How to become a Tightwad!

So, you might be thinking that you need to start saving money as you never know what could happen in the future. I went through the same thought and had to make a start somewhere. Now days everyone makes decisions minute by minute and doesn't really plan for the future. Being a tightwad is going to change you! If you make small changes to plan ahead for the week with a dinner menu you can cut down your food costs and gas costs on making last minute trips to the store (plus less waste of food). If you plan ahead for the month you could cut down food costs even more by being able to buy in bulk (or split bulk items with a friend). If you want to think even farther ahead start on Christmas now or buy summer clothes for next year now (which will be very cheap out of season). We have started planning Christmas gifts which are pretty much all handmade but by planning ahead we are able to recycle wine bottles into the bottles we will be using for our gifts instead of having to buy them. Make this first step at becoming a tightwad and see how much you can save!

Yes I'm a Tightwad

Craigslist is my new best friend. I just found and purchased some items cheap!! A huge box of fabric for $20 and 40 lbs of canning tomatoes for $20. We just made pasta sauce and canned it along with a couple more just tomatoes. I'm so excited to do more! With so many ideas running through my head it's hard to figure out where to start.
I have also started planning meals for the whole week on Sunday and making things ahead of time. The recipe from The Tightwad Gazette 3 (which is actually found in The Betty Crocker Cookbook) for refrigerator dough is going to be used in almost every meal this week. Amy used it for doughnuts, rolls, and breadsticks. I have also found you can make so many things in the crockpot! I now use this a couple times a week and definitely on the days I know I'm going to be tired.
I have also made more of an attempt to get to garage sales. With a young child this can be difficult but last week went great! So excited for this week and hopefully it cools down a bit so I can enjoy it even more. I used craigslist again to find garage sales in my area and a few estate sales as well.
I would love to hear more ideas on tightwadding!

Tightwaddery!!!

My newest kick besides trying to make things better for the environment is becoming a tightwad. Not only does this save you money but if you try to reuse everything possible rather than buying new you are making an impact on the environment from the amount of waste going out.
My family did a book swap and out of that swap I took The Tightwad Gazette volumes 1,2, and 3 which apparently was huge in the '90s written by Amy Dacyczn. She has some great ideas of how to reuse items, cook from scratch recipes, and crafts. She started with a goal in mind in her case a house and worked on saving enough money for that house which then led to just a whole lifestyle change. I'm not there yet but I have a goal and am slowly making the change to being a tightwad. It is very difficult when the rest of the world is all about spending money and not saving. I'll be putting up ideas of Amy's, mine and other people I get ideas from up every so often on how to save money.
I just made the switch to not buying wipes but using homemade. This one is hard if you have a sitter that is younger and doesn't know much about cloth diapering and expects store bought. I have dealt with this by buying a pack of wipes (with coupon) and only using them with the sitter so one pack will last a couple months if not longer since we don't go out much.
I am learning about canning and freezing food as I go. There are so many things that can be frozen that I didn't realize. This helps save on the amount of food thrown out! I just froze my first batch of tomatoes that i will use for goolash.
One main things that sticks with me from the books so far is that if you read your dishwasher detergent it usually doesn't say to fill the dispenser in the washer some say only fill halfway. I just started this and mine says to only fill halfway so make sure to read the directions on the detergent!
A lot of the things I already did are saving us money as well. For example, using vinegar to clean and in laundry. A bottle of vinegar is roughly around $2-$3 and I can use it for a couple months for everything. Same goes for the baking soda and lemon juice.  So many more ideas to come! And would love to hear some ideas from others!