. After 30 years of marriage we saved enough money to pay cash for our 1st new car, it’s now 10 years old and has about 145,000 miles on it and still running strong.
You can only cut so far and then you have to find a way to increase income. That we do as well and have done many things over the years. Just don’t ask me to disassemble engines and trannys for scrap metal again. I’m currently gardening for a neighbor for pin money. A number of my friends have done housecleaning to make extra money. I haven’t done that for a while and doubt I’d be willing to do it again.