my favorite thanksgiving food is mashed rutabaga. the only hard part is cutting the rutabaga. boil a couple cubed rutabagas till tender, drain, throw in a stick of butter, salt & pepper, mash, add some turkey gravy and enjoy.
This is a great article! I have a friend who claims to be frugal because she uses coupons and only buys items that are on sale but 95% of what she buys she doesn't need so in a since she is the opposite of frugal. I think the main idea of those who are successfully frugal is to live simply and only purchase what you need. Those who cannot define a need from a want or get a high from buying something just because it's discounted can't be successfully frugal. It's not just a life style it's a way of thinking too!
I have always lived frugal, don't know any other way to live. All those extravagant expenses aren't necessary for life. I owe no money to anyone, everything I own is paid for. If you keep in mind that there is a reason for living this way and don't start thinking that you are being deprived of something it isn't a hard life to live. My husband had trouble with living frugally for a long time, but when the recession hit and he could still have anything he wanted and still got retire at 58 like he wanted to, he finally got it.
My favorite Thanksgiving recipe has got to be the stuffing. I almost never eat it any other time of the year, so November marks the countdown to stuffing!
I love clothing swaps! They're such a great way to get new clothing, and combining them with a potluck lunch or dinner can be a lot of fun.
Does anybody else have ways for suggestions on how to update winter wardrobes? I've been experimenting with wearing waist belts on the outside of my sweaters.
The gift card trick #6 is great, but you also have to watch out when you buy a gift card. I've heard that you should NEVER purchase gift cards that are just sitting on racks. Scammers have tools where they can scan the card (under the scratch away layer), get the numbers and trace them. So, when the card is finally purchased and activated, the scammer will use up the entire card before the person who purchased has a chance to.
My favorite Thanksgiving budget comfort food is of course the bread stuffing. We save old hard bread and freeze it all year long to use as croutons or in stuffings or casseroles. So there is no big bread expense, we would have probably thrown the old bread out if we did not do this. Add some fried onions and celery fried in butter and a bit of oil, some eggs, some spices, and you have a great bread stuffing for very low cost.
#5 Seems dangerous if you make it a habit - most people get paid with a certain cadence (say 2x a month or every 2 weeks) and it might mess with your cash flow a bit to move a billing cycle out to 55 days. Well, it would for me anyway, haha.
#6 Gift cards are great, but watch out for credit card point inflation, haha. Sometimes you have to go for a bigger card to actually get the advertised cashback!
My family's favorite budget friendly, comfort food at Thanksgiving is mac and cheese. I have tried to take it off the menu some years, but the family would have none of it! They said we have to have mac & cheese every Thanksgiving! :)
My all-time favorite comfort food is stuffing. I prepare it with a homemade recipe passed down from my grandmother...it's a family recipe of course.
I cook part of it in the turkey and another in a large baking dish because my family loves stuffing.
Since you mentioned books I thought it would have been a good idea to say that a library if much cheaper than buying books. We didn't CHOOSE a frugal lifestyle, we were thrown into it from losing a job. I don't know many people who "decide" to be frugal, we are all just forced into it by the economy so there is no going out and buying things to be frugal, you just end up having no money for all your basics, like oil changes in the vehicle, food, etc. These things are necessary but if you don't have the money for it then they don't get taken care of. My husband's truck is sitting with a broken serpentine belt and he has to find another means to get to work because we don't have enough money for food so the serpentine belt gets put on the back burner in favor of food. And any of you wise guys start criticizing that we still have internet then I only have to remind you that some things are signed up for under contract and such decisions are usually made when a family still has two jobs and doesn't think that they will soon have to go without, also these things are automatically payed for from the bank account so there is no just pushing the payment to a later date.
I have worked with them too. All they seem to have for me in my area are car shops, or best buy....they ALL got to know me...BORING!!!!It cost more to drive than I was making. Not so great....
My husband and I both grew up in families with limited income so we know the feeling of being "poor". We enjoy a frugal life style (using/re-using, using things up) but we do not deprive ourselves of what we deem to be a pleasure to us. Now retired, exploring parts of America on road trips, lunch fixings in the cooler on the back seat, but dinner and a nice hotel at the end of the day is fun and frugal. Next year's plan is 2 months in Europe, utilizing public transportation and eating what the locals eat. To us being frugal means living life to the fullest.
I think that it is ok to splurge on special occasions. Such as a loved ones birthday, valentines day, christmas etc. They only happen once a year and you need to splurge every once and a while. Your life would be no fun if you didn't have fun every once in a while. I always go big for my wifes birthday presents. Last year I took her on a trip to Vegas for a week.
I love the challenges in my role as the hospital supervisor. I am always juggling several issues at once - staffing, transfers to the "big city" hospital, or drawing blood on a "tough stick". Although the day I had 2 helicopters coming for the same baby was a little too much - I was using the service we had a contract with and the physician had talked to the service at the children's hospital.
Well, I do wish I could figure out a way to cut the cost of my cable service, I really think I'm at a wall with what I can do. Netflix and Redbox are useless to me - I rarely watch movies, and when i do, well, we have a large DVD collection, acquired cheaply. Why, why, why do "frugal" writers assume that cable AtV is only for movies, and we'd all be better off with Netflix?
So why do I have cable? Two words - sports, and income. My husband and I love sports, and watch many. And live sports is not something you can get much of for free! Secondly, my husband is a freelance sports writer, and one of his jobs is writing about boxing - and we can get a lot of fights on cable. Yes, he goes to live fights, but that's hard to do for fights in other countries unless you're a big shot. And he gets some online, via paid streaming services. But cable is essential - along with phone service for interviewing people and high speed Internet. We get a discount for buying all 3 from the same company, and we scaled back to a mid-level package (basic doesn't include what we need).
One other thing I would say is a big mistake I have certainly made - giving up entirely if you "fall off the wagon"! This is true in all kinds of things, not just frugality. If you try to eat healthier, and one day you get frustrated and eat three chocolate bars, don't give up and drop your whole initiative. Just accept that you ate it, and go back to eating healthily. Don't be derailed! Exercise too - if you ignore it for a week, just get back to it again, and don't say "What's the use?" I have sure done this a few times when I've gotten frustrated and splurged. Then I dropped the whole "frugal thing" for a while ... And regretted it.
I think my situation was quite paradoxical. My near-complete ignorance of financial matters as a young person actually protected me from getting into debt. ;-). It's a long story, but briefly, my parents told me nothing, and implied we were dirt poor - but were unwilling to even fill out financial forms, so student loans were not an option, and I could not ask them for money. So from age 18, when I moved away to college, I was on my own. I won scholarships that covered tuition and books, but for housing, food, and other expenses, I was on my own. It never, ever occurred to me to seek loans or ask anyone for help. I worked multiple low-paid part-time jobs, 30+ hours a week, supplemented with seasonal or occasional work, like ushering graduations or participating in focus groups. I also cut costs every way I could - lived with a room-mate in a dirt cheap student apartment where everyone contributed cleaning & maintenance work for part of the rent, worked an afternoon a month at a food co-op for 15% discount on their stock, and ate my meals at work when I could (I waitressed, & a small meal was a benefit, & if someone messed up a pizza order we were allowed to take home mistakes). I ate a lot of rice and beans, and gathered fruit from trees on campus that were available to students. I grew tomatoes and herbs on my balcony. Yes, sometimes I went hungry, and once I was technically homeless, though between friends' couches and floors and a few nights in a tent, I managed. You get the idea what my version of the "college experience" looked like. I did still pull A's, but i do think i might have done a bit better still if my finances had been less precarious. Anyway, I graduated without a penny of loan debt. And then did 2 graduate degrees. And yes, I've made a few mistakes since, but got out the same way I got through undergrad - working extra, whenever I could and at anything I could find, and cutting expenses as much as I could. It was really difficult, but in retrospect, I'm glad. It didn't keep me from making a few mistakes since, but my husband and I have much the same story, so we have much the same attitudes and ideas, and we clawed our way back out of trouble, adjusting again and again, with every bump in the road. And yes, I credit my extreme ignorance - student loans weren't big stories like they are now, and I knew nothing. All I knew was that if you needed money, you worked for it. I know that's not always easy or even possible, but it was all I knew, and the attitude, combined with a willingness to do any work at all, has saved me again and again.
my favorite thanksgiving food is mashed rutabaga. the only hard part is cutting the rutabaga. boil a couple cubed rutabagas till tender, drain, throw in a stick of butter, salt & pepper, mash, add some turkey gravy and enjoy.
This is a great article! I have a friend who claims to be frugal because she uses coupons and only buys items that are on sale but 95% of what she buys she doesn't need so in a since she is the opposite of frugal. I think the main idea of those who are successfully frugal is to live simply and only purchase what you need. Those who cannot define a need from a want or get a high from buying something just because it's discounted can't be successfully frugal. It's not just a life style it's a way of thinking too!
I have always lived frugal, don't know any other way to live. All those extravagant expenses aren't necessary for life. I owe no money to anyone, everything I own is paid for. If you keep in mind that there is a reason for living this way and don't start thinking that you are being deprived of something it isn't a hard life to live. My husband had trouble with living frugally for a long time, but when the recession hit and he could still have anything he wanted and still got retire at 58 like he wanted to, he finally got it.
Ahh, favorites are too hard to choose! Two Thanksgiving things I absolutely would die without? Stuffing and creamy brocolli salad. Yum!
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My favorite Thanksgiving comfort food is the stuffing. I love that it's both creamy and crunchy and can be created in so many different ways.
My favorite Thanksgiving recipe has got to be the stuffing. I almost never eat it any other time of the year, so November marks the countdown to stuffing!
I love clothing swaps! They're such a great way to get new clothing, and combining them with a potluck lunch or dinner can be a lot of fun.
Does anybody else have ways for suggestions on how to update winter wardrobes? I've been experimenting with wearing waist belts on the outside of my sweaters.
The gift card trick #6 is great, but you also have to watch out when you buy a gift card. I've heard that you should NEVER purchase gift cards that are just sitting on racks. Scammers have tools where they can scan the card (under the scratch away layer), get the numbers and trace them. So, when the card is finally purchased and activated, the scammer will use up the entire card before the person who purchased has a chance to.
My favorite Thanksgiving budget comfort food is of course the bread stuffing. We save old hard bread and freeze it all year long to use as croutons or in stuffings or casseroles. So there is no big bread expense, we would have probably thrown the old bread out if we did not do this. Add some fried onions and celery fried in butter and a bit of oil, some eggs, some spices, and you have a great bread stuffing for very low cost.
I love green bean casserole. It's terrible for you, but so yummy!
I really love chicken stuffing. It's like a staple, but it's so amazing! It's not Thanksgiving without it, and it's pretty cheap, too.
I hadn't thought of buying gift cards at the market. I walk past them all the time, not thinking there was an advantage to buying them there. Thanks.
What about the Zagg Keyboard case?
#5 Seems dangerous if you make it a habit - most people get paid with a certain cadence (say 2x a month or every 2 weeks) and it might mess with your cash flow a bit to move a billing cycle out to 55 days. Well, it would for me anyway, haha.
#6 Gift cards are great, but watch out for credit card point inflation, haha. Sometimes you have to go for a bigger card to actually get the advertised cashback!
My family's favorite budget friendly, comfort food at Thanksgiving is mac and cheese. I have tried to take it off the menu some years, but the family would have none of it! They said we have to have mac & cheese every Thanksgiving! :)
Our Favorite is Our Family Meat stuffing Yummy!
My all-time favorite comfort food is stuffing. I prepare it with a homemade recipe passed down from my grandmother...it's a family recipe of course.
I cook part of it in the turkey and another in a large baking dish because my family loves stuffing.
Since you mentioned books I thought it would have been a good idea to say that a library if much cheaper than buying books. We didn't CHOOSE a frugal lifestyle, we were thrown into it from losing a job. I don't know many people who "decide" to be frugal, we are all just forced into it by the economy so there is no going out and buying things to be frugal, you just end up having no money for all your basics, like oil changes in the vehicle, food, etc. These things are necessary but if you don't have the money for it then they don't get taken care of. My husband's truck is sitting with a broken serpentine belt and he has to find another means to get to work because we don't have enough money for food so the serpentine belt gets put on the back burner in favor of food. And any of you wise guys start criticizing that we still have internet then I only have to remind you that some things are signed up for under contract and such decisions are usually made when a family still has two jobs and doesn't think that they will soon have to go without, also these things are automatically payed for from the bank account so there is no just pushing the payment to a later date.
I have worked with them too. All they seem to have for me in my area are car shops, or best buy....they ALL got to know me...BORING!!!!It cost more to drive than I was making. Not so great....
My husband and I both grew up in families with limited income so we know the feeling of being "poor". We enjoy a frugal life style (using/re-using, using things up) but we do not deprive ourselves of what we deem to be a pleasure to us. Now retired, exploring parts of America on road trips, lunch fixings in the cooler on the back seat, but dinner and a nice hotel at the end of the day is fun and frugal. Next year's plan is 2 months in Europe, utilizing public transportation and eating what the locals eat. To us being frugal means living life to the fullest.
I think that it is ok to splurge on special occasions. Such as a loved ones birthday, valentines day, christmas etc. They only happen once a year and you need to splurge every once and a while. Your life would be no fun if you didn't have fun every once in a while. I always go big for my wifes birthday presents. Last year I took her on a trip to Vegas for a week.
I love the challenges in my role as the hospital supervisor. I am always juggling several issues at once - staffing, transfers to the "big city" hospital, or drawing blood on a "tough stick". Although the day I had 2 helicopters coming for the same baby was a little too much - I was using the service we had a contract with and the physician had talked to the service at the children's hospital.
Well, I do wish I could figure out a way to cut the cost of my cable service, I really think I'm at a wall with what I can do. Netflix and Redbox are useless to me - I rarely watch movies, and when i do, well, we have a large DVD collection, acquired cheaply. Why, why, why do "frugal" writers assume that cable AtV is only for movies, and we'd all be better off with Netflix?
So why do I have cable? Two words - sports, and income. My husband and I love sports, and watch many. And live sports is not something you can get much of for free! Secondly, my husband is a freelance sports writer, and one of his jobs is writing about boxing - and we can get a lot of fights on cable. Yes, he goes to live fights, but that's hard to do for fights in other countries unless you're a big shot. And he gets some online, via paid streaming services. But cable is essential - along with phone service for interviewing people and high speed Internet. We get a discount for buying all 3 from the same company, and we scaled back to a mid-level package (basic doesn't include what we need).
One other thing I would say is a big mistake I have certainly made - giving up entirely if you "fall off the wagon"! This is true in all kinds of things, not just frugality. If you try to eat healthier, and one day you get frustrated and eat three chocolate bars, don't give up and drop your whole initiative. Just accept that you ate it, and go back to eating healthily. Don't be derailed! Exercise too - if you ignore it for a week, just get back to it again, and don't say "What's the use?" I have sure done this a few times when I've gotten frustrated and splurged. Then I dropped the whole "frugal thing" for a while ... And regretted it.
I think my situation was quite paradoxical. My near-complete ignorance of financial matters as a young person actually protected me from getting into debt. ;-). It's a long story, but briefly, my parents told me nothing, and implied we were dirt poor - but were unwilling to even fill out financial forms, so student loans were not an option, and I could not ask them for money. So from age 18, when I moved away to college, I was on my own. I won scholarships that covered tuition and books, but for housing, food, and other expenses, I was on my own. It never, ever occurred to me to seek loans or ask anyone for help. I worked multiple low-paid part-time jobs, 30+ hours a week, supplemented with seasonal or occasional work, like ushering graduations or participating in focus groups. I also cut costs every way I could - lived with a room-mate in a dirt cheap student apartment where everyone contributed cleaning & maintenance work for part of the rent, worked an afternoon a month at a food co-op for 15% discount on their stock, and ate my meals at work when I could (I waitressed, & a small meal was a benefit, & if someone messed up a pizza order we were allowed to take home mistakes). I ate a lot of rice and beans, and gathered fruit from trees on campus that were available to students. I grew tomatoes and herbs on my balcony. Yes, sometimes I went hungry, and once I was technically homeless, though between friends' couches and floors and a few nights in a tent, I managed. You get the idea what my version of the "college experience" looked like. I did still pull A's, but i do think i might have done a bit better still if my finances had been less precarious. Anyway, I graduated without a penny of loan debt. And then did 2 graduate degrees. And yes, I've made a few mistakes since, but got out the same way I got through undergrad - working extra, whenever I could and at anything I could find, and cutting expenses as much as I could. It was really difficult, but in retrospect, I'm glad. It didn't keep me from making a few mistakes since, but my husband and I have much the same story, so we have much the same attitudes and ideas, and we clawed our way back out of trouble, adjusting again and again, with every bump in the road. And yes, I credit my extreme ignorance - student loans weren't big stories like they are now, and I knew nothing. All I knew was that if you needed money, you worked for it. I know that's not always easy or even possible, but it was all I knew, and the attitude, combined with a willingness to do any work at all, has saved me again and again.