Spend money to save money???

[enjoy the ride]

I used to be so bad- I'd buy things I didn't even want if I thought it was a good sale. Thank goodness I'm over that now. I went from bored "entertainment" shopping to "good price" shopping to "do I really need it" shopping to "can I possibly get away without it" shopping.
My big purchases are now the fence posts I just bought. If I could figure a way to pursuade the fence to hold itself up, I'd do it. lol

 

[Beekissed]

I always buy the same groceries when I shop. Not much variance to it, really. It makes for a cheap trip when you know exactly what you will be eating, exactly how much you need and exactly how much it usually cost. If any of it is on sale...well, great! But, this kind of shopping gets me out of the store quickly, so no impulse buying. I don't buy food because its on sale, if its something that will never fit into a meal plan at my house.

Yeah, my menus are boring to the kids at times, but one can adjust to anything after a while. We have found that we like having the familiarity of these foods because we don't have to guess about what to make and if we have the ingredients.

We save a lot of money making our own bread, meat and eggs. We don't buy dairy, so that cuts out quite a bit of expense. We don't buy frozen foods, highly processed, quick to make foods, or any pop, chips (unless planning a party) or sweets.

When you cut out all that, a trip to the store gets pared down to the essentials and makes for a quick jaunt.

Self-sufficiency can be some pricey at first, but not nearly when you bargain shop and scrounge for materials. My chickens cost me some gas money, $80 at the hatchery, and feed. When they are old enough to lay, they will repay me in spades when I sell the eggs for $2 a dozen. They will also reproduce more chickens, so I won't have to buy from the hatchery again. In the long run, the chickens will bring me a pretty big profit with the sale of eggs, eggs for our own consumption, meat from extra roos.

I will be sprouting my own bedding plants this year, so it will cost me the price of a bag of potting soil, the seeds $1.49 pk. and recycled containers from this past year. So, this next year's garden will take mostly time and the gas from hauling manure and old mulch hay.

If one doesn't try to have everything at once and doesn't insist on having new equipment or items, it can be quite cheap to turn a profit, or just live, on self-sufficiency.

 

[patandchickens]

I think a lot of the basic supplies are only expensive if you are in a situation, or mood , where you "gotta have it now" or "gotta have the exact particular item I want, the exact color and style I want it".

Waterbath canners and even perfectly functional pressure canners show up at garage sales, thrift stores, and on eBay, or you can often scrounge 'em by letting every relative, friend and acquaintance know that you're looking for 'em. Same with canning jars. Even a Vita-mix will show up now and then. (Grain mills and the like, though, you may well be out of luck and have to buy new)

With chickens, scrounging materials can produce a perfectly good functional coop although it may not look quite like Martha Stewart's coop and you may have to do a bit of legwork and waiting to get suitable materials before you can proceed.

With a garden, there is really no need to buy lots of amendments, soil, fancy gadgets, etc -- you can usually scrounge compostables from neighbors and the few basic tools you really *need* cheaply from garage sales etc (a shovel, a trowel, possibly a rake or hoe depending on your personal style and mulching philosophy, and a wheelbarrow type thing if you have a large garden or it's far from the house or driveway). The only exception I can think of is if you are doing large-scale container gardening (like, b/c you're in a rental or apartment) - then you probably *do* have to buy a bunch of soil, but can reuse it and add compost.

It is possible, I think, to be frugal in a *frugal* way rather than approaching it with what's become customary 'shoppers' mentality' Unless of course you truly need things now. But I doubt that is really the case for very many people.

The value of WAITING has somewhat been forgotten in our society, I think

No offense meant, just an opinion,

Pat

 

[miss_thenorth]

This is where you need to decipher whether it is a need or a want. and anothere thing I always tell my hubby when he sees a good deal for something we don't really need- If we need it later--there will always be good deals, sometimes there will be even better deals.