Cutting Expenses

Gas prices are exceptionally high, and because of that, everything else has gone up.

I remember in the '70s, the same thing happened. I remember waiting in line to get gas at ridiculously high prices. "Ridiculously high" back then meant "nearing the dollar mark". The grocery store prices went up: fish went from 10 cents a pound to -- I forgot, but $1.29 sticks in my mind. Watermellon and bananas were both around 9 cents a pound, and they both went up to be out of my budget. Dairy products were also affordable.

For some reason, I easily adjusted my budget to accomodate those price raises back then. Of course, it meant that I didn't buy many of those items as often, either, because my income didn't increase enough to buy those items as often as I used to.

Today, however, I'm finding a different story. I almost feel as though I have been given the choice of either buy gas or buy food.

And I'm sitting here depressed thinking about it -- especially with a pre-teen in the house who is now hungry all the time and who has nearly doubled his intake of food.

Because the grocery prices have gone up so much this time, that even without driving, my income is not covering our food bill adequately now.

So, besides looking for another job just to pay for our gas expenses, I'm looking at other ways to cut our expenses.

The usual cutting of expenses in the food bill category is obvious: grow a garden. I am growing a garden, of course. But I'm looking to expand it. Not only the usual vegetables to be able to can and freeze, I'm looking at growing wheat this year, too. I've never done this, but thought I would try it.

The thought of growing wheat makes me think that I'm going backwards in time; you know, like making and growing everything from scratch like my great-great grandparents I presume did. I almost feel like I've truly joined the self-sustaining crowd out of necessity.

So what are other ways to cut my expenses? I've been looking hard at my buying habits.

Here's some ideas I've come up with:

1. I already reuse baggies. I'm thinking of adding some Tupperware type products to this list to freeze garden items in. Baggies only last through so many washings, but Tupperware type items can last decades.
2. Paper products, paper towels. I'm thinking of cutting them out completely. I barely use paper towels as it is, but I'm thinking of cutting out paper towels all together. My problem would be what do I do with the grease from cooking if I cut out paper towels. I've decided that I'll make my own soap. So I've got a can going by the stove to save the grease. Soap is also expensive now, if you haven't noticed.
3. Paper products, toilet paper. I'm thinking of starting the "family cloth". Look this up on Google. It sounds gross, I know, but women are probably the biggest users of tp. If I can cut out tp from just peeing, it would probably save lots of $$. And the cloth would be like diapers. So... I'm thinking along these lines. TP is outrageously expensive any more, I think, and this would definitely help with the budget.
4. Soap, hand and bar soap. See #2 above. I've noticed even before the gas prices have raised this again, that bar soap is very expensive. So is laundry soap and dish soap. Making my own soap would help in the bath and with laundry. I haven't looked into dish soap yet, but I plan to.
5. Medicines. I have always had an herb garden, and have expanded it this year. I made a list of all medicines we use (basically allergies and cold and flu), and got plants and seeds to switch over to herbals. This needs to be researched more to actually know the pharmacology of plants and how to use them, but it can be done.

So far, these are the areas I'm working on to cut expenses.