How many days can I go without spending money???

[wolfwoman]

Go back to great-grandmas and grandmas times for home made tips. They didn't all have the money to run to the store for items. make your own glass cleaner( 1cup rubbing alcohol, 1 cup water & 1 tbsp white vinegar). You want seafood sauce? Just mix ketchup and horseradish sauce together. There are tons of ways to save cash! As for papertowels, REDENG is right. I haven't bought them in years! Just use old facecloths and then wash them.

[frugalmom]

[QUOTE=wolfwoman;4364989]Go back to great-grandmas and grandmas times for home made tips. They didn't all have the money to run to the store for items. make your own glass cleaner( 1cup rubbing alcohol, 1 cup water & 1 tbsp white vinegar). You want seafood sauce? Just mix ketchup and horseradish sauce together. There are tons of ways to save cash! As for papertowels, REDENG is right. I haven't bought them in years! Just use old facecloths and then wash them.[/QUOTE
You are so right. I have been reading books on the frugal life for years. I remember about 8 to 10 years ago reading "The tightwad gazette" There are three books in this series at our library and they simply have hundreds of tips and suggestions reduce, reuse, recycle and cut expenses. I can't get enough of these books. Maybe I should go borrow them again. I have been couponing since 1994. I have been cutting back in so many areas but there is ALWAYS MORE TO CUT OUT OF THE BUDGET. DH starts complaining after awhile but lately he has been on board.

[frugalmom]

Well, I have not spent one cent in 7 days. I went out however this afternoon and used 5 FPC's for bread as we were running low. After purchasing 8 loaves 2 weeks ago I discovered they were staler than any bread I had EVER purchased before. I called the company and they sent me the FPC's this week. So other than that I have pretty much stayed out of the stores altogether (except to return a few items and make money.)I don't make a habit of this though. Both the cashier and the woman behind me in line were quite intrigued with my "spending challenge". Not sure how much longer I can go though as I run a home daycare we also have an 11 year old Foster child living with us.......a very busy household but I will keep you posted.
I also went out this afternoon and picked up 25 smartsource (for the bread coupons mainly) 12 other randon inserts and oh..........15-2012 Consumer product surveys.

[avoncallingu]

I hunted up my Tightwad Gazette compendium and have been reading it over the last couple of days. It's somewhat outdated - but just the "mindset" is worthwhile getting into. I was going to suggest you borrow it from the library but you've already thought of this.

Great going, btw - no spending in a week!

[angelamary]

Go back to great-grandmas and grandmas times for home made tips. They didn't all have the money to run to the store for items. make your own glass cleaner( 1cup rubbing alcohol, 1 cup water & 1 tbsp white vinegar). You want seafood sauce? Just mix ketchup and horseradish sauce together. There are tons of ways to save cash! As for papertowels, REDENG is right. I haven't bought them in years! Just use old facecloths and then wash them.

We love mixing relish and mayo for tartar sauce, my son doesn't even know the difference, lol!

[Miss Molly]

We love mixing relish and mayo for tartar sauce, my son doesn't even know the difference, lol!

Mix in some ham and you have a ham salad sandwich!

[Wheellug]

Speaking of Extreme Cheapskates,I'm all for saving money BUT that idea of recycling homemade toilet paper is downright GROSS!

That is totally gross! Did they ever think that it takes $$ to wash the clothes that they use. Detergent, electricity and hot water.

One thing that I do is go to our local library website and "order" all out DVD's online and when they come in I just pick them up. You can have up to 60 DVD's at one time and you can usually keep them for 2 weeks for "new" releases and 3 weeks for other ones. Totally FREE! No more video stores for us.

[frugalmom]

Well my "NO SHOPPING challenge is over. 7 days without shopping is a record for me....with a home daycare and a foster child. Went out last night and spent 20.00 giftcard at Metro,10.00 giftcard at Wm and spend 53.00 oop at SDM to get milk,eggs,bread etc. I'll be sending in for the Pepsi rebate too
We also changed the following:
took a car off the road
saved 200 on insurance/month (we were paying 600.00)
decided to have son #1 pay 200.00 room and board
saved 50.00/month Rogers cable
saved 30.00/month cell phones
cancelled newspaper
bartered for haircuts (giving free childcare)
just bardered to have toilet unclogged.
Thanks again for all your support and encouragement!!!

[momgoneawol]

Way to go on the bartering, great way to get things you need. You are doing your son a favour and a life lesson in charging him room and board, he'll have to pay alot more when he moves out. Too often parents think they should not charge kids money to stay at home but it doesn't teach them to budget properly. Keep us updated. Good luck on your quest.

[krrosell]

i am enjoying reading this.... i moved a couple months ago to a new province and have been staying with friends. we just secured our first rental apt here but had to put down 2.5 months rent to secure it! so we are pretty tight for the next two months, we have been pretty tight saving for the apt as well. i have been planning ahead with my coupons and getting cleaning supplies, paper towel etc that i know we will need on our own but dont necessarily need right now. as long as i loaded up cereal and canned soup in the recent NF dollar days so i have a lot of food on hand and the egg and bread coupons have kept us well stocked i can see the light getting closer as i cannot wait to be done with storage fees and have my own space- this is a super competitive rental market as most rentals only last 2-3 days on the market we got one that was unadvertised as we were a little too late on another one in the building- we are in a very good school district and my son is starting school in september- i only have to walk him 5 buildings down the road and we are close enough to my husbands work that it is a short walk so it is an ideal location that i was waiting for i am blessed but i would love to see some money in my bank account one of these days

[momof5boys]

Way to go on the bartering, great way to get things you need. You are doing your son a favour and a life lesson in charging him room and board, he'll have to pay alot more when he moves out. Too often parents think they should not charge kids money to stay at home but it doesn't teach them to budget properly. Keep us updated. Good luck on your quest.

Oh how I agree with you on this. To the horror of some parents, we also have our boys pay for their own post secondary education. They start a paper route at a young age and have to start saving then already. They can live for free at home as long as they are studying but, when studies are done, they pay board and room. Kids have to learn how to save and stay away from the latest gadgets if they don't need them.

And to those parents who say that it is impossible for kids to studying full time and save money, two of our boys got through their post secondary training debt free by working part time on the side. Our third son is heading into his fifth year of university and is still debt free. Sure, they have to work hard but a little work never hurt anyone....

[wolfwoman]

I would like to congrad the parents who are having the parents who have their kids pay rent, education.....I had our son pay rent and his own car insurance before he moved out so he would know what the real life was like. we also got him on the jar system which he continues to this day. He has thanked us as he sees the struggles some of his friends have with money.

[sharkie]

I am sorry to hear about your situation...hopefully it will get better soon...you and your family will be in my prayers...god bless

[Sandra4]

Momof5boys, how do u do it??? How did u do it to live to tell about it?? I have 3 boys, 12, 5 and 3 and my daughter is 10. I want to bang my head against a wall everyday between 3 and 8pm. I work 2 part time jobs and my husband works in another province and is home every 2 weeks for 1 week, and then off he goes. I am trying to raise my kids frugally but i'm not sure i'm succeeding as they want to go to stores all the time!
i'm sorry, i realize this post is not about my problems...but was wondering if you read any good books you can recommend or if you could PM. We started an RESP 3 years ago when we moved back to Canada after being abroad for 12 years..we've had to start all over again and just bought our 1st home 3 months ago....any advice would be great....sometimes i feel like i'm sinking...quick sand lol! thanks everyone for the great candid advice you post!

Oh how I agree with you on this. To the horror of some parents, we also have our boys pay for their own post secondary education. They start a paper route at a young age and have to start saving then already. They can live for free at home as long as they are studying but, when studies are done, they pay board and room. Kids have to learn how to save and stay away from the latest gadgets if they don't need them.

And to those parents who say that it is impossible for kids to studying full time and save money, two of our boys got through their post secondary training debt free by working part time on the side. Our third son is heading into his fifth year of university and is still debt free. Sure, they have to work hard but a little work never hurt anyone....

[DiamondLil]

Have you checked with the insurance your bank offers? We used to get our insurance thru a broker, but when we checked into RBC, they offered us coverage that was not comparable to what the brokers were offering (remember, the brokers include their fee in the quote).

Hang in there - you will make it thru this difficult financial time.