Frugal living

My father kept up an endless litany of "Waste not, want not" so this is ingrained in my psyche. I do my best; but have stopped feeling guilty about power usage - OH weighs 6.5 stone and I just keep the heating high and try to wipe out the nagging disapproving voice in my head.

It is all about balance - live frugally but have a few treats here and there.

I agree with dragonfly- after I stopped working full time I soon noticed the savings in not having to buy clothes for work, tube fares in London to get to work and I also used less petrol. The odd cup of expensive coffee, lunch out and daily newspaper also mounts up when one is working.

When one has more time one can plan meals and usually there is less waste.

I’m told you can eat really well from the reduced shelf at supermarkets if you know when to go. Friends are always bragging about the whole side of salmon or beef joint they picked up for next to nothing and made into umpteen meals for the freezer. Whenever I go there are a few ready meals with bashed boxes, loads of blue cheese and some suspiciously dark bacon.

If I go shopping in our local city, though, I call in at the market before getting on the bus. Yesterday I got four melons for £1 (shared with a friend) and a couple of pounds of plums for 50p. If I had my free bus pass it’d be worth going every week.

The best way I found to save money when we were very poor was to write everything down. ALL incomings and outgoings even small items like postage stamps. I still have the book I used.
We also found that when we stopped working our outgoings decreased considerably so we were better off than we thought we would be.

HOTMT smacks of 'I, Daniel Blake'....

I believe, with the earth's resources dwindling at the rate they are, it will become necessary for us all to look at living more frugal lifestyles.
Growing more of our own food is a good easy start and very rewarding when it comes to the point of producing a complete meal from home produce. Even with no garden there's a lot of edible food that can be grown in pots. Getting rid of the car and investing in a bike with panniers is a cheaper and healthier way of shopping. Car sharing? The cost of flour now means I can't afford to make as much bread as I'd like to, the price of all food is creeping up to the point where for me cutting back is a necessity rather than a whim, it's a way of life. There's lots of books (try the library, if you've still got a local one) on the subject of self sufficiency, they make for interesting reading.

Totally out of order Holding

I like to live within my means and get satisfaction from wasting as little as possible, reducing non-essentials, etc., but I don't live frugally. Frugal living is miserable IMO.

??? HOTMT

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