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Xantippe
Guest
You might try doing searches for “frugal urban” and “frugal single” (even if you’re not actually urban at the moment). Those both seem to turn up a lot of stuff–not sure how good!
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MJJean
Guest
For those that feed their kitties and doggies raw, place an ad looking for meat on Craigslist right before hunting season. Hunters clearing out what they didn’t use and hunters getting rid of the parts humans don’t eat will give it all away happily.
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DarkLight
Guest
A lot of them seem aimed more at the just coming out of college crowd that doesn’t know how to balance a budget. I’m looking for a little more than the “don’t eat out a lot and don’t buy a fancy car” that looking for “frugal single” turned up.
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pianistclare
Guest
Honestly, a good cookbook that deals with simple meals fro one or two, and a book that help you buy groceries with multiple recipes in mind would do wonders. Eating out is a big loos of $$$, and if you are reasonably adept in the kitchen you can eat very well, and use your ingredients and leftovers wisely.
Beyond that, shop at discount stores for clothes (TJ Max, Ross, Marshalls) and get prescriptions and household cleaners and such at Wal-Mart.
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DarkLight
Guest
I’m really looking for something that goes beyond the very basics like this.
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pianistclare
Guest
Well, what do you feel you waste money on then?
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DarkLight
Guest
I’m looking to save money on necessities like utilities, laundry, etc., rather than cut “extras.” I’m also in desperate need of a few things, some more dishes for cooking, good shoe inserts so my feet don’t hurt so badly (not the $10-$20 kind, those don’t help), that sort of thing, that can be rather expensive.
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Xantippe
Guest
It may be that what you’re looking for doesn’t exist, because what you need is advice very specific to your environment. Example: psssst, there are often nice spreads after academic talks on campus. Also, a lot of campus events tend to involve free pizza. Or, if you know to show up at a campus Starbucks just before closing on a day before a major break starts, you can wind up with as many pastries as you deem it decent to take. Or, the nice grocery store gives away sushi samples most Saturdays. Or, Panera’s will sell you 13 huge cheesy bagels that are each big enough for lunch for $6.99 on Tuesdays (I go there religiously on Tuesdays and freeze them for use throughout the week). Or Professor So-and-so is going to be in Rome all spring and needs a housesitter for four months. Or Guitar Center offers free beginner group music classes on many Saturday mornings. Or, you need furniture and it just so happens that the undergraduates always dump a lot of stuff at the end of term. Or, there’s a fig tree in the yard of the neighboring deserted yard, and it’s going to make a nasty mess if it drops figs all over the sidewalk because nobody picks them…Or you know somebody that gets a CSA box, and they just got 30 pounds of sweet potatoes that there’s no way they can use.
There’s a lot of stuff that is very locally specific, or very specific to your personal needs, personal circle and interests. Once you settle in to a particular area, keep your eyes open, make friends and talk to people, you’ll find that you have more and more local knowledge and know-how and free things just magically appear. (I have that happen fairly frequently with children’s clothing.)
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Xantippe
Guest
Some end-of-term scavenging near a college campus could turn up some nice pans. Also, the free section on Craigslist. But your transportation is poor…
The good shoe inserts may need to wait until you have some real cash money and/or better insurance. I forget how much we were supposed to pay for my orthotics that I had to have a plaster mold of my feet done for at the podiatrist’s office, but it was at least $300. Oh, and bad news–it meant needing to get bigger shoes to fit both my feet and the orthotics, so even if your orthotics were free, they might be unwearable with your existing shoes.
You may just need to wait until your cash flow and/or transportation are better.
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Xantippe
Guest
I once talked to a lady in residence on campus that said that our local undergraduates would sometimes just dump flat screen TVs at the end of term…
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DarkLight
Guest
I’ve been eyeing the dr. scholl’s semi-custom orthotics. They’re about $50 a pair, and they come with a money-back guarantee. I doubt insurance will cover anything - I don’t think there’s anything actually wrong with my feet. Retail is hard on your body like that. Definitely worth the money if they work and last - especially since I’m finding I’m paying more for other stuff just so I can get off my feet after work. Need to find out how long the money-back guarantee goes for though.
Honestly, a good review of cleaning chemicals and what’s the cheapest would be nice. I’ve not found the homemade solutions handle mold very well. Also good resources on keeping apartments at the right temperature without spending a fortune on utilities would be nice.
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Xantippe
Guest
In climates where air conditioning is a major expense (as it is where we live), incandescent bulbs are a problem during the summer. They burn very hot, increasing the load on the AC. We changed our kitchen bulbs to the new LEDs and I’ve been very pleased at how cool the kitchen is this summer–previously it was like being under a restaurant heat lamp. (LEDs are more expensive, but the internet says that they last 50 times longer than incandescents and 8-10 times longer than compact fluorescents.)
This time of year, I also try to do laundry either in the morning or late at night to reduce the load on our AC. (Our outdoor temperatures are about to hit highs of 100 degrees, and filling the house with hot moist air puts yet more of a burden on the air conditioning.)
A lot of this stuff would be specific to your area and domestic set up. For instance, I’ve seen people praise swamp coolers without mentioning that they work best in high heat, low humidity environments. Add high humidity, and it won’t work so well.
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Evaporative_cooler
There’s a funny/sad bit in the documentary “No Impact Man” where the NYC apartment-dwelling couple that’s trying to live without refrigeration tries to keep the baby’s milk fresh in an evaporative cooler. Only problem, the humidity is too high in NYC, so the baby’s milk goes bad.
youtube.com/watch?v=Z9Ctt7FGFBo
Really good movie, by the way! (Probably some bad language–they’re Manhattanites.)
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Zzyzx_Road
Guest
Regarding LED bulbs, if the cost is an obstacle, remember you can always take them with you when you move. A friend kept all his old incandescent bulbs in a box after replacing them with LED’s with that in mind.
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pensmama87
Guest
That’s a good idea!
I have just been replacing mine as they burn out. Most of mine are the compact fluorescent, but I did decide to go for the LED the last time I had a few burn out (it usually takes a couple for me to head on over to the store to replace them…
) and if they last as long as they say they do, then definitely worth it (these said 20+ years, and our typical use is under what’s listed on the package). Plus the light is so much nicer than the fluorescent bulbs.We have a very old medicine cabinet in our 1/2 bath that had two lights on it with really strange bulbs I’ve never seen anywhere else. I don’t like the medicine cabinet anyway, but one of the bulbs just went out. I am trying to figure out if we would be able to just go ahead and start redoing that bathroom anyway (by replacing the cabinet). The plan was for DH and I to redo it ourselves since there is no major plumbing involved (just attaching new fixtures), and he has a friend who is an electrician who could wire new lights for us (and we would pay him to do that).
But do I really want to sign on to a new project with baby due in 2ish months? I might just leave the lights half on for the next year.
(Nobody uses that bathroom but the two of us.)
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maryjk
Guest
Sorry, but I have to laugh at this.That’s a good idea!
I have just been replacing mine as they burn out. Most of mine are the compact fluorescent, but I did decide to go for the LED the last time I had a few burn out (it usually takes a couple for me to head on over to the store to replace them…
We’ve lived in our house for fewer than 15 years. And we’ve had to replace LED’s a few times. They don’t last anywhere near 20 years.
For us, cost wise, they just aren’t worth it.
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pensmama87
Guest
I’ve found for other types of bulbs it’s accurate in terms of number of hours. Most packages state something like assumed use is 3 hours per day. We have a couple that are more than that, but most are used much less than that.
So I guess we’ll see in a few years. At any rate I still much prefer the light to fluorescents. LEDs were about 1.5x the cost of fluorescents the last time I bought them (of course I waited for a sale, haha.)
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Xantippe
Guest
Yes!
And it’s not necessary to replace every single bulb with LEDs–just doing the one or two rooms where the lights are practically always on can reduce the amount of unwanted heat being produced.
I’ve also had concerns about the durability of LEDs (like other people, we found that CFLs were not nearly as durable as advertised) but so far, so good.
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Xantippe
Guest
We accidentally bought the “daylight” LEDs rather than the “soft white.” “Daylight” is kind of harsh, but my husband’s plan is to rotate those out to other rooms where they won’t be used as much and install “soft white” in primary living areas.
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CradleJourney
Guest
BTDT, would have the t-shirt if I could afford it
What worked for me:
- Took three tries but changing to the “right” shoe for me did wonders. Still have to buy plantar fasciitis inserts (took four tries to find the right ones) but the difference is amazing.
- Ice and stretching have been my friends. Freezing a water bottle and using it to roll my foot over during breaks and stretching at home before and after every shift as well as icing then, have also contributed to becoming relatively pain free.
- Bleach water recipes do a good job on my mold issues here - though I don’t know about other variations of mold in other areas.
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CradleJourney
Guest
Our CFL’s have not lasted very long at all - usually half the life of an incadescent bulb. But we also have older wiring with micro power fluctuations that happen periodically. Not enough to cause harm to our appliances, but I suspect the cfl’s are more sensitive to it and that might be the reason for their limited lifespans.
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