Are YOU Frugal?
 

For the New Year (or one month in anyway) - let's discuss Money Saving Tips!
And personal finances, simplification of lifestyle, and let's find out if you think you're a cheapskate or compulsive over-buyer who engages in "retail therapy"!

Re: Are YOU Frugal?
 

No, I'm Swan.

Re: Are YOU Frugal?
 

I'm the most frugal person around! I dare anybody to prove otherwise:p

Re: Are YOU Frugal?
 

I spend a lot of money on food and a little bit on movies, but other than those two instances I'm an Asian version of Scrooge.

Re: Are YOU Frugal?
 

I am saving money for retirement, but I must prioritizes the essentials. Food, rent, high powered firearms, and plenty of ammunition. :D

Re: Are YOU Frugal?
 

Some cold cuts at my supermarket come in plastic bags that are basically zip-lock sandwich bags. I don't reuse ones that had meat in them - but I don't buy much meat, I do like to get cheese. So I wash the bags and dry them. I haven't bought a box of sandwich bags in years!

Re: Are YOU Frugal?
 

I'm going to give away one of my major secrets.

Have you ever bought window cleaner? Expensive, right? Yet, what you're paying for is dirt cheap. I once worked in a picture frame shop and we'd make our own glass cleaner. It's one part Rubbing Alcohol to three parts water - then add just one or two Drops of Dish Washing Liquid.

You can also use White Vinegar in place of the Alcohol, or go half & half with each. You can use the green, mint scented Alcohol to give your cleaner a greenish hue and minty scent. And if you really want to go crazy and have it look like Windex, you could add blue food coloring.

Re: Are YOU Frugal?
 

Speaking of vinegar, I use white vinegar as weed killer in the garden, works too! Can use it as weed killer at the front of my house too and not worry about dogs sniffing about. :)

All you need is a plastic spray bottle and a cheap bottle/jar of white vinegar that comes to about £1ish for the lot and off you go.

Re: Are YOU Frugal?
 

I can be frugal with some foods but that's through life experience.


I worked security at a factory that makes baked beans.


Asda "own brand", Tesco "own brand", Lidl "own brand", Morrison's "own brand", Aldi "own brand", Sainsbury's "own brand" and Waitrose "own brand" baked beans... and the top brands, HP, Heinz, Branstons...


ALL COME FROM THE SAME HUGE VAT OF BEANS!!!!


All they do in the factory is change the roll of labels in the tin-labelling machine and tell the machinery to change the amount of sauce it adds to the tins compared to the amount of beans it adds :D


Yet, it you shop in different places, a tin of baked beans ranges from 12 pence, all the way up to £3 per tin.
Absolutely true.

Re: Are YOU Frugal?
 

The only thing I do spend a lot of cash on when it comes to food is coffee.
I'm like Jimmie in Pulp Fiction :D

Re: Are YOU Frugal?
 

I always bite my biscuits in half so I get twice as many for the same price :)

I started doing this last summer. You can find recipes for the homemade weed killer on YouTube. They advise adding Dish Liquid and Salt to the White Vinegar (the dish liquid is supposed to help the solution stick to weeds and the salt helps to kill them).

It doesn't work as well as Roundup - but I stopped using that since it's highly toxic and they found it causes cancers. You have to use a lot more of the homemade kind, but that's okay since it's cheap to make.

Yeah, definitely.

Two years ago I'd have said I was extremely frugal, because back then my wife and I spent significantly less than we do even now, and would go long stretches (like Lent) buying basically nothing outside of relatively necessary things. But losing weight has led to new clothes, and playing softball has entailed buying some equipment. We've also flown to Seattle the last couple of years for PAX and gotten a dog. But we both make a bit more than we did back then, which is probably part of the reason we've felt comfortable loosening the metaphorical belt a bit.

We still live below our means, though, and we're paying down our mortgage quickly. And I think with the clothes and softball stuff relatively stabilized, we'll probably spend significantly less this year than the last couple.

Re: Are YOU Frugal?
 

I am the most frugal.

When it comes to things I have to purchase, things I can't get around with (airline tickets, concerts).. However, I have never paid money more than a total of $20 for clothes as an adult. I wear things that are very old, and in the past, if I needed something nice, I'd go to Goodwill... A few cheap $5 concert t-shirts... I also prefer a bargain - why pay more if I can get something cheaper?

I shop around and use coupons, but I don't hesitate to buy what I want. The good thing is that I don't want much.

Matt might be frugal, but the rest of you guys:suspicious:....

Let's see I:
don't have any TV service
don't own a smart phone
don't buy movies
don't eat in restaurants
don't smoke
don't drink expensive wine or liquor (no wine or hard liquor actually), don't buy meat
don't go to Starbucks anymore
don't go to the theater
don't have movie services (except an $8 a month Netflix)
only have one car that's paid for
make my own food
never spend money on tech items

Why, cause I don't have any money to blow:p

Re: Are YOU Frugal?
 

The amount of bills I have makes it impossible to be frugal since we pay them more than they are worth :(

Rules, your frugality also sounds like a health plan (don't smoke, drink, eat a lot of meat, don't eat out but make your own food). I mentioned that last part because a lot of people get sick from eating out - it's probably safer to make your own meals and eat at home.

Re: Are YOU Frugal?
 

I was never really big on eating in restaurants, but now it's ridiculously expensive! and not all that good of food either. Hell I can cook better than some of the meals I have.

What's weird is our grocery bill for me and my wife seems expensive, but there's only the two of us. I cook all the meals, so no expensive frozen dinners, just the basics but it sure adds up.

In the popular grunge years, it was just cool to do that.:cool: