Ever wonder what money saving things a super frugal mom “splurges” on or doesn’t do? Here’s my 12!
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I realize that as a frugal blogger who writes about things like our $200/mo. grocery budget, how we paid off our mortgage in 5 years, and the way I stock up on name brand diapers for less than $5/pack it could start to seem like I never do things that aren’t money-saving!
And while I admit that saving money is something that seems to come more naturally for me than for a lot of people, there are definitely things that I do that aren’t super frugal! So, just for fun, here are 12 money-saving things that I don’t do.
Frugal Mom Confessions: 12 Money-Saving Things I Don’t Do
1. Take Short Showers
I rarely took long showers before I was a mom. But now? Well, they’re my favorite way to wind down at the end of a long day! And what’s probably even worse is that I like the water to be really hot, too.
2. Use Cloth Napkins
Even some of my “non-frugal” friends do this one, but for some reason, it just annoys me to think of having to wash napkins. So we stick with paper ones and I just purchase the cheapest ones I can find.
3. Shop for Clothing Second Hand
I buy a lot of our children’s clothing second-hand, but my husband and I rarely buy used clothing for ourselves. It’s not that we have an issue wearing new-to-us clothing, but we both just have a difficult time finding clothes that we love and that fit us well when we shop secondhand.
Plus, it doesn’t help that I find it overwhelming to dig through clothing racks at consignment stores. Maybe we’re simply too picky? At any rate, we both much prefer shopping sales at other stores and try to combine coupons with those sales when possible to still get great bargains.
4. Use Only Cold Water for Laundry
I do this for some of my laundry, but for things like towels and underwear, I just like the idea of using hot water!
5. Use Disposable Nursing Pads
Because of the type of material that they are made from, it just seems like disposable nursing pads would always feel wet and gross, and that just does not appeal at all! But I do keep thinking I should give them a try once my baby is a bit older and I don’t need them as desperately. I’m sure they would save a nice amount of money!
6. Avoid Using Paper Plates and Cups
Funny thing is, I even have a dishwasher. But sometimes if we are having a bunch of people over it is still just easier to use disposable stuff.
7. Do My Own Dry Cleaning
We don’t often have things that need to be dry cleaned, but when we do, I take them to a cleaner. Those do-it-at-home dry cleaning kits scare me. Somehow I’m sure that I’d ruin whatever I was using it on!
8. Shred My Own Cheese
As strange as it might sound, shredding cheese is one of those things that I absolutely dislike doing. If I had a food processor or something that easily did it for me, I might feel differently.
But using my little hand shredder is too much of a pain in my opinion and so most of the time, I’m willing to spend a little bit more and buy bags of shredded cheese instead of shredding my own.
9. Walk When I Can
I live within walking distance of Rite Aid, Giant grocery store and our local farmer’s market. While I do walk sometimes, most of the time the idea of walking with three or four children is enough to make me drive instead!
10. Avoid Using Paper Towels
Most of the time I don’t mind saving money by using rags instead of paper towels. But I’ll be honest, there are still a few jobs that I just prefer pulling out the paper towels for!
11. Cloth Diaper
I can buy disposable diapers for pretty cheap, so I’ve often wondered if cloth diapering would really be that much less expensive, especially since we have to buy our water and I would rarely be able to line dry my diapers which would also add to the expense.
But even so, even if it really is much cheaper, I just cannot quite bring myself to use cloth diapers!
Wet diapers I think I could handle. But poopy ones? Uh, well, that is a whole other story! And since my husband really didn’t want to do cloth diapers either, it made the decision much easier!
12. Go Without Air Conditioning
I’ll admit it, I’m a total wimp when it comes to dealing with hot weather! It doesn’t take much heat to make me start feeling really lethargic and if it gets really hot, I sometimes even feel nauseated. So, it probably doesn’t surprise you when I say that the air conditioner and I are pretty good friends. 🙂
Did anything on my list surprise you? What are some money saving things you don’t do?
Shannon Gilchrist
I’m on the same page as you. I’m glad I’m not alone!
AudreyKots
I’m sorry but when I got to the ‘shredded cheese’ part, I cried out loud. It’s sort of incomprehensible for a European. How on Earth can you buy pre-shredded Gruyere e.g.?lol
ThriftyFrugalMom
Yes, I can totally believe that it sounds a bit crazy to a European! 🙂 We actually just recently moved to England for a couple of years and there are so many differences in food, one of them being that shredded cheese is not as easily available and also is much more expensive than the blocks of cheese. In that States it’s not that way. And I’ve gotten accustomed to shredding my own cheese now that we live here.
Back to my not liking to shred cheese. Some of the reason it worked for me to almost always buy shredded cheese in the US was because I rarely use cheeses like Gruyere. In my cooking, I almost exclusively use cheddar, mozzarella (not the fresh kind) and occasionally Parmesan or Romano (I always buy the pre-shredded of these). This is partly to keep things simple and partly to reduce costs, since those cheese are less expensive. If I happen to make a recipe that calls for another kind of cheese, I typically just sub one of these instead. It might change the flavor slightly, but we’ve never minded!
Tania
I tend to agree, with the menopause, anything hot is just too offensive!! This includes water, food, air, puppies, I mean EVERYTHING!! Showers are a necessary evil that I tolerate now! Love your blog! Thanks for sharing with us!!
ThriftyFrugalMom
Oh my, I’m totally not looking forward to menopause, especially the hot part. And you are welcome- I love sharing with you all! 🙂
Amber
Cloth diapers are easy and not even that gross IF you have a diaper sprayer! I wouldn’t do without mine! I have 24 diapers per size and I only have to wash every 5 days. I do use disposable at night to avoid middle of the night changes 😀 also cloth nursing pads if made right are great! 🙂
ThriftyFrugalMom
I know about the diaper sprayer….but I still think it’s gross. 🙂 Although I admit, it would make it less so. To be clear….I don’t think it’s gross that other people cloth diaper, just that I personally have no desire. And I’d love to know how to make cloth nursing pads that absorb well! I tend to soak them pretty badly the first couple of months and it’s hard for me to imagine that a homemade one would wick the moisture away from the skin very well. I do keep wanting to give them a try once my babies are older, but I always forget.
Debbie M
All of your comments make sense, my son is an adult now, but as a baby, most moms still used cloth diapers. But there was a paper liner I used, and could be flushed with the poop.
I don’t use cloth napkins either, but sometimes I feel a bit guilty.
I don’t make my own cleaning products, but I try to buy the more eco friendly one.
Keep the ideas coming.
ThriftyFrugalMom
Nice to hear from another mom who wasn’t a cloth diaper fan due to the poop. 🙂 And I get the thing of feeling guilty about not using cloth napkins. The one thing that helps me not feel too bad is that I get the really inexpensive ones from Aldi. I think they are like $2 for 400. So not expensive at all! About the cleaning products, that is actually one thing that I do pretty good at. I use a lot of vinegar and water for cleaning (vinegar is a sanitizer) as well as my Inexpensive Homemade Bathroom Cleaner. But of course, we all have our things we feel like we can and are willing to do and things that we are like “no way!” 🙂