Pat:

That's not deprivation, that's selective spending - in other words, making your money do what you want it to.

 I cannot agree with this quote more.  

 I moved from 17 miles north of the city to 7 blocks from downtown with an amazing cityscape view.  No more toll tags, filling up every week, traffic jams, etc.  I sold my car 18 months ago and use my motorcycle (paid for) as transporation.  I am fortunate to be able to work from home and only ocassionally have to go to meetings out.  Everything I do socially is within 5 miles of where I live (most of it is within blocks).  I spend about $20 per month on gasoline (2 fillups at 93 octane)

To the people that are trying to be frugal by going without meals or eating Ramen Noodles for a week - please rethink that strategy.  If you buy a juicer and juice produce that's in season, you will find that you eat healthier and actually less because you are getting pure nutrition that doesn't need to be digested straight into your intestines and aborbed into your blood stream.  Do a Google search and read up on the amazing benefits of juice fasting / juicing. 

This country is becomming horribly overweight because 90% of the food being purchased is processed.   Go back to nature.  I'm not saying be a vegan, but to strive for 80% raw/juicing is an amazing feat.  Not only will your health dramatically improve but if you are carrying excess weight, it will melt away and your skin will retain it's elasticity.   I know of what I speak - I dropped 30 pounds in 1 month on a juice fast and have kept it off for a year and never looked back. 

I'm not even going to start on my juicer rant, but I will say, a juicer is the least frugal thing I can think of.  fruit is too expensive to juice into "meals" for an entire month.  That would eat up an entire pay check with the price of fruit these days.  And then, in the juicing process you take out all the beneficial fiber.

Why do people think that they absolutly must eat three meals a day or they are going to shrivel up and die?  Think about it, the average american is obese, three meals a day isn't helping our waist lines.  And eating food that isn't exactly nutrient rich for a week isn't going to kill anybody either.  Ya'll act like somebody who does that is going to drop dead.  As a diet concious person I know how many calories I need to lose, sustain, or gain weight, and believe me, I'm in no position to be gaining anything.  A few missed meals are not going to kill this chubby girl.  In fact, I think more americans could use a few missed meals.  Ever wonder who funds studies that say you need this or that or you are going to die?  its the industries that are selling that crap.  Like the dairy industry...milk does a body good?  last time I checked adults didn't need milk in any ways shape or form.  You can get calcium from many other things, and it'll actually get absorbed into your body if you get it from green leafy veggies instead of a bovine.   

I usually tend to think of buying food in terms of calories, like, I can buy this product and it has this many calories in it, or I can buy the brand name product that has less calories, less product, more packaging and a brand name...I'd rather buy the cheaper product, and get more out of it.  Ramen is a good example.  I can buy a case of ramen on sale for $5, thats a lot of calories compared to buying a box of lipton cup of noodle soup which is not a lot of calories and a lot more packaging, more expensive...I like to optimize my purchases.    I also prefer to grow my veggies then buy them.  I have a big indoor planter and can grow lots of stuff so I don't have to buy it for 200x what it costs to produce it.  Seeds are way cheaper in the big picture. 

On another note, my newest frugal endevor is to figure out how to actually be able to utilize the energy created by a solar panel to power my grow lights for my veggie planter.  Right now I can charge batteries, I need an inverter and I need one for cheap!

frugal_alaskan:

I'm not even going to start on my juicer rant, but I will say, a juicer is the least frugal thing I can think of.  fruit is too expensive to juice into "meals" for an entire month.  That would eat up an entire pay check with the price of fruit these days.  And then, in the juicing process you take out all the beneficial fiber.

About Day 4 of a juice fast, I get into my zone.  That entails a lot of water with a squeeze of fresh lime, green teas sweetned with stevia and my whopping juices make up about 6 carrots, 2 apples, 2 oranges, maybe a 1/4 cup of berries in season and I usually take that juice and blend with a ripe banana.  My food costs are about $25 per week and I buy local whenever possible.

Typically a human body utilizes 1/3 of of it's daily energy digesting food.  If the body is only consuming fresh juice / water / tea - which needs no digestion - do you know what your body does instead?  It takes that energy and detoxes.  It kicks out all those nasty additives that are found in the budget buy Ramen Noodles, declogs arteries, gives you a great energy boost that stays constant throughout the day, your thinking is clearer and your sleep is better.  The human body fights off about 10,000 occurences of infection/disease daily - so shouldn't it be operating at peak capaicity?  The body will consume diseased cells and fat - the body is the smartest thing on the planet and will do whatever it needs to preserve the health of the muscles, organs and bones.  Oh, and you loose weight too.

So in the long run, with a healthy body, you don't get sick like a "normal" person does, you need less food because you've optimized your intake and you're doing better things for the world around you.  

frugal_alaskan:

I usually tend to think of buying food in terms of calories, like, I can buy this product and it has this many calories in it, or I can buy the brand name product that has less calories, less product, more packaging and a brand name...I'd rather buy the cheaper product, and get more out of it.  Ramen is a good example.  I can buy a case of ramen on sale for $5, thats a lot of calories compared to buying a box of lipton cup of noodle soup which is not a lot of calories and a lot more packaging, more expensive...I like to optimize my purchases.   

 So you are coming at it from a point of view of "a calorie is a calorie".  That's like saying a Hyundai is a Ferrari.   Yes, they are both technically cars but that's where the similarities end -- same thing with calories.

 I have my free account at www.FitDay.com which keeps track of my activities, food intake and weight goals.  So out of curiosity I looked up the nutrition info on Ramen Noodles:

• 1 serving
• 190.3 calories
• Total Fat: 17.8 g
• Sodium: 482.7 mg
• Carbohydrates:  27.51 g
• Protein:  3.91 g
• Prep Time:  Approx 5 minutes

So let's compare your idea of calorie rich eating (pour boiling water over a congealed block of hard, processed noodles with synthethic flavoring) to what I would have at the same time:

•  Juice 1 orange, 1 Fuji apple, some blueberries, 4 carrots
• 1 serving
• 338 approximate calories
• Total Fat:  about 1 g
• Sodium:  2 mg
• Carbohydrates:  77 g
• Protein:  5.5 g
• Prep Time:  Approx 5 minutes

You admittedly carry extra weight.  I no longer do.  By taking your theory that a calorie is a calorie, I should be gaining weight because while you are eating Ramen Noodles at 190 calories, I'm having a fresh juice at approximately 338 calories.  BUT, I have dramatically less fat and sodium yet more protein and carbs than your meal.

 I've never had a flu shot, I don't have colds, I've not taken a prescription medication in 20 years, 10 years since I've been to a dentist, 8 years since I visited an optomotrist, etc.  This has been a beautiful financial savings of no over the counter medications, prescriptions or doctor's visits.  Nobody has ever come within 10 years of guesing my age and I am very active and ride a Harley as my only mode of transport so it's safe to say that I'm not a waif. 

Eating better has only been a wonderful change in my life on every possible level including financial.

People will only do what they are comfortable doing - whether it is juicing most of their food, eating Ramen, or whatever; myself, I try to eat a lot of protein, because that's what works for me.  Telling each other how wrong the other's choices are only shuts down dialog and takes the conversation off track.

To get back to "weird frugal behavior for singles" - I would have have to say I don't do anything that I would consider "weird", but I do grow a lot of vegetables in season, and I plan to expand my garden for next year.  I've started playing with a dehydrator that a neighbor had in her basement - but it's an old one, not very efficient, with a bottom heater and no fan; I'm thinking about buying a better one.  Since I've only had the dehydrator for about a month, mostly I freeze things for later use, especially tomatoes (I love using fresh frozen tomatoes in place of canned; they taste so much better and don't have any added salt), but also chives and peppers (hot and bell).  I can eat the same thing for lunch for days, until I eat it all - I know some of my friends think I'm crazy because I can eat chili for lunch and dinner for a week - but I like it better fresh than frozen (the beans get mushy pretty quickly), and it's hard to make a small crock pot of chili.

I don't know that this is related to being single - but I will eat a bag of popcorn for lunch (I keep some in my desk for emergencies) before I will eat from the school cafeteria where I work; the food is expensive for what it is, and not particularly good; the only thing that makes it less expensive is that I don't have to leave the building to get it - at the cost of gas, that becomes significant.

I do a lot of my own home improvements (whenever I know - or think I know how to do them) because no matter how little I want to do something, I'd rather do it myself than pay someone else to do something I can do.

I keep a dog (not frugal - but great company) instead of having an alarm system - and he's chased people off a few times (yay, Sable!!!) - and I do feel safer with him in the house.

Raine, its nice that you enjoy such a nice fruity diet, it would literally break my bank.  Not everywhere in the world is fortunate enough to have fresh produce at low cost.  When I do buy fruit it is usually reserved for my son since it is an expensive treat here in the Aleutians.  I can honestly say that although I'm a little overweight, and I eat weird, I enjoy remarkably good health that I don't attribute to my diet so much as I do my positive attitude and my very active lifestyle.  Afterall, some of my diet is based on a subsistence diet of foods we hunt, catch or gather and sea lion, especially the oil we render from the fat, is really not that healthy of a choice, but it is loaded with calories...and yummy too!

Teacher, I have a dog too, and I agree...not the most frugal choice in pets especially when the vet bills comes, but a darn good security system!  She also keeps my neighbors chickens in check and out of my garden. 

This is my weird tale that people at work just can't handle.  I eat my breakfast at home and pack my lunch everyday, except payday.  And on payday, I head out to Subway (every other Friday) where I get the special (Tuna) which costs all of $3.16! (I bring my own chips & soda from home).  That's the only time I really allow myself to 'eat out' during a work week!  I also utilize the library alot (just around the corner from work). I have a  good friend and fellow 'cheap sister' and when we go to happy hour, we order the 2 for 1 beer and split the cost, that way we both get a good beer, don't drink too much and save money and that's only once a month.  I also do the squeezing out the toothpaste (I've even been known to open the tube with scissors), rinsing my hair with vinegar etc.  But you know what? I have no bad debt, no car loans and when I bought my house I put 1/2 down!  And despite my frugalness, if there's something I want to do or buy, I just think really hard about it before I purchase it.  Oh, another thing I do....the envelope budget!  $40 for gas, $25 for fun & $30 for groceries every 2 weeks-when the monies gone, it's gone!  (People don't understand this game, but I'm laughing all the way to the bank!).

Since I am singel after a year,what I like about being singel ,I don't go out alot and I save money that way I can do what I want and I get away with things that we are not really suppose to do like go out in the middle of the night to macdonalds grab a burger now thats oj by me...:)

Hi, Ya'll (as you people in South-Western Alaska say)!

This is all interesting, so here's my 2 cents:

I think diet is a very individual thing.  My parents ate meat 3 times a day plus a meatloaf sandwich during the 10 p.m. news, with veggies roasted in the pan with the pork  grease, eggs fried in lard, and so on,  and never had high cholesterol - I'm on Lovastatin though I've eaten low-fat for decades.  My husband liked raw garlic, radishes, Little Debbie snacks with tea with sugar, and chocolate every day of his life.  During his final illness (after not seeing a doctor since his Air Force physical at 19) the guy who did his angiogram said, "You have no business having such clean arteries at your age!"  I follow the rules, and my medical file is about a foot high.

So, juice-head or anti, relax!  It's all good. 

 I've also been called weird by take-out-pizza-for-lunch coworkers for sitting at their table with carrot sticks, peanut butter & rye toast, and a baggy of cucumber slices with ranch dressing.  At another place, I offered a piece of Bell pepper to someone who seemed a little frightened by it and said, "You eat....different, don't you?"  Here in the trailer park the management was after me about all the weeds in my back space til I convinced them the dandelion plants were part of my high-calcium and vitamin A diet.    There will always be somebody to say something, but don't let it bother you. 

At my age, I have to watch out for displaying too much weirdness so people won't think I'm losing it and haul me away.  I get tired of explaining why my radio is on the floor of the kitchen near the doors to the bedroom and computer room, or why I have canned goods in a chest of drawers and vitamins in the computer desk, or why the cat has a little buffet of 4 bowls of different dry food, or why she gets the master bath  with the spa and I get the little bath with just a shower, or why the built-in laundry hamper in the cat's bathroom is filled with crossword puzzles and Sudoku's.  This all works for me, so... 

 Everybody who comes in here is upset that I'm flushing one of my toilets with a couple pitchers of water.  "Let me fix that for you!"  So I let whoever it is adjust the little screw so I have flow again, and then when they go away I readjust it so it doesn't keep me awake at night with the tiny shshshsh of a small amount of water leaking, nickel by nickel, all night long.  And the cat likes to have fresh water from that pitcher.

Speaking of drips, a pipe out back does, and three count'em three handy men have individually gone to the Home Depot and bought stuff and labored over this dumb pipe, and still it leaks.  So I have a Corona bottle directly below the drip and use the water on some of my tomato plants.  No-one is content with this arrangement ("Let me fix that for you!") except me. 

I also eat the pancakes at IHOP and bring home the omelet for a couple of subsequent breakfasts.  So, shoot me.

My long-winded point here is that I hope all of you will continue to be weird in the ways that suit you.

Also, how can I Reply to the thread in general? I've been Replying to the first poster, but sometimes it's not really on that person's subject.

juditur

 Juditur....you rock!

Why, thank you!

Just the words an eccentric old lady wants to hear.

juditur