Some things I do include saving and freezing veggie scraps (mainly onion and garlic skins and carrot peel) to boil for veggie broth and saving chicken and beef bones to roast and boil for meat broth. I also tend to wear white undershirts most days around the house or running errands because they are cheap. I WFH so haven’t needed to use my closet full of work clothes since 2020.
This also means I drive less than 4k mi per year so I spend maybe $500 on fuel a year.
That said until recently I had two cars (a 2013 CRV and a 2002 BMW 325i wagon) but recently totaled my CRV so I am investing the $13k I got from the insurance and going with only the BMW for transportation. We’ll see how that goes!
I buy most groceries from my local discount grocery store which has overstock and nearing expirations items. I have averaged $130/month for groceries (excludes alcohol and grooming products just food) for the past 10 years.
I recently decided to quit all alcohol for a variety of reasons one is because it was costing me $50-100 a month (let alone the long term health costs).
I am a single 46 yo man living in Phoenix, AZ, USA for reference.
What things do you do because you are frugal?
Curious what things other people do that make them frugal?
byu/Due-Pound-4840 inFrugal
Posted by Due-Pound-4840
14 Comments
I buy pork shoulder when it is 97 cents a pound, bone it out and remove most of the fat, and grind it for ground pork to freeze in 1 pound packages. I use this to extend ground beef, etc. I buy chicken thighs at cents a pound, bone them out to freeze, and use all the bones and skin to make broth. I have also ground a beef brisket when it was on sale for under $2.00 a pound for ground beef. A meat grinder is a very good investment.
I buy chicken breasts on sale and stock up. I make a large salad for the week (lunch) and add a sandwich to go with it. I make my dogs food in large batches and freeze the individual servings. I haven’t bought dog food in years and the cost of what I used to get has gone up to $60 a bag. I just buy veggies at the farmers market and use the chicken I buy in bulk.
I don’t have a Sam’s card but once every couple months I go with a friend and get dry goods like rice, flour, etc. I just give her $10 for gas.
I’m in an area where I can walk to an Aldi so I save on gas that way and get some good exercise
I check sale ads and plan grocery shopping around it. Lots of bulk shopping when it makes sense.
I use the library A LOT. Reading is my number one hobby plus I homeschool my youngest so they save us thousands each year.
I repair what I can, especially clothing. Our library has a repair fair for stuff out of our wheelhouse. They saved our record player last year!
All our streaming services are free ones. Free peacock through Walmart+, Kanopy from the library, Tubi, etc.
When I make broth or stock, I skim off the fat and use it to make biscuits.
When I braise meat, I save the liquid as a base for soup or for the next braise. Or sometimes I cook potatoes in it.
Stay single with no kids
the thing that makes me frugal is that i really consider EVERY dollar spent. i try to do a cost/benefit calculation vs other possible purchases or saving that dollar.
I got a dehydrator for Christmas, so all of my dog’s treats are dehydrated. Sweet potatoes, chicken hearts, chicken breasts (new this weekend!), peanut butter bananas. All much, much cheaper (and healthier) that buying commerical dog treats.
We do a lot of other stuff too, but too long to type!
I share your broth habits. I make trips multiple purpose. I cook. I work at a concert venue/pool hall for entertainment. I only buy games on the cheap. I also have a box or two of white shirts. I watch tubi, begrudgingly for I’ve heard it finances fox news. I save the paper towels I dry my hands with at work for non company home use. Return empties, recycle aggressively. Hoping rhe garden does well this year. That said my woman’s inground pool has been an expensive thing to enjoy the past few years.
Living below your means. Obsess about not spending money
I got reamed for this in another sub, but I drive small cars that are fuel efficient. It’s always been a feature I look for in cars and I try to optimize my driving to get max efficiency….no speeding, keeping my tires properly inflated, try to combine my trips, etc. It’s never really been something I considered hugely money saving until the recent gas prices. But I see how few people seem to plan their driving habits and I guess this is one way I do save quite a bit of money.
I track my total money every day, and I write down every purchase and every addition on a pad to keep a running total and know at a quick glance what I spent money on without having a check my bank and credit cards. Writing it down makes it more real and makes you think about it. You could do it on a spreadsheet for convenience, but it doesn’t quite have the same impact typing as it does handwriting.
We are frugal in that we do most of our cooking, cleaning, maintenance ourselves. I cook almost every night. I cut my family’s hair, I do my brows and nails. I use very little makeup. I buy most things second hand. My car is 10 years old, my husband’s is 9. We replace items, but we don’t just accumulate them for fun. I get many things free from our local art supply store called Art Resource Center in Tempe for hobbies. I have a little free library and enjoy finding other ones for reading material or use spotify. I have minimal subscriptions to channels, but share them with my kiddos. When I quit work to raise my children, we did have preschool. I taught them everything and more for what they needed to start kindergarten. But I did teach a moms day out class to get my children free tuition. We use the library for admissions to museums and the zoo. I use points for flights, husband tries to keep using the same hotels and airlines to accumulate points. When cooking, one of the things I do is cook about 20 pounds of chicken breasts and 10 pounds of ground beef and a few pork tenderloins (as bbq shredded pork) and dice and package them into 1 pound bags to freeze, especially for hot summer months here in AZ.
I buy a quarter cow from a farmer every spring which cuts the beef cost down a lot. All other meat I only buy on clearance. Target of all places has some great clearance deals on meat. I’ll buy a couple turkeys in fall when they’re 50cents a pound.
I use exclusively local small shop contractors for almost everything you would need one for and eventually we get into bartering relationships. Having a heating guy like this valuable beyond words.
I’ve always used cloth rags and towels. I save paper towels for things I know I’m going to want to throw away after.
I’ve been doing my own snow removal not so much because I’m frugal but because snow removal services are so inconsistent and flakey here. But that has saved me money to just buy a snow blower and do it. Also has saved me stressed. The 4 days being a trapped after a major snow storm was a bridge too far.
I don’t drink. Mostly because I don’t have the stuff to digest booze but seeing the price of drinks these days I’m saving tons.
Auto, home, umbrella insurance policies bring bundled and paid annually saves $380. All utilities and taxes except water and license tags are charged to my Amazon credit card for the cash back. Village water is online banking as my Amazon credit card payment. That means no late fees or interest. We eat to live, not live to eat. We made a list of forty meals we like and stick to restocking supplies for that menu almost all the time. I bake all our bread products, using a bread machine 9n dough cycle to handle kneading and timing. Us two can’t eat a loaf or two pounds of rolls before they mold so we freeze most.