Brrr, it got very cold once again, and while the temperature is slowly rising and the sun is shining it still isn't warm enough to be out and about.
Good thing I did my shopping yesterday.
I thought I would share some of the questions I ask myself in order to live a thrifty lifestyle.
The first question was why I wanted to live a thrifty and frugal lifestyle. In may case it was I wanted to have a lifestyle that did not make as large a mark on the environment. I am not saying we don't travel, we do, but by keeping our footprint as small as possible most of the time, things even out. I actually think saving money to pay off debt was a by product.
I became conscious of the choices I was making. Slowly the bad choices, like shopping for entertainment disappeared.
Starting to use every last drop of what I purchased was the next little hint I took on. I paid for whatever it is and I will get my monies worth.
This next hint I am still working on. We only have two small thrift stores here in my city and I try to use them as much as possible. Garage/yard sales and our cities many online sales sites are watched by everyone now and getting a deal can be a bit of a challenge. Still there are deals if one keeps their eyes and ears open.
I always wait to buy clothing, soon enough the old seasons clothing goes on sale. Right now winter wear is down to at least 50% off. It will fall even more. However this year I promised myself I would only purchase myself a new pair of runners. All else will be made using fabric or yarn from my stash.
Stockpiling started when we lived in a small village 30 miles outside of the city we now live in. Back then I only had the fridge freezer so I needed to portion things out and make sure everything fit properly. I did can, but only fruits, pickles and relishes. When we got our first freezer I started to freeze veggies and baking.
I did a bit of stockpiling this week. I am trying to stockpile some cleaning supplies and personal care products. Right now we have enough shampoo, bath soap, and my body wash to last a year. The same can be said for hand lotion and body butters. We also have enough tin foil to last 3 or 4 years, parchment paper for a year and garbage bags for a year. This week I added enough of my stove top cleaner to last a year, SOS pads for the year and the plastic I use to cut and seal for my FoodSaver.
I also bought a rather large eye of round beef roast and since I already had a few beef roasts in the freezer, this was cut into small steaks for marinating and slow roasting. By doing this myself I managed to save about $30.00 as the steaks are much more expensive than the large roast. These are sealed in meal sized bags and in the meat freezer. I actually got some meat from the ends that I made into stir fry strips as well.
I am hoping by stockpiling certain things and food items, I can miss some of the inflationary costs we are seeing.
Everybody have a wonderful evening.
God bless.
I enjoyed reading this post Jackie. It's always interesting to learn how others have started their frugal journey. The best part is that I'm always learning something new too. I never thought to cut steaks from beef roasts. Definitely something I'll keep in mind in the future. Stay safe & warm.
ReplyDeleteIt's been cold here (for us) and my gas bill went up $170 in one month. So now I sit in the house and it's cold. I have the heat off. My electric bill went up as well. It must be all the baking I did...I don't know. Plus I know they raised their rates. My goodness, if this keeps going up and up, how do they expect people to pay, eat and keep a roof over their heads?
ReplyDeleteShopping for entertainment is definitely a thing for me - that's what I did way too much last year and in January, having decided to cut it out completely, I missed it like crazy, especially at first. It's worth persisting with though.
ReplyDeletexx
Mine started as a bit of fun, trying to save money on new purchases, then it snowballed, and it's still fun.
ReplyDeleteYour thrifty ways have definitely been developed very consciously. I've found I'm more thrifty since I retired. Not only is there less money coming in, but I don't need as much. No new clothing for work is a big one as was parking downtown. I rarely buy any new clothing, unless it's at Costco, and most everythign comes from our thrift stores. I've been thinking about a new winter coat, as my old one is looking pretty worn but I suspect I'll hold on for another year or so.
ReplyDeleteGood idea with the beef roast. I don't often buy them because of the expense and we're not huge meat eaters here. Cutting one up sounds like a better option.
It's very brrrrr here too - coldest temps yet this winter. We had to go out this morning and were very glad to get indoors again.
ReplyDeleteAll good questions to ask youself when it comes to being thrifty - thank you.
I always knew I didn't want to work forever (my job used to require a lot of international travel, which is no fun & required me to miss a lot of family time), so saving & not spending meant accelerating the time when I could leave work. We also were very motivated to paying off our mortgage, which was quite expensive. It was so exciting to see the balance continue to drop, and really motivated us.
ReplyDelete