20 *Easy* Frugal Ways to Save Money on Household Expenses | Frugal Living | Jennifer Cook

#savemoney #frugalliving #frugaltips

Hello there! My name is Jennifer! Follow along on our journey to paying off our mortgage by 2024. Along the way I will share my dumbest money mistakes, how we save money and our progress towards our goals. I hope that my journey will provide inspiration towards your own pursuit of financial independence.

Want to get in touch with me...


Old school snail mail to:
13663 Providence Rd.
PMB# 116
Weddington, NC 28104

[marykayesugerman]

I’m working nights, weekends and holidays, picking up my extra shifts on call. My treat for myself is my lovely woman who cleans my house once every 2 weeks. She uses products from the dollar store and my house is sparkling clean! Mental health is incredibly important and a dirty shower weighs me down mentally plus I help pay for her rent and food. Plus I have spoken to anyone and everyone how wonderful she is and she now has a client list that has tripled! A win-win for everyone!

[alinewright]

A full freezer uses less electricity. So fill in any empty space with jugs of water leave 4 inches expansion space. You can use water bottles for smaller sections.

[rosemarydoran]

Oh yes I remember incandescent lightbulbs. I have been replacing incandescent bulbs first with the squiggly bulbs and now LED bulbs. I use fewer cleaning products; I love your idea of multi-purpose cleaning products. I especially like the L.A.'s Totally Awesome Cleaner from Dollar and a quarter Tree. It is a concentrate in a big bottle and makes gallons of cleaner! And it really works! I love your comment about potluck dinners! I'm single and a couple of my neighbors are as well and the three of us girls will get together and eat pretty frequently especially in the summer. One person will say oh I have chicken and then another one will say well I've got sweet potatoes and somrthing else or say they've got some dessert or another vegetable or salad fixings and we just kind of combine resources and we've had some really great meals that way and the socializing is great too. With each of us being single we're less likely to cook a big meal for just ourselves so doing these get togethers is really helpful because I think we actually end up eating healthier and we get to have a lot of fun and save money too! I cut the cable cord a couple of years ago in favor of YouTube tv. Now they have increased their price but they added a lot of channels some of which I watch so I was okay with that as I'm still paying way less than I was when I had cable television. I am disabled and am somewhat housebound a lot of the time so I do consider my YouTube TV subscription to be my entertainment so I'm okay with spending the money on it. I don't subscribe to any movie channels and I also don't have Netflix or Amazon Prime or Apple TV Plus or any of the other streaming services. I have also unsubscribed from many emails from retailers. I was feeling constantly bombarded by the latest sales. I have cut down on my online shopping for sure! And one of the best parts about getting YouTube TV was the online shopping channels we're not included in the package I had to go and look at those channels specifically if I wanted to get anything so I didn't end up watching them out of boredom as I was channel surfing. Again less online shopping for things I really did need anyway! I used to scoff when my mother would buy the store brand of things and I always said oh I will never buy store brands when I get on my own. Ha! Boy was I wrong! As you said with very few exceptions I don't find any difference between the name brand and the store brand. As far as leftovers go, I grew up eating them so I have no issue with having the same meal tonight in a row or having the dish made into something different the next day or a day or two later. My personal goal for 2022 is to be really focused on not wasting food. With grocery prices getting so high you just can't afford to waste anything! When I got a new washing machine a year or so ago I found a really great speed cycle. It will do a load of laundry in 15 minutes. Then a light pass in the dryer and it's done. You said it right when you stated unless you're out working construction.or digging ditches or running marathons most of us are not going to get our clothes that dirty. Why waste the water and energy on a cycle that can take an hour to run when you can get an entire load washed in 15 minutes and still have your clothes clean. I have gotten very good at cutting down on my shower time because after my stroke I have to sit in a bath bench when I'm in the tub so I kind of almost take a military type shower where I get shampoo on my hair and wash myself up and then turn the water back on to rinse and put my conditioner on. I do miss a long leisurely bath. 🛀

[kellycarter]

Hi Jennifer. I was taking a shower while listening to you. 7 and a half minutes! Score! I Wash a load of laundry every day, as needed. I hang the majority of the laundry to dry. The little bit that goes in the dryer, goes on the "eco setting " we love the aldi brands. I need to find more ways to cut costs!

[adzbneweng]

I use a dry towel in each dryer load. Note: use a dark towel with dark loads and a light towel with light colored loads to avoid visible lint. Getting lint off my leggings is a pain.

[debrabowie]

Agreed: LED light bulbs help a lot on saving electricity.

[jenniferhart]

O yeah…shaking the old light bulbs💡😆. I’ve not heard of the towel in the drier…I’m gna try that

[diane]

I had my kids convinced there is a camera in the thermostat and I could see whenever and whomever touched that thermostat. They are grown now and generally keep their thermostats at 65 degrees!

[oliviavalentine]

Shutting the water off in the shower when u don't need it helps a lot as well

[staciearagon]

Lol, yes I was a 'filament' shaker

[syrykh]

Cannot convince my husband to cut his multiple subscriptions. Luckily we have a separate budget, otherwise it would bother me much more 😅 Have you guys ever had this feeling when you know how to manage money, but nobody seems to be listening? 😁

[cltinturkey]

Whenever I see a thermostat, anywhere in the world, I think of my Dad saying "Don't TOUCH that! Put on a sweater". Some years ago I was with him at the Taj Mahal, saw the thermostat (yes they have one) and told him. He laughed so hard.

[SBL]

This was a very good basic video. Most of the things I already knew but I did get some tips. Thank you

[streetpunk]

Honestly the cleaning supply thing is a huge savings. I've switched to a blend of water and straight bleach for cleaning 95% of the things in my house. You can cut a gallon of bleach into probably 5 or 6 full spray bottles of cleaners

[SilentReader]

Thanks for these! Every time I watch one of these cutting cable is always on the list. Not sure I agree with it because it depends on your overall expenses. As for generic brands, in my experience they are not always as good as the name brand so I choose wisely. Like ginger ale, for me. Also, in my experience, Dawn dish soap and laundry detergent too do not have good generic brands. For those I stick with the name brand.

[zoilacruz]

The Costco r. Chicken I heat it next day on a fried pan, and I use Irish butter instead of oil. It tastes delicious

[jillstover]

I agree about aldi green beans I don’t buy either, Libby’s do not like any of those, LED bulbs 👍🏻 great video always enjoy

[liveslisa]

I think we are all cutting corners these days. Inflation sucks. I agree with all your cost saving tips. My biggest one this year was heating costs. I have had to lower the thermostat around the clock and wear sweaters and socks if I'm chilled. The heating bill is still higher than my highest heating bill last winter by $65.00!!! It's insane. The weather is warming up here in California now so I'm looking forward to when the nights warm up a little more and I'll be able to turn off the heat until next year.

[kenyonbissett]

Two money & time saving suggestions.
1. In place of bottled bleach, buy small container of pool shock. This is concentrated bleach, just add water to reconstitute. $20 will last you several years.
2. Fall/Spring leaf raking - use you riding mower/push mower to blow (and chop) leaves into a pile. Have a tarp ready. Using the mower gently use the cutting motion that cuts and then spits out the grass and leaves to send the pile onto the tarp. With the leaves cut and mixed with grass you can place both in a black contractor bag. Next, add water just to wet (not soak) the leaves, then add about 1 cup hydrated lime and a shovel full of dirt. Seal the bag and roll to mix. Lay out on your driveway in the sun. Roll the bags once every week or two. By spring, you should have nicely composted matter that can be put directly on soil for planting. Now rinse and repeat using the same bags for a spring compost, it won’t take as long, about 3 months instead of 6-7mos. The spring leaf bags should be ready for Mid-Summer planting.

[gsthompson]

I live in an area that gets No Cell reception. Because of that I would never let go of my landline. To compensate for that, I use a prepaid service with the cheapest and most frugal plan available. Circumstances control here. Just saying. Luv your ideas tho ... gt