<p>I’m with “Eagle.” I can live on a small food budget. In the end, it makes you well. That works wonders. Nothing processed, really. My car, it’s old, 22 years, but it works beautifully and when I get home I am going to buy a new Ford. I have never owned a brand new car. i think I deserve one now. I know I do. And I will pay cash.</p>
<p>I think extreme frugality in many ways is the flip side of hoarding.</p>
<p>I don’t see any indication that any on this thread are mentally ill, do you?</p>
<p>I only use half of one store-brand dryer sheet with each load of laundry. </p>
<p>Generic, generic, generic. </p>
<p>For budgeting ease (not necessarily frugality’s sake), we pay monthly on car insurance and swear by the ease of even payments on the utilities. My in-laws are always complainging about the months when the car insurance premium and the whopper gas/electric bill come due at the same time. Umm, it doesn’t HAVE to be that way. Just call 'em up and ask for flat monthly bills. Duh.</p>
<p>I hope not, but then if we are mentally ill, well, this too will pass. 
For furniture, crates will do to get going. It does work.</p>
<p>I found most of the food savings are small potatos compare to Energy Savings, so I kept the house at 62 degrees in the winter and never turn on the air conditioning, we use the ceiling fans. In california, it seems doable.</p>
<p>I have plenty of ski jackets…:)</p>
<p>I try to listen to my ancestors. If that is crazy, well so be it. We are all so lucky to live as we do now. I get down on my knees most days.</p>
<p>I go around the house and turn off lights that other family members leave on after they’ve left the room.</p>
<p>Pay off the balance on credit cards every month, saving the interest payments,</p>
<p>I drive cars until they drop. My current daily-use car has >250,000 miles on it. And we save up to eventually buy a new car rather than get a car loan - no interest payments.</p>
<p>I don’t buy a lot of clothes. Just enough to look decent for most occasions and replace old ones when they wear out. For the same reason I avoid real trendy or highly fashionable clothes. They may look great today but they’ll look ridiculously out of style long before they wear out.</p>
<p>I buy things like vitamins and over the counter drugs in large quantities from either Walmart or on-line. Much cheaper than buying from a supermarket or drug store.</p>
<p>I use our prescription plan’s mail order service for routine or long-term prescription drugs.</p>
<p>I shop around and buy gasoline that is even a few cents cheaper than the others. </p>
<p>I don’t cultivate expensive unnecessary tastes, hobbies, and toys. No boat. No ATV. No huge screen TV. No back yard pool. No motorcycle, No HBO. No MLB or NFL season tickets.</p>
<p>Bought our house in a somewhat less expensive/exclusive zip code than we probably could have afforded. Didn’t keep trading up or refinancing our house to take money out. We refied twice - once to get lower interest and once to cut it to a 15 year mortgage. The mortgage is now PAID OFF. Which came as nice boost just as D2 was starting college. By being cautious with real estate debt, the whole housing crisis has passed me by.</p>
<p>We walk to the grocery/hardware store except for big trips
I do pay for gym membership but it is a very basic gym, no pool no squash courts.
I cut the hair in the family- even D’s after she had to have me fix it when she got a sloppy haircut. ( I let my license lapse though)
H fixes our plumbing & appliances.
We grow some of our own food- a little more every year.
We ( sadly) do not have any pets anymore- although I am getting close to getting one ( or three), but since our cats lived into their 20’s and our lab till she was 16- it is a big commitment.</p>
<p>We go grocery shopping once a month (except for milk and bread). This has lead to us doing “cabinet cooking”. Basically, we work on trimming down the canned goods, dry goods toward the end of the month. DH and DS make fun of my end of month casseroles, but I don’t need to go get ingredients. We then restock with coupons for the cabinets every few months.</p>
<p>
Most of what is on here is smart, IMO, rather than frugal. But then, my definition of frugal is not the strict dictionary definition, for me it has negative connotations.</p>
<p>Example:</p>
<p>smart - not buying $150 Air Jordans, getting a cheap(er) pair of sneakers instead</p>
<p>frugal - putting a piece of cardboard in your sneaker after you wear a hole in the bottom, instead of buying a new pair, even though you can afford a new pair</p>
<p>
This is borderline to me, and gross to boot.</p>
<p>
This is definitely over the line. Is he bringing home dinner from the dumpster too? Ick.</p>
<p>
This is another aspect of “frugality” I don’t like - people who judge you based on how you spend your money in comparison to themselves.</p>
<p>There are indeed all sorts of ways to be frugal, especially when you have no choice. In my family, cutting or tearing paper napkins in half was a routine for years. Now I would consider that type of behavior a silly waste of time. I go to Costco and buy the jumbo pack of napkins for next to nothing and spend my time on better things. As I get older I see even more silly frugal behaviors. Now I have been visiting in the Pacific Northwest- first Portland and now the San Francisco suburbs. The relatives are all nuts about garbage, trash, and recycleables. They drive the Lexus to the Whole Foods to recycle their wine bottles corks. Makes me wonder what anyone could possibility do with recycled corks. Are “corkboards” actually made out of corks anymore? How many Lexus loads would it take to make up for the gas and wear and tear on the car? Sorry but my poor life only has so much time left and dealing with garbage, trash, recycleables, or whatever else you want to call it is just not something which interests me. I wonder how much soap, water and energy costs go into washing the garbage so it can be recycled. For years we sorted our garbage and then found out it was all going to the landfill because it was way more expensive to recycle than to discard. Afterwards they built a big plant to recycle. Of course, the costs got passed on to the households. It also turned out that all the carefully presorted garbage was resorted at the plant and all the work done by the households was wasted. No one wanted to end the presorting because it helped focus people on being green. I know I am getting old because that just sounds like gross foolishness to me.</p>
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<p>This is another aspect of “frugality” I don’t like - people who judge you based on how you spend your money in comparison to themselves.<<</p>
<p>Who is judging anybody? When I wrote “unnecessary” I meant unnecessary to me. Your mileage may certainly vary. If a say owning a boat is a necessity to you, well knock yourself out. It’s your money. </p>
<p>Plus, there are plenty of other ways in which I’m sure others might judge me to be very unnecessarily extravagant - starting with paying for Ivy League educations for my kids for example. </p>
<p>We all have our own priorities and ways to save money, or not. It’s all good.</p>
<p>“For years we sorted our garbage and then found out it was all going to the landfill because it was way more expensive to recycle than to discard.”</p>
<p>Isn’t that sad. I know of recycling in Arkansas that beats them all. Depends on your community.</p>
<p>I don’t care about what anyone thinks. I care about my children’s children.</p>
<p>I live frugally by not buying stuff that I do not need. I am sick to death of “stuff”. Having an open floor plan and a modern house with a clutter free aesthetic keeps me honest.
I do however still spend money on travel which for me is something that keeps me sane. Even then…I tend to use frequent flyer miles, stay in apartments while abroad and our domestic trips frequently involve camping in national or state parks. It started out as frugality, but now that’s the way we prefer to roll. Expensive hotels are a little too isolated and when we visit another country, we REALLY want to experience the country…not the fancy lobby of the Ritz Carlton or the generic deck of a cruise ship. If you enjoy that, well that’s just fine. I can definately see the advantages of a five star hotel over a pup tent.</p>
<p>I work on energy efficiency from a capital perspective but I don’t go out of my way to save energy in small amounts. So I will spend money to replace devices and appliances that are energy hogs but won’t necessarily turn off a light if I’m going to be back in the room shortly.</p>
<p>Part of this is owning a lot of shares in energy companies that pay a lot in dividends.</p>
<p>I also have a few hobbies that aren’t grossly expensive but I wouldn’t call them cheap either.</p>
<p>I brew my own coffee and use a travel mug. Starbucks and D Donuts are a TREAT…not a daily outing. </p>
<p>We cook most food from scratch…don’t use many “prepared foods”. </p>
<p>Love my clothing finds…right Packmom?</p>
<p>Recent garage sale purchase was a Ralph Lauren overcoat (wool) and a matching Ralph Lauren 2 piece suit, each $1. Biggest expense was dry-cleaning, no alterations needed…already same size son needed.</p>
<p>Having oldest daughter, many moons ago, attend CC while in high school in CA and tuition and books were covered since she was still a high school student. She transferred in over 60 units she used for her degree. Best coupon ever! Her high grades earned a scholie for the remaining 2 years which she completed in 1.5. Done.</p>
<p>I do use coupons matched up on sale days and use them on double and triple coupon days. Saves a ton. Buy in bulk when cheaper than purchased with coupons. Have free Amazon prime from students’ accounts, second year now. Ship anywhere I need to, 5 kiddos, ship all over.</p>
<p>Kiddo in med school managed to get 3 undergrad degrees (debt free + scholies) and received a scholie for med school as well. Pretty happy about that one!</p>
<p>I have all CFL’s, low flow water, HE washer and dryer, keep it 55 in winter, 85 in the summer…doesn’t get too much lower or higher so it kicks on occasionally. And the vacations were moving kids in and out of college and grad school. I had never been to any of their locales so it is always new and exciting for me. I get to explore libraries, and museums, theater at their schools so it’s fun for me…even though I have to work moving them all in.</p>
<p>We eat out if it’s special or I have a great Groupon/coupon. Fun planning it and looking forward to it. And I do some of the bartering as well for things I can’t do around the house. Babysitting, tutoring whatever I can do for what I need to have done.</p>
<p>Most of our furniture is from Craig’s List/garage/yard sales. We live in the furniture capital of the US so everything is made right here and many times in pristine condition. Just picked up 2 Steve Madden for Basset comfy chairs, great condition $12 each.</p>
<p>Furnished son’s entire 1350 sq ft. apt from Craig’s List, and it looks fab. Painted it with $5 Oops paint from Home Depot and lined linen drapes 180X 84 (patio) for $20 from Big Lots. Had a 20% off coupon as well.</p>
<p>On Sunday Dillards has 50% off clearance prices. Usually have nice purses/wallets/accessories/clothes to resell on ebay and craig’s list. Kiddos have used this to pay for their books and other expenses. They buy all their books used and often times previous editions after talking to their profs to check to see if its ok.</p>
<p>The list goes on and on and on…don’t like coffee, soda, wine, don’t smoke or wear makeup/get my hair done or nails, I just mess everything up anyways. Still have paint in my hair from painting the door…and tried for weeks to get the paint off my legs after spilling son’s apt paint on me (oil based for trim) what a mess! Have an old truck, 20+ that spilled oil and rust on me, I of course, did not do that, truck did.</p>
<p>Kat</p>
<p>OK…how many of you have a “closet shelf”? I’ll bet a bunch of you. Mine has items on it that you just might need bought on clearance at the end of the season. I have some darling baby clothes from Kohls and Old Navy for those baby showers…and I already have my stocking stuffers for NEXT Christmas…purchased this week. In addition, if I see something on sale for my kids or husband, I’ll get it and stash it there for the next birthday or holiday. </p>
<p>I love going to Big Lots when it’s 90% off…I’ve gotten some really nice holiday things for gifts there.</p>
<p>^ nope. I can’t do that. My house is small and Space=Money. If I am not going to use it within the next few months, I do not buy it.</p>
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<p>I buy most clothes for our family this way. I have no problem buying heavy sweaters and jackets whenever I see them at a fantastic price, sometimes in March, and sometimes in July. It is the only way that I purchase these items.</p>
<p>I also have bought items like a centerpiece for our Thanksgiving Day table like this. Then I will use it for years. I just box it and put it away for the following year. I won’t just buy it for one year! Years ago I bought gorgeous cloth napkins for the holidays and they cost me pennies for each one, at a no-name discount store. I was not planning to buy them, but I stumbled upon them and knew that I would be thrilled to use them the folllowing fall, and I knew that I would not even pay 1/2 price to have them (orig. label stated $4/napkin and the tag showed it was sold at one time at name home goods chain store).</p>