How to wisely choose frugal activities
A few months ago, I gave a talk to a group of mothers about frugality, and since mothers of small children are usually a bit short on time (!), I focused a big portion of my talk on how to save money without spending a bunch of time.
Since we were just talking about the time/money, work/save issue here last week, I thought it might be helpful to type up the basics of what I shared with that group.
If you've hung out in the frugal blogosphere for long, you know that there are somewhere around eleventy billion things that you could do to save money.
You can sew your own clothes, keep chickens, wash your laundry in cold water, line dry your clothes, live in a tiny house, walk everywhere, maintain a garden, quit eating meat, preserve produce, make homemade yogurt, bread, crackers, cheese, granola bars, buy everything second-hand, and on and on and on.
It's a little overwhelming, particularly to people who are new to this whole frugal living thing.
So, to help you narrow things down a bit, I think there are three main criteria you should use to evaluate the usefulness of a particular frugal practice, especially if you're feeling short on time.
( Now, I would be remiss if I didn't point out that the way this plays out in your life will be different from the way it plays out in my life or your friend's life or the life of a really fabulous blogger that you follow.
Ok! Here are the three things, all of which start with the letter E.
A frugal activity should ideally be
- Effective
- Efficient
- Enjoyable
Since the meaning of those is maybe not entirely intuitive, we'll look at each one briefly.
Effective
This means that the frugal activities you pursue should do a good job of stopping your particular budget leaks. Obviously, this will vary from household to household, so you need to get an idea of where your money is going so that you can identify the areas that need cutting.
For instance, unless you're eating dozens of eggs every week, keeping chickens isn't going to save you thousands of dollars a year. And if you don't eat a lot of bread, you probably shouldn't invest time into learning how to make your own.
On the other hand, if you discover that you're spending thousands of dollars every year on fast food, it would be prudent to invest time into trimming that back.
In a nutshell, find your biggest money leaks and work on patching those.
Efficient
An efficient frugal activity nets you a significant savings with a small time investment and the fact of the matter is that some frugal activities aren't terribly efficient.
Collecting bread crumbs from your cutting board for use in future recipes comes to mind (breads crumbs just don't cost that much!), as does making a hammock from six-pack rings (a reader idea from the Tightwad Gazette).
For a more realistic example, consider some of the refashioning I've done, like the fish dress I made for Zoe.
The materials cost very little (less than $2, I think?) and I had a lot of fun making it for her, but I definitely could have come out ahead time and money-wise if I'd just bought her a dress on clearance or at a thrift store.
If you're short on time, you'll want to find strategies that can save you time AND money. For instance, planning a menu saves me lots of money (I buy only what I need and having a plan makes me more likely to cook and less likely to get takeout). Freezer/batch cooking can also save time and money.
In addition, there are some frugal activities that involve simply going without things/activities...reducing the number of extra-curricular activities your children are involved in or shopping less and living with a smaller wardrobe both can save you time and money.
Enjoyable
I saved this for last because I think it's really key. If you want to make frugal living a habit, it's important for you to choose frugal activities that, at the very least, you don't absolutely despise.
For example, if you'd rather stick sharp forks in your eyeballs than shop at a thrift store, that's probably not a frugal strategy you should choose. Even if you do manage to get started with it, the odds of you continuing aren't too great.
As I mentioned at the beginning, there are myriad ways to save money, so odds are good that you can find something that you sort of enjoy doing.
For me, this means that I shop at thrift stores, but I don't hang up all of my laundry.
It means that I make yogurt and bread from scratch, but I keep my heat set at 70 ° F in the wintertime (the FG family doesn't handle cold temperatures very well!)
Of course, there are some frugal things I do even though I don't particularly enjoy them....I don't especially like menu-planning, and I definitely get tired of cooking meals. But those two things save us so much money, I can usually scrape up the motivation to carry on.
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What do you think? How do you seasoned frugal people decide what you're willing to do to save money and what you're not willing to do?
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Today's 365 post: old
Joshua's 365 post: Dogwood
This reminds me of my experience making homemade bread. I love to make bread, however I can no longer eat it (oh, the jobs of being gluten free). Further, my husband isn't much of a bread eater and my children really don't care for the homemade variety (crazy, right?). So, I'd spend time making this bread, but it was not saving us any $$. Worse yet, it just increased our food waste-Gah! So, I stopped. I buy 1 loaf of bread every two weeks and that's about all we need. Clearly, making bread for my family is enjoyable, but it just wasn't effective and efficient!
My experience in homemade bread has turned out to be very frugal. Thankfully none of us have trouble with gluten (that I know of) and we eat lots of bread. Being so inexpensive to make, it becomes the mainstay of many meals.
Also, I love baking bread:)
Sewing, on the other hand in one of those I'd rather stick forks in my eyeballs things, so I don't try to save money there.
Great post Kristen!
One thing comes to mind that I no longer do because it saves me money is bake bread. I now do it strictly for taste. Baking my own bread saves me money, yes, BUT the flavor can not be beat! Frugal? Yes. Enjoyable? Yes Delicious? YES!! Efficient? Yes! As long as I have flour and yeast I'm good to go! :)!
Now that we live in the country it makes sense for us to expand our garden and grow more varieties of fruits and veggies. When we lived in town we were limited in what we could grow due to space and soil type. We also plan to barter with a couple other families for things like eggs and other fruits and veggies. Our plan is to not buy a single piece of produce this season and I know that will save our family tons of money!
Now with sewing, I have found that in some cases it is cheaper to buy a dress from a second hand store for my daughter than it is to make one. Fabric, at least cute fabric, can be expensive!
I've always been frugal. I did it because it was fun AND I got to save a lot of money, which I put into a savings account OR spent it on things that I enjoyed (such as travel).
Fast forward to today: It is imperative now that I must be frugal or I would perish. With this continual down economy, money is getting tight while prices keep rising. The only way now to stay afloat for me is to keep fine tuning my frugal skills. It's not that much fun anymore because I don't have a choice. Frugality has become mandatory.
You reach a saturation point in your frugality lifestyle. That's the point I am at now. This is it. Nothing else left to cut, do without, do myself, yada, yada, yada.
Now, the trick is to maintain everything at the current level. My new fun is doing this special balancing act by sharpening my creative skills. The new goal is to pay my current bills on time and NOT take any money out of the savings account rather than put anything in, as before.
It's a challenge and one that I am looking forward to conquering.
Kristen...you are so wise and practical. I am kind of tired of the holier than thou attitude of some frugal people I read. Like you said, how you live a frugal life varies from person to person. I like my creature comforts as much as the next person and there is only so much I can give up...but that said, I live very simply and enjoy my life as a frugalista.
Thanks for this post today!
My problem is that the thing I'd rather stick a fork in my eye than do is track our spending. Mind you, we are very conservative purchasers, and I cook from scratch whenever I can, but I really feel like tracking our spending could take us the extra mile. I've never been able to keep it up for more than a month or two, tops.
Yeah but unless you're using Panko, store bought bread crumbs are nothing but sand. >_< A food processor makes good work of stale bread and you end up with a better product.
I think, though the best frugal thing that one can do is learn to cook and enjoy cooking at home. Believe me, after you make something excellent at home (and don't have to risk pissing the chef/waiter/whomever off because they have to check for allergens for you) it will be well worth it!
I'm going to go back to making my own bread at home. I actually *just* bought a new Dutch oven (my third and probably last) yesterday. I can't wait to pick it up. 😀
What a great post! Since I started reading different blogs about frugal living, I also noticed that there are countless ways to cut down on spending. It's so important to focus on what's really effective for my family, though. Whenever I choose to be frugal, I always want to make sure that it's not a waste of my time. Most of us are very busy, (I work full-time, blog, lead a ministry for teens, etc.) I guess there's a very fine line between what saves money and time. It's also important to take into consideration what our priorities are. It's important for me to provide homemade meals for my family, so I take the time to cook almost every day. Spending time with my husband is also a priority, so sometimes I have to forego other things on my list that are "frugal". Overall, I believe it's a all adds up to the choices we make and the habits we form, that make a difference.
Just one comment on the idea of thrift store shopping: As a kid, we were clothed in second hand clothing head to foot and only wore new underwear, socks and the occasional pair of shoes but that was before the age of massive clearance sales at department stores.
I still occasionally shop thrift for name brand clothes or clothes for my husband from companies like Nautica or Eddie Bauer since he's tall and needs specific sized clothes that aren't necessarily on the rack.
But for my twin girls, I usually make out so much better at places like Old Navy, Kohl's, Target, Wal-Mart and even GAP when they have huge clearance sales (think .50 flip-flops and $1 tank tops, etc. I've even purchased winter coats from Baby GAP for only $14 when they were on clearance - and it was only in January!!!). In contrast, most of the shirts at thrift stores are between $4 and $8 so I tend to make out better shopping the clearance racks (and getting them new without missing buttons, frayed edges, stains or hidden dog hairs - which makes us all sneeze!).
Recently, I've updated my own wardrobe with $7 dresses at Old Navy and $3-6 sweaters there for next winter. I even scored a super soft knit winter hat for $.46 - yup, 46 cents!!! - for when we sled for next year.
When I find deals like these, I tend to buy up a size for the following year for the kids and stock up on gifts I know I'll need to get throughout the year (I keep a tote aside for those occasions). I've scored some very nice b-day gifts for only a few bucks that would have normally cost me $40 or more!
I love thrift stores for housewares like picture frames, wooden furniture to repaint, candlesticks or name brand purses (which I resell on eBay) and sometimes even fabric (do the sniff test 1st!).
It's also a good time of year to start checking out yard sales in your area- you never know what you'll find! (I scored a super cute end table for my daughter's for $4 that I painted a pale pink - my sister-in-law had something similar that cost her over $100!!! Can you say SCORE??!!)
All this to say, sometimes it's ok to shop retail - just know when to do it! And know when NOT to fork over huge amounts in stores that typically run these 75-90% off sales (like Kohl's). :o)
Great great points. As you have mentioned many times before... frugality has to fit your family and lifestyle. We eat a lot of beans around here, but I know that does not work for the FG family... and that's great!
It's funny that you mentioned the whole thing about homemade laundry detergent and line drying. It echos some recent comments of other bloggers and also some friends of mine. I definitely speak for myself and probably for many others when I say that we were pretty freaked out in 2008-2009. I think many of us rushed to the Internet to figure out new ways to trim, trim, trim. We HAD to... new baby and two layoffs in one year... plus rent increased... it was a scary time. It was nice to see many people trying new things and really paying attention to personal finances. It feels like now, four years later, savings accounts are a little fatter, some debt has been paid off, maybe our jobs feel a little more secure, and we can breathe a little. We can finally let ourselves off the hook about some things. My fear is that my husband and I will get too comfortable. I think a little bit of discomfort (for example, your commitment to meal planning and cooking at home, even though it's kind of a drag) is good for us. It keeps us focused. As long as we can stay cheerful and have a little fun, too.
I have to be able to enjoy it, because if I don't, then I'm not going to do it. Canning is a recent addition, especially when I discovered micro/small batch canning. Not everything is frugal, but a lot of it is.
I have to be able to make it fit into my schedule as well. I work weird hours and sometimes get 1 day a week to fit in the majority of my busywork. If something is going to take up 4 hours of that day, it doesn't matter that it's saving me x amount of money.
There's also the reality of my living space. I don't have the room to line dry clothing. I just...don't. I'm not sure I would with the air quality in the summer around here anyway. Same with urban gardening, and I frankly, after a cost/benefits analysis, decided I would rather use the space for other things than container gardening. Maybe in a few years on both points, but not right now.
My husband and I were able to take a family finance class in college (so glad we did!) One of the things I remember was what the teacher called a step down principle... It can be hard from only buying designer clothes to buying everything second hand. Think of the rungs on a ladder or stairs - you don't go from the top to the bottom without stepping on more than one stair! For clothing:
(technically Tailor made clothes would be at the top.)
Designer Clothes
Designer knock-offs (or outlet stores)
Discount stores
Shopping only clearance sales
Second-Hand stores
Making your own clothes (however I don't think this is as economical as it use to be!)
So you can take one step down and live at the next level until you are comfortable taking another step. It is not so daunting for people this way! You can also do it with any area of your life!
That was very poignant and no nonsense.
I know I love to cook/bake, so I bake bread, make yogurt, make tortillas, and cook just about every meal we eat around here.
On the other hand, I would rather stick scissors in my eyes than clip coupons. So I don't. I think it's because it isn't enjoyable for me. 🙂
I used to get a lot of our things from the thrift store especially clothes for me and the boys, and household items. Now they are at that age (6 and 8) where all their wardrobe is tee shirts from sports/clubs/camps and jeans, which are hard to find in good condition. And my house is so full that I'm in purge-mode, so weekly visits to the thrifts are not as worthwhile to me anymore. Additionally I found that I was spending too much on these trips and still not finding what I wanted. On the other hand, specialty 2nd hand shpos are invaluable to me. My son plays baseball, and we got nearly everything used, savin literally hundreds of dollars. I'm also spending a little more on having quality food in the house (including a CSA subscription) because it keeps me out of the restaurants. I guess it's all situational.
I have done many of the things on the list you mentioned: tiny house that's paid off, growing some of our own food, making bread and yoghurt, and so on. So our day-day expenses are pretty low.
But we found that going without a car here in Cape Town (with small children) just wasn't feasible- we really struggled to get out, and found ourselves a little down. So we went ahead and bought a car, though it wasn't in our initial plans. My husband and I also have really large personal allowances relative to the rest of our budget: about 30% of our spending! But 30% of our spending is $350. It gives us great joy to be able to buy coffee/milkshake/treat for friends almost every day.
Then we come back to our tiny home, and eat healthy meals, don't buy clothes, and make our own sourdough. It seems to work for us, because we're spending less than we earn, taking care of our son, and neither of us work full time.
Great post!
I especially like that you point out the "enjoyable" part. That is so important, especially to someone who is just starting out down the frugal path. The instant reward that spending money can give needs to be replaced with something other than the ephemeral "more money in the bank", and if you're doing a frugal activity that you find enjoyable, you're much more likely to continue just for the joy of it.
I like to cook. I find preparing meals to be a soothing experience (if my kids aren't underfoot, anyway!) that combines creativity, a sense of accomplishment, and the joy of making something for someone else. So for me, menu planning and cooking are a big part of our frugal behaviors.
However, I hate cleaning up. I've never liked doing dishes, and frequently I ended up just doing the bare minimum to get us through the next morning. Then one night I decided to try listening to a podcast of a radio program (The Story, actually) I'd heard earlier in the day while I was running errands. I got the entire kitchen cleaned up without thinking about it because I was enjoying the luxury of listening to an entire episode of The Story uninterrupted. So now, I listen to podcasts while I do dishes. I challenge myself to get the whole kitchen cleaned up, the baby's bottles washed, and everything prepped for the next day before the 40-minute program is up. Something that was drudgery and a barely tolerable frugal activity suddenly became enjoyable.
I discovered the same thing after I bought an iPod years ago. It made doing dishes, folding laundry and general tidying a lot more enjoyable when I listened to an audiobook while I worked. I'm glad podcasts are helping to take some of the drudgery out of the work for you.
Great post! I really enjoyed it because in the past, I felt bad that I can't sew a stitch (nor do I really have any interest in learning). And we live in a small high-rise apartment with no balcony so line drying and gardening are just not feasible right now. But I love cooking so that's where my time is spent and thrift shopping is the way to go. I also want to try new things more often -- homemade detergent, shampoo, etc is the next area where I'd like to see what I think!
I just realized that I really enjoy making my own laundry detergent, b/c I'm a horrible cook (hubby does all our cooking) and I feel like I'm "making" something that contributes to our household, just as much as cooking. I really love doing "crafty" things, and making the detergent kind of feels like that, too.
Hate to sew - but have also NEVER paid full-price for a piece of clothing or shoes. Love to cook - hate to bake - gave my daughter a baking cookbook and she's gone to town and now @ 16 yo, she's an awesome baker. Love to can and freeze and stockpile - can't keep a weed alive - shop @ Farmer's Market in season and preserve - food and GIFTs for later when prices are much higher. Love playing the "use-it-up" game and other ways to avoid buying for as long as I can. Approach all purchases with a waste avoidance mindset - from packaging to will I absolutely use every tiny bit? I really enjoy the exercise of de-cluttering WHILE reducing waste - great fun to upcycle - I know it's nerdy, but sometimes I will then calculate how much $$ I SAVED. And water - only - to drink on ice or to make my own tea and/or coffee - I believe that has literally saved my family thousand's of dollars over the years!
Part of my cost saving decisions depend on how well my family will cooperate.
Our Failed Attempt - My husband never seemed to be able to get into the cloth diapering routine (dumping out the solids, taking out the liners and reusing the outer cover if unsoiled) which made it an even bigger pain for me where I was running out of outer covers (which he'd thrown in the hamper along with the poop) and being forced to do a bunch of nearly empty but extra gross laundry loads. Since I had no interest in being the one to change our son 100% of time, my son really didn't seem to like the cloth diapers and I doubt we were saving money with all those partial hot water diaper loads, we just did disposable diapers the majority of the time.
Our Success - My 2.5 yo son loves helping me in the kitchen which makes it so much easier to take the time and energy to make his special pancakes and muffins. I'm not just providing goods for his week's breakfast, I'm entertaining the kid while teaching him valuable kitchen and hand-motor skills, plus we're spending quality time together. Cooking together is also a great way to get him to try new veggies. He'll eat just about any raw veggies fresh off the cutting board.
One thing we don't do anymore, but I LOVED was making baby food. Something about all those gorgeous colorful purees and knowing I was giving my baby healthy food that came from the heart was just a wonderful experience for me. I was also working out of the home full-time, breastfeeding and pumping, at the time so I definitely had to love it to make it happen.
I think this is so smart!!!! Love and hugs from the ocean shores of California, Heather 🙂 🙂 🙂
I wouldn't be caught dead washing out ziploc bags and reusing aluminum foil, even though my mother-in-law insists they save her money. Yet I love hanging out the laundry and using coupons, while she doesn't do either of those things. You are right on when it comes to enjoying the ways you save money!
Thanks for sharing these notes from your talk! The frugal blogosphere can definitely be overwhelming at times, and it is great to have this reminder we can't/don't have to do it all! 🙂
While I love to cook (good because I, too, am severely gluten intolerant), garden, and can goodies for my family, there are some things I hate. Dishes for example. We don't have a dishwasher right now, and buying one involves adding a new outlet, breaker, disposal, and water line as well as the general cost of the washer. So while I hate it, I would rather save up the money for the renovations necessary rather than buy one of the rollaway versions (too many bad experiences with the rollaway ones in the past).
Also on the list of not-going-to-happen's: outdoor drying. Yes, I live in the desert. Yes, the sun shines 340 days of the year. But also: the wind never stops, the stray cats think of my laundry as toys/nesting material, and I am allergic to all the pollens and dust that get deposited on my nice clean clothes (I am looking at you, cat-from-next-door). Also, I am lazy. I admit it. So while I occasionally dry clothes inside on my collapsible dryer, I most often just use the dryer.
What an important post you made. These 3 attributes are indeed essential to remember at this frugality-topic. For example, I have made experiences from grazy cooking at wrong times- when eating out or picking ready meal would have solved the mess. To the food waste friday-thematic a bit, EU has now made a new goal for europeans to minimize food wastage that is rather enormous especially in households. European parliament wishes the memberstates to halve that waste until 2025. Not to mention greenhouse gas emission at this context...
Oh, I'm glad for this post and glad that you mentioned keeping your heat at 70. I've read and heard of a lot of frugal people who keep their heat at 64 all winter, so I felt compelled to do the same. I tried it but I'm a cold person to begin with. My hands were stiff all the time, my nose was runny, and I was just generally unhappy. After a few months I decided that it was ruining my quality of life and I would save money in other areas, so I cranked it back up to 70. I have been feeling a little guilty about it until today.
Frugal living is just like green living - it's all about balance. Although most of my green practices started because I was a newlywed with very little extra cash - because I was a newlywed 🙂 I apply the 80/20 rule to just about every aspect of my life. If I can do it on the cheap 80% of the time, I'm not going to sweat the 20% of the time I don't. Which means I used to line dry laundry on plastic hangers on the shower curtain rod because my old dryer had little dryer fires when I used it but didn't like it extended laundry day by a couple of days waiting for clothes to line dry. Once I got a new dryer (the old one was not fixable) I rarely line dry unless I'm doing some rare delicate hand washing. For me, it's important to have more than one way to do something on the cheap. That way, I can shift my costs/time/energy as needed and don't feel deprived.
I have to say great post. I get so fed up with feeling like frugal bloggers tell me I am not frugal because I don't... I coupon, because I enjoy it. I also enjoy cooking and baking bread. But sewing? Not my thing. We have learned how to hem as I am short and I know how to sew on a button. Other than that, that is about it. I refuse to turn my heat down. We keep the house around 70 during the day and 68 or 66 at night. (programmable thermostat) We use the air conditioner in the summer, as my husband and son do their work/school from home. It needs to be reasonably comfortable. If one has to wear gloves to type, it is too darned cold! I don't see a need to make my own laundry detergent. When we bought a new washer, we bought an HE washer and you only use a tablespoon of detergent, so why make my own? I have heard of those who use baking soda to brush their teeth, uhhh, yuck and why? I can get all the free Colgate Total I need couponing at CVS and Walgreens. (Donating about 5 to 10 tubes soon to my local food pantry.) So yes, I am glad that you said that you have to enjoy it or at least not hate it, otherwise it just won't work for you and you won't be able to fully maintain it.
For me, menu planing (even roughly) for the week and the result of bringing my lunch to work and trying to shop second-hand as far as possible (whether it be a thrift store or in the classifieds) has made a big difference. I was recently very inspired by a frugal blogger who had made the commitment not to buy anything for 100 days in 2012!
I think it's a mind-set that requires training, especially if you're a person who naturally has the urge to spend everything as soon as you have it (like me!) I started with something as simple as ordering tea instead of a super-fancy-three-named coffee masterpiece more often when I'm meeting someone in a café 🙂
I'm not great at baking, but again, I think it's a case of discipline and practice 🙂 Like everything else: baby steps!
I'm not a seasoned frugal person but when making a decision on something to save money I ask myself if it's something that's really going to bother me. I don't mind switching to a cheaper phone plan without all the bells and whistles on my cell phone but there's no way I'll give up cable. My boyfriend and I get a lot of pleasure out of watching t.v. and movies together as well as sports. As far as frugal activities - cooking my own meals and packing a lunch versus eating out every day, every meal, is saving me a lot of money and it really doesn't take that long to do!
What a nice blog! I like CondoBlues comment about the 80/20 rule--we rarely eat out, I pack lunches, I shop at Aldi's . . . but thrift stores just aren't for me so I clearance shop for clothing. I live close to the local shopping area so I can do this easily (it DOES require self-control not to purchase regular-priced items) and have come away with $2 shorts and $12 winter coats for my kids (ages 8 & 6). I still receive hand-me-downs for my 6 year old which are in good condition and I am very grateful for that (we got more hand-me-downs when the kids were younger). I think the whole trick to living frugally is to know what you value and to use your money accordingly . . . you know . . . the whole "where your treasure is, your heart will be" concept . . . and it's different for everyone . . .
Your article is a great way of thinking about frugality and you are totally right about doing things that you enjoy and that actually have a return on your investment.
My favorite frugal activity is using a clothes drying rack for air drying our laundry. I find that it fits the three E's very well.
I keep my heat set at 70° F in the wintertime (the FG family doesn't handle cold temperatures very well!)
Yay, I'm glad I'm not the only one! (Well, colder than that lately, but we got a wood-burning stove to supplement).
I'd rather not eat at a restaurant all winter than be cold. I have arthritis in both hands and both hips - the cold is painful. So our house stays warm all winter, and we cut corners in other manners.