We have changed shades to room darkening to keep sun out and installed a shade over patio door that is on west side of house to prevent direct sunlight and put thermal drop on patio door, also turning ac up during the day and using clothes line to dry clothes

Great ideas. Here are some I did not see.

The sell by date is not the same as an eat by date. Do not throw things out just because the sell by date has expired. Be smart, damaged packaging and odd smells are warning to toss items. Cans and vacuum sealed jars are almost certainly good as long as the seals have not broken and there is no damage, swelling or rust.

If you are going to winterize a leaky house by sealing and caulking, find the side of the house where air is infiltrating, usually the side where prevailing winds hit. Do most of your sealing on the opposite side of the house where the air is escaping. If the air is prevented from escaping, it prevents infiltration on the windy side. (I learned this from a guy that specialized sealing houses in Vermont.)

Also on sealing houses, get a cheap infrared scanner app and learn to find where the heat losses are occurring. It is a bit of a skill to do this so you might want to look for contractors in your area that provide the service. It is well worth the money if you are in a high differential temperature area. Rule of thumb, if you have seasons of 40-60 degree differentials or more inside to outside, and an older structure, it will likely pay for itself.

Use you manufacturers recommendations for oil changes. A lot of mechanics and oil change places set the time for change too low. Exception! If you lose fluids between changes, stick with the schedule or learn to check them yourself and keep them topped off.

Don’t drive with you windows rolled down. Running the air conditioner uses less fuel than the loss of aerodynamic efficiency of rolled down windows. Studies have also shown that modern pickup trucks do not get better mileage with the tailgate down. The wind tunnel testing and design is done with the gate up. Putting it down negates some of those designs.

Buy marked down meats and fresh foods even if they look a bit iffy. If they smell OK, cook them immediately and refrigerate or freeze.

Use occupancy sensors for light switches.

Shop around for home and auto insurance.
I did and saved literally HALF.

If you are going to spend money with any vendor, buy their discounted gift cards to use as your payment. You will save whatever the discount is on your purchases. It’s like buying dollar bills for 85 cents, or whatever the discount is.

https://www.cardcash.com/buy-gift-cards

Just one sample. There are many other online.

You can also sell any cards you might have here.

Also, do not be afraid to bargain. I am always amazed that people don’t make any attempt to bargain. I had a garage sale once where not one single person tried to bargain on anything. I couldn’t understand it at all.

Make your bargaining count. I like to ask for two-fers, package deals and so on. I’ll buy this for $10, and take that one off your hands too for a buck, deal?

You cannot get a yes or a no unless you ask. Make friends with your vendors.

My house had a lot of fluorescent fixtures, especially under the counter in the kitchen. I replaced ALL of them with LED fixtures. Including the garage and closets. It saves money and they run cooler, and in Florida that’s big.

I do not know how to tell people what my monthly out flow is, when I do they look at me as if I were lying!

First off we are retired from going to a job. We have no debt of any kind. Everything we own is ours, defined as its my property, no one can claim it, for any legal reason! I have an electric bill on average over the year 80/85$ a month, this is accomplished with great effort. This computer 72$ a month, Cellphones 46$ a month, Set a side for property tax 428$ for 6 months out of a year, food on average 300$ a month, fuel around 125$ a month, this can be more or less, depending? On average 1100$ to 1400$ per month and 428$ is only for 6 months.

We were preparing before 9/11 and really began to prepare after 9/11, for sure. We worked very hard to get to where we are!

We have chickens we have 40 acres we grow food we barter with the ranchers around here we save money at every turn and the money we spend beyond monthly expenses, ( we keep preparing in always that God allows us ).

I have always told my kids, the money you make spend it wisely. Take care of your needs first and then ask yourself do I need that!

I do have a hobby, I’m restoring my 1966 Ford truck, I have been restoring it now for 4yrs. it sits in my barn, but I’m to busy working the ground around here, summer you know.

Buy a small inverter window unit for your bedroom. My 8000 BTU unit uses in the neighborhood of 400 to 600 watts. I raise the thermostat on the central unit and run the window unit in the bedroom at night.
If you have kids still at home make them leave. You will save money. LOL, just kidding.

At 556 comments, I’m sure someone already mentioned it: become debt free! We also downsized from a 4br home on half an acre, to a single wide trailer where we own the postage stamp sized lot. The change in property taxes was immense. Dry your clothes outside when you can. We don’t eat out much. Shop food sales and stock up!

Before posting, I wanted to read what others had written.
And several stories broke my heart. When I hear of seniors having lost their homes and having to rent and then worrying about monthly costs – I want to cry.
I pray to God that He will help each one of them.

Now, as to helpful hints, here are some modifications I have made:
1) Food shopping. I make a list of what I need to buy. And I do not deviate now (I used to). Doesn’t matter if there’s a sale on some item that’s not on my list – I do not buy. This is extremely important especially when I do some occasional food shopping at Costco (mainly for canned goods.) This simple tip has probably saved me $50-$100/month and probably a whole bunch of calories to boot 🙂
2) I plan my trips to minimize my mileage. If a trip can be done another day when it coincides with something nearby, I postpone it.
3) Modern cars can run probably close to 50K miles without an oil change. A friend had a Lexus with a 100K miles where he hadn’t changed the oil ever. Yes, I know it’s a Lexus, but I would bet that most Toyotas and Hondas will go a lot more than the recommended 3K miles. Ask around for your particular vehicle.
4) I only stream content through my Internet connection. I don’t subscribe to TV channels.

Hope I helped in any way.
God bless.

The upside is that many willfully ignorant dimocrats will have to make uncomfortable adjustments
to their lifestyles. Get a job in retirement, delay retirement, eliminate donations to the HrottenC foundation,
rent some rooms to illegals, give up dining at restaurants, sell any extra vehicles, postpone vacations,
eliminate imbibing in expensive wine while griping about mean tweets, substitute cat food for tuna.

I got me one of those duel fuel clothes dryers.

Got a string attached to the garage and the house on the other end.

Take wet clothes, attach with wooden pins. and let the wind and sun do the trick.

see this solar power and wind power can make a difference.

Narrow down your streaming services to one. I don’t have cable, just internet @ $65/mo. Watch just one service for the month, then cancel and subscribe to another for the next month.

I also recommend Puretalk, as long as you can get good coverage. Went from Verizon to Puretalk and cut my bill in half. Now only pay $60 for 2 phones, 6mg of data. But I don’t use alot of data away from home wifi.

If you have savings and want more than 1%, try https://thesolomonfoundation.vsoftarya.com/ and get 2.25%. The foundation helps finance church growth.

Buy a freezer chest. You’ll be glad you did.

One last item:
Contact your electricity provider and also your municipal/state authority and tell them that you want them to keep your rates low, and that this is a higher priority than the utility provider switching to “green” energy.
Duke Energy asked me if I’d pay more for solar – I said no. They want to phase out nuclear – I am protesting that.

Thanks for starting this post…I had no idea about adding a towel.

I cut my Verizon phone bill to $27.00 and change with tax & fees by switching from regular Verizon to their prepaid side. Same phone, same
number. I don’t use a lot of data, use Wifi at home, so the plan may not work for those who do.

It’s their lowest prepaid at $40.00 + tax, but they give “loyalty” and auto-pay discounts.

Switching to internet only cut my bill in 1/3. I watch shows via Prime Video–was already an Amazon Prime member–or watch free channels.

This may not be a popular tip, but I can tell you that it works.

When Covid began, my spouse and I decided that we would try to make something positive out of a very bad negative.

Obesity was a very large risk factor for Covid serious issues. So, we decided in early 2020, that we would try to lose weight healthfully and lower our risk.

We ate more healthfully and drank more healthfully. We tried to walk every day. For the past year or so, we have weighed less than we have in many decades. Both our BMIs are in the normal weight range. One of us lost around 50 pounds, and the other lost about 45 pounds.

Not only did we lower our risk of serious Covid, we lowered our blood pressure, our blood glucose, and our risk factor for basically all other diseases. We feel better, look better, and have more stamina.

But here’s the tip to save money on Utilities: those pounds that we lost weighed a lot more than any winter coat we ever had. Fat is an insulator. So by taking off our coat of fat, we were able to feel much cooler at higher temperatures.

We realize that we will not be as able to tolerate the severe cold quite as well but we don’t get that much of that where we live, and it sure feels better to put on coats and sweaters that you can take off when the weather warms up.

No-brainer for me – cut the cable cord.

See if you can find a cheap copy of: The Journal,Cracked Earth,by Deborah Moore. This book has more hints for conserving, preserving, and being prepared for any emergency than you could imagine. And the story within is good too.

Don’t know where I saw it, but I built a DIY room air conditioner just to see how well it would work. Took a medium sized Styrofoam container, two plastic plumbing elbow joints, and a small battery fan (need 2, but I wanted to see if it would work first). I cut out 1 hole in the lid to match the battery fan. On the other side of the lid, I cut out 2 holes to place the elbow joints. Added top of fan to the hole in the lid so the fan would blow the air down into the foam container. Put the 2 elbow joints on the lid. Filled half the container with ice. Put the lid on and turned the fan on. Yep, it worked. It helped cool down a 12×14 room. I think if I had 2 fans and a full container, it would have cooled that room all on its own.

My refrigerator only made enough ice to fill half the container. It takes about 2 days to fill the ice tray. So, 2 days only gets 1/2 container filled. Definitely a down side there. But, it worked. Small battery fans are fairly cheap. Elbow joints aren’t too expensive. It’s getting the container full of ice that was the tricky part. Either buy bags of ice or use half full. But if you only use it to help cut some of the heat … it’s something.

Thankful for all the household tips! Here’s one I haven’t seen: I reuse plastic wrap and aluminum foil. While I’m not washing out plastic bags and hanging them to dry on the back porch like I remember my Nana doing, wrap and foil that doesn’t have splatters or strong odors gets reused. I figure I’m saving roughly 50%.

“After the initial shock wore off, I started thinking about what this means to the working-class people in my community.”

Worse yet, think about what it means to the thugs. They’re paying more for food, gas, and utilities also. And the police in many areas are sorely underfunded, and even if caught, criminals are turned right back out onto the streets.

Maybe not a good tip for readers here, but their answer for making ends meet seems to be more violent car-jackings and burglary.

For those who have chickens that lay more eggs than you can use, I found out a great trick from Homesteading Family on YouTube. Put your fresh yard eggs, unwashed, in a bucket with a gallon of water to 1 cup of lime. Will keep without refrigeration for up to 2 yrs. Great family channel that teaches everything from easy ways to preserve food to making your own medicine.

I didn’t read all the tips; I’m listening to Don, Jr. as I write this little tip:

We don’t eat out; actually we never enjoyed (in 52 years) eating out much at all.

I learned to cook as a young girl and continue today. I do not use anything that is prepared.
Everything I cook is from scratch; even pasta. I do keep good quality dried pasta on hand though.

Also, we keep our freezer(s) and pantries well stocked with dried grains, beans, canned meats, soups,etc.

We got through the Carter years, I plan on getting through these Woke-Comms years and fight like Hell.
Now that we are retired, have no debt, live rather frugally, and yes, we chose to live and die in a Red State (not perfect), warmer climate, in the woods on the lake.

Even though we do not have a garden anymore, fresh vegetables are available. Also, many farms are in the area, although, I will not drive 2 hours to buy milk, eggs, meat.

I am blessed to be married to an engineer and have a son who is also an engineer, so many items can be repaired by my husband and son; which does save quite a bit of $$’s.

I’m sure that many others do this also.

I know this sounds obvious, but turn off the lights in rooms you’re not using; lighting is a real energy hog. And, grow your own vegetables. Produce is through the roof, but we found what we grow tastes SO much better than store-bought. Even if you grow one thing…tomatoes, squash, salad greens. Don’t run exhaust fans for an extended amount of time; that being said, if you’re cooking on a stove, engage the overhead exhaust fan, which helps decrease the stress on the air conditioning unit/units. Oh, and don’t run the dyer on very hot days. These are our proven energy/money savers.

Remeber the old whole house fans? Well I installed one in the attached garage. mostly use it when I’m tinkering in the garage, but just as the sun is setting I crack the garage door a couple inches and within 10 minutes the 140 degress drops to ambient temp.

Check the company that supplies your electric if they have a ‘Time-of-Use” sign-up. This is a program that people need to pay attention to certain times of YEAR, and times-of-day, that you can save a lot of money by only using big 220 appliances at certain times of day. The schedule changes twice a year here (Spring/Summer and then Fall/Winter). Over the years that my husband and I have lived in NC…(we moved here from Texas for his job…) we have saved THOUSANDS OF DOLLARS for being very “religious” about the Time-of-Use schedule. We have a house of 2300 square feet and have paid less than $150 a month for our electric. (Our house is on a well system, so no water bills). But last month, our bill increased to $210. FULL DISCLOSURE: We allowed our daughter and her fiance (a MAN) to build a TINY HOUSE in what used to be our horse pasture… So they have been plugged into our house power for about 3 years. Their Tiny House is very energy efficient, but still…there is a drain on the “Big House” power bill.

My engineer husband says: The “delta” between outside temperature and inside temperature determines heat loss or gain. It is based on how good your insulation is and air leakage. BOTTOM LINE is that you can only control INSIDE TEMPERATURE to control how much energy is used. If you are feeling warm in the summer…get used to raising the inside temp so you can save energy. If you are feeling cool/cold in the winter…get a blanket, or vests, or sweaters.

If we look back at our ancestors…they were never concerned about all of this. They opened windows and doors and created breezeways for air to come through in the hot months and built fires (or had fire) in the cold months, and wrapped themselves in blankets or clothing.

They did it with no concern. WE CAN DO IT TOO.

And, meanwhile, though the “Globalist ELITE” think they have US ALL right where they want us…They cannot find their asses with both hands. WE KNOW THIS.

WE will SURVIVE this madness.

It’s been eight years since I bought a Toyota hybrid full size sedan. I get 36 to 38 miles per gallon, and can cover over 500 miles on a tank of gas. Always easy on my brake pads, the deceleration/generation system further magnifies brake pad life while storing the “lost energy” in batteries to run the car without gasoline at times. Tools along at 80 on the freeway. It’s been increasingly efficient as gas prices have soared, particularly compared to our other car, a mid size SUV. Half the refueling cost.

With the use of air-conditioning, the humidity rises and the air becomes harder to cool. It follows, lowering humidity reduces the amount of effort needed to cool. Dehumidify.

The plus, you feel better in summer, and it’s costing me less.

My yard looks like an Oklahoma farm house yard because I only trim dead branches off trees and trim up to city regs above sidewalks and streets so my house is maximum shaded to lower AC costs.

My neighbors all trim higher and thinner for curb appeal.

Check your own town and nearby towns for a store called United Grocery Outlet … or some variation of that name, so long as it contains the word “Outlet”. We trade with one in Murphy NC. Like the old railroad salvage stores of the 1960s, the Outlet sells short-dated / just past-date / lightly damaged / unpopular canned and frozen foodstuffs. It’s an “in-out” business where a pallet comes in and sells out, never to be duplicated. So if you see something you like, grab it!

We’ve bought many items, from frozen meals that were DOA at full retail, to canned veggies with unknown brand names, to many name-brand high-end products that were a week or so past “best by” date. All at pennies on the dollar. We buy for ourselves and for the local church food pantry where Missus Yinzer volunteers.

I cut my magazine subscription. I’ve never had cable. I keep the hot water shut off & turn it on 30-45 minutes before I shower (this has made a big saving on electricity). I’ve substituted some pricey items for store brands. I never leave the house unless I have more than 2 errands to run. I shop for groceries on sale and stock up wherever there are bargains. I always have a list of where to go and what to buy so I don’t have to make another trip for something I forgot. I reuse aluminum foil whenever I can (after cooking for storage of leftovers) and I wash and reuse zip freezer bags. I also have one to two meatless nights. I shop for cleaning supplies at Dollar Tree. Nearly all my clothes come from thrift shops and I’ve sold most of my career clothes on eBay. I also trim my hair. Lastly, I don’t eat out at all. I cook all my own meals and do my own yard work.

Food
1 buy from the local butcher. 1/2 steer cost less then $4 per#. That includes butchering, wrapping l, paying the farmer, includes steaks roast, and ground.
2. Learn how to can. Fresh veggies and fruit easier then it sounds.
3. For those that can buy chicken, ducks, etc. You can eat the eggs or butcher if necessary
4. Start a garden…..noverwhelming… you can so do it
5. By a pressure cooker to. Can and and preserve meat
6. Generator that is not gas powered
6. Learn to hunt and fish.
7.buy ammo
8. Pray , sorry that should have been fitst

When you go to a drive through for food NEVER order the “meal deals” they are a rip off. I rarely go through any of them but when I do I just order one thing (burger, burrito etc. ) and drink water from my car. Saves about 75%

They make it hard to find ANYTHING on the menu but meal deals on purpose……

Thank you Sundance for the Tips! I’m enjoying picking up more useful ideas to cut corners.

My husband and I raised 14 children (biological and adopted) on a tight budget. We learned to pinch a penny until it screamed. Here are some of our ideas:

1. We realized we could switch from 2% milk to whole milk (the cost was the same per gallon) and stretch it by adding water. The kids couldn’t tell the difference.
2. We parked farther away and walked instead of driving around looking for a close parking spot.
3. Collect water when your shower is warming up and use it to water plants or for cleaning.
4. Buy gifts when you see something good on sale instead of binge spending when the holidays or birthdays roll around.
5. Reuse bows, wrapping paper, and tissue paper. I watch my now-grown children carefully folding the tissue paper from gift bags.
6. Instead of calling a repairman, see if you can repair simple appliance or automotive problems by watching a youtube video.
7. Landscape with edible landscaping. Our 30 blueberry bushes make a lovely hedge and give us lots of berries.
8. Offer to clean up after carry-in office parties and such. You would be surprised how much food gets thrown away that you can take home. Freeze the extra.
9. Buy used whenever possible. Check the thrift stores and Habitat for Humanity Restores before buying new. We found a very large solid oak table for $50 that retailed for $1500 at Oak Express. All it needed was cleaning
10. Teach your children to be contributing members of the household. Children need responsibilities and chores to feel valued. As they get older, they should pay for some or part of their own expenses, such as phone bills, car insurance, etc. They learn the benefits of hard work and resilience.
11. Read about “hypermiling” to save gas. Some ideas are extreme, but some are great!
12. Many plants can be started with simple cuttings you can get from friends, instead of spending money on plants at garden centers.
13. Let your radishes go to seed and eat the seed pods. They taste just like radishes, can be eaten fresh, sauteed or pickled and you get a higher yield per plant.
14. Keep a container (we called it the soup bucket) in your freezer and put your bits of leftover vegetables, meat and its juices in it. When it is full, make soup!

Make your candles out of vegetable shortening.
Not only is it a great light and heat source,
You can scoop out some to cook with.

Here are some of my favorites to save money first of all find a good old-fashioned old school shoe repair man or a woman and get your shoes and slippers repaired instead of buying new ones.

Also find a good seamstress to help repair your shirts and pants rather than buy new ones or even used ones.

Finally I recommend letting your dress pants or permit class pants hang nearly 3 to 4 days after each use in the closet. The wrinkles would just pull out on their own. I never wear the same dress pants two days in a row. If you wait 3 to 4 days to a week the wrinkles will just naturally pull out while hanging in that closet. You save a fortune in dry cleaning and or ironing time.

The biggest thing you can do is prepare. Russia/China are destroying US dollar reserve fiat system and West currencies as well.
Get ahead of this and understand it is the reason for many of the in explainable actions of today.
Hard assets, not $$$ in the bank is a good start.

Love each other, care about each other and be charitable

Saran Wrap, offbrand too.

Take a long piece, fold in half and twist real tight. Use a butter knife or spackling knife to press into window jams, door jams, floorboard where meets walls. Once in it will expand to fill gap.

Do this also to draftiest door in house and then do not use for winter.

Bubble wrap. Spray water on window and put flat side down of bubble wrap on window. Cuts down the cold/draft.

If you’re considering buying something, don’t get it unless you really need it or want it.

I’d you only need a dim light, say for evening TV. You can buy garden solar lights and take them out in the day and inside at night.

It failed for me, though. I had only just moved interstate and my new location is always cloudy.

Sundance

can you please please please make this a “sticky” thread so that it easily available and people can be adding to it on an ongoing basis ? Otherwise it’s going to be lost in short order as newer posts push it down the timeline and out of sight.

pretty please with a cherry on top?

An ongoing way to share these ideas is super important right now

thank you!!
BKC

Use it up, wear it out, make it do or do without…
We picked up another chest freezer to stock. Got some ducks, lookin at high tunnels. Learn about edible plants, learn to hunt and fish. Find a tribe…

Put your TVs and other electronics on power strips that have on/off switches and after you turn off the device power the strip off as well.

And if you make coffee just once per day as I do, unplug the pot after the coffee is done brewing. And don’t leave your phones or even the chargers plugged in.

Appliances and electronic devices continue to draw power even when turned off and they’re like a leaky faucet, a little drip drip drip doesn’t look like much but it adds up to be a lot over the course of a month or a year.

Hose out the outside unit of your central air. If you haven’t done this in a couple years, it’s dirty which cuts down on air flow and efficiency. This goes for window units also. There are many YT videos on this. Take 20 min. to watch one. A/C is by far the biggest draw in summer. (mid-central IL) Also, related, if you have the pleated fabric furnace filter, get rid of it and go back to the old-style fiberglass filter. This is doubly important if you have central air because cold air is denser and harder to push thru the fabric filters. This will save power……… Note: I would never give this advice to my Democrat next-door neighbor. I checked his outside A/C unit surrepticiously, and it’s totally plugged up.

Well, all you need to do is spend $20,000 you don’t have on a new solar system or maybe a home windmill kit.

People are such whiners. I mean, who wouldn’t rather spend $75,000 on an electric car, for example…?

Use the rule of two. Double or halve. Eg. Cook double once, eat twice. Cook two or three dishes at a time in your oven.
Halve your house costs by sharing. Ie rent out rooms, rent your garage, rent your lawn to a gardener.
Barter.. what can you give others in return for something they want. I predict Barter card companies will spring up again.
Share car with neighbor.
A friend ALWAYS makes offers or asks for discounts at EVERY shop. She says many will bargain.

She also saves copies of for sale items going back several months and phones the sellers of items she wants and often finds many people have not sold the item and will accept an offer. Sometimes they are now prepared to give away for free just to get rid of it.

My grandparents and great grandparents lived through the depression and they wasted nothing. I just cooked a pork tenderloin in the toaster oven for dinner and spread bacon fat over it before sprinkling on the rest of the seasonings. It reminded me that one very frugal thing my family always did was save animal fats for other cooking, specifically bacon and chicken fat. Cubed potatoes fried in chicken fat are to die for. Potato salad with a little bacon fat stirred into the warm potatoes makes a killer potato salad. Dry rice fried in chicken fat for a minute or two before adding the water makes plain steamed rice into something extra special. My mother did it and I obviously do it too. So I came back here to add it to the list.