Oh the awesomeness. Photo by Damian Gadal
(This is part 3 of the Frugal Hippie series. Read part 1, part 2 and part 4.)
There were a lot of changes made around our house when we decided to get out of debt. They were normal at first, like eating out less, but as time went by, they became more … weird. I didn’t care, though, as they made sense to me and lowered our budget significantly.
The less conventional our choices, the faster we were able to save money and pay off our debts.
Our methods aren’t for everyone (and some were temporary), but these changes went a long way in helping us establish our frugal, debt-free lifestyle.
1. Scratch Cooking
When I started monitoring our spending, I was shocked to see that we spent a lot of money on convenience foods and meals out.
Then I discovered that if I made my own food from scratch, I saved a lot of money and was also happy knowing exactly what was in my food.
(I discuss this more in depth in my book Simple Natural Health.)
2. Ditching Disposables
In addition to realizing how much convenient meals were costing us, I also saw that disposable items were taking a pretty chunk of our budget. Paper towels, diapers, pads/tampons, wipes; we were literally throwing money away on these items each month.
Instead, I switched the babies to cloth diapers, started using dish cloths and cloth napkins and bought a moon cup.
3. Drive Less
Better yet, sell your car (or one of them), especially if you have a car loan. Not only do cars require money for payments, upkeep, gas and insurance, but their convenience makes it easier to go on impulse shopping trips.
What did we do? Sold our car (that we owed money on), paid off the difference and purchased a cheap van with cash (that didn’t require full coverage insurance). Pearl sure wasn’t pretty (but she was awesome).
4. Relocate
Our house payment was too much. Like most people, we thought we needed a big house in a nice neighborhood, so we bought one. And slowly suffocated under the weight of the mortgage that took half our income.
But we finally realized that we could get out of debt much sooner if we sold the house.
Since we did (we did a short sale – the housing market was awful), we’ve lived with my parents, rented a house that used to be a church and lived in a small but cozy house in town. And then, we lived in a bus.
5. Mindful Consumption
Electricity. Water. Stuff. As I became more mindful of my budget, I became more mindful about how much we consumed. I lowered our thermostat, started washing dishes by hand and even went on a several-month stint of turning the water heater off during the day.
I became more conscientious about using water and how much garbage we were producing as a family. It opened my eyes to the fact that we consumed too much and gave no thought to others who didn’t have what we did. It was a great wake-up call, not to mention helpful in lowering our spending.
6. DIY
I was a novice do-it-yourselfer when we started getting out of debt, especially when it came to personal care items. Now, I make my own … everything.
I’m so blessed to have a husband who is willing to do it, too. I don’t know how much money we’ve saved thanks to his handy-ness.
7. Stop Shopping
Seems like a no-brainer, right? But what happens when you start trying to save money? You start looking for deals (at least I did) and end up buying stuff that you don’t need or wouldn’t have bought in the first place.
We got into debt because I liked to buy stuff. Getting that habit under control was difficult, but it was essential to staying out of debt once we got everything paid off.
Have you done anything radical to lower your budget?
p.s. Want more money-saving ideas? How about 60? Check them out here.
When we started decluttering – and I mean serious decluttering, like 60% of our things kind of decluttering, I totally lost the need for buying new “things” for our home. When you throw away / give away 12 candle holders (still have plenty left) you realize buying new ones seems stupid. Same with my wardrobe. 26 bags for charity later I now have only the items I really like, the stuff that fits me and looks good on me and suddenly I have no cravings to go shopping for new clothes. I used to stand infront of my wardrobe thinking “I have nothing to wear” because there was to much in there – now I don’t have that problem anymore…. So funny enough – getting rid of things helps us NOT to buy more things… 🙂
So true Lisa! I remember after my initial decluttering how awesome it felt to get rid of all the stuff. When it started creeping back in I realized that I had to address the root of the problem. Having a clutter-free home is so much more important to me now that shopping. 🙂
You are so right about cooking from scratch at home. I have Celiac and gave up eating out on a daily basis- I am not exaggerating- a long time ago. After realizing how amazing I felt and how much better the food tasted and my health sky-rocketed, I don’t miss going out to eat at all. In fact, I kind of cringe over the non- organic food and GMO’s I know are being used to make the dish…… Funnel that savings into buying high quality food. Now I just cook for my daughter and I and I am happy to know that I am doing so much for her health on a daily basis.
That’s great, Sherry! I love that you noticed the positive connection between cooking food at home and your health. And that’s a great tip for people who feel like eating well is too much – stop eating out so much and you can put that money into nourishing, whole foods. Thanks for commenting!
Great ideas for getting out of debt! Your post is the number one feature at Small Footprint Fridays this week! Thanks for sharing it!
Awesome! Thanks so much for doing the link up, Dawn!
I stumbled upon your website and love the tips. I am trying to reduce our debt as well. We pretty much are DIY’ers, my husband fixes everything (If he doesn’t know how, he will figure it out like our dishwasher which breaks once a year).
I have this urge to want to move to a bigger house in the neighboring state. We will have to pay $50-60 thousand more if we move. There are a couple of reasons I want to move: 1-I want my own bathroom and walk in closet 2- I want to move to a better school district and 3-the income taxes in Illinois keep on going up. You have inspired to reconsider my move as maybe we can just add onto to our house and continue to make improvements (we live on almost 2 acres).
I think one our biggest expense is food, I try not to eat out too much but I am so tired and don’t have time some days especially between school, work and pregnancy. I have four kids who eat ALOT and one on the way! What do you do to try to save on food costs and what do you do on days that you just want to REST?
Just found your blog and I already love it. I’m frugal in many ways but I’m afraid I’m a shopper and my habit is slowly eroding our savings. How did you get your shopping under control?
Hi this is somewhat of off topic but I was wanting to know if blogs use WYSIWYG editors or if
you have to manually code with HTML. I’m starting a blog soon but have no coding expertise so I wanted to get advice from someone with experience. Any help would be greatly appreciated!
I really like your blog, it’s inspirational.
I just wanted to point out that while reading this post about ways to save money you mentioned washing dishes by hand instead of using the dishwasher. My husband is a plumber and has mentioned to me before that using the dishwasher actually takes less water than washing by hand. Not sure if you have a dishwasher in your current home, but it might be nice to know that if you do have it, it’s better (and so much easier) to use it. 🙂
take care!
We haven’t had a dishwasher for a while. 🙂 We fill each sink basin with just enough soapy/rinse water to get the job done, though, vs. letting the water run the whole time.