Living Frugally

I am very grateful for having been raised in a home that didn't have much because I learned skills from this. My mother didn't 'teach me'; we simply lived with less, so I learned how to make do.

My mum always bought things when they were on sale.

She bought in bulk when there were bulk sales.

We always had a bit of a pantry; we did not live paycheck to paycheck. If things got tough, she had a bit of a cushion.

I learned early to do this. When I had only three children I had a little hall closet. I kept that closet stocked with items that I used frequently. When Save On Foods had a bulk sale I would stock up and have enough. I remember a time when my husband, a housebuilder, was unemployed for a period of time. I was very thankful because I knew that even if there were no money for food, we would eat.

When I moved into our next home we specifically put in a storage room. This room was big enough for our freezer and stock shelves. Now, I had up to six children in this house. So, I bought much more in bulk. I would shop the Super Store and Costco and bring in 50lb bags of flour, and oats, bulk containers of anything else. All my soups, tomatoes, canned corn, beef and chicken broth etc, were bought in bulk. We could live on our reserves for weeks if there were no work.

I have managed to bring our grocery bill down to a very manageable number because of this. I regularly spend about $700 - $800 per month and that includes cleaning supplies, toilet paper, dishwashing powder, laundry soap, toothpaste, soap, shampoo and personal hygiene items. That amount feeds and takes care of 10 people.

My son is now staying at my sister's and she says he eats more than $150 worth of food a month. And I am sure he does! But that is because that is a different lifestyle. They buy their food in smaller portions because they don't have enough people to justify buying in bulk, and because she works there is no time for baking. This all adds up to a higher cost of living.

If I was to multiply $150 by 8 adults (which is what my children and the older people add up to in serving sizes) then I would be spending $1200 on groceries minimum per month. And that does not include the amount (about $100 +) I spend on household items.

So one of my big tips for living in a large family, or even a small family, is to buy in bulk! When Safeway is giving away Airmiles for an item that I know I will use a lot of I buy a ton. Normally you earn 1 Airmile for every $20 you spend. A flight to any place I desire to go to is about 4400 Airmiles. You can imagine how long it would take for me to save up to go anywhere!

Well, I learned the tricks. If you shop Safeway when they are selling an item that you *know* you will use: toothpaste, toilet paper, Hunts Thick and Rich pasta sauce, soap be sure to buy a lot. I got to be well known there. I would come in and buy out the shelves and they would have to give me a raincheck (can buy more at the sale price later when they get more stock) because I always wanted more than they had. I would easily walk out of the store with 500-1000 Airmiles. The bonus was that the item that they were putting on Airmiles was *always* on sale as well. So I got a double bonus: sale item plus Airmiles.

This is a picture of some of my shelves in my storage room right now.

In this same room I have a second refrigerator, plus a second freezer. I *never* buy anything that is not in a flat. A flat of 12 cans of tomato soup will run you about $4.99 *on sale*. Individual cans will run you about $.75 - $1.25 per can, depending on brand! Because I buy on sale I can afford to buy the better brand.

Right now, my husband has a gap in employment. This has not happened in a long, long, long time. The blessing is that he can work on our house. We will not pay him for working on our house, because ultimately this means that we are increasing our mortgage size. I will take the bare minimum I need to make the basic bills.

In the meantime, I need to decrease my bills. So how do I do that?

Well, attitude has a lot to do with this. Instead of being depressed because there is not a flow of cash coming into the house, I actually get a kick out of seeing how my ends are met, and how I can decrease my output. I am also very blessed by having a husband that is supportive and works with me rather than against me!

God always meets our needs! That is a huge part of this.

For instance, when I was chatting with my dear friend, Rusty, about Ray not working and making ends meet (I was not complaining) I mentioned how we were 'eating out of the cupboards'. I was actually having fun seeing what I could make for dinner without doing the typical run to the store for the missing ingredients.

I mentioned what I would be doing for breakfast for the next month: oatmeal, toast and jam. I then mused that I had two jars of jam left. Right away, she said, "If I gave you the fruit do you know how to make jam?"

I said I did, as I had made it once about six years ago. It hadn't turned out great, but it was usable.

She then told me that she had a freezer that had to be moved and it was full of things, including lots of frozen fruit. Would Ray come over with the boys and help her husband move the freezer?

Sure!

And at that time she would give Ray the fruit and sugar.

I smiled to myself because you see, I didn't have the sugar I would need to make the jam. I was trying very hard to not shop unless I really needed to. If you saw my cupboards and freezer there is lots in it, so really I had no excuse to shop, unless it was the odd thing I had run out of, such as jam. But I knew that to make jam I had to have sugar and we were on the last small amount of sugar, because I had just finished putting a ton of cookie dough in the freezer and had used up all my brown sugar. I didn't tell her this part, though. I wasn't looking for handouts!

But God knew this, and He sent the sugar without me asking! Love it!

At this point, she mentioned pectin and jars and rings. I told her I had some pectin, lots of jars, and I knew I had some rings. I was good to go. She would send the jam on Saturday, and I would make it when I had time.

She did tell me that the sugar was hardened and I would need a meat cleaver to break up the lumps. I smiled. I didn't care! It was sugar. I would be making jam and once again our needs had been met.

 All it took was a little bit of foot work to break up the sugar! Rusty was thrilled it was so easy.

Some of the frozen fruit I received. The following day Rusty called to tell me that Ray had forgotten another bag of fruit and Bill would bring it over later.

Not only did Rusty give me fruit, jars, and sugar, but she blessed me with 12 boxes of pectin, plus boxes of lids!! When I went to see how much pectin I had, I found I only had one box. And it wasn't until later that I discovered how much money that saved me! About $25!!

I got to work right away and didn't stop until I was done.

At the Beginning of the First Day

After Hours of Standing

The Results

Rusty had given me a tool to take the seeds out of the blackberries, and Cassidy wanted to do this job for me. I was thankful because it was made my arms tired!

This was a great thing and then Cassidy or I had the bright idea to save the seeds and dry them to make blackberry tea. We spread them out on a piece of tinfoil on a baking sheet and lay them out on the woodstove to dry.

Remember how I said I got a great deal of pleasure from seeing how I could make money stretch? Well, when I called Rusty to tell her what I had done she laughed in delight and said, "You really are frugal! I just threw the seeds in the compost!" *smile* I was just impressed that we had discovered something I had no clue about making: tea.

 It made a very delicious, strong tea.

Continuing on with my frugality post: The day Rusty and I spoke about me making jam, I looked through the fridge to see if I could make a hearty soup for the next day's lunch time. I saw a couple of older cauliflowers. I buy cauliflower and broccoli with the intent of cutting it up for fresh veggies, but I admit I am terrible about getting this done! They end up sitting there forever. Well, this day I saw the cauliflowers and a half cabbage, and I knew I could make a delicious soup!

I did have a momentary thought that I wished I had some potatoes, cause that is a great way to thicken the soup.  I then took the veggies to the kitchen for the next day.

The following day Ray brought home the box from Rusty. In this box of jam making supplies there was also a gallon jug of pancake syrup (I have only a drop left in my bottle and now pancakes could be on my menu!), plus dry beans, and instant potato mix!!!

All I had done was think "I wish I had some potatoes to thicken the soup," and God had met that need! There were 16 packages; enough to make one hearty soup a week for four months! God is good!

So I made a wonderful thick soup. A main meal in our house can run about $15-$20. When I make a thick soup and serve it with bread it fills a tummy with warm nutrition and costs so little. I love it!

Noodles From My Bulk Supply Further Thicken the Soup

 Enough about food: another way to save money is the outrageous amount of electricity I am using at home. When the money is flowing freely I am too lazy to use a washing line. That means more time out of my life. I have to walk outside, hang it out, then take it down and then have it folded. With a dryer I can simply have it transferred over and then folded.

It is amazing how attitudes change when you have to pinch pennies. One day I was looking outside and I suddenly saw my deck chairs in a new light: they would make wonderful laundry lines! lol

 My little helper were all too willing to hang out the laundry. This actually began because one day my washer decided to not spin. I thought it had broken and I could not afford to buy a new one, so we hung it out to dry. That was about two months ago. The next time I ran it the machine did its job, so we were happy. The continued for a while, and then about a month ago, we began using our 'washing lines' and we were doing fabulously: I wasn't hanging it out or folding it! Worked for me. *laugh*

Then the snow came and it was difficult to hang out to dry, but I was still not willing to use my dryer, when I knew that my old machine was taking about 90 minutes to dry a regular load. I knew this was probably why my electric bill was so high. So we had to come up with another solution:

 We have gotten used to laundry hanging on stools and the railings. Some days the kids are 'lucky' enough to get to sit on the floor with their lunch because the stools are taken up. Now, I *could* put them back, but really it is like a picnic and the kids are happy. Come summer we will be putting up a washing line! I look forward to seeing how much money I have cut our hydro bill. Now if I could just figure out a way to cut the breaker to the lights during the day...  *laugh*

Update: I have now been drying my laundry this way for the last 6 weeks and I can't wait to see the electric bill! My old machine used to take 90 minutes to dry a load!
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