1. we heat our house by wood- we have a wood stove- the husband gets the wood for free since he is a landscaper from clients, etc and he makes it into firewood size pieces- we hae the woodstove running about 60 percent of the time which does a pretty good job of heating the whole house. We also have 3 zones which allows us to only turn up the heat in the zone we are in the other zones are set to stay at about 56 degrees.
2. I drive a 14 year old car- never had different car- although this may have to change when we have kids since it is a 2 door
3. Husband only buys used trucks for himself/business
4. We shopped around for truck insurance to get best rate
5. Couponing- haven't brought shampoo in prob about a year
6. rarely use paper towels- use washable dishclothes instead
7, husband does almost all our home renovations himself , i usually find good deals on materials, we use 10 percent off coupon from lowes all the time( unfort they discontinued this), Often look on the 5 dollar opps rack to find paint.
8, we both don't drink coffee, rarely buy drinks out (however husband does have kegerator he buys about 2 kegs for annually for parties/gatherings)
9. We haven't taken out any interest debt for a long time (a couple of years at least) we do have a small amount of debt for the business about 8,000 but is all on zero interest loans/credit card- all our business trucks and everything else is paid in full except for our mortgages, which have a low interest rate of 5 percent or under.
10. E-mail many of our clients their bills to save on stamps/paper
11. never went on vacations before this past year and half however now husband loves them- however we have been only going on vacations that are partially paid for by seeing a timeshare- i personally wouldn't want to go on more then 1 vacation a year- unfort the husband doesn't agree
12. 75 percent or more of our furniture is used the rest were bargains/clearance items
13. almost all our clothes are brought on clearance
14. almost all my home decor/decoration items are clearance items/ hand me downs from grandmas- antiques and such
15. all our china for dining room is grandmas hand me down
16. brought a 250 dollar treadmill for walmart to run on when too cold outside instead of joining a gym
17. I trim my own hair and haven't gotten a hair cut in a couple of years. Partly because they always cut off too much and partly because I think it is a waste of money to go every 2 months- although I do need to go eventually to get it layered some.
18. The husband only gets his hair cut about 3 times a year- partly because he likes it long, partly because he is lazy. I used to cut his hair but he doesn't trust me to do it that much. I like his hair to be neat so would prefer for him to go a little more often.
19. I don't get manicures/pedicures- besides thinking they are a waste of money I worry about the equipment they use (I am a little bit of germaphobe)
20. Husband takes garbage to dump instead of paying for garbage service
21. annual garage sale? Okay not annual yet however last year friend and I had one and we plan on having one again this year- although not sure I am going to have a ton to sell. However it keeps the house clutter free (okay not completly clutter free but better then it would be) and makes a little bit of money. I also sell stuff we no longer need/use on craigslist.
Things we need to work on:
not eating out so much
gas for car/truck consumption
using our woodstove more- the first year we had it was running almost constantly in the winter
turning off lights/appliances to save on electricity more
more couponing
not letting food go to waste in fridge
I really am enjoying your blog. DH has mentioned a wood stove a couple of times. I grew up with one and loved it, we just don't have the money for it right now.
ReplyDeleteTell your stylist that you want a layered cut that will grow out nicely. Let him/her know you only cut your hair once a year... I have a gal who does mine and she is great about it. I however chop it off once a year and spend the rest of the year just letting it do what it does. Last summer I didn't cut it because I was in wedding prep for a friend and she asked me not to. I hate to cut it before summer but I feel like I need something. So that would be layers and then I would leave it alone probably until the summer of 2014 (or until it started driving me totally nuts)....
ReplyDeleteI trim my own every couple of months, because they always take off too much when I get it cut at the salon! However, I really should go get it done once in awhile professionally, so it has more style to it!
ReplyDeleteYeah the wood stove is good about getting the heat bills down, however it does take a lot of work to keep it going all the time, we were so good about it the first year we had it and now we have slacked off and prob only have it going about it half the time which has resulted in the some higher heating bills this winter. I have trouble getting it started so once it goes out I have to wait for the hubby to restart it! I need to invest in some fire starters.
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