Your2cents: September Save and February Fast

Our first guest post is written by Mary's long time friend, Katie.  I truly admire how she, her husband and three children live.  She is a self professed "tree hugger" and jumped at the chance to share her thoughts with our readers.  Her reality might not be for everyone (I must admit, me included).  But there are so many things to learn from this post.  So please read it all(so much good stuff, I couldn't leave anything out!).  Use all the ideas or just a few; but open your mind to how changing your habits for just a few days out of every year could change your family's life.

SEPTEMBER SAVE and FEBRUARY FAST

About eight or nine years ago, my husband and I were both attending college, I was working at the university in lieu of tuition, and my husband worked for just above minimum wage at a drug rehab center.  We rented out rooms in our home to college student to make ends meet, and still we found ourselves running over budget.  One night as I was looking for something to make for dinner, I realized that we had food in our cupboards and in the freezer that I kept passing over for something I liked better.  This was the moment September Save originated.  For one month, we did no grocery shopping.  By the end of the month, we had really cleaned out the cupboards and got to the bottom of our freezer.  At that time, we only spent $100 per month on food, but for us that was a huge savings and helped us balance out our budget.

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no lights (we use candles, which we buy at garage sales or get free)

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no grocery shopping (except to buy milk for the children)

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no baby sitters

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no going out to eat

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basically no spending money, except in emergency situations (i.e. medicine, doctor visit, etc.)

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limited driving (when we lived in a smaller town, we would bike or walk everywhere, including the grocery store and all points of entertainment - the library, the park, friend's homes and church)

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now we try to carpool as much as possible, even to work when it's possible

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no air conditioning (in September)

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only wood burning heat (in February), which allows us also to cook on the wood burner

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I cut one load of laundry each week (from 4 to 3) and do not use the dryer

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In September, I hang clothes outside

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In February, I hang clothes in front of the wood stoves

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I use only handmade laundry detergent

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no money spent on entertainment (which encourages the kids to come up with fun activities to do for free.  One favorite is going to local parks.)

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limited or shared showers / baths (it helps that I have 3 girls) - 4 minutes max.

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we use luke warm water for bathing and rinsing dishes

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this is the time of year that I go through the totes under the sink and find those little bottles of shampoo I swiped from the hotel.  Earlier in our venture, we used to go through the totes in the attic and see what was in there that we could use … those old lunch boxes we saved from elementary school, the china from my grandmother we never used … now we use it all.  We went from 20 to 2 totes in our attic.

Over the years, I've learned quite a bit about how our habits impact our spending.  Here are some of the things in our lives that have permanently changed since we started September Save:

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we never buy paper towels, paper napkins, or Kleenex (we use cloth for all)

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we use tuperware instead of Zip-loc bags

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we reuse everything we can in the house, including bread bags (great for kid's sandwiches in their school lunch), milk jugs (for cider in the fall), and thin cotton clothes (for the Swiffer.  I cut them to the right size and reuse them over and over again) to name a few.

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we are always on the look out for free entertainment or free items.  Libraries often have monthly events and at  our church.

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when we go on mission trips or volunteer or even out in public, I watch to learn how other people use what they have to live their lives.  I realize that most of the things that I spend money on are not necessary.

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we use acorns for flour and the acid from the process for laundry detergent

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we have planted an orchard of fruit trees and a grove of blueberry bushes

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we make our own tea from local roots and leaves (we use a book that is very specific about what is edible)

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we make our own applesauce, cider, jam, pickles, salsa, and pasta sauce(mostly from free food from friends and neighbors for the cost of some of the food in return)

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we have a neighbor who recognizes our efforts to save money and be green, who asked us to plant an acre of their property for free (it saves them the money of having to pay somebody to maintain it).  This gives us our corn and corn meal for the year.

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I've learned to research substitutes for items that are costly.  This month I've been looking into alternatives to dishwasher detergent and the stuff you squirt in the little hole in the dishwasher to make the glasses sparkle.

Our family has been extremely blessed over the last decade and has gone from saving $100 in a year from a single September Save to saving nearly $1600 during the two months.  More than that, though, after a month of knowing that the answer is "no", the kids stop asking for Mac & Cheese, McDonalds, and putt-putting at the mall.  Besides; the peaceful, candlelit nights, that I spend with my husband, while we listen to the peepers and remember how lucky we are, is priceless!