BellaOnline Forums Money Frugal Living What is your most useful frugal tip?

Debbie, absolutely. Thinking before shopping is crucial.

I usually carry things around in my cart for a while, so i can hold it, look at it and think about it while i shop. I make a point of putting back almost everything I can, and thinking things through before heading to the register. Sometimes it's good enough to just carry something around for a while and pretend it's mine. Then i realize i don't have to actually own everything i want.

I'm also pretty good at comparison shopping. I shop at a bunch of places and use my Price List for much of it. Where do you usually shop? What stores, online or off, do you use mostly in your comparison shopping?

My teenage daughter and adult son were raised to appreciate the challenge and unique nature of thrift stores and garage sales for clothes. I have no idea how much that has saved me through the years.

Don't use fabric softeners, they work by separating fibers and cause clothes to wear out more quickly.

Cut down on meat, we eat a lot of beans and rice. Frozen vegetables are frequently more economical than fresh as well.

Making your own bread is only economical if you're buying ingredients in bulk, call restaurants to find big food service buckets to store lots of flour etc.

If your town makes money from tourism, it can be astounding what you can find that's low cost or free for entertainment. Last summer my kids and I went on a tour of a Japanese training war ship that was docked in Anchorage, we took the bus downtown, and a local gift shop was giving out free hot dogs, so that's what we had for lunch. Hours of entertainment for the cost of 3 bus fares

Mend it!

Keep some flex money in your budget to stock up on things when they hit wonderful prices. If you lack storage in your kitchen, check under your bed for shelf stable things. A lot of times people limit their spending even while there are great deals because they only think of buying things that will fit in their cupboards.

My favorite shops for clearance new clothes are Frey Meyers and Hot Topic. Both stores have occasional sales on clearance priced things. My 65 yo dad loves his super cool 5 dollar Hot Topic teeshirts!

Keep your family's shoe sizes on hand. This sounds silly, but I've gotten 9 dollar Chuck Taylors for my family and other great shoe deals just by having their shoe sizes on hand.

Shop off season! Living in Alaska, I *know* my dad and son will want long underwear, so I buy it in June as well as buying sweaters in the middle of summer as well. I buy fans for the house in September, and space heaters in April.

Mending:

Mend clothes and socks as long as possible, including turning up the frayed hems of jeans, using bondex on the inside of holes in jeans and shirts, reversing the collars on shirts.

Shala and Susan, mending is absolutely a great frugal thing to do. I don't sew, but i have a nice lady in town who has a tiny seamstress shop. She does awesome hand sewn work, at a pittance of the price of a new consumer item.

I try to only buy things these days that are made with quality, so I can have them repaired/mended. I also like having a cobbler around to repair leather shoes, boots and purses. In my town, we have leatherwork repairs also done on horse tackle and saddles!

I love the idea of a mend-it society. Not the throw-away society we grew up with in the latter half of the last century.

BTW for everyone else: If you are a handy person, i know there are tons of you tube videos that show how to sew, repair, mend or duct tape together everything that can be fixed.

Shoes

I had to show you these shoes. Very creative and frugal.

I am hearing a lot of "use it up and wear it out, make do, or do without" and I think that sums a lot of it up.
To think about your purchases better, write on a small card what some of your financial goals are, ones you care about. Put it in your wallet someplace so you have to look at it to get to your cash/checkbook/debit card.
Don't be afraid of so-called trash. I posted about the awesome Alaskan things I do now, but years ago in Oregon I got nice rose bushes out of an actual dumpster. I found clothes and other random household goods in trash. Cruising neighborhoods on their trash pickup day can fix up your home in no time.
Do the math eery few years on baking your own bread. 10 years ago, I ran similar numbers to what Shala has now. The change in the economy has shifted things here at the other end of the road, and now I can bake my own bread with the really good King Arthur Flour for 1/3 the cost of a cheap loaf. My family likes homemade bread, too.
Get your kids started young thinking about reuse, libraries, etc. If they are saying they are bored, then they obviously need to learn a frugal skill or to bend their creativity making things out whatever you have on hand.

Jilly.....I usually only shop now for basic necessities (you should see the pair of sneakers I should be replacing, but I keep putting it off).

I compare prices for food and paper products at the local grocery stores and also WalMart. I find WalMart cheaper for paper products, canned goods, and dry goods. The Walmart stores close to me are not super stores, so I need to get my fresh produce elsewhere.

I don't do a lot of online shopping because of shipping fees.

Hello there,

To stop impulse buying of treats or things that may be construed as a treat (no matter what) I have some 'I can spend it money' and I add to it monthly. Only thing is that it is frozen and in my freezer in a plastic container. I add to it every month or open up a new container. Notes only, by the time this exact money (these notes) has defrosted the impulse to buy or the opportunity to buy or the interest to buy has passed and it goes back into the freezer.

I know it does not attract interest in the bank but then neither does it attract bank fees which are iniquitous here in SA and I have saved a great deal by caring for my own money my own way - a kind of forced savings too.

I once went on a fab holiday using my frozen assets, still had a good amount left over and started again. Of course I have done other things too, but they were worth it and measured and there was time to defrost and still want to spend.

My absolute weakness is my porcelain dolls or my bonsai collections. Oh dear what a test. But the ice helps cool it considerably and I am still a winner!

I NEVER defrost just in case. That is one of the rules.

Cheers

Out of the last 100 things I bought over the last 3 years, I must have paid shipping on probably 17 items.

Just use Amazon's over $25 free option without joining the 2-day shipping club.

Don't shop when you are hungry.