Some Frugal Things

 With prices jumping mightily in the past year, and some kitchen staples really skyrocketing lately, I thought it might be a good time for me to talk about some frugal things that I do.  Some of which I've been doing for so long that I don't even think about them as being frugal.

If you look at the sidebar to the right, there's a whole category for frugal things, but to save you sifting through almost 12 years of content, I'll highlight and direct link to a few.

I typically make my own bread.  Here's a post from way back when the blog was  new and I talked about how I make my bread.

Also make my own laundry soap.  That's been going on for over 20 years, and with the newer washing machines, I use even less soap per load than when I wrote the post.  (Just skimmed that post and apparently my photos disappeared.  Sorry for the lack of illustrations, but the info is all there.)

We don't go through nearly as much paper towels and other people do, apparently. I'd always bought them in large 8 packs, and didn't really keep track of how long they were lasting.  But I never ran out, at least not until when DS1 & family lived with us from late 2014 to early 2016.  When they moved out it became very apparent that DH and I don't use paper towels much; suddenly a roll of paper towel lasted over a month instead of barely (and sometimes not even) a week.  I wipe up lots of spills with washable towels or rags.  And the rags are either old t-shirts, cut up, or old bath- or hand towels that have gotten thin or ripped or otherwise retired from use in the bathroom.  If I'm wiping up really gross stuff, there's no guilt in tossing the rag into the trash; there's always more rags as things get worn out.  And when they're not gross, all rags just go into the laundry to be cleaned for reuse.

We do use tissues, although I prefer, if I'm having a really runny nose like from allergies or working outside, to just tuck a handkerchief into my pocket and use that.  It can hold a lot more than a tissue, is quickly made from fabric (some I all ready had), and is easy to toss into the washing machine with other laundry.  Here's a couple posts I did years ago on making handkerchiefs.

As far as cleaning solutions go, white vinegar is my cleans everything.  There's a spray bottle kept under the kitchen sink that is 50% white vinegar and 50% water.  I use it for not only counters and walls and doorknobs and switches, but also for windows and mirrors.  

With the cost of eggs being astronomical at the moment (and it's winter, so my hens are barely laying), I'm digging out my egg subsititute options to use in baking in order to save the actual eggs for breakfast omelets.

The vast majority of our meals are cooked from scratch.  Check out the recipes category for recipes that mostly do not use 'a box of this and a jar of that'.  Speaking of jars of that, I so rarely buy anything in a jar that I recently came to the end of my stash of commercial jars I'd saved for using as grease jars and had to beg an empty jar for DD1.  

We have a small tv antenna mounted in the attic and watch what comes over the air 'for free'.  We don't subscribe to cable, satellite or streaming tv services.  Occasionally I will borrow a dvd from the library if there is a movie we are interested in watching.

Speaking of library, I don't often buy books.  The vast majority of books I read are borrowed from the library at no cost (free, if you overlook the fact that funding the library comes out of our property taxes).  

That's just a quick off the top of my head list.  Like I mentioned earlier, check out the sidebar for more posts under the topic of frugal.  There are lots of things I forget not everyone does, just because they've been my lifestyle forever.