be more frugal

from frugalliving.com (Sara Noel)

SHAVING CREAM: You can use soap and water or cheap hair conditioner, shampoo or baby oil as you shower. Or use inexpensive lotion or even liquid dish detergent.

DRYER: Air-dry inside on a retractable clothesline, drying rack or install a tension rod and hang clothes to dry. When the temperatures are warmer, hang outside on a clothesline. Or simply alternate and use the dryer half the time.

PAPER NAPKINS AND TOWELS: You can opt for cloth and save a considerable amount of money. They don’t take up much space in the washer and are reusable. Check thrift stores and garage sales for these items for greater savings.

GIFT WRAP: There are plenty of options, such as using recycled gift bags. Or reuse paper, such as newspaper or handmade fabric bags and wraps. Visit joybucket.blogspot.com/2008/11/wrappadappadoo-reusable-gift-wrap.html for a wonderful tutorial on how to make gift wrap from a recycled sheet or cotton fabric and ribbon. Or check your local library books on Wrapagami or Japanese furoshiki, which will show you how to take ordinary fabric and create beautiful gift wrap. You can also consider giving gifts where the outer wrap is part of the gift, such as using tins, baskets, jars, bowls, purses, etc.

BOTTLED WATER: Get a reusable bottle, and fill it up with tap or filtered water. You have to admit you feel ripped off when buying it. It creates a lot of extra waste, too.

BEAUTY PRODUCTS: Eat healthy, stay hydrated, cleanse and moisturize and protect your skin with sunscreen, and your skin will look radiant. You don’t need a dozen products with tons of chemicals on your skin. This is, of course, assuming you don’t have skin problems or sensitivities that require specific products.

CLEANERS: Many of your cleaning products can be replaced with vinegar, salt, dish liquid, essential oils, lemon juice, castile soap and baking soda. The exception will be for natural surfaces, such as granite countertops, but for most other surfaces, you can use your own homemade cleaners.

Sara Noel is the owner of Frugal Village (www.frugalvillage.com), a Web site that offers practical, money-saving strategies for everyday living. To send tips, comments or questions, write to Sara Noel, c/o United Media, 200 Madison Ave., 4th Floor, New York, NY 10016, or e-mail sara@frugalvillage.com.

i’m liking the new trends in clothing i’m seeing. luckily, i save my small clothes, thinking i’ll someday lose enough weight to get back into them. but i’ve noticed this summer that girls were wearing t-shirts with really large necklines or no shoulders, so i decided cutting the necklines of my small t-shirts and what a difference! the t-shirts become longer and loose enough to feel comfortable in again.

for winter: everyone’s layering these days. so some of the small sweaters i have can be paired nicely on top of longer undershirts. helps by keeping me warmer and layering is actually really comfortable with switchable pieces.

now i don’t need to spend more money on clothes and can go through my entire closet without doing laundry for a couple weeks if i want!

The faucet on my kitchen sink was broken. It was also all nasty with hard water sediment and whatnot. I considered replacing the whole faucet rather than repairing it.
But I decided to do the repair instead and while it was taken apart, I cleaned the hell out of it and it looks nearly brand new! Steel wool = awesome.

The repair turned out to be a pain in the ass, and the actual broken part isn’t something that is fixable. I did a make-shift fix, but it won’t last forever, so I’ll have to spent the big buck eventually. For now, I got out with $11 and it looks great and isn’t gushing water everywhere!

After more than a year and a half of working on being more frugal, I can definitely say this has become part of my lifestyle. It’s helped me to do some really important things, like using the money I saved to pay off my student loans early and buy my first home. It also put me in a better mindset for my bigger goals of living simply and urban homesteading.

I just hired a professional cat sitter.

It’s more expensive per full day than taking my cat to the vet. But she charges by the visit, so I can do partial days and partial weekends. I’ll be weighing the costs for each trip I take and choosing the least expensive option. For a quick Saturday night out of town this will save me about $50. At my current rate of travel, that’s $600/year! Of course, this means I’ll not have to decline so many weekend trips, so it might cost me more…

Unfortunately, she doesn’t cross state lines, so if/when I move to Portland I need to find a new situation

Listen to Financial Peace University!

I volunteered to be the secratry for my bowling league. It’s kind of a lot of work, but I get my bowling 1/2 paid for! Woo!

I have been getting better at this. I am more hesitant to make purchases, and before I spend any money, I ask myself if I really need to spend it. Or if whatever I am spending it on could be taken care of in some less-expensive way.

I’ve been trying to be frugal by bringing my lunch to work. I’m so sick of the same 5 varieties of canned soup (I’m being a vegetarian for a while, so the canned soup selection is reduced to just a few varieties which all taste the same) and pb&j every day! There has got to be another low-effort low-cost lunch option.

I made big batches of pb&j sandwiches and cookies then froze them for grab and go lunch options on busy mornings. (There’s no excuse for eating in the cafeteria now!)