Save Money In The Kitchen
Cook from scratch
This is by far one of the most frugal and healthy things you can do. When individual ingredients are purchased in bulk or home grown they are much cheaper plus you get the benefit of actually knowing what you putting in your body.
Pre-make mixes
When you pre-make and store things like pancake mix or bread mixes it’s not only frugal because it will cost you much less than buying these mixes but it also makes it easy to use which makes it more likely that you will use them.
Buy in bulk
I’ve already mentioned this but it deserves to be listed on it’s own. Looking for sales on bulk items is a great way to save money but you do have to consider storage.
Replace paper towels and napkins with cloth
This does mean a little more laundry to do but save you a ton of money as the cost of these paper products definitely adds up over a year.
Cook more, eat out less
It is so easy to take the easy way out and just go out and eat but no doubt it is much more expensive than eating at home. Make eating at home a habit and the norm and save those restaurant dining experiences for special occasions.
Save Money In The Garden
Gardening itself is frugal
Growing your own organic food is much cheaper than buying organic if you do it in a frugal manner, just make sure you are growing what you will eat and has high yields.
Create your own soil amendments
It can be expensive to purchase amendments for you soil to maintain the nutrient value for your garden so making your own compost from kitchen scraps and plant scraps is not only economical but environmentally responsible.
Save seeds
Instead of making large seed purchases every year learn how to harvest seeds from your heirloom plants and store them. In most cases it’s easy, doesn’t take much time and can be a valuable skill to have.
Water harvesting
This isn’t just collecting rainwater to save on water and electric bills but also using grey water from your house. Depending on what soaps you’re using water collected from sinks, showers and washing machines may be perfectly safe to use to water your garden.
Save Money On Your Livestock
Sprout fodder
You can buy wheat, oats, barley and sunflower seeds in bulk and sprout them for an increase in food and even to make it more nutritious. A 50 lb bag of seed can become 300 lbs of of feed by sprouting, it just takes a little work and time.
Forage for feed
This has been a big money saver for me in all seasons but winter when fodder takes over. A quick stroll around with a bag a few times a week grabbing things like dandelion, plantain, mulberry leaves and good old fashion grass makes an affordable and healthy food for small livestock.
Grow feed
Growing things like kale, jerusalem artichoke, squash and comfrey in large amounts is a great way to supply some extra feed at a low cost for your livestock at well.
Use feeders that reduce waste
One of the biggest wastes of money when dealing with livestock is wasted feed. Animals don’t care how much it cost you to feed them so they won’t be shy about throwing their feed around or tipping over feeders. One way to reduce this is to go with feeder designs that take this into consideration. There are many store bought feeders and
many DIY feeders you can make for your particular livestock that can save you a ton in feed.
Frugal Household Tips
Buying secondhand clothing
Some of my favorite clothes have come from thrift stores and rummage sales at just a fraction of the price they would have cost new.
Homemade cleaning products
Making your own laundry soap and household cleaners can save you a lot of money and can also be much better for your health.
Do your own home and auto repairs
There are some things you can do and some things you shouldn’t if you don’t know how (like electrical) but there are great ways to learn like through friends or Youtube and you should learn to repair all you can. This can save you money and give you a lot of skills that easily transfer to other things.
Fix rather than throw away and buy new
It amazes me the things people throw away that can be repaired with a screw or some glue. You can keep a lot of money in your pocket just by not being so quick to throw out that thing that broke and run out and buy a new one.
Buy quality products that will last
Avoiding cheap built items may not seem frugal at first as you may pay a little more upfront but if it lasts ten times longer it’s the better way to go. The good thing is that many of these better built items can be purchased used and still get many years of use from them.
Repurpose and reuse
Taking old or worn out items or discarded items and finding another use for them is a great way to be frugal. Anything made out of wood definitely gets reused or repurposed around my homestead. Places like pinterest and Hometalk are treasure troves for finding great ideas for using such items.
Homemade gifts
It’s easy to way overspend on things like birthdays, Valentine’s day, Christmas and anniversaries but you don’t have to. Making and giving homemade gifts for such occasions can be a wonderful way to save money and can even be a more meaningful gift because anyone can run out and buy something but taking the time to make a gift says you really care.
Find free stuff through places like Freecycle and Craigslist
I look everyday at these sites keeping an eye out for useful items I can get for free or at a very low cost. The old saying stands true (for me anyway) “One man’s trash is another man’s treasure.”
Great tips @sthomestead I have been doing most of them for years now. ;-)
Thanks. I wish i could say I've been doing them a long time but I've only started seeing the importance of living frugally the last 5 years or so.
Kudos for you for even coming to that realization, I am so happy for you and please continue to share your experiences with us.
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Very informative. Have you looked at amending your soil with used coffee grounds? That's helped out my plants in the past.
I usually put the coffee grounds in my compost bin but I have used them directly in the garden. As much coffee as we drink in this house if I put them directly in the garden it might eventually be pure coffee grounds :)
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These are all great tips, and things I've been thinking of beginning to do but I'm feeling overwhelmed on beginning. Are there any other resources you can point me to about doing this on a severely constrained budget? I'd like to try these things but have so little knowledge that I don't know where to start.
My advice would be to just take on one thing and not overwhelm yourself with too much. Cooking from scratch from ingredients purchased in bulk would be a good place to start and besides being frugal it is a healthy way to eat. You can find from scratch recipes on just about anything you can think of with a google search.
I'll give it a shot and start from there. Thanks for the advice!