In my last post, I listed some big ways being frugal helps us save. Below are some more things we do to live within our means and save as much as we can. Enjoy!

Being Frugal With Our…

Yard Work:

We do all of our yard work and landscaping. We mow, rake, plant things, make new beds, till, etc. I’ve been using a free mower that I trash picked. It didn’t work when I got it, so I replaced the problem part. I ended up with a nice $300 mower for a total cost of $11 and 20 minutes of my time! My dad recently gave me another mower that he also trash picked. He cleaned the carburetor and it runs like a champ. It has a bag on it, so now I can collect leaves and clippings for the compost.

We periodically have free wood chips dropped off that we use as mulch in our flower beds and around our trees. Mulching moderates soil temperature and reduces water loss, so it saves us money on our water bill. We don’t fertilize the little grass that we have – we just chop up some leaves with the mower and leave them to rot into the ground and supply free nutrients.

I used to own a tree service, so I’ve used that equipment (saws, harnesses, ropes, etc.) and know-how to prune and remove trees in our yard and at our rental house. If we ever fall on hard times, there is always a market for tree work. I should be able to make enough to avoid using our emergency fund. It was also my side hustle for a while once I started firefighting, so I know its possible.

Home Maintenance:

We also like to tackle as much of the home maintenance as we can. I’m relatively handy, but not skilled craftsman by any stretch. I framed in a small screen porch and turned it into our mudroom, but I’m no good at finishing drywall or trim work. A few years ago, I insulated and encapsulated our crawlspace to keep the house warmer in the winter and cooler in the summer. I also installed a radon fan in our attic. The fan is attached to piping underneath the membrane in the crawlspace to help keep out moisture, radon, and smells. I had to cut a hole in our roof to install the fan’s vent pipe, but it hasn’t leaked so far!

My current project is putting in a bathroom off of our bedroom. I had a friend do the rough plumbing, but I’ve done the other work – carpentry, tiling, and fan installation. I still need to install wainscoting, paint, and install the fixtures. This project has taken a long time because I keep putting it off.

Cell Phones:

We don’t need to have the newest, biggest, fastest phone. In fact, we’re both using used phones. My cousin was getting a new phone and had an iPhone 5 that she wanted to get rid of. She gave it to me and I passed my older iPhone on to my wife (who doesn’t like smartphones). My wife’s non-smartphone had stopped working, so she’s using the iPhone until she gets around to buying another non-smartphone. Our only complaint with older phones is the battery life. We’ve just learned to keep chargers handy.

We don’t use a lot of data and don’t play games or use Facebook on them. A small (1GB) plan is all we need, and we don’t even use all of that.

I tried Republic Wireless for a month, but didn’t keep it. We kept having problems with calling over wifi (on several networks), so it wasn’t dependable enough for me. They were great to deal with and the phones were nice, though. If you can get it to work for you, it will save you a lot of money on your cell phone plan.

Food:

A lot of our shopping is done at a discount grocer that stocks a lot of natural foods. We have a chest freezer (Energy Star!) in the basement, so when we find a deal, we can stock up. We make a lot of cheap meals, including crock pot roasts, rice/veggie dishes, and tacos (homemade tacos rule!). When we cook chicken, it’s usually a whole bird that we roast. We can get 2-3 meals out of it, and then we make stock with the bones. We save up vegetable scraps – garlic, onions, celery, and carrots – and simmer them with the bones all day. Then we strain it, skim off some of the fat, and can the stock in our pressure canner. Delicious!

As for meat, we try to buy in bulk whenever we can. A local ag college near us holds a meat sale twice a year. They sell their own grass-fed beef and pasture-raised pork fed from grain raised on campus. We usually order around 50 lbs. of assorted cuts (roasts, steaks, ribs, chops, ground beef, sausage, etc.), and it comes out to around $6.00/lb. for some really high quality meat. This year, we worked out a deal with a local butcher I used to work for. He’s putting together a custom bulk order of beef & pork for us for $6.00/lb. It’s also excellent quality meat, and we’re supporting his local small business. Yes, I know that I can find meat for a lot cheaper on sale at the grocery store. We simply don’t want to support industrial meat producers, so I’m very happy to pay what we pay.

I bagged a deer while visiting my parents over the Thanksgiving holiday, and dressed, skinned and butchered it myself. I took the meat to our butcher shop (the same one as above) where I vacuum sealed it all (I gave him $20 for the bags). We put about 40 lbs. of venison in the chest freezer. I’ll end up making sausage and jerky with some, and have roasts, stews, fajitas, burgers, and more with the rest.

One big area we can improve on is meal planning and batch preparation. Too many times, we come home in the evening and have to scrounge for a meal or get takeout. Not very frugal.

Gardening:

We have a huge organic garden in the backyard, complete with bees for honey and chickens for eggs. It supplies us with veggies and fruit from early spring into winter. The garden is still producing right now, thanks to some old storm windows we saved when we replaced our home’s windows. We used cinder blocks to make another bed and lay the windows over it when it gets cold. As long as it doesn’t freeze too hard for too long, we’ll have greens all winter. We fertilize everything for free with compost made from our food scraps and leaves. Last year, we scored a free tiller from my uncle that makes quick work of breaking new ground.

My wife also landed a job working a few hours each week in the summer on an organic farm at a local boy’s camp. She gets paid to garden, and also gets to bring home any vegetables she wants. We pickle and preserve a ton of produce each year!

Recreational Vehicles:

A popular trend with firefighters (and with cops and paramedics) is to buy a huge pickup truck, and then spend thousands of dollars buying toys to haul with it. They buy campers, boats, 4 wheelers, motorcycles, jet skis, etc. Sometimes, they buy the toy first, then have to spend a ton on a truck that will pull it! It’s even worse if that truck becomes their daily driver and they have to pay for all that gas. I do own a pickup truck (see my last post), but it was cheap and I mostly use it for hauling firewood. The only toys we haul with our truck are human-powered – bikes, kayaks, and a canoe. I’ve owned two motorcycles in the past, but I don’t enjoy riding enough to own one.

We’re also tent campers. We camp as a way to get out and explore nature. We don’t need a TV, radio, bed, couch, etc. when we’re out in the wilderness. Of course, some people actually live full-time in their camper, which is totally respectable. They’re saving a ton on housing, and can pick up and move whenever they want! I like the idea of touring parts of the country in an RV, but if we do that, we’ll definitely rent one. Most people I know with RVs or campers don’t use them enough to justify owning one.

Craigslist:

I glance at the free Craigslist ads a few time a week. There is pretty stiff competition among the people who browse these listings, so there’s a good chance I won’t get the item. I like to try anyway if it’s something we could use. I’ve gotten a free grill, tons of firewood, beer bottles (for our homebrew), tools, cinder blocks (for garden beds), and more. I usually am pretty picky about the location of an item. If it’s out of my way, I’m not going to get it, unless I really need it. I’ve also look through Craigslist for used items, like my hunting bow. I love saving a lot of money on things that are hardly used, and Craigslist is great for that.

Being Frugal Works For Us

Being frugal is a mindset. I don’t have the desire to buy a new car, or shop at the mall, or swing by a Starbucks. I don’t care if that earns me strange looks from people. For us, our frugal activities have become mostly automatic, but there are definitely ways for us to improve. There are still times when we splurge (takeout & restaurant visits are all-too-tempting), but overall, we live a pretty frugal lifestyle.

What about you? What are some of your go-to frugal moves?