I admit it—I’m cheap. Not “waits for the sales” cheap. Not “cuts dryer sheets in half” cheap. I’m rural Jedi master of thrift cheap. In fancy-pants circles they might call that “frugal,” but out here in the sticks, we just call it being sensible. Or broke. Or both.
Euphemisms don’t impress me. Duct tape does.
Let me tell you a little story that sums it all up—and yes, it involves a cheese grater, detergent older than my last goat hoof trim, and one very judgmental farm animal.
A friend of mine recently removed her dishwasher. Said it was broken. Just yanked it out and shoved a cabinet in the hole like that was perfectly acceptable behavior. The result? Her kitchen now looks like it’s missing a front tooth and smiling anyway. I asked the obvious question: Why not just buy a new dishwasher?
She shrugged and said, “I never used it.”
Okay, hold up.
Two thoughts immediately ran through my mind:
How do you know it’s broken if you never used it?
Who in their right mind doesn’t use a dishwasher? That’s like saying you don’t use your toilet because the outhouse has more “ambiance.”
But I digress.
Now here comes the real gold nugget.
She had four—FOUR—family-size boxes of Cascade Complete in her pantry, now rendered useless since she’s living the handwashing life. So she asks, “Do you want them?”
Do goats eat hay?
Of course I said yes. But there was a hitch. These boxes had been sitting for so long they’d passed their soap half-life and become solid detergent boulders. Each one was basically a paving stone of concentrated lemon-scented regret.
But did I throw them out? Pfft. Not this gal.
I dragged those soap bricks back to my kitchen like they were buried treasure. Set one on the counter. Looked it in the eye and said, “It’s go time.”
Then I got out my cheese grater.
And I grated that sucker anyway.
Because I am cheap. Determined. Possibly unhinged. And I’ll be darned if I’m letting $20 worth of soap go to waste just because it’s old enough to vote.
So now my dishes sparkle with a light hint of citrus and desperation.
Now it’s your turn. Tell me your best “I’m cheap” moment in the comments below. Don’t be shy—we’re all friends here. And you don’t need a blog or fancy login or even a dishwasher to comment. Just a sense of humor and maybe a cheese grater.
Please leave a comment below. I love hearing from you.
7 comments:
Well, I make my own laundry detergent because to is to stinking expensive. I can make roughly 3 gallons of liquid laundry detergent for about $.80 (80 cents). I make my own bath soap too and use a bar of it to make the laundry soap.
A couple of weeks ago, I found out that I was out of both laundry detergent and bath soap. Akk! I had a mountain of laundry to do and no detergent! I actually had to buy soap! I was shocked at how expensive it was. It had been over 2 years since I had bought any. Needless to say, I went home and made a new batch of soap.
That is how cheap I am.
Well, I haven't started doing this, but mainly out of laziness, but I plan to. We accidentally left a bag of fertilizer out in the rain and it got soaked. With the recent heat, I'm sure it is now dried up. but I think it is still good, so I plan to crumble it up and use it on my lawn. My neighbor does this too, and uses rubber gloves to do it by hand. I just can't see throwing it away after paying so much for it!
T - how do you make laundry detergent for that little? Please share the recipe.
how cheap I am
let me know some of the ways you're cheap, uh-mmmm frugal, by telling all
I am so cheap that I am saving my dental floss and tying it back together then spooling it on a empty toilet paper roll.
I then use it to make a garden net for my climbing plants to use and also use it to tie up some plants (tomatoes) using a figure 8 loop and 2 knots to hold them up. One on the support tight and the one on the plant loose not to cut it.
I also save the plastic containers pastry come in too start my seeds in.
Coffee cups I get on the road and work to start plants in.
Some people see a empty container, I see what I can use it for.
Madd Russian in CT
I don't think I can beat the dental floss, but here are my frugal ideas.
We keep a cooler in the trunk of our car. In this cooler is ice, bottles of water (that we refill), we throw in a few snacks this way we don't spend money while on the road.
When the soap despenser runs out we add water and use the residue to make more soap.
I make all our own mixes and instead of buying vanilla creamer for coffee I make a mix.
On that rare occation that we buy food out, we order one value meal and add 3 $1 burgers to it and share.
When the girls ask for something at the store they know how "frugal" mom is that instead of asking "Can I have this?" they ask "Can you make this?"
Crystal G.
http://homemakingwithgod.blogspot.com/
I rarely buy new zippers from the fabric store. I have a large jar (that was once filled with pork rinds)filled with zippers I ripped off old winter jackets and pants. Of course I also have jars of buttons, lace, ribbon, elastic too! Now at times the colors don't quite match but that can make it fun too.
I had an Aunt who saved all the bits of bar soap until she had enough to make a whole new bar.
I do re-use bread bags but hate to wash and re-use aluminum foil.
Frugal? Recently infected with poison oak, I used apple cider vinegar to control the itching. $1.67 a bottle as opposed to the $13 of fancy poison oak anti-itch stuff sounds like a bargain and I haven't itched in 3 days!
Once the blisters ruptured and weeped, I cut the toes off of an old sock and put it over the infected arm so the ooze wouldn't get everywhere. After it started seeping through, I thought "what's absorbant and won't stick to my rash?" Yup, you got it. Feminine pads. 16 for $3 as opposed to 99 cents for one non-stick medical gauze.
Post a Comment