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You want to make every penny count. This can include never or rarely spending money on certain items. Sometimes you can substitute with a cheaper alternative, make it yourself or simply go without. Are there things you’ve stopped spending money on for the sake of frugality? For frugal families, paper towels and plastic wrap top the list of easily forgotten products. Here are a few more of the most popular things my readers have stopped buying.
Is there anything you'd add to this list? See how they do without buying baby wipes, mall clothing, frozen meals, bread, condiments, cleaning products and coffee.
http://www.frugalvillage.com/2011/04/20/seven-things-frugal-people-dont-buy/
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BREAD:
Most frugal people make their own bread. You can make your own pizza dough, breadcrumbs and croutons, too. For homemade bread crumbs, freeze any leftover bread until you have enough to make breadcrumbs. Place it on a baking sheet in the oven with the light on until dried. Place the bread in a plastic baggie, and use your hands or a rolling pin to make them into crumbs. Or you can break the bread into small chunks and run them through a food processor or blender until you have coarse crumbs, then bake your crumbs in the oven at 200 F for about 45 minutes. Place in an airtight container, and keep in a cool, dry place or in the freezer until ready to use.
I'm going to contest this one because I don't see how it's frugal to bake bread for 45 mins if you're running the AC. Or do they buy it in summer?
It would be if you baked it in winter then froze it. The heat from the oven would help keep the house warm too. I agree though, in summer I don't think it would be economical.
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Good list. Thanks for posting the link.
But, where's bottled water? Unlimited supply in every American home, yet billions are spent annually. Just sayin...
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Good list. Thanks for posting the link.
But, where's bottled water? Unlimited supply in every American home, yet billions are spent annually. Just sayin...
Good addition! And I hold my hands up and admit I buy bottled water although I don't use it for everything. Our water here is full of mineral deposits and tastes horrible to me if I drink it straight from the faucet. At least twice a year we have to drain our water heater (the main one for the house) to scoop out all the silt at the bottom. There's easily eight inches deep worth of the stuff and you also need to replace the elements regularly, which we found out last year when ours burned out. They get totally coated in it (I think it's calcium, or could be lime) until they can't function anymore. We replaced our elements about eight months ago and then had to buy a new water heater a couple of months ago because ours died. Apparently you need to replace them completely like that here about every five years because of the water quality. So that's about $300 for the unit plus whatever the installation costs.
To cut a long story short, (too late LOL), I ain't drinking that too much when I see what it does to my water heater!
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Ouch on the new heater, Kay. I don't think I'd be too keen on drinking mine much either if it was that bad. It must be within water quality standards though for drinking water, so it wouldn't be unsafe, just not very nice to drink.
I'm going to contest this one because I don't see how it's frugal to bake bread for 45 mins if you're running the AC. Or do they buy it in summer?