Stretch the Clothing Life

This tip I think really only works for the last child in the family because otherwise you can pack them away for the next child. You can make clothes last longer by making some "alterations" to them.

If your child's feet are too big for the footie jammies, cut the fabric feet off. The rest of the jammies still fit and they can wear socks in stead.

If their pants waist still fits by summer but the legs are too short, cut and hem for shorts.

Eat out your Pantry!

I had recently been told that the average American household could live off it's stored food for seven years! Well, I don't think a person could do that in our household but it does raise a good point: We should eat out our pantries!

Or at least eat them down every once in while.  Or at least eat the food before it goes bad. You know, that one can of whatever that never makes it to the front or the one box of something that is left on the self unused.

I like to do this periodically throughout the year. I dispise having to throw away food and yet I don't like to be without some food stored up either. So quarterly (or when the grocerry budget seems tighter than usual) we eat our freezer and pantry stores down.

The added benefit is that we usually rediscover a favorite, or this Omma learns to cook something new and we have a new favorite, or this Omma just has to get plain old creative with what she has on hand.

Foam Soap

I got this tip from a friend so I cannot claim credit.  Go to the store to buy a bottle of foaming soap (I got soft soap, it was the cheapest). After enjoying the soap that's in there replace it with your own mixture.

1/3 soap
2/3 water

This is especially great for kids! For either getting them excited about washing their hands or to save on excessive soap usage for the enthusiastic hand washer.

You can use a liquid baby soap and then rock the bottle back and forth once (don't shake!!!). I use the regular creamy soap but you have to rock the bottle back and forth for about two minutes to get the soap to disolve properly into the water. Otherwise it will clog the pump.  I also suggest periodically (maybe once a week) rocking the bottle back and forth once to make sure the soap doesn't all settle at the bottom. 

This has really cut down on my soap expense!

Used Parts for Appliances and Cars

This is a post for those of you handy-women or handy-men out there (or those of you married to one).  I'm very blessed to have a husband who does all our car repair work.  He also does most of the fixing around the house too.  I'm a rather handy gal myself but the ways of the car elude me.  Not to mention it's rather difficult to fix the washing machine with a tot and a preschooler climbing on me.

So where do you get that random part needed for the washing machine or car?  Well you could go to the store and buy one. OR you could go to your local junk yard.  Wait wait! Don't run away! I think we all have a picture of a big nasty place piled high with garbage bags when we think of a dump. I'm not talking about that.  I'm talking about the junk yards that hold large appliances and cars.

Did you know, most people will toss BOTH the washer and dryer if only one of them isn't working? (Most not be overly frugal people right? ^_~) Well if you need a part for your washer or dryer you can harvest the parts off the ones in the junk yard for a good price.

We upgraded our seats in our vehicle to leather by buying them from a junk yard.  Now our vehicle has safe head rests for every member of the family, front and back seats.  And yes, we sanitized the seats.  Which is much easier to do with leather than cloth I might add.

Obviously use your common sense with buying parts from the junk yard.

Cardboard

There are so many great uses for cardboard! Don't just recycle the cardboard but use it!  Here's some ideas:

• garage - my son loves using boxes as a garage for his matchbox cards, you can also use them to build parking structures
• doll house - don't forget the girls, cardboard can make the house and everything in it
• put under those older cars you have (also a money saver!) in case it drips a little to keep your garage looking nice
• paint them! great for crafts
• large boxes can be a play house for the kids to play in, you (adult) can cut out windows for them
• organize - cut slits and put together as a grid to organize a drawer into compartments
• burn it in your fireplace or outside fire pit

And when you are all done doing that, then recycle the cardboard.

Peanut Butter

Ah peanut butter, what a wonderful food. Full of wonderful protein, great for sandwiches...and so hard to get off the container! I use a spatula to ensure all the wonderful peanut buttery goodness makes it out of the container and onto my sandwich.  It also makes cleanup of the container for recycling so much easier.

Proper Disposal

This isn't so much a "frugalite" tip as it is a "natural" tip.

Check your local municipality's water management website, chances are they have a calendar with dates you can drop off you extra/expired medications, paints, household cleaning items, and other hazardous materials.  They can properly dispose of these items for you.  Please don't just dump of flush these items.  They get into the sewer systems and may not get completely filtered out for your (and mine) drinking water.

Places like the "Lions Club" also have drop boxes for old glasses, hearing aids, and will retire your American flag properly.  They send the glasses and hearing aids to people in needs and countries like Africa.

Check your local hospital too because they will sometimes accept unopened boxes/packages of medication to send to Africa too.

Free Pillow

My son recently earned new bed sheets for making a successful transition to his "big boy bed."  The sheets were on sale of course and came in a cloth bag.  This bag was so exciting that I had to do something with it.  I made a pillow out of it.  I stuffed it full of fluff and stitched it shut.  No paying big bucks for the coordinating one that they want you to buy, I made my own.  And he loves it!

Conserving Water

Save water.  That's what your mom always told you right?  Well now you may be a little older, wiser, and the one paying the water bill.  We had a situation where the faucet in the tub was dripping.  First of all, all drips should be fixed, that adds up.  But until that plummer gets there, what to do with all that water?  Only so many times you can water you plants right?

Put a bucket under that drip and collect the water to flush your toilet.  You may be surprised how quickly that bucket fills up!  (And how much your water bill goes back down.)

Free Shopping

Ok, this may be a less popular post but hang in here with me to the end.

I'm going to talk about dumpster diving and garbage picking.  YIKES!  But Frugal Omma, doesn't that cross into cheap?!  It can extremely easily but let me explain.

All the generations before me that I have known have "picked garbage."  (Did you know you can actually get a license to partake in these activities by your local government and you just flash it to people if they ask you what you're doing?)  But the key is for only certain things and at certain times.  For dumpster diving I have gone to high end local colleges at the end of the year.  Why?  Because students with seemingly lots of discretionary money throw out what they can't pack back home.  Those living farther away throw out perfectly good furniture.  Now, that being said let's draw the line somewhere shall we?  No cloth covered furniture and no beds or bedding.  I'm talking lamps, tables, chairs you can wash/disinfect, bookshelves, etc.  Stuff you can clean and not worry about bringing in lice and other nasty stuff with it.  That is where you get cheap and it is ultimately expensive to fix that mistake.  (Same holds true for hand-me-down furniture, you have to know where it's coming from.)  You also want to make sure it hasn't rained.

You never know what you might find driving around the nice end of town on garbage day.  You find things people haven't bothered dropping off at Good Will and just want to get rid of it.  I've picked up perfectly good big wheels and other outdoor toys for my kids this way.  While my Grammy A would do the polite thing and ask someone if she could take an item I do the "it's by the side of the road on garbage day so they obviously don't want it" stop, throw it in the car, and drive away.  I started out with the polite asking but people just look at you like you're crazy and go "Um yeah, I'm throwing it out so knock yourself out."  One has to know the difference between "it happens to be in the lawn" and "it's clearly being thrown out" or you could get into trouble.

Darn those socks

No really, darn them.  I think this is a lost art.  We throw socks away when they get a hole, we don't sew them back up or darn the holes.  You don't even need fancy equipment, if you don't have a darning ball/mushroom, use a lightbulb.  Then stitch up that sock.  I got many a wary eye in college from people passing my dorm room but I had hole free socks!  If you aren't sure where to start, this video shows the basics.

Scraps

Did someone give you one of those daily calendars?  It has a fun quote on it every day or a comic or something else.  Keep those and use the backside for notes, shopping lists, doddle pad for the kids, little love notes in your dear hubby's lunch, etc.