A big THANK YOU to everyone who has sent in their Personal Savings Stories and photographs. I hope by sharing other people’s money savings tips here on One Hundred Dollars a Month we can all find new ways to save and rock our budgets this year. ~Mavis
This week, Erika from Alaska is weighing in on how she saves.
Groceries:
To start, when it comes to food I have a higher grocery budget than a lot of people because of a few challenges that some don’t have. My son is autistic and non-verbal at seven years of age. We still have to buy night time diapers for him and he eats a lot of processed foods. We’ve had him in feeding therapy since he was three, and he’s slowly finding other food groups besides the one, “Processed” food group he’ll eat, but it is slow going. He also has a life threatening peanut allergy, so that leads to a further complication.
I save money on groceries by being careful. I used to run a coupon blog, so I know how to carefully monitor sales and stack coupons to their fullest. I love to use E-Coupons whenever possible. I keep a price list in my head of what I consider to be a good price for an item and when I find something for a really great price I try to stock up as much as needed. For instance we eat pasta at least once a week and my son is bringing it for school lunches and is using it in feeding therapy, so when our local store had it on sale for .69 a box recently I bought 20 pounds.
I make as much as I can myself at home and use a menu plan every week to keep me on track. This last year I would only buy meat if it was less than 2.00 per pound or if I could get a reduced meat for less than 3.00 per pound or less than 5.00 for a package for pricier cuts of meat (like ribs). As a result we sometimes feel like we are going to sprout feathers, but not a lot to be done about it.
I also make sure to stock my pantry well and I’ll shop from it if money is so tight that we can’t afford much in the way of groceries. I am for easy, cost effective and flavorful, as all of those things are needed, I think, to make a cheap meal fly well with family members.
During the summer I have a small garden on the side of my house that I actually harvest quite a bit from. We have a short growing season in Alaska (obviously), but you can grow quite a bit in that period of time due to the near constant sunlight. I also make a point to harvest as much as I can from my yard as well as my garden, so you’ll find things like fireweed jelly or wildflower jelly among more traditional canning fare.
I dehydrate herbs from my little plots and during things that are in-season I try to get them as cheap as I can, process them however I can and use them later on as I need them (like dehydrating strawberries to use in desserts later in the year).
Clothing:
The biggest trick I have to saving money on clothing is to buy used as much as humanly possible. We have some great thrift stores up here and one of our entertainment outings each week is to take the kids and go thrift store shopping. We have a very set budget (as the thrift store budget is lumped in with my grocery budget right now) and wait for a great sale to buy clothes. I just restocked my shirts as they were suffering wear and tear on a .25 per item clothing sale. I even got some hooded sweatshirts and some fancier shirts and walked out spending less than 5.00 on the clothing. Jeans I buy used for about 5.00 per pair at the used stores, but I find designer brands there a lot in brand new shape for that price, so I find it’s a great way to save money at the onset.
As I said before, money is tight. My husband had to get all of his teeth capped this last year and we accumulated an insane amount of dental debt that needs to be paid off at certain times or we’ll never pay it off (deferred interest and then a high interest rate if we don’t get it paid off in time). This is on top of having no money. So, I learned the art of darning and now spend time darning holes in blankets, socks, dish towels…you name it. It has saved us a lot of money just on not having to buy those items this last year.
I also learned to sew more and sew my daughter skirts, my son sleep pants and more. I have no formal sewing training other than basic home economics when I was in seventh grade, but I’m improving little bit by little bit. I replaced my first jacket zipper just a couple of months ago. If I had taken it to a seamstress it would have cost me 40.00 to replace the zipper, but by figuring it out myself it cost me less than 5.00 to do.
With the clothing I make, I buy my fabric used at the thrift stores or yard sales. I find sheets are wonderful sources of material and often times are cheaper at the used stores than fabric by the yard or remnant. I buy thread with coupons at Jo-Ann Fabrics and use Amazon for a lot of other satellite items in bulk, such as waist elastic.
Vacations:
We do take advantage of open playgrounds at the schools during the summer months and we will take trips to the library for my daughter to pull out some books. For the most part, however, going over to visit grandma and grandpa is a big outing for my kids (my son has severe eczema on top of everything else he has to deal with, so we end up under glorified house arrest sometimes when his eczema is really bad to avoid him getting into allergens and making it worse). We also get the kids out to our local pool as much as we can as both of the kids love it and luckily it’s not terribly expensive to do.
Education:
Well, this area is two fold for us. My husband is an electrician. This year we must renew his Journeyman’s license (200.00) and he has to get a certain amount of continuing education classes under his belt too, which normally costs about 160.00 to get done. I’m budgeting as well as I can to get it done, but it still hurts. We do count ourselves lucky that at least there are online education classes my husband can take instead of having to go and sit through 16 hours of continuing education classes instead.
When it comes to my personal education, I’m constantly learning. The last year I’ve found a love of embroidery that I didn’t realize I had as before all I’d ever done was embroidery kits. Once I discovered how creative I could be with it I really do love it and it made Christmas gift giving that much more special. I have fixed shoes and boots this last year. I have repaired furniture. It’s really amazing when I look back at it. It awes me that the more you find you have to do, the more you find you can do.
Right now when it comes to books and learning materials my personal muse/inspiration is reading how people on the home front in Britain and America lived during WWII. There is so much to be learned from that time. How to cook cheap, filling meals. How to substitute things and get creative. How little you can actually live on. How to forage for food and use what is available in your own environment. How to make do and mend. There are so many wonderful resources available. I watch the series “The 1940’s House” at least once a week for inspiration to keep the house clean and food on the table, even in the most depressing of circumstances and have slowly bought a small library from Amazon using Swagbucks to pay for the books.
Living frugally is now a passion of mine and I can see where my grandma always told me that once you lived truly frugal for a while there was no going back to the way you were. She was right. Living like this has changed me and for the better, I think.
Top 5 Things I Can Live Without:
1. Cable. Haven’t had it in nearly a decade and don’t miss it at all. We have VCR’s and DVD players around here and get the majority of our movies at used stores for .50, at yard sales for as cheap as free, at pawn shops or on Amazon for .01. The kids, if anything, have more movies than they’ll ever watch, but they are never hurting for things to watch. And no commercials to warp their young minds into thinking they need things they don’t as well.
2. Smart Phones. Okay, smart phones are cool and all, but I don’t need one and I know I don’t. I have a TracFone so that the schools can get a hold of me if they need me (my daughter has a stomach condition and my son might have a melt down or an eczema flare, etc), but if that wasn’t the case I don’t know if I’d have a cell phone at all, honestly. I find the multiple alarm function on my phone handy for keeping track of therapies and all, but yeah…that’s about it.
3. Gaming systems. We have an IPAD for my son that we have various educational apps loaded on, and yes, games, but when it comes to gaming systems we don’t keep up with the Jones’ on those. We have a Playstation 2 that my husband and I had in our apartment that we got in the early years of our marriage to use as a DVD player, but we barely use it. We have a WI mini that we got the kids a couple of years ago to see if we could get my son interested in interacting with the screen, but nope, that didn’t happen. So, yeah, we wouldn’t miss either one of those things if they went bye bye.
5. Status symbols. Designer purses, designer label clothing, super expensive cars with all the bells and whistles. Give me a good dependable paid for car, that can climb my icy hill in the winter, my driver’s license and my check card in my pocket, clothing on my back that fits and I’m just fine with the world.
And there you have it. My money saving story.
~ Erika
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Patty P says
Thank you for sharing your story Erika! I have to agree with all of your 5 things you can live without. We gave up our cell phones probably about 5 years ago now. We have tracfones (mostly for emergencies), but nothing fancy. We gave up cable probably around that same time and don’t even know what we’re missing at this point. I also like how you said that after you live frugally for a while, there’s no going back to the way you were. It’ s so true!
Debbi Atkinson says
Thank you! Love to hear how other frugal folks are living richly without wasting money.
janet in woodway says
Erika, thank you for sharing your story and savings ideas. God bless you!
Michelle says
This is wonderful. Thank you, Erika! I am curious to know what books you have found particularly helpful / inspiring in channeling your WWII homefront muse! I love that idea.
Tracy says
I think I’m loving Erika a little…
Cheryl says
Great story Erika, you do a great job saving money for your family. Cheryl
Kayla says
This is awesome Erika. If we lived closer, we would be great friends. Maybe we should set up pen pals 🙂
Julia says
Thanks so much for the inspiration, Erika. I had to chuckle about the “growing feathers” comment as I had a similar comment from my husband this evening when he found out we were having chicken again for dinner. I did promise him that we wouldn’t be having chicken again for a few days:)
Katie P NC says
I wanted to leave a comment for Erika as far as her son’s eczema- I had pretty gnarly eczema for about 20 years in college and after, that, at times, threatened my health with infections as well as my mental health. I found that I was hesitant to use the steroids as often as they were giving them to me and all the prescriptions creams and ointments weren’t working for me. I tried this lotion that I got as a sample size somewhere and it basically overnight helped heal up the spots on my hands and arms. I’ve been buying it ever since to apply when I have a flare up and I use it on my face all winter. Should you ever find the sample size for a dollar or two I highly recommend it. I’ve given it to my brother how snowboards all winter in Oregon to use on the mountain from getting wind chap and he swears by it too.
http://www.amazon.com/Weleda-Skin-Food-2-5-Ounce/dp/B000ORV3NC/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1455886771&sr=8-1&keywords=weleda+skin+food
JJ says
http://www.chagrinvalleysoapandsalve.com/products/details/salves-organic-herbal/chickweed-salve
I used this on a cancerous looking spot for 3 months–it totally desolved it.
Worth a try.
Connie Murray says
Thank you Erika for your excellent article. I loved your suggestions and even better, how you blamed no one else for your misfortune! It takes a lot of courage to face up to problems and say, I can deal with this (even though you shouldn’t have to). Very commendable! I think you will overcome all your financial issues because you have a can do attitude! And that is half the battle!
CathyB says
Thanks for sharing your story, Erika! I live “down the road” from you in Anchorage. My son’s eczema has gotten better as he has gotten older, but when it does flare I have found coconut oil to be better than most lotions. You might give it a try, especially if you already have some (unless of course he is allergic to it).
Sharon@MLT says
Thanks for sharing a little of your life Erika. I too love The 1940 House. There is another in the series called Frontier House you might like.
I also recommend the book The Tightwad Gazette. This book is all about thrift and frugality. Before the Internet the author mailed out newsletters. But the book keeps selling and selling on Amazon because it is so very good. If your library does not have it, ask about inter-library loan.