livingitup

My youngest (and only surviving) grandparent turned 90 today.  In honor of her birthday, I’m going to share some tips to keep you and your household going when times get rough.  These kept Mamaw going during the Great Depression–and have been working for her ever since.  Try these money saving tips with your family today.

I don’t know if you’ve ever been into  a pack-rat’s home.  If you haven’t, you don’t know what you are missing.  Likely still, if you have, you still don’t know what you are missing.  Really.  The mind has little way of fathoming all the decades of items one collects when ‘you never know when you might need this’ becomes the mantra.  It is a part of my Appalachian culture to keep everything.  I’m just recently learning how to stream-line and throw away.  Then I get to thinking, maybe I shouldn’t…  Either way, mountain folk are some of the best recycle and re-use-ers out there.

1.  Keep things.   You can find a place to use what you keep.  Turn old jeans into a purse.  Paint old cans and use them for storage.  Bury gum wrappers in your drawers for a subtle, sweet scent every time you open them.  Plastic jugs and bottles can work miracles in your garden.  Newspapers can be used to insulate cracks, line litter boxes, kindle fire, wrap breakables and packages, or create numerous types of crafts.

2.  Grow your own. It’s easy to have a small herb garden in your kitchen (check to make sure plants are safe for your pets or kept away from them).  Tomatoes and blueberries are other great garden treats.   You can grow them in planters or clear some land for a small garden plot.

3.  Use what God gave you.  As long as you are able, use natural light instead of electricity.  Use sunshine and breezes for heat and cooling in calm months.

4.  Share.  When good things come to you, spread them around.  See a need?  Fill it the best you can.  What comes around goes around.  Stockpile the goodness.  Karma may not be a Depression Era word, but they surely understood all about it.

5.  Scavenge.  Your neighbor has an ornamental pear tree.  You happen to have a walnut tree.  There’s a blackberry patch just down the road.  Become familiar with your local resources.  Get to know the people around you.  No better time to do that than when times are tough.  Your neighbor can’t possibly eat all those pears alone.  Ask if you can share.  You give, you get.  Life’s good.

6. Make your own cleaning supplies.  Honestly, my mirrors have only seen Windex one time in the five years I’ve lived here.  Water is a great cleaner.  Wet a coffee filter (or some of those newpapers you’ve saved) and rub.  White vinegar is also a great cleaning agent.  Do be careful with mixing different things at home.  Some things don’t mix–and can be dangerous if you try.  (Just like mixing some differing commercial products.)  Research before you try.

7.  Air dry clothes.  Why not?  If you can, hang them outside.  They smell so wonderful after you do–and it saves you money without wasting electricity.  Hanging clothes on a line is also soothing.  I really like the pulley lines.  You can stand in place with your basket and move the clothes to you.  Bliss.

8. Cook food from scratch (well, almost).  Don’t buy kits for food, though.  They charge you money to cut up the carrots.  Really?  You can’t cut your own carrots?  It generally cheaper to do the prep  work yourself–and much more fulfilling.  Invite your kids or others in to help.  Cooking can be a great social time, and everyone throws in a hand.

9.  Send the kids out to play.  Have them invent things and use their imaginations.  New toys should be highly valued prizes, not just exciting until the ‘new’ wears off.

10. Take your time.  When times are rough for most, there is no one to compete with.  The Joneses are broke, too.  Don’t stress.  This is your time to step back and reassess what matters most to you.

Hope you got something useful from these money-saving tips.