With gas prices rising, food prices rising…OK – the price of everything rising…I am often asked about how to get by on very little.
As you may already know, I spent the bulk of the summer of 1997 living in my car with my three small children. Before that, I lived in the cabin from hell (a tar-paper shack in Northern Maine with no running water). Before that, I was your basic middle-class young mom. To read how all that happened, buy this book.
Needless to say, I’ve learned a bit about living on very little in the last 10 years. Because I am deathly afraid of it ever happening again, I’ve struggled to maintain my simple standards – even when times are good! I am so tired of watching people on TV morning shows tell me that the best way to get through a tough time is to save money. Well, if you are anything like me – you don’t make $100,000 or more a year as a television talk show host – so you probably don’t have a lot to save.
Instead, you need ways to save money – or make money – right now, so that you can put food on your table, gas in your car and pay the electric bill.
1. One of the best ways I know to save money is to stay home. Don’t go anywhere this weekend. Don’t go to the convenience store for the newspaper (if you’re reading this, you can probably access your local newspaper via Internet – for free). Don’t buy Sunday morning doughnuts. Don’t leave the house. Look at your car from the window and feel good that you’re not buying anymore gas right now.
2. Get rid of your credit cards – now! They are so tempting. Especially when things are tough. But lose it. Just cut it up and pretend it doesn’t exist. Christmas is coming, and in these hard (only to get harder) times, do you really want to be on the hook for 12 or 16 percent because you felt obligated to give your kids a “good” Christmas? I’m serious. Credit cards are death to a budget – and to self-esteem. Lose them!
3. Stop buying crap food. I’m serious. The next time you go to the store, don’t buy any crap in boxes. Skip the cereal, the cookies and the snack cakes. Skip the crackers. Skip the frozen fish sticks – and frozen lasagna. Buy fresh foods. Buy flour. Buy eggs. Buy more veggies (especially in season veggies like squash). Eat fresh – cook from scratch. You’ll feel better and you’ll save money.
4. Swap for it. You would be shocked by how much you can get done with the simple act of barter. My friend has a wood splitter. We have a pile of wood that needs to be split. He doesn’t have a four-wheel drive truck. He needs to get hay from a farm in “need four wheel drive” place. We have a four-wheel drive truck. Guess how I’m getting my wood split? You can barter services or stuff. Be creative…and ask – a lot of times, people don’t even think about swapping!
5. Use what you have. I won’t lie. We have a bit of a pile. A pile of stuff. It makes for a fairly unkempt-looking barn area, but whenever we need something – a piece of pipe, a piece of wire…whatever – we go to the “pile” before we go to the store. We have all kinds of odds and ends that we can use. And, when we don’t, we have a friend who has odds and ends too (although his are very neat and organized!). We recently needed to fix a break in a pipe under our sink. Our friend had the piece we needed in his collection – and saved us an 80 mile round trip to a big box hardware store!
6. Be generous. If I learned anything from the months I spent living in my car, it’s to be generous. I know, it seems like a strange idea, but I am a firm believer in “what goes around, comes around.” If you are kind and helpful to people around you, it’s bound to come back to you sometime, in someway. And sometimes, whether you’re having hard times or not, having a little good karma goes a long way.
7. Make something. If there is anything I hate, it’s so-called “crafts” that require me to go out and buy a lot of stuff! “Here’s a simple craft,” they say, “now go out an buy $40 worth of this stuff.” What a crock! True crafts were created to make something useful a little pretty – or to make something out of something you already have. I recently read a story in Backwoods Home magazine (I think) about a guy who makes birdhouses out of free wood pallets – and then sells them. Now, that’s a craft! What’s my point? Spend a little of your spare time making something – knit a hat, bake a loaf of bread (if you don’t have a recipe, email me, I have a great one), build a birdhouse, plant a squash seed. Do something else besides worry about cash – or spend it. And, who knows? Maybe you’ll get so good at your craft you can put it on etsy.com and make some spare cash. Or sell your thing at the local farmers’ market or craft fair!
8. Turn off your TV. One of the biggest problems I had way back when, was that I watched entirely too much TV. And I got “sucked in.” I watched home and garden TV shows, food TV shows – all kinds of stuff that made me, basically, feel bad about what I had. These shows made me want more. And I fell for it – hook, line and sinker. I got credit cards and started sprucing up my place. Because I thought it would make me happy. Turns out – that spending that kind of money didn’t make me even close to happy – it just made me broke. The happiest I’ve been in my life are times when all of my children are at the dinner table, or we are all around a simple campfire in the backyard, or when I watch my kids get truly enthusiastic about something. I’ve never been that happy from the TV.
9. Find alternatives. I’m not sure when paper towels, disposable diapers, and chemical cleaning products became mainstream – but they shouldn’t be. Try and find alternatives for everyday household items – you’d be shocked by how much money you’ll save. Use cloth diapers; regular rags and dish towels; and baking soda, lemon juice and vinegar to clean.
http://organicallyinclined.org/2007/07/20/frugal-and-green-tip-of-the-day-july-20-2007/
http://organicallyinclined.org/2007/06/19/why-i-choose-cloth-diapers-over-and-over-again/
10. Ask yourself: “Do I need this?” I used to be tempted by cute little figurines. I know, don’t laugh. But I loved the intricate details of the “Dickens” village – or whatever. Then I started to realize, what is this thing, that I’m about to spend $40 – or whatever on – going to do for me? What joy will I get out of it, beyond the thrill of buying it? Is it enough to be worth the $40 going into savings? Or going into the food budget – or whatever? Definitely not. Buy asking myself things like: “What are you going to do with it once you get it home?” I’m able to avoid all kinds of purchases – and that includes yard sale purchases, where I am often tempted to buy something just because it’s cheap. If you wouldn’t buy it new – don’t buy it at a yard sale!
So, there are 10 ways to save cash and start changing your thinking so you can get by in a depressed economy. The key is to not notice (too much) that the economy is sliding – because you’re so good at saving money! I’m so used to living on next to nothing at this point that I haven’t really felt the “pinch” that a lot of people have talked about – even though I make less than the federal poverty level each year (in cash, that is)!
Please, comment below, and let me know your best ways to save money. Hopefully we’ll get a forum up and going soon. And if you have questions – please email me at michelle [at] organicallyinclined dot org – I’d be happy to help out.
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[...] Lessons Learned from Living in the Car [...]
16th October 2008 at 9:18 am
Candy says:
Thanks for the common sense tips. We all need a bit more of that. The economy is really in the toilet so this will help. I like the tip about making bird houses from pallets – terrific. Wouldn’t have to sell them for much either so you could sell more. Nice.
16th October 2008 at 12:53 am
Lily H. says:
Hello, Michelle. I read your book and found it compelling reading. Your experiences were very visceral and gripping to say the least. I also went
through homelessness many years ago, not quite living in a car (lost it, too)
but close enough for anyone’s tastes.
I was homeless for over a year with only one child, then was expecting my
second, which motivated me to find another avenue to end this unlucky stretch
altogether. Luckily, things worked out better.
As for those so-called “tips”, my local news show ran some similar. I literally
laughed out loud at the obviously aimed at yuppies “survival hints”.
I have many I would like to share: Shop thrift stores! I I have found endless bargains galore at my neighborhood thrift stores, clothes, books, household items, you name it, I’ve found it. And, when you get tired or the item outlives
its usefulness, just give it away or leave it in your alley recycle bin.
Another hint, go alley scavenging. As in the thrifts, I have found countless items,
large and small, just steps away from my back door via my alley. I have found
two desks, a rolling bookshelf, a free-standing pantry shelf, two rolling bins, and
too many to list smaller household items. A notable find was a Pampers case box filled with decent boxed and canned kitchen items discarded from a nearby residence moving away. It’s simply amazing what people consider trash.
I think for the most part, they don’t want to go through the hassle of yard saling
it, just easier to leave it out back where someone will eventually discover it.
I also swing by my local library after hours to see what anyone’s dropped off
for the donation bin just inside the door. I have found caches of magazines and many first-run books folks have just cleaned out a closet or dropped off after a yard sale. I’ve grown my library by leaps and bounds via this avenue.
I once had a neighbor who literally added onto his home with allley scavenged supplies. He constructed an enclosed patio with working lights and doorbell, and, of course, plants he’d grown himself (some of which I helped). Sadly, this dear soul passed away amidst his gardens, doing what he loved.
16th October 2008 at 4:07 pm
Ellen says:
It’s really too bad, this article describes the way my parents raised us back in the 50s and 60s and the way I have always lived. “Waste not, want not” was their motto. So I wonder, if this is the way you live normally, is there any other way to save money?
16th October 2008 at 8:42 pm
Annie says:
Great tips–I would add composting to the list–it’s easy to get started, and there are thousands of websites to help you figure out how! The amount you can save on garbage disposal is astounding! Same goes for recycling. Most places have recycle pick-up available–often for free if you’re already paying for garbage service. Those that don’t offer pick-up usually have centers for recycling disposal–kids enjoy going, too! Both are easy ways to help save on monthly expenses. Composting also has the added benefit of providing good topsoil (or compost tea, with a little extra effort) for planting in your yard! plant a garden, too! Especially if you have kids…they love to eat the veggies they’ve grown themselves. And if you don’t want to grow veggies, try growing flowers. Some markets will help you sell them, and I’ve seen numerous people selling from a van in grocery-store parking lots. It might not be much, but it can mean the next meal on your plate, sometimes.
And in the frame of good karma, volunteer! It’s a great way to meet with like-minded people, make friends, and expand your potential barter-system network! It also has the benefit of satisfaction for a good days work, which is essential when everything else has gone to pot! It might seem counter-intuitive, when you have NOTHING–no house, no job, no money, whatever…to try to “give” then seems perhaps ridiculous. I can only say, “try it!!” It helps. If nothing else, it staves off depression. Sometimes it can lead to jobs, or affordable housing, etc. That was my experience, when I was broke and couch-surfing to survive.
Good for you, taking a difficult life lesson and finding ways to make quality of life improve. Homelessness is difficult, particularly with children to care for, and so many people just give up. Glad you didn’t! Loved the information, and hope to read the book soon. Be well, and good luck!
16th October 2008 at 3:24 pm