Okay friends ... here's a fun idea (I hope!)
Let's all share a few "simple" ideas with each other! Nothing big, just an idea or two, a recipe or two, a habit or two ... anything you do that helps keep costs down, or helps simplify life so that you can love God and love others more fully. Let's focus in just a bit on some things we are already doing that perhaps others might benefit from knowing.
I'll go first:
1. I shop almost exclusively at second-hand stores for clothing. My world's favorite store is called Second Impressions on 3rd Street in Waterloo. Jan is the owner and we always have a nice chat when I stop in. The store is neat and tidy, well-organized and she only takes relatively nice clothes on consignment. There are shoes, purses, belts and coats, too. Pants and jeans are anywhere from $5 - $10 and shirts and blouses about the same price. You can purchase a very nice winter coat for $15 - $30. Also, when you are done with clothing, you can re-sell it there on consignment. The last time I was in, I had over $10 in my account and bought a blouse for free.
2. I have been returning pop cans at the Cedar Falls redemption center by the Cedar Falls Karate Club. When I drop them off, I ask the folks there to put the $$ in the account for Habitat for Humanity. It is a beautifuly simple way to recycle and support housing projects for our neighbors.
3. I make bean and cheese burritos almost once a week. Flour tortillas, fat-free refried beans in a can, shredded cheddar. Put some beans and cheese on the tortilla, roll it up, microwave it. Top it with salsa, sour cream, tomato chunks and avacado chunks and you've got an entire meal. Kids love it. It's cheap. Even cheaper if you could cook your own beans, which I used to do when I was home all day. Now, I like the fat-free kind in a can. Plus, meatless meals are good for our world neighbors.
Those are just a few ideas from the Shirey (not-so-simple-yet) life!
What are some of yours?!?!?!
Also, the day-old bread store near us went out of business. I used to buy all our bread products there. Anyone have another idea for that? I hate spending $3 for a loaf of bread!!!!
alice
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Alice, I love this idea! I learn so much from other people doing this sort of sharing...and I also learn ABOUT people too, which for me is just as wonderful!!!
Okay, some things I do to simplify our life at the Hansen house.
1.) For family birthday's I give a gift certificate instead of buying a gift at the stores. The gift certificates our specially made for each person on their birthday with Jaxon's help and my computer. The GC is good for special experiences to be had with the Hansen's...for example...a day with us at the aquatic center (cost me $3 to get another child in and we go almost everyday anyways), a picnic at Hickory Hills park, a hike at Hartman and ice cream at DQ afterwards, a sleep-over with cookie baking and movies and sleeping on the floor with lots of pillows, home-cooked meals (for my busy working out of the home sister-in-law), laundry cleaning, dinner & games at our house, and so on... This way it's MUCH cheaper for us and we build memories with special family members!
2.) I buy almost all our clothes at Old Navy when they have the VERY end of season sale and the 1 weekend they have everything 50% off clarence items...they have this 4-6 times a year and if I watch it close enough I can beat the crowds and get a good majority of basic things...jeans, sweaters, sweatpants (my boys live in these!), basic color shirts. Now this sale happens usually a Friday/Saturday only and only at the very END of the season. I pay as low as 0.97 cents and as high as $10 for items.
3.) I also GARAGE SALE the house! I'm a huge garage sale girl...this requires time, energy, and ability to NOT buy things just because they are 25 cents. I'm also pretty organized so I usually know exactly what I'm looking for, what's in our closets, and what we'll REALLY use.
4.)I re-gift. When I receive things like pampering lotions/bath washes or candles I rarely use them and sometimes gift certificates (especially to places like Starbucks/Panera/Cold Stone). I put them in a "gift" cupboard. When things come up where I want to give a gift or have a friend who needs a little pick me up I go to this cupbaord and have brand new items to pick from to give away. Sorry if you're reading this and you've given me these things...chances are that I've passed them on, never-opened. =)
4.) A quick and cheap and easy recipe...I buy the flat-out wraps at Walmart, can of tomatoe sauce, oregeno, garlic, cheese. I mix the sauce with oregeno and garlic...spread it on wrap...sprinkle with cheese...bake on stonewear and we have a nice little thin crust pizza. YUMMY! My kids love it and it's actually filling ;)(I can eat 1 1/2 whole wraps like this)
5.) I buy a lot of my kids books at Goodwill. 25 cents a book! Hard back copies.
6.) I swap my clothes...Jenny R hands down to me, I hand down to Jen Re., and Jen Re. hands down to a friend from church. It's great when Jenny R sees Jen Re. out and sees that her clothes have gotten to the 3rd person in the chain ;)
Just a few things I do consistantly. Look forward to hearing some more ideas...Alice- I love your 2nd Impressions place and actually taking your clothes back to sell. I may try that! I just realized I put 6 ideas...I got interupted half way through typing this and "double thought" I think! I definately have non-simple habits too!
Jess - Thanks for all these great ideas! I especially like the wrap pizza recipe. Shoot - maybe I can come up with a whole week of meatless recipes using only tortillas or wraps!! What a deal!
These little ideas are so helpful.
Thanks for participating. I so enjoy learning about your life, too.
alice
My guys hate ( translated-never) clothes shop and are not fussy except about how clothing "feels", so I buy lots of our clothes at garage sales and the 25 cent sale that occurs one Friday a month at St. Vincint De Paul Stores. If something doesn't fit I donate it back and can get a tax decuction by using the "Its Deductable" software and a receipt. That saves me time and hasse for me. I go right at 9:00 for the best selection. Nice clothes go fast. In the Cedar Falls store where I usually go, they also have rubermaid baskets of unsold bread from HyVee in the back of the store-and it is free. I often got take the hoggie or brat, sub, or hot dog buns. (They are an item that does not go very fast, so I feel I am not taking away someone else's favorite.) I either make homemade submarine sandwiches out of them-microwaving (right before we eat them) helps if they are a little dry or I make pizza bread. I put pizza or spagetti sauce on the sliced open faced buns and then put pizza cheese on top and brown in broiler. You can add meat and or vegies too (just like pizza) so they can be different at different times. They store well in the fridge for leftovers and even moisten up in a covered container. I usually make some extras for snacks or to take for lunches-if they last that long.
One of my favorite cookbooks is "More with Less." In my decluttering I "found" the 80s book "Living more with Less" by the same author-Doris Longace. I am really enjoying it when I take a break from my decluttering.
It also helps as you get older-Old things become new and because you have forgotten much of what you read before, you can reread your old books and it saves the money of buying new ones!! (or if you are young, you are just at a different place in life and new things pop out at you.) If anyone wants to borrow, let me know.
PS:
Bonnie
My PS: There is a bread outlet store (I can't remember its current name and did not find it in the yellow pages) in north Cedar Falls on Center Street-close to where I live-but not close to most of you. (I think there is a branch in Waterloo too that sells name brand bread at a discount.) They have some good specials at times and coupons in the Insider about once a month. Aldis and Quick star bread are also reasonable. You can tell we eat a lot of bread even though we sometimes get it free and St Vincent's and Dennis and Tim make it too.
I had some trouble getting this posted-so it may go several times or none at all, but them you won't be reading this!
I think, truth be told, I could probably come up with more things that people SHOULDN'T do. So, to put a new twist on things and to help you all feel better about YOUR progress in this area, here is a list of some Mickey habits that everyone should avoid (including the Mickeys):
(1) Clip coupons, put them in your purse, then forget you have them and find they have expired 6 months ago when you pull them out the next time. It turns out, this practice saves you no money and only adds clutter to your purse.
(2) Cater to/give in to/choose your battles regarding one of your child's highly finicky eating habits and purchase only the brands of food items that she will eat, which does not allow you to choose the brand on-sale or at the Aldi type store where most would consider similar items "the same thing"....ah, but not my daughter.
(3) While at the store, become convinced that you don't have any more laundry detergent, purchase more laundry detergent, only to arrive at home to discover you were convinced of that the last several times you were at the store and now have 5 large containers of laundry detergent. Okay, you can use it eventually, but it doesn't do much for the decluttering.
(4) Drop your cell phone while entering your house, don't realize it's missing until the next morning, call it to try to find it, get no answer, finally notice pieces of phone scattered throughout your back yard after being a fun night-time chew toy for your lab puppy. Oh, and make sure it was a work phone, which will cost you even more money to replace than a personal one(this was a bad day).
And finally...
(5) Drop your favorite earring down the bathroom drain (you never buy jewelry...yay, one thing I'm not a sucker for and actually don't spend money on...I was feeling down, had to find something to redeem myself...but that means I've had this pair for about 15 years and wear them almost daily), put on your sad face in front of your husband, loving husband removes drain piping, retrieves icky earring, can't get replacement piping back onto original, 100-year-old piping, now is being told it will cost hundreds to repair. Yippee!
I could probably come up with a few more "practices to avoid" that can be added to the many wonderful suggestions by Alice, Jess, and Bonnie of "practices to adopt." You women are my heroes. :-) Good night and know you are doing very good things in the areas of cost/clutter management....at least know you are doing better than I am! :-)
Oh, dear Cindy, I absolutely love you, and that's all I've got to say. Oh, and this: Grace. Oh, and this: may you not have any more bad cell phone or plumbing days in your near future.
Oh, ideas...hmmm.
1. One thing that has me laughing, is that we have chicken in our freezer from the 11 chickens my husband and dad butchered in the fall. (I'm still somewhat psyched out in eating Henny Penny from the coop), and we have fresh eggs from the remaining layers, and cherries in the freezer from our cherry tree. Please just know that I am still daily surprised that these things are even possibly a part of my story. Cracks me right up. Does motivate me though to try out some more gardening of veggies/fruits this summer. Fun to have fresh grown stuff..since we have the space...just wish I had a full-time gardener out here at Mowtown. (or Snowtown, as it stands today).
2. I went with a friend today to the adult community class on "managing finances God's way." Wow, I thought I was going for her, but it was such good stuff for me. So, I guess, just keeping the vision of God and His Kingdom in front, continuing to learn and being willing to practice and try some things, and just journeying on with a desire to surrender money to God.
3. Just this very month..being careful and conscious without even a whole lot of sacrifice...I am saving hundreds of dollars. Is that crazy? Somewhat embarrassing to say, but I'm estimating that my spending this month will be about $600 less than my average
monthly spending I did over the last year. Wow. Almost all of that savings is coming in the areas of "grocery/household" and "entertainment/miscellaneous". That's a lot of money...and all because of a little planning and a little restraint and a little creativity.
Okay Cindy, I LOVE the idea of the "what not to do" list, too! Here are a few from my life:
1. Forget you have many library books scattered around your home. Fail to acknowledge the forms the library sends home warning you of overdue books. Finally, return them to the library and with much shame, pay the $27 fine to the library. ouch.
2. Do you know how many little jars of oregano I have in my pantry!?!?!?!?! I could sell them on e-bay!
3. Allow teenage daughter to call boyfriend when he leaves for college. Don't keep track of how often daughter calls boyfriend. Recieve $400 phone bill from cell phone company. Proceed to pass out.
Helpful hints? I got lots!
Thanks for making me laugh!!
I am really being convicted. Maybe I am missing the boat on the whole rice and beans thing. We have been practicing simplicity in our material stuff( If I have something someone else might need, I need to give it away. Why do I need three winter coats?), our schedule (work vs family and church) and our meals (see below).
But here is where the rubber meets the road for us: Matt and I have lived a "privileged class" life style for too long. With privilege comes responsibility. We haven't lost the privelege part. We just had a maor wake up call on the responsibility part. And I think that is a part of simplicity. Be good stewards of God's provision to you. It is totally a faith issue. Be satisfied with God's provision to you.
At the beginning of this month we met with a financial planner who pretty much held our feet to the fire concerning our finances. Now at the end of this month we are looking at a new budget and a new financial plan. It was most humbling and the most freeing experience we have had in a long time.
You know the scariest part of the financial issue? Asking for help. We were afraid someone would chastise us or laugh at how stupid we have been. But it just wasn't so. We found cooperation and friendliness in every step. And it won't take forever to turn things around. Four years. I can do anything for four years.
Since I do the grocery shopping and cooking here, I'll share a couple of things I do with you.
1) I buy large cuts of meat, on sale, and make more than one meal from them.
2)I take a day to make up several pans of lasagne (use the recipe on the "no-boil" Barilla noodle box)and pack it in smaller pans to freeze for later. I make one meatless and substitute veggies.
3) I buy staples around the holidays --sugar, flour, brn sugar, spices are cheaper at Christmas.
4) I prepare "in season" foods that are available. Shop the ads and stay away from fruits that aren't in season. Like apples in January.
5) Shop the "perimeters" of the grocery store. All the necessities and fresh stuff are on the outside walls. All the junk is down the aisles!
Here's a recipe for Laura and her chickens:
Night 1
Roast a chicken for dinner and keep some for leftovers.
Night 2
Chicken Chili
1 pound or about 2-3 cups of cooked chickenm diced
1 cup of chopped onion
1 4oz can of green chiles
1/2 tsp. oregano (Alice has some!)
1 tsp. cumin
1/2 tsp. cayenne pepper
2 cups chicken broth
2 cans white beans, undrained
1/2 cup jack cheese, shredded OR 1 can southwest style pepper jack soup
Saute onion in a little butter. Add the rest and simmer for about 30 minutes.
You can freeze the rest in individual bowls for quick meals later.
My mom taught me to make a piece of meat go just a little farther than one meal. This works with a family of four.
Night 1
Roast Beef
save about 3 cups
Night 2
BBQ Beef Sandwiches (works with chicken and pork,too!)
Leftover roast beef cut into small pieces. About 1/3 cup per person.
1/2 cup ketchup
1/2 tsp of Tabasco
1/8 tsp chili powder
1 cup water
1/2 tsp powdered mustard
1 Tbsp brown sugar
Hamburger buns, one per person
Combine ingredients in a medium sauce pan. Bring to a boil and then simmer until the sauce is thick enough to stay on a bun, about 30 minutes.
Any leftover BBQ beef could be put on pizza crust, English muffins or tortillas with a little mozzerella cheese. Broil it and you have BBQ pizza like they have at Happy Joe's.
PS I forgot the real reason we met with a financial planner....we have Mieke. We had to have life insurance for her to adopt her. We also need a will and a plan for her future.
Thanks for the laughs and good ideas! Mine are not nearly as entertaining.
A few things we've done over the last few years in order to make it on one income...
-no newspaper or magazine subscriptions (read online instead)
-no cable TV
-no cell phone (Chad does have one that his work pays for however)
-buy used cars and drive them a long time
-I've already mentioned I'm an Aldi shopper and also do the garage sales/Goodwill/clearance shopping
As for inexpensive meals, we have "breakfast" for supper a few times/month. French toast, pancakes, omelets or waffles are easy, cheap, all my kids will eat them and I rarely make these things in the morning so they think it's a treat. :)
There are a couple extras we "can't" seem to live without:
-high speed Internet
-caller id
My list of things NOT to do in order to save money (from personal experience):
-do not take your kids shopping with you anywhere
-do not buy anything nice for your house because your children will just trash it anyway
-do not drive to 8 different places hoping to find a better price, then go back and buy it at the first place
I have lots of examples, but will limit it to 3.
1) Advertize a used car up for sale. Place title and everything needed in an envelope and lose the envelope. Callers are not happy I have the car they think they want but can't sell and neither am I because I am waiting the 5 days to get a new title that I have to buy for $15 and 3 trips to the Courthouse.
2) Buy good specials and make freeze ready made meals, but have the freezer so full I use only the things on top because I am afraid I couldn't close the door if I get something from the bottom.
3) Buy exercise equipment and exercise tapes (so I can save money exercising at home) and let them clutter up my house but don't use them.
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