As we began our journey into frugality, I quickly realized there were a lot of things we did not need to be spending money on. And I’m not talking about the gym membership or getting your nails done. Those are two things that don’t apply to me; one because I don’t like having my nails done and two, because we live so rurally that I can easily take our dog for a walk and get in some much-needed exercise.
To me, these are more of the smaller items that can eat a large hole in your budget. Over time, these little cuts to our spending have allowed us to save more money, stay within our budget, and be able to put more money towards our debt. Here are over 30 items we stopped wasting money on.
Phone Upgrades
A and I have service through straight talk. One of the features I like about them is that you have to own your phone outright. I don’t like to upgrade my phone often; I’m still using a Samsung S7. When I upgraded to this phone, it was from an S6 that I had for years that had a slight tendency to overheat. It wasn’t until it could no longer hold a reliable charge or make phone calls that I felt it was time to upgrade.
When we do upgrade, Hubs searches eBay for a refurbished phone, and we simply place our current SIM card in the new phone. Simple.
Teflon Cookware
When we were in college, it seemed like the cheap Teflon cookware was all we could afford. As those pieces were used, the coating wore away and goodness knows what we were putting into our bodies as we still cooked with them.
Over the years, we have budgeted out money for slightly more expensive stainless steel cookware*, or gone for cast iron cookware*. Both have their perks depending on what we are cooking.
My favorite though has got to be our 6-quart cast iron enameled Dutch oven*. I use it to make so many of our one-pot recipes, like this homemade hamburger helper, it is used to roast any whole chickens we cook, and many more dishes. It is very rare in this house that a week goes by where it doesn’t get used.
Pasta Sauce
Every year when we grow tomatoes, the main thing I like to get out of our harvest is pasta sauce. Tomato plants are something that, when planted at the right time in my area, grow very well and produce fruit in prolific quantities.
Cooking up a huge batch of spaghetti sauce and freezing it in dinner-sized portions is something that I do often from August until the plants no longer produce, usually around October. The only time I wind up buying canned sauce from the store is when I run out of homemade sauce.
Pizza Sauce
The only difference between making pasta sauce and pizza sauce is:
- the seasonings are a little more concentrated
- you cook it down for longer, so it gets thicker
That’s it. So in the summers while I’m on sprees of spaghetti sauce, I will make some Pizza Sauce as well. So simple, and when it’s on top of my homemade pizza dough, it’s so good!
Single-Use Items
Paper Towels & Napkins
I never understood why I would buy something, to use it once and then throw it away. It’s a huge waste of money to constantly buy most paper products, not to mention the environmental cost between production and disposal.
Instead, we use flour sack towels* if there’s a job that would have needed a paper towel {such as fried chicken or strips of bacon}, and use reusable napkins*. It is so much easier to toss them in a load of towels than to continually buy and throw out single-use items.
For cleaning purposes, we have a plethora of microfiber towels that get the job done, and can be tossed into the laundry with the towels.
Paper Plates, Plastic Utensils, & Dish Sponges
As with paper towels and napkins, we don’t buy paper plates and plastic utensils. Again, it baffles me that you would use something once and then throw it away. Even the plastic utensils the kids use in their lunchboxes come home to be run through the dishwasher at night!
For dinnerware, we use the Fiesta brand. I have used a few brands in the past, including Corelle, and I just prefer Fiesta brand* over them all. They’re durable, and hold up exceptionally well in the dishwasher. In other words, in the last 5+ years that we’ve used them, they haven’t chipped, even in the dishwasher! I can’t say that about other brands.
As for washing them, I enjoy using sponges very similar to these washable scrubbies*. They feel like the hook part of Velcro and can scrub off anything you need them to with ease. They hold dish soap so you’re not constantly using more and more soap, and also work fantastic when scrubbing cast iron {without dish soap of course!}
Plastic Food Containers
I have never enjoyed using plastic food storage containers for our leftovers. It wasn’t until my mom was diagnosed with breast cancer that I went through and got rid of 99% of our plastic containers.
To replace them, I took my birthday money that year and bought some sets of Pyrex glass storage containers with lids* that were on sale. While I do suggest that you buy glass for food storage, I will also suggest that you wait until they are on sale, and add to your collection slowly.
In addition to Pyrex, we have Anchor brand storage*, and use mason jars* we have from canning for anything liquid that needs storing. It makes for a variety of storage sizes and options, so we’re never missing out on plastic containers.
Jams & Jellies
Jams and jellies were the first items that I started making back in 2010. I had realized that the raspberry patch we had at the time gave enough raspberries for a few batches of freezer jam. The jam lasted our family {of 4 at the time} for nearly a year! It was that realization of not having to pay for jam or jelly for a whole year that got me started on what else we could preserve to lower our grocery bill.
While I don’t have a post for making raspberry jam, I do have this post about making your own Apple Peel Jelly.
Hubs has been loving making pepper jams with our abundance of peppers. Check out how to make your own Habanero Jelly and Jalapeno Jelly. Both are good on top of crackers with cream cheese.
Yogurt
For the longest time I was spending nearly $40 a month on yogurts for the kids, and that’s only when I was able to get a decent sale or coupon on the individual cups. Don’t get me started on the tubes or smoothie drinks!
I was hesitant to make yogurt at first, but after making a few batches, it has become second nature. If it’s that easy for me to do, you can make your own too! The best part is I went from spending nearly $40 a month to less than $10 a month on yogurt! Sometimes even less depending on how fast the kids eat it!
Chicken Broth
Many years ago, as soon as fall would come, I’d start stocking up on chicken broth because we would go through an obscene amount every week.
Not only did the cost add up, but it wasn’t healthy for us either. There an insanely high amount of sodium in store-bought chicken broth, but some of the ingredients are migraine triggers for O.
I started making chicken broth on the stovetop to cut out a lot of those unhealthy ingredients, and we haven’t missed it a bit. If you’d prefer to make chicken broth in the instant pot, it’s even easier!
When I don’t have any homemade chicken broth on hand, or if I need a different variety of broth, I enjoy using the Better Than Bullion* brand.
Canned Soups
Similar to chicken broth, I started making soups from scratch many years ago. This wasn’t due to a sodium issue with O as he wasn’t born yet, but rather an allergy issue with me. Food allergies are never fun to deal with, especially when it’s to preservatives and you cannot find out which exact preservative it is. Rather than sticking it out and testing different brands of canned soups, I have made soups from scratch instead.
You can go here to check out all the soup recipes I have on the blog.
Canned Fruit
Canned fruits are a huge budget saver for us! I only find myself occasionally buying canned pears since I haven’t found a pear orchard local to us. Even rarer are the single-serve cups for when field trips are on the horizon.
Applesauce
If you didn’t know yet, I love being able to grow food that I can preserve for use throughout the rest of the year. It’s the biggest way I save money, as well as reduce the number of migraines O gets, and allergic reactions to preservatives that I get. Making applesauce is something that the kids look forward to every year, and unless I make a lot of it, it never lasts long in our house. You can check out this post for a step by step tutorial on how you can make and can applesauce.
Peaches
Just like applesauce, canned peaches are a popular item in our house. From being the fruit item in lunch boxes to topping yogurt and cottage cheese, canned peaches go a long way.
I have even canned spiced peaches in the past, saving us even more money. These are a favorite of A’s, and sadly they never last long.
You can check out this post on how to can sliced peaches, or this post on how to can spiced peaches.
Canned Vegetables
Green Beans
Green beans are a very forgiving plant. They’re fast growers, and very prolific. When we can’t eat them fast enough, I can the remainders and use them throughout the winter.
Diced Tomatoes
As with pasta sauce, canning our own diced or crushed tomatoes saves us a lot of money over a year. While there might be a bit of work involved upfront, the result of having canned, homegrown diced tomatoes is well worth that extra effort from the get-go.
Tomato Sauce
Similar to canning diced tomatoes, cooking down garden-fresh tomatoes and canning tomato sauce with them makes for excellent pantry additions. Not only am I able to skip out on this part of the store, but I can also season them any way that is needed for the recipe the tomato sauce is being used in.
Frozen Fruits & Vegetables
^^^PIC FROZEN PEACHES
Rarely will I go out and buy frozen bags of veggies. Buying in bulk in freezing corn in August helps support local farmers, saves us money, and gives that fresh sweet corn flavor all year rather than just the summer.
The same goes for blueberries and strawberries. The kids and I enjoy visiting the local you-pick farms and buying berries in bulk, prepping and freezing them when we get home. You can also check out my tutorial on how to freeze peaches here.
Disposable Water Bottles
I’ll have to be honest here and say that I haven’t stopped buying these entirely. For the majority of the year, I do not buy these. The kids have their own stainless steel water bottles* they use for drinking water at school and home, and Hubs and I have water bottles as well.
The only time that I buy bottled water is when it is summertime and I know that Hubs will be on job sites more often than he is in the office. In those instances, it is much easier for him to have a pack of bottled water in his truck than it is for him to fill up a refillable water bottle along the side of a highway job.
Even though I’m still buying them, I’m not buying them in the quantities I was previously, and as a result, I am saving a lot of money in the process.
Coffee On The Go
We live rurally and tend to make our coffee at home anyways. Years ago, after getting frustrated over our Keurig not working, again, we replaced it with an old fashioned Mr. Coffee coffee maker*. Now I’m not hunting down sales on K-Cups, I’m saving even more money!
Magazine Subscriptions
I know. I’m the bane of many elementary school teachers.
Magazine subscriptions are something we’ve never bought into, with one exception. When I was a graduate student, I needed a membership to the National Science Teachers Association as part of the program requirements. As a result of my paid subscription, I was sent “free” magazines each year that I was a member. It didn’t take long after graduating to realize that continuing an NSTA membership ate into a huge chunk of our budget, and our recycling stack.
Instead of purchasing subscriptions, if I’m looking for a specific magazine article I will try to find the online versions. If I’m looking for a specific publication, such as the Better Homes and Gardens seasonal magazines on canning, I’ll pay the newsstand price for it since I am only looking at one specific publication rather than a year’s worth.
DIY Household Items
Making substitutes for cleaners and personal care items has helped reduce our expenses as well as helping minimize the number of toxins we’re exposed to each day.
Vapor Rub
Vapor rub was one of those items that I would go out and buy each year when cold season hit without fail. Even after I started making diaper creams for O, I still bought vapor rub from the store. The problem with that is it’s laden with so many chemicals, I start to wonder how much helping and healing it’s doing.
Making a batch of vapor rub is super simple, and while it may have an initial investment of supplies, you’re able to use them multiple times. Spreading the cost over many homemade products makes them cheaper than ones you buy at the store!
Fabric Softener & Multiple Laundry Detergent Brands
I stopped buying fabric softener years ago, and with it, I stopped chasing sales and deals on various brands of laundry detergent. The biggest reason for this is that I break out in hives when I wear clothes that have been washed in fabric softeners and most mainstream laundry detergents.
Even if we did buy them, cutting them out of our budget has saved us so much money in the long run.
To help soften our laundry now, I use a Downy Ball with white vinegar. No, our clothes don’t smell like vinegar when they’re done, and yes, they are still as soft.
Dryer Sheets
As with fabric softeners, certain dryer sheets can cause me to break out in hives. Such are the wonders of allergies. To get around this, I like to use wool dryer balls* in place of dryer sheets.
If your static is an issue, I have found that turning the heat down, reducing the drying time overall, and putting a diaper pin in a few of the dryer balls that you use in each load help to significantly reduce the static you get on clothing.
Air Fresheners
I love the smell of all things fresh, fruity, and floral as much as the next person. But as I’ve mentioned before, I have asthma and allergies, and most smells can trigger an attack. Especially of the aerosol variety. The holiday time of year is one of the worst times for me because everyone and their brother feels the need to spray a halo of cologne and perfume around them that still stink up the aisles long after their gone.
Instead, I like to use baking soda and essential oil combination to help combat any odors that may linger.
Scouring Scrubs
I have fond memories of my mom using Comet to clean our kitchen sink, and I would just play with the stuff while I “cleaned” the sink. I thought it was awesome. If I only knew then!
But the reality is that even the natural versions of scouring scrubs, while they say are safe for cookware, can leave behind a horrible aftertaste, no matter how many times I scrub them. So what’s my trick to getting my cookware clean with no aftertaste? Baking soda, liquid soap, and a tad bit of vinegar. If you want more of a scouring action, add in a sprinkle of coarse kosher salt. It works like a charm every time!
Hand Soap
Handsoap can be expensive! Especially when three kids at home are constantly getting into things that are sticky, dirty, and messy. I started making foaming hand soap as a way to have a more natural option to the antibacterial hand soaps that were available where we live. You can check out this post for how to make your own foaming hand soap.
So there you have it! Over 30 things I either cut from our budget completely or rarely spend money on since we started our journey to debt freedom.
What about you? Are there items you no longer buy or prefer to make instead? I’d love to hear about it in the comments below!
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