Vermicomposting Worm Farm – DIY, Easy, and Frugal

Kitchen Compost Bucket – DIY, Easy, and Frugal

Here is an article I just wrote detailing how I am frugal, but not cheap.

Here are a couple of related articles:

http://www.fivecentnickel.com/.....end-money/
http://www.fivecentnickel.com/.....ly-frugal/

We only have one vehicle so we carpool. We tend the garden together, do house projects together (like our new paver patio & freshly installed back yard). We go for bike rides & walks, we read different books but in the same room & play peek-a-boo from behind the books. We chase each other around the house like little kids sometimes… giggling the whole time.

You get the idea. We love each other & now that we are not so blinded by needing to spend money to have fun we are progressively more creative, interactive, & in love.

It truly has been a blessed change.

My moment of awakening was when I read Rich Dad Poor Dad and it explained that assets are anything that generate income while liabilities are things that use your income. Once I was able to understand that I started focusing to spend my money on assets & liabilities… which had a side effect of spending more of my money on needs rather than wants.

@David: My advice is to ask yourself if you NEED the new vehicle, or if a used vehicle (which you can also get KILLER deals on right now) and do so through a filter of Frugality.

@Justin: I will be posting the instructions on making my compost bin (and the kitchen scraps bucket) on DebtFreeAdventure.com later this week. I believe Nickel is going to link to the post on this page… once I put it up. Thanks for your interest! The compost bins truly do provide great value.

FYI: NIssan and Suzuki are offering up to $3500 off of their Frontier/Equator trucks. These are the same truck, only with different badges.

I agree with the Harvard professor. People admitting they can’t afford something makes them feel week. I believe that is because the society we live in teaches that a person’s self worth should be determined by their net worth. That is the Matrix that must be broken.

I feel that in a lot of cases if a person has a high self worth, they will be less “tempted” by the things they see that they don’t need.

In my opinion, that is the key to being content with what a person has.

@Jason: You have realized & address a main solution presented in this post! Which is… go through your existing piles of stuff around the house, basement, garage, barn… and look for suitable alternatives to buying new parts!! Most excellent my friend!

Wait a day for each $100 you’re thinking of spending. Great way to look at it!

Around here, it isn’t that you merely think that other people have everything–most of them actually do.

And here’s something peculiar I’ve identified in living here: the upper middle class is hopelessly conformist. If Neighbor A has the latest Toy Du Jour, Neighbors B thru Z will have it within weeks. I suppose you get thown off the Social Register if you resist, which might explain why we don’t get invited to the really cool parties

Speaking of parties, those toys seem to dominate a lot of party conversation. My wife and I mostly hang out with others of our ilk, the Toyless.

One of the things about living in a lower-income neighborhood is the peer pressure is lower, and aimed a little differently. Some of it is worse (military advertising and recruitment, drugs) some of it is better (riding the bus, wearing hand-me-downs), some of it just misses us (the focus on hairstyles that just don’t work in his hair, church status stuff).

We’ll see as he gets older, but for myself I’ve found it a lot easier to live here & socialize with people who don’t make a ton of money or don’t value income as much (or both – it’s a mix of low-income by choice and low-income not by choice).

You could have been describing me and my wife not so very long ago.

One thing we’ve found that works is to go shopping ALONE! Two aren’t better then one when it comes to resisting tempation. You can actually reinforce one anothers temptations, if only to avoid an arguement. It seems this was an issue in the Adam & Eve caper, so it’s hardly new. We find we spend noticeably less when shopping alone, especially without the kids.

MLR(#4)–In response to “who do you blame”, I’d like to take a stab at that. We’re really in the grip of “something” much bigger than we imagine. We can’t blame TV alone, it’s really an entire cultural business norm toward marketing, and technology has only taken the assault to new and unimagined heights. It isn’t only the ability of marketers to use technology in slick ads, but also our own deep-seated desire to acquire the new technology itself. Technology creates new technology so it’s a never ending cycle of gadgets to be “needed”.

At the root it’s a spiritual issue. We’re like fish swimming in a polluted pond (the culture) and we’re taking in the dirt continuously in spite of our best efforts. The only chance we have to find virtue in the pond is to gain greater understanding of what’s REALLY happening around us and to consciously and purposefully work to resist going along to get along and change our own behavior. (OK, I confess to being a Christian as well…)

That’s why these “confessions” by Matt and other bloggers are so helpful. They give us a chance to see that others face the same issues and tell us what it is they’re doing about it with concrete steps. None of us can do this alone.

@MLR: The debate on keeping kids from advertising can be saved for a post specifically addressing it (it is an incredibly important topic). re:regulation – Suffice to say that I never promote regulation… on the contrary I always promote changing on an individual level. After all, that is the best & most powerful thing each of us can do.

@Thomas: I love it… “But last time I checked, my savings from last year are still looking pretty stylish.” Thanks for that, and point seconded!

I’ve developed a knack for putting buys off. I tell myself to wait and the next/new model will be even better, whatever it is. After a while, I appreciate the model I have and really appreciate the savings I’m racking up.

The latest model goes out of style when the new one comes out. But last time I checked, my savings from last year are still looking pretty stylish.

You can try as hard as you like but you won’t keep marketing from your kid.

With public education being underfunded, who do they turn to? Large companies. For what? Books, office supplies, food products, etc… and all of this comes with advertising. (Those text books with ads make me sick)

Even without that institutionalized effect, your kids will still play with other kids who have the Barbie Convertible or Lifesize Transformer. They will watch TV at their house. They will play video games.

As much as we try, we can’t hide our children from advertising. All we can do is limit it.

Matt –

I asked what you thought we should do about it because it sounded like you were hinting at regulation ;p

But I’m really really bad at resisting temptation when I run into it. Christmas shopping kills me, and having to make a Christmas list (which my not-in-laws demand and then mostly ignore) means I put the energy into thinking about things I want and then end up buying them for myself after Christmas.

MLR – my four year old is no more resistant to marketing than any other kid, but he hardly ever sees any of it (again with staying out of the things-we-don’t-buy aisle at the grocery store, and not having any kid-friendly TV channels except PBS). The other thing that helps is that we don’t just make buying decisions based on cost – there’s also environmental impact, packaging, sugar content, whether we could make it ourselves, and whether we already have something similar. Because of the glut of hand-me-downs and gifts, almost anything a kid could ask for mine already has – and the few things that we would be willing to have in the house but he doesn’t have, he can put on his birthday list or Christmas list.

I do try to say yes to pretty much anything that fits those criteria, so it’s not always no, no, no. (This is why I now have candied kumquats – turns out, kumquats look alluring but nobody really likes them, so I had to do something else with them.) And I think it helps that we live in a lower-income neighborhood, so he’s not deprived compared to his peers.

@Linden: I am a Christian and I could not agree more. Thank you for your comment… my wife & I feel the same way. All of the “sacrifices” we have made have DEFINITELY turned out to be blessings!

On the flip side, I am pretty horrible at spending money for things I do need (or maybe even just really want!). I have been trying to get better at letting myself spend money. One of my best and larger purchases has been my road bike that I used to tour across Europe. It was an $800 bike or so, and I got it on sale for about $500. It came direct from manufacturer so I assembled it myself. The bike is wonderful.

For your needs, I think you found a great compromise! Learning to do the modifications yourself is crucial and saves a ton of money! Rear and front pannier racks are pretty cheap (you could prob find on craigslist or freecycle) and so are fenders. Although, if you are putting a rear rack on you could probably go without the fender.

In re: to the marketing: Just curious, who do you blame? And do you think the only answer is that people practice restraint? The unfortunate part of marketing is that a lot of it is targeted at children. The marketing agencies spend a lot of money to appeal to the child’s psyche, so you can’t blame the child for succumbing to desire!

@Dawn: My wife & I no longer go grocery shopping unless we have a list, and we RARELY go into shopping centers anymore. This helps… but what helped us A LOT more was canceling our satellite TV service and shutting off the tube!