Reducing Expenses And Budget

This room is for money talk, how to reduce expenses, the envelope system, keeping a budget and Journaling.  

How is everybody doing with their first of the year budget?  Today I have organized our study notebooks and journals and I can see the table again. Have you made any changes this week? 

I decided when prices began to increase that instead of increasing my grocery budget I would shop in a different way.

This is what I did:

Week 1...canned goods 

Week 2... dairy - butter, cheese etc, 

Week3... toilet paper, cat food, chicken food  frozen veggies

Week4... baking supplies 

I also allow $20 each week for meat or chicken on sale

Most of our food is cooked from scratch 

My budget is $80 to $90 a week.

I also try and can something once a week whether it be jam or relish or  sauces or soups

Our veg garden was affected by the weather and we were down to 1 egg a day from our hens as they had a rest from laying.  I'm grateful for that 1 egg as the price of eggs in the supermarkets is continuing to rise here

PS

To simplify and get supplies built up I made a short list.

Rolled Oats 

Bread making supplies 

Butter

Soup mix (I use one with beans in it) that I store in a food bucket and add lentils,  split peas and dried chickpeas to.

Salt

Sugar 

Vinegar 

Water

The salt, sugar, vinegar are for preserving food and if times get like the GD you can survive on porridge and soup with bread or scones

Pffft! I am glad there are 51 weeks left in the year to get this right. I think it's mostly habit that's my problem. I am not used to thinking ahead about spending. 

Food prices have risen so much that my husband and I are examining our expenses closely. Our food budget is not going as far as it was. Because we live rurally and the trip to the supermarket is a 2hr return trip I do most of my grocery shopping by click and collect online, then I pick it up when it's ready with my own cotton bags. I get my fruit and veggies from a good greengrocer down the road which I do in person. I find shopping online lets me study the specials, then eliminate and shuffle things about until I have got the best value for money. I don't get distracted from my list or overwhelmed by looking at endless isles of items.  

This week's shop nearly filled my shopping budget and didn't include a bag of bread flour I need to buy in person or the veggies or the sandwich meat my husband gets from a different shop to ensure he is buying Australian made. There were only whole ingredients and not a single snack or processed item except wheat bix. It's going to require a little thinking about how to reduce it further.  

I used to do Click and collect too Emma. I found often online would say out of stock but when I went into the store the items would be on the shelf.  I shop in person now and I walk fast to where the items I want are hahaha

I feel for you as know how often one has to juggle the food budget.  We're on a low income

There's only me, and during some holidays my 19yo daughter. I have increased my grocery budget from £175 a month to £200 a month (includes dog and cat food). It's comfortably enough for me (including some stocking up) but when my daughter is home (we have now exhausted the freezer stocks) it really isn't. She's been home since mid December and I am one week into January and half the budget gone. I can limp through until she's back at Uni in a week and a half. There are single serve leftovers in the freezer for me after that. I have to think of a better way though. 

The rising prices are causing me havoc everywhere, but mostly in my food budget.  Being on a fixed income, I divide my grocery budget into weekly amounts. It was working fine until recently. I tried to do every other week shopping to see if I could spend less on gas.  I live in the country, so it's a 45 minute drive to the store one way. I'm good for about two and a half weeks, but by the end of the month I am really hurting and running out of items and money. 

So, I am going back to the drawing board and figuring out something better that will work for me. I don't want to go back to weekly trips, but I may have to. I know there are more things I can do and will keep at it and fine tune things until I get it worked out.

We also have a long drive to grocery stores. I have tried the once a month shopping and the bi-monthly shopping but neither worked for us. We eat by a strict menu I make and honestly it doesn't change very much. We don't eat a lot of meat, and I make all our food from scratch. I'm working on getting my sourdough starter going right now too. We only get out once a week. On that day we shop, go to the library, and run any other errands we need to get done. As you can guess we're retired, and live in a very affordable area - the Red Hills of Alabama. We downsized our home and banked the difference. Our car, Betsy, is 21 years old, but in tip-top shape because of my dear husband's oversight. Our hobbies are simple and cheap. He likes to operate his ham radio and I like to read, cozy up our home, garden, and do crafty things. I'm kind of an introvert, so this life appeals to me.

Oh, one saving grace is that we are fairly close to a discount grocery store that is the clearance store for Piggly Wiggly. If you're not from the South, you might not be familiar with 'The Pig' :) It's a small town, nicer grocery chain. I try to keep our total grocery/personal needs budget under $100 a week (that doesn't include electric, water, insurance, and those types of things). But that's hard since the sales tax is about 10% here. We love our little Cliff Cottage. Its paid for, the view is pretty, the neighborhood is very quiet, and the folks in our one-traffic-light town are friendly. 

Also, we do some things others might consider radical. We learned to cut our own hair, yep, you can do it too. Its not that hard. We watched YouTube videos to get us started. We've done it for almost 9 years now, and we both get the occasional compliment. I use hankies instead of kleenix. I would never go back to kleenix. The hankies are so soft and comforting. They wash up nicely every time. You can buy them cheaply on ebay by the dozen. Mine are pretty. They are different floral designs. I also inherited some of my hankies and my kids give me vintage ones for Christmas. We rarely use paper products in the kitchen. I use dish cloths. I just get the cheapy flour sack towels and crochet a pretty edge around them.  They can be embroidered too, if that's your jam. You can cut the flour sack towels down to fit your preference and machine or whipstitch hem the raw edges. I can get 4 towels from one Walmart flour sack towel. Also, I save jars to serve as food storage. I just spray paint the lids and they are perfect for the fridge or pantry.

Before we moved, I had my own little herb garden and made most of my seasonings and teas from it. I'm working on that now here and adding a little fruit orchard - Paw-Paw trees, blueberry bushes, and fig bushes. I would love to have a big lavendar patch too, but we'll see how that goes. I've got some Phenominal Lavendar starts  (they can take our cooler temps) by a window in the garage. I sure hope they make it for a spring planting. 

Anyway, I agree with y'all, times are tough, money wise. But to me its kind of a fun game to see how you can be frugal but still save and live a quiet, simple, good life.                             

Patty D You have a very pleasant sounding life. :) I, too, have been cutting our hair. The first haircut I gave my son was just awful! I told him we could go to the professionals and get it fixed. He said no, he wanted to use it as his Halloween costume. He went to the get-together with his friends and called it The Horror of a Bad Haircut. It was the hit of the evening! :) I've gotten better since then, and my husband is pretty good at cutting my hair. He chopped off half of mine recently to just above my shoulders so I can eventually (when I finally buy the curlers!) turn it into a 1930's style. I love the new length and wish I had cut it sooner. It saves a lot of money to cut your own hair.

I do some some good news about finances. The plumbing problem turned out to be a pipe the builder hadn't stabilized properly so it broke in a downward "V". But the builder didn't lay the pipe as deeply as it was supposed to be either, so the plumbers didn't have to make the expensive, reinforced hole or tear up more than a small section of the driveway. The bill came to just under $4,000 instead of $10,000. Whew! I still have a torn-up front lawn to figure out what to do with, though.

Grandma Donna wrote,  Patty D, we have a Piggly Wiggly under two miles from us and which we will be shopping this week to take a look around to figure out prices at three stores close by. Long ago the women in our family would walk, drive or ride to different stores to get a bargain.  With gas prices we need to figure out the cost of gas to get from store to the other to see if paying a few cents higher would be better than the cost of gas or the other way around.   I am sure Charles will be doing the math on this one.  

Charles and I cut each other's hair too and have been for many years. When we save money with things we can do ourselves we put what it would cost in our vet fund since veterinary care is so expensive now.

Stephanie G, now that I have quit laughing I can type again.  That was so funny your son decided to leave it for Halloween and be the Horror of a bad haircut.  Lol  I love it when children are the age that they can be so funny at times. That is very good news about the plumbing, that still was a chunk of money to spend on a repair. I hope you can get your lawn back in order without too much cost.

GDonna, I know what you're talking about with gas prices. We love our old car, but she sure is a gas guzzler. 

Stephanie G., that is the funniest story I've heard in a long, long time. Your son sounds like a really good sport. And I know what you mean about plumbing bills. We were on a shared septic system when Michael hit and our share of the repair was $8,000! Whew, that one was tough for sure.   

I'm not either;  my husband I are pretty good about sticking to our needs and not our wants, but when it comes to food, we have just been buying what we always buy, and not taking into consideration the cost.

My husband does the grocery shopping most of the time too;  he works from home so it's his chance to get out of the house (I work outside of the home).  So I'm not even sure what we're spending on food or how much things cost.  I think he and I should examine our receipts together and see just how much we're spending on our food, and where we might need to cut back.  

Galadriel F Same here. We never think about food purchases. I started writing down what I buy, and how much it costs. My husband is on the road a lot and gets a set amount for food besides what I spend. With the emphasis on frugality this year, we are going to try and lower what we spend.

Hello all.

I do an annual budget a year ahead and then as I spend the money or receive income I enter it on a spreadsheet so I can then see what is left available in the different expense categories throughout the year.

Being on a farm we don't have a guaranteed income throughout the year so I try to approximate as best I can.

Like most countries prices for just about everything has risen a lot in Australia. Electricity, gas, fuel and food have probably risen the most. We grow most of our fruit and veg which I am very grateful for seeing the prices rise in the shops so much over the past year. It's a bit frightening wondering how this will all end. We either preserve or give away our surplus so at our place we try to waste nothing. 

I bulk order most of my dry goods about 3 times a year. When I order this way it is delivered  to my nearest town and it works out that I can buy bulk organic produce for about the same price as non organic from our major food chains. 

When my order arrives I pack and store it very carefully so that nothing will spoil. 

Having bulk food supplies from either my online ordering or home preserving means there is always food available without me having to buy from the stores. I can go quite a while without spending and just shop from the pantry, cupboard, garden and freezer.

My larger type expenses such as council rates, insurance and power I pay a set amount either monthly or fortnightly. Paying these bills this way means I am always ahead in the payments and I know how much these big expenses will be each month.

We have solar power so our electricity expenses are reduced a lot. We also have a heat pump for hot water which made a huge difference to our overall electricity used.

  We don't pay any water charges as our water for the house is all rain water in several large storage tanks and our yard, veg patch, orchard and animal troughs have their water come from a large spring fed dam that has a solar pump that feeds to a header tank that gravity feeds all the troughs.

Our home is heated by a wood burning heater. The wood is sourced from the old timbers/trees on the farm. We do have air-con which we use only about 10 days a year. Some find it hard to believe that in places in QLD Australia it can get so cold the pipes could freeze or so hot you could cook your dinner on the concrete. It is an area of temperature extremes that has gotten worse as the climate changes. I don't always think the weather extremes is a bad thing as it gets cold enough to grow things like apples and hot enough to grow things like paw paws and bananas (as long as these are protected in some way from the opposite extremes)

I cook almost everything from scratch as I found it to be cheaper and healthier. I make our dog food in bulk amounts weekly, again I think it's healthier and cheaper. Also things like apple cider vinegar, cleaning spray, tooth paste. It seems ridiculous what shops charge for some items that are so cheap to make.

I always look for specials when I do shop such as if something we use comes on sale for half price I will buy enough to last for several months. I didn't always budget, shop and save this way it is something I have been working on for a long time now.

After my first year of strict budgeting and shopping I was amazed at the difference it made to not only the amount of money we were spending but also how much better I felt being in control of the financial matters. This led to me tweaking the budget and how I plan the household etc over the years since. What started off as such a chore has ended up much easier and very satisfying. 

Our news is filled with people genuinely struggling from day to day to buy food pay rent etc. When I see this I often feel guilty but also happy with our simple low needs low cost life. 

I feel a budget is essential for every household. I'd feel very lost without mine.

Turns out my daughter isn't back to Uni until the 21st. In the end I ask Ex for £50 to offset the cost of food. I don't doubt my electric usage is significantly up whilst she has been home too. I have a smart meter which isn't working so I have no way of judging the increase. They are supposed to be sending out someone to read the meter but no sign and that only tells me the quarter usage anyway. And of course it's the winter quarter so more lights etc (although I am only using a lamp just now). We have gas heating & hot water, as well as a gas stove and hob. That is also up, but no more than my living alone as I keep the heat the same (one hour in the morning and 3 hours at night, 18C). 

As for food costs, eggs have been in very short supply so hard to get, but the price doesn't seem much up. £1.89 for 6. Fresh veg have increased in price but I buy them loose so that I can get exactly what I need and waste nothing. Also that means far less to pay up front and they are often cheaper that way. I have no means of preserving excess right now as I only have a tiny freezer and no dehydrator or way of canning (also canning is very very rare in the UK). 

These are all on my agenda. 

Grandma Donna Wrote,  we have some very good information going on in this thread showing what it takes to do the work of reducing costs. It is a great mix of where everyone is in their own journey to get finances in order. Some are just starting with budgeting to what sounds like a well oiled machine. Sometimes is is just a matter of reading what someone else is doing that can give a new perspective.   Thank you all for sharing this far and please update any changes along the way that you may have added that is helping. 

Laura B, I bought a cheap dehydrator from Argos a couple of years ago, and not only do I dry my own fruits and veg from my garden/allotment, I also take advantage of the veg specials at Christmas (and Easter for the last year or two).  Last month we went to our local Aldi and bought carrots, parsnips, and swede every day they were on special, like 4-5 kg every day--a lot!  (We also bought the other special veg too, but not as much.)  At 19p a bag, I couldn't refuse.  I don't even know how much we bought in the end, but I would guess maybe 10-20kg of each?  £2.80 for 20kg of carrots is an amazing price, and the amount I dehydrated will last me several months, maybe even all year.  I definitely recommend a dehydrator, if only for the Christmas veg special.

I've been trying to use some of the items I bought for food storage. I need to know what works and will need to be replenished. I have been trying to get back to the habit of waiting until payday if I run out of something. Got into a bad habit of pulling money out of savings and just buying it now. The main problem for me is time to do what I need to do. I work full time and am pretty low energy. Sometimes I can get some things done in the morning. I do intend to put in a garden somehow, someway this year.

I have a horror of food waste and have stared into the depths of my refrigerator and pantry regularly trying to make up meals from what is already there.  I still have a good supply of canned goods from my rationing system last year, and when any meat was on sale last month I stocked up and froze it.  Eating things I wouldn't normally eat because I'm not used to them has been fun, because my 1930s cookbooks have some interesting combos. Baked bean sandwiches for one, and they seemed to use sardines quite often.  Eggs here in my part of Arizona range from $6 - about $8/dozen.  Except for Trader Joe's, which have them BLESSEDLY for $2.99/dozen.  I stock up whenever I'm in that store! A pound of butter in my Kroger/Fry's is $4.99/lb.  I have about 7 lbs in my freezer from when they were $1.87/lb several months ago, and then "on sale" for $3.49 last month.  My daughter gave me a HUGE pumpkin she had left over from Halloween and I spent yesterday and today processing it into cooked pumpkin to freeze.  That one free pumpkin has yielded 9 pints of pumpkin puree that I will use throughout the year, and the liquid is being used as a broth for soup.  I'm trying to shop only for necessities at the moment and using up what I have.  Even the Dollar stores and 99 Cent stores have increased their prices to $1.29 - $1.49.  I used to go there for some food items but am finding my regular grocery store is cheaper! 

I love that this forum helps to hold me accountable.  You ladies are so fun!

I'm really loving this thread. You've got some wonderfully frugal ideas, ladies.  It's inspiring reading and I'll certainly come back to read more - so keep sharing!  

I use budgeting software that accounts for every dollar we spend -- it's sort of like using the envelope system but works better for us because we don't usually spend cash, and the search function makes it simple for me to find transactions, if say I want to know when we last had the trees trimmed and how much we paid.  I make notes in the transactions about what exactly we bought, what the warranty is, if the workers were good, how many days were in the paycheck and if any of them were holidays, etc.  This is one area that I have been digital for 30 years now.

I budget each month with the money earned the month before, which took major work to get to but is an incredible tool, especially for people whose income may fluctuate month to month.  I'm never guessing how much money we might have to budget based on the current month's paychecks -- I know exactly how much money we have for the month and can make adjustments ahead of time if is a short month.  I also have every dollar I'll need for the bills each month available on the 1st.  This really is transformative and I recommend it to everyone who asks me about budgets, no matter how little or how much money they make.  It does take a shift in mindset and incredible discipline, however it is a great way to break the debt cycle, along with emergency savings and saving for the things we know come around but aren't monthly, like property taxes, auto registration, etc.

I mentioned before being able to see daily and hourly usage for my electricity, and I'm happy to report that I found out I can get that kind of information about our natural gas as well.  Here in California our natural gas prices have skyrocketed.  I was able to see that it cost me $7 to bring my house up to 65°F on 1/2 (that is about 90 minutes of heat), and so we changed it to 64°F and now it costs $5.  Hopefully next month the rates will drop.  Our house is chilly and our food gets cold on our plates if we don't eat quickly.  I feel like this is one area where I've been able to connect my experience to that of people who lived in the Great Depression.  Also, it rained on the day I did my laundry, and I could see that it costs me 40¢ per hour for natural gas to run the clothes dryer, compared to 15¢ 2 years ago.

I've been cutting my own hair for a couple of decades now, I have straight hair and wear it very long now, just trimming the ends, but I can cut it as short as a long textured bob just above the shoulders -- shorter than that and I would need help.  I can do bangs too, but I don't anymore.  I use clippers on my son, and sometimes on my husband, but he is growing his hair out now so I'm off hair cutting duties until he needs a trim.  My youngest has friends to do the hair cutting.

@Laura B, my son was home from university from 12/12 - 1/7 and my grocery spending went up significantly.  Part of that was holiday related, but most of it was having a young adult athlete to feed with the accompanying appetite.  Come May he will be home permanently while attending grad school, so I have my work cut out for me to find a way to reduce the grocery bill at that time.

@Lynne J, I hear you on the eggs!  My Sam's Club finally got eggs back in stock and between grabbing a 5 dozen box last night and getting 4 dozen in my pickup order today (they had a staffing issue yesterday), and what I still had, I now have 12 dozen eggs (a gross, as my husband pointed out).  But at least they were all $3 a dozen and now I'll have no worries about eggs for some time.  Aldi and Walmart were both $6 per dozen, and $7 at the regional chain supermarket -- all for basic large white eggs.  I still can hardly believe how excited I am to be paying $3 per dozen, when pre-pandemic I didn't want to pay more than $1.

I decided to make a radical change last November and go back to using cash for a anything I could. I’ve been in debt for YEARS and even been bankrupt once and managed to get into debt again and I just got so sick of it. Spending online is so easy and quick and it doesn’t feel like spending. I didn’t know if using cash would work but I figured it couldn’t hurt and gosh it’s made so much difference to me.
I’ve managed to save £400 so far relatively painlessly and I’m in shock. And I’ve discovered I don’t WANT to spend cash the same way I spend on a card. £180 of that £400 is for debt and I’m so reluctant to actually use it but I’m going to pay it off a card next week. Previously I’d try and pay online but I’d just use the card again. 
I don’t know what makes it so different to save it and then pay it but it does. I keep thinking about how I could save for something nice with that money if I didn’t have debt so I’m determined to pay it all off within 3 years. I will be saving at the same time too as I want to stop using my credit cards entirely. 

Prices have gone up so much here. Milk used to be £1 for 4 pints and now it’s £1.85. Gas and electric prices are crazy. For the past 3 years I’ve mostly done online grocery shopping, partly because of covid and partly because of my health, but I’m starting to do more in person shopping now with cash and it really makes a difference in how much I spend. 

Hello everyone. I am following along but not strictly participating in living like the Depression Era. Being raised by parents who were teenagers during those years I have realized I learned a lot from them just by being their child. They raised 10 children on fathers income and my mother always babysat extra children for her own extra monies. Laundry was hung on clotheslines, rarely used a dryer. Food was simple but plentiful. My mother could cut a chicken into 12 pieces, and always made extra gravy with white bread. There was no eating out anytime, everything was made at home. She shopped twice a month. We had one drawer each for our clothes, and two pairs of shoes. I remember maybe two dresses in closet? Toys were minimal, and we shared amongst each other. Everything was repurposed and not wasted. If we had sweets, they were homemade and usually by the older children. No snacks such as chips, it was an orange or apple.  Every lunch was packed for school and we all shared in daily chores. Not a single person in the house had a weight problem either. I have decided to just go back in time to some of the ways I remember my parents living. I have gone back to a cash system with groceries. For two adults, I am giving ourselves $50.00 a week. I don't meal plan because I always have staples in my pantry and freezer, and I keep an inventory of that. I shop the grocery fliers before I head out and limit myself to only what is on sale, and in season. I don't buy any soda, chips, bakery items, deli, or ice cream. If we want any of that, other then soda which we don't drink, I make it at home. We eat our main meal at lunchtime, and my husband usually eats some fruit later if he's hungry. Some days our main meal is soup, salad, and sandwich which is fine and other days its pot roast or roast chicken. We eat all of our leftovers and have very little food waste. I have given myself and additional $150.00 per month for pantry storage. This is for good sales on items that I can stock up on when I see them. I actually haven't had to really use that yet but it is sitting there growing. I have decided to really ask myself what is a need vs a want. I feel like that would be a thought in the Depression Era foremost in their minds as they decided to spend. I will be very thoughtful about my purchases, and thoughtful about my energy usage around the house. I grow a vegetable garden about year round, and I will continue to do that with the help of my husband/grown kids this year. That is also a tremendous help in eating in season. By implementing these little things since November, I have lost about 17lbs without even thinking about it. No more popping into stores for a sandwich, bag of chips, and eating only at home. Who would have thought!

Grandma Donna wrote, Karen d, I am glad you are doing part of the study, it sounds like you have made quite a big change already, maybe you can still pick up good information that will help improve even more.  That is one of our goals here. I am glad you are here. :)

Today I made a quick and dirty budget, based on the numbers from my bank statements.  I knew we were spending a lot on groceries, but I didn't realize how much!  We still have a surplus every month which is probably why I've been complacent about it;  my husband and I had a discussion and looked at the numbers and have decided where we can cut back a bit.  

We have been saving for some big home improvements--we finally paid off our last debt (our mortgage) last spring;  this spring we're getting double glazed windows!  And while it will pretty much eat up our savings, I now know we can save up the same again for the following spring if we keep to our budget.

Grandma Donna wrote, Hi Galadriel F, it can be quite a shocker when we sit down and take a look at the numbers.  When Charles and I paid off our mortgage we were surprised at how much we still had to pay in homeowners insurance and taxes and things like that.  The homeowners insurance and taxes feels like we still have a small house payment.  You are right about not having the mortgage can help to save for repairs.  Just today we had a $2,331.00 car repair bill that we did not expect.  We all need to build savings for these things.  Those windows will be nice. :)

Just checking in here after running January numbers.  Our Jan. expenditures were lower than they have been in some time (over a year).  Our power bill was still a kick in the teeth, but I think included part of the last cold spell at the beginning of the billing period.  I used to track our power but stopped.  Daily reading doesn't work for me, but I've began reading it weekly so I can stay on top of it as well as unplugging everything possible.  I also got a meter so I can see which items are using the most power.  If we stay on track (according to readings) we will decrease our power usage this month by 20%.

Hope you are all doing well

Grandma Donna wrote, Lady L, that is very good to make a decrease the first month of trying.  :)  Weekly reading is good too, it is what works for each of us, we all have different schedules, the most important thing is to be aware of what it is so we can compare where we are and what we need to do to keep it down.  Thank you for posting your January numbers, it is looking good. :)

Just found this forum and am so happy I did. I have been pulling back on groceries and eat more simple. We have friends with a farm 1/2 mile away that we get our eggs/milk/beef and in the spring some whole chickens for the freezer. I really enjoy eating locally..but it is more expensive than the grocery store..with cost for feed and the labor that they put into it. I try to save in all other areas and make everything from scratch and limit processed foods. I make our yogurt and do sourdough. I sometimes feel overwhelmed with wanting to feed my children healthy nourishing food vs. budget…but I see areas I can do better in.

Looking forward to warmer weather and growing my own greens this spring. I love not buying lettuce. 

Grandma Donna wrote, Anna G,  I am happy that you found our forum. We are doing a study of the great depression this year and learning all about stretching the budget.  Many posts to read about in the blog www.gdonna.com.  Welcome to the forum. :)

We did incredibly well in January.  I started a pantry and freezer challenge and kept our grocery spending to under $300 (3 adults), of which $200 was perishables and more than half of that was at the end of the month to eat in February.  We cut our miscellaneous spending down considerably (almost $300 below our average), and with our new electric car we cut our fuel expenditure from an average of $200 per month down to $65!  My husband charges the car at work for a reduced price and so far we've spent $30 to charge it (with some credit still sitting in the charging account) and have driven about 650 miles in the 2+ months we've owned it, which is about 4¢ per mile (which in California is like getting over 100 mpg based on the price of gas which is currently over $4 per gallon).

All of this saving is very good for us, as my youngest was in a car accident this week and now we have to pay the insurance deductible, and I also had to pay for my oldest's airfare for spring break.  While I am doing my own Great Depression study, my husband isn't, but he is on board to live as frugally as possible in 2023 so that we can pay off our vehicle debt and return to a 100% debt free life.

As inflation has gotten worse I am looking around to see where I can cut back but since I have lived in poverty most of my life I already don't use paper products (other than TP), we've cut our own hair for years, we heat with wood and try to keep the electric down, we have chickens (I am learning to feed them more of our scraps to try to cut their feed costs)....we hardly ever eat out. I occasionally get my children a store brand two liter soda or a box of Mike N Ike candies for a treat but other than Ritz cracker we really don't buy convenient snacks. I did start making our own bread for the most part. We get some store bought bread for my husband's sandwiches for work but I try to make bread and biscuits at home for us. Well (come to think of it)...I have encouraged my husband to get some chips and pastries for him to eat with his lunch at work and in the evenings. He lost a lot of weight and I want to see him healthy. He eats but he works harder is seems. He shares some chips with the boys (this is a new thing so that's why I forgot). He was reluctant to get the chips/ pastries but I told him he works hard and he should get them.

I am learning to process chickens better so I can get legquarters and whole chickens instead of expensive boneless skinless breast tenders and precut thoughts and legs. I got 40 pounds of leg quarters the last couple of weeks (on sale) and canned the legs. With the though meat I made chicken stew to can and a rice stir fry that we usually use chicken breast for. I boning and skinned the thighs and cutting out the ugly stuff from the meat. All the scraps from cleaning the leg quarters were boiled down to make broth. Only a tiny bit of the broth went to waste because I didn't get that part canned quickly enough. All of the broth scraps I threw to the chickens (they eat their own!). It takes time, but time I have...money...not so much. 

I am starting to ration our coffee, tea, sugar, and cleaning products. I think I'll be starting to ration like ww2 here in the next week or so. I am also thinking of trying to budget about $6 per person per week for meat. There are 4 of us so I'll round that to $25 a week for meat. I try very hard to look for sales or discount meats. We eat more chicken and pork now instead of ground beef. Our church has a fishermen in attendance and he stocks the freezer with fish. We are the only family it seems that eats it. 

I now take all my excess eggs to church on Sunday for anyone to take as needed. This helps me not have so many eggs that they go to waste because our chickens keep laying no matter how many are on our counter! We get around 10 a day now. We gave 5 hens and a rooster to a neighbor to help them start their own flock. Well likely fire up the incubator this spring and get our flock back up to about 30 chickens. We still have a ton of green beans and salsa from last year on our shelves so we will likely change what we grow the most of this year to stock other foods.

I am not sure where else I can cut on our finances. I do want to get a clothes line so we can hang our clothes to dry. We could cut some streaming services but my husband says he wants something to relax to (I want the kids to have a bit of entertainment also) so for now they stay. All our floors are wood floors now so we don't need a vacuum that uses electricity. I have been rationing our dish soap to about an ounce a day. Our floor/surface cleaning soaps I have found usually is used at a ratio of 1 tablespoon to a quart of water. So I try to limit that daily use to about 6 quarts of mixed cleaner. Yesterday I only used 4 and I mop just about daily but not all floors in the house...mostly the high traffic areas. As we heat with wood we have a lot of dust and wood particles that gets tracked in..plus the horse hair plaster walls don't help anything. They crumble a little in the front stair way so that's a mess. Our landlord rents to us so cheap that we don't mind repairing things. Apartments around here cost more than this old farmhouse and 20 acres so I'm not complaining!

We don't buy milk on a regular basis. I have powdered milk to use for cooking with. But we can't afford milk all the time. I just told my 15 year old son that he either needs to drink one glass of Nido milk a day or take a calcium supplement once a day...he opted for the calcium supplement. I wish our goat didn't get mastitis last year or we'd have a steady supply of milk still. I will never milk her again because one part of her utter is ruined now. I can milk her sister but we need a bigger yard and better set up before trying that again. I do not want to go through the stress of almost losing another goat to mastitis (our girl made it through by the skin of her teeth). I do think I'll be getting one can of Nido milk powder a month from now on though. I also keep buttermilk powder. We do eat a lot of cheese though. We get the cheap Sam's club sliced cheese and block cheese for everything else. I never buy pre-shredded cheese. That's a luxury we stopped being able to afford years ago. I don't buy fruit juices. I know my youngest son would love it but I know it's pretty much all sugar. I can't waste our money on junk food on a regular basis. We don't buy sugary cereals...only malto meal, grits, and oatmeal packets. My husband once heard my youngest son say he missed cereal so he bought him some though but since we don't have milk on hand a lot, ready to eat cereal all the time just doesn't make sense plus it's full of sugar so it's a treat.

Bills were REALLY tight for a few months there but things are looking up now. We unexpectedly lost 75 percent of our income but my husband started a new job right as the old income stopped (before we knew it stopped even) so his income kicked in right in time to keep us from being ruined. We were three months behind on rent! But our landlord is so awesome! We are all caught up now. We do have a full pantry and I hope to get it fuller as a tax return is due in soon. Budgeting is going to be easier now that we are caught up on bills. We are debt free except for one small personal loan. If we weren't debt free we wouldn't be making it. We could cut out a few small luxuries still but we want to hang on to them while we can for now. I think I said enough now!

Edit to add: Now that I think more thoroughly on this...since finances are more stable now...I'm going to try to prioritize milk. I just wish my boys wouldn't guzzle it. So maybe I can ration it so we have it for longer periods of time when we do have it. They drink it like water when we do have it, that's why I can't afford to keep it all the time. 

Hi Everybody,

All these ideas are so helpful! Thanks to everyone. My hubby keeps our finances on a spreadsheet, which I'm thankful for. It's been so nice to get Christmas and Valentines behind us and go to regular spending and saving. We got hit with a big dr.'s bill recently, but it was budgeted for, so all's well.

I maintain a gift closet. When I go to a thrift store, GoodWill, garage sale, or find a great deal on holiday stuff after the holidays I look for gifts. Another place I go is library book sales. Who doesn't want a great book on a topic they love?

This year the whole extended family stayed at our house for 2 weeks at Christmas. It was glorious, but my grocery bills took a big hit. But, the best news yet, I get some great bargains at the scratch and dent grocery store. They've started getting fresh produce which I usually process and either freeze or can. I got a yummy pineapple this week for pennies. I processed it and froze the chunks for smoothies.

My favorite book on frugality is an oldie goldie- 'Frugal Luxuries' by Tracy MacBride. I got started with 'The Tightwad Gazettes' many years ago too. These gems still turn up in Goodwills. etc. I'm always hunting for them to gift. I also get like-new bibles in the same places. They are great gifts for weddings, graduations, and births/christening. I just personalize them by writing the new owner's name and occasion- I try to do this in calligraphy, but I'm not that great at it, even though I keep trying to get better. And I make a pretty bookmark to go along with it.

Does anybody else have any suggestions for great reads on simplicity and frugality?     

I was doing so well with budgeting and had almost £400 saved and then I had to take it all back out of my envelopes ( well almost all- I still have £50) and use it on bills. 
I think I need to rework my budget. I did manage to pay off one credit card so at least that’s a positive. It’s been a long time since I managed to even get below my credit limit let alone pay something off. It was a small amount - only £200. Now I need to work on the next card which has a balance of £500 ( credit limit is £650 and that was up to the limit too just a few months ago). It feels really good to have one card paid off. 
I won’t have any money to spare next week but I think I’ll be ok the week after that and can start to replenish those envelopes again. 
Oh! I just realised I have more saved because I have my money boxes and last time I counted just the £1 coins I had almost £60 and I also have separate ones for £2 coins ( that one is sealed so I can’t check the amount) 50p coins and a last one for anything else. 
I do still need to rework the budget though. I’m finding the amounts I allowed for each category aren’t quite working for me and I’ve also found I need to add some extra categories. 
I’ve decided to take the money I was paying for the first credit card and add it to the second one’s payments to get that paid off a little quicker and reduce the interest faster. After that I have PayPal credit to tackle and 2 larger credit cards. I do have more debt from years ago but that’s on 0% interest so it’s not a priority until I get the other things paid off. 

It’s hard to beat the Tightwad Gazette  but there are some that I have in my home library that I keep to inspire me. Thank you for sharing your favorite, “Frugal Luxuries “ I have never read that one and just ordered it for $4.29 on eBay. Some of the ones I really like are “More than Enough “ by Miranda Anderson, “ The Year Without a Purchase” by Scott  Dannenmiller,  “The Abundance of Less “by Marcey Pusey, “Henry and the Great Society”,  “Simply Living Well” by Julia Watkins , and “Mother’s Book of Home Economics “ by Sharon White. I have several more but all of these books have encouraged me to continue in my life of frugality and simplicity. I can’t wait see what others might share:) Also I love your idea of  getting gently used bibles to save for gifts. My library gives bibles away for free, I just might have to grab a couple.

And to all the ladies that have shared your ideas on how you save money thank you so much! Sometimes I think we all feel like we have done everything to save, but reading here I know I have found some new ideas. 

I almost forgot Down to Earth and The Simple Home both by Rhonda Hetzle. Both are very good books:

Hi Everybody 

Sheri, Thanks for all the great book suggestions. I'll be sure and try them out. And I totally agree with you about Rhonda Hetzel's books. I have them all and they are marvelous!  Thanks again!

Grandma Donna Wrote,  I was just reading over Sheri R book suggestions and I have many of these books including Rhonda Hetzel's books, all excellent book choices for living a simple and sensible life.  And Sheri you are right, I too think I have bottomed out on how to be frugal but still read some great tips here in the forum.  Thank you all for sharing here in the forum.