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 hate 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?
ron
I totally agree on grating cheese—you have to grate, then clean the grater/shredder, then the surface below the grater—waste of time. Only negative thing about preshredded is they contain other additives like cellulose (wood dust) etc. to keep them from clumping.
A happy medium is cheese slices—no unwanted additives, and works perfect for quesadillas. wraps, mini pizzas etc.
ThriftyFrugalMom
Exactly, Ron! And yes, I’ve heard about the cellulose thing before too, but at this point, it’s something I’m willing to put up with. Maybe I should reconsider that though- I honestly haven’t researched it that much. I do like cheese slices and use them a lot, but for things like salads and pizza, shredded is my go-to.
Heather
We’re a thrifty & frugal family so I was totally into cloth nursing pads. I didn’t even bother registering for disposables. Plus cloth had to be more natural, right? Yeeeah. They stuck to me! Things were sore enough without having to rip nursing pads off. Yeowch! Disposables all the way, baby! Lol
ThriftyFrugalMom
Oh my….well, then maybe I’m glad that I haven’t tried them! 😛
Tejas Prairie Hen
I have been reading your site for the past several days and am really enjoying it. We do, or have done for extended periods in the past, all on your list. It’s not always been easy being the odd family who has to be frugal, but it paid for extras for the kids and family, like dance, skating, and guitar lessons, and one thrifty weekend vacation for our large gamily some years. We are nearing retirement now, with two grown children with severe medical problems who live with us. We are still being thrifty, but I enjoy the artistic challenges of refashioning clothing, cooking recipes from around the world, gardening in 100 degree heat, repurposing and upcycling thrift store and roadside furniture finds, and on and on! The thrifty life can be a wonderful education, and I’m still learning new things all the time.
ThriftyFrugalMom
I absolutely love your attitude about being thrifty! You were obviously intentional about doing without or being frugal so that you could do things that you felt were important. Like you, I’ve found that if I look at being thrifty as a challenge, I enjoy it a lot more and it doesn’t seem so frustrating.
LaTrice
This is how I save money.
I don’t have a fan in my studio apartment. In order to prevent the energy bill from sky rocketing, the temperature stays at 75 degrees during the hot summer months and 58 degrees during the cold months. Since my dishwasher isn’t working, I hand wash the dishes. I take lukewarm showers for ten minutes. Although I try to avoid heavy usage of paper towels, I use a wash cloth to clean up messes.
ThriftyFrugalMom
Wow, I’m sure you save a lot of money by keeping your apartment temperature so warm in the summer and cool in the winter. I don’t mind keeping our house cool in the winter because I can always bundle up. But like I said in my post, me and hot weather just don’t get along very well!
Colleen
I was thrilled to read your blog. Like you I do many frugal things but not all. I started using cheap white paper plates for breakfast toast, or muffins & sandwiches for lunch when I worked. Plates & bowls never made it to the dishwasher . I hated coming home to dirty dishes so paper plates. I use the air conditioner from May to Oct due to allergies , it is on all the time. I watch sales but I have people on salt free diets so we rarely go out. I buy good fresh foods. Yes we have steaks fairly often.we love them so I’m careful on other things. I agree on the clothes too. Second hand is great if you are common sizes bt my husband is 6ft 4in & I’m short but long waisted.
ThriftyFrugalMom
Glad to have you here, Colleen! And I enjoyed reading your “confessions”. 🙂 I love how you save on other things to have steaks, something you enjoy. Sometimes it’s so worth it to do that! And yes, I think some of our clothing issue is that fact that my husband is tall and thin and has found that only a few brands of clothing really fit him well.
Rhonda
We do use cloth napkins because my husband and son truly prefer them but we use disposable napkins and dishes whenever there are more than 5 here for a meal. I also use hot water and bleach for white and store bought detergent. Since going through menopause, long hot showers have no appeal anymore.
When gas was $4 a gallon, we very careful about driving but not so much now that it is $1.85ish here.
But I am so careful about many other things.
Also, our income is higher now than it has ever been but if we hadn’t done the hard financial things when we were younger, we would not be living so comfortable now.
ThriftyFrugalMom
Your menopause comment made me smile, Rhonda. I can imagine that might change a person’s perspective on hot showers! 😉 And yes, we are not nearly as careful about gas usage as we were when it was so expensive, either. I also appreciate what you wrote about how doing the hard financial things when you were younger has made it easier now. That’s encouraging to me because that is what we hope we will be able to say when we are at your stage. It already has paid off but hopefully it will only continue to do that more!