Bake Bread

I make my own bread. After noticing that even the "good bread" had ingredients in it that I didn't understand I took to baking my own bread.  I use the Williams-Sonoma Essentials of Baking cookbook for my soft whole wheat bread but you can do online searches for free recipes as well.  This is not only healthy but it is inexpensive too.  And it doesn't take as much time as you think it does.  I spend maybe 10 minutes letting my KitchenAid doing the kneeding and then it's a mater of moving it from the bowl to the pans when it's done rising and into and out of the oven. Easy peasy right?! The "hard part" is planning a little so that you have time to let the dough rise. But you can still do things around your house while it's rising! You can even go for a walk or play outside with the kids if you want. The dough will still be there!

Air Dry

We all have laundry that piles up (didn't I just wash this?) and it takes time, money, and energy to do it.  Here's a tip, air dry as much of your laundry as you can. In fact, I sort my laundry this way (because I also wash everything in cold water it doesn't matter if whites are with darks). Some goes in the dryer (because I only have so much room on my clothes lines) and some gets hung up to dry.  I air dry as much as I can because it saves on electric cost, extra wear on the clothes and thus not having to buy clothes as often, and it gives me satisfaction watching my kids run through the sheets on a summery day (which I'm missing now that it is winter).

Buy Local

Find out what's unique about your area, perhaps there's an orchard nearby, perhaps a dairy farm, a farmer's market, etc.  Chances are you can get the best deal around by going there to buy it.  And chances are that it is organic.  How cool is that? Inexpensive and organic?!

Talk to Me

I'm not sure if this is a frugal tip or not.  But I'm posting it anyway (my blog, my rules).

Today's tip is to talk to your grandparents.  Or your parents.  Or grandparent like people. Or parent like people if you don't have your grandparents and parents around anymore.  There is so much hidden knowledge locked up in these folks.  All it needs it a little prompting to get it started.  Think of all the great things they can tell you!  How they met (do you know how your grandparent met?), what their life was like, how they made ends meet, favorite outings, etc.  Vast stores of knowledge and memories are waiting for you.  People that won't be around forever or even if they are may not be able to tell you things as they get older due to illness, stroke, etc.  There are things I wished I had talked about with my grandpa before he had his stroke but as I was young at the time I didn't think of it then.  There are recipes I wish I had gotten from my grandma and great-grandma but now that opportunity is past.  So I urge you to tap these wondrous resources available to you!  You'll be surprised by what you didn't know!

Rummage Sales

My mom is the queen of rummage sales.  She can spot a sign for one a mile away!  She can haggle a price down like a pro.  I have my kitchen table is thanks to my mom who not only haggled the man down on the price but got him to deliver it as well!!

I love rummage sale season.  You never know what you will find.  I usually have some general items that I keep an eye out for when I go rummaging but they're rummage sales, you never know what you'll find.

Clothes for kids are a big one.  I love to stock up with I find a great place that's selling clothes for ten cents a piece.  I pick up clothes for my nephews and nieces at that price! (I'm so generous, I know. ^_~)  I have gotten both of my jogging strollers at rummage sales.  They cost $200 and $400 new (single and double) and I paid a max of $25/piece for them.

And by the way, many rummage items make good gifts.  Sometimes they are in the original packaging too yet.  Growing up we would get many items for Christmas or birthday that were from rummage sales.  (What? Doesn't everyone do that? ^_~)  That's not to say we never got anything new but much was from my mom's thrifty finds.  There were many years where things were extremely tight for my parents and my mom made sure that no one was without presents on special occasions.  I never felt like I had to do without because my mom was a frugal shopper.  In fact, one year I was surprised that our family was picked by the church for the annual "Family Charity Christmas box" as I have never felt poor (and we had, in fact, contributed items to that exact same box).  That was mostly due to my mom who could pinch pennies so hard they screamed!  Valuable skills she picked up from her Grandma, Grammy A.  Grammy A could find awesome gifts at rummage sales.  I have in my living-room, a reproduction of DaVinci's "Last Supper" that my Grammy A got as a wedding gift for my parents that she found at *drum roll* a rummage sale! 

So that just goes to show that you don't have to spend a lot of money to make it look like you've spent a lot of money.

Dish Water

I like to wash my dishes in warm/hot water.  But when the tap is first turned on it is cold!  What's a frugal omma to do?  Well you can either fill up your watering can while you wait or you can do what my Grammy A would do and boil the water.  That's right, get out your tea kettle folks and fill 'er up!  Boil and add to your cold water.  Voila!  Perfect dish water!

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.