Frugal Moms

Although I know it is usually cheaper to buy second hand, sometimes second hand just won’t do.  In my family we have a creative solution to keep all the kids clothed and with the occasional new out fit.  First off I make their clothes if they get anything new from us.  I am forever fixing buttons, zippers, and patches, but sometimes they want new stuff.  I don’t mean “new to them” I mean new.  It is virtually impossible to get each child an outfit brand new with out dropping a hundred at the cash register.  The first creative solution I use is to combine our “gift” budget with our “clothing” budget.  That means that any new clothing thing they get will be on one of the Major Sabbats as a holiday gift or their birthday.  The second thing I do is to hand sew or machine sew whatever it is new they get.  The third thing is to shop at bargain material outlets or yard sales for fabric.

For example; My children all have brand new summer dresses for Midsummer.  I did not go to Walmart and pick out brand new dresses.  I didn’t even go buy a pattern at Walmart.  I did find very very cheap, (on clearance) fabric for 3 dollars a yard.  This fabris wasn’t as cheap as the dollar a yard fabric, but it had mock smocking on it, so one seam and each had a dress.  I ended up buying extra intending to sell whatever over stock I made.  It has served me well.  I paid 50 dollars total for this fabric.  So far I have made 14 dresses for my four girls and still have TONS left over.  Those 14 dresses were given for birthdays and Middsummer.  For 50 dollars I have not only dressed 4 children well, but I also have gifts for each child on their birthday and a gift for each child on our holiday.  Most parents don’t think like this I bet!

If you want to stretch your budget dollars combine categories.   Then find ways to get an absolute advantage over buying.  Finally find the materials to make your gift even cheaper than most places.  If you combine these three stratgies to care for your kids, you will do fabulous.

I just purchased the scooter I was talking about for saving gas from EVO.  It’s only a 50cc due to legal reasons, I don’t need a license and neither does my husband.   Furthermore, in our state, insurance is not necessary for anything 50cc and under.  That is why I chose this scooter.  I will save money on gas,(it gets 100 mpg) it doesn’t need insurance,( one less bill) and my husband can drive it  (one more driver).  This will work until my husband can fix our Chevy Nova.  Then the Nova will antiqued and used for special trips and once a month grocery shopping which will save us even more money.

The great thing about the site I found, is that they pay for the shipping.  I will tell you how good or bad their customer service is once I recieve the bike.   I am looking forward to having this bike around.  I won’t have to pay 20 dollars to go to the store anymore, in fact 20 dollars would give me a whole week’s worth of gas!  (At 4 dollars a gallong 5 times a week)

The drawbacks, and you know there are some, due to it’s 50cc capacity.  It only goes 35 mph.  Therefore no longer trips on this thing.  Also it only rides one (duh) and we are a family of 7.  Finally, my husband says there is a “visibility” factor, as in you don’t exist if your car isn’t big enough to hog a whole lane.  I look forward to telling you all about the scooter and it’s contribution to savings in the future.

1. Drop the extra channels on your cable, or drop the cable all together.

2. Use a Paypal debit card to pay all your bills and get 1% back.

3. Pay all bills on time to avoid late fees.

4. Put as little as 10 dollars more towards any debt owed.  This will go on your principal.

5. Switch to Flourescent lights.

6. Turn the water heater off at night, unless you take your shower first thing in the morning.

7. Switch to the store brand.  If you already have, find coupons and search the clearance bins.  Make sure it’s still cheaper than the store brand.

8. Drop the call waiting, it’s really useless.  Or drop the land line all together and stick with the cell or voip.  If you have a plan on a cell, drop the txt messaging.

9. Get Skype!  It’s free from Skype to Skype and 36 dollars a year for long distance.  Or 60 dollars a year for inbound and out bound like a normal phone.

10. If you must buy something new, try Amazon.  They have free delivery and on a lot of things they beat the local stores prices by a mile.

11. Brown bag it to work, or have an employee “picnic” where everyone brown bags it.

12.  Skip the junk food and fast food.  Once a month is fine, but everyday destroys your wallet and waistline.

13. Visit phonehog.com for free phone cards.  Y0y can get several minutes free and they work in a pinch.

14. Find your entertainment online, at www.crunchyroll.com.  See if you drop the cable you have an excuse to sruise the net looking for tv.

15. Carpool to work, http://carpoolconnect.com/ has plenty of listings for you to find a ride.

16.  Trade down to a scooter if you must go it alone.  Scooters get up to 100 mpg.  Its a great way to save when they say gas will be 7 bucks a gallon in 2 years!

17. Move your saved cash to an interest bearing account.  This only makes sense, save your money and then make it work for you!

18. Buy in bulk.  Everything that can be bought in bulk should be.

19. Learn to make home made clothes, food, gifts, and more…  Do car maintenence yourself.  Just don’t try too much home dentistry, it could hurt.

20. Avoid more bills, such as tickets, fines, or fees.  With every new thing you do ask, “Will this cause reoccuring charges?”  If so avoid it like the plauge.

I want to apologize for not being on more often.  I was in a car wreck a couple days ago.  I am in extreme pain and hope to be up around like normal in a week.   Good luck being frugal!

I have been reading a book, The Millionaire Next Door  by Thomas J. Stanley Phd and William D. Danko Phd.  It is an amazing study of typical millionaires.  I’m not saying I want to be a millionaire, or that is my goal per se, but I am saying this book will give you plenty to think about in terms of frugality.  Self made millionaires tend to be very frugal, preferring hamburgers and chips to snails.  Millionaires also come in all stripes and sizes.  Most are non-assuming people that keep an eye on their accounts, not what they can get with them.  Through out the book, the writers show they are absolutely amazed at how much most millionaires prefer to pass up even though they have the money to get whatever they desire.

All in all, I believe this book will be a strong emotional and sociological support for any new frugal habits you want to take on.  I know that on the road to being frugal, spouses, mothers, fathers, and friends will dampen your efforts.  This book will show them once and for all, spending is not the way to the good life.  You can probably borrow it from your local library for nothing, since it is a very popular book, or you could purchase it used off of Amazon.com for a few bucks like I did mine.  (I wanted to give my husband a chance to read it too).  In all things remember, money is an asset, it can buy more than just stuff from Walmart, it provides security and flexibility in times of crisis.

Frugality is a way to save money, but saving money just to spend more on credit cards or bigger purchases is not really being frugal.  If you are going to save money, there are a few things you can do with your money to save more money or make more money.  The first thing you should do is apply those saved dollars to your debt in order to pay it down and save money on the interest your paying.  In the long run you will save a lot more money by paying extra each month.  Therefore by paying down your debt ahead of schedule, you are being frugal.

The second thing or simultaneously you should build a large Emergency Fund.  I have talked about Emergency Funds at length in the past.  They are there instead of credit cards.  You can have this fund be in what ever form you wish, CD’s, Saved Cash, precious metals, etc… but it must be for the most part liquid for emergencies.  I have about a 200 dollar cushion most of the time.  Mind you 200 dollars is no where near enough, but it’s better than relying on a credit card.  No matter what I try to keep that 200 dollars in the bank.  A tip, don’t ever tell someone you have that emergency fund as a reserve, most people don’t get what it means to have an emergency fund in the first place.  They will advise you to spend it on all manner of silly things.

An example:  I have 1800 dollars coming to me.  I plan to buy a cheap little scooter for about 800 to 900 dollars because my primary family car is broken down and it is light on gas.  I currently have a 1979 Chevy Nova I adore sitting on blocks waiting for my husband to replace the transmission in.  After I buy the scooter and the Chevy is fixed, I will retire the Chevy legally, getting antiques plates.  We will only use it for special family outings and once a month for groceries.  I plan to use the scooter for the weekly fresh veg and fruits I must buy, as it’s cheaper to operate.  I also plan to use the scooter to commute to work because it is easier on gas.

My friend suggested I buy a 1500 dollar van (used) that is in town and get rid of my Chevy for scrap.  (The HORRORS! I won’t even go into how much I love my car)  He said, then I could take all the kids everywhere when I go.  Now mind you this will use more of the 1800 than I had planned for, and it will likely lead to me having another gas guzzler I can ill afford to feed gas to let alone insure.  On top of it all, I would be getting a USED vehicle with all it’s wear and tear and no warranty.  Where as my NEW scooter has a three year warranty.

The problem?  I opened my mouth.  If I never told him my plans about buying a scooter, he never would have thought I had any money.  This got into a long discussion about money etc… The thing is that extra 1000 to 900 was to be used in equal parts to pay off debt and to build my emergency fund a little more. He couldn’t understand why I would just “put the money in the bank” when it was obvious my family doesn’t have as high a standard of living as everyone else around us. Yes, that’s right. It came down to the level of my standard of living.

I suppose I could have went on about financial security, but I knew it would be lost on deaf ears. Instead, I graciously said I would think about what he proposed and left it at that. I have thought about it, a lot. I think the idea is ludicrous and that someone completely unfamiliar with my finances would advise me in such a pushy manner is down right irksome. So my advice, when you are building your emergency fund, don’t tell a soul. It will only bring you trouble.

What can an emergency fund be used for? He did ask this in our conversation. This was a good question, and I explained for family emergencies. While I won’t go into details about what he thought, I will elaborate on what “family emergencies” are. I would use my emergency fund to go to a funeral in another state assuming they are immediate family, to pay for sudden illnesses like an asthma attack, to pay for unexpected expenses like a speeding ticket or relatives dropping kids off on me for longer than agreed to, or to build my business if I find a good opportunity that would realize immediate profits. (Yes these do exist) The emergency fund is also for when someone loses a job, or my business has a slow period too pay the bills we otherwise wouldn’t be able to. It can be used for groceries if a harvest is poor one year, or for used clothes or fabrics when a child unexpectedly jumps four sizes in a season and we can’t find free or nearly free in the new size. The point is, the emergency fund is there to cover your butt. It isn’t there to expand your standard of living, allow for a vacation, or use on a regular basis. It is there for, well… emergencies.

I am about to give the counter arguments. My friend said my relatives should pay for me to show up at the funeral, the government should pay if my husband loses his job for all our expenses, or any other surprise expenses. The only thing I got my friend on was traffic tickets and fines. No one is going to pay those for you right? So at the very least an emergency fund should be set up for that. His response was to try and work out a payment plan with the government. shakes head That is spend thrift mentality, it is also another mentality I abhor..everyone else is to blame (responsible) for my actions. I see this much too often. That however is for another blog all together.

The last thing you should do with money you save is invest into things that will make or save you more money, which is oddly enough a lot like the first thing I suggested. That means my scooter is an investment. If you place your emergency fund into short term CD’s to keep pace with inflation, it’s an investment. If you go the CD route, I suggest very short term. Plus to stagger them so that you always have say 100 available each month. That way your still making money and you still have liquidity. Anyway, I hope this helps with what to do with all the money you save.

I want to talk about giving a second life to old things.  Everyone has thought about how to spruce up old things to look like new, but what about a whole new thing from something completely different.  Let me explain.  If you have a 5 gallon bucket, what do you have?  Something to store stuff in, right?  Did you know a bucket can be made into drums?  (Ask any toddler or street performer)  What about a planter?  Could it be a used to make sand castles?  Could it be a way to keep your head dry, provided it isn’t dirty?

The idea here is to think of as many uses as you can for each and every item.  Why?  Well, as you can see it means that one item has an infinite amount of things it can be.  For example a bath tub.  Everyone loves a big bath tub to soak in.  But what do you do when it’s cracked?  Could it not be the tallest planter ever?  Or could it be a new sand pit for the kids?  May be a kiddie pool?  A place to raise ducks or chickens while still small for food?

What about a cabinet?  A cabinet can be a tool chest, a planter, torn apart and rebuilt into numerous things, etc…  But even further think about what the PARTS of an item can do.  Th nails in a cabinet can fix a shingled roof.  The wood can stabilize a chair.  The shelves can be saved for other cabinets that are the same.  You get the point.  The most frugal practice is to give something a second, or third life.  That way you don’t have to buy what you turned that thing into, plus it’s kinda fun if you think about all the things you can make yourself.

If Summer is going by much too slow, you sit by the pool watching your kids bored out of your mind.  You could do over 1 billion mazes, if your into mazes.  It would take you a life time to finish these mazes, so consider this a free lifetime of entertainment.  You could even share this with your kids because some of the early ones are very easy.  ONE BILLION MAZES

And just in case you need a little extra cash, you might want to consider selling your hair.  No I am not kidding.  This is sells hair for free, no listing price unlike ebay.  The Hair Trader is an awesome site, you should check out.  They have a lot more than just selling hair, they also list services, jobs, and more.  But how much could you get for your hair, well one woman got 1200 and another 2000.  It really depends on your hair and it’s length.

While I gave you a general idea of how to budget annually, I did not go into specifics.  My family is a family of seven.  We pay for almost everything ourselves.  I have an example of the family buget published on Google Docs, a wonderful FREE web software, that does everything that open office does and is interchangeable between the two.  HERE is our budget for a family of 7.  While it may not be perfect, it is pretty darn close.

We need about 250 dollars a week to meet the needs of everyone in the family or about 13000 a year.  Almost 1/3 of that is for past debts, such as school loans, medical debts, and credit cards.  Also notice we have no car paymen (it’s paid off), no mortgage (also paid off), and no car insurance (the car is broke down..so no car really).  We also pay nothing for gas, since we have no working car to drive.

However we do have, medical coverage, prescription help, doctors visits, food, life insurance, enough to educate our children, and even pets.  So as you can see, we do manage to live on less than the typical American does.  In reality we are considered poor.  I know this, everyone knows this.  However, none of my children feel poor.   That is because I am very savy and willing to sacrafise a lot for my children, including growing our own food, sewing their clothes or fixing old ones up, making gifts each year, foregoing all entertainment except what you tube and the library provides, and bartering for what we need.

My children may not get new ipods, mp3 players, playstations, or games from us.  My children may not get name brand clothes or fancy beauty products.  However they don’t get a sense of entitlement, a “need” for the latest fashion or gadget, or an unappreciative attitude towards expensive gifts.  My children are respectful of money, and value it very closely.  They don’t spend frivolousley except to treat someone who has less than them (which aren’t many).  My children look forward to certain chores because they gain a sense of satisfaction.  For example sewing:  My daughters love to help me sew because afterwards they get to model their new clothes for the whole family.  My children love to garden because later they get to taste the nice fresh vegatables.  My children also don’t mind laundry too much because they like sweet smelling clothes.  Oh yes, I refused to wash the clothes if they don’t do it as that is their chore.

I guess my point is, due to our extremely frugal life style my kids are thankful for everything we do have.  My 8 year old carefully puts away a 3 month supply of toilet paper because she knows as long as we have that we won’t run out.  My eldest dutifully picks pails of black berries with out even being asked because she knows they will become jam for her homemade biscuts.  My middle daughter cares for the chickens without being reminded because she wants to find their eggs.  Even my five year old daughter doesn’t mind picking up her toys so mommy doesn’t have to spend time doing that because she knows I will spend it reading to her.  Frugality does more than save your pocket book, it can save your family.

Take some time examining your finances.  Make up an annual budget.  See if you can close to mine, even if your just a family of two or three.  I guarentee it will be hard to do.  The tips on this website are how I do it.  If you really want to be frugal, follow the tips.

I find it hard to pass up sending along good information, so here goes.  I found a web site that offers free text books in the college area of education.  Perhaps even advanced high school seniors might find this information useful.  If you go to the Text Book Revolution website, you will find tons of options for higher learning textbooks.  At Iberry you will find tons of open course ware, like videos, podcasts, assignments, and more.  For all grade levels a home schooling parent could turn to The Math Worksheet Site , to supplement the typical textbook.  Eitherway, you can’t go wrong with testbooks and courses created by college professors or free basic math sheets for free.

I home school my children and am always looking for unique education items that are free.  I admit that often times I find I am disappointed by the lack of quality, but it’s free.  However, I want to introduce you to a wonderfully interesting free game that is educational.  I will readily admit most educational games are boring, or so laden with facts that a child doesn’t get much out of it.  This game however, sets about throwing real obstacles from a real life scenario.  The game is 3rd World Farmer , and it takes you through the life of a family.  It’s a bit like SIMS in that you decide almost everything.   The thing is “tragedies” occur almost every year, and you, the third world farmer must find a way to over come them with few resources.