The very best introduction to the subject is this recently published article on msn. Read and be warned!
http://articles.moneycentral.msn.com/SavingandDebt/LearnToBudget/7SurefireWaysToStayPoor.aspx
For resources on frugal living, please visit:
http://frugalliving.about.com/
http://www.stretcher.com/money/index.cfm
http://www.livingonadime.com/index.html
These resources will be enough for you to get a flying start, if that is what you wish: - )!
Now down to the daily basics, the money saving tips that I have found helpful and try to practise every day:
a. I generally use M U C H less meat and poultry than before. I cook minced meat and chicken and freeze them in 1 cup portions, enough for one meal. It is very handy to throw in a vegetable stew or a gratin.
In stead of fresh or frozen fish, I now use canned tuna. One can is enough to make a big bowl of tuna salad AND a giant tuna- and potato-gratin!
b. I have increased the amount of vegetables I serve at meals, as side dishes, as these are relatively cheap where I live. We also have two or three mainly vegetarian meals a week. If canned vegetables are cheaper than fresh produce, we use the canned alternative!
c. For sandwich toppings, we have almost entirely gone from cheese and cold meat to sliced tomatoes or cucumbers with parsley! If you want to use cheese or cold meat, put them in a salad and serve on top of bread. It makes it go much farther! Some rice or cubed boiled potatoes in your chicken- or tuna-salad will make it go even farther!
d. Make your weekly/bi-weekly menu from items that are on sale in your low-price store!
e. Use what you have at home.
f. Buy only exactly what you need to get by the next one or two weeks! If you are short on money, don't fill your cupboards with food, even if it is on sale! If your child gets ill at night, 35 tuna cans in your cupboard will not help you, but cash in your pocket will!!!
g. Mix more expensive food with cheaper food items, to go farther! Make casseroles, gratins, patties, salads, stews and the like.
h. Change the ingredients in the recipe to cheaper ones. In stead of sausages, you can use canned meat. In stead of hamburgers, make vegetable croquettes. In stead of sending fruit in the brown lunch bag, put in a carrot. In stead of whole meat, use minced meat...
i. Choose food that gives a lot of taste for little money. When you live frugally for a prolonged period of time, it is very important that the food is not only cheap but also tasty! Use garlic, chili pepper, onions, leeks, bell peppers, cabbage, cans, anchoves, tuna, sardines, carrots, cottage cheese, herbs, parsley, dill - and don't forget the spices!!!
j. Take care to make nicer food with simpler ingredients. Try potato-puffs (deep fried balls of potato mash rolled in breadcrumbs) in stead of the usual French fries. Put meatballs and vegetables on scewers over the bowl of pasta. Decorate sandwiches and food nicely, before serving!
k. An easy and cheap way to create variation in your menu, especially when it is based on simple ingredients, is to use different vegetables as side dishes, use various dips and sauces, use a wide variety of spices and herbs, use various cans (when they are on sale), to cook the food with various methods and in various containers (ovensafe pan, oven plastic bags, aluminium foil packages, microwave pot, individual ovensafe pans - one for each portion) and to serve the food in different ways (buffet, sit-down dinner, wraps, TV-dinner, picnic, on the balcony, in the dining room, on the lawn) and with different sorts of bread or other dishes to go along with it! - And don't forget breakfast on the bed: - )!!! - For variation, and to make a meal more filling, serve various entrees before the main dish. It could be as simple as three small sandwiches to fill you up so that you can save a little on the fish or meat... A light meal can also be completed with a dessert.
l. Portion out the main dish on plates for each family member. Let them serve themselves of side dishes and starches. - Also freeze, for one meal at the time, any food that can be frozen, including vegetables and milk! Store dry food away from easily accessible places. Don't fill the refrigerater and expect it to stay full (especially if you have teen-age children at home)! Divide the food in plastic boxes and freeze away from the immediate grab-and-go of your children. That goes for leftovers too! - Also portion out shampoo, by pouring some in an empty bottle and mix it with some water. Put away the original bottle until it is time to refill.
m. Serve water with meals. Use the milk for the cerals. Eat fruit in stead of drinking juice. Skip all sodas except for special occasions.
n. Put up a clothes line in your bathroom, over the tub, and let each family member dry his towel on it after showering. At least in my family, this has saved us lots of washing! From being used to have three full loads of washing every day, we now have one machine load every two or three days! - We save water, electricity, detergent - and time!
o. Gather all your discarded clothes and use some time to cut them into rags. Put them where you are likely to use them, in the bathroom, in the kitchen, in the garage, in your shoe-cupboard. It saves time and paper towels!
p. Save all used school supplies, like the ends of pencils, erasers, scissors, glue and the like in an easily accessible box in the kitchen, near the phone or in the children's room. Then you will never have to look for a pen again. And you don't have to buy any new ones.
q. Never throw away any food. Make Japanese lunch boxes, so called Bento boxes. These have many small boxes inside a bigger one, so that it is easy to put many small leftovers together and add a few veggies or a home-made Japanese rice ball with filling (another use for leftovers)! The whole idea of Bento is to use many different things in one meal and to make the food look beautiful!
r. Save on cooking gas by using the micro. It usually takes much less time too. To save yourself from sticky pots, cook rice in the microwave oven (in a glass casserole for microwave use) - the result becomes perfect every time, you don't have to guard it nor stir it, and the pot comes out... clean!
s. This is a provocative suggestion, but I still stick with it! It saves time, water and soap... and your nerves as well. Use paper plates and cups for meals, especially if you are tired (after supper) or don't have time to clean up directly after the meal (going to work after breakfast). If it can make you happy, use disposable ovensafe aluminium pans or plastic bags for oven use! Bake your food in aluminium foil to save on cleaning!
t. Bake your own bread. Now, you tell me, you don't have the time nor the energy for that! Neither had I for many years. Then I learned this on the internet!!! It is so simple you can make it in your sleep (but please don't)!
First of all, keep your food processor on the counter top at all times. Use it to mix the dough. Don't for any reason mix it by hand, you will want this to be so simple and effortless that you can make it every day!!! Keep it simple!!!
As soon as the dough is mixed, put the bowl (if it is microwave safe) in the microwave oven. Put the heat on just below defrost. Put the timer to one minute. Open and see if the dough has risen enough. If not, give it another half minute.
Take out the dough and put it on the counter top, knead it quickly and cut it in parts. (Dough made on one kg of flour will make 8-16 pieces.)
Put the buns on a greased baking tray. The dough does not need to rise a second time, unless the dough is very heavy (like if you use rye).
Bake buns in 225 degrees Celsius (450 degrees F) for about 10 minutes or until golden and feel dry when you knock on them.
u. Don't buy anything, if you can get it for free (without stealing, lying or cheating)! See if you can exchange favours, home repairs, cooked meals, baby sitting, play dates, car pooling, bulk purchases with your firends or relatives or colleagues. The things that you don't need anymore may come in handy to someone else. The same goes for their discarded things. This goes for clothes, toys, utensils, books, garden tools, magazines, newspapers...
v. Read the newspaper in the coffee room at work (during your brake!) or at the library.
w. Read the newspaper, your favourite magazines, comics, reviews etc online. Use everything that is free on the internet: games, music, movies and TV series, online crossword puzzles, logic games, quizzes, jigsaw puzzles, hobby sites and forums, DIY advice and online cookbooks. Once you have paid the monthly bill for the internet, you will have a cornucopia of entertainment and information at home, 24/7.
x. The money that you save, use it wisely. Save some but spend on things that are vital to you and your family, like healt insurance, put aside an emertgency fund. Alot a monthly sum of money per person in the household for entertainment purposes to spend individually. Decide what is to be included in this sum, for example purchases of clothes, make up, magazines, eating out and so on. If you want to be frugal for a prolonged period of time, you will need some relaxation. The difference between a frugal person and one who isn't, is that the frugal person decides what is truly valuable and important for himself and focuses his spending on that, while another person is less intentional with his money and easily becomes a victim of what others tell him to do with his money (advertisements, peer pressure, a wish to be "like everybody else"). A frugal person gets good value for the money he spends, because he chooses to spend his money on what truly makes him happy. - As for me, I like to go to the mall once in a while, have a Chinese meal and read a book while I eat it. That is my way to rest. I could also take a walk by the sea or in the market, buy some sunflower seeds and sit at the sea and eat them. I can have both comfort and convenience at home!!! But sometimes I like the change of air...
y. Use a card for your mobile phone in stead of an open account. It will make you think twice before you make a call and make sure you only make the ones that are really necessary.
z. Make a budget. Review it every month and make necessary changes as your situation changes. Be flexible but clear about where to put your money. It is absolutley vital that the most important bills, like rent, get paid first!!! Use the envelope system to make sure that money is enough throughout all the month!!!
http://frugalliving.about.com/od/moneymanagement/ht/Envelope_System.htm
