I haven't yet figured out how to keep the line spacing between the paragraphs, so here are a few more. I'm in the one-piece-of-fruit-group now. Saves on eating overripe fruit or having to pitch it. I keep things out where I can see them: on the counter, on the table, on the floor, on the desk. When my gentleman friend is coming to visit, I put all that away. I'll eat yoghurt and a piece of cheese for breakfast. And maybe a salad or a vegetable. Lunch/Supper will be simple fare. Beans hot or cold, or potatoes, and veggies. Either dairy, or an egg, or a bit of fish. Perhaps a casserole. Sometimes I just thaw froz. veggies and eat them as salad. When company is here: there is quiche (with potatoes for a crust), and bacon in the beans, and baked custard or a pie for him.

Thanks, Gran.  Wish I could eat as lightly as you seem to - my health would be better.  Supposed to be on a lo-cal, lo-carb, lo-cholesterol regime but if somebody hands me pizza....  My rule is that I can eat anything offered to me, but can't buy/order it myself.  My friend dragged out on 5 occasions in 2 weeks, so this season's being sort of - how would you say? - disastrous; and there's still New Year's to get through.  But how can you refuse a 3-yr-old offering you a sticky little lollipop? 

 Just finished a typical meal:  Honey Bunches of Oats, herbal tea, dried apricot slices, steamed pea pods and a carrot.  Talk about weird.  But decades ago I stopped trying to balance each & every meal, and think in terms of the entire day.  Seems to work.

Update:  I'm making little pockets out of the striped top part of each sock, stuffing & sewing them together for an interesting light quilt.  Size depends on how many holey socks I find in all the bags & boxes marked "sewing" that we hauled along every time we moved.  Mantra:  "Someday it'll come in handy." 

To all Stretchers, I wish a happy and satisfying 2009!

 

 

 

Juditur, I agree with balancing the food for the day. If it works out in a meal fine. Otherwise, it'll get there in a few hours. I have a few health challenges which require some strict parameters, and some of my food habits are just because I feel better if I keep them. I went no-sugar some years ago and I can only wish everyone a sugar-free life. Your sock quilt sounds great! Thanks for the good wishes. I wish you and all Stretchers a blessed close to 2008, and a joyous new beginning.

Thanks for the blessings.

The sock quilt is using my scraps and providing a little exercise for my arthritic thumb joints.  It'll be a conversation piece, too - another example of the Stretcher-Weird recycling projects people are used to seeing at my place.

I'm not a craft-y person - just purely hate to throw out anything still useful.

-juditur

 i don't save on light because i hate to stay in the dark. the evening is my most active period so i don't sleep anyway before midnight.

the idea with showering with candlelight seems nice to me though, but i don't live alone.

living alone doesn't seem very frugal to me; i am not married, i am childfree and don't live with parents but like companionship. 

i admit i eat junk food but by saving time for cooking and spending it on reading or working is better for me. it is more fulfilling i mean. 

one frugal thing i will do is building my own velomobile- i still work at designing it for the moment. 

budgetwise:

1. I am enjoying reading all your posts. Some of your responses are hilarious.

2. I find it depressing to sit in the cold and dark, so, as long as I can, I will turn on my two or three lamps and run the heater. Much more cheerful.

3. I buy lunchmeat "by the slice". I'm the weird lady that asks for, "Four slices of bologna, please." "Three slices of swiss cheese, please."

4. I've thrown out too much spoiled fruit, so now I purchase ONE banana, or ONE orange, or ONE apple.

 5. Although I wash plastic bags over and over again, I throw out that last sliver of soap.

6. I add water to the dishwash liquid bottle in order to get the last little bit of detergent.

7. That's all I can think of, for now. (:

 BW

 

  I only buy a half a pound of lunchment and only the stuff on sale. I usually avoid produce on sale because it doesn't last and in small amounts.

  Sometimes we miss out on great deals buy not willing to purchase family packs of meat like pork or chicken.

  I wash small amounts of clothes in the bathtub. The laundrymat is time consuming. I let most of my clothes drip dry or use a fan. I live in an apartment where I only pay the electricity.  It saves money and most of all time. When I went to the laundrymat I would procrastinate to the point of being forced to go and had large bundles to drag there.  I only take large items there from now on.

 It seems we are better off cooking our own food. It amazes me what single people will spend a week on fast food. I treat myself to a $5 Subway sandwich once a week after church.

 Breakfast is the meal we should not skimp on. A dozen eggs can last two weeks. It depends on where you live but eggs are usually under 20 cents a piece. A bag of store brand hashbrowns are cheap. Then some bread for toast and I still like 2 strips bacon.  This can also be eaten for supper.

   

  

 

 

 

I don't know why you put the radio on the floor either but unless you are doing it to save money I am not worried about that.  If so then please enlighten me.  I moved into my home over 4 years ago and my water heater stopped working.  I never got it fixed or replaced.  I probably should get it looked at now that I think about it in case there is some sort of leak(it's a gas one).  Thanks for the idea.  I instead use my tub and heat water on the stove about 1 large pot of water at the most.  I wash my hair with cold water in the winter then use warm water for the final rinse.  I then use the tub and count to 10 while it fills then add boiling water and get in and get cleaned.  I live in Nevada so it very seldom gets below freezing. I also wash clothes in the tub when I have only a few dirty items but since I have a washing machine I do one load about every 2 weeks.  It's hard to get everything clean properly washing in the tub and besides clothes come out wrinkled if I don't remember to pull out the wrinkles.  I use an iron on the wet clothes occasionally when I can't get the wrinkles out.  I also don't waste electricty by leaving on more than one light (energy saving bulb) when watching tv and reading or doing paperwork.  Street lights shine in so I don't have to turn on more lights when I go to the bathroom.  This year I didn't run the furnance instead I got 2 space heaters and turned them on when I was awake and only when it got below 60 degrees.  I was paying at least $12.00 a month for the privilege even in the summer when I never used my oven.  My electric bill was around $40.00-$50.00 during 1 cold month other wise it never ran over $30.00.  Last year my cheap gas bill was over $50.00.  Well you get the idea, I can be very very frugal or even what some call cheap.  Yet I do eat out most of my meals.  I bring home leftovers from the restaurant and left overs from where I work.  We get meals for our clients and they don't always eat everything so I get to take home what wasn't touched.   I would never eat off of their personnal meals only the ones put in a communty type container or once in a while they leave something not touched. I spend about $10.00 to $20.00 a week(at the most) eating out and I very seldom do dishes or use a stove or microwave.  Yet I still have a luxory most people don't have(eating out and not cooking much) at a cost similar to cooking at home because of my job.  I haven't had cable service in over 4 years yet I watch DVD's from the library or bought (20 movies for $5.00 the other day) for about 1 month service $29.00 last time I had it each year.  I rented 10,0000 BC from the library a few months after it came out on DVD from the library.  I got on the waiting list for it as I do with all new releases I want to see.

 

I have always folowed the rule if you leave a room turn off the lights.  My ex boyfriend wouldn't, he left every light on and when I turned them off he went back in and turned them on.  Our heating and water bill were heated by electricty as well.  The first year we were using about $200.00 a month so I put in the energy saving bulbs and turned off half of them in each light fixture.  This  plus other tricks like using the dishwasher only when full(keep water in the sink to basically clean them all week)reduced my bill by around 25 to 50 percent.  Later I figured out even more ways to save like draft dodgers and air blockers that were for the bottom of the door.  I put them up all around the door frame and felt were it hooked to the frame to block the cold air.  Well you get the idea even when they have increased the cost of electric we kept the bill down.  Now I do more extreme things because I have a high mortgage payment and limited funds.  So you see you can save money without being weirdly frugal.  You can get a waterless tank rather then turn off the water heater altogether as I do.

Hi, Cinbad,

Are you talking about me, with the radio?  I have it in the hallway so I can hear it in the kitchen and both bedrooms.  It's on the floor because I don't want to clutter up that area with a table.

I love leftovers too, and being creative with them.  I pay for 1 or 2 meals out per month, taking turns with friends.  They know that if something is included in their meal (like those little sausages with an omelet) they should take it even if they don't want it - then this ends up in my doggy bag.  I have a friend whose employer gives them parties for their birthdays, and a lot of food was getting thrown away til she spoke up; now I get at least one of these goodie bags per month.  It's interesting having 5 or 6 dibs & dabs of different foods on my dinner plate.  They do a lot of Asian take-out and  that bland non-nutritive (in my opinion) sticky white rice piles up in their fridge, and I use it to thicken up my stews.  I'll take anything!

I would hate to give up my hot showers in cold weather, or try to wash by hand again after all these years, but I am living without central heating or A/C.  I got a reduced price on this mobile home because all the ducts were corroded, and I'm not worried about the resale price because I'll be dead & it'll be someone else's problem.  I have never used the A/C anywhere we lived or in the cars anyway, as being  in a stream of air gives me a headache.  I bought 4 space heaters of different kinds for $25-40 each, and turn them on & off as I'm in each room.  It's a lot cheaper than heating the whole trailer.  I close off any area I don't have to leave open for the cat, and am quite cozy huddled by the heater, with a blanket if necessary.  If the old joints start to ache, I get up and do chores, or use the treadmill.  In winter I go to bed early to read.

It's interesting reading all these strategies for saving, and I get good tips from these letters. 

juditur

 

Yes, thanks for the explanation.  You do some of the things I do .  When I was younger I lived in a trailer and kept the heater on so low I could see my breath.  I would turn it up to take a shower or if I had guests.  I learned about space heaters later on from older sister when one of her kids moved to the basement and they needed to warm it.  I even caulked the seams inside and outside of the trailer but it still got cold.  I also put up plastic.  I never used the a/c back east but here in Nevada it gets over 116 degrees during the summer.  It is a dry heat but I do use the a/c.  I just stay away from the ducts in the summer as the cold air bothers me too. 

I was just taking a (hot!) shower and realized that I hadn't mentioned that I live in Southern Cal where it might get down to freezing once or twice a year.  Ob viously not everybody could do what we do, especially with children, elderly or disabled who can't move around much.  Still, when I go into people's homes here they all seem overheated.

We had an apartment once in Massachusetts where I could turn off the fridge for the winter because one of the closets was on an outside wall and was cold enough, and I used the trunk of my car as the freezer.  Couple of times an unseasonable thaw had me cooking a lot of meat all at once!  We used to turn the temp UP when we had to be away overnight, so the pipes wouldn't freeze.

I hate it when people tell me we have a dry heat down here - I get just as sweaty!  That's a BIG perk of living alone - I can walk around in the altogether (curtains closed and the cat looking quizical).  And with that beautiful image in your mind, I will say goodbye.

juditur