Thread: Since times are tighter now......have you gotten more frugal?

Originally Posted by magickay

I just cut a lotion bottle open two days ago, out of curiosity -- I was surprised how much more I could scrape out of it...about 1/4 cup. That's a lot of lotion clinging to the inside of a bottle.

My MIL is 93, and lived through the depression, as well as being a military wife at one time, so she's all about frugal. But I don't think she would do the scraped food thing...

wow I'm going to have to try to cut one next time!!
I do have a thing in the shower that you can turn them upside down. Which we do for a few days before we when think they are almost empty. So they feel pretty empty when you throw them out.
I feel i'm pretty frugal. My dh is on a kick to "borrowing" napkins from places. Mostly to keep in his vehicles. He blows his nose constantly. I yell at him all the time how wastefull that is!!!
I won't reuse a baggie, just can't do it. But I don't use them much. I use tupperware so you don't even have to use a baggie hardly.
I keep cut up paper on my fridge and buy my desk for notes which we do alot.
No sense in wasting a full sheet of paper.
And I buy alot more in bulk these days. Plus use a coupon and try to hit when things are on sale as often as I can.

My hubbys granny used tea bags til no more came out. same with the coffee. She would scrape out food and use it for mulch/fertilizer. Made her own clothes. made all food from scratch and would literally freeze even 1 cup worth of leftover corn , etc. She stretched a penny to the end. She lived like she was on social security, but she had money. She had several CD's and dividends that got passed on to her kids. I got a collection of Gone with the Wind plates that I always admired.

Here's a tip to save a little money. The price of garbage backs has become extreme, like everything else. I used to work for a company and the owner's wife was a tightwad. You weren't allowed to crumple paper and put it in the trash can. You had to tear it into pieces before throwing it away instead. But, you know what? It actually is a good idea, just didn't think so back then.

Now, I tear up food boxes like cereal boxes and such before putting them in the trash and I tear up the paper before throwing it in the trash. This takes up so much less space that you wouldn't believe it, which means you use fewer trash bags.

Originally Posted by tngirl

Here's a tip to save a little money. The price of garbage backs has become extreme, like everything else. I used to work for a company and the owner's wife was a tightwad. You weren't allowed to crumple paper and put it in the trash can. You had to tear it into pieces before throwing it away instead. But, you know what? It actually is a good idea, just didn't think so back then.

Now, I tear up food boxes like cereal boxes and such before putting them in the trash and I tear up the paper before throwing it in the trash. This takes up so much less space that you wouldn't believe it, which means you use fewer trash bags.

this I have done too. We always make something as small as possible before putting it in a trashbag. Oh, and if its a couple of days before payday, and I only have one bag, then any clean trash goes in the outdoor trashcan without a bag, and we use the bag in the kitchen for stuff we wouldn't want stuck to the inside of our trashcan.

The money situation here hasn't changed any. All is the same, although, I do want to save more money now... so, we've quit gambling as much...lol, that's about it.

I have always turned the shampoo bottles upside down and used a couple times then add water to get that last little bit. We have always tore the boxes up so they didnt take up as much room. We havent really changed anything either. We have always been frugal LOL

I rewash baggies too, as long as it didn't have chicken or pork in it. I have always been frugal. We recycle our pop cans, any plastic baggie we have fron toilet paper, etc gets saved to scoop the cat box, turn my detergent bottles upside down to get the last few drops and then wash them out with water to make sure. I've always scrunched up stuff before throwing it away. My gramma taught me that way back when I was a kid and I asked her why she was stepping on the milk jug.

I knew a lady that put me to shame for being a tightwad. She would save all her aluminum margerine wrappers and freeze them. Once she had a good stack she would scrap them. She did get a lot off there, but I don't think I am that diligent.

Here is the printed article i was talking about copied and pasted
Penny-pinchers become 'neurotic' about saving more
By ANNE D'INNOCENZIO
Associated Press
Wednesday, March 11, 2009



Ed Andrieski
AP

Amy VanDeventer shows how she cuts the middle out of bottles of lotion so the pump will reach the bottom of the dispenser on Thursday at her office in south Denver.
NEW YORK — Amy Van- Deventer always has been a cheapskate. The recession is taking her to new extremes.

Even before the economy tanked, she was wearing maternity clothes from her last pregnancy, clipping coupons and using hand-me-downs to dress her daughters, ages 2 and 3. Now, she's salvaging bagel scraps left on their plates for pizza toppings and cutting lotion bottles in half so she can scrape out the last drops.

"I was already cheap," said VanDeventer, a 36-year-old mortgage loan underwriter from Broomfield, Colo. "Now I am neurotic about it."

If you thought those cheapskate friends and relatives couldn't pinch pennies any tighter, think again. The recession is making tightwads like VanDeventer cut back even more. They're going way beyond sharpening their coupon scissors, replacing already cheap store-brand fabric softener with vinegar and even making their own detergent. VanDeventer was drying her hair in front of a fan after her portable hair dryer broke — until her friends bought her a new one.

The recession is radically changing behavior among many different types of people, from the Wall Street bankers who are waltzing into Wal-Mart for the first time to buy their groceries to teens who are thumbing through the piles of status jeans at secondhand shops to save money. And experts said that such behavior could linger long after the economy recovers.

What surprises frugality bloggers is that many cheapskates such as VanDeventer haven't lost their jobs and are not in danger of losing their homes. Many have stashed a good chunk of cash away. But the economic uncertainty is catapulting them to new levels of thriftiness.

"I do it out of fear because I would rather put that money in the bank or purchase something we really need," said VanDeventer, who saves about 50 percent of her take-home pay, up from 25 percent before the recession began more than a year ago.

The trend is disturbing for merchants, who are reeling from the sharp pullback by spenders. Such extreme miserly behavior could only worsen the decline in consumer spending.

"Frugal people are now looking at more ways not to spend money," said Lynnae McCoy, who runs a blog called beingfrugal.net, which attracts seasoned penny-pinchers. In January, her site received 110,000 hits, up 30 percent from a year ago.

Elizabeth Schomburg, a credit counselor from Roscoe, Ill., is replacing store brand softener with vinegar in her laundry. The 31-year-old, who used to comb the 80 percent off sales racks, said she has stopped doing any "recreational buying."

"I am questioning every single purchase," she said.

She's also not stockpiling discounted groceries because she wants to limit how much money she puts out for each trip to the supermarket. That kind of behavior is showing up in fourth-quarter results at companies including foodmaker H.J. Heinz Co., whose sales suffered as consumers are cleaning out their cupboards before buying new items.

Jeff Yeager, author of The Ultimate Cheapskate's Roadmap to True Riches, sees a silver lining to the economic downturn.

"Whatever you do to simplify your life is a good thing," Yeager said.

A self-proclaimed cheapskate, he has spent no more than $100 over the past five years on clothing for himself and won't throw anything out until it literally falls apart.

But he's found ways to cut back even more now, such as eating more lentils — which are cheap and nutritious — and biking more to save gasoline. His mantra for buying food? Buy not what you want, but what's affordable at the time.

Unlike many big spenders during the boom years, he said he and other cheapskates are "sleeping easy" these days.

They're also getting some respect from the spenders, who even just a few months ago mocked their thrifty ways.

"My friends used to laugh at me," said Jodi Furman, referring to her obsession with 70 percent off sales and her knack for saving money with coupons.

They're not laughing now. The mother of three from Lake Worth, Fla., parlayed her knowledge into a blog that helps shoppers save money on fashionable clothing and healthy food.

"If you can't make more money, then you can spend less — and that's the equivalent of making more money," Furman said.

While she doesn't scrape pizza crumbs or make her own detergent, Furman said she's "laser-focused" when it comes to saving on groceries. She's saving 60 percent to 70 percent off her grocery bills. On a recent trip to Winn-Dixie, she scooped up $63.50 worth of groceries for $16.45. She picked up a box of TLC Cereal bars, regularly priced at $3.99, for $1 — it was on sale for $3 but she used a $2 coupon. She got a $3.99 package of Equal sweetener for free — combining a coupon with the sale price.

Many people are embracing the new challenge of squeezing the most value out of every last penny. Who knew you could make household products such as detergent? McCoy said it's not hard: mix Borax with a half bar of soap, baking soda and its relative washing soda, which cuts grease and can be found in the laundry areas of many supermarkets.

"If you have vinegar, Dawn soap and baking soda, you can pretty much make any cleaning product," McCoy said.

I admit to buying the ingredients for home made laundry soap and that's what we'll be using. $8 a month for laundry soap, as opposed to $24 for the store stuff, is way more in my budget. But I'd have done it anyway. When Holli and Matt were little I used to make my own detergent with a lye mix, and when I say make I mean I even cooked down my own tallow that the butcher gave me from the cows he processed. I used to do a lot of that for the pure pleasure of doing it.

Originally Posted by CLARKS4

We havent really changed anything either. We have always been frugal LOL

Exactly ! We have too... yup, turn the shampoo bottles upside down, and the Dawn dishwashing soap. Add a little water, and get a few more days out of it... and, tearing down stuff (breaking it down) before trashing it etc... all are very good moves. And when you do that stuff, you can kind of splurge on other stuff.