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
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Melissa says
I love this one! Lots of great ideas and a really good outlook to go with it!! I aspire to be more like her!!
Zoë says
Thank you for the kind words, Melissa!
Tamara says
Great post!
Sharon says
Lovely post, but PLEASE do not give chicken bones to cats. They are just as susceptible to gastrointestinal perforations as dogs, and that is an agonizing way to die, especially for a feral cat, without access to medical care. Thanks
Cheryl @ Living Design says
I agree! There are some good money saving tips here, but please don’t risk your cats’ health to save a little money. Bones from cooked birds (chicken, turkey, etc) are just as dangerous for cats as they are for dogs. Oatmeal is also not the healthiest food for a carnivore — their stomachs are not designed to digest it, so it fills them up but has zero nutritional value.
Jenifer says
Hello! These are farm cats. Not indoor pets. These animals hunt and eat that – mice, rabbits, squirrels and such.
I agree, neither would be right to feed and indoor non-hunting lives solely on what you feed them house pet.
*if for any reason this comes off as judgmental/condescending – I swear it is not meant to be taken that way.
Jody says
Love this post! What a happy life you are giving your children!
Zoë says
Thank you Jody! They are very happy children….when they aren’t bickering, that is
Lynne says
Love the post! Zoe’s comment about a mud pit brings back such memories. I had a pit in the backyard of the house I lived in until I was 5, and I still remember how much fun it was to play there, nearly 60 years later. Truly, you are building memories for your children!
Zoë says
Mud pits for the win!!
sk says
Let me testify. Zoe is for real, a salt-of-the-earth person. She has a strong, kind husband and contented sparkly-eyed children. We–her relatives–all love her. You go girl!!
Jennifer Jo says
Amen to that!
Zoë says
XOXO
Peggy says
It sounds like you’ve got a great life Zoe! 🙂 And I know what it’s like to live in the country and end up with a huge amount of cats and dogs too, there are people who don’t want a pet anymore and feel it’s okay to ‘bring them to the country to live a good life’. They do this by opening the car door, dropping the kitties out and driving away. You do what you have to do! 🙂
Zoë says
I do have a good life…I often have to pinch myself! And yes, so many stray cats!! I do love a herd of cats though. A farm just isn’t the same without them!
janet says
Interesting, well written and beautiful pictures. Thanks for sharing!
Zoë says
Thank janet!
Kathy says
I am very impressed with Zoe’s lifestyle. It is similar to how I grew up on a farm. I’m 60 now and have wonderful memories. We wore hand me downs from my cousins. They were great clothes. We had a couple pairs of shoes and in the summer we mostly went barefoot.
As far as the cats, my Daddy loved, loved, loved his cats and we almost always had around 20 of them outside and a dog or two. They ate kitchen scraps, bones and whatever they were given. They were not mistreated or misfed in anyway. Animals that hunt for their food will chew on the bones of what they catch. We never thought anything about it to tell the truth. I have an inside dog and I do not give her a real bone of any kind. She is too pampered. LOL I do buy the teeth cleaning bones for her so that she has something to chew. I won’t give her rawhide either.
Zoe, I think you have a wonderful life from your story and I think your children are benefiting enormously from having what they need, some of what they want and lots and lots of love and attention instead of lots of unnecessary things that break and aren’t worth what they cost most of the time. I commend you and your husband for providing the truly important things and teaching your children what is really valuable.
Zoë says
Thank you so much for your kind words, Kathy! It’s tough some days when the kids beg to do what “all the other kids are doing” but I think they’ll appreciate it some day 🙂
Karen says
Loved reading Zoes post! I was raised a lot like this and our creativity and imagination was all the entertainment we needed growing up. We gardened and canned and baked/cooked from scratch. I remember haybale forts and finding kittens in the barn when we stacked hay in the summertime. Best childhood ever!! Kudos Zoe! xoxo
Zoë says
Thank you Karen! I have those same fond memories and hope my kids do someday too!
Marcia says
Gah! That postage stamp quilt in rainbow colors is gorgeous!! I am a quilter, sometimes, when I have time.
I really enjoyed the post. I grew up in Western PA and enjoyed the photos.
Grinding grain has been something on my list forever. Until recently, I could find whole wheat flour cheaper than wheat berries. Haven’t been able to lately. Maybe I should revisit this…
Zoë says
Oh dive in!! You will love it. I like my baked goods so much better when I grind my flour instead of using bought whole grain flours. And it’s so satisfying.
cathy harrell says
I didn’t know cats were able to eat bones. I have about 30 and most of them are spayed and neutered except a few I can’t catch. They catch rats all the time and sometimes a rabbit but I feed them dry and canned cat food too. Beautiful vegetables and bread:)
Margie Hudgins says
I loved your post, pictures, and things on your ETSY site; so much so that I had to go look. I bought two beautiful pair of pot holders for my daughters’ birthday next week. Hope they get here in time. Will definitely watch for more goodies.
Zoë says
I appreciate it Margie! Your potholders ship tomorrow
Kathy N says
Zoe- thank you for sharing your story. I am so inspired by all that you do. Your attitude and lifestyle set a great example in the value of keeping things simple. I didn’t grow up on a farm, but most of the things I love are part of that life (family, cooking, gardening, animals, fresh air and being self sufficient). Cheers to you and your family!
Zoë says
Thank you Kathy! It sure doesn’t take a farm to do most of what I do 🙂
Courtney says
Loved this post. Zoe I want to vacation at your house !
Raw bones are awesome for carnevoires. There’s a really cool book called Pottingers Cats – about how two groups of cats used for a human medical study were fed a certain way….. It will surprise you what they found out. Raw food ftw !
Conni says
Thank you, Mavis, for adding this feature. I LOVED reading Zoe’s story – she told me all my hungering mind would have ASKED her, had we been face to face, and she did it while still maintaining appropriate
anonymity for her family. It is such a blessing to ‘see’ the solid values being lived out in this family! Bravo!
Zoë says
Zoë says
Thank you Conni 🙂
Sue says
No one is challenging that dogs and cats can eat the raw bones of an animal that they catch, for example. It’s the cooked bones that are dangerous because they don’t crumble but instead splinter into long pointy pieces that can puncture organs. I know this isn’t the place for a detailed discussion but please google/ask your vet before feeding cooked bones.
Tracy L. says
Thank you Zoe for sharing! Love your story and your life! Just made my first Etsy purchase ever, and I’m SUPER excited. Really wish some day we can live more like your family, sounds AWESOME!
Zoë says
Oh thank you so much Tracy!
Our lives are always works in progress, aren’t they? Keep working towards your ideals!
Suzanne says
This is the BEST and most ENDEARING story of family life I think I have ever read! It made my day to read how wonderfully simple you strive to keep your life and raise your children. I applaud your efforts and thank you so much for sharing this!
Zoë says
Thank you Suzanne! We aren’t perfect by any means but we certainly try!
Diana says
That was lovely and inspiring. Kudos to you and your husband, Zoe.
Zoë says
Thank you Diana 🙂
Lisa Millar says
That was a great read! Love your lifestyle and savings ideas! (I admit being a bit lazy about pegging out my plastic bags, but I will now endeavour to do better!! 🙂 )
Your stall with all the colourful items on it looks so cheerful and inviting!
Its great to see people living and thoroughly enjoying a more simple lifestyle! (altho I know there is a lot of work involved at times – its good, fun and a satisfying kind of work!)
Zoë says
Definitely satisfying work 🙂 and thank you! Keep washing those bags 🙂
Natalie T. says
Love your attitude on parenting and on life in general, Zoe. Reading your post warmed my heart as we don’t hear enough of folks who live simple yet rich lifestyles contrary to the consumeristic society we live in today. Your values and ideas reinforced my own counter-culture convictions and uplifted my inner spirit. Thank you and best of luck to you and your family!
Lexie says
Wow I love these ideas it’s so inspiring. I have always dreamed of having a life like the one Zoe describes. I hope you continue this section. I loved reading about it