Help a Frugal Mom Become Even Frugaler!

[mochimama]

Okay, so I consider myself pretty frugal and DH is pretty frugal as well. I am the primary breadwinner in the family and I'm due with #2 in November. As soon as the baby is born, I will be off for several weeks (mostly paid). Starting in January 2009 I will be working half time. Dh is self-employed and is using this opportunity to build his business (in other words, I will be with the kids more often and he will work more often). Trouble is, we just barely make it each month as it is with my guaranteed salary. So...I'd like to see where we could cut out some costs just in case it is a slow star up for dh.
Here's our current situation:
About $1400/month mortgage. Some of it is a land loan on our dream property and some is a home equity. Other land we own outright is already for sale. Our home is also for sale (just casually, so we could move to the dream property sooner rather than later), but we're taking it off the market just before the baby is due to arrive.
No credit card debt and no car payments.
Hardly ever buy clothes, shoes, or toys except for at thrift stores when we really need something.
Do go out to eat a couple times a month as our pleasure spending.
Buy bulk foods like oatmeal, sugar, beans (like 25 lb bags).
Walk/bike instead of drive most of the time (we use a tank of gas every 2-3 weeks).
Do have dd in preschool (but that's when we are both working).
No cell phones.
Use cloth pads/toilet paper.
Cloth diapers.
What else?

So here are my ideas--let me know if you have any other thoughts or have links of info or to other threads that can help me expand on these as I get closer to my due date:

1. Look for cheaper car insurance. Is this really worth the effort? We are paying $1240/year for a 2002 subaru outback and a 1987 toyota pickup and that's with all discounts possible.
2. Go to a catastrophic insurance plan with a Health Savings Account. We are paying $320/month for dd and dh to be on my plan currently and we still have a $25 copay when we go to the doctor (which has been twice this year). Seems ridiculous. My work pays for me.
3. Eliminate all processed foods and cook everything from scratch using just rice and beans and flour and the basics. Where do I find recipes for all this stuff? And where do I find time?
4. Gather all our firewood instead of buy it. We've already started this to some extent.
5. Eliminate dd's preschool. This is tough because I'll still need to work 4 hours a day and that'll probably be those 4 hours.
6. We are thinking about refinancing our house and land loans, but can't do it right now because the house is for sale. We already have pretty low interest rates as it is.
7. Eliminate the mini-extra payments on the loans--you know those extra $15 I add in every time to make the principal go away faster? That's a tough one for me because I know it means paying more in the end!

Okay, this is way too long--please help me Frugal Mamas!

[MorganRiley]

as far as food/cooking goes

it helps to cook large quantities and freeze extra for another days dinner
or use one day a week to do baking, like bread, rolls, loaves, treats.

breastfeeding the new one will save you a ton of money

accepting gifts of money for baby (and holidays/bdays) allows you to better allocate money towards what the family needs vs. getting gifts you dont need and will not use.

do you absolutely need 2 vehicles???
have you ever considered being a one car family?

I dont know about taking your child out of pre-school...hmmm
that's a tough call...especially if you are using those hours to work

work opposite shifts...so you dont have to pay for daycare...if possible

[JBH]

Hi Mochimama
Where are you in Colorado? I'm also here. Im in Golden.
I need to learn a few tips from you!!! My husband and I are trying to do the same thing but you seem to be more frugaler than we are. I am trying and its so hard! Remember when we had no internet and cell phones? We didnt have to think about that extra payment then. I don't think my husband would go w/o the cell phone b/c of possible emergencies. As far as food, I need your advice. I am sorry I cannot give any in teh food department.
As far as catastrphic insurance, be careful. I have looked at many plans and the best one for our family is the group plan I have with my employer. I pay about 356. per month in health insurance for the family. It is expensive but with catastrophic insurance you still have the premium plus the deductible which may be high. You really would need to find a good plan with low deductible.
I am just wondering how much cheaper that would be since it sounds like you have a group plan too.
I think my husband had catastrophic /emergency insurance for one month and it cost about 100.00.
Also, with children and doctor visits, that could add up.
Any additional tips from you would be great!

[JBH]

I just searched catastrophic health plans (cuz I was curious myself) and here are some tips I copied off a website:


Before buying a catastrophic health insurance plan, consider:

What is the cost of the premium per month, quarter, and year?
What is the cost of the deductible and how much can you afford?
How extensive do you want the coverage to be?
Do you require prescription medications?
Can you afford to pay for doctor visits out-of-pocket?
Do you have any pre-existing conditions?
Do you get sick often?
What is the lifetime annual benefit?

[amyamanda]

Here are more ideas; chances are you've already thought of them, but just in case...

If you are taking the house off the market when baby is born, refinance then???

Rent house out and move to land sooner??? What are your temporary dwelling plans?

I find owning a pressure cooker helps us eat more rice and beans, so I invested in one thinking it would pay for itself. Too soon to call.

Change expectations about food.

See if you or your kids qualify for state insurance (every state is different and some programs are quite liberal).

In addition to bulk foods, meal-plan and shop around sales and windfalls (like garden surplus from neighbors). I am guessing that in your zone it may not be too late to plant kale for winter use (you can make a nearly-free cold frame if you can get hold of some boards or haybales and an otherwise useless window). Grow sprouts indoors for winter greens. You could grow kale indoors also. Buy the cheapest (primarily in-season or frozen) veggies possible. Plan to garden in the spring - anything you plant and eat is better than nothing. See if you can get a few seeds from gardener friends for free to start you out.

Do you have the opportunity to barter for food, goods, or services? Those might be good relationships to cultivate.

Cloth handkerchiefs and kitchen cloths (cut-up old t-shirts work great if you can get some).

Wash and reuse ziplocks. Eliminate as many disposable or premade products as possible. Clean with cheap homemade solutions.

Use Freecycle.

No cable TV (if you have it). And make sure you're getting the cheapest phone and Internet possible in your situation.

Stop eating out and instead cultivate activities like potlucks with friends.

Do you have hobbies that cost money? Be as conscious as possible about where every dollar goes, and see if you can trim anything from your spending.

Do the no-spend challenge. Don't buy anything unless you can't manage some other way. Don't go into stores, to reduce the temptation to spend. Do free fun things instead of things you have to pay for, and be mindful of how much gas factors into the cost of something.

Sell off anything of worth that you don't really need. Including scrap metal.

Continue trying to find the cheapest or free-est possible version of the things you do (i.e., we now use a totally free library instead of one where we had to pay for a card and pay fines. I factor the cost of gas into the equation and the free library still wins out).

Network for hand-me-downs and other things you might need. Cultivate relationships that might help with this. See if there is a swap shop or free store anywhere in your area, and try to check it for free things you might find useful.

Simplify your expectations as much as possible. Every time I think "I've already done that..." I find I can pare down even more.

I imagine you already do all or most of these things, but I wanted to try and be helpful anyway! Good luck.

[wendyland]

This is such a good thread. I hope it keeps going. We are doing a lot of things on the list.

I started looking for coupons on craigslist/ebay and joining coupon/grocery watch websites. There's another thread that lists some. I like afullcup.

I started working from home this year, which I had to wait almost a year at work to get approved.

We are biking and walking more places and trying to do all of our errands at once.

We are also selling anything in the house that we don't regularly use or that we were keeping "just in case".

[mochimama]

Thanks for all your replies, Mamas.
*The two vehicle thing is tough because dh's truck is a real beater and I think it costs us very little to keep (think, though, so I'd better check). We use it for hauling wood all the time. I thought about getting a trailer for the Subaru, though because his truck only fits three and we will soon be four! I'm thinking about reducing the insurance to the bare minimum. We really hardly ever drive (although I had a dream that dh rolled the car last night in some deep snow...)
*Breastfeeding will definitely be happening here! (actually still happening with 2 yo dd)
*Been trying to ask for $ instead of stuff from family members in particular. 85 yo grandmother is a QVC addict and we get all kinds of garbage from her. We try to sell it at yard sales because she becomes combative if we don't accept it.
*I like the cooking suggestion, MorganRiley. We ate leftovers last night and dinner was kind of sparse, but adequate. I think we need to do that more often. It made cooking take a lot less time, too.
*Amyamanda, your suggestions are great and we do a lot of those things already. I like the idea of reducing expectations for food and also for paring down even more where I thought I'd pared before. Maybe it takes time, like you get used to something for a while and then take it one step further. I need to analyze where we could go from where we are now.
*Regarding health insurance...I priced catastrophic plans yesterday and for the same price we are paying for dd and dh right now, we could have a catastrophic plan with $5000 max out of pocket and put $100/month away for use on medical. We live in a holistic community where alternative medicine is the way we go anyway, so insurances don't typically apply. But we could use the $100/month on those things. So I think after this little one is born, we will go that route.
*JPH, I am in Crestone in the San Luis Valley!

Thanks again-any more ideas welcome!

[SusannahM]

What do your phone costs look like? How much time do you spend on the phone? For me, it was cheaper to get SkypeOut ($3/month) and a mobile phone from Virgin Mobile ($5/month) for brief incoming calls (basically, "let me call you right back on Skype").

[Jilian]

The easiest place to cut spending is usually on food. If you stop going out to dinner completely and don't order any takeout you should be able to save a decent amount per month. Also start using coupons if you don't already. I am loving AfullCup.com they have coupon matchups to every single grocery store out there. They tell you what is on sale and where to get a coupon to go with the sale item - many can be printed online. And best of all, it doesn't cost anything it just takes 15 min of printing out before going shopping! Last week I did some of the Publix sales and used coupons and spent $80 but saved $83 for an overflowing cart of groceries including meats. Anyone can do it!

[mommaof5]

Do have dd in preschool (but that's when we are both working).
No cell phones.
Use cloth pads/toilet paper.
Cloth diapers.
What else?

Ok so I cloth diaper, and use cloth pads. I have never heard of cloth toilet paper? Please explain?

[mochimama]

Originally Posted by mommaof5

Ok so I cloth diaper, and use cloth pads. I have never heard of cloth toilet paper? Please explain?

Cut up some old rags into good wiping sized pieces. Use them for pee wiping and put them straight in the laundry. I don't use them for poop, but if I did, I would probably just treat them as I do the diapers. We've saved TONS on toilet paper this way.

[mochimama]

Originally Posted by Jilian

The easiest place to cut spending is usually on food. If you stop going out to dinner completely and don't order any takeout you should be able to save a decent amount per month. Also start using coupons if you don't already. I am loving AfullCup.com they have coupon matchups to every single grocery store out there. They tell you what is on sale and where to get a coupon to go with the sale item - many can be printed online. And best of all, it doesn't cost anything it just takes 15 min of printing out before going shopping! Last week I did some of the Publix sales and used coupons and spent $80 but saved $83 for an overflowing cart of groceries including meats. Anyone can do it!

We buy all of the typical coupon foods in bulk already. At the grocery store, we mostly buy produce, dairy, and meats. But I think I'll give it a look just in case--thanks!

[mochimama]

Originally Posted by SusannahM

What do your phone costs look like? How much time do you spend on the phone? For me, it was cheaper to get SkypeOut ($3/month) and a mobile phone from Virgin Mobile ($5/month) for brief incoming calls (basically, "let me call you right back on Skype").

Dh has a home business so we do need the phone. We don't have a long-distance plan, though--we use a cheap calling card and mostly try to have people call us (like my mom who has unlimited long-distance--we just ring her once and she calls us back). Our internet is bundled with the phone and unfortunately we live in a rural area where internet speed stinks, I've tried skype and our internet is too slow for it

[mochimama]

Update

So we pulled the house off the market and are trying to refinance now. Also, dd's eczema has forced us into a very limited diet for the time being while we work out exactly what her intolerances are. Let me tell you that cooking and freezing are the way to go (thanks for the suggestions above)! It makes for a heck of a lot of dishes when I'm doing the big batches of cooking, but the food lasts so long. I've been making big stews and large pots of soup that last for days. And we've hardly been going out to eat at all!
Thanks for all your tips mamas--I think this is a slow, but sure process.

[Carlyn]

Good for you! You'll love all those big batches of food even more when you have another little one in your home. I've subscribed to Cindy's Porch, and she has little inspirational emails every once in a while, and also a website. I don't read it all the time, but one that stuck out was a reminder that we aren't being deprived when we're being frugal, we're making a choice to do more with what we have, to be content instead of wanting more.

[Usually Curious]

Originally Posted by mochimama

Cut up some old rags into good wiping sized pieces. Use them for pee wiping and put them straight in the laundry. I don't use them for poop, but if I did, I would probably just treat them as I do the diapers. We've saved TONS on toilet paper this way.

You get much cleaner using cloth! I just throw them in my diaper pail.

[DaytonsMom]

Originally Posted by Usually Curious

You get much cleaner using cloth! I just throw them in my diaper pail.

we just throw them in the diaper pail too! Saves me a ton, but i need to make more, we keep runnign out since i have ds in 2 different sizes of the fuzzi bunz so do diapers a lot less often.

[mochimama]

Hmmm...I think you've just convinced me to cut up a few more of dh's old t-shirts...

[utopia760]

ahh cloth toilet paper may i say im PROUD that my children and I use it. my dh wont but i figure if my 2 kids and i do thats a ton saved we have been doign to for 2 years anything too small and cotton turns into tp! i cut to size sew up 2 layers together and start using

[Savoir Faire]

I'm wary of taking your child out of school....that's just one of those "musts" for us and I know that it is good (at least for my kids) because it gives a good routine.

We use Internet phone...viatalk. Great deal-- no long distance-- I think we ended up paying $200 for 2 years? We got rid of the cell phones and have a prepaid phone (1k minutes) for emergencies.

Ditto the scratch thing-- I've gotten really into it. Got a used bread maker at a thrift store and love making bread. Also make pretty much anything now that is flour-based...flat bread, pizza dough, muffins...it is quite fun and tasty.

I second (third) getting rid of the truck. Older trucks DO require mantinence and you're paying insurance. ALso...if it won't hold your entire family in the near future, how often do you plan on really using it? We went from two to one vehicle and it totally rocks.

Sorry...drawing a blank when it comes to other things....maybe I'll think of more?