Green Tips for Toilet Paper Usage

I don’t know if you remember, but back in 2007, rocker Sheryl Crow caused a bit of a stir with her idea of how to be green in the bathroom. She blogged that she thought people should limit themselves to the number of squares of toilet paper they used per sitting. She suggested using only one square unless there were “pesky occasions” where you might need to use two or three. I am assuming this was reserved for number two bathroom visits only. Anyhow, her younger brother suggested she wash out the one square after using it. This caused quite … Continue reading

Avoiding Consumables through Frugality

Have you notices that many items are made to get you hooked so that will have to purchase it regularly or buy refills? There are also some items that you think you need to replace all the time. The consumables are rarely budget priced because we feel like we can’t live without them. I am sure there are alot of people that you can’t live without like milk, toilet paper, and bread. You can however avoid buying consumables that you can do without. Here are some items that I have learned to stop buying by being clever. Swiffer Sweeper pads … Continue reading

Toilet Frugality

From the extreme to the sublime, frugal living can take on all sorts of levels. It is important and fun to try new ways to save. Some you will like and continue to use, others you wouldn’t even think of doing. The following ideas offer a range of different methods, and yes, they all have to do with the bathroom. I am sometimes asked the question, “Which saves more money, taking a shower or taking a bath?” The answer here isn’t as simple as you might think. For most people, if you take a short shower using a low-flow shower … Continue reading

More Extreme Frugality

When does frugal get too extreme or cross over to being cheap? My definition is that if a frugal practice actually creates real hardship for a family or unfairly takes advantage of someone else, then it isn’t frugal in the true sense of the word. The following are some recent stories about frugal practices that I have heard about. Read them through and make a decision about them. Would you do (or have you done) any of these? Are they smartly frugal or just plain cheap? Leave me a comment with your thoughts. Writing on post it notes in pencil, … Continue reading

Meet a Families.com Blogger – Mary Ann Romans!

We are pleased to have freelance writer Mary Ann Romans with us here today. She is the third blogger to join us in our look at the writers that make up the Families.com family. Mary Ann, thanks for joining us! How long have you blogged for Families.com? My first blog on Families.com was in December of 2006. At the moment, I have more than 1260 individual blog posts. How cool is that! What topics do you blog about? I cover Frugal Living, which is so much fun because finding new ways to save money really exercises the brain cells. It … Continue reading

Conservation Equals Frugality: A Review of Articles

Did you know that you can search articles in the Frugal Living Blog by category? Off on the right side of your screen, below the list of blogs is the “frugal categories” list. You can click on a category to go straight to blogs related to that category. It is a great way to find exactly what you need. One of our newest categories is conservation. This is one of my favorite topics. Not only does conservation save you money, it also saves on resources for the world at large. Conserving resources helps the planet, and also provides additional resources … Continue reading

5 Ways to Save on Toilet Paper

Perhaps changing diapers all day long has had an effect on me. The last few blogs have been concerned with sawdust toilets and people using newspaper as bathroom tissue. So why not keep with the potty theme? Here are five ways to save on toilet paper. 1.Use less. I’ve never been frugal when it comes to toilet paper. I probably use too much. The standard frugal guide is three or four sheets. If you fold it instead of grabbing a bunch and crinkling it up, you will need less. A wad of toilet paper will have more sheets in it … Continue reading

Don’t Try This At Home: When Frugality Goes Wrong

When frugality goes wrong, it really goes wrong. There are just some things that are not a good idea to practice, no matter how much you want to save. In an effort to be frugal, sometimes people will unknowingly do things that are illegal or put themselves and their families at risk. Here is my list of some things you should not do while practicing a frugal lifestyle: 1. Compromise baby safety. I see plenty of people who curb shop (pick things up from the curb) or tag sale for car seats, cribs and high chairs. This is a dangerous … Continue reading

Should You Pee on a Jelly Fish?

It is always funny when common beliefs are taken one step further into the really weird. I was having a conversation the other day, and we were talking about some common health issues that come up in summer and how to solve them. Someone mentioned this little tip: if you see a jelly fish in the ocean, you should pee because that will scare it away, and it won’t bite. Um, while I have no idea if jelly fish have an aversion to human urine, I’m guessing that peeing near a jelly fish, besides being a little disgusting, won’t really … Continue reading

Don’t Water Away Your Money

When our rent bill came last month, I was startled to see that it was over a hundred dollars more than we usually pay. I read down the itemized list to see what on earth had happened, and saw that the water portion of the bill was through the roof. We had been watering the lawn, but my husband had been overseeing that particular chore, and I didn’t know how much he’d been using. When he came home that night, he explained he’d been doing quite a lot of watering, but after seeing the bill, he said he would cut … Continue reading