Frugal Living

Today my husband credited me with keeping a roof over our heads and keeping the lights on.  This was such a surprise to me as
A.  I do not work outside the home.
B.  I sometimes feel like I’m not contributing enough.

So now I’m thinking about it and would like to share with you some of the “little” things I do.  Things that may or may not have been shared before.  These are in no other particular order other than that in which they occur to me as I type!
1.  When we buy school supplies for our children, they inevitably are required to have multiple pocket folders.  Experience taught me that the plastic ones are the way to go.  The boys are on their second and third years with the same plastic folders!
2.  I try to do all errands at one time.  I’ll go to the grocery store after taking the kids to school or before I pick them up.  We’ll go to the library after school.  All these things add up and I think I know better than anyone I know how to stretch a tank of gasoline.
3.  I do only 1 load of laundry per day, except for Saturday when I do an additional load for linens.  This is not only a money saver, but a timer saver too!
4.  Even though our kids are getting older, I still pack drinks and/or snacks for them when out of the house for any length of time.  This has saved countless requests to stop and get something or go thru the drive through!  I always take my coffee with me, so I treat them the same.
5.  So simple and for some maybe, goes without saying, but I cook.  I cook three meals a day, seven days per week.  It is quite the exception when we order pizza or go out to eat.  Now in all honesty, my husband’s work schedule dictates when we go out and usually we are home.  But it does make a difference!
6.  Saving clothes.  I know large families do this and it’s always made sense for us because we have all boys.  This past year we found another benefit in it.  Our oldest went through a phase where he was growing out of his clothes almost quicker than we could buy them.  Within the next year, he slimmed so much and grew so tall that he was able to get some of those outgrown clothes out of storage and start wearing them again.  This one thrilled me!
7.  Find a new use for something old or just move things around.  When I get the urge to start redecorating, I start moving things around.  I just finished a round of this last weekend.  It feels like everything is new and fresh.  Keeps the “buying bug” at bay!
That’s all for today.  Hope to come back to this topic in the future as I learned so much from my Mother and could probably go on and on with this!  For now, be sure and check out other FRUGAL FRIDAY tips at Life as Mom.  I’ll also be linking up with Friday Follow at Midday Escapades.

Technorati Tags: frugal,Frugal Friday,Friday Follow,money