Frugal Friday

[ecosophia]

Welcome back to Frugal Friday!  This is a weekly forum post to encourage people to share tips on saving money, especially but not only by doing stuff yourself. A new post will be going up every Friday, and will remain active until the next one goes up. Contributions will be moderated, of course, and I have some simple rules to offer, which have changed as we've proceeded. (As things have settled down to a nice steady conversational pace, for example, I've deleted the rules about only one tip per person per week and about limiting the length of comments; I was worried early on about people flooding the forum with too much too fast, but I think we're past that risk.)

Rule #1:  this is a place for polite, friendly conversations about how to save money in difficult times. It's not a place to post news, views, rants, or emotional outbursts about the reasons why the times are difficult and saving money is necessary. Nor is it a place to use a money saving tip to smuggle in news, views, etc.  I have a delete button and I'm not afraid to use it.

Rule #2:  this is not a place for you to sell goods or services, period. Here again, I have a delete button and I'm not afraid to use it.

Rule #3:  please give your tip a heading that explains briefly what it's about.  Homemade Chicken Soup, Garden Containers, Cheap Attic Insulation, and Vinegar Cleans Windows are good examples of headings. That way people can find the things that are relevant for them. If you don't put a heading on your tip it will be deleted.

Rule #4: don't post anything that would amount to advocating criminal activity. Any such suggestions will not be put through.

With that said, have at it!

Comments

Re: baby etc

[(Anonymous)]

Absolutely! We used EC with our kid - still had him in nappies most of the time but we could reduce them at least 50% by just paying attention from a very young age to when he was likely to need to go (mostly before and after meals and just on waking) and then holding him over the loo or a bowl to deal with it and then later putting him on the potty for a few mins.

Compare that to my brother and sisters' kids who were left in disposables for years just because no one had time to toilet train them (since toilet training basically means going through all the EC steps of paying enough attention to know when your kid typically needs to go, learning their signs and then helping them do their business somewhere appropriate).

My conclusion was parents need to do all those EC steps anyway at some point, but if there is a regular carer able to make the upfront time investment then they can save a heck of a lot of time and money by doing it as early as possible.

Or, you can wait until daycare and the daycare ladies will do it for you. That worked for my sister.

Re: baby etc

[methylethyl]

We did that, with a certain amount of success, with our first kid. The thing completely fell apart with subsequent kids, because I simply couldn't pay that kind of close attention, while also looking after other children :/ YMMV. But even without intense attention, keeping a little potty near wherever you change diapers, and sitting the kid on it whenever you have to remove their pants anyway... will save you at least a few soiled diapers, and help get them used to the idea!