Phone rings: "Mom, I just got back from shopping and guess how many things went up AGAIN?" .... Our daughter Kami, like most of us are on a tight budget. We are forced to stretch that dollar farther and farther and lately can't see how we will be able to pull it off much longer. Since none of us are going to give up, we might as well stick together and share some helpful hints. How about a contest....not a giveaway, but a real contest. Share some tips of how you are making ends meet. I'll start.In high school, for most of the years, we had to wear skirts, no pants allowed for girls, the only exception is if it snowed real bad and there were blizzard conditions (not too often in Portland, Oregon). Anyway, the family budget didn't allow for many nylon panyhose so if I got a run in my nylon, I would hurry and try to stop it by dabbing on nail polish, hopefully I had clear and not some dark pink. Eventually they could no longer be salvaged and into the garbage they went and out came the dreaded knee socks until payday when new nylons could be purchased. Until...one day a brilliant lady thought of taking two pair of pantyhose, both with a runner in one leg, and cut of the bad leg in each and put them both on...A new pair of pantyhose. Can you even imagine how much money that saved everyone?
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Share your story and if it is chosen as the winner then you will win this book.
Urban Pantry - Tips & Recipes for a Thrifty, Sustainable Kitchen - Check it out Amazon.comYou can leave a tip here today and after that a link to this post will be on the sidebar for you to leave tip in comment section there. You may enter as many tips as you like.
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Have a wonderful weekend.
xo
20 comments:
I totally remember cutting off one leg of my pantyhose and saving to to wear later on. I also remember one day wearing one beige and one coffee colored stocking. I was in 7th grade and the mismatched color was BETTAH than going bare.
can you even imagine? Pride commeth before the FALL!
Sweet post~ Today I'd slap some self-non-orange tanner on and be done with it all! Bettah yet...NOT CARE! :) :) :) xo
Rebecca
OMG, I remember doing that! (both the nail polish and the one leg from each pair ) Thankfully it has been many many years since i have had to wear hose. Those things are ridiculously uncomfortable.
That brings back memories. The runs in the panty hose and nail polish. I also remember before pany hose the individual stockings help up with those hookie things from wearing a girdle. Oh my gosh those girdles (sp. looks wrong but it probably isn't in the dictionary) were always so tight and uncomfortable. I wore those darn things in high school and I was thin.
At our school we were never allowed to wear pants. We wore leggings under our dresses that had to be removed at school. Goodness how things have changed.
You must be from my generation for sure!! I would still do that if I ever wore pantyhose anymore!
I'm a new blogger and love your blog. I'll definitely be back to visit. Drop by mine and say "hi"!
Just thought I would pop in and say hi and leave a comment, I haven’t really got any tips I guess going without treats like chocolate, and doughnuts would help but I don’t think I could survive without chocolate, and doughnut.
Regards
Edward
I think I have too many tips. I am going to have to give it some thought and get back to you. Here is just a sampling off the top of my head:
*Pot-O-Beans
*Vinegar and water for cleaner
*Rags from old clothes, towels etc. so we don't buy paper towels
*cloth napkins
*Making children's clothes out of no longer worn grown up clothes
*Using magazines and recycling items for kids art projects
*Turning old tights with holes in the toes into leggings by cutting off the feet
*Making and canning our own jam, spaghetti sauce, salsa, dried fruit, etc.
*Baking bread
*Buying spices, grains, flour etc. in bulk
*Re-purposing whatever we can eg: there was an old rusted clothes line pole in our yard that wasn't usable anymore, so we moved it, strung it with garden wire and are using it as a trellis for our climbing veg. Broken furniture gets remade into new furniture or something else useful.
I should stop, 'cause I could go on for quite a while. It makes me realize how thrifty we really are, and we are always looking for new ways to pinch our pennies!
Great post Sherri!
hi sherri~
testing the sign out and try to leave a comment???
hey it worked!!!!! well sort of....i have to press "post comment" 3 times then it takes me to blogger to sign in, i unchecked the keep me signed in box, it brought me back here where i had to put in the scrambled word and low and behold....i am no longer anonymous!
as for money saving tips....we make all of our cleaning products, we use cloth napkins, make our own bath soap, hang clothes on the line, garden & can, (contemplating chickens) and making most of our gifts for giving (which isn't always the least expensive route to go, but always the nicest!)
what a clever blogger you are! can't wait to see creative ideas folks have~
happy weekending~
xo
katie
This is such a good idea!!
My tip -
- When there is no money for birthday gifts in the family, find something very special that you already own and give it with a loving story.
i can't think of any tips........
I love to make everything stretch....love the panty tip!
I have a tip for book lovers like myself. There are many books I want to read but don't have the money to buy from a bookstore, so I make good use out of my library card. I know this is sort of a no-brainer tip, but you would be amazed at how good it feels to read just about any book you want...have posession of it in your home for three weeks(makes me feel like I own it) and then return it.
I am a book worm and would truly love to own every book I desire. But reality is, most of us can't do that. I use to poo poo the library idea until I tried it. Come to find out, I get just as much joy in checking out a book and bringing it home from the library, as I do from the bookstore. And to be honest, how many books do we really go back to again and again to make it worth buying.
If you plant your own tomatoes remember to keep some of the seeds. We start them up in the spring and the cycle starts all over again. I also like to freeze my chives and herbs.
Press some flowers from the garden. Pressed flowers make beautiful cards.
Chris :o)
I make my own laundry soap now with Fels Naptha soap, borax and washing soda. It comes to about 3 cents a load rather than 25 cents a load.
I cut up old towels for rags and use them instead of paper towels whenever I can. If I dry my hands with a paper towel, I let it dry and save it to clean up spills.
I use vinegar for cleaning windows and baking soda for polishing my sink.
Whenever I unwrap a roll of toilet paper (the kind with the paper wrapper), I use the wrapper to clean the mirrors in my bathroom (with vinegar and water of course!)
I am crazy about garage sales, thrift stores and resale shops, but only limit myself to under $20 when I shop for bargains.
I use Freecycle to get rid of stuff I don't need and to find things I do need!
...I am constantly trying to save...so everyone of these ideas is golden!...Tahnks!
I didn't know you can cut off one leg of a pantyhose...
I do heard of putting nail polish on runs though, but another good thing to do is put your nail polish on the fridge before using then, it will unlikely to have runs.
That's actually a brilliant idea, sharing saving tips ♥
What fun! The book looks too good to just through out a willy nilly answer so I'll be thinking on this today and hopefully come back with something brilliant...
Blessings, Debbie
Sherri, great post and good ideas from everyone. I'm with your daughter: although we don't do much shopping in the summer since we raise our own vegetables, when we do have to go to the grocery, invariably an item has been priced upward and I don't see it getting better any time sooner.
Perhaps she and some of your followers might look at Couponmom.com for sale and free items, another great way to save. (my son in Nashville sent me this idea since he knows what a spendthrift I am.) :) And just because you've saved on several items, does not mean you now have more money to spend. Remember: "make a list and stick to it" when you shop. Marketing and emotional buying: always ask "Do we really need this?" Budget and stick to that as well.
PS: don't add me to the giveaway. Thanks and good luck to someone.
My two biggest money savers for summer are probably things that everyone already knows but sometimes we just need to be reminded. First, I don't use air conditioning in the summer except on the few days where the temperature never dips below 68 at night. I know there are many of you out there who are rolling their eyes at this one. I live in Oregon O.K.? ;) I open all of the windows at night before going to bed and close them again early when I first get up (before the sun does) keeping the curtains closed also. When people go in and out of the house they close the door quickly. I often have people say that they thought that the air was on because it is so cool inside.
The second is using the clothes line. Many people have gone back to this one but there are many who are holding out and would be surprised by how much money is saved by shutting down the dryer for the summer!
Blessings, Debbie
I floss with leftover thread! :0
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