Best painless "stretching things" budget tips?

[Mermaid02]

That's funny!

Happy 1,000th post on this thread, everyone!!!!!!!!!!

Cute!

 

[missysid]

We love using our clothes line at the house - and watch your electric bill you will notice a difference. We live in the country so for the most part the clothes are safe from others eyes I try to hang out laundry starting the first week of March through late November. Living in IL it does not always last that long. But you would be shocked by the fact the clothes will freeze dry!

We also have inside racks that we hang stuff on in the spare bedroom when the weather is bad. Only takes a moment or two.

 

[Jen_in_NH]

The cream of chicken soup recipe is good! My husband eats plain cream of chicken all the time, and he says this is pretty good

Speaking of budget stuff for us, our budget is shot right now. We just got a grapple load of wood dropped off (costs a bit now, but we shouldn't need to buy wood for at least 2 years now ). We're getting chicks in a few weeks, so by the end of the summer, I shouldn't be buying eggs any more. We bought the seeds for the garden, so fresh veggies in a few months!!!

I love spring

 

[missysid]

Jen you are going to LOVE having fresh eggs. We currently have 98 layers and have brown, white, blue, and green eggs every day. Our son uses it for 4H and we sell eggs every saturday at home, a local grocery store, and to school. It helps pay for the their feed and teaches our son about investing money to earn money.

One note - chickens love table scraps and veggies from your garden. When you plant your garden toss in an extra few rows for them and it will cut down your feed cost. A good plant is Swiss Chard. It is cheap, easy to grow, and produces until the first frost. Just snap off the outside leaves and feed them fresh.

 

[Tarheel Tink]

Jen you are going to LOVE having fresh eggs. We currently have 98 layers and have brown, white, blue, and green eggs every day. Our son uses it for 4H and we sell eggs every saturday at home, a local grocery store, and to school. It helps pay for the their feed and teaches our son about investing money to earn money.

One note - chickens love table scraps and veggies from your garden. When you plant your garden toss in an extra few rows for them and it will cut down your feed cost. A good plant is Swiss Chard. It is cheap, easy to grow, and produces until the first frost. Just snap off the outside leaves and feed them fresh.

I love my chickens too! We get green,blue and various shades of brown from my girls. I trade eggs with our AC/Heat & Plumbing guy- he gets fresh eggs year round free and I get bi-annual check ups and so far all repairs for free. When and if the old Florida heat pump dies I don't think there are enough eggs in the world to trade for that one!
My little flock loves veggie and fruit scraps, fresh grass clippings and are crazy for tomatoes. I have a fence up to keep them out of the raised beds (asparagus and other veggies) that their composted manure helps feed. They have a large pen but I let them out into our fenced back yard to free-range almost daily.

 

[OurMsBrooks]

Yup- vinegar works great in the wash- my biggest problem is it's expensive to buy lately...... so I haven't been!
We also have a leftover night,but I usually call it "buffet night" where we all pick what we want from all the containers on the counter (like Chef Mickeys,haha) it works well,

We call our buffet night "Wan Sum." The kids think it's funny, and when it's on our fridge list of dinners for the week it sounds "exotic." It means "want some?" As in, do you want some leftover turkey meatloaf or some leftover lentil soup or some leftover lasagna?

 

[PinballFamily]

We call our buffet night "Wan Sum." The kids think it's funny, and when it's on our fridge list of dinners for the week it sounds "exotic."

I am SO stealing your idea!!!!

We, too, post our upcoming dinners for the week on the fridge and this sounds so much better than our current "Leftovers" card!

 

[bettyann29]

I remember my mother hanging everything on the line when I was a kid . She had 3 lines. The outer two would have the sheets on them and the inner one she would hand the undies on so the neighbors didn't see them.

thats me exactly!! I have 3 lines and the middle one gets all the under clothes.. I dont want my neighbors seeing them either.. every now and then DH will hang out the clothes and I freak out when he puts the underclothes on one of the two outside lines.. I have been known to run out there and move the clothes around..

 

[chrissyt27]

I have been reading this post and found a lot of good ideas. I have a question: what are laundry balls for your dryers that people say they buy at Walmart and what do they do?

Thanks!!

You should check CVS. I had just 1 set, but one was always getting stuck in a sweater or sweatshirt sleeve and would go missing. And I in the AS Seen ON TV isle, they also had a CVS isle. They were only $3.99 compared to the $9.99. they seem almost the same to me. So now we always have 4 in the dryer and I have a back up pair if they go missing.

 

[angela1044]

Awesome ideas everyone. I'm going to try a lot of them.

 

[pampam]

I remember my mother hanging everything on the line when I was a kid . She had 3 lines. The outer two would have the sheets on them and the inner one she would hand the undies on so the neighbors didn't see them.

I learned this from my Mom. I hang out the laundry, but save the undies for last. They are hung right at the end, close to the house, so they are not as visible from the street.

 

[ilandrazdsw]

I learned this from my Mom. I hang out the laundry, but save the undies for last. They are hung right at the end, close to the house, so they are not as visible from the street.

I just buy DH cute/funny boxers...the kind that are menat to be seen, but aren't cause they are covered by shorts (obviously).

 

[missysid]

We get tired of buying ice for the coolers in the summer so we make our own ice blocks at home. However we started out using butter tubs which melted and left water in the cooler. Now I save all of our PB containers - peel the label and run them through the dishwasher. I just fill them 1/2 inch from the top - leave the lid off and freeze. When I need ice for the cooler I just screw the caps on and toss them in. No more soggy food or boxes! Sure beats buying ice all the time or having losses because of soggy items.

 

[MELSMICE]

We get tired of buying ice for the coolers in the summer so we make our own ice blocks at home. However we started out using butter tubs which melted and left water in the cooler. Now I save all of our PB containers - peel the label and run them through the dishwasher. I just fill them 1/2 inch from the top - leave the lid off and freeze. When I need ice for the cooler I just screw the caps on and toss them in. No more soggy food or boxes! Sure beats buying ice all the time or having losses because of soggy items.

That is a great idea for people that camp also. (I don't, but I know others that do & will pass this along)!!!

 

[pampam]

For those of us on "smart meters" our hydro costs could vary throughout the day. Just before I go to bed at 10:00pm, and when the rates go down to their lowest setting, I throw a load of clothes into the washer. Then I go up stairs and turn on the dishwasher, using the timer on it to come on an hour later. Before 7:00 am when the rates go up, I throw the clothes that need to be fluffed into the dryer for 10 minutes. Then I hang them on the line to finish drying. This of course saves ironing, and it is all done with cheaper electricity rates.

 

[Mermaid02]

Just bringing this back to the forefront!

 

[smidgen21]

With the bad economy, I have been trying to budget what we spend and where we spend it..circling the wagons so to speak. I recently needed pantyhose and it was cold out and I just didn't feel like going out to buy more--I had a bag full of "holey" pantyhose--a run or hole in the heel or the ankle or the knee. I picked through them and found two pairs of the same color pantyhose with holes in different places and voila...I wore one pair over the other and not only did no one notice them but they were really warm in the cold of NE Pennsylvania! It felt like I had a pair of tights on! Not only am I saving money since these will last quite a while but I figure that I am also saving space in the landfill. Simple exercise but I was proud of my Budgeting!

I have done this but with a twist. Take two pairs that each have a hole/run on one side. Cut off the bad leg from each pair. Wear together. Viola!

 

[MiMi2Three]

bumping this up---
Anymore ideas?

 

[LisaR]

Another one...another one! Every member of our family now has new big and fluffy bath towels (Target Home @ 3.99 each - and they're great!) - in a different color.

We do this with towels and we also do this with drinking glasses. Everyone has their own color glass to use throughout the day. When the glasses were all the same color, the kids would just as soon get a new one than chance drinking out of their siblings glass. We were running the dishwasher constantly because it was full of glasses. Even DH and I have our own colors so I can rat him out if he forgets to put his in the dishwasher!

 

[runwad]

We do this with towels and we also do this with drinking glasses. Everyone has their own color glass to use throughout the day. When the glasses were all the same color, the kids would just as soon get a new one than chance drinking out of their siblings glass. We were running the dishwasher constantly because it was full of glasses. Even DH and I have our own colors so I can rat him out if he forgets to put his in the dishwasher!

We do the different color cups in the bathroom for spit cups instead of buying dixie cups. Just throw in the dishwasher every so many days. I got tired of going thru all the dixie cups I was going thru for 5 people, those aren't cheap!