Saving Money on Groceries Part 2: Lists

Once you have a handle on your budget, pricepoints, pantry, and repertoire, you can finally get into the nitty gritty of actual shopping. There are two main types of list that you need for good grocery savings:

A need list

Your need list will consist of all the things that you absolutely need to buy this week. To begin with, it helps to make a really detailed meal plan: list every single main dish and side item you will need for every breakfast, lunch and dinner you will eat this week. Include snacks that your family has to have. Then go to your pantry and see what you already have. Make a list of every item that you need to buy to make your meal plan work. You don't want to have to run back out to the store mid-week - you'll waste gas and probably spend extra on impulse buys.

Now, how can this help you save money? Well a few ways. First of all, preventing all the extra trips is huge. Also, for a lot of people, having meals planned and on hand can prevent those quick fast food meals that add to your budget really fast. Even if you get a day or two off, you can always look back at your initial plan and know that you have everything you need for enough complete meals for the week.

The big savings come, though, when you make this list strategically. Start to plan your meals around both your pantry and the grocery ad. For example, if pork chops are on sale, and you have applesauce in the pantry, you have the makings of a great meal. You just need to add a vegetable and maybe a starch and you're good to go.

A stockpile list

In addition to looking through your grocery ad for items that would make good dinners this week, start to look ahead to the future. If you have an idea of what your family regularly uses, and you know the normal pricepoint for each of those items, you can start to stock up when the items are cheaper than that. For instance, if your family eats a lot of pasta, and pasta is on sale for half your normal buy price, buy as many as you can afford! Over time, two things will happen: as your pantry gets fuller, your need list will get shorter and your buy prices will get lower. As your need list gets shorter, you will have more money to buy stockpile items. As your pantry gets fuller, you will be able to wait for lower and lower prices, eventually getting to the point where you can get most items for close to free. This is when you'll start to see the biggest grocery savings.

Next time I'll talk more about how to stockpile, with coupons and matchups, and some great resources to help you do that.

Frugal Friday: Saving energy and money in every room

In my quest to save money in 2011, I thought I’d turn my focus on some ways to save energy. I thought I’d organize the tips according to room, although many of these energy saving tips can of course be used in more than one room.
Bedrooms

• Consider using LED energy saving nightlights to avoid turning on room lights when moving around in the night.
  
• Use ceiling fans, blankets and warm night clothes to keep the thermostat lower while sleeping, thus saving heating fuel.
  
• Switch any lightbulbs to CFLs.
  
• Unplug cell phone chargers when not in use.
  
• Keep any TVs and such on a power strip that can be shut off when not in use to prevent energy vampires.

Bathrooms

• Take shorter showers to save on water heating energy.
  
• Reduce or eliminate blow drying.
  
• Switch from electric to manual toothbrushes and razors, or at least unplug them when they are done charging (most only need to charge every few days).

Kitchen

• Keep the refrigerator closed as much as possible. Try to plan to get everything you need for dinner out at once, and organize the fridge so you can find things quickly.
  
• Check fridge and freezer temperatures. You might be able to set them a bit higher and still maintain safe conditions.
  
• Use smaller appliances when possible. Microwaves and toaster ovens use much less energy than stoves and ovens.
  
• Use appropriately sized pans and burners. Don’t waste energy and money boiling more water or heat more surface than you need.
  
• Bake more than one thing at a time, or back to back if the temperatures are slightly different. The oven uses most of its energy preheating.
  
• Don’t preheat the oven to roast or heat something, only if you are doing fussy baking.
  
• Run only full loads in your dishwasher.
  
• Set the dishwasher to air dry, not heat dry.

Living room

• Turn off the TV when it is not actively being watched (and in our house, actively watch it less).
  
• Turn off computers from the power strips when not being used, and unplug laptop chargers when not charging.
  
• Use appropriate window treatments to keep rooms light in the day and dark at night, and warmer in the winter and cooler in the summer.

Laundry room

• Run only full loads of laundry.
  
• Wash everything in cold water, unless there’s an allergy issue forcing you to use hot for sheets and towels.
  
• Experiment with dryer times to hit the minimum that does the job.
  
• Sort clothes by weight so dryer times are similar for everything in a load.
  
• Hang at least a few of your heavier things to dry. You can throw them in the dryer briefly to soften them.

Do you have any great tips to add? For more great frugal advice, check out Frugal Friday at Life as Mom.

Frugal Friday: Cutting the water bill

So, in evaluating our budget for our Saving in 2011 goal, one of the areas I wanted to address first was our utility bill. The bills themselves gave me an answer as to where to begin: my water bill was through the roof.
Water is a bill that I haven’t really thought about much because usually when we lived in apartments, it was included in the rent. When we moved into the house, I remembered being told that “water is cheap” – which is true compared to electricity and gas. However, if you don’t keep track of your usage, it’s also a place where you can waste a lot. So, I decided to spend the month attacking it. Here are the steps I took to monitor and decrease our water usage.
(Note: If your water bill is through the roof, the first thing you should always do is check for leaks. Check all your faucets, see if any of your toilets are running. This is waste that’s just pure waste. However, if you’ve done that, move on and look at your usage.)

Easy

1. Wash full loads. This is the easiest tip of all because not only does it not involve any sacrifice, it actually involves doing less work. Instead of doing laundry, just. . . don’t do laundry. I don’t like to pile it all up, but instead of doing laundry every day, I skip every third day. I also don’t run my dishwasher unless it’s full, and have been pushing to go from every day to every other day. This takes a little more planning so I can make everything fit and so I don’t run out of bowls.
   
2. Use “light” cycle. Also a no brainer. I set my dishwasher to light cycle and my washer to “light soil.” These are shorter cycles that use a little less water. Probably not a huge difference, but for every cycle, it helps.
   
3. Take back to back showers. With the weather as it is, it’s been taking especially long for our water to get warm, which means running the water for a while before we can stand getting in. If I shower immediately after my husband does, I don’t need to let it run first.
   
4. Wash pots and pans while the dishwasher is running. Same idea as above. The water is already hot, so I don’t need to let it run before I can wash things.
   
5. Scrape, don’t rinse. Another tip that involves less work! Most decent dishwashers don’t require dishes to be rinsed first. Scrape off all solid particles into the trash and throw them right on in.
   
6. Lower your flow. If you don’t already have a super low flow toilet, you can make it a little lower by putting a brick or a plastic bottle of water in the tank. You might not want to do this with a low flow toilet because it will decrease your flushing action even more.
   
7. Turn off your icemaker. Okay, I felt dumb about this one. It’s January. The ice that’s already in there will last me an awfully long time.

Moderate – These tips require a little work or sacrifice, but are definitely doable.

1. Turn off the water while you brush your teeth, for goodness sake. This one is a no-brainer for me, but somehow it makes hubby feel better to have it on. Some gentle reminding, however, can work wonders. 
   
2. Take shorter showers. Okay, I like luxuriating in a 30 minute shower as much as the next gal, but honestly with the baby, these days I like sleep better, so this one has been pretty easy to establish. I don’t wash my hair every day which makes this easier, but mostly if you just get down to business, your shower will be short enough. Aim to decrease by even 5 minutes a day.
   
3. Wear your clothes more than once. I don’t mind at all wearing the same pair of pants or pajamas more than one day, but you have to go on your level of squeamishness here. Think about, though, those big bulky sweaters and hoodies that you wear over your own clothes. Hang them back up instead of throwing them in the hamper. They aren’t dirty. Honest.
   
4. Practice smart dishwashing. There is a technique here. First, fill any pots with stuff stock on them and let them soak. Here’s the trick: use that same water to wet your utensils and miscellaneous stuff. Either fill the pot with the water running off everything else, or fill the pot, then swish the items around in the water. Then, with the water off, wash everything with a soapy cloth or sponge and set it aside. Turn on the water once to rinse everything clean at the same time. Maybe not the clearest explanation, but play around with it and look for ways to use less water. Often they are more efficient in terms of time as well.
   
5. Use the same glass or mug all day. Use the utensils that you cooked with to eat with. Man, if it means less washing, I’m down.

Hard/extreme – may not be suited for all readers – or, you know, for me.

1. Turn off the water in the shower while you wash your hair, lather yourself up, or shave your legs. I am a fan of this idea in theory, but dude, it’s cold. If you’re tougher than me, though, go for it.
   
2. Don’t shower every day. I could totally pull this off, especially with being home now, except for hubby’s judging stare. Oh, and the spit up in my hair.
   
3. If it’s yellow, let it mellow. Another one I’d probably try if I lived alone but that would not go over so well otherwise. Consider guests’ feelings as well, please.
   

Since I am clearly not so extreme, I’d love to hear your suggestions on ways to save water. My most recent water bill was much lower (err, so much lower I’m thinking the last reading might have been a fluke, but oh well! I’m still saving money and going green!), but I’m always looking for ways to conserve even more. For more frugal ideas check out Frugal Fridays at Life as Mom.

When frugality stops being flashy

Five years ago, I had just gotten engaged, quit my job, and moved halfway across the country to be near my honey. It was the first time I had really had any major life change so dramatic (but not seemingly, the last time), and I was riding quite the natural high. At the same time, I suddenly had a ton of time and not a ton of money. Although I had some money coming in, I was majorly committed to finding ways to make my savings stretch and last.

So I started doing research. I went online and read every frugal blog I could find. I read Dollar Stretcher every week. I checked out The Tightwad Gazette from the library and read it cover to cover. I baked my own bread and made my own ketchup and salad dressing. I unplugged my chargers and turned off my water heater during the day. I was on a mission and it was all so very exciting.

But here I am now, all these years later, trying to remember where I found that love. Frugal people are still awesome and I love reading inspirational writing on frugality, but when I read tips I feel like "Yeah, yeah, been there, done that." I have had to discard things that don't work for us (hubby doesn't like sandwiches on homemade bread), and have become very routine about the things that do work for us. In a lot of ways, I have already achieved the simple quiet life that was my goal: I can afford to stay home for a while, and we really only spend money on things that matter to us.

But I want that thrill back.

It's not that I'm going to fall off the wagon and stop being frugal just because it's boring. I know what my efforts have accomplished, and in all honesty most frugal things I do are just easier than their counterparts. It's just that when I was filled with glee over each new frugal discovery it was easier to keep making more discoveries, to keep learning and connecting. I wanted to tell the world about what I was doing, to teach and to help other people; now it just seems so obvious to me that I don't bother.

But when I think about some of my younger friends who are just getting married, I realize that they don't know what I know, that for them these things are still hard and different - and perhaps a little bit exciting. So perhaps the best way to regain the frugal love is to teach it, to see other people's joy as their lives get simpler and better. Because I think that would be quite the thrill for me.

For more frugal inspiration, check out Frugal Friday at Life as Mom.

Frugal Christmas shopping: Less is more

This is the second part of my series on Frugal Christmas Shopping.

Last time I focused on how to get good deals on things you knew you needed to buy. Today I'm going to get a bit more philosophical and talk a little bit about what you really need to buy. There's a tendency at the holidays to let things get a little out of control, and there's always a point of diminishing returns when it comes to joy and appreciation. There are, for example, some small children in my family who rip open every one of their gifts in about five minutes without looking at any of them, and then are immediately bored and start asking for more gifts to open. This could be seen as very anti-materialistic of them (who cares about possessions?? I just want to play!), but I think it's really more of a sign of people losing sight of what's important. This can happen to adults just as easily, maybe even moreso as we rush around trying to get our holiday preparation and shopping done. So, as with many things, the solution may be simplify, simplify, simplify. But how, you ask?

10. Sit down your spouse or significant other, and any close friends - particularly those who have a tendency to escalate gift giving - and agree ahead of time on a set number or value of gifts which will not be exceeded. Some people who care about you may be reluctant at first, but convince them that it will make you happier to get less, not more.

11. If you have a large family, or a large group of friends, who typically all give each other gifts, consider a gift exchange instead. You can draw names for a Secret Santa, or each bring a gift to a party and play a gift swap game (there are many variations). Often these types of exchanges are more enjoyable than simply opening presents because, as with most things, it's the experience we remember not the thing.

12. Start a new tradition. Instead of exchanging gifts with your friends, consider getting together for a cookie exchange or to go caroling. Your holiday spirit will get a bigger lift and you won't have to stress about shopping.

13. Just say no. Sometimes, it can seem like you're being hit up in all directions, from office gift exchanges to extra family commitments to events for your kids. If something is going to bring you and your family more stress than joy, don't participate. You are honestly better off not being in the office Secret Santa than being the grumpy Scrooge in it.

14. Give no clutter gifts. Some of the best gifts I ever got were charitable donations. You might also consider memberships to museums and zoos, or tickets to events. When I was little, I had a cousin who used to give us tickets to various shows and sporting events. I can honestly tell you that I don't remember a single other gift I got those years, but I remember going to Disney on Ice, or seeing a basketball game with my dad.

15. Reconsider teacher gifts. In my years as a teacher, I got many lovely gifts. I truly appreciated the spirit behind all of them. What meant the most, though, was a personal note written from a parent or high school student. I've had to throw out candles and mugs over the years, but I still have every single letter.

16. Slow down. Instead of everyone opening gifts at once, spread the process out so that it takes the whole day (or even start at night on Christmas Eve with one teaser gift!). Somehow
with gifts, like with food, when you take your time less seems like more.


Check out more Frugal Ideas at Life as Mom

Frugality with guests?

This is kind of a strange Frugal Friday post because instead of giving frugal advice, I'm asking for it. We have family staying with us all week, and next week we're going to have a friend staying with us. Even though we have food in the fridge, we're going out every night. We're driving more than we ever do, and we're doing lots of tourist-y things, all of which cost money. I know that we have guests, and I want to just enjoy them, but in the back of my head, I'm a little worried about all the money going out - even when it's theirs and not ours. Does anyone have any good tips on being frugal when you have houseguests?

For frugal tips, check out Frugal Friday at Life as Mom.

15 Frugal Ways to Pamper yourself this summer

1. Read a good book. There's nothing good on TV anyway, so curl up in the evening with a good junk-food type novel that is purely for enjoyment. Or sit on your porch or by the pool in the middle of the afternoon and soak up some vitamin D while you read.

2. Pull out all the bottles of various bath and body stuff that gets buried in your closets and use it.

3. Take a nap. In the middle of the day. You know you want to.

4. Find a local winery and see if they have free tastings. Grab your honey or your friends and go spend a frugal and extravagant afternoon.

5. Go to the pool/lake/beach/park, or whatever you can visit inexpensively in your area, and pretend you're on vacation.

6. Serve sandwiches for dinner. Or a cheese plate and fruit. Anything that saves you time, keeps your house cool, and is fun to eat.

7. Go to the bookstore and browse the books or magazines. Spend an hour in a comfortable chair reading a book, while your children and honey (if you have them) do their own browsing. Watch for free coffee coupons to make this even better.

8. Three words: Starbucks ice cream

9. Put on some music and dance. Research shows that dancing is one of the top two things that really make people happy.

10. Have a cup of tea in your nicest tea cup or a glass of lemonade in your prettiest stem glass.

11. Find some free yoga videos online and get your ohmmmm on.

12. Don't forget to play. Whether or not you have kids, schedule in some time to play a board game or throw a ball or frisbee around.

13. Take a walk. It's 104 degrees out here, so I tend to skip this one, but once it cools down, a walk really calms my mind.

13. Find your favorite "guilty pleasure" TV shows on hulu and watch them while dinner cooks or you fold the laundry (Gilmore girls is on abcfamily.com if anyone shares my preferences ;) )

14. Pull out some stationery you like and write a nice letter.

15. Put cucumber slices or mint leaves in your water, soak your feet in any old basin, and rub some kind of a mask (storebought or homemade with wacky grocery ingredients) into your face, and pretend you are at a spa.


For more great ideas, check out Frugal Friday at Life as Mom

Frugal Friday - Shredded Meat

This may seem like an obvious tip to many more seasoned cooks, but it was a new one to me: if you want your meat to go further, shred it.

I discovered this one kind of by accident. I was making chicken tacos for dinner, and I threw two chicken breasts in the crockpot with some liquid and seasoning. I came home, pulled out the chicken, shredded it with two forks and served it with tortillas, cheese and salsa for a really simple weeknight meal. It was then that I noticed the magic of it.

We had leftovers. A lot of leftovers.

Huh? Two chicken breasts is usually my pre-portioned meal for the two of us. When I serve it whole, we each eat an entire chicken breast, easily. But shredded, we had only eaten about half of it.

Curious to repeat, I threw some pork chops in the crockpot with bbq sauce the next week, and yup! We ate less of that too!

The key, it seems, is perception. One chicken breast on a plate seems like an appropriate amount of food, so we eat it. When the meat is shredded, though, our eyes serve as less of a guide than our stomachs and so we eat only as much as we actually want. I've since done similar things by slicing steaks or slicing chicken breasts in half, and have found it to be a universal in my house that when the food is in smaller pieces we eat less of it.

Since meat is one of the more expensive parts of our food budget, this is a great way to make it stretch!

For more tips, check out Frugal Friday at Life as Mom.

Frugal Friday: Speeding tickets and mindfulness

My number one frugal tip for this week is this: Don't get speeding tickets.

Earlier this week, I was driving along, on my way to my CSA pick up, listening to the radio and going over in my head my budget, what I was making for dinner, what I needed to review with my tutoring student that evening. All of a sudden, there was a motorcycle cop standing by the side of the road, waving me over.

Startled and confused, I pulled over my car and rolled down my window.

"The reason I pulled you over, ma'am, is because you were speeding."

All I could think to respond was "I was? I am so sorry!" and I really was.

The officer politely nodded, checked my license, said "You were going 38 in a 30, ma'am, and this is a high complaint area," and handed me a $150 ticket. In about 30 seconds, all my careful planning and frugal budgeting went out the window.

So why did it happen? I wasn't in a hurry, I wasn't feeling especially rebellious, I don't particularly like driving fast (and I mean, 38 mph, whoa baby).

It happened because I wasn't paying attention to what I was doing.

Obviously, paying attention when you're driving is crucial, and it could have been a whole lot worse than just a speeding ticket. But giving complete attention to the task at hand is important - and frugal - in almost everything. I can't tell you how many times I've added something incorrect to a recipe and made good food inedible, or picked up something at the grocery store that wasn't part of the sale, or thrown away a form I needed to submit a rebate. When we don't give our tasks the attention they deserve, we make mistakes, and mistakes can cost money.

So my goal for this week is to stop trying to do everything at once and to just do one thing at a time, with the proper attention and mindfulness. And to just slow down - both in my car and in my head.

See more Frugal Friday posts at Life as Mom.

Because I wanted to live deliberately

I turned my ketchup bottles upside down because I wanted to live deliberately. Hmm, somehow it doesn't have the same ring to it as what Thoreau said.

There are two kinds of frugality and finance blogs out there that I know of. One of them goes into details about things like how to make your own laundry detergent, substitute cheaper ingredients into recipes, and hang your laundry. The other type likes to insult writers of the first type. Lives for it in fact. Gets most of its juice from saying just how wrong those frugal writers are.

"Why are you spending time counting the number of grinds on the pepper shaker? Tearing paper towels in half? It's a waste of your time and brainpower! Do you know how much more money you could make/save by [insert topic of blog here]?? How can you guys be so stupid as to think it matters whether you get the last ketchup out of the bottle???????"

The thing is, they don't get it. They're totally missing the point.

People don't cut their toothpaste tubes open to save the 5 cents on toothpaste. We don't spin our laundry an extra time before putting it into the dryer because we think this will make us millionaires. Frugal folks are, for the most part, just trying to see what we can get away with, how to get by with the least possible stuff. For some of us, it's simply an exercise in austerity, for some it's an issue of stewardship and ecology, for some it's part of a larger budget plan.

But the point of frugal blogs is to remind us that the individual frugal choices matter. Doing more with less makes us aware of what we have, makes us focus on all of our decisions more. It's about being connected to the food we eat and the products we buy. Simplicity, simplicity, simplicity.

Thoreau would be so proud.

How I save money on cleaning supplies

I don't use them.

Okay, so maybe this post was a teaser. Were you expecting recipes, money saving tips, ways to stretch a bottle? I've been there, done that, and the truth is most of it just isn't worth it.

True, I do have a bottle of Windex under my kitchen cabinet, but it's the same bottle I've had for 3 years, and it's still more than half full. And sure, I've been known to work some magic with some baking soda and vinegar, and I do use commercial dish soap. But most of the time, for most cleaning jobs? I don't need any cleaning products.

It happened somewhat slowly. At first I was gung ho about mixing up a spray bottle of vinegar/water to keep on hand and using that to clean the counter every night. Then, when that started to run low, I just added more water because I was in too much of a hurry to take out the vinegar. Then I added more water.

A few months later, I realized I had been cleaning my counters with just water every night with no noticeable difference.

My floors usually get wiped down with a damp rag, either wrapped around my mop or just moved around with my foot if I'm feeling lazy. My mirrors get wiped down with a microfiber cloth - sometimes with some water, sometimes dry. My dusting is done with a feather duster, which I shake outside.

I've seen recipes for homemade cleaning products, and to be honest I couldn't be bothered. I mean, I can see using some alcohol or bleach on my counters when I have been working with raw meat - although to be honest, I think soap probably does the trick. But did you notice recipes for window cleaner always have blue food coloring?

Now maybe I just don't keep as clean a house as some people. I don't feel the need to wash my windows with ammonia every week, or to turtle was my shower walls. But as far as I'm concerned, a spritz of water and a bit of elbow grease keeps my house plenty clean enough. It saves time, money, and the environment. The trifecta!

Read more frugal tips at Frugal Friday hosted by Life as a Mom.

Frugal Principles: Do without

It's time for another Frugal Friday, and the last in my prolonged series on how to save with frugal principles. In the most famous adage of frugal principles, Use it up, use less, make do, and do without, "do without" is definitely the hardest for most people - although, of course, it is the most frugal of all the frugal principles. I think the reason for this is very simple: while the other three steps all have to do with creativity, with finding more efficient ways to still get everything that you want, doing without implies deprivation. You don't get to have what you want. You have to give up the things that you want:

Give up cable.
Give up lattes.
Give up going out.

And this is of course very hard for a lot of people. They'd rather a list of 100 ways to "make do" or to get more for their money, then a single suggestion that they do without something they want - even if that one suggestion would save them more money than the rest combined. None of us want to feel deprived, to feel like we can't have what we want. So one of two things happens: we either ignore the doing without part of the equation completely, or we go whole hog - and generally burn out.

The key as always seems to be to find a happy medium, to reframe the question. What are the things in my life that I'd just as soon do without? What do I own or regularly pay for that brings me no joy? What can I cut out without hurting, or while even making myself happier in the end?

But I know, the frugal among you will say "Well, there's nothing. There's nothing more. My life is already pared down and I need to cut back more." So you need to reframe the question again: How can I turn the space in my life into more joy? Can I do without cable if I let myself rent a movie once in a while? Can I do without going out to dinner if I have friends over for coffee more often? What is it that brings you joy about the latte? The caffeine, the foam, or the trip to the coffee shop/break from work? How can you replace whatever you like about it with something else?

So, what are you willing to do without?

20 reasons frugal living makes me happy

1. Having more money in savings quells my anxiety about financial emergencies.
2. Having less stuff makes my house easier to clean.
3. Cooking from scratch gives me yummier food.
4. Finding ways to re-use or repurpose things is a fun and creative challenge.
5. Spending less time shopping means I have more time to eat, sleep, and read.
6. Being counter-culture is soooo cool.
7. Frugal living is green living, which eases my conscience and makes me feel good.
8. Coupon shopping gives me tons of free shampoo, toothpaste, and Cheerios which I can donate to the foodbank - and philanthropy makes most people feel good.
9. Saving gas means I have to fill up less often and I don't smell like gasoline.
10. When I slow down, turn off my computer and TV, and stay home for a day, I enjoy things like a cup of coffee on my porch more.
11. Eating out less often makes it feel more special when we do.
12. Less laundry. 'Nuff said.
13. Drinking water with meals and cutting out fast food and junk makes me thinner and healthier.
14. Shelling peas feels more productive and worthwhile than opening a can.
15. Stretching things means I have to run errands less often, and I avoid the driving, the shopping, and the waiting in line (which drives me stir crazy).
16. I like wearing t-shirts I've had since college. Or high school. But those just to sleep in, I swear.
17. Cloth napkins make my table look prettier.
18. Free samples in the mail are like presents when it isn't even your birthday.
19. I have more money in my budget for the occasional splurge, and I can enjoy it more because I know I can afford it.
20. I get to be part of the amazing frugal blogging community.

Please share your reasons!! For more frugal inspiration, check out Frugal Friday at Biblical Womanhood.

Summer energy saving tips for the kitchen

Since summer tends to be the time when my energy bills are the highest, I thought I'd start sharing some of my best summer energy saving tips, and the easiest place for me to start is in the kitchen. The kitchen has the potential to both use a lot of energy itself, and to heat your house significantly, causing you spend even more on energy to cool it back down. By employing these energy saving tips this summer, you'll keep cool, eat well, and keep some of your money in the bank.

1. Don't cook. The most efficient way to keep your kitchen cool and green is by eating raw or cold foods. Try to eat more salads and cold sandwiches, more fruit instead of baked goods, and cold beverages in place of hot ones. This serves double duty: you don't spend energy on the cooking process, and you keep both your house and your body cooler. Bonus: higher water content foods like fruits and vegetables will be more appealing and refreshing to your dehydrated body. Who wants to eat heavy foods when it's 100 degrees out anyway?

2. Cook outside. If you are going to cook, try to move it outside and away from your house. You'll spend some money firing up the grill, but it will keep your house cool. Besides, nothing tasts more like summer than dinner off the grill. Bonus: I can't remember where I read it, but last summer another blogger suggested putting your crock pot on your porch. While they don't give off that much heat, this can't hurt. Plus, if you are eating outside, it will be more convenient to have your side items outside with your grill.

3. Use smaller appliances. Don't turn on your oven if you have a toaster oven that will do the trick. Use a microwave whenever possible. The smaller the appliance, the less energy it uses and the more heat it gives off.

4. Mind your refrigerator. Your fridge has to work harder and use more energy in the summer anyway, so be extra careful to keep the door closed. Before cooking, plan everything you need so you only have to open the fridge door once (in one monstrous trip, like Rachel Ray does where she always likes like she's thisclose to dropping something). When putting things away, stage them next to the refrigerator for the same reason. Put the things you use most often in convenient locations so you can get to them quickly. And I shouldn't even have to mention standing in front of the refrigerator deciding what to eat.

5. Keep your dishwasher closed. In the winter, I like to open my dishwasher to vent (I always have it set to air dry). In the summer though, I leave it closed during the dry cycle. The steam that goes into the air during the dry cycle will both heat up your home and add a lot of moisture to the air, which makes it feel hotter. Instead, dry the dishes with a towel if they are still wet.

6. Be careful of vent fans. If you are running the air conditioning, turning the vent fan on will vent all your cooled air out into the world, so use it sparingly. Of course, if you are a champ and keep your AC turned off, the vent fan will vent the hot air from your kitchen and may actually help.

For more frugal tips, chek out Frugal Friday

Sneaky frugalities

This Frugal Friday, I want to talk about what I call sneaky frugalitites. There are plenty of big, obvious things I do to be more frugal in my life, but I never want to forget the sneaky little things that I do. These are the things that stretch everything just a little farther, or make it last just a little longer, without anyone even noticing or feeling the difference. For example:

I empty free sample packets into my shampoo and body wash bottles. I used to try to use the packets, but it was a terrible pain, and plus this helps me decide how much to use, instead of being bound by the "single use" packet.

I sometimes add a cup of reconstituted milk or frozen concentrate orange juice to a half bottle of their fresh counterparts. It's not enough that I notice any difference in taste at all, but it stretches me to my next grocery day and saves me a run to the store.

I add a little bit of water to liquid hand soap and dish soap. Again, not enough that there's a noticeable change in consistency, but enough that it makes it last longer. I know I could just use less, but I don't need to ask everyone who washes their hands to use less.

I whip my butter in my stand mixer. This one is a bit more trouble than the rest, but it actually gives the butter a nicer texture, making it easier to spread, while at the same time mixing in air to increase the volume. This way less butter seems like more, saving us calories and money.

If I serve a stirfry, or other dish containing both meat and vegetables, two nights, the second night I'll just add more vegetables to stretch it a little further.

What sneaky frugalities do you have?

Frugal Principles: Make do

It's Frugal Friday again over at Biblical Womanhood. This is the next installment in my extremely sporadic series on the frugal axiom "Use it up, Use less, Make do, or Do Without.

Today I'm going to talk about making do, and how this frugal principle applies to my everyday life. To me, making do is the heart of creative frugality: it's finding a way to make what you have or what you can afford work in place of what you don't have or can't afford. You might use this tip to avoid buying an expensive tool (an electric sander? I can make do with this sand paper), a high end brand of coffee (make do with the store brand), or simply to avoid an extra trip to the store (make do with blueberries when you intended to make a peach cobbler). This is a step towards frugality that can seem difficult and tedious - having to forego all the "luxuries" - unless you find a way to use your creativity to make it into a game.

I'm not the most creative person in the world, so this is one I still struggle with, but here are some things I've come up with:

• Instead of buying a new dress for the wedding you have to go to this summer, make do with one you bought last summer buy adding a snazzy accessory, cute cardigan, or even by adding some stitching or changing the hem length. Hey, if there's different people at this wedding, you don't need to change anything at all! :)
  
  
• Instead of running to the store to buy buttermilk to make a certain recipe make do with the following substition: add 1 teaspoon lemon juice or vinegar to your cup of milk and wait a second for it to start to bubble. There's a great list of Cooking Substitutions on Tawra's website, Living on a Dime.
  
  
• Instead of buying trash bags, make do with the plastic bags from the grocery store.

And since I'm fresh out of creativity right now, here's a creative frugality challenge for you:

I have a stack of newspapers, a cardboard box, and a ton of plastic grocery bags, plus assorted household odds and ends (some leftover ribbon, yarn, twine, plenty of tape...). How many different making do substitutions can you come up with?

The Heart of Frugality

Crystal, at Money Saving Mom, has been talking about how Less is more, and that kind of made me get back to the heart of my frugality and think about what really matters.

It matters to me that I live lightly on the planet, that I am a good steward of my environment, use resources wisely, protect and improve around me. I want to treat the Earth and the other people on it with respect, and so I want to make sure that I don't waste energy, water, food, or space. All of these things are really quite scarce in the grand scheme of it, and by being frugal I can conserve and protect them.

It matters to me that I make positive progress towards getting out of debt. I want to be able to live a life in line with my values and to be able to do work that I believe in, so I don't ever want to be in a position where I NEED to have a certain job to pay my bills. I want the freedom that comes with being debt free and by being frugal now, when our income is lower, I can give myself certain gifts for the future.

It matters to me that we have good food, healthy delicious food that nourishes us and brings us pleasure. I don't want to eat hot dogs or Ramen noodles every night, nor do I want to eat things that come from a box or a bag. I want to eat as much organic, local food as possible. Frugal cooking allows me to have fresh, high quality home cooked meals.

It doesn't matter to me that I catch every deal on shampoo, that I have a fancy car, that I have new copies of every book I've ever read. It doesn't matter to me that I have lots of stuff; it just matters to me that the stuff I have makes me happy.

And that, for me, is the heart of frugality.

For more articles on frugality, visit Frugal Friday at Biblical Womanhood

My Frugal Birthday

Yesterday was my birthday. I've been kind of low key about that. I'm not sure why. I've been having a rough time lately, and I think I just maybe wasn't ready to celebrate me.

Until my husband got home from work yesterday. He came home with flowers for me - pink alstromerias, the flowers we had at our wedding - which, while not frugal were exactly what I wanted. Then he took me out to dinner at the Outback, for which we had both a coupon and a gift card. We only bought entrees there, though, and water, and then came home and had cake (an ice cream cake from Coldstone bought with a gift card he had SNUCK OUT OF MY PURSE THE NIGHT BEFORE! I love it!) and champagne (a less frugal purchase, but here's how he did it smart: he bought a split, which was enough champagne for the two of us but not enough to languish in our refrigerator). Then I got my presents. Please don't laugh at me. He bought me a tin of tea, a bottle of wine, a pair of sweatpants, and two packs of socks! I was giddy with excitement. Especially after being scolded at Christmas for only asking for practical things, I was just overwhelmed with how perfectly the gifts matched what I really wanted. My totally unfrugal hubby really saw how happy it made me to be pampered the way I wanted to be, not in an excessive or extravagant way.

Then, the best part of my birthday, we lay on the couch for the rest of the evening and watched silly comedies on TV and didn't do a lick of work. I didn't write, didn't grade any essays, didn't check my email. I hadn't realized how much I really just needed a little bit of peace.

Happy birthday to me!

Frugal Principles: Use Less

It's time for another Frugal Friday!

Ages ago, I wrote part one on my series of frugal principles. The idea was to demonstrate how you can use the four basic principles (Use it up, use less, make do, or do without) through all the areas of your life. Since I already covered using it up, I'll move on to using less.

Using less detergent

I don't understand the measuring cups that come with laundry detergent. Does anyone really need that much liquid laundry detergent to get their clothes clean? I cut back to about half that and sometimes use even less for smaller or cleaner loads of laundry. I haven't noticed any difference. Essentially, you can continue to cut back until you start to notice a difference, then increase the amount just enough to make your clothes clean again.

Ditto for laundry detergent.

Using less coffee

Some people may think this is gross, but one way I save money on coffee is that when I make the second pot of the day (at home or work), I reuse the grounds and add half as much again. In this way, the second pot uses only half as much coffee as the first.

I honestly think the major savings here is on the reused coffee filter, which saves both money and wasted paper.

Using less energy

Whenever possible, use lower wattage light bulbs (or CFLs, better yet) or lower settings on appliances. Just like with detergent, decrease until you notice a difference.

Using less gas

Well, maybe a whole post on this another day, but the obvious essentials hold true: Drive less, combine trips, carpool.

Using less food

One unfortunate thing I've noticed is that the more food I cook, the more we eat. We don't need the extra calories any more than the extra expenditures. If you are cooking for leftovers, store the portion for leftovers BEFORE you start eating. This way you get a "free meal" and you don't overeat and feel gross and bloated later that night.

Also, try using smaller plates. Everyone can still have as many servings as they want, but they will tend to eat less because it slows them down long enough to notice when they're full.

Please post any other suggestions for using less and do prod me if I forget to move on to making do. :)