Tightwad Gazette Tour | Summer, from Book One
Ah! We are finally in a section of the book that is seasonally appropriate, at least for those of us in the Northern Hemisphere. 😉
Times Have Changed
Product Photos
A reader wrote in to say she flips used purchases (buying inexpensively, fixing up, and selling for a higher price) and she has more success if she cuts out a picture of the item from a store flyer and tapes it to the item.
This made me remember how difficult it would be to get product photos before the internet!
These days, if I want to remind people of how much something costs new, I include a link in my listing or a screenshot of the item. Same principle, modern adaptation. 🙂
Writing to Manufacturers
Amy encourages writing to a manufacturer when something is wrong with a product, but back then, you had to do it by actual mail.
She suggests looking on the product packaging for a mailing address, or looking through the 1990 World Almanac (which apparently had a current listing of the names and addresses of corporations.)
Complaining to a company has been made much simpler by the advent of the internet. Which makes me curious: do companies now receive a higher volume of complaints, since the barrier to entry has been lowered so significantly?
Paying a credit card bill by....mail!
A reader wrote in to say she charges everything on a credit card so that she can earn interest on the money in her bank account during the credit card grace period.
The value of this strategy would certainly vary depending on interest rates; right now, it would pay off pretty well, but that has not been the case for some recent years.
Amy responded by saying you'd need to charge at least $50 on your card each month to make it worth the price of the $0.29 stamp you'd need to mail your payment in!
I've always viewed my credit card usage as a win because of the rewards I earn (perhaps reward credit cards were not such a thing back then), and hey, I don't even have to use a stamp to pay my bill each month.
Yay, internet.
When You Don't Need To Be a Tightwad
This was obviously written before the advent of the FIRE financial movement, but Amy points out that most diehard tightwads will eventually hit a stage in life where they do not need to be tightwads anymore.
What should a person do under those circumstances, when the kids are gone, the house is paid off, and the retirement funds are fat?
(What a nice problem to have!)
"Retire early" IS one of her suggestions, but other ideas on the list are:
- Spend your money in environmentally friendly ways (including those that cost more!)
- Buy locally
- Give more money away
Also, she points out that if you've still got kids at home, you might not want to give up all your frugal ways because otherwise you might turn out a batch of spendthrift adults who think thrifty ways are unreasonable and odd.
I think that's a fair point, but also, I think that even if they're raised in a thrifty home, some children will become frugal adults and others will not. We do influence our children, but some things about them seem to be rather predetermined!
We provide them with the tools, and it's up to them if they pick up those tools and carry them into their adult lives.
Homemade Baby Wipes: did you make those?
Amy suggests using cloth washrags in place of wipes (you just launder them with your cloth diapers), but as I've already told you all, I didn't cloth diaper!
She also includes a recipe for homemade baby wipes, using paper towels, water, baby shampoo, and baby oil. I did not ever try these homemade wipes, largely because I had my babies in the height of my couponing days. At that time, I was able to consistently get baby wipes for super duper cheap.
If I was having babies now, I'd probably try the homemade route, since couponing is not nearly as lucrative as it once was.
Used Clothing Filing
Ohh, I did this!!
(Here are my tips for storing children's clothing.)
Amy has her hand-me-downs and yard sale finds sorted by age range and boy/girl, and so did I. That way, with each season that rolls around, you can go through the boxes and find clothes for each kid pretty easily.
A downside to hanging onto clothes is that until you know you are done having children, you keep accumulating boxes. I had quite a collection by the time Zoe was born, but of course, every year after that, I got to get rid of a box or two until I had none.
That was a great feeling!
Amy yard-saled most of her purchases, but I did buy some new clothes for my kids, mainly by shopping deeply discounted clearance racks off-season. I never really got into yard-saling, but clearance prices can come pretty close to yard sale prices if you are good at it.
One time, I got over $300 worth of Old Navy kid clothing for $30...everything was marked down to $1! That was one of my best hauls ever.
Something I will not be trying
Lite Margarine
A reader wrote in a tip to make DIY lite margarine (yes, yes, it was the 90s. Fat was the demon of the decade!), and obviously, I will not be trying that tip because I do not eat margarine.
Amy was a die-hard margarine buyer, and I just cannot get on board with that. I know it's cheap, but man, it just does NOT taste anything like butter.
I would rather eat a plain piece of toast than spread margarine on it, actually.
Homemade Worcestershire Sauce
Maybe I am unusual, but I go through so little Worcestershire sauce, I cannot imagine it being worth the effort to make my own.
I would really rather just buy the store brand and call it good!
Honorable Mention: homemade wheat thins
I know I will not be trying this because: I already have tried making homemade crackers lots of times.
Every time I have made them, I have always thought, "This is too much headache."
Homemade crackers require rolling, cutting, pricking with a fork, and then when you bake them, it is SO easy to accidentally burn some of them while underbaking others (particularly if your rolling stage didn't leave you with perfectly flat dough).
Here again, I would rather just buy crackers on sale or get a store brand (although I must say, the only store brand cracker I consistently like are private-label Triscuit-style crackers.)
Alrighty, guys...discuss!
(and if you have the book, feel free to bring up any other topics from this section of the book too.)
It is fun looking back at the way things were the internet. For some of us that meant most of our child raising was almost done. I did use garage sales occasionally and rummage sales (they were more standard years ago). A favorite source was a good friend who enjoyed shopping and I would give her a list of things to be on the lookout for. The children were always pleased when my friend would bring them things she had found and I would gladly reimburse her.
I did some couponing years ago, not so much so now. I prefer store brands for most things and keep an eye out for special purchases that the store makes.
Like you, I pay most bills online and save the postage. I also use my credit card for almost all monthly expenses and then pay off the balance each month. I appreciate the cash back and can easily track my spending. I also have the assurance that my credit card company stands behind my purchases.
Thanks for reminding us of how it used to be. We have always tried to be frugal, we just have different tools today.
@Sandra, I miss rummage sales, which seem to have been casualties of the pandemic (at least where I live). Some of our local churches and synagogues had great ones, but not any more.
@Sandra, boy do I miss the yard sales. Like everything else the pandemic changed that. Sometime I cannot believe how much money I saved.
When my daughter was moving into an apartment with some other girls at college she was in charge of furnishing the kitchen. The summer before we went to yard sales. I realized that the stuff I was buying her was better than the stuff in MY kitchen. After I was done outfitting her kitchen I started on mine.
Long before when my kids were babies I bought all their clothes and toys at yard sales. Then one day my daughter started saying is this from a yard sale and refused the toys and clothes. But by this time she was watching animals and babysitting so she had her own money to pay half for new clothes, which is what we settled on.
She now has kids of her own and asked me to please buy their clothes at yard sales. I try but they are few and far between.
@A. Marie,
I love rummage sales, and sadly they are now few and far between. One of the Catholic Churches in our area used to have a huge one every spring. It filled a gymnasium. At noon, they would hand you a bag, and everything you could put in that bag was $5. Bargains galore!
@Sandra, Rather obsessive comment here: I'm also missing yard sales in my town. One thing that messed it up, (in my opinion), was the institution several years ago of the "city-wide-yard sale" in early May. So instead of having 5-9 sales every weekend, (I loved that!), there are 70-100 on one day. No one can get to those all, and anyone who has a sale can't go shopping.
In other words, there are subtle economic forces at work here, and I don't like them.
@Sandra, @A. Marie, @Bee,
I just went to a church rummage sale this past Saturday! Which is probably the first post-pandemic one I've been to. There are two churches in my little town that have rummage sales - the church on Saturday holds it once a year, and the other church has rummage sales maybe twice a year. It's only been in the past year or so that the rummage sales have resumed. I always find great things I, my family, and my friends can use.
@Sandra, I loved yard sales too when my children were growing up! I bought so many articles of clothing, toys, and books. The one downside was ending up with too much stuff!
Yard sales aren't really a thing in the UK, where I'm from, but charity shops are very popular (less so in Denmark for some reason). I remember my parents getting us clothes, toys and books from there. My parents like margarine but I am a convert to butter!
@Sophie in Denmark,
Funny, my mom and dad were just the opposite. My parents never ate margarine. My mother and father were odd birds. They believed in limiting the consumption of processed foods. This was really weird in the 60s and 70s. Butter was natural. Margarine wasn’t. I didn’t have kool-aid or Little Debbie’s either.
I was born in 1978, and we had Country Crock margarine spread in the fridge.
Mostly, though, my parents didn't feed us much in the way of processed food. I'm pretty sure I was a teenager before I ever had a Little Debbie's product!
@Bee, I rarely ate anything while I was growing up that *wasn't* a processed food. My mother wasn't into cooking, so almost everything we ate came out of a can or a box. (For example, I had to leave home to find out about the glories of fresh fish, since Mom relied on tuna out of the can, salmon out of the can, and fish sticks out of the box.) As I've mentioned in the past, her four very different children all loved her dearly--but it wasn't for her meals.
As for Little Debbies--well, the Little Debbie factory was (and still is) just up the road from my original home town, so eating them was more or less unavoidable! ;-D
@Bee, I have never eaten a Little Debbies or drunk koolaid! I don't think we have them in Europe.
@Bee, My parents were the same way. I never tasted margarine or Tang or Cool Whip. In fact, I'm still not sure I've ever had Cool Whip. I don't think it was that weird back then, as hippies were into natural stuff.
That's anothing thing that used to exist in my area and does no longer: hippie houses! I remember one house in the Hamptons that I was fascinated by as it was painted bright pink. Now it's been done up and is worth about $8 million.
@Bee,
Although we ate margarine, my mother refused to serve us Kool-Aid, candy bars, snack cakes or soda except as a very rare treat. She always said Kool-Aid was just flavored sugar-water. I don't think my kids ever drank Kool-Aid at home; they probably did at school parties or friends' parties.
I don't remember Little Debbie cakes being around when I was a kid; it was Twinkies and Moon-Pies. And we didn't get those as kids, either.
@JD, No Little Debbies in the New York area. Drake's Cakes FTW!
I have to say it kinda gets on my nerves when people assume that their regional stuff was everywhere back in the day. Like, WTF is a Kroger? I've never been in one. Someone sent me a picture of what I guess is a Jack in the Box and asked if I missed it. What? Do I ask anyone else if they miss Wetson's or Bohack's? I do not.
I think it's just being unaware! If you haven't had the privilege of traveling around a lot, you might not realize that while Safeway is all over the place (Albertson's in some places, I think?), Kroger is not.
I've never heard of Drake's cakes, but I googled them and they look so similar to Little Debbie's. Do they taste different?
@Kristen, IDK. I've never had a Little Debbies. I have no idea if they're around here or not. If they were, I wouldn't eat one anyway.
There are no Safeways here either.
Ah, ok! I know there are Safeway or Safeway affiliates all the way out on the west coast so they’re much less regional than, say, Kroger.
None in the Northeast according to this.
https://rentechdigital.com/smartscraper/location-reports/safeway-locations-in-united-states
@A. Marie, @Kristen I also grew up on many processed foods, including Country Crock. As a convert to butter through a lifelong interest in baking, I haven't had margarine in many, many years. We did have lots of sugary items growing up as my mom was not a cook either, A. Marie. I recall her breakfast of choice being a can of Coke and a package of mini white powdered donuts!! She had the metabolism of a teenager....I did not, even though I was a kid.
My goodness, I'm imagining the blood sugar crash after such a breakfast. I would be useless about a half hour later! lol
@Sophie in Denmark, my sister lives in Brussels and I am forever trying to get her to declutter, especially clothes, and take them to a charity shop. She swears there are not any around. Now, she may be trying to pull the wool over my eyes to avoid an unpleasant chore, but I always imagined Europeans to be thrifty and clever about material goods so why wouldn't they have charity shops to redistribute no longer wanted items?
Sophie, let me know who is right in this family squabble. 🙂
@Anne, interesting! I haven't been to Brussels so can't speak to that but something else I've noticed is that there are much fewer chain stores in general for clothing, with the exception of H and M. My theory is that the higher tax supports community care and, as well as higher wages, people have less need to shop in them? I don't know if that makes sense or even if it's accurate!
@Rose, Kroger has lots of affiliate stores. I worked at Gerbes which is in Missouri, it is a Kroger affiliate. There is also Smith’s, Dillon’s, Fred Myers and many more that I can’t remember.
@Rose, Little Debbie is a pretty iconic snack food and is actually available in all 50 states, Canada, Mexico, Puerto Rico and military bases around the world. Apparently you're just not shopping in the right places. 😉
https://www.littledebbie.com/who-we-are
Or maybe they don't carry them in the Hamptons. Heh.
@Bobi and @Kristen, yes, I can imagine that Little Debbies would be way too downmarket for the Hamptons. 😀
@Bee,
But really, when you think about it, butter isn't "natural". It's made by a process - be it a butter churn, someone making it in their stand mixer, or in a butter-producing factory.
Having said that, it does typically have minimal ingredients (cream, salt if it's salted butter, not sure what else). I've read things lately about "processed foods" vs "ultra-processed foods", the latter being foods that don't resemble the food item itself (think Pringles crisps). the definition is a bit more involved than that, but you get the idea. Frozen vegetables fall into the "processed food" category as well.
Maybe if we're trying to be super precise, we could use "minimally processed" vs. "highly processed".
But colloquially, I would definitely find myself saying that butter is a more natural product than margarine, and honestly, I do kinda defend the idea of it being natural. To make it, all you do is beat cream until the fat separates from the buttermilk, and then you add salt. That's a pretty natural food in my mind.
Regardless of the labels we use, I think we all are heading to the same goal: to eat more foods that are minimally processed, and to eat fewer that are heavily processed.
@Rose,
Drake's Cakes, happy sigh! Devil Dogs for the win.
@Rose,
You're not missing anything with the lack of Little Debbies. Here in Ohio, folks have fond memories of eating them as kids (or still eat them), but the attraction is lost on me.
Since I didn't grow up eating them, I have never been particularly enamored with them.
I also REALLY dislike those chocolate frosted mini donuts in grocery stores because the chocolate coating on them is so plasticky and greasy. I think they must be an acquired taste too.
@Kristen,
I agree with the overall goal to eat less/fewer highly processed foods. A lot depends on one's definition of "natural", which could be debated for years. Not here to promote that debate, lol.
@Lana P, None of which exist here.
That's because y'all are bougie out there in the Hamptons. 😉
@Liz B., I read an interesting article of classism being tied up in this debate, ie, we say all ultra processed food is bad but have no problem eating fancy, 'all natural' vegetable chips! I should add that I'm not accusing anyone here of this attitude or for enjoying snacks - I definitely do! I mean on a general level.
@A. Marie and @Kristen, if we're talking about regionalism a lot of discussion tends to be very US focused!
Ohhh, for sure! I am probably utterly unfamiliar with most of your stores in Denmark.
@Sophie in Denmark, true. I've spent some time in the UK and have a vague idea of what the supermarket and other brand names are there, but I wouldn't have a clue in Denmark.
@Lana P and Kristen,
I've shopped at Gerbes and Food 4 Less when I lived in MO, Dillons in KS, and King Soopers in CO. There might not be variations of Kroger stores in the NY area. This is what I find online:
The Kroger Co. Family of Stores includes:
Baker’s
City Market
Dillons
Food 4 Less
Foods Co
Fred Meyer
Fry’s
Gerbes
Jay C Food Store
King Soopers
Kroger
Mariano’s
Metro Market
Pay-Less Super Markets
Pick’n Save
QFC
Ralphs
Ruler
Smith’s Food and Drug
@Liz B @ A, Marie, and @ Kristen, I suppose that technically nearly all food is processed unless we eat it in its purest uncooked form. Minimally processed foods would definitely be the more accurate description. I suppose my parents technically tried to avoid chemicals, preservatives, high levels of salt, and chemicals. This is something my sisters and I all do as adults. It was difficult for my husband to get used to. He had never had fresh broccoli until we were married.
I do remember making butter as a child, but I think they purchased at a nearby dairy. Florida was not a very developed state when I was born and you could buy such things easily. The population was about 4 million when I was born. Now I believe it exceeds 25 million.
@Sophie in Denmark, my parents grew up during the depression and the war years so they were die hard margarine fans. I like butter but for the small amount that I do eat I mostly eat maragarine (Country Crock) and use butter in the small amounts of times I bake.
@Bee, my mom was one of the original working moms of the 70's and that meant a lot of processed food. I took over starting supper when I was 10. Lots of paper thin pork chops cooked past their natural born life, meat loaf, fish sticks, hot dogs and yuck, liver and onions. But my mom made the best spaghetti (jar sauce) and tuna noodle casserole. I never had fresh fish til my hubby and I started eating salmon about 10 years ago.
Forget Little Debbie for me and my brother (there were 5 of us) Devil Dogs and Ring Dings were the best treat!!
@A. Marie,
I would trade my homemade treats for Little Debbies. I never told my mom.
@auntiali, this is a train of thought, but I've heard that American food in general tends to have more sugar/sweeteners in it (processed or otherwise). I only went to New York for a few days so can't give my own opinion, but these snacks all sound incredibly sweet! I've heard that bread has a lot more sugar in the US than other countries.
@Sophie in Denmark,
Oooo, I'll bet that was an interesting read! Theres so much tied to food. I tell people all the time....organic potato chips are still potato chips. Yes, eat them and enjoy them, in moderation....but don't think you're eating a "healthy" snack (or side with your sandwich).
@Rose, None of those exist here in eastern PA either. Nor does Safeway and no Kroger!
@Jacinda, None of these around in Eastern PA.
@Erika JS, Look, you guys get Wawas, for which I envy you. Does Acme, the supermarket I shopped at in college still exist?
FTR, our local 7 Eleven is the top earning 7 Eleven in the world. I would bet they have Little Debbies.
@Erika JS, However, as Kristen says the privilege of travel let me recognize some of the names. And I figured the rest were supermarkets!
@auntiali, I love(d) Hostess chocolate cupcakes and Ding Dongs.
@Rose, we had a hippie house near my childhood home!
@Rose, we have little debbies in nyc but i grew up with drakes in yeshiva where i went to school in mamaroneck, ny. funney bones fan here. but id hardlly ever eat them.
@Lindsey G, My grandma died at 99 and 11 months, still living on her own. For breakfast every single day she had full sugar Pepsi and several jelly donuts. My uncle was very angry one time when I visited and brought her donuts---she was 99 at that point and I felt like at her age she was entitled to eat whatever the hell she wanted. She also loved salt and if I had thought of it
I would have bought her a salt lick!
@Bee, My husband loved chocolate pie. When we were first together for his birthday I made one, from scratch. He said it "was good." The next year I bought one form a bakery for the then exorbitant sum of $30. He said it "was good." The next year, I used a premade crust, Jello pudding mix, and Dream Whip. He said, "This is wonderful, it tastes just like my mom used to make!" So now, every July I make a totally processed chocolate pie and he is in heaven. Sometimes you just have to give in to nostalgia. He, too, had never seen vegetables in the wild, everything he ate in childhood had been canned.
@Lindsey, kudos to you for bringing donuts. I bought my grandpa a gallon of raw milk. He said it was better than store bought but not as good as the milk from his Guernsey dairy cows. He drank whole milk his entire life - lived to be 95. And I'm convinced he made the decision to die and did. Told me he wanted to make it to 90 but not 100. A couple of his maternal aunts lived to be 100. One of his sisters was alive until age 98 - I don't call having Alzheimer's being alive.
Also bought him ice cream for Xmas one year - he wouldn't buy it cuz "it was too expensive".
@Bobi, Canada is a pretty big place and I have never heard of Little Debbie. West coast of Canada. Maybe I am sheltered?
@Anne,
I have several friends in Brussels (I am german myself, they are belgian and german) and your sister is pulling the wool over your eyes. Just open google maps, search for Oxfam in Brussels and you'll see...
@Lindsey,
Wow!! 99 and 11 months?! Pepsi and donuts?! lol incredible!
My grandpa’s last drink at the hospital was pickle juice. The nurse said no but relented. He was dying. Died later that evening.
I feel that is a time of life when you can drink whatever the heck you want. Good for him. 🙂
@Rose, Supermarkets in eastern Pa: Acme, yes, Giant, Wegman's, Weis, Whole Foods. And fast food Wawa is still here. Boston Market sadly not.
Back when I did try to cloth diaper, I did go full-tilt and used cloth wipes. I even used them *ahem* for myself, and I will say they were more comfortable than TP, especially for just after #1, if you get my drift. However, it was a lot of extra laundry and when I gave up cloth diapering I also gave up the cloth wipes. DH did say it was good to know if there was an extreme emergency that we weren't squeamish enough to use cloth instead of buying TP. And hey, during the Great Toilet Paper Crisis of 2020, I wasn't too worried because I knew cloth worked just as well and we could wash 'em.
Crackers...I tried making those as well, and like Kristen, I found it too much trouble for too little reward, and the ones on the outside always burned before the middle ones were done. I'd rather roast some chickpeas! Or make popcorn. I don't think we even really buy crackers, except maybe around the holidays.
My parents used to buy the HUGE tub of margarine, the giant yellow one. It was so gross, especially when toast crumbs would accumulate in it. Yuck. We now buy unsalted butter (stocking up on a good sale) and it's mostly used on rice, maybe pasta sometimes, and corn on the cob.
@Karen A., I felt similarly about the great TP panic of 2020. I couldn't get to the store to buy extra, but people around the world use bidets...I figured, worst case scenario I could hop into the bathtub for a quick wash and towel dry.
Thank you for putting into my mind to make roasted chickpeas! I used to make them when I was in university; I wonder if my toddler would like them? I'm always on the lookout for healthy snacks for her (and me!) We love popcorn, too.
@Karen A., Oooh, you just reminded me that Jersey (New Jersey) corn in available at farm stands now and it is oh sooo goood.
@auntiali, It has been a great year for corn! We're having it at least once a week and it's so good this year.
I did cloth diaper, and I did try making and using the homemade wipes. I found them to get kind of . . . rancid? Off-smelling? Something smelly and gross in their container, at any rate. Like the liquid they were soaked in went off. But then, I lived in a very damp house at the time. Anyway, buying wipes was worth it to me.
Also, I smiled at the cracker recipe saying they "taste something like" Wheat Thins. That means they don't really taste like them at all. 🙂
@kristin@going country,
We cloth diapered and used cloth wipes, but I did not soak them in any solution bc I am paranoid about mold. I just had a spray bottle of plain water on the changing table and I would spray each wipe as I needed it. It worked well.
I’ve never found homemade crackers to be worth it bc you spend all this time making them and then everyone eats them within 12 minutes.
@kristin@going country, someone gave us a Rubbermaid tub of homemade wipes made with paper towels. I guess I didn't use them quickly enough because they molded. Commercial wipes for us! Upside is, I still use the Rubbermaid container. 🙂
That exact thing happened to me too!
The longer it's been since you had Wheat Thins, the more these would taste like Wheat Thins. Ha.
I am similarly convinced that people who say kale chips taste like Doritos have not had a Dorito in a very long time!
@Tarynkay, Home cooking in a nut shell. When I was a newlywed I took photos of my efforts so I could enjoy them longer!
@Kristen,
Ha ha, nope on kale chips tasting like Doritos. Not even close!
I’m sure companies receive lots more communication from customers. When people started to apply for jobs online it was a lot harder to get interviewed. We used to be able to go and ask about employment. Now they direct you to their website. It is convenient but then again so much harder to find a job.
There was actually a lot of useful info in this section.
I also did the clothes filing system. My sister had a son and a daughter slightly older than my children and gave me all her children’s clothing. I kept it neatly organized using Amy’s system. I rarely had to buy my kiddos anything in the first several years of life with the exception of shoes. The children’s feet are all different.
I used disposable diapers and wipes. I found the early years of motherhood a bit overwhelming. I often choose ease above all else. I did not do well when sleep deprived.
I did the resale side hustle. I started doing eBay very early around 2001. Almost everything was sold via auction and some didn’t even have photos. I couldn’t afford a digital camera. I would buy film in bulk at Sam’s Club. I would have it developed at a small local camera shop who would skip the prints and then put it on a CD for a discount. This probably sounds like a pain, but it was worth. Prices were high then and nearly everything sold in just 10 days. I also had an antique booth.
I have started reading the second book. Happy Monday!
@Bee, My kids are two years apart. Son and then daughter. I kept the neutral gender things to pass down to my daughter: jeans, t-shirts bought on vacation even socks if they lasted that long. When we went on vacation the kids were allowed to get one t-shirt. I imagine what my kid's teachers thought when they walked into school wearing their "Brew-Thru" t-shirts from The Outer Banks in North Carolina. Brew-Thru was a drive through beer store. And I would buy or borrow from the library the Harry Potter books for the kids to read on the long drive from New Jersey to North Carolina.
@auntiali,
I was so excited to have a girl after two boys. I tried to dress my DD up like a doll. She wasn’t having it! No bows! No dresses! No pink!!!
@Bee, Heh. My daughter was born with and still has bright orange hair. You know what color isn't so great with that? Pink. I always bought her blue dresses when tiny because it set off her big blue eyes. Relatives still gave me pink and at Christmas, red. Whatever.
I had clothes organized by season and gender in totes. I didn't mind searching for sizes and I usually had a decent idea of what should be in there. However, once the age range was more spread out between kids of the same gender, I stopped hanging onto clothes unless it was something really special. I had too much stuff, and it's not hard to find used kids clothing.
I tried homemade wipes obce- massive fail. And I didn't really buy paper towels anyways, so diaper wipes were so much easier with daycare/babysitters.
And thrifty parents don't always make thrifty kids- all the modeling, all the budgeting, all the talks about avoiding finance charges, don't make a dent sometimes. Some kids have to learn the lesson the hard way.
@mbmom11, Parents pat themselves on the back for their kids not being picky eaters too. I've always been picky--for me, it's a texture, smell things--but my brothers and sisters weren't, and one of my kids will eat anything and one won't.
I remember my great grandmother boiling up a huge pot of mussels we caught for her and telling me I had to drink the broth or I'd get a goiter. I was about ten. I told her I'd take the goiter, then.
@mbmom11,
You are absolutely correct that thrifty parents don’t always make thrifty kids. My parents spent a lot of time and effort instilling their frugal values, which I appreciate. My brother and sister on the other hand both grew up to struggle mightily with money. Unfortunately, my parents seem to see this as a moral failure, which is not wonderful for their relationship.
With my own kids, I keep telling them that I’m just trying to give them options. Sure, you can grow up and never cook and hire someone to do your laundry and scrub your toilet. You can hire an appliance repair person instead of spending Saturday morning fixing stuff. But we are teaching you to do those things so you have the option of doing them yourself. You can grow up and live paycheck to paycheck with loads of credit card debt- I’m just teaching you how to budget now so that you have the option of making different decisions.
@Rose, So much of what people call "picky eating" is really aversion to texture, or even smell. My oldest refused, ever, to eat watermelon--even as a baby he'd pick up the pieces and squeeze the juice out, with a look of disgust on his face! He says the texture weirds him out. He says it smells good to him, and watermelon flavor is fine, but the texture is a no-go for him.
I, personally, love watermelon but loathe the smell, texture, and taste of cantaloupe, honeydew and muskmelon. My mom loved those, and couldn't understand why I would refuse them. They're like sweet soap to me. Horrible. Of course all four of my kids adore cantaloupe.
@Karen A., I love cantaloupe, never liked watermelon. And I hate PB&J, especially on gross Wonder Bread which my mother would never buy. So yeah, back in the 70s when children were often served PB&J and watermelon for lunch, I ate nothing. But that was fine because it was the 70s, not today! Eat it or starve was the order of the day. (I like plain peanut butter.)
@Rose, I still think fondly of PB&J from childhood but never eat it because, for me, it has to be on nutrition less white bread. I can't bear it on the good breads we eat now and I'm not going to buy a loaf of white bread.
I personally love peanut butter and honey sandwiches on Nature's Own 100% whole wheat bread. I buy it at Sam's, it's soft and light, and it makes the sandwich feel a little more satisfyingly hefty (without being like a sandwich made with Dave's Killer Bread!)
@Anne, Everyone is allowed to have a few odd food weaknesses. You'll take my Stove-Top from my cold, dead hands. Also I love olive loaf. There's more, but I'm too ashamed coughsteakummscough to admit it.
@Karen A., yes. I can’t eat mango. Something about the texture really throws me! It’s too bad as I grew up in south Florida with two huge mango trees in our garden!
I also can’t stand the texture of some mild white fish like flounder. I love ‘meatier’ fish such as salmon and tuna. I adore sushami.
@Karen A., My food aversions: beans of any kind in any form and lamb. Even thinking about their textures gives me the willies.
@Tarynkay, my response to one kiddo saying she'd hire someone to do chores she didn't like was - "you better know how it is supposed to be done so you don't get ripped off". Another piece of advice was to think how many hours you'd have to work (after taxes) to buy X. Both kiddos are frugal and can cook. One is better than the other but I'll deny saying this lol.
@Rose, my mother liked Stove-Top. Only way I can eat it is to drown it in gravy with a healthy bite of turkey and/or mashed potatoes. To each his own - I love Spam and bologna. Fried bologna and mayo sandwich - yum.
I dutifully did cloth diapers with our first child, but when the second one came along and the first was still in diapers, that went by the wayside real quick!
I also did couponing and had a huge collection of UPC codes to send in for whatever freebie was offered. I’m glad there are easier ways to save money now!
Personally,I think a lot of these non disposable ideas have to be viewed on a case by case thought.
I live in a small apartment with limited laundry facilities,so keeping the stinky diapers,wipes and personal use cloths wouldn't work for me at all.
I also think my time has a price tag and in the grand scheme of things a box of crackers isn't much over a dollar,when TWG was written 1 of those large boxes of Saltines was way less than a buck.
Guess it depends on how it impacts personal life.
@Pat, I think frugal looks different on everybody. Everyone’s life is a little bit different. Everyone’s frugal choices are a little bit different.
@Pat, I had a Fisher Price diaper pail that sealed well and kept some water and bleach in it and never had a problem with smells. Hubby was a champion poopy diaper rinser using the toilet. Me not so much.
When I was little (like three) some people cloth diapered and some used Pampers. I remember being at the supermarket with my mom and her buying new plastic pants for my slightly younger sister. I never understood the resurgence of cloth diapers--they're stinky, inconvenient, unpleasant to wear, and involved way more work for women. Gross.
I don't recall my mother ever making crackers, but she baked everything else. The worst was the time she made napoleons (which are so delicious, but what a pain) and my father absently ate almost all of them. Poor Mom went through a lot of effort* and then four tall, hungry kids ate everything in a shark feeding frenzy, unless Dad got to them first.
*In first grade, for some reason, each kid was required to bring in a homemade dessert for the class to share. Probably most people sent some cheap cookies or a box mix cake, but my mom made 35 chocolate eclairs, some filled with chantilly cream and some with custard. Heh.
@Rose, that is a very nice memory to have of your mom.
@Bee, I still can hardly believe she's gone. It feels like when the World Trade Center collapsed. It's always been there--how can it suddenly be gone?
I'm so, so glad my kids knew her and my dad very well. I can use some of Mom's inexplicable phrases like "bumming out," used for when someone is spoiling something fanccy by using it every day, as in "don't bum out that nice dress," or some old phrasing that's gone out, like "chop meat" and "cellar" for "basement," and my kids know where it comes from.
@Rose, it was my personal choice to use cloth diapers and that was because I wanted to be a stay at home mom. Same reason for breast feeding. Some people thought I was nuts including my two older sisters. My mom was gone by then but I bet she would have kept me in Pampers if she was alive. My oldest's sisters favorite story was having to change my brother's diaper after he ate blueberries. He exploded in blue poop! My mom went back to work part time at nights at a hot dog stand then and my sisters who are 8 and 9 years older than me babysat us at night. The old man would NEVER change a diaper.
@Rose, My childhood babysitter used cloth diapers for her grandson because she was helping raise him so her daughter could complete school. And they didn't have a lot of disposable (pun intended) income. Everybody makes their own choices depending on what makes sense for their families.
@Rose, I am so very sorry. I lost my mom a year ago, and miss her so much
@auntiali, my better half never had an issue changing diapers - didn't want his kid to sit in waste. He could do cloth diapers - he helped his mom with his youngest sibling. Him being an involved dad was the only reason I had a second child - had he been "that's wimmens work", no more kids.
I have made crackers exactly twice and came to a similar conclusion. Not worth it. It's like making kale or apple chips; because they are so small and a snack is, like, half a tray's worth, it takes SO MUCH EFFORT to make a week's worth.
Yep! Too labor intensive. Very different than making a big pan of granola!
@Meira @meirathebear, My favorite food is hors d'oeuvres. But I sure never make all those tiny little things myself.
@Heidi Louise, A dear friend of mine is obsessed with making hors d'oeurves and will spend hours and hours before a party or holiday. I always say to him, "Life is too short to stuff mushrooms;" on the other hand, he will nitpick other people's deviled eggs. The yolks must be PIPED and there must be no paprika on the white, just the yolk. I told him to seek help. But damn, his are always so good.
@Rose, that makes me laugh! I admit, I get fussy when I host guests (though not fussy enough to pipe egg yoks,) but that's for special occasions!
@Meira @meirathebear, He once made deviled eggs where he colored the yolks green and piped them into little Christmas trees with pimento ornaments and yellow pepper stars.
Um, he retired at age 44.
@Rose, This made me laugh. My aunt/godmother would have done such a thing. One Easter, she decided her grandchildren needed jello eggs, and, not knowing that molds existed for them, she and uncle poked holes in plastic eggs, (perhaps with a hot needle), and did all sorts of shenanigans to make the molds. She would have had quite a few colors for them as well. And jello put through a potato ricer makes a nice grass base.
@Rose, he use mayo in them? I refuse to eat deviled eggs with mayo. Our family recipe is mayo-less which is rather ironic since mom and I both love (loved for her) mayo.
I do remember reading about all her clothing boxes. You have to remember that she had an attic that she used to store all those boxes in and dry her clothes in the winter so she had plenty of room. Luckily I only had 1 daughter who was not a clothes hound, so I didn't have to stock up on clothes. But I remember hand-me-downs from my sister and how they were also handed down to my other sisters.
Yeah, I had mine stacked in closets! It was such a nice feeling when I could get rid of one.
@Maureen, my mother used to use big cardboard drums (I have no idea what they were originally used for) to store all of our off-season and "maybe" clothes, one drum per child. Of course, I was the third of three girls, so I got ALL of my sisters' hand-me-downs. (I protested against this mightily back in the day, but here I am in my late 60s wearing almost all secondhand clothing, so the early conditioning seems to have been effective.) And of course there was never much in my brother's drum, since he was the only boy.
@Kristen, Gosh, I'm replying to so many comments. I guess I just have happy memories of getting the kids clothed for less or free. One woman at church loved to go through the rummage sale clothes for my kids and she once, in a thrift shop, found a lovely red wool coat with a muff and a hat for dd. It was gorgeous!
@A. Marie, @Kristen, I do remember in high school only having 5 outfits, 3 shirts for 1 pair of pants and 2 shirts for the other pair of pants -- jeans were not allowed. I only had that amount of school clothes because my older sister went to Catholic High School and had a uniform. I went to the more progressive Catholic High School that quit the uniforms when I was a sophmore. But then I went to public school and nobody really cared how you looked and you could wear jeans!
@Maureen, My boarding school had uniforms of forest green pleated skirts, white shirts and green ties, plus green knee socks and saddle shoes. I loved it because I didn't have to worry about style (not that I ever had any, since I was happy wearing my father's old shirts for blouses) and there was no competition for most expensive clothes. I do not like the color green but I still like saddle shoes!
Consumer Complaints: In my experience, companies are much less responsive these days. They used to offer a coupon or reimbursement if you purchased a defective product, now they take your information and say they'll "pass it along" and you rarely get anything. I will give a shout-out to Hisense who sent us a brand-new $300 AC unit when our 18-month old one quit working.
Credit Card Rewards: Not sure exactly when they started but they weren't really widely available in the '90s and if they were, they went to customers with higher credit scores. On the flip side, credit card interest was tax deductible in those days.
@Bobi, Amex certainly had points in the 90s--it was pretty much the only card I used then. Also, credit interest stopped being tax deductible in 1986.
I have to imagine any tax benefit to deducting credit card interest was minimal in comparison to the damage caused by having to pay credit card interest!
@Kristen, the 1986 law made sweeping changes to taxes. The top income tax rate was lowered, while the lowest rate was increased. (We Democrats howled a lot at that one.) Long term capital gains tax was raised, and certain deductions were eliminated, like credit card interest. Personal exemptions were increased, and from now on, you had to provide Social Security numbers for dependents. Apparently a lot of dependents just disappeared after that, ha! I didn't get a SS number until I was 17; nowadays for obvious reasons kids get them as babies.
@Rose, my accountant at the time said a number of his clients (yes clients in this case) were in a world of hurt when credit card interest ceased being deductible. Then folks when to deducting HELOC/home equity loan interest and that has now changed. Use your HELOC for vacation - not deductible. Only deductible for home improvement (and I suspect repairs such as a new septic).
New septic counts as a capital improvement, so it's deductible no matter how it's paid for.
I used to make those crackers and they were yummy with some kosher salt sprinkled on. A lot of work, but DH and I were financially strapped by medical bills and also "crunchy granola" in lifestyle. Same reason why we mostly cloth diapered our baby and used a clothesline.
One of my aunts worked in a big resale shop and used to help me out by letting me know when they had baby clothes and shoes come in. The stuff was literally pennies each.
Doctors used to recommend margarine to heart patients, before anyone knew about trans fats, and I grew up with my mom using it. To me it just tasted greasy. I prefer butter as an adult, but just in moderation.
It's good to know what's not worth it to you. For me, that includes crackers and yogurt. Honestly, the list gets longer as life goes on, I get better established, and different products become available. My next one may be - wait for it - chicken stock. When my roommate had a nasty stomach bug and couldn't keep anything down[1], I discovered that store-bought bone broth is both high protein[2] and very tasty.
I use margarine sometimes, when I'm baking for others who don't know or don't care, I'll save the money. Otherwise it's butter all the way.
I've had some very good outcomes by writing mfgrs about something specifically wrong, such as an empty soda can or stale crackers. I've talked about VITAL FARMS before: three moldy eggs and one polite letter yielded about 10 coupons for free eggs, a couple for free butter, and a lot of discounts. Their first offer was to Instantcart me some eggs, in case I needed them immediately. There's more but if I tell you all the good things, I'll go on for several paragraphs. I can't say enough good about their customer service.
I've also had good outcomes from telling companies about good outcomes. I have a friend who scored a some free diapers and a bunch of coupons from [goes asks] Huggies. The first letter was complements; the second was a shortcoming, and Huggies sent her a sample of diapers so she could see which of their offerings would work for her.
PROTIP: if you're complaining, have the container at hand. The company will want info (serial, bar code, etc) to track the manufacturing problem.
I, too, pay a lot of bills by credit card to get the rebate. You can also do this to fulfill a "spend $X to get a bonus" promotions. Only works if you pay your bills in full, of course.
[1] for 4 months, can we please not do that again
[2] by chicken stock standards
@WilliamB, a 4 month stomach bug sounds TERRIBLE. I hope they recovered!
@WilliamB, I came to the same conclusion when I was trying to get broth into my son after his surgeries. The store-bought bone broth was just FINE and I wasn't worried about food safety as much, whether I had cooled the broth fast enough to avoid stuff growing in it, etc. Plus my time was limited with three other kids and lots of hospital visits.
@WilliamB, if you can stand it and a local store sells it, many chefs swear by boiling chicken feet to make broth.
I lived on soups made with homemade bone broth in college, as it was about all I could afford on my $10 a week grocery money, along with homemade bread and instant coffee.
@WilliamB, I had a bronchitis earlier this year that lasted 8 weeks but a 4-month-long stomach bug, wow! Did you ever find out the cause? I hope all is well now and appreciate the information about store-bought bone broth. I love soup and always miss it in the hot summer weeks when I don’t make my day-long homemade broth. I will try your suggestion.
@Rose, Oh, I know lots about the many different ways to make stock from several different traditions. My usual homemade stock has plenty of gelatin even without the feet although there was a period when I always threw a few in.
My thinking about boxed bone broth has to do with how little cooking I feel like doing now and how the companies add more salt (=tastier) than I can quite bear to. It's not entirely rational, I know.
@Karen A., That's seems like a perfect reason to go with store-bought. You have all my sympathies for such a trying period.
@WilliamB, It's fine. I personally feel a tad guilty when I see giant containers of chicken feet at the grocery store and think, nope, too squeamish.
I cloth diapered and used cloth wipes, but when I went back to work and my youngest was still in diapers, the daycare refused to accept cloth. My DH was out of work and looking for work at the time and disposables were a big expense added to the day care cost to buy diapers, so I quickly changed her out to cloth diapers and wipes when we got home and kept her in cloth all weekend. The cloth wipes worked fine for me, but I didn't pre-soak them in anything. I just used a fresh cloth, washed the bottom, rinsed the cloth and tossed it in the diaper pail (or in a bag until I could get home if we were out). I didn't have a problem with lingering smell, but I usually hung them all out in the sun - maybe that helped?
I have a recipe for cassava crackers that is pretty easy - make it, pat it out on a pan, bake, and break it up. Making something that I have to cut out, prick, try to bake evenly - nope, not going to happen. Besides, I eat crackers of any kind maybe 3-4 times a year. I don't consider them an important food group, ha. The most frugal thing is to not eat them at all.
My parents switched to margarine when I was growing up. It was one of the marvels of the day, and "so much healthier for you." Almost everyone used it back then! My siblings and I all eventually switched back to butter when we moved away from home. I now accept no substitutes.
With just two kids of the same gender, I didn't need much of a storage system, but I certainly used some hand-me-downs for the first (from cousins) and the second (from sister and cousins). I ran into the problem that the first one was very short for her age, and of ordinary (er... slightly chubby) build, while the second one was tall and slim for her age, so the hand-me-downs didn't always work out when it was the right season to be wearing them. Sometimes, I just had to buy new for both of them, but I was a clearance and sale shopper. I paid full-price basically never.
The reason I still love reading the Gazette is that the details and trick aren't nearly as important as the mind-set. We don't have some of these outdated situations anymore, but we can look at what we actually do now, and think creatively about how to do it more frugally. I find the Tightwad Gazette really encourages me to re-think my routines, to see if I've been blindly ignoring easy ways to save money. They may be small, but they add up.
@JD, I love how Amy D analyzes the options. There is always a logical reason behind her choices. Some of her ideas are extremely creative.
@JD and @Bee, hear, hear! For you younger folks who may just be seeing Amy D as a pre-Internet dinosaur, read the TG for the mindset and the approach, rather than some of the (admittedly outdated) specific tips.
@A. Marie, Yes and especially valuable for those whose parents didn’t model thrift and frugal ways.
@JD, interesting - my day care required cloth diapers. Factored into your weekly charge.
I never used many baby wipes with my babies as the bottoms were washed under running water and dried off with a gentle towel. Less waste and chemicals on skin.
I did decide to try cloth diapering with my youngest babies who were twins. It was actually less work than one would imagine. Soiled diapers were placed in a covered bin that was lined with a washable bag, adding baking soda that kept the smell at bay and helped boost the detergent. Since I had so much baby laundry to do anyway, it honestly did not feel like washing the diapers was big add-on as it was just one more load every two or three days. I definitely felt happy over the money and environment savings since two babies would have used so many diapers.
@Kristina M., Yes! I put baking soda, not bleach in the dirty diaper water.
Garage sales are still big around here. In fact, communities have garage sale weekends that bring a lot of traffic
I have all of the Tightwad Gazette books AND newsletters. Back in the day, when money was tight for us, we used many of the tips that were suggested. We are now retired and enjoying it because we were able to build up a nice nest egg due to being frugal (NOT CHEAP). I still enjoy the thrill of the hunt when rummaging and thrift shopping although so many people are now on the same path so we have to go more often to find bargains. I have also embraced minimalism to a degree.
I definitely did the used clothing thing for things that were easy to fit on my boys. The harder to fit items and socks, I bought new, but on sale. Shoes were always bought new. They each had medicial/sensory issues that made shoes challenging.
Like you, I found crackers to be a pain to make, especially when one of the kids needed a gluten free diet.
I still have my copy of the Tightwad Gazette.
We do a bit of a hybrid approach with the cloth diaper/wipes situation. We cloth diaper most of the time, with a notable exception being when we know we'll be traveling for multiple days in a row with no easy access to laundry facilities. We also use a disposable diaper overnight, as we've never had good luck with getting diapers not to leak overnight. We also have a spray bottle filled with wipe liquid that we spray on cloth wipes. However, for particularly grody diaper changes, we use disposable wipes. We figure that we're reducing, I don't know, 80% more than families who use all disposable products, so it makes me feel like we're doing something in that capacity.
Something else my parents did was make us ice lollies (popsicles) with a mould they had. I remember there was a built in straw so I could drink the melted orange juice.
I have a sister but also inherited clothes from male cousins. It annoys me that retail makes clothing so gender specific (of course they want to double their sales rather than make things unisex, so they lean into the binary!)
@Sophie in Denmark, my mom would make that kind of popsicle too. It was just frozen orange juice and not particularly good. When you sucked on it all the juice and color came out and you were left with just a vaguely orange-flavored ice cube on a stick. Store-bought Popsicles are something I have prioritized as an adult lol
@SK in Norway, haha they did get pretty watery towards the end!
My husband and I are well into retirement, and because of a lifetime of thrift and a piece of luck pension, we actually have more income than we need. We have traveled the world but no longer feel the urge.
We do all of Amy's suggestions. We give to four charities per month, help out adult kids and grandkids, try to spend locally and still save. We often look at each other and say that we wish we had some of this excess when we were younger. But the truth is, even then, we never missed a meal or a house payment.
@Anne, You are singing my life exactly. We are retired, have traveled the world (with our kids) and now travel to places to meet up with our two boys and their families (they live in different states from us). We are lucky to have excess income, and save each month but contribute to charities and to our granddaughter's college fund.
We also say gosh wish we’d had excess money when the kids were young but we never missed any payment on any bill nor any meal.
@Anne, Agreed!
@Erika JS, Oops, forgot the biggest way we agree, which is that judicious use of the tips in Amy D's and others like her can result in a lovely retirement.
I love these Amy D. /TWG deep dives, Kristen. Please keep 'em coming!
I also grew up regularly accompanying my grandmother and her best friend to garage sales. As the advent of the internet (and possibly, COVID) has been the death of some of these types of sales, we still come across them regularly in our area of Northern California. However, finding clothes that fit our teenage sons has been a challenge and we more often buy marked-down shorts and pants at Costco. Just yesterday I procured a pair of Kirkland brand joggers for one of our 13-year old's for $3. I may go back today to get more. Fast fashion is hard to get away from when Goodwill is selling similar styles for double the price.
That said, I wanted to sing the praises of something positive that has come with our internet age: Buy Nothing Groups. I know Kristen, and many of you, are lucky enough to live in an area with a BN group (our local group is housed on FB). I have been the recipient and giver of many, many items. They're also great for borrowing items from folks in your local area. I can't say enough good things about our group!
I didn’t know about the Tightwad Gazette until recently, but some of its suggestions made their way to mainstream media way back when. Martha Stewart’s magazine shared the paper towel baby wipe recipe and it worked so well - I used these a lot.
We were fortunate enough to have borrowed maternity clothes and new born - 6 mos baby clothes from colleagues. Also had a used children’s clothing store 2 blocks away which worked well until the store closed when my kid was about 4 years old.
Only wrote to a manufacturer once, but it was a doozy. A fairly new slow cooker malfunctioned, its leg melted down, and caused a crack to a small section of granite countertop. I priced out replacement values, took pictures, wrote a demand letter and promptly received the full amount (a few thousand $) requested. The real lesson though was to be careful where I leave the slow cooker when I am not home (glass stove top always) because it could have turned out so much worse.
Also, team butter and real sugars all the way!
also, sorry guys, I have a need to correct other people, but 1990 when Amy D started was not "before the Internet." It was before most people had heard of it but I'd been on it for five years by then.
I'll go back to work now. Heh.
Ok, I guess I should have said "before the era of common household internet usage". I didn't even have an email address in 1990!
@Rose, I sometimes have a need to tell you to put a cork in it, and I'm telling you now. You're getting on my nerves today.
@Rose, i was six years old when i wrote to old london the company that made dipsey doodles. my pkg came without the promised bullwinkle coins. they answered and sent me coins. that was the first of many complaint issues. and i hat margarine and only use kerry gold irish butter.
@A. Marie, or as Archie used to say "stiffle it".
In case this hasn't been mentioned, The Frugal Shrink.com blog did interviews with Amy's daughters. July 28, 2021 on her website. Their perspectives are really interesting.
@Debbi Brock, thanks for sharing. Very interesting!
I mainly "shop" for clothes at garage sales/estate sales. I picked up a very nice brand linen casual jacket and pant set for $3. I looked it up on the internet, both pieces are still sold and were over $100.
I only have 1 daughter, so when she began 4H, we set up a community closet for the kids. pants, dress shirts, jackets and boots. I bought 3 antique wardrobes, the boots were cleaned up and labeled for sized. They still use it, just not at my barn, 25 years later.
This past weekend I shopped for melamine serve ware for my cousin's new travel trailer. I scored on insulated wine glasses (yeti), coffee tumblers, tupperware for storing pantry basics.
I always joke that I buy @ tag sales to upgrade my life. I picked up an antique vanity/dressing table (1920's) for $5, another 5 shelf bookcase for $5 and a leather reading chair
for $10. I found an ottoman that needs recovered for "free" and these will be fun fall projects.
I picked up a dozen puzzles to gift to my elderly patients that I do volunteer home nursing visits. I have 10 patients who I care for and organize their meds, appointments and vital checks. I work with a community health social worker team. It is one of the most gratifying volunteer jobs! We even have a husband / wife dr/bsn-fnp who work with us.
@Blue Gate Farmgirl, I want to volunteer when I retire from hospital nursing, sometime within the next 2 years. (Possibly sooner!) What you are doing sounds very interesting to me. Just out of curiosity, where are you located?
@Blue Gate Farmgirl, A couple of weeks ago my hubby and I went to an Estate Sale that had Boontonware at it. I think Boontonware may have been the original melamine serve ware. It was made in the town that's about 8 miles from here. There were 3 sets of it with serving dishes but the owner didn't want the set broken up. I think it was $50 a set but I don't have room for that many dishes. Guess I could have bought it and broken it up to sell on Ebay. It brought back fond memories cause my dad was so proud of something that was made in the town that he graduated high school from, Boonton NJ.
Amy D. saved my life. I saw her on the Donahue show while I was in the hospital after I had my son. I read about her newsletter in Parade magazine in the newspaper and signed up. I was hooked. I didn't really know how to be frugal even though I wasn't a spendthrift. I didn't want to go back to my lackluster office clerk job so I used cloth diapers and wash clothes for wipes. I went garage saling and accepted all kids clothes hand me downs. Our family was very generous to us: not just grandparents but hubby's eccentric aunts. They were bargin hunters too.
I was very grateful for every hand me down and gift.
@auntiali, I heartily second the gratitude I felt for family members' help through hand-me-downs and many other forms of help in our young marriage with little kids years.
I did cloth diaper and had a set of cheap washclothes that went through the wash with the diapers. Dollar General still sells them 18 for $3-5 depending on the time of year. $3 in January. It worked well and I kept my daughter's dermatitis under control which saved money in meds.
As a almost dairy free person (Forget butter, I miss ice cream) I use margarine but tried the "lite" and just no. Not again. I do reduce my usage by using oil for cooking, no butter on toast just jam.
In this section she does the wheelbarrow metamorphosis. I love this and have used the concept many times.
@Amy cheapohmom, I used to think I could tolerate butter since it had very little casein in it..nope. Sigh. Tell you what I miss, is cream cheese.
A lot of companies no longer have the option to send an email. Worst replacement is live chat that isn't really live as the "bot" can only handle basic sentences. I have been going back and forth (email) since July 1 re: how hard can it be to mail a newspaper? Next step is to find the email address of someone on the leadership team and plead my case. This worked on another issue I had with receiving a subscription in a timely manner. And this was after I got a letter stating I'd be getting this newspaper via US Mail.
Yes you can hit a point in life where you don't need to be frugal. I'm at the stage of paid off house, cash for vehicle, healthy retirement (of course premised on being frugal in my retired stage of life). What is different is repair vs. buy new. The age, cost and expected life span of the repaired item versus cost of new item. When the cost (or just the part) of a 9-10 year appliance is half the cost of a new one, buying a new one is the decision.
@Selena, I do not like the bot.
@Bee and Selena, I so agree with you on seriously disliking bots.
I loved Amy D's introductory essay for the summer section. It was called "Thrift and the Environment," and it still resonates today. The Non-Consumer Advocate, this blog, and many other writers talk about such topics as buying used, environmentalism, sustainability, etc. She also had some good essays about "how to avoid feeling deprived," and on thrift and ethics :"It is wrong to save money at the expense of others. Period."
There was a tip about buying many, many pairs of socks that were all alike; you just toss them in a drawer and whichever two you pull out, you can wear. It came from a businessman and he said he'd been wearing the same bunches of socks for many years. I did this with my Jazzercise (aerobic dance class) socks, only mine were white cotton anklets instead of men's black dress socks. Easy to grab two just-alike socks when you're in a hurry! I've tried to do this in subsequent years, and I am extremely upset with stores that put different designs of women's socks in the same package. Inevitably, you lose one sock of one design and it won't match anything else you have. Rats! (Meanwhile, guys don't have this problem with their packages of socks. Too bad my feet are too small for me to buy their socks.)
I think the best advice in any TG book is how to pay off the mortgage early. Taking advantage of this tip, I put extra money towards the principle on all my houses (except the one I inherited) and on paper, at least, I've saved a ton of money this way. Two of the three houses, not counting the inherited one, have been paid off; the third was almost paid off when I sold it. The biggest bang for your buck is when you pay extra early on in the mortgage term.
Of course her "garage sailing" or "yard sailing" articles were always fun, and I once got a terrific buy on a matching skirt and top -- 50 cents. (I had followed Amy's advice to shop in the ritzier neighborhoods for more upscale yard sale stuff.) The top had a horrible stain on it, but thanks to Oxyclean, it's gone and I've worn that blouse for years now. Another time, I got several work outfits and even a bed linen set (comforter, pillow shams, bedskirt) by hitting a garage sale on my lunch hour; I was working at an office near a ritzy neighborhood and went the first day of the sale, when they'd just opened at 10 and my lunch was at 11. I made off like a bandit for very little money!
@Fru-gal Lisa, Re: socks, you could adopt the style my students do of just wearing mismatched socks. It probably wouldn't matter for an exercise class.
@Lisa K, I used to shop in charity shops in a very ritzy part of my hometown back home. I got some real finds!
@Fru-gal Lisa,
My BIL wears a safety pin on the cuff of one of his dress socks. When he takes his socks off in the evening, he pins them together so they won’t get separated before putting them in the hamper. Single socks were making him crazy so he developed a workaround.
@Fru-gal Lisa, I always buy boys' socks. They fit, they come in multi-packs, and they're lots cheaper than ladies' socks.
I used cloth wipes for my babies because they both had really sensitive skin that reacted to the ingredients in the wipes. It had the advantage of being able to warm the water used to wet them (the changing table was by the bathroom sink in our bedroom) when you were home, but I admit it was a pain when not at home because we had to bag the cloths and bring them home to wash.
I did cloth diaper my first child (using a diaper service) but did not cloth diaper the second. Too many rashes and it interfered with her sleep because wet diapers woke her. We started using disposables at night when she no longer needed night time feedings. I still feel guilty because disposables are an environmental disaster, but it made my life so much more sane, especially as I was working two jobs and attending night classes when I had our second (a wonderful, joyful surprise).
I do occasionally make crackers at home for my keto lifestyle, but I use a tortilla press to get them evenly flat. They are still difficult to make because the ones on the edge of pan cook faster than the ones in the middle.
@Jan, The science is not settled about whether cloth or disposables are worse for the environment.
I had no idea yard sales were dying out in some places. They are a huge thing in Portland, OR! I think there are more than ever, especially neighborhood sales.
I only had margarine growing up, because we didn't always have reliable refridgeration and margerine keeps much better than butter when it's warm. I happily switched to real butter in my adulthood (cooks so much better!). Sadly, now I bounce back in forth as I've developed some allergies to milkfat...but I still cook with butter.
I love this little segment of yours. I also will never make crackers. They are 100% not worth the effort.
I remember my coupon days and when I'd scour the paper sales for grocery stores until the time I found myself driving across town to 'save' money. I'm glad I learned that lesson quickly.
A pasta roller makes quick work of rolling out crackers and they come out nice and even
Businesses are seeing increased charges by credit card companies. It may be worthwhile for a large purchase to see if the company will give a discount for cash or check.
Thanks for reviewing these ideas. I remember doing cloth diapers, towels for wipes, even making my kids underwear. We were so poor. It seems like things keep getting cheaper relative to the raw materials. Making things from scratch becomes the luxury.
The town I live in now has amazing thrift stores. We used to store a lot of clothes but when we moved last year I was at a point where if it wasn't going to fit someone this year, we could let it go.
I could write a book on this topic. "The Tightwad Gazette" changed my life in the mid-1990s. I married then, in a small, frugal wedding. I had read all Amy's newsletters and books. I went on to have two children and garage-saled with abandon. In the early 2000s, garage sales in my area were plentiful and I saved a ton of money on clothes, toys, books, sports equipment, furniture, etc. I did indeed do the clothing box inventory. I scratch-cooked. I socked away money every month to pay off our home mortgage early. I followed many of Amy's tips. My children are now young adults, our house has been paid off for almost 10 years, and I am on the verge of retirement. I turn 64 in October. My husband retired four years ago.