We're expecting to save A LOT on heating and lighting, now that easy child 2/difficult child 2 & BF2 have moved out. We are also saving on hot water. Although we have solar hot water, easy child 2/difficult child 2 would ALWAYS insist on turning on the electric booster so she could run her bath at 42C. She then would sometimes wait an hour or more before getting in, which really annoyed me and husband. But simply without the extra bodies, we're finding a sunny winter's day still gives us enough hot water for showers for just about all of us. If the water's not quite hot enough, the booster on for half an hour is usually all we need for one more pleasantly hot shower.
I try and shower during the day, so the water has more daylight to heat up again for the evening shower people.
Cooking - I've been cooking in bulk so we can eat leftovers in various forms. It's been cheaper. It's also better in winter because cold nights and warm stews go well.
Cheap recipes - I buy the cheapest beef of all - gravy beef - which isn't even on display in the shop, I have to ask for it. The butcher cuts it up for me into chunks and I use a number of different recipes, especially Indian/Sri Lankan curries, which I then leave to braise for a minimum of three to four hours, the surface barely moving. That way the meat doesn't dry out but it cooks through so it can almost fall apart. I also don't use curry powder, I follow the recipe that gives the individual spices, and make up the curry that way.
I grow a lot of vegetables. Tonight I'm harvesting some bok choi for a stir-fry. I bought the meat in bulk on special, as a whole scotch fillet which I then cut into small 'medallions' and froze.
Stir-fries are a good way to eat healthily and save money. We use a lot of fresh vegetables and not much meat. I thaw about 3-400g of meat for four people and as the meat is partly thawed, I cut it paper-thin. I put the meat into the dauce I am going to use - usually it's a mix of oyster sauce, soy sauce, a splash of sherry and a dash of sesame oil. The vegetables are cut up into chunks and we cook the vegetables first, then take them out of the wok. Any nuts are fried next, and then taken out and put with the vegetables. Then the meat (and sauce) goes in until the meat is almost done (very fast, if it's really thin) then the vegetables are thrown back in for a last quick warm-through. We serve it with steamed rice (cooked absorption method in the microwave).
A fast, cheap, healthy meal.
Clothes - I just bought a lot for difficult child 3, at the local op-shop. I took down some clothes that no longer fit anyone. I mend and patch clothes that can take it and keep old jeans and cut-off pieces of denim, especially to patch denim jeans. I also have a bag of leather scraps which I sometimes use to patch difficult child 3's jeans and trousers. I've also used leather scraps to make babies' shoes.
We don't belong to wine clubs but do visit vineyards when we can. We only buy wine if we like it, and try to not worry too much about the price. However, we don't drink wine often, only on special occasions. At the moment I'm not drinking at all.
Water - we have a filter system installed (because our drinking water is sometimes too heavily chlorinated) and we use the filter to fill plastic drink bottles so we have always got a boxful of full water bottles in the car. We try to avoid buying water bottles when we go out. Sometimes the kids buy a particular variety of fruit drink (from Chinatown) and these make really attractive and useful water bottles afterwards. That way we throw out (ie put in the recycling) any old or damaged bottles, and change around to newer ones.
We pack lunch when going somewhere, instead of planning to buy it. Or if we haven't had the time or the ingredients, we buy the ingredients and make lunch that way. For example, when grocery shopping I might buy a couple of bread rolls and a slab of gourmet cheese. A bag of salad greens and a kilo of tomatoes to be taken home - then I can make salad rolls from the cheese, the bread rolls, one of the tomatoes and maybe tear some leaves off a head of lettuce or the bag of salad greens.
I'm growing my own mung bean sprouts.
I don't buy shoes very often - op-shops when I can, Chinatown for my favourite flat black all-cotton shoes (A$18 a pair); thongs (aka flip-flops) or bare feet in summer, but I buy long ugg boots every few years for winter wear. We scotchgard the uggs so they will stay clean and water-proof. I've worn them in the snow for years now, whenever we make trips to the snow.
Washing - we cold-wash, using a front loader. No dryer, we use the clothes line. If it's raining for weeks then we take the washing to a friend's place and use HER dryer.
We've kept chooks in the past for eggs, but our current lot are too old to lay much now. We may go buy more young ones from a battery hen place nearby. We buy the retirees and give them a new lease of life, rather than see them slaughtered.
Compost - we make our own. All vegetable scraps and weeds go into the compost, or into the chookhouse (which is like a giant compost heap in itself).
I saw a really great mini-compost heap idea on TV the other night - fabulous for small gardens to have a compost heap hiding in plain sight!
You get a post-hole digger and dig a hole. Submerge in the hole a large plastic paint bucket into which large holes have been drilled in the sides and base. Bury the bucket so only the rim is above the ground, but the bucket is still empty. Add a layer of gravel to the bottom of the bucket, then you can begin to fill the bucket with scraps. To cover the bucket - find a pot, or a large attractive dish which could be used as an ornament in the garden or maybe a low bird bath, and sit this over the bucket.
The recommendation is to have several of these buckets going, started at different intervals. One could be in use, another could be maturing, the third could be storage for compost already made and ready to be used on the garden.
You use the compost heap/bucket by throwing in your scraps and then covering them with newspaper and a bit of soil every so often. Aerating them is also good - we have a wire spiral thing which we can screw down into the heap then lift up, to turn it over. We use a larger tool in the chookhouse, to turn that over occasionally.
And done right - no smell. Not even in the chookhouse. If it does smell, throw in a bit of garden lime.
The buried bucket method can mean you have a productive, recycling garden in a very small space but nobody will know. It can look great. You can put plants all around the buckets, the dish can look like part of the landscaping.
We also use plastic bags as bin liners. Lots of the other suggestions - also used.
Shampoo & conditioner - I don't know when I last opened a bottle. I take all the "empties" and use those. I add water, shake it (gently) and let it stand. Then I wash my hair in the watered-down liquid. I can get sometimes ten washes out of what someone else would have thrown away.
BUT - once you water it down, you MUST use it up fairly soon (a matter of months at most) because if it's sufficiently diiute, bacteria can grow in it and it can go "off" and smell awful. probably not tat good for you, either. The same rule goes for dishwashing detergent and liquid soap.
We use super-concentrated dishwashing detergent, but the kids know to only use a drop.
Some cheaper options can be false economy - you need to really assess whether going cheaper is the best option. Like buying cheap wine - if it tastes awful, you'd probably prefer water anyway.
We do allow luxuries; the trade-off is, use less. So no compounded chocolate, only the really good stuff. But only a small square a day.
We bought ourselves a couple of digital cameras and this saves us buying and developing film. Similarly, an iPod has been a godsend. We play it in the car instead of playing our large supply of tapes.
Many more ideas - I'll share them as I think of them. We do so much automatically, it's hard to sit down and analyse it all!
Marg