primitives discuss frugal living again

[franksolich]

http://www.democraticunderground.com/11282580

Oh my.

This is Part II; Part I was brought over here in September 2012, and can be found at:
http://www.conservativecave.com/index.php/topic,78068.0

Kaleva (11,441 posts)    Sat Aug 3, 2013, 06:33 PM

Efforts at frugal living-Part II

The ex has left for a job in Chicago so I'm back at the big house to live. 2700 square foot home on 5 lots.
 
The heating system is a two stage high efficient LP gas furnace.

The water heater is an electric heat pump so it extracts the heat from the air in the basement to heat the water.
 
I mow the lawn with a Great States reel mower. A job that kicks my ass and of which I have to spread out over 2-3 days.
 
I cancelled the cable tv here and am going to reactivate my Netflix account soon. Maybe later today. Would much rather pay $7.99 then $47 a month.
 
The washing machine is a Frigidaire front loader and the water bill is $51 a month pretty much regardless how much water I use. So I'm not saving shower water to use to flush the toilet anymore. The dryer is electric but I have a clothes rack here which I'll use to hang dry most of the laundry except for sheets and other big items.
 
I put the 3 big screen TVs and my laptop on power strips so I can shut them all off easily when not in use. I also unplug the toaster and coffee pot.
 
Purchased a 125 cc Kymco scooter and that's my primary means of transportation now. At least till it gets too cold to ride! I get about 70-80 miles to the gallon and that is nice!
 
It cost about $1500 to heat this house last winter but I ought to be spending less then that this winter as I set the thermostat to a lower temp then my ex could tolerate. 55 degrees at night, if I'm gone for much of the day or I'm busy enough to keep warm and about 65 during the day when I'm home doing not much of anything should be fine.
 
Got some wood pallets from the former father-in-law and I'm going to use them to make a compost bin. Will do that tomorrow.
 
I have plenty of shelf space and a chest freezer in the basement so I ought to be able to preserve and store quite a bit of garden produce.

hollysmom (1,638 posts)    Sat Aug 3, 2013, 06:49 PM

1. Sounds good

your heating bill is way lower than mine, but you must pay a lot of water since I pay about 20 a quarter - but i don't water the lawn or v*****s, I haul water from the washing machine outside to do that. excellent idea about pallets to make a compost bin. i just pile mine up behind my neighbors garage.
 
I use an electric mower that cost 300 when I bought it refurbished, pennies in electricity - requires almost no maintenance.

Squinch (3,842 posts)    Sat Aug 3, 2013, 07:51 PM

2. For the big dryer items, have you ever tried a spinner?

You spin the stuff for about 5 minutes to wring out the water, and then when you hang it, it is bone dry in about an hour. I use it for everything and it costs a fraction of the energy of a dryer.

Squinch (3,842 posts)    Sun Aug 4, 2013, 09:26 PM

6. And here's where I get really crazy:

I don't have a washer. I use one of those crank hand washers (about $40) for the vast majority of my laundry. It takes about 5 loads for a week's laundry for 2 people, including sheets, and the laundry comes out cleaner than it did with the washing machine because you can build in an hour's soak, or even an overnight soak if you want. It also stores pretty easily. I bring comforters to the laundry 6 times a year, and that's all I use the machines for.
 
I also make my own laundry soap, which works better than store bought, and costs about a dollar a gallon.
 
So laundry, which used to cost me $40 or $50 a month is now almost free. But mostly I do it because it uses almost no electric, and is very green.
 
Edited to add: the washer is called a "Wonder washer"

Flaxbee (12,723 posts)    Sun Aug 4, 2013, 09:42 PM

7. OK, so how hard is it (physically) to use the crank washers?

I'm not opposed to hard work and am actually pretty strong - but how does it generally work? Is it any easier on your clothes? Somehow I envision tortured, twisted clothing items, but that may just be vague memories of "I Love Lucy" wandering through my head.
 
I saw one of those washers that you can attach to your sink (like a dishwasher) the other day and started to lust for it -- smaller, compact, on wheels, uses cold water (which is fine by me); I'd like to have small dryer for some items in the winter when it's icy outside, but the spinner as an in-between washing and line drying for most items sounds ideal.
 
How do you make your soap? Have you posted a 'how to' here and I've just missed it? I've considered doing that, too just to eliminate unnecessary chemicals from our daily lives.

Squinch (3,842 posts)    Sun Aug 4, 2013, 09:52 PM

8. The washer is called a Wonder washer I think.

It really isn't hard at all. I have a shelf in my shower and I just put it there. I load it up, turn it for 30 seconds in one direction, 30 seconds in the other direction, go about my business for an hour, turn it for 30 and 30 again, and then let it drain, then rinse it twice (let it drain, fill it again, turn it 10 times in each direction, let it drain again.) There is a little conduit so you can put it next to the sink and drain it into the sink. The crank turns really easily.
 
Don't ask me how it works, but there is some vacuum action in there that makes the stuff come out clean. I've noticed that sometimes whites look dingy when they come out of the washer, but then after I put them through the spinner they're bright white.
 
Here's my link for the soap: http://www.onegoodthingbyjillee.com/2012/02/no-grate-homemade-laundry-soap.html
 
It uses dish soap instead of needing to grate soap into the mixture, so it's easy. You can also put a few drops of essential oil in there if you like. For summer, I'm using lavender and lemon, which smells great.
 
Edited to add: I think it's actually easier on the clothes than the washer. This isn't the old fashioned wringer washer, it's a capsule that you rotate to agitate the water.

IrishAyes (1,842 posts)    Sun Aug 4, 2013, 09:17 PM

4. I just double back and run the washer's spin cycle again.

[Delmar]

Flaxbee (12,723 posts)    Sun Aug 4, 2013, 09:42 PM

7. OK, so how hard is it (physically) to use the crank washers?

I'm not opposed to hard work and am actually pretty strong - but how does it generally work? Is it any easier on your clothes? Somehow I envision tortured, twisted clothing items, but that may just be vague memories of "I Love Lucy" wandering through my head.

I was hoping that Jugsaplenty would weigh in with her thoughts on the dangers of wringer washers.

[Bad Dog]

I love when they get into saving their own bodily waste and the wonderful things they can do with it.  Although, I suspect it may be something beyond frugality at work there.

[GOBUCKS]

I like how they describe the labor and ick factor of saving shower, washer, and toilet water for irrigation, and unplugging little shelf appliances like toasters (toasters?), and filling the house with drying underwear, all to save maybe a dollar a month.

Energy conservation at home is truly a fool's errand.

[jukin]

Funny how people that think they are the leading edge of human development are the ones that live like it is 1850. Efficiency is great but we are at the real flat part of the curve on payback. The low peaches have all been picked. GoBucks is right. Save $6/month living like that? Two quarters a day fly out of my pocket everyday to live in what other people think is paradise.

[miskie]

Why would a DUmmy need to live frugally ? Can't it get Obama to peel a few bills off of his 'stash' ?

[MrsSmith]

2700 square foot home on 5 lots.
 
 
I put the 3 big screen TVs and my laptop on power strips so I can shut them all off easily when not in use.

Frugal???   

[Karin]

I got exhausted just reading about the hand washer contraption.  Good grief.  We now live in a time where you can throw a load in, and go off and do something else.  I like that.

Does unplugging toasters and coffee makers and the like ever save anything?  Is there really such leakage?  If so, isn't that dangerous?  I've always wondered this. 

[vesta111]

I got exhausted just reading about the hand washer contraption.  Good grief.  We now live in a time where you can throw a load in, and go off and do something else.  I like that.

Does unplugging toasters and coffee makers and the like ever save anything?  Is there really such leakage?  If so, isn't that dangerous?  I've always wondered this. 

Now Now, I have heard about woman getting their tit caught in the ringer, arms and hair, me thinks too much Lidia Pinkem aid for woman with Morphine in it may have been to blame.

At one point in my life when I was too poor to use a laundry Mart, I had to wash my and kids clothing in the tub.   Hot water, soap and I would jump in and stomp them like I was making wine and crushing grapes.   Has any of these people ever seen a wash board ?    I had a child going through some of my grandmothers sewing stuff and she  had to ask what was the use for a Darning bulb.

These people that cry poor mouth have never had to have everyone sleep in one room in the middle of winter with just a kerosene heater to keep warm.

Air conditioning or  ceiling Fan's, no way.    Dishwashers and refrigerators with an ice maker, microwaves and gas BBQ grills, disposable diapers, air cleaners and humidifiers and dehumidifiers.
Color TV, + all the things invented in the last 30 years--No way.

Suck it up poor folk, we survived by using and reusing things, recycling our stuff, if something broke we fixed it, if picture tube blew on the TV, we gutted the thing saved what we could from the innards and turned the cabinet into a book shelf much the way we do today with the unused 1990 TV cabinets,
with flat screen they make dandy china cabinets.   

When was the last time anyone saw a kid wearing jeans with a sewed on patch in their jeans that did not come that way new  ?

[Ballygrl]

They put the wonder washer in the shower? the wonder washer is electric.

[vesta111]

They put the wonder washer in the shower? the wonder washer is electric.

Have no idea, Bally, my hair dryer has a caution sticker not to use in the tub or shower.  It takes quite a few deaths from electrocution of idiots to cause the manufacture to pay for the warning stickers.   

[JohnnyReb]

Way back, mom heated water in a cast iron wash pot in the yard and carried it to a wringer type washing machine under a shed by the shop. Must of used a lot of energy because she wasn't fat.

[obumazombie]

How frugal is it to live with your ex ?

[vesta111]

Way back, mom heated water in a cast iron wash pot in the yard and carried it to a wringer type washing machine under a shed by the shop. Must of used a lot of energy because she wasn't fat.

Question was the soap 50% lye ?  Good product, killed the bugs and as a hair wash kept away the hair lice.

Mom came across some old, very old thing a bobs, beautiful carved Asian 3 inch things from a trunk in the attic.  What were these darn things were they just accessories back in the 1800 for the wealthy along the sea port.

She took one them to the Peabody Museum for evaluation on what they were.  Both sides of the family were sea going men and had brought home things that ended up in trunks in the attic.

Was about 6 month later she received a call from the Museum interested in buying the number of pieces she had, letters followed up, a bunch of them.   

The Bobs were hand calved from Whale bone, each very intricate and light,    She decided to keep them and 5 years later she in a Smithsonian Magazine saw the picture of her thing a bob. of what these things were.

They were FLEA catchers of the 1800 life in China worn by the wealthy.  They were filled with a bit of honey, size of a pencil lead and drew in all the fleas and lice on the body.   

Never know what we can come up with to make our descendants 100 years away wonderer what did this mean in their lives.

[67 Rover]

Frugal???   

Not like she paid for them.

[RobJohnson]

How frugal is it to live with your ex ?

 

[obumazombie]

Thank you very much (say it like Elvis) !

[RobJohnson]

I just paid my $300 electric bill. Suck it DUmmies.

[RobJohnson]

I got exhausted just reading about the hand washer contraption.  Good grief.  We now live in a time where you can throw a load in, and go off and do something else.  I like that.

Does unplugging toasters and coffee makers and the like ever save anything?  Is there really such leakage?  If so, isn't that dangerous?  I've always wondered this.  

I don't think coffee makers or toasters have any draw. Unless the coffee pot has a clock or keeps the water hot. I can't imagine a bunch of hassles to save one watt.

25 Appliances to Unplug to Save Energy