The following is a regular feature by Kyle of Rather-Be-Shopping. If you like this post, consider subscribing to his blog’s RSS feed.
I like Lynnae’s tagline, “Live More. Spend Less.” This made me think of some of the more unconventional ways you can spend less money in everyday life. Most of us are already familiar with money saving tips like cutting back on the cable bill or stop driving through your local Starbucks for a $4 milkshake, I mean, umm, cup of coffee. Those are fairly common sense. But here are a few not-so-common sense ways to save money. Some of which I have done and some are courtesy of my very frugal Dad.
~ Water Plants With Recycled Water. This one comes from my Dad. He puts a 5 gallon bucket in the corner of the shower and when it gets full, he uses the water on his houseplants and plants on his patio. Plants can always use a little conditioner I guess.
~ Haircut For Less. This one is courtesy of my wife. She was going to a hair salon for a few months when she decided to ask if they had a “training day”. They did, and now she gets her hair done by a trainee, they always do a great job, and it costs a fraction of the regular price. Ask about this at your hair salon or look for a cosmetology school in your area that may offer training days.
~ Save Water In The Shower. Again, this one is from my frugal Dad. He gets in the shower, turns on the water to get wet, turns off the water, soaps up, then turns the water back on. He does indeed save water, but he has not had a warm shower since 1973. :-)
~ Brick In The Toilet. By putting a brick in the back of the toilet, you use less water every time you flush. This tip works best if you have an older toilet that uses a lot of water on every flush. The newer ‘low-flow’ toilets use much less water and would make a brick in the back less useful.
Do you think any of these tips are worth the time and effort? Please feel free to add your unconventional frugal living tips. Looking forward to your comments.
Now on to a more conventional money saving idea, online coupons. These coupons may be able to help you save money on things you need or maybe your early Christmas shopping. If your favorite store is not listed, please contact me and I will do my best to personally find you a coupon code.
Eddie Bauer.com
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Expiration: 11/09/09
See All: Eddie Bauer Coupons
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Expiration: 11/06/09
See All: Lands End Coupons
Mikasa.com
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Melissa & Doug.com
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Coupon Code: freeship75
Expiration: 12/31/09
See All: Melissa & Doug Coupons
Old Navy.com
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Expiration: 11/08/09
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Puma Store.com
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Expiration: 11/07/09
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Sensational Beginnings.com
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Coupon Code: MONEYSAVER
Expiration: 12/25/09
See All: Sensational Beginnings Coupons
Photo by stevendepolo.
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I like all of those except for the one about getting your haircut by a trainee. I am very particular about who cuts my hair and I prefer someone who has the experience to do it. I know trainees have to learn somehow but I would prefer to not be a guinea pig. :-) I don’t want to go meet my clients with a bad haircut.
Remember the saying, “you get what you pay for”.
We catch the shower water in a bucket until it gets hot. The bucket also gets odd bits of water; washing up water (dish washing) from the bowl and water from the dehumidifier (also used on plants). All this gets used to flush the loo.
I reuse all sorts of free plastic bags (once) to pack food in the freezer, but with a new, thin bag next to the food.
Do not put a brick in the toilet in can begin to break up and cause problems. Instead fill a plastic container with water, that will fit in there without affecting flushing mechanism, then put it in tank.
This saves about 1 gallon per flush.
Or buy a new toilet, they have amazing ones that use less gallons per flush every time.
I save water in a bucket to water plants and such.
You could also convert washer water to drain outside to water stuff, instead of going down the drain.
Just remeber to reduse (use less), recycle what you can, and reuse (even if you can’t reuse, can someone else?) This helps save money and the earth God has entrusted us with.
But my biggest money saver is giving up paper products in our house.
We now use cloth napkins (save about $5 a month.)
We now use rags for cleaning instead of paper towels (save about $10 a month)
We now use hankies instead of tissues (we all have two each, and I wash them as needed. Save about $3 a month)
We now use cloth toilet paper (we do have a regular roll for guests.) It really is not gross at all. (Save about $12 a month.)
So these savings add up to about $30 a month or over $300 a year. Now I realize that is regular prices and I am sure you all clip coupons and shop the warehouses, so these figures may be a bit off. But I know my mom buys and uses a case of paper towels a month and pays about $15 for it at a warehouse store, so the figures are not to off.
I also make my own laundry soap that works great and has no scent which my son needs. It costs about $13 to make 15 gallons, which last me about 6 months. Less than $1 per gallon, for scent free laundry soap. Also I am reusing old bottles and lessening the impact on the environment. The recipe is on my blog.
One more thing I do to save money is I use cloth menstrual pads (really they are comfortable and work great) (save about $10-$15 a month.) One set costs about $250 with shipping (and I have a very heavy flow) and will last about 5 years. I would have spent $200 on disposables for just one year. Check out my blog to see who I order from (a work at home mom, so I am also supporting small business.) So this is a total savings of about $750 five years.
I want to say all of the above has not changed my quality of life at all. Some of the things actually improve my life (like all cloth on my skin.) So even hen I have more finances I will continue to live this way.
-Becky
I never thought about putting a bucket in the shower and reuse the water. That’s a great idea.
When I bake something in the oven, I bake EVERYTHING in the oven. I load it up with baking potatoes (excellent for hash browns), a tray of vegies to roast, squash to turn into soup, etc. Pulling things out of the oven at various times often kills the timing of the main baked item so I just watch things more closely.
I save money by having a real trainee cut my hair – my husband. I have longish hair that’s all one length so if he messes up, I can always get it cut shorter. Rebecca, I’m wondering about the cloth toilet “paper”. We use cloth for number one, but I am not bold enough to use it for number two. How do you handle that?
It really is no big deal. I use some fleece and sweats material (from clothes my kid outgrew that were not in great shape to pass along.) I throw used ones in bucket in shower and then I usually throw dirty toilet paper in the wash with towels or sheets.
Everything comes out clean. I wash in cold water with my homemade laudry soap.
I usually hang my clothe son the line, so the sun and fresh air kills any germs (I am guessing.)
We are rarely ever sick in this house. And none of us have actually been sick at all since I started using cloth. But I credit that to God.
Check out my blog for some posts about my cloth usage.
I had never heard the one with the shower water to water plants. Pretty smart.
I’m afraid we can’t do the shower thing. Tim uses it to numb his skin, and it’s the only time his skin stops itching! But we do share a shower, to save water.
I’d heard the toilet thing, but with a bottle of water.
As for haircuts for less, I used a student academy and plan to again. They’re very well supervised and I’m VERY picky about how my hair turns out. So that’s saying something.
One big one my mom taught me was to cook lots of liquid based foods — chili, stew, soup, watever — over rice to stretch it out. You can also eat it with tortillas to make it go even farther.
Hello……..
Well, I just came across your site for the first time so early in morning on this wonderful Friday. Quite by accident, I picked another site and got yours – go figure, but however so happy I did. I know I do have a Twitter ID but I don’t know what it is:(
I have gone to the beautians (sp? WARNING: I’m a terriable speller and lost without my spell check) in training for 20+ (I’m aging myself here) years and have had some pretty complicated “do’s” “do’s” to me to. Like the time I had them braid my VERY LONG PAST MY BACKSIDE hair into about 300 tiny little braids – It took 13 hours and 5 different gals to do it. Did I mention my hair is very, very, thick also. In a salon that would have cost me $350 – $500 and I paid $80 and got a free manicure, pedicure, and eyebrow shaping, and 2 pierces in my ear including the loops!!! Now, beat that:) I would never pay full price to have something done to my hair – if I couldn’t get into the beauty school than it would either have to wait or attempt it myself (there’s another story :).
I also wash ALL my clothes in cold water and use at least 1/2 the amount of detergent they tell you to. I mean think about it. Who’s best intrest is being served when you use a full cap rather than a 1/2 or less. I have never noticed the difference and I started doing laundry this way 4 years ago and PLEASE use your water level settings. It doesn’t always have to be on High. So many people set it there and no matter what size load thier washing they never move that dial. Then I hang out all my clothes and during the winter I do the laundry and hang it up in the house excluding the towels and bedding – to hard to hang up. The only time I use my dryer is in the winter for the towels and bedding or in an emergency like we have to go NOW! I live in Wi and I have not turned my heat on yet and it’s been in the 20’s on some nights. Layers of clothes and comforters do the job and their so snuggly.
Ok – I’m ranting and your hoping I’ll lose your website address. To bad – already put on FAVS.
Have a great day.