One Hundred Dollars a Month

A big THANK YOU to everyone who has sent in their Personal Savings Stories and photographs.  I hope by sharing other people’s money savings tips here on One Hundred Dollars a Month we can all find new ways to save rock our budgets this year.

This week we are featuring Rose from Ontario.

Hi Mavis,
My name is Rose and my partners name is Chris.
Chris & I met and dated briefly in high school, after high school we went our separate ways. Year’s later circumstances brought Chris and his four now teenagers back into my life. We have been together several years now and have a home in a small town in Southwestern Ontario.

For me this is a big difference from living on a farm where I had ducks, turkeys, horses, fruit trees and tons of garden space. Now I regularly weird our neighbours out by planting edibles in any spaces available between the flowering perennials and shrubs on our front lawn. (I have to remember this year to not plant tomatoes near the edge of the property; I ended up not having any as neighbour kids kept eating them before we could).

So now I find myself a stay at home mom of four wonderful teenagers who live with us full time. I’m also working on a new blog site (www.family-adventures.ca) on travel, adventures and saving money in order to make it all happen. I’m always looking out for inspiration on savings around the home and for travel (Thank you Mavis for being a part of that daily dose of inspiration).

The key our family has found overall to work in helping to save in a variety of situations is to be flexible.

Food – We pretty much eat according to sales, which is where flexibility comes into play to start with. I know the food prices for our area and I shop accordingly. Using coupon and sales blogs to save time and build my weekly shopping list, often combining sales with coupons. Also making sure to keep an eye out for any unadvertised specials in the store, again knowing prices is key to knowing when something is truly a great deal or not.

We cook largely from scratch (Chris is also a great cook – so if I’m not cooking he is) which when you really think about it gives you the most variety and flexibility in options for whipping up a meal (plus it’s generally healthier). While I love trying out new recipes I often find we don’t have all the “proper” ingredients on hand, so I’ve learned over the years to substitute with what is on hand where I can.

Besides gardening as much as possible on our small bit of yard, this past year we joined a local fruit share program, where we join in with others and go out to people’s properties that have un-utilized fruit trees and we all pick the fruit. This is then split into thirds, one to the property owner, one third to the picker and one third to a local food bank. Quite often we found that the owners did not want their portion and donated that to the food bank as well.

Gleaning and fruit share programs are becoming more popular in many cities and towns. We had more apples and pears than we almost knew what to do with. Thankfully our family also cans and preserves our own food, including pressure canning, dehydrating and smoking. Which works well with the fact that we also hunt and fish, so depending on the time of year we can have quite a bit coming into the house.

Food is rarely wasted in our home, including in the canning process, where apple and pear cores and peels were used to make scrap apple jelly and juice. As for other forms of left over’s from dinners they are either used in other meals as is or repurposed into something else. Casseroles are a great friend for this trick. Layer your leftovers, cover with gravy, sauce or cheese, bake to reheat and serve.

Also keeping on top of potential food spoiling and being wasted in the fridge means at least once a week pulling out all the containers and seeing what needs using up, and what fresh food items are hiding in the back corners and looking a little wilted. Then planning that nights meal accordingly in order to use it all up. Again being flexible helps to limit wastage and helps to save money.

Since we do hunt and we also process all of our own moose and venison, very little goes to waste. After all the meat is dealt with and in the freezers, I take the bones, roast them and then boil it all down. This allows for any meat left clinging to the bones to be removed and used for another dish, like my venison lasagna. We also take the resulting rich and nutritious bone stock and pressures can it for use later in soups and stews.

Whether it comes to food, entertainment or travel most of the time it’s not just us that we are looking to provide for. We also tend to have at least one extra kid with us. The neighbourhood kids often join us at the table for dinners and the kids friends are always invited to join us for adventures and travel. Our principle is that since we have an empty seat in the vehicle, and that we cook large meals, why not include more kids in the opportunities to see and do things with our kids.

Entertainment – This is a budget area that we squeeze hard, but don’t skip out on. There is of course the usual, free local events and fairs, library movie rentals, geocaching, going to the beach, etc. We also make full use of any available coupons and points to get free nights out at the movies. Plus we often look to groupon or other group buying sites to find discounts on any activities we want to try out or any larger concerts and such that we want tickets for. In the area of entertainment being flexible and open to new things or going on a different day or time than what you might originally have preferred can quite often save you even more money.

Look for a local museum, art gallery or zoo that has a family membership plan with a reciprocal agreement to other museums or zoos. That way you can visit multiple locations in other cities and states, for free or extremely cheap.

Travel – When looking into traveling the cost of getting to your destination can really eat into your budget. We have found that because we are naturally a rather large group of six to start with and often travel as a group of seven, that driving to our destinations is the most efficient financially. Even over longer distances, we drive. It allows us to bring extra gear and food with us and bringing an extra kid doesn’t add to our cost.

For food we shop from our home freezer and shelves and pack accordingly. If we need anything on the road we will stop and shop at a grocery store. Remember a pre-cooked chicken or two from Sam’s club, loaf of bread, or a pre-made pasta salad can go a long way for a quick meal, that is way cheaper than dinning out.

Mostly it’s sandwiches that are a regular on the road staple food for us, and I tend to make them on my lap as we are getting more miles down the road and just hand them out. That way they aren’t soggy and only what is going to be eaten in that moment is needed, and it’s also just as easy to make more in the moment as well. We bring water bottles along the trip that we refill at rest stops.

I have to give them all credit the kids have all become quite adept at sleeping in the car while Chris & I take turns driving us to our destinations. The discomfort, boredom and limited food choices are all worth it when we arrive. For longer drives we almost never stop overnight at any motels along the way, choosing to drive straight through to maximize our vacation time at the end point.

To save money on accommodations at the destination sometimes we stay at a resort / condo / house / hotel, etc that we found with great rates and more importantly a full kitchen which allows us to cook our own meals for huge savings, but we also do our fair share of tent camping. Which is what we have done three years in a row in order to stay and visit NYC. One year we had a total of 11 people travel with us for a grand total of $110 per person which included all meals, travel costs and activities (concert, museums, etc) for 7 days.

We bought kayaks on sale (and also received an added discount because we were buying in bulk – always remember to ask for additional discounts, it never hurts to ask) for each of us a few years ago. When we travel many times we take along a small trailer loaded with the kayaks. The savings on rentals for all of us and the flexibility of having our own kayaks to enjoy local and travel waterways on has more than paid for the initial purchase.

In traveling not only has our kids and a host of their friends had a chance to see other provinces and states, but they have participated in some pretty unique activities, close to home and further away.

We have kayaked bioluminescent bays at night (pure magic and closer than most people think), kayaked with wild dolphins, seen whales on tours and while picnicking from shore, snorkeled for our own fresh scallops, caught lobster dinner with our bare hands, snorkeled with manatees, found sharks teeth, participated in a cardboard kayak race overlooking NYC skyline, gone indoor skydiving, made our own pendent necklaces, tried silks (think circus or Cirque du Soleil), surfing, zorb ball (rolling down a hill in a giant inflated ball with water in the bottom), ziplining, flown an airplane, drove a race kart, rode a mechanical bull, gone to concerts, tried out for a local movie role, went fossil hunting and so much more, big and small.

The tradeoffs we have made in our travels have been well worth the travel results.

Household – When it comes to maintain things around the house including the vehicles, we are pretty much a DIY household. And if we don’t know how to do it, google is only a click away. We are very blessed that over the years Chris has acquired so many skills, especially the ability to work on the cars. That alone has saved us thousands in repairs. Also when we know a repair is coming up, we will compare prices at the stores on both the Canadian and US side of the border as well as on ebay. Taking the time to do the leg work saves considerable money. This works for home repairs and decorating as well.

Cable TV, Internet & Cell Phone – Being flexible and knowing your prices helps out here as well. With four teens that has meant multiple cell phone contracts. We keep the plans simple, and about twice a year I research all the available cell phone plans and call up our company and talk with them about what we can do to find us some more savings options, especially since we have been long term clients with quite a few phones.

We have long ago kicked cable to the curb and get all of our tv and movie watching through internet with a streaming device. Not only does that save us money, but I can pause anything I’m watching and no longer have to watch commercials. On top of that we also have old school free to air programming through the house aerial that we found online free and have hooked up.

Guests – We are pretty low key in that we don’t have a guest room, fancy place settings or even very many high end meals, however guests are always welcome at our table, whether one at a time or everyone all at once. We also have a fold down Murphy bed so that way if a guest wants to stay and enjoy time with us they can always stay as long as they would like. We are one big chaotic but welcoming family, and there is always room for more.

We haven’t always been this frugal, separately or together. However it’s been an ever evolving story and goal of ours to live more independently and sustainably as well as to have less bills and debts so we have the freedom to live, love, enjoy life and travel generously. I think we’re doing pretty well on that goal list. I hope that some inspiration can be found in all of this for others to reach out and find a way to not only save but to make memories and have adventures with their own families. Being frugal doesn’t have to mean being cheap.

~Rose

If you would like to have your Personal Savings Story featured on One Hundred Dollars a Month, I would love to feature it on the blog. Just answer 5-7 {or all if you really want to} of the questions listed in the original Personal Savings Story post and submit 3-5 QUALITY photos to go along with them.

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