Health, Thrift, and Independence (Part 4)

April 13, 2011 Family, Family Issues, Finances, Food, Health Print Page

Read Part 1 of the series here.

Read Part 2 of the series here.

Read Part 3 of the series here.

 

We have covered a lot of topics in this series of articles. Whether it be food, medicine, household living, or buying local, every little bit helps in getting closer to living independently, frugally, and in the best possible health for yourself and family.

In this, our final part of the series, I want to share with you some of the wisdom we have learned on buying, spending, and saving your hard earned dollars.

  • Bills. One main aspect of frugality involves your monthly expenditure, your bills. First of all, it is very important to live a minimal lifestyle. You don’t need three cars and a 3,400 square foot house for 2 people. You don’t need two cell phones, the mega cable package, and so on. Minimize in every area, and cast out the monthly bills that waste your extra dollars and are not beneficial. A good example is with cell phones: we dropped our two, pay-by-the-month cell phones, and exchanged it for one pre-paid phone. This took us from paying out $80 a month, down to around $8 a month. Instead of a landline phone, we invested in our own Skype phone number for both in and out calls using our computer, for a mere $7 a month. Instead of cable or satellite television, we have a subscription to Netflix. This way we can watch many movies and TV shows instantly, receive a few conveniently in the mail, and can control what is watched, without the commercials (which are not good themselves), all for less then $10 a month. Take a look at your monthly bills and lifestyle, and find a way to cut corners.
  • Grocery and household supplies. The biggest area in our life where people are always in awe is our grocery and household supply budget. For our family of eight — with three of our six children who can put away more food then my husband and I combined — our average household budget for food and supplies (such as bathroom products), is an average of around $500 a month. That is extremely low, considering most of our items are organic. How do we do it? We cook almost exclusively from scratch, buy in bulk, use many reusable items (cloth diapers, unpaper towels, etc), and use coupons combined with deals to get items for free or almost free to stretch our dollars. There are even times I receive overage from coupons, where I walk out the door with the store having paid me to buy what I needed! You can find many how-to’s and great deals at Money Saving Mom and Deal Seeking Mom.
  • Buy second-hand whenever possible. Buying used is a great way to be thrifty. You can visit your local second-hand store, and find brand-new and like-new treasures for a mere fraction of the cost at retail. Children’s and adult clothing, books, toys, and other household goods are among the things that are best to buy used. Garage sales are in an amazing bargain category of their own. Last year, we spent a mere $14 total on Christmas gifts for all 6 of our children, yet the presents under the tree and stockings were overflowing with treasures that were adored — all because we Christmas shopped at garage sales and the thrift-store, and re-purposed hand-me-downs from friends and relatives. Another thing that is good to buy used is homeschooling curriculum. Homeschoolclassifieds.com has an abundance of every style, name, and grade level of schoolbooks out there, all being sold for just a few dollars by moms and dads just like you.
  • Know when to spend the extra. As important as it is to be frugal and buy used whenever possible, it is just as valuable to know when spending the extra money on high quality is worth it.There are many products out there where spending the extra dollars initially will save you an abundance in the long run, as well as give you a much better quality item. An example was the purchase of our juicer. We could have very well bought a lower grade model for $100. It would have done its job, but after a lot of research, we discovered that they break quite frequently and need replaced often. So instead, we invested $350 and bought a high grade model, that is much more durable, has many extra bonus features, and has a fifteen-year warranty. We spend the extra outright, but will in the end save hundreds of dollars. Our wheat grinder is another example. For items like this, although there are much cheaper versions out there, it is wise to spend a larger amount initially to save the hassle and cost of something that breaks easily, doesn’t work as well, and will cause more frustration then good.
  • Find an outsource for extra income. This is something I, as a housewife, am slowly learning. There are many ways I can contribute to my husband’s hard-earned paycheck, because every little bit helps. Whether it be starting a blog and doing reviews for companies to receive products that help stretch your household supply budget, writing articles for a website, completing paid surveys as you sit and nurse your baby, earning Swagbucks while you search the internet for free Amazon giftcards (where you can buy groceries and other needed items!), selling your craft items on Etsy, clearing out the clutter in your home to sell unneeded items on Craigslist, or even selling extra garden produce at a stand in front of your home, there is always a way to bring in a few extra dollars and help lighten the financial load. Be creative!

Being frugal is a large part of being independent. If you are relying on credit cards and loans to live, it is impossible to be independent. There are of course, circumstances in life which call for exceptions, and of course you don’t want to be so stingy that you are miserable. But if there are pennies you can pinch, and corners you can cut in your household, then it is vital to do so.

We hope we have instilled in you a bit of knowledge and desire to change and grow with this series of articles. Living a healthy, thrifty, and independent life is an important part of advancing God’s Kingdom and giving glory to Him. After all, if we are in the best place possible with our mind, body, and resources, it is much easier to do His will and be an example for others.

Our body is a temple of the Holy Spirit; take the best care of it possible. Our finances and spending showcase our responsibility with what God has given us. Be a good steward with these things. We are raising up the next generation to take our place in doing the Lord’s work; let’s guide them away from dependence on the world, and teach them how to be reliant on themselves, as brothers and sisters in Christ, dependent ultimately on God Himself.  Health, thrift, and independence are more important than you think.

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About Holly Cart

Holly Cart has been married for 9 years, and is a stay at home mother to 6 children, ages 8 and under. She is passionate about homeschooling, homebirthing, healthy eating, natural living, and spends many free moments sharing her knowledge and adventures as a mom of many through her blog. matthollycart@gmail.com

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  • Betty the Beast

    That is most interesting to read about exactly how you do it. Congratulations to you. I can’t get enough of your informative columns.

    Re juicers/food processors, I have the original omega 8001, which is now 7 years old and has needed only one small replacement part, which they gave me 2 for 1 because they of course don’t make that model any more.

    I suspect that you are not really poor people; am I correct? When I was a wee kid in the 50s, we lived on second-hand everything and home-grown everything and so on, and were especially ashamed of the 2nd hand clothing, which we got in “boxes” from relatives and friends. Some of this stuff was well made, barely used, beautiful clothing. These people did not give us junk. You could find it in the fancy 2nd hand stylish shops nowadays for a hefty price. But for us kids, we knew that everyone knew it came from “the box” and felt uncomfortable.

    But now it’s called recycling and intentional frugality. How attitudes change everything! Today, 40 years later, we also wear stuff from the Salvation Army Store and don’t mind at all what anyone sez. But having to gather deadwood from the forest (for fuel), like 3rd-world women, is still hard work…

  • 5thGenerationTexan

    You folks have really given us all some great ideas on how to cut corners and avoid waste. It’s encouraging to see young couples doing these things, instead of being addicted to spending and debt. Your total expenditure of $14 last Christmas is simply amazing!

    I also like to shop at Goodwill – and I have a Tracfone that covers emergency calls- which, to me, is the primary purpose of cell phones.

    You’re setting such a good examples for you kids, too.

    God bless the Cart family!

  • Mickey Bolwerk

    Hello, Holly! I enjoyed your article. Our household tries to be as frugal as possible. In regards to your “know when to spend the extra” section, there’s a quote from John Ruskin I’ve always loved. (I’m no fan of Ruskin, but his quote is good.):

    “It’s unwise to pay too much…but it’s worse to pay too little. When you pay too much, you lose a little money…that is all. When you pay too little, you sometimes lose everything, because the thing you bought was incapable of doing the thing it was bought to do. The common law of business balance prohibits paying a little and getting a lot. It can’t be done. If you deal with the lowest bidder, it is well to add something for the risk you run. And if you do that, you will have enough to pay for something better.”

  • Mickey Bolwerk

    Two practical tips in line with your “know when to spend the extra” section:

    I’ve found that it always pays to buy high quality tires. Our family has had excellent experiences with the Michelin brand. All the others we’ve used wear out way before their rated life. Pricing the tires on a per-mile basis, the Michelins always win out.

    The second is car batteries. In my younger days, I used to work at an alternator and starter shop and I can’t tell you the number of problems caused by cheap batteries. The Wal-Mart house-brand was the worst. People would buy a cheap battery, then end up having their car die at an inopportune time (is there ever an opportune time for that?). What would often happen is that the battery would have an internal short and the alternator would fry while trying to charge the bad battery. Now the person would have to buy a new battery, alternator, and, often times, pay to have their car towed. Our family exclusively uses Optima batteries. They cost $150 or so, and are worth every penny. We’ve had two of them last greater than 8 years.

  • Betty the Beast

    Well, I dunno. I have bought some beautiful clothes and shoes at the Salvation Army Store for only a few bucks. Technically speaking, I paid too little. I almost feel guilty.

  • Matthew Cart

    Most excellent comments everyone.

    Betty, I think we would be considered poor if you asked most people but we don’t consider ourselves poor; although we will need to make more money in the coming years, which we are confident God will provide for us. We know that most people would never be able to make it on the income we bring in though; they simply are not responsible enough with their money.

    See my first article on here:

    http://faithandheritage.com/2011/01/preserving-our–through-our-children/

    But really we have been truly blessed by God for bringing the right people into our lives and for giving us a mind to not accept what the common person accepts without question.

    5thGen,

    You are such a great encouragement to us. We are so thankful to hear what you add to the discussions. We are happy to hear you have the same mindset. But with your background and family I wouldn’t expect anything different.

    MIckey, that is great information about about buying quality stuff. We have learned it the hard way many many times. I think I read on a LewRockwell.com article about Michelin tires. Thank you for the reminder because I will definitely keep that in mind for my next buy. I hope they have them for 15 passenger vans and mini-vans : )

    I didn’t know about the batteries though. What do you think of the Duralast batteries at Autozone?

    Other things we’ve been wanting to do but opportunity has not presented itself:

    Wind/Solar power for electric
    Using vegetable oil instead of gasoline in our vehicles

    And one of our friends said he knows a neighbor who configured his whole house generator to run on water instead of gasoline. Crazy!

  • Mickey Bolwerk

    Hello, Matthew. Thank you for your kind response. I’m a hot-rodder at heart and, while I haven’t had a hot-rod in years, I still read the magazines and look through racing parts catalogs like a kid looking at toys. As a result, I have a natural affinity for high-end, high-endurance automotive equipment. I wish I could give you a specific recommendation about Duralast batteries, but the truth is, I simply haven’t had any experience with them. I worked on automotive electrics back in my teenage years so a good deal of my knowledge is antiquated (I’m 38 now). A lot of times, it really seems like the luck of the draw. Of the several Optimas we’ve own, one died after several years but the others have given excellent service. However, I had a Continental battery in my old 1970 Rally Sport Camaro that also gave great service for years. I wouldn’t replace a battery based on speculation of its potential failure, but if it fails, I’d replace it with a quality unit. Summit Racing sells a number of high-end brands. Of course, if I was planning on getting rid of the car within the next two years or so, I’d just go with a cheap battery. One last thing, I think Autozone may sell a relabeled version of the Optima (as does Interstate). They look like a six-pack of beer and use gel-cells (no water).