SARAH writes:

After reading Sarah Nelson’s contribution to your site, I would like to make a contribution of my own. We are a family of three (becoming four next year!) and live on a single wage. We have also had foster children in the past.

We rent a small, 60-year-old home and have found our expenses to be incredibly minimal. In fact, we had $5,000 in cash left over this December, just from cinching the belt just a little more. We have never been bankrupt, do not have any loans or debts. We have never missed a payment on a bill. Most families we know struggle on two high paying wages and are always in incredible debt.

Here are a few suggestions.

Tips for Children

* To make a cheap children’s shampoo (of course it can be used for the entire family), simply combine 1/4 of a cup of distilled water, 1/4 cup of liquid soap, and 1/2 teaspoon of vegetable oil. You can also use jojoba oil instead, it leaves a lovely scent. Pour into a large bottle, shake before use, and you only have to use a very small amount.

Adding essential oils adds scent and anti-pest qualities (no lice shampoo in this house!)

You can also combine one egg with some chamomile plant extract, beat well, and use once (don’t store it.) It works well for damaged hair.

* Buy cheap conditioner. To make it stretch even further, mix into one part conditioner, four parts water in a large spray bottle. Before your husband comes home, lightly spritz the children’s hair with this mix (shake well before spraying), then comb the hair back. It acts as a very cheap detangling spray, and leaves a lovely scented gloss over the hair, also allowing it to be combed and tied back. This is great for children, as they can take turns spraying each other’s hair, and turn it into a game of sorts.

* Instead of getting caught up in the buying, I make all my own Christmas and birthday gifts for the children. The rule for Christmas is: one gift per child, and one large gift to be shared by all. Look at craigslist for the big gifts, such as a small pet. The most loved big present of all was a giant plastic bucket and a used bundle of dinosaur toys, bought for $5.

The individual gift for our daughter is a hand-sewn skirt and matching applique top, and a matching hair ribbon. She can wear it during summer and it will be a well appreciated gift as well. Search op-shops and church sales for second hand toys that can be cleaned and re-packaged as gifts.

* Never mock the free. A trip to the beach, the library or the park is as good as a trip to McDonald’s for any child…and far healthier for body and mind. Search opshops for plastic buckets, children’s shovels, plastic containers and plastic toys. Pack them up into a bag to take along to the beach and they’ll serve just as well as expensive sand-digging options.

* Cough medicine is easily replaced with home remedies, one of them being Manuka Honey, which is brilliant for wounds, sore throats, coughs, colds and headaches. Two teaspoons twice a day will help solve many ailments!

* Make sweet smelling baby cream, or cream for chapped skin:

2 cups calendula flower
1 cup comfrey leaf
1 cup chamomile flower
1 cup lavender flower
4 cups Sweet Almond Oil (Olive Oil works well too)
1/4 to 1/3 grated beeswax
4 drips of Lavender oil
4 drips of Vitamin E Oil

Infuse the oil with the flowers: To infuse, add the flowers/herbs to the Almond oil in a glass canning jar. Make sure cover is fitting tightly and then place the jar in a warm and/or sunny spot for 2-3 weeks. After the required time, strain the oil through some cheesecloth. Make sure you squeeze out all the oil.

Using a double boiler, warm the oil for an hour on a low simmer then strain again if needed.

Add the beeswax and keep warming until the beeswax is melted.

To make sure this will harden, transfer 2 tabespoons of the mix into a plastic container and pop in the freezer. Check the container and see if the mix has hardened. If it has not, you may want to add more beeswax. If the mix is rock-hard you can add more oil to soften it up.

Add the vitamin E and Lavendar oils once you have the desired consistency and then transfer the mix into jars or tins as you like.

Tips for You

* To make a safe lip colour for yourself (safe = can be eaten, not that I would recommend it.) Begin by placing one generous tablespoon of shortening or petroleum jelly into a bowl and stirring it with your spoon until it’s texture is soft and smooth. Stir in 1 tbsp. of honey, and then set aside. In a second small bowl, combine a packet of drink mix, such as Kool-Aid, with 1/4 tsp. of hot water. Work the powder back and forth with your spoon until it’s all mixed together. To create your gloss, add one or more drops of the drink mix and water to the base and honey. Test for flavor and color, and add more drink mix if needed. Store in lip gloss pots, film canisters or small lidded containers.

It smells really nice and is very cheap!

* Make your own laundry powder by combining 4 cups grated pure soap, 2 cups sodium borate {Borax} and 2 cups washing soda {lectric for Australians}. Use a max of two tablespoons per washload. Do not pour onto the garden. If you want to use it for the garden, leave out the Borax.

* Trade! My husband loves the taste of fizzy lemonade. So we grew an orange tree, and traded our oranges for the neighbour’s lemons, and made our own lemonade at home. We can also make our own orange juice now, and I sell the candied peel at market on Sunday. It is very popular with the older ladies and gentlemen, who remember candied peel from their youth but haven’t tasted it in many, many years.

It seems like too many steps to solve a problem, but not only is it healthier, it also teaches valuable skills to the children, and there is fruit avaliable when you need it.

* We work on the rule of double before spending. If there is something we want, and it’s only recreational, we make it a rule that we have to save up at least double of what the item is worth, and then we can withdraw the item’s price from that amount. All that time saving also serves another purpose…you get to re-think your choice! Often after a month has passed, I don’t really want that shiny bracelet anymore, and the amount I went crazy to save stays in the savings, and gets fatter. We bought our first car with the money from rethinking our buying.

* If there’s space, grow vegetables. Shop around for local farms and buy their eggs, if you eat meat, find out when their next slaughtertime is. We own chickens and sell the leftover eggs, and we also trade the eggs to others. Walk around a farmer’s market with a bag of your eggs, and if you see something you like, such as a pot of homegrown honey, start off with “Would you like to trade for some fresh chicken eggs?” We have a herbs and homemade candle seller that we trade eggs with every week.

* Find your talent…and use it! I’m a good seamstress. I can do hand embroidery and cross-stitch. I garden, cook and clean. I sew children’s clothes and sell them at the school fetes. I sell embroidery at nursing villages. I weed the neighbour’s gardens, I cook and clean for anyone who asks in exchange for other items.

I also babysit on occasion, and they always come back and refer friends, preferring a real mother to a bored teenager.

* Use candles as lighting for the dinner table. My daughter loves picking the candles, and the smell is beautiful. It also sets a relaxing mood for the night’s unwinding.

                                                  — Comments —

Karen I. writes:

I am not a domestic wizard like some of the posters, but I do have a few suggestions on saving healthcare dollars that may help housewives trying to cut costs. 

I have worn glasses and contacts for nearly 30 years, and used to buy my glasses from the eye doctor. The glasses I wanted this time around were over $350 for a mid-grade brand name. I went online to Zenni Optical and found a similar pair for $25 with shipping and anti-glare coating. I had to get my prescription from my eye doctor and figure out my pupil distance, which took about 10 minutes. I can see perfectly out of my new glasses and saved $325. The anti-glare coating costs just $4.95 at the online retailer, and it would have been $50 at the eye doctors! I have told others about ordering glasses online and it worked for them, too! 

I also learned what is and is not covered by my dental insurance. By staying in network, there is no charge for my cleanings and major work costs less, though I rarely need anything more than cleanings because I keep up with them. 

One of my children has a very serious issue with his teeth and jaw that requires the care of an oral surgeon and up to three separate sets of braces over a decade. We have no orthodontic coverage and he is ready to start Phase II of treatment with extractions and a second set of braces. He has already had palatal expansion and the first set of braces years ago, which we paid thousands for. By seeking out the most experienced orthodontist and surgeon, and talking and honestly with them about the issues involved, including finances, we were able to secure the care our son needs at a substantial discount. It will still cost thousands, but every bit helps. 

I did the same thing with a doctor of mine when a prescription for an asthma medication I need suddenly went into another tier on my insurance, which meant it would cost $25 per month more than it had been. Rather than accepting the added monthly expense, I asked my doctor what could be substituted that was in the lower tier. He came up with a new medication that works well for me and costs less. Plus, he gave me four months worth of the medication and coupons for more. He also gave me a prescription to get a flu shot, which was free under my insurance and which will prevent me from getting flu. Flu would be very expensive if I required hospital care, which sometimes happens to people with asthma. 

I find that in my situation as a housewife, it pays to keep an eye on the big things. There are hundreds of smaller things housewives can do to save money, but the big ones make the most difference to me. Those things include living in a home we can afford (not my dream home), only having one car, keeping an eye on the medical expenses, and cooking almost everything at home instead of eating out. I have also found that taking care of things make us appear to have more money than we do. My home is very clean, my kids are always in fresh, ironed clothes and our car gets washed weekly. My kids wear brand name, expensive shoes, but their brand name coats come from Goodwill. After a few washings, it is hard to remember what I got my kids new and what I got second hand. 

I acquired bad spending habits when I was single and had a good income to myself. Those habits were hard to break when I had children and started staying home. Women who want to stay home can do it, but most cannot do it if they continue spending as they did when they were working. It can be hard for women who had working mothers as an example to learn to do what is needed to stay home, but it is not impossible. In my case, I think of what my grandmother would have done.

Mrs. P. writes:

The term hand-me-downs has been in use since 1827 according to one source. Recycling is nothing new. My mother relied on hand-me-downs from our cousins to dress both my sister and me while we were growing up during the forties and fifties. We were fortunate to be some of the youngest among the cousins. So we inherited lots of clothes. I remember a formal my mother fashioned for me for my first dance from a formal handed down to me by a cousin. It was lovely and pink. She even sewed me a small black velvet handbag to go with it. 

When my children were little my sister and I recycled our children’s clothing in the same fashion. When one child grew out of something, another younger child in the extended family received that hand-me-down. My youngest daughter referred to these recycled clothes as “handy-downs.” Indeed, they are handy when families are young and every penny precious. 

My “handy-down” daughter has 8 children of her own. She shops at the Goodwill store and other second hand stores for the children’s clothing and for her own. She also does super couponing. This helps, but it still is not enough. So, she works 30+ hours a week as the early education coordinator at her church. However, she is able to work many of those hours at home thanks to the computer. And when she must be at the church the rest of the time, she is able to bring her younger children with her. Her husband has a good job, but his commissions have dropped due to the economy. 

During the early 1980’s the country experienced a real estate crunch. My husband and I had relocated due to his work and were unable to sell the house we left behind till much later. We ended up with two house payments which we could not afford. At the time my sister and her husband must have been experiencing hard times too. Seeing all this my parents decided one Christmas back then to give both my sister and me and our families food as Christmas gifts. I am not talking fruitcakes. They gave us case after case of green beans, corn, tomato products and so on. I was so happy and grateful. My sister was too. 

Food is a wonderful gift to give. Knowing that our daughter and her family are struggling, my husband and I make it a point to drop off several hundred dollars worth of food now and then throughout the year. We also give food as gifts to our other two children whose families are struggling financially too. We go to a Sam’s Club nearby and buy meat and poultry in bulk and many other items in bulk. My husband and I take great delight in shopping for food for our children. It has a meaning that money alone can’t provide. We could give them the money instead, I suppose, and we have helped out that way too. But it would not mean as much to them or to us. It simply is thrilling to load up their kitchen counters with all that food and to experience their appreciation for it. 

When our children were young and I was home with them and every penny was precious, we did what many of your readers do. We lived frugally. We had gardens. I canned and froze the produce. I sewed. I cooked from scratch. We had a milk cow and chickens. Before we had beef in our freezer, I would drive to a meat packing plant nearby once a week and scrounge around in their refrigerated section looking for cheap cuts of meat. This was during the 70’s. I could buy an entire beef tongue for a quarter. It was ugly as sin. But once it was properly cooked and that awful looking skin removed, it made the most delicious sandwich meat. I was on top of the world whenever there was a beef heart in the refrigerator there, because I could get it for free. Alas! I never ever mastered the art, if there is such an art to it, of making the beef heart appetizing. I tried. Goodness I tried. And, bless their hearts, my family tried to eat it. Perhaps if I had owned a pressure cooker at the time. 

Service is another wonderful gift to give. Keep that in mind if you are pinching pennies and wonder what you could give to someone as a gift. One Christmas during our frugal years when every penny was precious, I decided to give my husband for want of a better word “service coupons” he could redeem through the year. They included things like “good for one breakfast in bed,” “a back rub,” “a walk by the river,” “dinner for two by candlelight” and so on. He loved his gift. And I loved giving it. 

I think it was Karen who talked about the benefits of taking care of what you already own. I second that. When I was a youngster my mother insisted that I change into my play clothes after school and hang up my school dress. This way I was able to wear the dress one or two more time before it needed to be laundered. This cut down on her laundry. It also helped to preserve the quality of the school dress. Yes, I wore dresses to school.

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