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I've been trying different things to see if I can get electricity use down. My husband doesn't care but I'm doing it any way. I hope I'll see a decrease in my next report. 

Same here, Margaret P. My husband doesn't worry about electricity use for electric lights left on in empty rooms, computers left running, or long showers. However, he regularly points that I boil the kettle quite a lot ;) 

Now that the weather is cooling down here and we have our wood stove going,  I'm giving the stovetop kettle a clean and bringing it back into use.  It whistles when the water is boiled, which reminds me of the kettles when I was growing up, before they had automatic shut-off.

Those old electric kettles were a good example of how things should be made to be serviceable and, as you said Grandma Donna, how parts should be easily available. People might remember the ceramic element, wound around with a fine coiled wire, that was held inside the kettle by little nuts at the top of two pieces of wire.

If it needed replacing, you could always buy a new one cheaply at the hardware or local shop. It was a simple and satisfying job. I think the only specification was whether you needed a long one or a short one, depending on the depth of your kettle. No need to buy a particular brand, and the part, with its simple design, remained unchanged for generations. 

GDonna, Your posts are always so inspiring. Kellie O and Margaret P, my husband does not care about the electricity either. Sure, he would not complain about a lower bill, but he is not interested in doing things as in days past. Also, GDonna, how do you get so much done in a day? I feel like outside of work where I sit at a computer all day, and then prepare dinner, clean up after dinner, and do a few things around the house, I can’t get much else done! There is so much I want to learn and do; I hope I can start making some changes

What an inspiring post! Like you I am grateful/happy to be married to a man who shares my outlook on old ways, thrift and frugality. I guess it helps he's a Yorkshire man lol! Short arms deep pockets as they say. 

We have just this week we have passed along our large tv. We haven't watched tv for years so it made sense to get rid of it and I cannot tell you the positive effect it has made to our home not having this ugly black thing just sat there, our home feels so much more peaceful. We do however "watch" things (youtube) on my husbands computer monitor. All creatures great and small, Heartbeat, that kind of thing, gardening/gyo, off grid/frugality, informative kind of things relevant to the Lancashire and Yorkshire, where we're from.

Thanks to my grandma, I have had one of those clothes pulleys for most of my adult life and you can't beat them in my humble opinion. 

I was born in 1965 and we lived next door to my grandma & grandad (my mum's parents) and what a difference there was in how both homes were ran. My mum had debt all her life because she got every new fangle thing that came out. First on the street to get a phone, tv, fridge etc new furnishings every year. Redecorated the downstairs of the house regularly to keep up with the styles and fashions. It was awful because things felt chaotic all the time with the constant changing of things and my parents were always fighting because of debt and having no money. 

My grandma and grandads home however was the complete opposite, comfy old fashioned sofa and armchairs they'd had for decades with pretty arm covers and back covers to protect them, that grandma had croched. Their "knick knacks" as grandma called them were few and far between, a beautiful wooden and brass inlaid over mantel clock with a little brass key to wind it up, a pair of shire horses pulling a cart with barrels on, either side of their fire hung black leather and brass horse straps. They had a standard lamp (floor lamp) solid carved wood with a large floral shade with gold tassels. A washtub with a mangle. A washing line and clothes pulley in the kitchen for finishing off line dried clothes or for when it rained. A treadle sewing machine. Chamber pots under the beds, we had outside toilets/coal sheds until the houses were modernised in the 70's but it took her a very long time to stop using these. Same thing when central heating and double glazing replaced the coal fires and single pane wood windows, she refused for years to use the central heating saying it got too hot and cost too much lol. There is so much I could continue with, like her baking/washing/mending/cleaning/crocheing/knitting/cooking and daily routines etc but you get the idea...they never had debt, they never had a lot or kept up with anyone, they lived quietly, frugally and simply but their home was a home and I feel so blessed to have had the childhood I had being raised next door to them because as I raised my own family I implemented so many of her ways. 

I do find as I am getting older, I am naturally returning to living how my grandma did, in all areas of my life, well,  apart from gardening, they weren't gardeners at all, whereas we grow quite a lot of things. It feels like muscle memory has somehow fully wakened and I am now in a place to pull it altogether and make the shift, if you know what I mean......my grandma was born in 1912 and my grandad 1907 :)

Hello GDonna,

I admit I could do more than I am. I still use my dishwasher but only  run it once about every three days. I most often use my clothes washer for my clothes but if the loads are small I will do them by hand. My clothes washer is super quick even on the eco-cycle and uses little water. It’s a Speed Queen “commercial” type. My dryer is quite lonely. I’ve had it for many years but only use it when the weather stays wet for days or an item is too thick to dry before souring in our humid heat. I think I use it about four or five times a year. I use a clothes rack and clothesline normally. 

I had a deep sink installed in my utility room when we built this house and it came with a slanted washboard as its front side, which has been handy. I also use a (new!) toilet plunger that has holes I drilled in the cup as my agitator when washing by hand. I invested in a clothes wringer and use it when washing by hand. 

I lowered my heat these last couple of winters to 69 in the day and lower at night and began dressing with more layers. I keep the air conditioning on 78 downstairs and 82 upstairs in the hot weather, which is six months of the year here.  Like GDonna I also will get sick if I stay overheated so that’s as warm as I will go in the hot weather. Another thing is, during times when my air conditioning has been out of service, my refrigerator and freezer run much more and still my food goes bad more quickly. My fruit in the bowl on the table goes bad and attracts fruit flies really fast without a/c. I struggle more with mold and mildew as well, due to the combination of heat and high humidity.  So there are costs to going without a/c.

I cook from scratch and thankfully my grown kids do as well. I have a garden going and both of them garden a little at their homes. I know how hard it is to garden when no one is home all day, so I admire them for doing what they can since they work outside the home.

I’m lucky in that I live on an acre and have room for fruit trees, vines and raised beds. But things can happen and I don’t get my money’s worth from my efforts every year. So optimizing my grocery money is also an important strategy.  

Oh, and I wear my clothes and shoes forever and buy 95% of them used. I also sew some and I’m learning more. 

Joan S, speaking of wearing clothes and shoes forever, that would be me.  I just ordered a "robe" since I'm going on 30 years of wearing the same pair of sweatpants I had 30 years ago when I get up in the am. I just don't want to fix the elastic. LOL.

I also have a husband who leaves the lights on everywhere. I can tell everywhere he's been in the house, because the lights are all on. He slams the shades shut and turns on the lights. Drives me batty.  He doesn't care as his motto is we have the money. I have a hugely hard time vacuuming 2400 sq ft with two high-shed dogs and AZ dust. Vacuums are actually a joke with their little filters and such. I miss my Kirby, but I have hard floors now.  He's searching $400 robo vacs that empty themselves. Never will I spend that on a vacuum that I have to constantly clean and by filters for. Give me back the bag!  He doesn't care. His attitude is we have the money. My attitude is I'm not spending that on that!

So I've purchased the most simple stoves, dishwasher, fridge. No hoopla or the least of it I can find and it's difficult as they are JUNK. It's like the manufacturer doesn't want you do purchase these items, so they make them worse than the junk with the hoopla. It's really frustrating.  

There are two vlogs I watch that are really good for era type info on you tube and it's Recollection Road and American Hearth.  Makes me want to go back sooooo badly.  

In AZ I like to hang laundry out since it's hot, but Mr. Grumpy hasn't reinstalled my new laundry line yet (I have rope that is too stretchy). It's going on 8 months. Needs some sort of turnbuckle-ish-type thingy.  But I while it dries quickly out here, I have to be careful of dust devils that'll take my laundry a mile down the road and the dust is horrific. Plus now, there is so much pollen floating, it would be covered. AZ is a very unfriendly place (except in the winter. ;))

I had to look up that bread.  I may try making that!

Always look forward to your next post, Gr. Donna.  Your garden is absolutely stunning!

We are very lucky with our rental situation, since we rent a friend's "spare" house on his rural property. He is in his late 70s, so we pay a greatly reduced rent in exchange for helping him maintain his homestead. This is mutually beneficial. For example, we tend and harvest from his orchard, and then split some of the resulting preserves with him. With the way housing prices exploded here, I am afraid we may have ended up homeless without this arrangement. 

It's really a multigenerational setup, because our youngest son and his fiancée live with us. They are both university students; she is a music/education major, and he is going for astrobiology. They are trying to accrue no education debt, so living here helps. Plus, that gives us even younger hands to help around the place. Our friend/landlord is also an amateur astronomer, so our son gets the benefit of having someone from the older generation to share an interest with (they spend a lot of time looking through telescopes together).

As for laundry, I have been using the washer-dryer that is in the house, but I do line dry in summer. Winter is tough in the rainy Pacific Northwest. We also live right next to a wetland (a vernal creek runs less than 10 feet from the house in winter). When we were in the apartment, we would wash most things in a sink basin system we worked out. We have a laundry wringer like the one Grandma Donna has, which mounts nicely on the split in a stainless double sink (or to the edge of a big wash tub), and we dried clothing on a wheeled two-tier clothes rack, on hangers. We'd put it on the balcony in dry weather and by one of the baseboard radiators in wet. There's no reason we couldn't keep doing that, but we have a heat pump instead of radiators here, so mildew was becoming an issue. Eventually, I'll figure something out!

We are on a complete spending fast. We are refashioning and mending clothing we already have, although I did pick up a bag of used clothing from a local thrift store that only sells fiber craft items. They had a sale where I could fill a bag for $3. Some items were wearable as-is, but most will be refashioned (I find it to be an enjoyable hobby, plus my 50-year-old punk rock soul loves creative fashion). When they have these sales, I always grab a few of the promotional t-shirts people donate, and no one wants. They can become yard work clothing, rags, or be sewn into underwear. I get most of my sewing, embroidery, and knitting supplies there. For example, a spool of thread is only a quarter, and most are nearly full! If you are a quilter, they have a scrap table, and you can fill a grocery bag with quilting squares for $2. Bigger lengths of fabric are sold for around $3 a pound, except for the really fancy stuff that may be priced individually.

We recently picked up four raised beds from a Buy Nothing group. They were taken apart, but we figured out how to reassemble them.  We also applied cedar oil to help preserve the wood. I found them online, selling for $100 each! They are nice cedar deck beds with bottom shelves and a 2-by-4-foot grow box on top. You can tend them standing up, and they fit perfectly around the perimeter of our deck. This means they are protected from the deer, hooray! 

We also have three cedar boxes we built out of $2 cedar fencing planks last year. One holds our blueberry bushes, another holds our raspberries, and the third is the strawberry bed. We planted garlic in the blueberry and raspberry beds, on the advice of a friend, and it is working out wonderfully! We also landscaped the border bed with a few cutting flowers and roses, but mainly herbs and perennial edibles (sage, tarragon, thyme, asparagus, nasturtiums [annuals that reseed so feel perennial], artichokes, and a few others I can't remember right now).  Up on the deck in the "decorative" planters, I have mint, rosemary, and more thyme. I'll also put out some oregano and basil pots, and maybe cilantro. Our older son's partner is a plant person, so they give me lots of herbs and vegetable starts every year. They recently gave me a succulent-like plant that tastes like oregano (the name slips me, Cuban oregano maybe?) and some fennel seeds they collected. They also informed me that they have three times as many tomato starts as they need, so those are coming my way, yay! I'm trading them some spider plant and inchplant babies and cuttings from my houseplants. Oh, I also have a Meyer lemon tree, saved from a box store dumpster. I saved two, but I gave one to them. They don't grow outside in the PNW, so we have them potted and winter them indoors. 

As self-employed folks, our income has been greatly impacted by the current world. We are not spending money on anything except necessities right now. Few things are necessities, really. We used to keep beer and sodas on hand for impromptu get-togethers and bonfires, of which we host a lot during the summer, but we have decided to start brewing our own herbal wines and ginger ale again. We used to do this when the kids were young, and money was tight.  This only requires yeast and sugar, since we grow ginger in a pot, and herbal wines can be made from herbs, fruits, and even dandelion flowers (I have two jugs of dandelion wine brewing right now that we started last weekend). Sometimes we throw fruit juice or even slightly over-ripe fruit into the ginger ale to make a fruit soda. 

Electricity is the next thing to tackle. Our rates recently went up, and our bill doubled. I hid the remote control for the mini-split, no AC this summer unless there is a wildfire nearby and we need the air filtration in the house. It rarely gets above 90 F here, so this is doable. After all, AC was unheard of in PNW buildings as little as 15 years ago. Also, no clothes dryer, at least for the summer. We have cutback on driving, creating a ride share board/errand batching board for the fridge to cut down on trips. There are bikes and an electric motorscooter available, and the bus stop is a 15 minute, 1 mile walk down our beautiful forested lane, so there are other options for getting around or into town that don't use gas or put wear and tear on our 17 year old Prius. I recently started using the bus and was pleasantly surprised by how quick and efficient it is. The "kids" also have free bus passes because they are students. 

Oh my, I wrote a novel! Thanks for sticking with me :)

I was hesitant to mention my husband doesn't care about saving electricity. I didn't want to appear I was criticizing him. However, dealing with reluctant spouses (or other family) adds another obstacle to being frugal and a good steward of resourses. 

To me it's often easier to save money than make money. 

What a wonderful post! Yes, the surprise can be on them when we can take care of ourselves through self-sufficiency and don't need to pay them for their old services! I love that attitude. :) 

When we started using more solar from the generators, I was using energy like I always did. Having to limit it to what the generators can do made me rethink all of my usage. I love TV  because I like old movies and historical dramas like the ones on PBS, but I don't need to watch as much as I've been used to lately. I remember the 1930s study and how I would "go to the movies" only on the weekends. I need to keep that pattern. 

I have no inflation buster this week. :( Our yard has bumps and is hilly in places, and sometimes our push mower struggles, so we decided to buy an electric mower. They are not cheap! At least it can be charged from our solar generators and doesn't need maintenance like a gas mower. I know it looks like we've been spending money like crazy, but when my husband changes jobs, he gets to stay home instead of travel, and that's important to us. We are determined to make a success of living on less, and buying electric lawnmowers won't be in the budget! I bought a second stainless steel hose because they are wonderful and don't need replacing, and we needed one for the front yard. I paid the same price as the first one we bought. 

I bought a comfrey crown when I found out my asparagus wanted more fertilizer. I have a bay leaf plant in a pretty pot because it will have to come in the house in the winters. I plan to save more seed this year. I still have medical supplies to buy. I got the book The Survival Medicine Handbook: What to Do When Help is Not on the Way, but I haven't had time to look through it and get my supplies together. The other expense we have yet to tackle is laying in a supply of replacement parts for things we want to keep using. 

I DO have an inflation buster for this week! Our spring water company  changed hands and started purifying the water with chemicals, and I can't drink it anymore. We had been using Berkey filters before that, but I got a bad one when they were at the beginning of their lawsuit with the EPA, and that's what made me change to the bottled spring water. Apparently Berkey now has another kind of filter, and we tried it out, and it's been okay. That saves us hundreds of dollars each year! I hope Berkey can get done with their lawsuit and go back to their original filters. 

Good afternoon ｡⁠◕⁠‿⁠◕⁠｡

I am motivated when I read posts and learn how others navigate what seem like, to me, very turbulent waters; I do ask myself on a regular basis is it just change? and perhaps I'm feeling what many people feel as our biological age creeps onward? I recall my elders (I'm now amongst the elders in our small family) talking about the state of the world and how awful things have gotten so I wonder...I feel muddled sometimes about reality vs perception although I firmly believe reality is tied tightly to perception... although not absolutely due to powers-that-be...if I'm making sense :)

The thing I want to become better at doing is being more consistent in my veg gardening! it's all been rather hit or miss :(

I get busy and forget to water or fertilize or something; occasionally, I get a bumper crop of one type of veg but then bumpkus of others.

For us to reliably depend on our small garden to keep costs down, I have to be diligent in it's care!

I'm not looking for enough produce to put up for 5 years at a go, but I'm looking to seasonally reduce the produce portion of our grocery bill whilst having enough to put something away via dehydrating or small batch canning until the next growing season. This is our 1st year here (we moved here in October 2025) so I don't have high expectations this year but I want to become so much better during this year of establishment:)

I also have to get better at meal planning and cooking times; I have a condition that takes a lot out of my energy and I know this but I will still jump right into being busy rather than stopping and asking myself how to best navigate my day so at 4 pm I'm ready for my old comfy chair and we're having sandwiches yet again :/ and don't get me wrong, I love a good sandwich but...it can get to be too much of a good thing.

I feel as if I need to make a decision to return to small batch cooking for the freezer; I'm not sure why I'm resistant to that unless it's that a lot of the recipes I've seen for freezer meals seem to contain a fair amount of dairy, something I try to avoid.

I'll be reading along!

Jenny Wren your life sounds wonderful ʘ⁠‿⁠ʘ

and as to dryer use, I will tumble some things for about 5 to 10 minutes to avoid crunchy towels and having to iron :) then I hang to dry either on the back deck or the clothesline out front. The winter is very challenging due to this being a very small house but I hope to have a solution in place come this winter :)

Stephanie Ghow very smart to keep replacement parts on hand; I'll have that talk with DH 

I got a book out from my library and I was looking at it this morning.  It's called Cold Canning. It has hundreds of recipes. Their idea is that you can "put up" food without having to make it shelf stable. The recipes are for foods to be refrigerated or frozen usually for 6 mos to a year. I think this will be helpful in making better use of our produce. The recipes tend to be for small batches so it's not an overwhelming commitment. 

I am taking a break from obsessing over physical preparedness and am working on emotional resilience and mental health.

Electricity isn’t an issue at present.  We pay close attention to the electricity we generate and plan usage accordingly.  We are careful with natural gas, which is used for water heating and home heating.  We do our best with the water but most of that bill is the sewer and trash and we have no control over those rates.

We don’t have a clothes dryer and haven’t for about 3 years now.  On cold and/or wet days we bring our racks inside and dry in the house.  We lose the space on the umbrella clothesline when we dry inside, but we make it happen.  One thing we do to make line drying easier, especially if we have to dry inside, is change our clothing less often.  I miss the dryer every now and then — hand knit dish cloths look prettier when dried in a clothes dryer.  But I remind myself that for most of human history, no matter where people lived, they didn’t have clothes dryers.

That is a big part of the work I am doing right now, and Grandma Donna wrote about it in this post.  So much of what we have now was supposed to make things “easier” for us or “save” us time, but really they were for the most part products designed to sell to us and make money for companies.  So I am evaluating every product we use to determine if its value outweighs its cost (to own and operate).  Some large appliances pass easily — I want to have a refrigerator and washing machine (although I think it good to know alternative methods for clothes washing).  I prefer having a stove to cooking over an open fire.  Some appliances we could easily do without — the dishwasher, for example, which we don’t plan to replace.  Some things fall in the middle.  We don’t need a microwave, but it saves electricity and doesn’t heat up the house to use and is a very hand place to stash cooling loaves of bread (propped slightly open) or keep a cake or pie away from counter surfing dogs.

I think we are hitting the major declutter phase of retirement.  We want to have fewer things to clean, store, and think about.  I want cleaning to be easier, including cleaning the pantry, cupboards, and drawers.  For awhile there I thought I wanted to keep all of the duplicates in case we need them later, but to do that we have to have a place to keep them that isn’t in the kitchen.  We don’t really have that space in the garage, so they have to go.  I have to trust that I can thrift something when needed, or do without.  In the meantime, these are gifts of the earth’s natural resources and there are people out there who could be using them right now.

I also have to let go of things that I now view as financial mistakes.  I will admit to being influenced, even by blogs such as this one.  I saw Grandma Donna’s stoneware mixing bowls and wanted some because they look so lovely in her vintage kitchen.  I bought some, tried to use them, and found that I prefer the stainless steel mixing bowls I’ve been using for 40 years.  My methods of mixing are based on those lightweight bowls and my ability to rotate them while mixing.  They are also easy for me to pull out of an upper cabinet.  There was absolutely nothing wrong with them!  From this I learned not to replace things I already have and like, just because they look more old fashioned — it’s an easy trap to fall into wanting things to look a certain way.  I also have to let go of projects I planned to do and sometimes even bought supplies for, if I’m not going to do the projects after all.  I bought several red plaid sheets sets on clearance so I could use the fitted sheets on our bed and sew the flat sheets into comforters.  A little more than a year later and the sheets drive me crazy and I miss using white sheets and having a more calming bedroom.  The lesson I learned was that saving money on 100% cotton sheets isn’t worth it if looking at them creates chaos in my mind.

So the questions I’m asking are, What do we truly use?  Do we really need the extras or could someone else be using them right now?  Are the decor items things we love to see day in and day out?  Is the house easy to keep tidy, and easy to clean (dust, vacuum, etc.)?   Because one thing I am sure of now in retirement is I want to spend less time cleaning, not more, and I want things to be easier for my kids when we do pass.  Even when crafting and coloring, I am letting things go and simply enjoying the process and not keeping every single thing.

Margaret P, I think you make a good point; we don't like to criticise our spouses but it's  relevant to know that some of us are participating in a team effort of one kind, where both spouses are like-minded about reducing electricity use. I am not in that boat, but my husband contributes by earning the money for the household,  so in that way we are still a team. However, as I'm not bringing in money, my contribution is to try to save it.

On the surface it could feel like pulling in opposite directions, but now that I think about it, we're both contributing in complementary ways.

I'm grateful for the wisdom of everyone in the forum, and for the community you have fostered, Grandma Donna!

My favorite non-electric washing system is 5 gallon buckets and an agitator. I don't scrub, I just let things soak the way they do in the wash machine. Agitate 15 stokes, set a 10 minute timer, come back and agitate 15 strokes, do that maybe 2-4 times per wash, and do two washes of soaps and two rinses if they are really dirty. It works well for me, because I go back and forth doing other chores. The one MUST have is a wringer.

I do love my electric washing machine though, I would be very sad if we couldn't use it. I only just got a long laundry line on pulleys, and I love it too.

Kimberley F - you are so right, as we get older we want to spend less time, not more, on keeping the house clean and tidy and to that purpose we decluttered everything and now have simple lines - here, the dust is forever present, so things need to be able to be quickly wiped with a microfibre cloth which only takes a few minutes every couple of days.  If we had to move or something happened to us, the girls wouldn't have any mess to clean up, it's all been done for them.

I sweep regularly and run the vacuum over every couple of weeks - I refuse to be a slave to housework, I've done enough to last me a lifetime.  I got rid of most of our fancy electrical appliances - I have a small microwave, a dishwasher which works well for me as I do a lot of cooking, fridges and freezer of course, a bench oven which I prefer to the big one which I detest as the temperature is never to be relied on, and the little one uses way less power and takes up less space.  The big oven is downstairs out of the way anyway and the washing machine is outside under the deck.  I don't own a dryer, ditched that about twenty years ago as totally unnecessary and big power user.  The only other things are a small electric skillet, used regularly, and my air-fryer, also used regularly although it's getting old.  I've just updated my Dyson stick vacuum, and bought a new battery for the old one, so both are working well, one for upstairs, and the old one does the car, down here and so on.  That's my husband's domain and he is with me all the way, we work together.  After sixty years, we tend to think as one.

When we updated our fridge due to the old one dying completely after twenty-three years, the general consensus was not to expect any new models to last that long as they're only meant to last five or so years before needing replacement.  This is definitely a throw away society these days.  So far, with my fingers crossed, it's been almost ten years since we bought that new fridge along with the TV and the washing machine.  The TV isn't huge and we only watch for an hour or so each night, otherwise never used. We don't stream anything and we don't have the data to watch anything unless it's free to air anyway.  We mostly watch DVD's or recorded shows/movies.

I've given so much away, donated, taken to the trash and treasure for someone else to use, or else sold a couple of odds and ends - but I'd much rather donate it, giving it someone who really needs it - that's my contribution to society.  I have only kept basics for my sewing as I have arthritis in my hands and can't do much in that line, and also trimmed right down the huge amount of family history I've researched over the years - mostly condensed now into booklets for the girls should they be interested.  I've also collected life stories from my folks before they died, my two aunts, and written my own memories of growing up in a totally different world - again they may perhaps be interested or my grandchildren may find it fascinating - no fast food, no mobile phones, just plain old fun generated by ourselves.

Sorry for the long post - it's ANZAC day here in Australia and New Zealand and we are pondering the past events of the horrific world wars followed by all the totally unnecessary conflicts and now the present dramas as well as future happenings.  Man will never learn.

"...Because one thing I am sure of now in retirement is I want to spend less time cleaning, not more, and I want things to be easier for my kids when we do pass..."

100% with you on that!

One of my kids once said we're going to have to get a dumpster to clean out this house when you guys die. My husband would probably be crushed to know that! He holds dear every last little thing he's been given. He's gotten gifts I know the person bought just to fulfill the obligation to give a gift.  It might sit & never be used but so and so gave it to me so it must be kept. Likely they don't even remember gifting it. Even people we don't know any more. 

It got me to thinking. I've always been more organized any way. But as I look at my stuff I'm striving to keep it manageable. I have a lot of sewing and art supplies. It's neatly stored on portable shelving. While it is a lot they could box it up in just a couple of hours to give away.  I know they don't want any of it but I still enjoy it. 

I'm cleaning out my mom's house.  She was a person who never found places for things.  She loved furniture so her apartment is full of furniture.  And much of that furniture has drawers. And every single draw had stuff in it. Every drawer was a junk drawer. Every drawer in my house has a purpose. 

My husband's parents are in their late 80s. They have a 3000 sq ft house. Every drawer, closet or cabinet is full. In every room. There's a lot of storage and it's full. 

My siblings aren't really helping me. And I doubt my husband's siblings will help much when the time comes to clean out their house. I am curious to see if that experience has an affect on my husband. It's a lot of work and I don't think he's prepared for it.

"On the surface it could feel like pulling in opposite directions, but now that I think about it, we're both contributing in complementary ways."

Kellie O, very good way of looking at it.

I'm working on not spending money and not being wasteful. 

I'm dehydrating some apples today that were getting floury and soft in the fridge and making apple scrap vinegar from the cores. 

No clutter here, after clearing out Dad's house, that finished me - Mum was so neat and tidy but after she died his hoarding took over - the funny thing was that most of his junk was another old chap's treasure so he took it home in loads - so I imagine his kids would have fun cleaning his place out too, as he was almost as old as Dad.  The only place I may have to clear out would be my older brother's unit if he goes before me - but he's neat and tidy and doesn't hoard anything so that wouldn't be a problem.  Luckily my husband is with me all the way and neither of his tool sheds are cluttered, in fact as I said in the previous thread, he gave most of it to our son-in-law as he is getting too old to need it these days.

I so enjoy reading everyone's comments. We purchase spare's of items we use regularly and always have.

About a month ago, I mentioned to my daughter, that we grew up hearing "two is one and one is none." If you have two and one breaks or dies, then you have a back-up. If you have one and it breaks or dies you have none and have to go buy a new one, if you can find it, at a much higher price.

We had family over one Sunday and we are all huge coffee drinkers, except for two. We like our stainless steel electric percolator and when I purchased them 25 years ago, I bought two. This particular family gathering the coffee pot died. I simply went to the cabinet, in the kitchen, and brought out the spare. We, also, have a stovetop stainless steel percolator, but it takes 20 minutes to make coffee and with seven die hard coffee drinkers, it wouldn't have met the need.

We have saved a lot of money, over the years, by buying two of regularly used items when they go on sale instead of just one. That same percolator has gone up 100%, since I bought the first two. 

These days I watch for really good sales, however, I am finding less and less good sales on household items and food. Padding the profit seems to be a big deal in businesses these days. Of course, businesses need to make a profit, but gouging is a category in itself. It, also, seems like there is less competition; at least where we live.

Glenda, I think it's reasonable to save a spare. Obviously,  it depends on what the item is. 

I recently broke my glass blender jar when I knocked it on the floor. It's a 40 years old machine so of course I couldn't replace the jar  except --I had a 2nd one I'd picked up at a thrift store a few years ago!  Now of course I need to find another backup! Lol. (I don't know if I will be able to.)

Hi Gdonna and everyone,

Oh my goodness how times change and oftentimes it seems unbelievable how different life is. I am in my 74th year and look back on the conversations I had with my mother ( who has now passed) and I treasure those.  One of the things she said was that life was  good but at times it was hard, that the good old days weren’t always easy and that a family had to work together.  I do wonder how many of our young generation know what it is like to have to work within the family home and support Mum/Dad in doing household chores. We as the elders can only hope that we have passed onto our children and then them to their children that families thrive when everyone pitches in and supports each other. I’m concerned many younger ones don’t know basic cooking or young men couldn’t fix basic things as possibly their grandparents/parents could because it’s missed a generation. 
As we all struggle to understand what is happening in the world today and us oldies can fall back on skills we have learnt and nurtured over the years our young ones may be far to reliant on others doing for them. I would love to hear what you all think.There is no simple answer but I feel change is coming and life could become even more challenging in the near future 

Anne, I grew up in a multi-generational home, which was an incredible blessing for me. My grandparents were my lifeline, literally, for knowledge, skills,  emotional and mental growth. However, there were a lot of different personalities, which was a challenge. Both grandmothers and one grandfather, plus two biological parents makes for interesting dynamics :). My parents were never hands on and both had issues. Sadly, they were not capable, due to past trauma and what would be called PTSD from the war. I was born right after the war and it was not that uncommon for families to live together.

 If anyone has to consider group living, in the future, please make sure strong boundaries with consequences are set before the start of the venture. People who have been given to constantly feel entitled. Multi-generational living requires tough love and consistency or it is stressful and constantly imploding.

I wonder, also, how people will fare, going forward, who have had life easy and were not blessed with elders who taught skills, respect, kindness and love. I have shared much with my grown grandchildren. 

I see, even in our family, that the ease of ordering in food or taking frequent vacations has become a habit. I cook all our meals from scratch and we don't travel. Preferences are interesting to view in people, however, preferences won't help one survive. Hard work, humility, openness to learning, and fortitude are neccessary when times get very hard and they will. Times always get hard and always have. Fortitude and perseverence are required during such times. People have become way too soft.

To me, a family isn't a group of separate individuals, but one unit that works together for the success of the whole. I don't mean just a particular household either, but all of the family members in their own houses. That's what I grew up with. Everyone helps each other when they need it. You're never alone because someone will be there to help. I can't imagine not having this, and it's a lesson my son has learned. From the family, this help extends to the neighborhood. My neighbors will knock on the door and ask if my son can give them a hand. We had a death in the family recently, and old neighbors from as far back as the 1980s came to the funeral and told how the relative who passed had helped them. I guess people got a lot of money and decided they didn't need anyone else anymore, but I think that's changing. Now people don't have as much money, and they don't have anyone to help them. As more people need help they might learn how to help each other again, because they will have no choice. 

Learning skills has been hard. It would have been better if I had been taught more skills when I was young. It takes time to learn how to hang laundry right, or sew, or to fix something.  

dear gdonna,

I have read your blog for about 7 years now and still enjoy it and learn much from you. When I started reading your blog we were paying on a house we couldn't afford and my husband was working 24 hour shifts. Even with frugal management we never had enough money to get ahead so we decided the modern way wasn't working for us...

We sold everything and moved to raw land with our 3 children. We still used many modern things when we moved....a chainsaw, propane stove, lawnmower, tractor,  so many things that still cost us money to use and so we re-evaluated what we wanted. And we decided we wanted to do things the old way...we have no running water or electricity. We chose a very small solar setup to charge the phone to keep in touch with family out of state. But even on the phone we pay the base price..we have limited internet and use it sparingly. My husband uses all hand tools to cut our firewood and build different things out here. We no longer use propane at all.. canning is done over an open fire or on top of the little cookstove I was recently given. We catch rain water but even that has presented challenges since we are in above extreme drought conditions in northeast Arkansas. We try gardening but the weather fights us the whole way but we keep trying. I started all of our pepper and tomato seeds for the first time this year. We have a hoop house that has been a blessing. 

I wash everything by hand and have found with the five of us a limited wardrobe is the key as well as natural fabrics. Each of us have 3 sets of underclothes and 2 sets of work clothes plus a Sunday best. We dress historically 1780 to 1840 styles so we wear layers and this keeps our outer clothes cleaner for more days of wear and the under garments are washed daily. 

We eat simply....no preservatives. Usually our meals consist of beans, potatoes, and fermented cornbread. We also have meat in season and the excess I dry for summer use. We do alot of dehydrating as it takes up less space and keeps for very long periods of time....we eat wild edibles from the land around us to fill in our meals. 

Your advice has been invaluable to our family and I want to thank you for courage to continue posting even in dark times. Your blog is my one online thing I continue to keep up with. Thank you to you and Charles. May God bless you for your efforts and willingness to teach others. 

Beth D, I am very impressed with your lifestyle and fortitude. Thank you for sharing your story.

May God continue to bless your family abundantly.

I would like to tell anyone who has family around to help out as they age they are so lucky.  My granddaughter has been mowing the yard for me and I am so thankful for that.  I do pay her and she is saving for a car.  I just hope she will continue mowing all season.  But who do you call if you need something done which could be something simple like replacing the inside of the toilet tank or replacing the railing on a deck or maybe a plumbing or electric problem that takes a specialized skill and they are a reasonable price?  

Someone in the last post said they realized as they aged that they would have to hire people to do some task for them, but who?  My family will help out, but I don't want to call too often.

We do have a raised garden and we can.  We have knowledge to do many repairs but sometimes things like getting on a ladder or a lot of bending make that difficult if not impossible.  I also sew and I can mend clothes and make them last.  I use a washer and dryer because they are in the basement and bring up a basket of wet clothes is just too heavy.  Something I do hand wash, but they are mostly wool items and I don't want them to shrink.  I turn lights off and unplug things.  I wash my dishes by hand and dry on a rack.  We combine trips in the car to save on gas.

I like to read mysteries.  My favorite author is John Grisham so I like his kind of books.  I have read 2 books by Bill Clinton and James Patterson, these are fictional and I enjoyed them very much.  So not in the 1940's but I thought they were good reads. 

Margaret P maybe you can find another glass jar for your blender, then you won't need to buy a 2nd one.  I have a 2nd of many things in our home too.

If anyone knows how to find reasonable price repair people please post here.  Thanks

CindyD W Are you sure your family isn't perfectly okay with helping you? I know my family is unusual in how we help each other out, but when people start getting older, we know we have to help more. Maybe your family is the same, and they don't mind helping out. After all, you're helping your granddaughter buy a car! The help goes both ways. :)

If that doesn't work, Habit for Humanity has an Aging in Place program that might help you. They can do an assessment for home repair and advise of other services.

My daughter lives locally and her family does help us out, but can't call on her all the time.  She is my granddaughter's mom.  I have a son that lives about 2 hours away, but his wife has a lot of medical issues and he has told us he is not able to help too much.  I have another son who lives about 7 hours away and he does come up at the holidays and will stay extra and help with something and he will come in the summer and help out for a few days then, but he has a job where he travels some and has a lot of work when he is at home so he can't come just for the day.

I didn't know that Habit for Humanity had an Aging in Place program.  I will have to check that out and see if we have that available in our area.  Thanks!

Also I wanted to add that everyone needs to know what jobs their spouse/partner does in the home.  When we marry each of us takes over certain jobs so it is good to know how to do the basic things at homes.  Can you husband wash the clothes, or cook a simple meal?  Does he know where everything is kept.  Can you check the oil in the car or the air pressure in the tires?  Or put air in the tires?

Sheila, I ADORE crunchy towels!!  The ones dryer dried feel too soft, almost slimy lol.

Beth D, thank you for posting about how you live without electricity and running water.  These are things that are very helpful to know.  I am happy that you are still reading my blog. :)  Charles and I have found out that it is very important to at least practice living without electricity and running water and then get good at it because if we get into a situation we do not have electricity or running water we will already just switch to the other way.

Your way is all the time and you have had to get proficient in living this way.  You mentioned layering your clothes, a very important thing to know.  We learned that when there is no other option but wash by hand to wear only the clothing that will dry quickly.  I am curious of what you are doing during this drought?  Are you driving to a water resource and bringing water home.  We are very dry here too and have out of control fires to our east in Georgia.

What are you using for an oven?  Charles and I are trying to get better in cooking in our dutch oven over fire.  

I am not proficient in canning using fire, propane yes but not fire and I want to learn how and I know by not that the only way to learn is by doing just as you have done.  Arkansas gets some mighty powerful storms when you do get them so this must be quite challenging at times.  We would love for you to share anything helpful whenever you have something to share.  

You mentioned gardening, just the past couple of years I have learned that there are many more vegetables than I thought that will grow late fall and even in winter. I used to never do a fall garden and not I am all year around gardening.  Do search out those plants that will grow in the cold, some even grow under snow.  

Beth, you said my advice helped you and now your advice is helping me as well all of us here in the forum. :) 

Michelle K, that is being very resourceful making apple scrap vinegar from the apple cores.  Thank you for sharing your photo.  

Everyone, the talk about spare parts is really good and it has me thinking about what do we have that we can fix ourselves that we can still get the parts for.    All of these conversations are really good and very helpful.  Grandma Donna

Everyone, on the topic of some spouses not being agreeable with trying to cut back on electricity expenses or even other things. I retired many years ago to be able to care for my parents.  I felt I was split into two people trying to do it all.  I became a caregiver for my parents while Charles was still working.  This was difficult with the loss of my income.  I started doing things to save money to help with the change in our income.  After my parents passed, I did not go back to working outside the home, I had some medical issues that would have made it difficult to go back to work.  

Charles retired six and half months ago.  When he was still working I would do many things to cut back while he was at work.  After he would leave in the morning I would turn off the heat if it was cold and dress in more layers, in the summer I would turn off the air conditioner for cooling.  I would do many little things and cut off as much as I could.  When Charles came home from work we would cool the house down because it was difficult for him to adjust to the warmer temperatures since he was working in colder stores and had his air conditioning on in the car and often he could come in and ask "aren't you hot?' So I started adjusting things for when he got home.  I loved the challenge when he was at work, I felt that I was making an income by doing things that did not require electricity.

He has always been supportive with most anything if it saves money because once I showed him how much was being saved by what we did not use he was all for it.  

Now that Charles is retired and at home, we are working things out at what is comfortable and not comfortable.  He is acclimating to the temperatures better and I have eased up on pushing the limits too far to where it is uncomfortable.  Charles is probably much more agreeable than most men, that is just how he is and again I feel very fortunate that he is.  With retirement budget being tight Charles is realizing even more the need for this frugal life and mostly the understanding that if we need to purchase something or repair something that we have to find where we can save money by what we do not use to be able to purchase that thing we need.  He reads the kilowatt hours we use each day and does the math to figure out what our electric bill is going to be because this is where we can save a good bit of money.  I just wanted to say that we can find our own ways to do things that add up to savings and does not affect others.  Grandma Donna

Stephanie G, We bought an electric lawnmower this year too.  It didn’t make sense to buy a gas lawnmower when we have solar electricity.  We didn’t have a lawnmower as our lawn was cut by a lawn service for 25 years.  The electric lawnmower was expensive, but we bought a set with a blower and weed whacker that all take the same batteries.  I also insisted on a self propelled mower as I think it is the best choice as my husband gets older.

Tonight as I made scrambled eggs for dinner, I thought about the appliances I use that I think I can’t do without but I know I could.  I always blend the eggs in the blender, and cook them in an electric skillet for precise (low) temperature, but I know I could whisk the eggs by hand and use a skillet on the stove —  I just don’t prefer them that way.  But going forward as we simplify I will remember that I can do it the simpler way.

CindyD W, I would suggest that you start asking around about a good handyman. You will probably find a good one like that. I've found that most people are delighted to make recommendations when they've found a good resource.

G'donna, I am trying to focus on what I can do even if my husband doesn't participate.  I realized I can still unplug appliances or not use the dryer,etc and make a difference on my own!

I just wrote a long post and it disappeared - so frustrating.  I'll attempt to do it again - I am lucky as my husband is all in agreeance with me when saving money and running the household - my job is to keep it running smoothly and his is mostly maintenance and the yard.  Having said that, I am teaching him how to do the accounts and pay things online so if anything happens to me, he'll be able to do things he wouldn't normally have a clue about.  Our power bill is low, and always has been, even before solar power - we don't use a lot, and our air-con is always run on the tear-drop setting - we rarely need heating in this area.  We read the power and water meters every single day.

Up until now, he has always done the full servicing and maintenance on our cars, and that has saved thousands and thousands of dollars - but now, this car is fully computerised so we do have to pay to have it serviced.  However we've always kept our cars fully maintained, clean, polished and tidy and always get comments from the dealers as to the great condition they're in.  Some years ago when I felt that mowing the yard was knocking him around, I insisted on buying a ride-on mower (I can be very persuasive) so now we have that which is petrol driven along with a battery operated hand-mower and whipper snipper (weed whacker).  We gave the big petrol mower and whipper snipper to our son-in-law.  Now my almost eighty-one year old husband can do the yard with ease.

Kimberley - With scrambled eggs, I beat them lightly with a fork and cook them in the same container in the microwave, wouldn't do it any other way - so simple, and tastes great.

I'd like to add that so far, at our age, we don't need any help in the house or the yard, even though this is a highset home with stairs both internal and external - we manage these just fine.  However there may come a time when we need assistance and then we'll attempt to enlist government aid - a long process due to the aging population and spending cuts, but still available - or you can just do it privately and pay for it anyway - but if you're on the age pension, that's a good chunk out of your income.

We have whittled down our gardens, to make life easier so for some it's easier to grow your own, for us it's not although we used to be almost self-sufficient with our gardens.  It's just too much now and water is the biggest expense for us, so we buy from the local farm gate instead wherever possible.

We don't go out and buy heaps of new stuff, things last well if they're quality and looked after so if you use them, don't abuse them - care for them, and they'll repay you ten times over.

We did a similar meal with mince and onion, with diced cucumber served in a warmed, split pitta bread pockets. Falafels and salad in pitta bread was another favourite. I serve a small amount of mince with lots of vegetables and DH doesn’t notice that it is low carbohydrate. 

We are enjoying some lovely Spring weather in Staffordshire at last. The central heating is on a thermostat set at 17°C in the day and 7°C at night and now the weather is warmer it has stopped coming on and we have had it serviced. Air conditioning is still unusual here, there are few really hot days. I have a few folding paper and bamboo fans from the pound shop. The monthly bills will be lower now until about November. My washing machine does a 20 minute economy wash at 30°C and I wait for a full load and a good drying day. Washing has dried on the rotary line in the garden and the clothes airer is folded away for now. I used the tumble drier once a week all winter, just for the bed linen.

DH is quite good about saving energy. He will put on an extra jumper when I suggest it if it is chilly, though he would prefer to turn up the heating. He is proud of our economical, reliable old cars, 17 and 12 years. He accepts my frugal, healthy shopping and home cooking. He makes the daily kefir and the small loaf in the breadmaker, but his cooking skill is limited to toast. He buys fewer clothes and shoes now, I remind him that he has more than enough, and it is not a bargain if we don’t need it.

DH cuts the small front lawn we kept for Daisy Dog, it takes less than 10 minutes with the rechargeable battery mower.

I went into town on Friday to go to the bank and the library. I bought a ripe melon in the street market and a jar of rum and raisin marmalade made by a stall holder we have known for years. I used the free parking by the tennis courts in the park, and I took a flask of tea to enjoy sitting on a bench in the sunshine in the gardens by the old bowling green.

Reading through all this yesterday I thought yes, I should have an alternate laundry setup. I dry what I can on the clothesline, but I have no alternative to the washing machine other than hand wash in bathroom sink. I've been unwell for a few months and haven't been able to do as much, so I thought well, someday. It's not the time to worry about that. Then, within a few hours of having that thought, my washing machine broke! It just stopped working and made a very odd clicking sound. Within the hour my husband had figured out what the problem almost certainly was and ordered the part for $20 or so. The repair will be a pain, have to disconnect and lay the washer on its back! But it brings him such joy when these sorts of repairs work out he wants to try.

Appliances are definitely not designed for ease of repair. They want it to break and for it to be too expensive to get someone to fix, so you just buy new. All of our appliances were new when we moved into this house 9 years ago. The dishwasher went first a couple of years ago. The problem turned out to be big enough we got new. Then the large burner on the stovetop went out. That repair worked out. Then a month later, the microwave. That repair didn't work out, so we got new for that too. Then a few months after that, the water filter pump thing on the fridge. That repair worked out. Now, a month or two after that, we have the washer situation. I guess 8-9 years isn't too bad considering how brief the lifespans of these things are these days, but it's not right. Seems a bit odd that all these different things are breaking at roughly the same time. Fixing things or doing without does feel a bit like revenge against the system though! :)  When we buy new we never get the same brand either. I don't know that any one is better than the other, but at least the same company isn't benefitting from making stuff that breaks.

I am fortunate that my husband has had an interest in electronics and computers since the 70s so he can figure just about anything out. But he's older than me and can't keep doing this stuff forever, and of course costs keep going up but our income does not. I need to have backup plans for keeping the household running when things break, power goes out, power gets too expensive to afford, etc. 

I'm the worst with the disagreeable husband thing. He is very difficult and I don't really talk much about it anywhere except here and still, it's not right, so I do apologize.  But I do, do what I can as far as energy savings without him even though I "would" do more. He still is working and Gr. Donna, I do exactly what you did to a lesser extent. I turn the AC to warmer.  When he was out of town, which is hardly ever, it's off and warmer at night.  He runs hot though and I run cold.  So many things I do differently when he's gone during the day to save on the bills, then change it back when he comes home. I have to be careful in that it's not efficient to reheat or recool the house in the AZ heat, so I just turn it down or up. I save where I can. I stay thrifty even though he's the opposite, because I can only control what I can do and it still helps.  I saved a good $50 just by going to Costco and he thought it wasn't worth it just to save a couple bucks. It's 10 min from our church. All he had to do was to drop me off, hit Sportsman's Warehouse and come back in 45min.  "I" thought it was highly worth the money. He does say that he's a spender and I'm not - I'm better at money.  So there is that. LOL.  One can only do what you can do on your side and let the rest go, but one can dream sometimes.  But there are some things I'm a stickler on.  I knew when I didn't want to spend money on a another dishwasher, he would never ever wash a dish, where he'll put one in the dishwasher from time to time now. I had to weigh that.  So there are many things I can live without and only do what I can. 

Debby Byour crunchy towels comment made me smile :)

and

Janet W your Friday out sounds lovely (⁠ᵔ⁠ᴥ⁠ᵔ⁠)

Lots of helpful information and insights! Grandma Donna, thanks in particular to you for talking in more detail about how Charles could appreciate the adjustments and savings that you were making, when you showed him figures. Also that he reads the meters regularly.  My husband is good with numbers so those two ideas seem like they might help get him more involved.

I recently purchase a folding steamer and used it yesterday to make a breakfast of steamed veg, egg which I cracked into a small, greased ramekin, and leftover rice. It was quick to cook and although I used an induction hotplate, you could do the same on a fire or anything that can keep water at a simmer. I took a photo but might have to add it in a second post as I can't see the paperclip icon.

Here it is. I poured a little olive oil and lemon juice on to dress it, and salt and pepper. 

Donna  Such a good post.  I kept running across the phrase "little things add up".  So true, but these days so many people never think about the implications of all those little things that they buy or use and never take the time and effort to track those expenses to find out how much is dribbling out.  I think that at some point the words frugality and miserly got confused and many people not wanting to be characterized as miserly fail to consider the usefulness of frugality.

Grandma Donna, 

Please would you give some explanatory detail about the picture of the naan flat bread baking on the outdoor cooker.

Is it cooking in a pizza stone on top of a Big  Green Egg or some other kind of charcoal grill? Or some other device, like a rocket stove?

Jennifer C, We baked the Naan bread outside by putting it on a pizza stone in the big green egg.  We have also bake loaf bread, raisin bread and biscuits in the big green egg.  We make the biscuits by putting them in a cast iron skillet and putting that in the big green egg, I have made bread in loaf pans and also rustic bread in a cast iron skillet too.   

For fireplace cooking or outdoor fire pit cooking  Justine, on Early American youtube channel, is a very good way to learn how to cook on wood and hot coals.  Justine cooks like they did 200 years ago.  It shows us how important it is to have the right tools to do the things we may need to do. 

I am late to the party and just now reading this. One thing that popped into my head as I was reading this was I recently had a friend over with her mom who thinks along the same lines as me. I mentioned that I got rid of my kitchen aid several years ago. I use a wooden spoon.  I am glad to be able to start hanging laundry outside again as the weather allows. I do have racks to hang inside that I use, but it’s nicer outside.  Since moving here, we’ve had electrical work done. I need to do an analysis again to see how much power certain things use. I have one of those little Kill-a-Watt things to figure it out.  It’s helpful to know. Some things are surprising. My old freezer I figured would not be efficient, is surprisingly good. Other things you might not even really think about are big users.
Thank you for this reminder.
Have a great evening:-