happy frugal new year!

I love the library, its not because I'm frugal its because there is so much there for my kids and me. Plus you pay taxes for it, you might as well get your money's worth. We don't shop at thrift stores, we do donate to them each time we move though. We eat out too much, we're going to stop that because we are all getting too fat. We will cut back on some stuff to save money.

Oh yes that is what I am going to do as well.No one really knows what is coming as far as the economy goes.I use a carpet sweeper instead of the hoover as much as possible.I use supermarkets own cleaning stuff.I have started buying the economy meat and to be quite honest apart from saving a fortune ,there is not a lot of difference.I was taught to cook at school and my mother always showed me what to do in the kitchen.When we were raised there was no fast food or anything like that,everything we ate my mother made herself.We had home made christmas with sausage rolls,mince pies,cakes and fruit cake made with my own fair hands cost a quarter of shop brought stuff and it all went fast in fact I thought I would have to start baking again.They loved it.My son in law always loves my baking as his mother never had those skills.It was so satisfying to see them enjoy my efforts and plus it was better than from a box or packet.I am going to do that more often even if I win the lottery as everyone loved my baking.

I am going to be more creative this year. Last year, we used the library, used coupons, etc. This year I am going to also try to build up more points that can be used for gift cards and I am going to try to do one different thing (besides regular work) each day to either make or save money. Yesterday my friends and I had dinner and we were going to order restaurant food but instead I cooked everyone dinner out of stuff in my fridge/freezer. Next time, someone else is going to take a turn cooking. (Because $20 worth of groceries made enough food for 5 people) Today I entered contests to win stuff. Tomorrow I work all day and I am going to do a lot of cooking and freezing so that when my regular work schedule starts after the holidays, I will have lots of lunches and dinners made. I am going to try to keep making it different because I found that last year I just sort of forgot that I was trying to be frugal and quite quickly lost focus. In November, I tried making/saving $5 in a hundred different ways, and that was fun and interesting enough that i actually did it.

Pretty much the same. I will try to spend less on groceries this year by trying to use up what we have and to stretch things out better. Also to not use electricity more than is absalutely necessary. Avoid driving as much as possible by trying to combine all earrands at once. Trying to enjoy more things at home instead of spending the money out.

I am trying hard to be frugal and save money. I look for coupons & free samples on the internet, go to craigslist & freecycle. Thrift stores can have lots of good deals. One time I got a brand new 5 piece soap, bottle lotion, shower gel type set for $1,25. Often times there are many new items at the thrift store. I want to get better about eating what is in the fridge before it spoils. I have been starting to cut the product in half & packaging the rest for the freezer. But I need to do better. I have been making more soups and hotdishes. They are great for this cold, snowy, winter.

I will try to spend less this year, buy only whats necessarily, and close my eyes for the WANTS., my three year old son soon will be going to school so i have to save some for his education. And as much as possible avoid eating out.fast food, restaurant. happy new year.

I would love to be optimistic and say 2010 is going to be a big turnaround in the economy, but to be honest I can't see things changing much over the coming year so it's going to be another year of heavily budgeting and watching we spend and indeed cutting back. I don't go out much as it is and I realize that I have cut right back, I hardly use the car at all now except for long distances which fortunately I don't have to make that often. Bad news is that VAT is going back up which is not a good start to the new year. So it's going to be another frugal year indeed