Frugal is the new luxury

[Honeybee]

So, I've noticed that many of our members are suffering through this great recession, so I thought I'd start a thread for people to brag about/share austerity measures from their own household! Yes, let's be cheap and proud!

For example, I quite coffee this summer but I replaced it with Chai Lattes. Well, I finally broke that expensive habit this week, replacing those $4.50 chais with English Breakfast tea and a little soy milk. Whether at home or at the cafes on campus, this should at up to quite a bit of money over the course of the year!

[Kathy Rose]

We've been doing this for quite a few years -- saving our aluminum cans from beverages and recycling them. The price you get at a metal recycling place can vary depending on what the market prices are, but last time we went, it was about 55 cents a pound. Several trash bags full of crushed cans adds up to a nice amount. What I really like is, not only are we getting some money out of it, but the aluminum cans don't wind up in a landfill somewhere.

I also talked hubby out of buying his lunch at a restaurant every work day, but taking his lunch to work. He would spend about $8 a meal eating at a restaurant; I can make him a lunch for much less than that. I figured we save about $30 a week at least if he takes his lunch every day.

He also rides a motorcycle the 50-mile round trip to work when the weather is good. The motorcycle gets twice the gas mileage as the van.

[Honeybee]

And, Kathy Rose - I'll bet that the motorcycle is more fun to drive than the van on - and it's a greener decision!

Speaking of green frugality - I used to drink a lot of bottled iced tea. First it was honest tea then it was the organic generic brand from acme, which they sold for a dollar.

Then - I thought - this is stupid. I'm paying $10-$15 a week, sometimes more in the summer and tossing a bunch of plastic in the recycle bin.

So, I bought a nice electric kettle for about $40 and a good pyrex pitcher for $10.

I buy good quality Rishi tea, a $9 tin lasts several months, and I made my own iced tea.

I think it probably took until the middle of last summer - I started at the beginning of the summer - to break even and pay for the kettle and pitcher. But now, I just buy the loose tea and honey. A glass of iced tea now probably costs me less than ten cents and no plastic!

[Kathy Rose]

My daughter's turned into a big tea drinker. If this turns out not to be a phase she's going through, I might have to look into something like that, Honeybee.

I don't know about the members here, but having a family, the groceries are a big expenditure for our household (I have two teens, and yes, they do eat like there's no tomorrow). I've found that excessive trips to the store wind up in some unplanned impulse expenditures. I've started making only one trip to grocery shop each week, but I hit 3 different stores in the one trip -- a locally owned store of a franchise (rather expensive but they do have good sales on certain things and carry items the other two don't), the big-box store (bulk items and some better prices), and a discount grocery (staples like milk and bread that are much cheaper). I only go back to a grocery store during the rest of the week if there's an item we absolutely need, and I don't buy anything else. Luckily, all three of these grocery stores are within 5 minutes of each other, so we're not spending extra on gas, either.

[entkayjay]

I'm a big coffee afficionado (a word my spellcheck does not like), in fact my mid-range goal is to open my own coffee house. Yes I'm that geeky.

That said, I don't mind paying high prices for a great cup, I do mind paying high prices for a fair-to-bad cup, which is what one usually gets unless one knows where they are going. Locally (small town, sigh) fair-to-bad is the norm, as the home decor shop with coffee in it doesn't put a priority on the bean. Not to mention I'm currently doing South Beach and have to go sugar free on my lattes, which... well, just no if the coffee isn't outstanding to begin with.

So for now, I'm making due with higher quality coffee at home from my drip. Not a big fan of drip but a bigger fan of being healthy and saving money at the moment, so it's working for me. I'll spend on quality and save on crap.

Short term I'm planning on a mid- to high-end espresso machine I can use at home, but that's a ways away.

But man, next trip to Fargo, I'll hit up the Red Raven for a few hours!

[Honeybee]

There are some great options out there for espresso machines, and if you are into great coffee - even the pricey ones pay for themselves (when you consider deuxs latte can be $6-$8).

I find that often being frugal or green for that matter often takes being willing to pay out in advance - say for a nice at home coffee machine that you are willing to use or front load washer than uses half the energy/20% of the detergent and makes your clothes last longer. (Laundry mats are NOT for the frugal, alas.)

There is such a thing as penny wise and dollar foolish. And, it's also perfectly okay to pay more for something you absolutely love and get pleasure out of - because you know, life is short.

[Honeybee]

If anyone needs inspiration to give up the bottle (water, that is) this clip from Penn & Teller's Bullsh*t should do the trick.

Bottled Water is Bullsh*t

Your often paying 1000x markup for bottled water that is not safer than tap. It's an absolutely easy way to save money.

[Aquarius]

I have had to re-learn some frugality strategies now that I live alone, since shopping for two people is different from shopping for one. Also, the stores out here are usually more expensive than the suburbs. Heck, the Wal-Mart in town is higher than any other Wal-Mart I've ever been in. (I understand they're paying a premium for their location, and they're passing the burden on to the consumer.)

One thing I do here to save money that I also did in the 'burbs is buy a lot of my groceries at Aldi. It's not the store for you if you're brand conscious and have yourself convinced that store brands of things aren't as good without trying them. I've often found that I like many of their things just as well if not better than the national brands, and it's really a fraction of the cost. I was appalled that a gallon of milk was $3.59 at Wal-Mart today--a gallon is $1.79 at Aldi. Other items I like better there than national brands are their fried chicken, frozen pizzas, and deli-style chicken salad. Their cereal costs about half what it does at another grocery store, and their Gridlock energy drinks taste like Monster but are half the price.

I highly recommend it. Just remember to bring bags for taking the groceries home, or you can buy bags there, but that's part of how they keep costs (and landfills) down.

[Kathy Rose]

One thing I do here to save money that I also did in the 'burbs is buy a lot of my groceries at Aldi. It's not the store for you if you're brand conscious and have yourself convinced that store brands of things aren't as good without trying them. I've often found that I like many of their things just as well if not better than the national brands, and it's really a fraction of the cost. I was appalled that a gallon of milk was $3.59 at Wal-Mart today--a gallon is $1.79 at Aldi.

We do a lot of our grocery shopping there for that exact reason. With two teens, we go through a heck of a lot of milk. I've found that a lot of what they carry is comparable to name brands, but I've also found there are a few things I don't like as well, so we don't get those things there. It's just a matter of trying what Aldi's carries to see if you like it. (Amaretto Liquer cake, anyone?)

[Aquarius]

I haven't bought anything there I categorically dislike. I love my ketchup so I *am* a little bit of a brand snob when it comes to that (Heinz). Some of their stuff is "okay"--toilet paper, ice cream, etc.--but if not buying it there meant going all the way to another store to get one thing, I'd just buy it there any way. About the only thing I don't buy there is ground beef, but there are some meat items I have no problem buying there (the beef or turkey medallions, for example). Their produce is also not spectacular, but also not horrible, so again it would depend on how far it would mean going out of my way and for how many items.

I learned the hard way that coupon clipping is often not much of a money-saver. A lot of people fall into the trap of buying things they normally wouldn't buy in the first place, justifying it because of the coupon. Now I only do it for things that I'm a brand snob about and can't get at Aldi, cat food and cat litter and stuff like that.

One thing I miss about the house in Detroit is we had a deep freeze. So, whenever there was a good sale on meat, we'd stock up, portion it out, and freeze it. That way, we weren't at the store's mercy at any given time; if we decided we wanted (fill in the blank) for dinner, I just had to defrost it, we could have it basically whenever we wanted.