<p>Be smart with the pennies and you’ll have lots of $$$ when you want them! </p>
<p>We like to camp at places where we can set up for a few days and relax – preferably with a nearby lake and beach. The place we go sells ice cream bars for a quarter, too – so it works for us! DS2 makes beef bourgoinoine (SP?) in a dutch oven, we make s’mores every night, and our dog basks in the sun. Camping stinks when it’s raining, I’ll concede that. We woke up to snow in August in Lake Louise one year, and it was 29.6 degrees at Yellowstone another August morning (we broke out the meat thermometer to check).</p>
<p>On the other hand, waking up to a gorgeous sunrise on the beach in Oregon or CA, or watching a sunset over the Rockies has its own attraction, too. </p>
<p>Camping overseas is just too difficult these days – too many limits on size and weight of gear, and too many things we couldn’t take on a plane and would have to procure once there. When we lived in Europe when I was a kid (Army brat), camping was the ONLY way to haul a family of seven around to see the world.</p>
<p>For 25 years, our only ‘vacations’ have been to visit my mom or my H’s mom (8 hours drive away) and stay in the beds we grew up in. The big relief was to get help with the kids for a few days, well worth it.</p>
<p>More recently, we began house-swapping on Craigslist, so we were able to spend a week in a Manhattan apartment for $0. Living upstate, and near Niagara Falls, a suburban house has appeal to a young family. We had our frugality in common, and everybody asks this so I’ll tell you: they left the house even cleaner than we left it. </p>
<p>We adopt our pets from the SPCA. I know that’s not unusual, but still it’s a good way to go.</p>
<p>We never bought our kids any game-boys or video game thingies, although they did so when they left home, but on their nickel. We bought computers early on.</p>
<p>I agree, I love you people!!! I was just thinking on yesterday how I missed having AOL because they have a tightwads message board, here I am today, Tightwadding with the CC crew!</p>
<p>When my son was younger, I used a tip from AOL Tightwad message board to use cloth napkins instead of throwaways. I found some very inexpensive ones marked down and loaded up on them. Friends thought I was crazy and said that they could never do that, but I marched on. It worked for me!</p>
<p>I have camped at the Maroon Bells in Colorado, Yosemite, and on the beach in Mexico. Sorry but I like a warm comfy bed, hot shower in my room and room service when I want it. I don’t want to cook, worry about wild animals, or not have a Starbucks within one block.</p>
<p>I love to camp, as long as I can sleep in the queen bed in the back of our RV.</p>
<p>Guess that fails the frugal test…</p>
<p>Some things I am frugal about, somethings not.</p>
<p>We have lived in the same house for almost 20 years and pretty much have no mortgage. No credit card debt. Cars paid for. Kids will graduate with no college debt.</p>
<p>But I do spend on what I like, especially computers and home electronics. I use bargain sites, rebates and generally buy a step or two down from the flagship models.</p>
<p>Not a coupon clipper or plastic bag washer, but I do reuse plastic silverware and don’t buy high end fashion clothing…</p>
<p>I have been lusting over a nice RV for a couple of years but the nice ones are easily over $100k and that buys a boatload of nice hotel nights. Then there is the cost of fuel etc. Unless there are some other benefits I don’t know about I am going to keep it in the dreams file. The only justification I can think of is living in it for a few months a year like a second home–that depreciates–but you can have it in Arizona one year and Key West the next.</p>
<p>We got ten years of fun from an RV that cost less than half the numbers you are talking. Stayed at Yosemite, Yellowstone, North Rim of the Grand Canyon, Mount Rushmore, the Badlands, all from an East Coast base. Kept the kids seperate and happy while they were young, with a table for art and games and a TV with videos.</p>
<p>Also relocated to WA state for six months on business in it.</p>
<p>All in all, we got our money’s worth from it.</p>
<p>Oh my G. Here’s a thread after my heart! I , hang my wash out. No undies just all the big things like sheets and shirts and blankets. All the time!</p>
<p>I turn off lights! How about that!</p>
<p>I make lunches! And dinners, too!</p>
<p>I use glass containers for storage! They work well! And I store leftovers and actually EAT THEM!</p>
<p>I shop sales and clearance and garage sales and thrift! I still do this, 2 boys in college right now. Gotta make an effort!</p>
<p>@jym626 Well that all depends see, I might pursue happiness in college, which will probably make me end up with a history major or something, which equals no money. But sure thing lol</p>
<p>What did you guys do be frugal while in college?</p>
<p>I wish I had a clothesline…I miss hanging out clothes! That’s my favorite.</p>
<p>Love leftovers and doggy bags too. Combining trips saves gas. And my dislike of grocery shopping cuts down on impulse buying. Staying busy cuts down on time to shop, period. And I do my own nails.</p>
<p>frugal in college? We highlighted each other’s hair in the bathroom. (we all ended up looking like we had tiger stripes. Bad idea. Some things are worth the money) We dressed simply in jeans and turtlenecks, but back then it was easy to be cheap with clothes because it was the hippy time. We never went out for dinner because our college was in the middle of nowhere. When we got to the big city after college we went to those buffet things where you buy one glass of wine and eat your din at the free buffet.</p>
<p>How’s this for frugal in graduate school? My entire food budget for the week was $15. I budgeted $60 a month for food, and I pretty much stuck to that exactly. Walked everywhere since I couldn’t even afford the bus. Lights off, heat down (my roommate and I only had the oil tank filled once a winter)…no entertainment budget, but there were lots of free concerts and movies.</p>
<p>I don’t regret that time. It made me quite resourceful, and I am still thriftier than 99% of the people I know in our station in life.</p>
<p>My only concern is that my children have not learned my level of thriftiness, and think nothing of buying $2 bottles of water (what? Fill up an old bottle from the faucet at home!) or $3 coffees (ever heard of Mr. Coffee?). We’ll see how they do when they have to manage their own money, and not just their “fun money”. Some of us need experience to be the teacher.</p>
<p>I laughed when i read this thread.
sounds like the foxworthy jokes, you know your frugal when you…</p>
<p>never buy anything not on sale. If it isn’t on sale, i tell the clerk i dont’ buy things unless they are on sale and i immediately get 10% OFF …9/10 OF THE TIME.</p>
<p>Nail salons are so plentiful, I ask them going in if they have a coupon or if they accept other coupons…they nearly tackle me to not let me leave… immediately $5 off at least. </p>
<p>I don’t skimp on : vacations ( but get sale prices for air), college education (but i am an expert on financial aid and we did select schools with good merit and need based aid) …</p>
<p>well I only went to community college- and that was after I was married and had a child- so I saved a lot of money that way :)</p>
<p>My D tells me stories not only about people who cut each others hair, but of kids who pierce themselves! ( of course- my younger D did that when she was 6- I don’t think she cared about the money though)
She also found a friend who was the same size roughly, so they doubled their wardrobe.</p>
<p>We do have a clothesline, but in Seattle, you better remember to keep your eye on the sky,cause your almost dry clothes can end up wetter than when you hung them up!</p>
<p>Rather than buying standard issue grad announcements through the high school, I had a local craftswoman design and print S2’s. Not only were they better looking and more personal (our wording and “architect” font for our arch engineer), they were less expensive and I only had to buy the number I needed.</p>
<p>When S1’s school sent an offer for finals care packages I saved their card (“While you are thinking about finals . . . someone is thinking about you”) and stuck it in with my homemade goodies. :)</p>