Frugal Things Every Day

Are you broke or living paycheck to paycheck? So many people seem to be today. With inflation so high which is causing the cost of everything to escalate, it is not easy for people to make ends meet.

It took President Biden( or whoever was running the show) 4 years to screw up this economy by printing and spending money constantly that we as a country do not have. Yet I hear people say that President Trump will fix this. They believe that the minute he comes into office, things will change. You can’t fix inflation that took 4 years to build at the snap of someone’s fingers. Will things get better? Yes. But it is going to take time. We have been through this before with President Carter. He was the nicest man but he screwed this country up really bad. It took 10 years to recover from his economics. So President Trump will do what he can to help the country recover but we have to do the best we can also. We can’t control the governments spending but we can control ours.

I believe that our new government will cut back expenses. But you have to cut back yours too. You have to control your budget. No one can do that for you. Whether you make $ 38,000. a year, $ 50,000. a year or $100,000. a year you can’t spend more than you bring home. Yes, there are people who make $100,000.+ who are living paycheck to paycheck. I have read or seen many stories about them.

You have to live below your means. You have to save an emergency fund for things that happen all the time. Cars break, appliances break, furnaces and A/C break, homes need maintenance, medical bills don’t get paid by insurance, taxes come due, car and homeowner’s insurances come due, etc.

These things happen to everyone. Just in the past week, Hubby had to pay up front for some expensive medical tests that he needed. The medical facility was not sure that medicare would pay on them. If medicare doesn’t pay on them, our secondary plan won’t either. We had the money because we are always adding to our savings. Just a little over a year ago, we had to put out about $6000. because our central air conditioning unit died. In December we had a custom railing installed so that I can get out on the patio. I could no longer get down the stairs without one. That was $1600. Things happen and you have to be prepared for them. We have paid our own property and school taxes every year since we bought our first house in 1969. We have never had escrow. We know these things are owed every year and we budget for them. We get our tax bills one day and pay them the next. Our car is getting old but is still going strong. But we know it won’t last forever. We save so that we can pay cash for our cars. We have been saving since day one of our marriage and that was when we only made $6,000. gross a year. Savings came ahead of everything and it always has. We pay our homeowner’s and car insurance in March when it is due. We have a yearly policy so that we pay less than if we paid twice a year. They are bundled so that we get a discount. If you haven’t checked around for cheaper insurance when your policy is expiring, do so. Going to an insurance agency will really help you. They will find you the cheapest insurance. We did that a couple of years ago and are very satisfied with the company they found us. They don’t raise our insurance much every year. Most of the raise is because we have a homeowner’s replacement policy.

But I know so many people are living way above their means. The credit card debt in this country is staggering. I read and hear about people who are now paying their credit card debt by taking out a home equity loan. The worst thing you can do is secure your credit card debt with your home. That is downright stupidity. If you can’t make the payments, the bank WILL take your home.

Certain bills HAVE to be paid every month: your mortgage, your taxes, your heat and electric, a telephone whether it be a landline or cellphone, your water bill, your garbage bill, your medical insurance, etc. You know what they are. Everyone’s are different.

Other bills can be cut! Start with your grocery bill and cut where you can. If you owe any kind of money, you should not be buying expensive rib eye steaks, prime rib, or beef tenderloins. You should be cooking from scratch because it is cheaper. Make your own breads, muffins, cakes, brownies, and pies, soups, stews, and everything else that you cook. Processed foods are expensive. Buy ground beef, pork or whole chickens, chicken thighs or legs. Chicken and beef prices are rising but these things I mention are still the cheapest. Eat beans and rice. They are full of protein and fiber. You don’t have to have a 3-4 course meal everyday. Eat oatmeal instead of eggs for breakfast. Make your own French fries, hash browns, and mashed potatoes. Cut one meal out each day. Hubby and I have only been eating two meals a day for years. If you have a stockpile, eat from it. Hubby and I are so that we can use up things so they don’t go bad. Don’t buy beverages; drink water. If you drink many cups of coffee a day, cut that in half. I now only drink 2 a day down from the 5 I used to drink. Cut out beer and alcohol. Do NOT waste any food. Eat leftovers for breakfast or the next night. Food is too expensive to throw away.

Eating out is an easy one to cut. Restaurants and take out are very expensive. If you are living paycheck to paycheck, this will save you a lot of money. You can buy a lot of groceries and make a lot of meals with the money you use to eat out.

Cut everywhere you can on your heating and electric bills. I have mentioned many things that we do. Just search saving on electric and gas bills. Start with cooking on a grill outside or picking the cheapest appliance to cook with. We use a small countertop oven. Before we owned that a toaster oven saved us a fortune. We cooked everything in it. We have snow on the ground right now so we are not cooking out. If the ground was bare, we would.

Wash your clothes in cold water. It will save on heating the water. Unless you get filthy while working, cold water and detergent will clean your clothes. Use just 3 tbsp. of detergent. More wears your machine out faster. If you have a stain, put a little detergent on that. Hang your clothes to dry outside in warm weather and in the basement in winter weather or somewhere in the house.

Go in and out of the house into the garage during cold weather. Before you open the garage door, close the door from the house. Don’t let the cold air in the house.

Check to see if there is a cheaper company who can pick up your garbage.

Use Gas Buddy to see who has the cheapest gasoline in your area. Use gasoline points when it is more economical to do so. Run all your errands once a week and fill up with gasoline when you are near the cheapest station. If you work from home, that is a great savings on gasoline.

Do not pay for entertainment if you are living paycheck to paycheck. You can’t afford it. There are many free things you can do.

Stay away from Amazon and other stores that will cause you to buy something you don’t need. If you don’t browse, you won’t see something you absolutely need that you really don’t. Don’t go shopping because you are bored.

If you have a pet, check prices just like you would on your food. Buy where it is the cheapest. Only buy your food when it is on sale. Then eat from your stockpile. If a certain meat is on sale, I will buy at least 2-3 packages. Enough to last until it goes on sale again. One exception is I buy organic ground beef on sale at Aldi’s in the three pack. I will buy 1-3 packages and then I will wait until it goes on sale again. I do the same for everything including mayonaise, ketchup, mustard, etc.

Rarely do I buy anything that is not on sale. If I need something, I will wait until it goes on sale. So check those sale flyers and see who has what on sale and then make your list. If you have to go to two stores, do it and buy more than one of the sale items in each store. Never buy anything that is not on your list. Set a weekly budget for food and stick to it. I really like when I am under my budget. For those that don’t know I cut my budget by $100. a month for 2025. My budget is $400. a month for two of us and family when they are visiting.

I have to get some things done around here. So you will learn more as I post it. If you are new here, go back and read my many posts. I have been doing this quite a while.

I just wanted to quickly tell you that I have not been on here in about a week or so because I am busy taking care of Hubby. He needs a knee replacement but the surgeon’s schedule is months out. He is in so much pain, I really have to help him with everything. The doctor put him on a large dose of Advil in the morning. It helps for about 4 hours but then he has to wait until bedtime. He is using a cane but he can’t carry anything. So I am doing everything including shoveling the walk and porch. I wish the snow would stop. It has been snowing 2 and 1/2 weeks here. Just a few inches at a time but it is an annoyance every day. The only place I have been is driving Hubby to Doctor’s appointments. April or May can’t come soon enough for him and me. Also Eloise is sensing that something is wrong so she is stressed. I have been trying to write this for many hours today but I keep having to get up to get something for Hubby or to play with Eloise.

I am off to shovel again, bring the garbage and recyclable cans into the garage now that the garbage men came, and get the mail.

I am hoping I can find the time to write posts but please excuse me if I am not on here every day.

1. Haircuts every 4 weeks – I am only paying for one every 8 weeks and I won’t go unless I have a discount coupon and can get my 8th haircut free. I use Great Clips.
2. For those who are new here, I don’t color my hair. I let it grow out to it’s natural white and I am embracing it.
3. Books – I am rereading all the ones we have here in the house. I also save gasoline and time by borrowing digital books through my library.
4. No home goods or kitchen gadgets. We have plenty. Actually too much and I will be weeding them out. The exception is if something breaks like a vacuum cleaner or an appliance. Then I would replace them if need be.
5. No facial lotions. Soap and water works extremely well.
6. No lottery tickets- even when the pot gets big. My chances of winning are slim to none.
7. We will not be going to a movie theater. There is plenty to watch through apps.We have just one paid app. It is much cheaper than buying tickets. We also can make our own air popped popcorn.
8. I was looking at buying whiteboard contact paper to put on the chest freezer to write my inventory. It seems to be the latest trend. However, my method of keeping and updating in a $ .25 notebook works just fine. I keep it on top of the freezer to mark off anything I use up or put in it. So no spending on the contact paper for me.
9. I will not be purchasing paper towels when my one package is gone. I have plenty of rags and microfiber cloths to use and wash. I save my bacon grease to cook with. Then scrape the last bits in the frypan into a saved jar to dispose of when it is full.
10. I will not be buying any toilet paper this year. We have plenty and don’t use much because we have a bidet.
11. No junk food except tortilla chips which we use for taco bowls, taco salads, and nachos, etc. or potato chips to use at a meal or to crush for a casserole topping.
12. No baked goods-They will all be made at home.
13. A particular drug that the doctor prescribes for me. He gives me samples once in a while so I have well over a year’s worth now.
14. No organizing items – I have more than plenty.
15. No store bought cleaners except soaps. I have plenty to last me for the year. When I run out I will make all of my own. I already make some of them.
16. No bags to scoop cat litter into. I have plenty for this year. I saved the plastic bags from groceries before our Governor banned them. I have a huge carton full of them. If by chance, I run out of those, I have been saving Walmart and Amazon envelopes to use.
17. No accessories for my outfits. I have plenty of purses, wallets, jewelry, etc. I dress simply.
18. No more toys for Eloise. I just replaced her tweety bird because the battery would not hold a charge anymore and also got her a similar duck because she loves them. But if these batteries don’t last longer than 4 months, I am not doing it again. She has so many toys that I am tripping over them. I am putting most of them in a box and will just pull out a few at a time for her to play with.
19. No ziploc bags or food saver bags. I have more than plenty to use up.
20. Bottled water – I now have put up enough water from my tap for an emergency.
21. Plastic containers to keep food in. I threw it all out last year and replaced it with glass containers and mason jars. Plastic leaches into your food.
22. Seasonal Decor – I have cleaned out most of it and donated it. We kept our tree and lights and decorations for it, mangers, and wreaths and candles for our windows. That is it and there will be no more.
23. Greeting cards – We have plenty and when we run out we have plenty of blank cards and envelopes.
24. No new candles- Use up what I have.
25. No paid entertainment beside cable and one app that I pay for.

This will be our low spend year. I will aim for one or two no spend months as we go along. January will not be a no spend. The reason is that there are a lot of meat sales in that month. I don’t want to miss out on any of those great prices.

Since we are on the topic of food, I have cut our grocery budget back from $ 500. a month to $ 400. a month for 2025 for the two of us and it will also cover any company that we will feed. This connects with our Use It Up strategy. I will be very mindful of what we buy by always buying on sale and always checking our pantries, freezers, and refrigerator first. I will look for markdowns and reduced price items anytime I am near a market of any kind. If I run an errand or go to an appointment and there is a market on my route, I will stop in for a few minutes and just scour the store for those things.

We will try to cut back our utility costs which I have talked about in prior blog posts. We will also cut back the amount of water we use because those rates have gone up. We will be mindful everyday of how we are using water so that we don’t waste it. Eloise loves to drink out of our bathroom taps. But I felt we were wasting water while she was drinking. So we purchased her a fountain that was on clearance for $20. It recycles the water and we only have to fill it up every 3-4 days. It runs on a rechargeable battery so we don’t use a lot of electricity. Eloise starts the fountain running when she steps in front of it. Then when she is done it stops running. Thinking out of the box will be another of my mantras this year and I will share it all with you.

Every area of what we spend on will be scrutinized to see where we can save. What we spend on will be different than what you spend on. We each have our priorities. For example, we do spend on Cable TV. Hubby enjoys it so that will not be cut anytime soon. If it was up to me, I would cancel it because I watch it rarely. When I have some downtime, I watch You Tube to learn something new. That is so much more important to me.

An example of learning something new happened while my son was here a few days ago. We went out to breakfast the morning that he was leaving. We had put our kitten in her cage but his dog was loose in the house. He is an old dog but such a sweetie. I was the first to walk through our great room to go let Eloise out of her cage. I spotted quite a bit of blood on my off white carpeting. Well we soon figured out that the dog had broke a nail. I told my son I would get some cold water and a cloth. He said, “Mom do you have any hydrogen peroxide?” I said yes. He said get that and a cloth. He blotted it with that and I was shocked at how fast that removed the blood from my carpet. There is not even a trace that it was ever there. Being in the medical field for about 40 years, he knew about this. Hydrogen peroxide breaks down protein in the blood because of the oxygen in it. He told me it works on blood that has been dried on also. He told me if you get blood on clothing just put a bit on the spot and then wash the clothing. In all of my years and I am pretty old, I never knew this. So I learned something new that day! Thanks son!

I am frugal not cheap. For example, when I realized that the USDA had put some restrictions on ranchers selling their steers to meat processing plants recently which will make a severe beef shortage, I purchased two whole prime beef tenderloins and had them cut into 1 and 1/2 inch filet mignon portions. They were very expensive but it is something that we love. Knowing that they are going to cost more in the future had me stock up. We will be eating two of them and a tossed salad to ring in the New Year tonight. We will also be enjoying a bottle of champagne with our meal. The bottle is 4 years old so we will use it up. Every year we would tell ourselves that we would drink it and we would always go to bed early. I think tonight is when we will use it up.

Happy New Year’s Eve to you all!