This is My Frugal

• She looketh well to the ways of her household

There are a lot of bloggers who write about "being frugal", and it means something different to each one of them. Some are saving their way toward something big--like a trip, or a house, or to get out from under mountains of debt; some are desperately trying to keep food on the table and roof over their heads.

Most of us are somewhere in between.

Today, I'd like to share about my "frugal".

My frugal is not about making my own laundry detergent, cooking everything completely from scratch, buying all of our clothes and furniture at thrift shops, and never using anything disposable. I'm not making a statement about anyone who does any of those things, they're just not my frugal.

Since I starting shopping the sales, couponing, cooking more at home instead of "bringing home supper from town", thrifting, and just generally being more conscious of what I spend and why, I find that I'm able to get a lot of our household goods and groceries for what I call "free or frugal"--sometimes completely free (except for tax) or frugal--at a deep discount.

My frugal involves using these "free or frugal" ("ff") items as I go about my daily routine. I get up in the morning, and I brush my teeth with my ff toothbrush and my ff toothpaste. If I need more, there's plenty more in my stockpile stash. I wash my face with my ff brand name facial cleanser. In the shower, I have ff shampoo, ff conditioner, and ff body wash. My husband, who refuses to use body wash, uses ff bar soap. I put on my ff anti-perspirant, get dressed, do my hair, using my ff styling products if necessary (usually only if I'm going somewhere). I put on my ff facial moisturizer, ff foundation, ff blush, and ff mascara.

During the week, we usually eat hot or cold ff cereal for breakfast. On the weekends, one of us cooks breakfast--probably not something free, but bought on sale or with a coupon, so still frugal. My husband makes his lunch to take to work, using ff ingredients when possible. I do lunch at home, sometimes leftovers, sometimes I've made especially for my lunches (see my chicken and dumplings recipe on my food blog). Dinner is the same--made at home with ingredients that may not have been free, but were mostly bought on sale and/or with coupons, so still frugal. I don't cook everything single thing from scratch, but I do a lot from scratch, and the rest is usually along the lines of "semi-homemade".

If I do laundry or cleaning that day, I use my ff laundry soap and ff fabric softener, along with ff cleaning products that I may need.

I could go on, but you get the picture. I save money as I can, when I can. It helps us make ends meet while putting our son through college without building up new debt. It helps me be able to take some time as a stay-at-home wife, even though we never thought I'd be able to do so until well after our son graduated and all of our bills were paid off.

Are there still more ways we could cut back? Sure there are. I still use paper towels, and I don't usually re-use baggies or aluminum foil. I don't make my own laundry soap or shampoo, and right now we don't have a garden or raise our own meat. There are ways.

But for now, this is what we do. This is my frugal.

Related posts:

Mission Possible with Intent

Where I Get My Coupons, part 1

Where I Get My Coupons, part 2

How I Organize My Coupons

This post is linked to Frugal Friday at Life as Mom

Until next time...