How are you doing with your reuse items? We still have more letters of the alphabet to get through. I took a break with listing some of the ideas so we could talk about other subjects, such as shopping, winter and fun. Nicole offers some great advice on frugal snacks. Hopefully you aren’t suffering from frugal burnout.
January 14th
Frugal Living Week in Review: January 7th Through January 13th
From freezer cooking to reusing our items, we have been working our way through the kitchen to save money. We’ve also thrown in a few other surprises. I’m so glad that the holiday spending is over, and we can get back to being really frugal.
Here is a challenge for you. Find at least one thing in your home that you can reuse. Wash it out, fill it up, craft with it, use it in place of something, or turn it into something else. Need some ideas? Check out this list in our continuing series on ways to reuse what you already have.
Let’s keep going with our our reuse ideas and see exactly how much that we can save as we get through the alphabet of reuse. How many items can you repurpose.
January 15th
Congratulations! Expecting a baby can be such an exciting time. It can also be expensive. Those precious little ones require so much, and you can easily spend thousands of dollars in baby’s first year, outfitting your little one with everything she needs.
January 16th
Have you taken up the challenge to reuse at least one thing every week? if you are having trouble, just pretend that you are stranded in your home and cannot get out to buy anything new. What do you have that can make do in place of something you might have normally purchased?
Sometimes in the middle of our day, we find ourselves reaching for a snack. It is not uncommon in our busy society to reach for something simply because it is handy or because it was made in a snack sized container. But what if I told you there was something you could do to enjoy a delicious, healthy snack and spend pennies?
Recently, I was going through my kitchen, finding all of the tools that we seldom use, such as spatulas. I was going to toss them out or donate them to the thrift store, until I realized that I could in fact reuse them. Here are some more reuse ideas in the alphabet.
January 17th
Usually, I approach any needs or wants buy doing research and then buying used. Of course, there are some things that you just can’t buy used (toilet paper as an extreme example), and there are times when buying new makes more sense (we looked at a used swing set that would cost more to move to our home than a brand new one that included delivery and installation).
January 18th
When it is cold outside, we tend to stay indoors and rent movies, buy more toys, books and stuff to occupy is indoors to visit indoor places where it is easy to spend money, such as the mall, restaurants and kids activity centers. Some of us even plan extra vacations to escape the cold. Those costs can all add up. Winter activities and entertainment should be all about embracing the season, not spending money on things to do to escape it.
January 20th
Every so often (okay quite a lot actually) I think about little treats for myself or my family. These treats are things that as a frugal person I know that we don’t need or can live without. For example, it might be nice to enjoy a lunch or dinner out, a new book (or paperback swap book), a chocolate bar, a gourmet coffee, an upgrade on my hair cut, a magazine, some trading cards for my son, ice cream out for the kids, etc. They are small things (well, maybe except for the dinner out), but if we were to do them all of the time, they would add up very quickly and bust our budget.
Have you ever experienced frugal burnout? You know, when you just don’t feel like being frugal anymore? Maybe you are just tired to death of washing out baggies or hanging laundry. Maybe you have a little bit of envy because someone you know who isn’t frugal seems to have it all from fabulous vacations to an amazing home.