25 Frugal Things I Do

I got the idea to write this list from a great post at Frugal Upstate. Thanks!

1. I breastfeed.
2. I use cloth diapers… most of the time. I buy them used, and sell them after the baby’s outgrown them.
3. I use a dishwasher, using less soap and water than washing dishes by hand.
4. I double the recipe whenever I cook, so that I can just dig in the freezer for something to reheat on those days when I’m not at all inspired!
5. I line dry my clothes.
6. I have two ‘no driving’ days a week, where I don’t drive my car, thus saving money on gas.
7. I have two ‘no shopping’ days a week, where I don’t buy anything.
8. I grocery shop three times a month, not four. Even though I buy to cover ten days of meals, I reduce my impulse buys by 1/4. Sometimes I only shop twice a month.
9. I only shop on Thursdays. My grocery store gives €5 in store credit for every €50 spent- on Thursdays.
10. I only buy used clothes for my kids and I sell the used baby clothes back to the consignment store.
11. I try to only buy used clothes for myself.
12. I don’t always succeed however, so when I do buy new, it’s on sale.
13. I sell my old DVDs, books, games, puzzles… anything that’s not nailed down basically. I use Ebay, consignment shops or used record stores.
14. I use CFLs.
15. I read PF blogs- they’re full of great ideas, and they help keep me motivated. (Look in the sidebar for a list of the blogs I read.)
16. I write this blog: it keeps me motivated, and accountable, and saves me from whining about my finances to my friends, who, if the whining kept up, weren’t going to stay my friends much longer!
17. I don’t have expensive hobbies. I read, sew, do needlepoint, and take Chinese lessons. But honestly, with three small kids, who has time for hobbies?
18. We live in a small house.
19. All my bills are on automatic bill pay, which means I never pay late fees.
20. We have free satellite TV- we don’t pay for any of our channels. Of course we don’t have very many!
21. I use the library, and when I see a book I want in the bookstore, I write it down and post it in my Amazon wish list. I almost never buy anything from there, but every once in a while someone will buy a gift from it.
22. When I want to buy something, I write down the reason why I can’t. Example from yesterday: ‘I can’t spend €300 on clothes because I have to pay to fix the doors.’
23. I meal plan, but not obsessively and we eat a lot of vegetarian meals..
24. I check my bank balance every day.
25. I keep a budget, and I know where every penny of my money goes… good or bad

Up soon: a list of all my bad, spendthrift habits. I do hope there aren’t 25 of them…