NT How cheap are you?

[Catherine]

My husband's shirts come out stiff as starched jeans without some kind of softener and I am not going to iron them to soften them up (what we did when I was a kid and hung all our laundry out -- sheets, towels, underwear; it all got ironed as wearing boards is not fun).

More than half a dryer sheet is too much for towels, I've found -- they have so much surface coating they are no longer absorbent. No, thanks!

[jklcpa]

I've read that dryer sheets can also cause that same coating to build up on the lint trap too, so limiting them to a smaller size will help minimize that too.

Catherine, I do know what you mean about ironing. It is one of my least favorite things. I haven't found that it is necessary with most clothing though, but would be with men's dress shirts. I would not iron underwear, no matter what. lol I only wish I had a clothesline. I love the fresh smell, and I could be even more frugal by not running the dryer at all. If it is a small load, I do use a drying rack, but that isn't possible some of the time.

[ILLMAS]

Any tips on how to wash bath towels? I just bought two sets in different colors to make sure I don't use the same one over again, but they tend to smell musty by the end of the week.

[Guest Taxed]

Bath towels, I use it once and then it is in the hamper for wash. No second use until washed. I know some people hang it outside to freshen up and re use without washing for a few days.

Hand towels I will let it go 2 or 3 days if it does not get too much use.

[taxxcpa]

That's another big savings some people achieve--no bath towels (no baths).

Keeps the water bill down too.

[Lion EA]

I don't use fabric softener, liquid or sheets, with towels and usually not with cotton underwear except when it really needs softening. I'm clean when I use a bath towel, so I don't wash it after every use. I also hang up towels in hotels for reuse. Hand towels I let go a few days also, especially now that the kids are grown and out of the house, unless hubby hasn't cleaned his hands thoroughly before drying. I don't put damp towels in the hamper, because they not only get musty but make all the other dirty clothes musty. I gather them up when ready to do laundry, or if a time lag, lay them over the washer/dryer in our unfinished basement to wait. As a kid, we ironed everything, including sheets and my father's underwear. Remember sprinkling and wadding up in the refrigerator?! Now with permanent press fabrics, I hardly ever iron. I hang my husband's shirts and khakis in the cool basement for a day after taking out of the dryer. If needed, I use some wrinkle release spray. I have a lot of knits, tee-shirts, etc., that fold nicely. Anything I would hang in my closet, I let hang in the cool basement for a day. I do miss my clothesline, but my allergies would act up from the pollen, etc., that lands on the clothes outdoors. I have a drying rack in the basement for bras and slippers and sneakers and things I don't want to go in the dryer. My new dryer has a drying rack for items, such as sneakers, that I don't want tumbled. I just used it for a pair of slippers that take very, very long to air dry the plush insides. Now, if someone would invent a washer/dryer that also folds and puts away my clothes, I'd be thrilled. And, sort the socks, too, of course.

[Lion EA]

Forget the clothesline, maybe I should just go outside to air dry! No bath towel needed, no clothespins, no electricity. I think I'll wait until springtime to try that, though.

[mcb39]

I am cheaper than any of you. I only use the dryer for towels and socks and/or maybe a few other things. I have clothes lines outside and in the basement for the winter. I don't use fabric softener because my husband is allergic to it. I only use Tide because I am allergic to other detergents. I hang clothes to dry; then put them in the dryer on the "air fluff" cycle to soften them up for ironing. YES, I iron, though it is the most hated job around. I do save plastic bags as others have noted. I use clothes pins to hang clothes and also for twisty ties because I am left-handed and my husband is right. (Oh yes, he is always right, just ask him). The clothes pins on the bread bag have ended years of muttering when trying to open the bread. I also bake bread quite often, but am not sure that that is really a money saving deal any more. I hem and sew on buttons by hand. I go to auctions and buy a big box of office supplies for about $5. You would be surprised what you can find in those boxes. The last one had three staplers, two pair of scissors and numerous assorted other goodies. What I can't use I give away. As noted before, I use the backside of paper mistakes, make lists on envelopes for the bills that I pay online. As someone else pointed out, it is really being frugal; not cheap. If someone needed it more than I did, I would give it all away in a heartbeat. I guess it's all in what you bring with you to the marriage.

[Catherine]

<snip> As a kid, we ironed everything, including sheets and my father's underwear. Remember sprinkling and wadding up in the refrigerator?! <snip>

We ironed *everything* -- once it had hung dry in the cellar (which we used as much as possible in the winter, thank goodness; hanging stuff to dry outside in January is nasty - ask me how I know) it was all stiff as planks. I *still* have my grandmother's perforated top for the old, small, glass Coke bottles for sprinkling clothes from before we got a steam iron.

When I was about 12, the washing machine broke and they had to order parts. My grandmother and I did laundry for all 6 of us, for over a month (maybe 6 weeks?) on a washboard in the basement sink. I heard *so* many wonderful stories of her growing up in the hills of Italy in those weeks; they are one of my most-cherished memories with her.

I still have a small washboard for any hand laundry, drying racks, and little plastic hanging drying racks that are just terrific for wool socks, bras, nylons, and the like. Leaves way more room on the rack for hang-dry clothes, and no little socks end up on the floor.

As for mcb39's comment on bread -- binder clips; small, medium, or large. Work for chips, pretzels, bread -- anything you want sealed. Take up less space than clothespins or those plastic "chip clips" they sell (for big money!) in the stores.

We (my daughters and I) also hem, sew buttons -- darn socks, too (and I used to darn nylons but gave that up when the girls came along - along with *wearing* nylons, for the most part, for years and years). Gwen was found darning socks by one of her teachers in the classroom (she tutors, but takes small projects to do while waiting for other students) just today and apparently they had a lovely long chat about darning and how few people know how anymore.

[Margaret CPA in OH]

I wasn't going to chime in on this thread but am now pulled in. Bottle top shaker, check. Frozen clothes on the line, check. Washboard, check. (What was the name of that orangeish soap used to scrub?) Drying rack, check. Darning socks, check. Ironing underwear and handkerchiefs, check. Rinsing plastic bags to reuse, check. Scrap paper, check. It goes on. But it feels so good to know I am amongst those who understand so well - no wonder we mostly get along, we're family!

[jklcpa]

Yes, I do all of that too, ladies. I sew, knit, crochet, tat, make my own handknit socks and lots of other neat things, (of course I darn them!), and I've learned to spin my own yarn in the last 3 years (but that is not cheaper than buying commercial yarn). I'm in the middle of a knitted shawl, a Christmas gift for one of my sisters. That is all considered normal living in my family, not because we are being frugal or cheap, but because we enjoy doing it.

I want my mom's sprinkler for the soda bottle. I don't have one! I hand wash but don't own a washboard, and I know for certain I'll never being ironing any underwear.

[ILLMAS]

That's another big savings some people achieve--no bath towels (no baths).

Keeps the water bill down too.

I swear the house I grew up in, the first floor didn't have a bath when my parents bought it, my father had to built one before we moved in. If you can imagine the nasties arm pit smell, that was what most people smell like, even though there was bath house no one visited because they were cheap or it's their culture. My brother got to relive his childhood memories when he visited Europe, one shower per floor and no deodorant.

http://forgottenchicago.com/articles/public-bath-houses/

[Lion EA]

Yep, been there, done all that. And, helped my mother and grandmother make the (lye?) soap we used to scrub clothes on the washboard. Do you remember starching and pinning lace curtains and tablecloths and doilies to a form to dry in the basement? I thought spray starch was the greatest invention when I had to iron my first husband's button-down oxford cloth shirts. My mother let me use Green Stamps to buy my first steam iron.

[Guest Taxed]

As a child I still remember that my great grandmother's house had the toilet in a out house in the backyard and there was no water pipe for the sink. You bring your own water to wash.

[Margaret CPA in OH]

Yes, lye soap and green stamps and boiling starch - ahh, the good ol' days - NOT!

[mcb39]

I wasn't going to chime in on this thread but am now pulled in. Bottle top shaker, check. Frozen clothes on the line, check. Washboard, check. (What was the name of that orangeish soap used to scrub?) Drying rack, check. Darning socks, check. Ironing underwear and handkerchiefs, check. Rinsing plastic bags to reuse, check. Scrap paper, check. It goes on. But it feels so good to know I am amongst those who understand so well - no wonder we mostly get along, we're family!

Was it Fels Naptha? Also, check to all of your checks. I didn't have a dryer when my two boys were both in cloth diapers at the same time; nor did we have a basement at the time. So, of course, those frozen boards hung over everything in the house (which was small). Yes, it feels good and makes us appreciate what we have now, but old habits die hard.

[Lion EA]

Grandma had an outhouse, and we pumped water outside and carried it in. Only heat was from the wood-burning stove for cooking in the kitchen. When we visited, we slept in the attic in a feather bed and raced downstairs to the kitchen to stand in front of the stove to dress and heat water for washing up. Aunt had an outhouse but had a pump at her kitchen sink to pump small amounts of water without going outdoors to the main pump. Baths were via a wash tub out back in good weather, on the kitchen floor in bad. You bathed fast as the water cooled. And, when you were the kid, you were well down the list to take your turn!

[Catherine]

Fels Naphtha, yes (I have a bar or two downstairs, actually - goes with the washboard!). Elderly aunt and uncle out in Orange, Mass., had their outhouse in the barn with the cows. Couldn't smell a thing over the cow plop aroma... I remember the year they finally got their indoor bathroom; I was about 9 and what a treat that was! They were in their 70's or 80's by then - first indoor bathroom they had. They also had a pump for the kitchen sink that got switched to a faucet at that time.

Heated my house in central Mass for a decade with wood; had it delivered cut and split but stacked it ourselves -- after a decade here, I am still sometimes surprised at getting up to a house that is already warm.

When I lived in Worcester (97-03) a local store or two still had S&H Green Stamps and somewhere I have a set of scented candles I got through them.

We've come somewhat afield from "cheap" but this thread sure is fun!

[mcb39]

We still heat both of our houses with wood, but out of choice (and frugality) rather than necessity. And, of course, we have backup gas heat so we never wake up to a cold house. We go to the woods and cut, haul, split and stack our own wood because we like the exercise, but don't know how much longer we can do it.

Yes, Catherine, this sure is fun and has brought back so many memories.

[JohnH]

We didn't have Fels Naptha soap - it was either 20-Mule Team Borax or Octagon soap. And where I grew up, one grocery chain had S&H Green Stamps and the other had Gold Stamps. I think Winn Dixe stores (usually known as the "Dixie Home Store"), gave green stamps.

As a kid, I would dutifully paste those stamps in the book each time my dad came home from the store. Never could bring myself to redeem them, though, because there was always something I wanted that cost just a few more pages or another book or two.

[joanmcq]

Ok, I wash & reuse baggies, don't use fabric softener at all, and reuse paper if it doesn't have client data on it, but darning socks? Nope, worn out socks become dust rags.

[MsTabbyKats]

This thread has really made me laugh...and shake my head.

"Penny wise and pound foolish" comes to mind.

I hope nobody takes this the wrong way....but it seems like a lot of work is being put into "saving pennies". Isn't your time worth anything?

Although I may not be "the penny wisest" person.....I challenge anyone to a "value shopper" competition. Just yesterday I got a top at Macy's reduced from $44 to $16...and a necklace reduced from $18 to $2. This was because of coupons and timing of the coupons...and being a smart shopper. (LOL...you should see what I save on the "big ticket items!")

As a kid I wasn't rich...and had a mother who didn't indulge....so I learned at a very early age how to "stretch a buck" (always amazed my friends). I never focused on "the pennies" because pennies, value wise are insignificant. (You don't buy cheap stuff...it breaks. Then you have nothing. You buy "quality"...but at a discount.)

So...I saved $44 yesterday....in perhaps 30 minutes. I can buy a lot of socks and baggies for that $44.

[Guest Taxed]

MsTabbykats, when you retire from being a professional tax preparer you could become a professional bargain shopper. I personally hate shopping and fighting crowds at busy malls but my sister loves the thrill of it. She is out there at the crack of dawn hunting for sales.

[ILLMAS]

This thread has really made me laugh...and shake my head.

"Penny wise and pound foolish" comes to mind.

I hope nobody takes this the wrong way....but it seems like a lot of work is being put into "saving pennies". Isn't your time worth anything?

Although I may not be "the penny wisest" person.....I challenge anyone to a "value shopper" competition. Just yesterday I got a top at Macy's reduced from $44 to $16...and a necklace reduced from $18 to $2. This was because of coupons and timing of the coupons...and being a smart shopper. (LOL...you should see what I save on the "big ticket items!")

As a kid I wasn't rich...and had a mother who didn't indulge....so I learned at a very early age how to "stretch a buck" (always amazed my friends). I never focused on "the pennies" because pennies, value wise are insignificant. (You don't buy cheap stuff...it breaks. Then you have nothing. You buy "quality"...but at a discount.)

So...I saved $44 yesterday....in perhaps 30 minutes. I can buy a lot of socks and baggies for that $44.

That makes a great Christmas present for someone

[MsTabbyKats]

MsTabbykats, when you retire from being a professional tax preparer you could become a professional bargain shopper. I personally hate shopping and fighting crowds at busy malls but my sister loves the thrill of it. She is out there at the crack of dawn hunting for sales.

LOL....I should write a book!

I don't fight crowds at busy malls.....I go early....before the crowds. But, not for mob scenes. You wouldn't find me at Walmarts on Black Friday.

I love jewelry (the real stuff...not the $18 stuff)....and you should see how well I do there. DH helps.....as well as I "value shop".....he's the king of bargaining. If he doesn't get the price down, he thinks he's being taken advantage of. (This is jewelry only....he doesn't go into Macy's and try to bargain on suits!)