Five years ago, I answered the challenge from fellow blogger, Mavis Butterfield of 100 Dollars a Month, to share ways my family saves money without sacrificing our quality of life.
I don't know whether my family would agree or not, but I just think that we have had an amazing life, and frankly, I don't think my children have ever wanted for anything, in spite of the fact that, we are pretty frugal.
Most of the things in the article are things we still do, and in many ways, we've even gone further down the path of frugality than where we were when I wrote this article. For instance, I still don't purchase commercial cleaners, but I also learned to make soap. So, the savings there is even greater, because I don't need to purchase those expensive Dr. Bonner's products anymore.
Here's the article from 2016, which was posted on Mavis' blog.
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Like
more than two-thirds of Americans, I didn’t grow up on a farm. Both
of my parents did, and like most people of their generation, they
hoped to give me and my sisters a better life, which, for them, meant
one where I would go to college so that I could get a good job with
which I would earn enough money to support a middle class, suburban
lifestyle with the goal being that I wouldn’t have to struggle or
work as hard as they and their parents did.
Like
many people in my generation, however, I grew up feeling something
was missing in my life, and while my parents had worked very hard to
get me off the farm, I wanted nothing more than to get back on it.
Unfortunately, because in my early adulthood, I’d followed the
standard American Dream (college, a career, a house, cars, kids, and
pets, i.e. loans, mortgage, credit cards and debt-up-to-my-eyeballs),
I was kind of stuck with a mortgage and a lifestyle that I just
couldn’t, easily, walk away from.
So,
I took Teddy Roosevelt’s sage advice, and I started doing what I
could with what I had where I am. At first, part of my motivation was
to make my life more eco-friendly, but ultimately, my goal was to
live more simply, which would translate to needing make less money,
which would translate into not needing to struggle so hard in a job I
hated (in William Wallace’s words, FREEDOM!). In short, most of our
lifestyle changes were all about saving dough to get us out of debt
so that we could quit working for “the man” and focus on doing
what we loved.
To
be honest, most of the time we don’t feel like we’re saving any
money. Most of the time, it feels like we’re right on the edge, and
so I don’t, often, feel like I have any great how-to advice when it
comes to pinching pennies, but when I read articles on money-saving
tips, I realize that my family also does a lot of the things that
other people do, and in some ways, we go a step beyond. So, I thought
I would give it a shot.
As
an intro, I live on a quarter acre suburban lot in southern Maine. I
share my life with my ever-patient husband, who works full-time as an
Engineer in Maine’s small, but growing, technology industry. He
would rather be sitting by our fire pit, carving chess pieces and
boiling maple sap to syrup, or walking through the woods hunting
mushrooms. We have five children, two adults who have kids of their
own, and three younger daughters, who’ve made this lifestyle
transition with us, mostly happily. We share our small home with four
big dogs, three cats, seven rabbits, and a flock of suburban
chickens, who keep us supplied in eggs and eat all of the ticks in
the yard. (update: all the kids are, now, adults, and the
animal count has changed - fewer dogs, fewer rabbits, and a Parrot).
We
have several beautiful walking trails near our home. We like to take
the dogs out for long walks.
I’m
thankful to Mavis for challenging me to take a good, hard look at our
lifestyle choices. This has been a very fun exercise, and I hope it’s
useful to someone else, too ;).
1.
How do you keep your food budget in check?
We
pinch pennies for a lot of the things we buy, but for the most part,
our food spending is not one of those areas where we choose to save
money by buying the cheapest food. We like food – good, quality
food – and we have a food sensitivity, which means we have to avoid
certain food additives anyway. We almost never purchase pre-packaged
or boxed foods, because too often those foods contain ingredients
that don’t meet our personal standards and/or they contain
ingredients we can not eat. When we shop for food, we look for items
that are local, “in season”, organic, whole food, and/or contain
no GMO ingredients. Keeping spending under control is a real
challenge when what we buy is often a lot more expensive than some of
the other choices out there.
As
such, being able to save in other ways on our food budget is
incredibly important and so we’ve learned a few tricks a long the
way.
a.
We trade convenience for quality. A local farmer has raw milk for
sale on his farm. The caveat is that we have to actually GO to the
farm and pick it up ourselves and supply our own containers (buying
right off the farm is a legal option where I live in Maine). Raw milk
pre-bottled at the health food store can cost as much at $10/gallon.
We get it for a lot less, because we’re willing to take the less
convenient route by going to the farm.
b.
As long as the food meets our standard, we don’t pass up the
opportunity for free or cheap food. Last winter, my daughter saw a
deer get hit by a car. In Maine, the person who hit the deer can,
legally, take that deer home, after it has been tagged. The driver,
in this case, did not want the carcass, and so we were able to take
it. We paid for butchering (although in the past, we’ve butchered
it ourselves), and ended up with 100 lbs of “organic” meat for
under $2/lb. In addition, we are often offered free, locally-grown
produce when someone’s garden is over producing. A few years ago, a
co-worker offered my husband plums. He said that his plum tree was
producing like crazy, and there was more food than he could use. We
ended up with several 5 gallon buckets full of plums and made jelly
and wine.
c.
We try to be as self-sufficient as possible. We live on a quarter
acre in suburban southern Maine. We raise most of the vegetables we
eat during the growing season, plus chickens for eggs and meat, and
rabbits for manure for our gardens and for meat for us.
d.
We store what we harvest. There are a lot of ways to preserve food,
and we’ve tried most of them. I didn’t start canning until I was
in my 30s, but since then, not only do I can everything I can get
into a jar. I’ve also salted fish, cured meats, fermented both
vegetables and fruit juices (wine), and dehydrated herbs, fruits, and
meats. When we first started storing food, preserving was a seasonal
thing, and I had to make a decision about what I was going to do with
it right when it came into my kitchen. Now, I know that I can take
some time. I can freeze the excess of berries now, and later, when
life slows down (Ha!) I can make preserves. I can take thinly cut
meat from the butcher out of the freezer and marinate it and
dehydrate it anytime I want. It takes some of the pressure off of
getting it all done at once and has really expanded our ability to
save money, because we can purchase more, in season, freeze it, and
then, deal with it all later, to make room in the freezer for other
things.
e.
We buy local food in season. During the summer, we spend a lot of
time at local farm stands and Farmer’s Markets. We also purchase
meat we can’t raise in bulk from local farms in the form of a pig
share or cow share. We pay the farmer for the animal (not the meat),
and a local butcher to process the animal for us. It’s a flat, per
pound rate for every cut, and so we pay the same per pound price for
hamburg that we pay for filet mignon. It works out to a pretty good
deal, and it gives us a nice variety of cuts to choose from.
f.
We learned to accept the gift of nature’s bounty. There is a
plethora of wild foods, and over the years, we’ve learned to
identify, harvest and store what we are freely given. Our first wild
food of the calendar year is maple syrup. We started almost ten years
ago with three taps, and we now tap more than twenty trees – some
on our neighbors’ land (with their permission – and we share the
syrup). Maple syrup is incredibly expensive, and we save a
significant amount of money per year by harvesting this wild food
ourselves. We also harvest and eat: wild greens, wild game (like
turkey, which my husband bow-hunts), fish, clams, berries, invasive
plants like Japanese Knotweed, milkweed, some wild mushrooms
(chanterelles, black trumpet, and lion’s mane), hazelnuts, and a
few others. Many of those wild, free-for-the-taking foods are gourmet
delights that cost a great deal of money in the store.
g.
We barter. We taught a class on tanning rabbit hides and earned a
bagful of local produce and some loaves of artisan bread. We traded
rabbit for goat cheese. We traded duck eggs for homemade granola.
h.
Finally, we don’t waste food. We use every part of everything that
we can. A chicken is cooked and eaten for several meals and the bones
are cooked into broth for soup later. Apple peels are made into
vinegar. Pumpkin seeds are roasted and eaten. Seeds that aren’t
eaten are saved and replanted next year.
Saving
money on food could be difficult for us, because we like to eat well,
but by making conscious choices and taking a little more time and
care, we can eat well and not break the bank.
Any
tips on saving for saving entertainment costs? Preferably ones that
don’t require you to sit at home alone like a shut-in…
We
love the theater. My youngest was a nursing baby when we saw Stomp!
live. Her sister was four when we took her to see Cats. We took our
girls to see the Cirque de Soliel, twice. My children have seen the
Nutcracker Ballet. We bought tickets for a series of plays based on
children’s books (including Curious George and Imogene’s
Antlers). Two of my daughters and I even saw the production of
“Anything Goes” (starring Colin Donnell) at the Stephen Sondheim
Theater on Broadway in NYC. Unfortunately, tickets are incredibly
expensive and going to the theater is not something we can afford to
do as regularly was we would have liked.
Luckily,
we discovered the perfect solution. We became volunteers. Our
community theater is always looking for volunteers for a variety of
jobs from set building and costume designing to hanging promotional
posters. Volunteers are paid in comp tickets. They also need ushers,
and as part of the usher staff, we are allowed to stay and see the
show, for free. Our community theater does four shows per year, and
for the last three years, we have seen every show in every season,
except one. My entire family volunteers. The people at the theater
call us “The Browns”, like we’re a collective, and we joke that
we run in a pack. If you see one of us, we’re probably all present.
My youngest daughter has been a volunteer usher since she was ten.
Being
willing to work as a volunteer has opened up many opportunities for
us to enjoy local entertainment venues. As a volunteer at our local
food pantry, I had the opportunity to attend the Blues Festival, for
free, because the pantry had a donation booth that I was working
during the festival. In the fall, our community group hosts a haunted
hayride. We volunteer to work as actors in the hayride, and we get
free tickets so we go on the ride, too.
Every
year there are dozens of agricultural fairs here in Maine. One of the
biggest and most well attended (by people from all over the country)
is the Common Ground Fair in Unity, Maine. One year I found out about
an opportunity to volunteer to man a booth that was sponsored by a
local foods group. I had to “work” for an hour, and our admission
to the fair for the day was free.
Every
community has volunteer opportunities, and sometimes spending a few
hours working will yield an equal amount of free entertainment.
How
do you stretch your dollar when clothes shopping?
First,
let me admit that I hate shopping. I hate the flash and shiny of the
stores that are designed to make me discontented with my beautiful
life. After fifteen minutes of looking at all of the colors and
patterns and too many choices, I get a niggling headache.
What
really irritates me is after I’ve checked out, because these days,
there’s always that note at the bottom of the receipt that tells me
how much money I’ve saved. Um, no, actually, I SPENT money. I tried
explaining that to a cashier, once, who was very excited to show me
that I’d saved $50. I said, “Actually, I spent $30. If I wanted
to save money, I wouldn’t be shopping.” She didn’t understand.
Unfortunately,
with five children (two of whom are adults, now), I’ve had to learn
to push through the discomfort and get the job done. There was a time
when we looked for the cheapest clothes we could find (again,
dressing five kids is expensive), but what we found was that the less
expensive brands meant that we were replacing clothes and shoes more
often, and so we had to change our tactics.
After
many years of being disappointed and spending a lot of money, I
figured out how to be smarter in our buying choices. The first thing
I did was to avoid shopping centers except when we absolutely needed
something, which means that we don’t impulse shop, which means we
have more money for things we actually need.
The
second thing I did was to learn to shop at the best time, which is
when no one else is. My children joke about February 15 being “candy
day”, because it’s the day after Valentine’s Day and all of the
candy is on sale. The same wisdom applies to clothes shopping. If we
wait until the end of September to back-to-school shop (and because
we home school, we don’t really need to back-to-school shop), we
can get some great deals on clothes. Just after Easter, my daughter
needed some new clothes for the theater (black dress slacks or a
black skirt and white top). Winter clothes were marked down to 85%
off the sticker price, all of the Easter dresses were on sale at half
off, and many of the spring clothes were also at bargain prices (30%
off or better). We were able to stock her up on shirts and jeans for
the upcoming warmer season, AND find a new ushering outfit for less
than $70. The receipt said we saved $60.
I
also learned to love second-hand, which was no small feat. Growing up
in the suburbs during the late 70s and early 80s, thrift stores, like
the Salvation Army Store, had a reputation of being for “poor
people”, and at that time, being “poor” was viewed as a moral
shortfall. My mother avoided second-hand stores. We were even loath
to accept hand-me-downs from friends, even though we weren’t
wealthy and could have benefited from some quality clothes. These
days thrifting is an art form. Everyone does it, and everyone brags
about their incredible thrift-store treasures.
The
first time I voluntarily purchased clothes second-hand was when my,
now, nineteen year old daughter was a baby (which, roughly, coincides
with the beginning of the shabby-chic movement). I had just relocated
to Maine and my very practical and thrifty Yankee in-laws introduced
me to Goodwill. I was an immediate convert, and I’ve enjoyed
browsing the thrift stores ever since, and I know where every
Goodwill within a 20 mile radius of my house is located. I even have
a 10% discount card to Goodwill. For someone who has the time to look
a little more closely, there is an opportunity to find high quality,
designer label clothes at rock-bottom prices. My favorite find is my
100% wool coat that I have been wearing for six years. I paid $5.
It’s still in perfect shape. I usually pair it with the dog-fur
scarf my daughter knitted for me out of, yes, fur we collected when
we brushed our dog, and we had spun into a super soft, beautiful
chocolate colored yarn.
Of
course, even buying new-to-me clothes still costs money, and the best
way I’ve found to save money on clothes is to wear the clothes
until they just can not be worn anymore, which means learning to
repair them. I love my Merino wool socks, but one pair costs over $8,
and I can only wear them for a season before they get holes in the
bottoms of them. A season, for me, is seven months of continuous
wear, because it’s cold where I live, and I wear socks most of the
time. I learned to darn my socks so that they last a little longer. I
repair clothes that can be repaired, like ironing a patches in my ten
year old jean jacket so that I can keep wearing it, dying shirts that
have stains instead of relegating them to a rag bag or “work
clothes”, and having shoes resoled instead of buying a new pair
(resoling my Birkenstocks cost me $40. A new pair costs more than
$100).
And,
finally, there is something to be said for learning some skills
associated with clothes making, like sewing and knitting. My daughter
knitted my dog-fur scarf for me, and I’ve been wearing it for six
years. Our dog passed away in 2012, but I still have that scarf,
which serves as a beautiful reminder of our companion and pet. While
I don’t knit very much or very well, I do sew. For my first two
pregnancies, I made all of my own maternity clothes. For many years
at Christmas, I would make pajama pants for my husband and daughters.
I’ve made dance costumes, toys, and quilts. I’ve made play
dresses and dress-up clothes for my daughters. I’ve made skirts for
myself. Last summer, using some old shirts, I made a pair of
underwear and a new skirt. The best part of making my own clothes is
that I can tailor them to fit my body, which is just a half size
wrong for most off-the-rack clothes, which are usually just too tight
or just too loose.
What
are your tips for being a gracious host to family and friends without
breaking the bank?
I
love to host parties. We have an annual “Brown Summer Party”,
which can have as many as fifty invited guests. Having parties during
the summer is perfect, for us, because we keep the guests outside,
which means that we don’t have to do a lot of decorating, because
my garden, full of blooming flowers, provides most of the décor.
I
never ask my guests to bring food (although many of them will, and
it’s fun to see the wonderful and eclectic selection of food). We
will provide the main dish. The food we provide is usually home made,
often from stuff we’ve grown or gathered. We love to cook fancy
tasting and sounding food, that’s actually super cheap. One of our
favorites is Naan (which is grilled flat bread, and bread is just
flour, water, yeast, sugar and salt) served with grilled vegetables
and meat on a skewer (Shish Kebabs – super fancy!). With a couple
of pounds of inexpensive meat cubed and marinated in a home made
marinade, seasonal vegetables cut into bite-sized pieces, and some
bread, we can serve all of our guests a super-fancy, super simple,
super inexpensive, super delicious meal. For beverages, we serve iced
tea (home brewed for pennies, even when we use organic sugar),
hand-squeezed lemonade, and our home brewed wine or beer.
We
save a ton of money on dishes and napkins, because we always use real
plates, canning jars for glasses, metal forks and spoons, and cloth
napkins instead of one-use paper or plastic. All of the dishes were
bargains. They were either given to us over the years by friends or
family members who were cleaning out, or purchased cheaply at thrift
stores specifically for our parties. We keep them in a plastic bin in
the back of a closet, and they don’t take up any extra space in our
kitchen cabinets. We also have extra cloth napkins and table cloths,
and special table decorations (like candle holders). These things
make our parties extra special, and because we can reuse them over
and over again, have saved us a lot of money over the years.
We
hosted my son’s wedding reception on our lawn. It cost less than
$300, most of which went to pay for tables, chairs, and the tent. I
purchased a script for a Mystery Dinner, and his wedding reception
was a completely unorthodox Mystery Dinner party with a three course
meal, including a Leg of Lamb (in our freezer from a lamb we’d
purchased from a local farmer) that was served by his younger
siblings and their friends.
Last
fall, my daughter was cast in a our community theater production of
Jekyll & Hyde. After the show one night, she invited the cast and
crew over to our house for an impromptu cast party. We had all been
at the show – my daughter was on stage, and the rest of us were
ushering – and suddenly, I had a dozen people to feed. I hadn’t
had any time to plan for a party at my house, and so I took a quick
inventory, and then, started slicing. I made a plate with apple
wedges, sliced cheese and pepperonis, crackers, and kalamata olives
(pitted). We also served chips and salsa, and popped a couple of
bowls full of popcorn. Everyone had a blast, there was plenty of
food, and it didn’t cost me a thing, because it was food that we
already had in our pantry.
When
it comes to parties, what I’ve found is that cooking my own food is
so much easier than trying to plan around ready-made food I can buy.
Veggie trays from the grocery store are very convenient, but for $15,
I can purchase twice the food from my local farmer, and a simple dip
using a mayonnaise base with a splash of red wine vinegar and a
couple of teaspoons of herbs, is much better, and much healthier,
than the preservative laden concoctions that come with the veggie
trays.
To
vacation or not to vacation? That is the question.
I
live in “Vacationland” two miles from the beach, within five
miles of four amusement parks, and mile and a half from the drive-in
movie theater. There are three campgrounds in my town, if I really
want to pay someone, but for no extra money, I can pitch a tent in my
front yard and have the exact same experience without having to spend
half a week packing, and then another week unpacking and cleaning.
There’s
cross-country and downhill skiing, snow-tubing, and ice skating in
the winter, hiking year-round, canoeing on huge inland lakes or
kayaking on the salt marsh tidal river (or if I’m feeling
adventurous paddling out to one of the islands off the coast, or even
more fun, to the old Civil War fort out in the bay).
There
are lighthouses to visit. I can think of six different museums right
off the top of my head – half of which I can get to by bicycle. We
even have several “period” villages where we can experience “life
as it used to be.”
I
live a couple of miles from the train station where I can ride the
rails from Brunswick, Maine to Boston, Massachusetts, and then, take
a bus to South Station in Boston and head down to NYC or even
Washington, D.C. for a day trip (sleeping on the train on the way
back).
The
short answer is that I don’t vacation, because the only place I
could go that wouldn’t have something that I already have where I
live is to visit family.
All
of that said, I know that everyone doesn’t have the same
environment or amenities that I have. I live in a tourist-centric
community, and my entire community caters to having people visit here
on vacation. I can feel like I’m on vacation and not spend a dime.
But
I also think we tend to ignore what our own communities have to offer
because we’re always looking across the fence at that green grass
over there, and ignoring the verdant growth beneath our feet. I
homeschool my children, and when they were young, as part of our
study of geography, we traded flat travelers with other homeschoolers
around the country. The point was to “host” the flat traveler,
taking him/her on adventures around our community so that the other
family could see what was here, where we live. They did the same with
our flat traveler. What I discovered is that there are so many
amazing things to see and do in every community, and I think most
people don’t realize that, right around the corner, there’s a
very cool thing. We often can save hundreds of dollars, just by
“stay-cationing” and exploring what’s in our own backyards.
List
the top things you can do without, WITHOUT sacrificing quality of
life.
As
I was compiling my list of things we do without, without sacrificing
quality of life, I realized that they all start with the letter C.
What’s great about all of them is that, not only am I not
sacrificing quality of life, but I’m actually improving it, because
by not having/using any of these things, we’re saving money.
There
are probably a lot more things we eschew without suffering, but these
are my Top Cs:
a.
Cable. I know a lot of people are dumping their cable service,
because it makes sense. With online streaming options, like Netflix
and Hulu, the only benefit to having cable (for non-sports people,
like us) is that the shows are current. We don’t mind being a
season or two behind everyone else. Some people still use cable for
their home-based Internet service. When we disconnected cable
television, we were using a DSL service through the phone company.
When we disconnected our landline phone service, we also discontinued
DSL, and we are now using mobile Internet service. The overall
savings (allowing that we were also paying for cell phone service,
and the landline was redundant), per month, is more than $70.
But
there was an additional, often overlooked, benefit to cutting cable.
When we discontinued cable, we also gave away our television set and
all of the peripherals. We have laptop computers and LED computer
monitors (which use very little electricity, comparatively), and so
we can watch DVDs and stream online programming. After we stopped
using our television and permanently disconnected the ghost loads
from the DVD player and the VCR, our electric bill was noticeably
lower.
If
we discontinued Netflix, and borrowed movies from the library or used the free streaming service from our local library, we could save an additional $15/month with no loss of
quality of life.
b.
Clothes dryer. I put up my first clothesline in 2007, bought an
indoor drying rack a couple of years later, and gave away my electric
clothes dryer more than five years ago. We line-dry/air dry all of
our clothes, all of the time, even during the winter, and yes, on
clear, sunny days (especially those precious blue-skied days
following a severe winter storm) with two feet of snow on the ground
one can drive by my house and see clothes freeze-drying on my line.
We save a lot of money both on the electricity it costs to operate a
clothes dryer, but also on wear and tear on our clothes. The dryer
heat is tough on clothes and causes the fiber materials to break down
more quickly. Our clothes last longer, because they aren’t exposed
to the extreme heat of a clothes dryer.
c.
Commercial cleaners. I
can’t remember the last time I purchased a product geared
specifically toward cleaning a toilet or a bathtub. Most of the time
for cleaning, I use baking soda or vinegar and a good scrub brush.
The closest I come to a commercial cleaning product is Dr. Bonner’s
liquid soap, and I’ve been known to use it for everything from
washing my hair to cleaning the toilets. For washing clothes, we make
a powder detergent with washing powder, grated bar soap (usually Dr.
Bonner’s), borax powder, and some essential oil. It works just as
well as a commercial detergent, and costs much less.
d.
Cosmetics (i.e. toiletries like shampoo and deodorant). The
best deodorant I’ve ever used is baking soda and corn starch mixed
with coconut oil and an essential oil (like lavender or Patchouli). I
store it in an old commercial deodorant container, and the only draw
back is that I have to store it in the refrigerator during the summer
because the coconut oil liquefies. I also don’t use commercial
shampoos or conditioners. I use the same soap on my hair that I use
on my body, usually Dr. Bonner’s and almond scented is my
favorite.
Instead of perfumes, I use an essential oil. I’ve made
my own lye soap, which I really liked using. It’s on the list to
make more soon.
When
it comes to saving money, the best thing one can do for oneself is to
learn some skills. Cooking, sewing, gardening, and soap making are
all fun projects, and really, it doesn’t take much longer to
lay-out, cut-out, and stitch up a simple skirt than it does to hop in
the car, drive to the mall, find a parking place, pick through the
hundreds of choices, none of which are ever exactly what we want, pay
for the purchase, find the car, and drive back home. It really is
less a matter of time than it is a cultural habit that tells us we
are better if we work to pay for things that we could make ourselves,
if only we took the time. In the end, the best way to save money is
to do-it-yourself rather than paying someone else.
