Category Archives: frugal living

Boondocking and Other Frugal Camping Tips

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For most of the thrifty and frugal crowd, camping is a common summer adventure.

One of our readers (Thanks Judy) recently introduced me to “Boondocking.”

Boondocking is camping rough. Really rough. It’s also free. Boondocking refers to camping for free, weather it is at a Casino’s RV site or a wilderness area in a public park.

I’ve found several websites that index and rate “boondocking” sites:

True, some “perks” of maintained campgrounds aren’t always available — flush toilets and latrines, electricity hookups, noisy campsite neighbors.

There are a number of easy workarounds for the lack of plumbing (I’l let you Google “boondocking tips” for that info though).

Aside from roughing it, how else can you save money on your family camping trips?

1. Get your gear used. Tons of people take up camping every year, but tons of people give it up too. Freecycle lists, CraigsList and the classified ads are great ways to get the big stuff like camp stoves and tents. Smaller items like silverware, cooking pans and knives are easily (and cheaply) found at yard sales and thrift stores.  Housewares are easiest to find in July right after “wedding season” and hardest to find in August and September when everyone is hunting up that stuff for dormitories. Conversely, if you’re not opposed to dumpster diving, check out your local college campus dorm dumpster areas as soon as the school year ends for a serious stash of housewears being ditched by departing grads.

2. Save on space and ice by preparing and freezing meals ahead.  We make rice pudding, and freeze it in gallon sized ziploc bags.  It stays frozen a long time, and makes great breakfasts over the campfire. Besides, it doesn’t leave puddles in the bottom of the cooler.

3. Try solar lights. You can find solar garden lights just about anywhere now, and they are great for marking out obstacles on the campsite, or having in the tent for little ones who are afraid of the dark.

Image Credit: foto76 Freedigitalphotos.net

4. Day camp.  This never occurred to me until I saw a family doing this at a local lakefront park. They pitched a tent on the lawn, pulled out their cooler and sent the kids to play.  Mom and dad held down “home base” at the tent and kept an eye on the kids. Little ones returned to the tent for naps or to change from swimsuits to playground clothes. It didn’t cost the family anything except the cooler full of water bottles and peanut butter sandwiches and the kids got to play all day. (Oh, and did I mention, mom didn’t have to check the shower for spiders, wash dishes in the dark, hassle with the propane stove, or worry about bears). When the sun went down or the kids got tired of playing, the family just folded up their tent and lawn chairs, and went home.

5. Camp off-season.  My husband hates spiders, and as a result, will only camp in the winter. Like serious, dead-of-winter, snow-on-the-ground craziness. But let me tell you this, it’s cheap!

6. Camp during the week. If you’ve got the vacation time, a Monday-Thursday camping trip can sometimes cost 1/2 the weekend rates.

7. Share! Every summer we try to attend a four-day camping trip with some friends. Between us, we have five “parental teams” and around twenty children, or about eight tents and an RV.  We rent three adjoining campsites and let the kids run loose between the three. That keeps our site rental fees very low, as we just split it based on the number of people in our group and the number of days we stay. We also share a couple of cook-stoves, and one fire pit, reducing our firewood expense greatly by sharing. (You can cook 35 marshmallows over one fire just as well as you can cook 4).

Frugal Bumper Sticker and Button Ideas

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I’ve been away from the blog a lot lately, but still actively involved in my frugal ways…

I’ve been keeping a running list of frugal and coupon bumper stickers and slogans that I thought were funny. Thought I’d share those with you here. If you have others to share–please post them–I’ll be sure to give a shout-out for the best ones. If you’re on Twitter, be sure to leave your Twitter ID there too.

Image credit: Freedigitalphotos.net

Here it goes…

  • Frugal is the new black
  • Couponers do it for less
  • Frugalistas do it for less
  • Tighter than two coats of paint
  • Less is the new more
  • It’s chic to be cheap
  • New brakes were too expensive, so I had them make the horn louder
  • Friends don’t let friends pay full price
  • Ask me how much I saved, and prepare to be amazed
  • Follow me to a garage sale
  • I see debt people
  • I speak “coupon” fluently
  • I stop for garage sales
  • Living like no one else (A Dave Ramsey sticker)

Frugal Halloween

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So, I don’t know about your house, but here we do Halloween to the hilt. It’s about the only fun, low-pressure holiday out there. Nobody gets bent out of shape if we bend tradition, there’s no sentimental historic memories to go with it, just pure fun and sugar rush.

In the past I haven’t home-made kids costumes, but I haven’t really had time either. This year, I decided to be thrifty. (Surprised?)

I traded the kids’ too-small costumes from last year for a pair of winter shoes for our little one from a local consignment store. Today I busted into the “Halloween bin” from the garage to take inventory. I found a big black feather boa leftover from a prior year’s decorations or costumes and combined it with a black T-shirt, some elastic (salvaged from a torn fitted bed sheet), and a manila envelope, as well as a mardi gras mask from a costumed charity auction from a few years back.

It took about 20 minutes to make this cute crow-costume for our four-year old.

Halloween 2008--A Crow!

Halloween 2008--A Crow!

Here’s how I did it:
1. Find a T-shirt (fitted women’s worked four our daughter–the length was perfect for a dress–but a hooded sweatshirt would also be great). Tack a length of the feather boa at the top of the shoulders and make an elastic loop to fasten at the wrist (this creates “wings”). Repeat on the opposite side.

2. Sew all but four inches of the remaining boa around the bottom hem of the T-shirt.

3. Sew the remaining boa around a piece of elastic to make a headband.

4. (Optional) Run a length of elastic through the bottom hem of the T-shirt, and pull it tight and tie it together to create a gathered look at the bottom.

5. (Optional) Tack loose feathers (there will be bunches) to the front of the T-shirt to make “belly feathers” for the little bird.

Mask instructions

For the mask, use a mardi gras mask with a triangle beak, or a headband with a beak. Alternately, you could add a beak to a hooded sweatshirt from felt. A mask could also be made from a painted paper plate.

If you have frugal costume ideas and would like to showcase them here, please email them to me at jessc098@gmail.com, and I will post them as well as a link back to your blog with instructions.

Day 27: Only shop the perimeter of the supermarket.

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This is a classic frugal tip that is so good, it bears repeating. Supermarkets aren’t a good place to buy toiletries and many household consumables (diapers, paper plates, deodorant, etc.), so only shop the perimeter.

Most grocery stores are laid out in a “box” pattern with vegetables on one side, dairy and meats along another (usually the back due to theft concerns) and breads on the other side. Anything in the middle falls into one category or another:

1. Make it instead
2. Don’t buy it at all
3. Buy it elsewhere.

The one area that I stray is with pasta. One store we go to keeps it with bulks in the back—another with ethnic foods in the middle. I’ll run around and get some pasta—even though it’s easy to make at home.

This post is part of a series I’ve entitled “Frugal August” and is inspired by (though not copied from) the book The Complete Tightwad Gazetteby Amy Dacyczyn. My tips are meant to build on hers, but generally are not duplications.

Day 23: IMEX

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In my area, (Seattle metro area) our county offers a catalog called the IMEX—or Industrial Materials Exchange. This catalog shows all kinds of items that might otherwise be landfilled. Extra paint, tile bits, buckets and containers, etc. I’ve used the IMEX to find items before—but you can also use it to offer items, much like freecycle on a large scale. With IMEX however, there are often nominal fees for the items.

http://www.govlink.org/hazwaste/business/imex/

This post is part of a series I’ve entitled “Frugal August” and is inspired by (though not copied from) the book The Complete Tightwad Gazetteby Amy Dacyczyn. My tips are meant to build on hers, but generally are not duplications.

Day 22: Cat Litter

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Sorry for you non-cat owners. Today won’t be especially relevant. I’ve got to tell the cat owners out there about something I’m a big fan of. It’s a product called “Worlds Best Cat Litter” (yes, I just blogged my cat litter). The stuff is made of recycled corn cobs diced into tiny bits. It’s very low-dust and is super absorbent.

The litter is flushable, but we toss it in the garbage as we have a juvenile litter-changer here who gets a little overzealous with the flushing.

Arthur, our cat, who's worth every cent spent on litter. Because this litter is so absorbent, it clumps super-fast and stays odor free. We empty the clumps out of our cat’s box every day, and only change the crumbs in the pan every other month (with no odor!). When you see the litter, it’ll give you sticker shock. We buy a big bag for about $25, but it’s six months or more of litter. Since it’s not clay, tracked bits don’t scratch floors or furniture. It’s low on dust, there’s no odor at all and it’s environmentally friendly.

I realize it’s very strange to blog cat litter as a “frugal family find” but crunching the numbers on consumables is a great way to save money around your house. (Not having pets is also a great way to save money, but personally, I think our cat is worth it.

Note: this is not a sponsored post and I have received no compensation for endorsing this product—it’s the real deal).

This post is part of a series I’ve entitled “Frugal August” and is inspired by (though not copied from) the book The Complete Tightwad Gazetteby Amy Dacyczyn. My tips are meant to build on hers, but generally are not duplications.

Day 21: Dumpster Dive at Home.

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Yeah, I really said that. Take a good hard look at everything you throw out for a week. Why are you throwing it away? It didn’t come into your house for free—have you used it to the full extent of its life? Can you re-use something one more time?

Every day our daughter brings in the paper, salvages the bag it’s delivered in and uses that to clean out the cat litter. We hang on to the rubber band from the newspaper for craft projects. It seems that practically everything we throw out could have been used for another purpose.

I always thought it was a tacky cheapskate thing to do, to keep yogurt cups and cottage cheese containers and re-use them for leftovers, but now that I have kids loosing expensive store-bought containers at school or under the seat of the car, etc., I’m just as happy to loose a yogurt cup. Call me tacky, at least I’m not angry about the missing plastic-ware.

I compost almost everything I can. Junk mail, bank statements (yeah, steal that ID thieves!) coffee grounds, vacuum dust and lint from the dryer. There’s something satisfying about watching the MasterCard statement being eaten by worms and then growing mint for my mojitos.

We throw out one kitchen-sized bag of garbage per week, and mostly that’s cat litter and leftovers past their prime. A substantial decrease from where we were about three years ago.

This post is part of a series I’ve entitled “Frugal August” and is inspired by (though not copied from) the book The Complete Tightwad Gazetteby Amy Dacyczyn. My tips are meant to build on hers, but generally are not duplications.

Day 20: Reduce Your Expectations

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Going from a lifestyle of excessive consumption to a frugal lifestyle is a shock.  Mostly because it’s very empty looking.  Right now, my entertainment center is empty.  I’m writing in the living room, and seeing a blank space. Why? Well, the TV is in the bedroom for the night.  The A/C is on in there and my husband wanted to watch a movie.  Rather than having two TVs, we simply pick up the one and move it to the other room.

Eliminating the expectation of rooms filled up with “stuff” can be percieved as weird, but it’s sure a lot easier to dust. 

Image credit: Freedigitalphotos.netOne area you may notice this especially is in the area of gift giving. Scaling back your gift-giving can be especially challenging.  My best advice is to go in little increments rather than all in one.

A few years ago I hosted a bridal shower for a dear friend, and when I sent the invitations I sent an index card with instructions for guests to bring it back with a favorite heirloom family recipe.   I compiled all of the index cards in a discounted wedding photo-album from a craft store as a “brides first cookbook.”  Now when she goes to make her husband some cookies, she can use his mom’s favorite recipe and when she craves comfort food she can make her dad’s mac and cheese.   We filled in the album later with snapshots taken at her bridal shower and additional recipes from loved ones that she requested for her collection.  Sometimes buying more/bigger stuff doesn’t make for “better” stuff.

This post is part of a series I’ve entitled “Frugal August” and is inspired by (though not copied from) the book The Complete Tightwad Gazetteby Amy Dacyczyn. My tips are meant to build on hers, but generally are not duplications.

Day 18: Co-op

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I discovered co-ops accidentally. In my very, very broke college days, I made it through by house-sitting for professors as they went on leave to teach abroad. For 18 months I lived rent-free caring for houses in much nicer neighborhoods than the student housing. One of these places happened to be across the street from a food co-op.

Image Credit: Freedigitalphotos.net

Image Credit: Freedigitalphotos.net

Having just a laundry basket and a bicycle to my name, this appeared to be my only realistic option to for grocery shopping. There was a positively crushing membership fee of $35 annually, which I didn’t pay because I didn’t have that much cash. Instead I opted to accept the prices a few cents higher on each purchase.

Generally, my purchases there were limited to a tiny amount of chicken every other week, corn tortillas, cheddar cheese, jalapenos, potatoes and onions.

The house I was caring for had a good tomato garden and some herbs. From this I could make tasty quesadillas and salsa for next-to-nothing and rice for breakfast and lunch. (My food budget was $50 a month in the summer of 2000).

Co-ops pool resources and buy in bulk sharing the savings with the membership. There are some famous co-ops that you might not even realize exist (REI is a co-op).

Now I rely on more informal co-ops. A friend organizes a co-op with the mail order food company Azure. I haven’t participated yet but I’m working on my list and price comparison sheets to determine my order for winter. I could buy 10 pounds of oats and use them, but I think the bag size is 25. I could use ¼ pound of cinnamon, but not 1 pound, so it’s a little hard to develop a list.

This friend has several people that put in the orders together and then the food is all delivered by tractor-trailer to a central location—where everyone comes to pick up their orders. Some things will definitely be going on this list—like peanut butter, flour, some spices, but other things are going to need more careful consideration (how much butter do I want to freeze in the name of a good deal?). A co-op can be formed in an organized way via a membership club, but even splitting a jumbo box of diapers from Costco with a pal can save you some serious dollars down the road.

This post is part of a series I’ve entitled “Frugal August” and is inspired by (though not copied from) the book The Complete Tightwad Gazetteby Amy Dacyczyn. My tips are meant to build on hers, but generally are not duplications.

Day 17: Glean it!

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Following on yesterday’s story of the crab apples, don’t forget about gleaning. Gleaning is the process of collecting something that isn’t going to be used–and putting it to use.

Sometimes you can help a food bank by picking up donations and delivering them to their distrubition  site—they may send home surplus items with you (yes, food banks do get TOO MUCH of some items). Of course I don’t recommend that you divert any resources from the needy, but its frequently true that they are overwhelmed with cerian items at some times and are forced to throw them out.

photo credit: freedigitalphotos.netYou can offer to glean a neighbor’s neglected pear tree in exchange for a few jars of pears, or employ Web sites like Freecycle or Craigs’ List to look for fruit tree/garden owners with too much produce to manage. (If you live in the town I grew up in, it’s likely that this time of year, mysterious baskets of zuchinni have already appeared on your doorstep this summer).

I wrote a piece for Seattle’s Child Magazine while back about berry picking with kids. I was surprised to learn that most berry-picking isn’t more cost-effective than buying supermarket berries (color me disappointed!) but I did learn a valuable gleaning tip:

In my county, wild blackberries are prolific and not sprayed! (Call your city or county’s department of natural resources for details on if harvesting these is permitted and if they are sprayed or not).

Here blackberries are considered a weed and are managed by pulling or burning, but not during the summer. They’re not sprayed and grow heavily at the edges and borders of many county parks. I verified with my county that it is permissible to pick the berries provided that I am on public lands or picking the berries with permission on private lands.

Every summer we take our beach buckets out several times a week and bring berries back. We wash them and lay them on baking sheets to freeze then scoop the frozen berries into zipper bags. They freeze well and make pies, smoothies, cobblers and ice-cream-toppings galore.  We’ve picked more than five pounds of blackberries already this summer to freeze for winter.  (Some have found their way into pies and blintzes already though).

Ambitious canners can also make jelly out of this yummy gleaned fruit.

This post is part of a series I’ve entitled “Frugal August” and is inspired by (though not copied from) the book The Complete Tightwad Gazetteby Amy Dacyczyn. My tips are meant to build on hers, but generally are not duplications.