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 and rock our budgets this year.

~Mavis

This week we are featuring Zoë from Lancaster County, Pa. Here’s how she saves:

Groceries: We don’t actually have an official budget for groceries but it bothers me if my bill is higher than average. I do many things to keep my numbers down. The biggest, of course, is a giant garden. We grow most of our veggies (corn, beans, potatoes, beets, tomatoes, asparagus, lettuce, spinach, several varieties of squash, carrots,
peppers, etc.) and some of our fruit (strawberries, raspberries, grapes, watermelons, cantaloupes, and a few fruit trees that sometimes bear, sometimes don’t).

Another tip I have is to have a set list of ingredients that is on hand at all times and then get creative with those items for meals. I don’t very often buy specific items for recipes but instead keep foods/ingredients on hand that are very versatile. I don’t like throwing out half of a box of something because I used a bit for a recipe and then forgot to come up with another way to use the rest.

I buy food in season. It’s not often you’ll find me buying oranges in June and lettuce in January. This is HUGE. Saves major dollars. I reuse plastic food storage bags until they have holes in them. I rigged up a little wash line above my sink and hang them with clothespins to dry. I also save the bags from the local bulk food place and use those for food storage. I rarely have to buy freezer bags because of this. I also wipe off aluminum foil and reuse that until it’s ripping or has food burned onto it.

I rarely buy paper towels. Instead, I cut up old cotton t-shirts and use these when I want a disposable rag. For normal cleaning, I just use old washcloths and then wash and reuse them. The t-shirt rags get used for vomit and other really gross things.

I don’t buy many fancy cleaning solutions. I use mostly baking soda,vinegar, and water. I don’t think sterilizing the home environment benefits anyone except the bacteria so you won’t find me using Lysol in my bathroom or disinfectant wipes on my doorknobs.

I cook almost completely from scratch (and post my recipes on my blog  www.zoedawn.wordpress.com), which includes grinding grain into flour before making my bread and crackers. We eat hot breakfasts (not much cold cereal) and I don’t typically buy packaged snack foods.The more “convenienced” an item, the more expensive and since I’m at home all day with the children, I can’t justify spending that much on groceries. I have the time to cook so I’m going to use it for that!

Clothes: I simply don’t go shopping very often. If I shop, I’m likely to convince myself that I need that cardigan or package of socks. If I stay out of the stores, I don’t spend. Simple as that. (online clothes shopping does not tempt me…I like to try things on.)

I also get 90% of the kids’ clothes at yard sales or as hand-me-downs. And I limit myself as to how much I get for each of them. I try to stick to a “capsule” wardrobe for them since they grow so fast. This means I have about 5-7 “going away” outfits and the same of “everyday” clothes, the ones they wear here at home that get ripped up and stained. They each have two pairs of shoes (going away and everyday pairs) and two pairs of boots (snow and rain).

Having a limited wardrobe also keeps their dressers more organized! Style is not hugely important to us so we wear clothes that are outdated. As long as they cover us and keep us warm, that’s what’s important! I also repair clothes when they have holes or need a patch.

Over-spending: Now that I just got done talking about clothes, I’ll tell you it’s also an area that I could improve on. If I do happen to need a pair of jeans or a dress, I will just go buy it. I will check a few sales racks but if something isn’t showing up after a store or two, I’ll just grab it at full price and pay for it. I hope this is just a stage (I have four small children and I have nursed them all…so I don’t often get more than an hour or two alone to shop). A goal of mine is to spend more time thrifting for my own clothes when they are a little older. I do happen upon some at yard sales but can’t always get what I want/need there.

(If you wonder how I yardsale with children but don’t shop, it’s because I will leave them in the car at yard sales as long as I can see the car while I look at things. They don’t have to get out with me very often. I can’t do this at the mall!)

How to be gracious host: I don’t allow myself to get fancy when hosting. Sure, I will set the table extra nice with a centerpiece and a few candles but I do not go out and buy items specifically for the event. I make myself use what I have. Don’t have flowers in the garden, try picking some weeds along the road! Your candle stash is a bit low? Have no fear, just burn the old ones you have stashed in a corner cupboard. They create the same ambiance as the expensive, pretty ones!

And I cook similar food to how we eat on a daily basis. I might just dress up the menu by serving 2 or 3 veggies instead of just one. Cooking food at home also creates a lovely scent for guests to walk into when they come to your house. The smell of fresh bread is sure to brighten any guest’s face!

Vacation: HA! If I had it my way, we’d stay home all the time. My husband though? He would have us going to Disneyland and the Niagara falls. So we compromise : one beach trip a year (3-4 days) and then a few weekends in the mountains. I prepare most of the food at home (I will buy a few prepared snacks and cereals and such to make the meals seem a little more special) and we pack a large cooler to take it in. I don’t make special shopping trips for clothes or toys before trips. We take what we have on hand and that is that.

Pets: We have a dog, 24 chickens, and a million and one cats. Not really on that last part, but we do live on a farm and there are always a dozen cats outside meowing at me! To save money here, I do several things. I ALWAYS feed table scraps to them instead of throwing it in the garbage pail. I know this probably wouldn’t work for indoor pets but for farm animals, it’s fine. Of course, I don’t feed them things that might harm them (like chocolate for the dog and such).

For dog treats, if I have a batch of crackers that gets overbaked or something, I will put them in a jar and set them on the windowsill to be given to her when she needs them.

Or one time we got some bologna made from a deer my husband shot and we didn’t really like it. So I would cube some up and put that in the treat jar, leaving the rest in the freezer until the jar needed filled again. And I will sometimes cook oatmeal for the cats, especially if I have a lot of meat/fat scraps that need used. They love it. Just oatmeal and water cooked until soft and then throw in the scraps to give it flavor and protein.

The cats get our chicken bones and the dog gets pork and ham bones. The chickens get all of the rest of our food garbage and will eat almost anything except citrus peels.Education: I know this isn’t possible for all careers but neither my husband or I attended college. My husband dairy farms with his dad and brother. He does a good job of reading lots of articles to keep up with current farming ideas. For myself, I’m a stay-at-home mom. I do have a small sewing business (I make baby quilts and potholders using bits of fabric discarded from other people’s stashes.

I have an Etsy shop called Zoedawn and you can find me on Instagram @zoedawnsews). I guess you could say I also read articles on sewing and crafting to further my “education” but it’s certainly nothing formal and it’s completely free!

Children: As I mentioned above, I buy clothing second hand. This saves hundreds at a time. We also don’t entertain our children. There is no TV watching, rarely movie renting, and we don’t have expensive toys. In fact, it seems they typically like to play with things that aren’t even considered toys!

Empty your linen closet and let them build forts. Give them some old pots and a few spoons and send them out to a mud hole. If we do buy toys, yard sales and craigslist are where we check first…much cheaper and keeps things out of the landfills.

We don’t take the kids on a lot of outings and instead tend to spend that time with family (our little family and the extended ones) and friends. This only costs the gas to get there and strengthens relationships among our social groups at the same time.

I don’t buy special craft materials for the kids. I save things like bottle caps, scraps of ribbon from gifts, plastic netting from produce bags, etc and they make things with those items. And if I do want a specific craft material, I will check with the local creative reuse store to see if they have it. They often do but if not, we do without.

Children tend to mimic mom and dad so if parents are happy with little, children will learn to do the same. My attitude affects so much of what my children do/say. So I’m practicing being content with what I have and not wishing for more.

On that note: When my oldest was 2 or 3, I found I was taking a big bag of toys/crafts to church to entertain her but it wasn’t working. So I tried only taking paper/pencil. She was much more content. I think by taking too many options, she was never content with what I pulled out of the bag for more than a few minutes because she wanted
the next fun thing. When she only had paper and pencil, she knew there wasn’t anything else and she made herself happy with just that.

Discovering that spoke volumes to me and I try to implement that idea in lots of areas (I give them one snack option, for instance. If they don’t want it, they can wait until meal time to eat. Or, why do I need 8 pairs of jeans? 2 or 3 should serve me just fine, enough to have a pair or two in the laundry while I wear the third one.)

A simple (and cheap) lifestyle really starts with being content with what you have! It’s something I’ve always known but am only truly learning as I get older.

~Zoë

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.

Send submissions via email to onehundreddollarsamonth @ gmail.com {remove the spaces} and be sure and put Personal Saving Stories in the subject line.

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