Candi Seifer is the most frugal person I know.
When we met, 9 years ago, she was a Manager for Nordstrom. I think her purse cost more than my rent. But she had (and has!) a heart of gold and was (and is!) eager to bless her husband, Aaron, and grow in her walk with the Lord. She became, over time, one of my most treasured friends and has taught me much about life and the Lord.
Since we’d been talking frugality, I asked Candi if she’d email me with a few of her favorite frugal tips. I expected, oh I don’t know, five. Bless this girl, thirty five ideas came my way and I just had to share them with you. These are all things that Candi herself does, along with her husband and two children, earning her the title in my book: Queen of all things frugal. I love her adventurous spirit and willingness to try new things. Perhaps her ideas will bless you too:
Candi’s Crazy List of Frugal-living Ideas
1. Cook from scratch. (Whole chx, homemade bread, applesauce, any desserts.)
2. Buy as little processed food as possible. Skip juice, crackers, breakfast cereal, granola bars, fruit snacks.
3. Meal plan. If you do the same meal plan over and over this reduces cost, (ie. 10 meal plan), no/little special ingredients to purchase.
4. Empty the pantry. If there is food in the cupboard I shouldn’t need to spend money.
5. Use those leftovers, when I meal plan most of my leftovers will morph into the next meal. (ie. spaghetti night to chili night)
6. Keep an extra freezer if you can (we fill ours with stuff from the garden, meat I get on sale or free, and on sale cheese)
7. Get your husband (family) on board with you. If you’re trying to be frugal and serve chicken, but your honey wants a fillet Mignon, you may need to compromise. Aaron always says “the way to a man’s heart is through his stomach.”
8. Don’t eat out at restaurants, make your own latte/coffee too.
9. Couponing doesn’t always save you money, sometimes generic is cheaper.
10. Make all baby food
11. Breastfeed
12. Drink tap water
13. Skip expensive hygiene products (shampoo,conditioner, body wash). Buy the cheapest stuff.
14. Cut out all the expensive cleaning products, just use vinegar and dish soap.
15. Make your own laundry soap with washing soda, bar soap, and borax.
16. Hang dry your clothes
17. Shower less. Wash your hair fewer times.
18. Put two water bottles half filled with rocks and the rest filled with water in your toilet tank, it will save h2o with each flush. This also lessens the strength of the flush so be careful and aware of your household’s “needs.”
19. Compost.
20. Reuse ziplocs when storing homemade bread.
21. Use clothe napkins, dish rags, and clothe towels (not paper)
22. Turn down the thermostat and wear layers instead. (We keep it at 60 during the day and off at night. At night we keep it at 63ish in the kids room.)
23. Leave the oven open after cooking (free heat), watch out for little ones.
24. Minimize your media “needs” (ie. cable, internet, land line, newspaper, magazines, long distance, smart phones, etc). Each family has specific needs so this will vary from family to family. We not only do this for the savings, but also as we feel it necessary for our walks with the Lord as well as raising our children.
25. Use your public library (this can help with the above one).
26. Consignment or thrift! We buy clothes, toys, appliances, and anything else used. Mostly friends and family provide our clothing, toy, and furniture needs, but we have had great success buying and selling second hand.
27. Only spend money in the yard if it will benefit you (buy plants that you can eat and use in the home, or help the other food producing plants in your yard). Buy perennials. Use lavender (decor, air freshener, drawer fresheners, put in laundry soap). All herbs (eat them, medicinal uses). -Calendula flowers (put them on a salad, yum), Marigolds (slug deturants)
28. Things we grow and freeze: jalepenos (we use them in place of canned green chiles), they de-seed and chop super easily when they’re frozen,bell peppers, tomatoes, green beans, carrots, corn, peas, strawberries, blueberries.
29. Things we buy in season or grow and can: tomatoes, peaches, apples, strawberries, blackberries, pears.
30. Things we grow and eat or store in a “root cellar” environment (the garage) in addition to what is mentioned above: squash, beets, cucumbers, zucchini, lettuce, onions, cherries, chives
31. Don’t buy fertilizer and plant food (use your compost)
32. Don’t drink alcohol.
33. Don’t have house pets.
34. Don’t use deodorant or other fragrances
35. Don’t buy a gym membership, run, get some weights, or use workout videos.
{What are your favorite frugal tips and tricks? Candi wants to know! 🙂 Thanks for reading…}
24 thoughts on “Queen Candi's 35 Ways to Save”
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this is good! I think I can put some into action when I get back to the states. Maybe even a few here in Brazil. 🙂 thanks for sharing
I agree! So good… bless you in Brazil Sheri!
Nice tips! I started making my own seasonings for such things as tacos, spaghetti, dryed onion soup mix, etc, it does save money and I can control the salt and additives! Hooray.
Great idea, Cotton. Maybe send me some seasoning recipes and I’ll send you bread machine recipes? 🙂
Oh, Candi! I couldn’t help but laugh reading some of these because I can picture Candi saying it so bluntly. Reading this made me realize how much I miss you, Candi! We need to chat!
I’ll make sure she sees this, Jessica. Great to hear from you! I know she SO loved doing life with you down in Corvallis. Bless you…
These are great tips, and unlike some I’ve read, pretty realistic! Thank you for sharing. I’m curious what she does for deodorant, though. I know some people who make their own, but doe she have a different tip?
Hi Amy! The deodorant thing always piques people’s interest! She just skips it altogether 😉 … I haven’t gotten there yet, but maybe someday!
Baby powder applied with a powder poof works better for me and it’s a lot cheaper.
Of course I will, the end up just costing a few cents…
Thanks so much for these tips! I am trying to work on our budget, and a lot of these little changes would be so easy to make! We’re also taking the “Rice & Beans Challenge” this month (www.eatriceandbeans.com) which allows us to give the money we save to families in East Africa!
Hello there 🙂 I love the spices idea! Homemade taco seasoning, yum. Amy, I just don’t wear any, maybe I’m not super sweaty, I dunno the only time I really really sweat is when I run, and I of course, I shower after that 🙂
Jess, Oh how I miss you all in the valley! The sweet friendships I made in the valley and really just that season of my life is what inspired most of my frugality! Love you friend!
Candi
Homemade Taco Seasoning: taken from Allrecipes.com
1TBSP chili powder
1/4 tsp each of garlic powder, onion powder, crushed red pepper flakes,dried oregano
1/2 tsp paprika
1 1/2 tsp ground cumin
1 tsp sea salt (I use it or Kosher depending on what I have)
1 tsp black pepper
I usually triple or more the recipe and mix in measuring cup or small bowl and put into a jelly jar w/lid and shake. I just label the jar and store in with my spices. Either I buy the spices in bulk quantities or get them when they are sale for 99c or so.
We have no “littles” anymore at home so it works for us but the recipe is adaptable. I usually start adding 1 TSP and then keep going until the flavoring is right for us.
@Cotton, Love this Cotton. Thank you! I bet many will be copying this down, we use taco seasoning all the time!
Awesome, Kelly! Love that!
Thank you, Cotton! Definitely going to mix up some of that, we use taco seasoning all the time!
Great…I have a lot of recipes for saving money making seasonings and trying to get all the additives our. Enjoy your special time Missy! You all deserve it.
Great stuff, Candi! Hey Cotton we use that same taco seasoning recipe from allrecipes.com (love that site)! We live in Silicon Valley so we try to do a lot of these, too. Looking forward to gardening someday!
I’ve been thinking of making my own deodorant (I do need it), but finally decided to try my mother-in-law’s suggestion and just dab on a bit of baking soda after a shower, and after a couple of weeks I’m hooked–it SO works and it’s SO cheap–love it. My husband’s not convinced, tho, so I think I’ll try making some for him soon.
Another great way we save is co-ops and buying clubs. We eat mostly organic, etc, so this is big. We’re a drop site for our raw milk co-op, which gives us a free bottle each week. We order in bulk from places like Azure and Mountain Rose Herbs and then pick up our order from a friend in the club so everyone saves on shipping (and we can split some items too). And we get our meat through a co-op as well for amazing savings on pastured meats.
Ooops. Make that get out all the extra additives!
What proportions do you use to make your laundry detergent? What proportions for household cleaner from vinegar and dish detergent? Thanks!
Jody, Great question and great timing–check out this post from Friday which has both those recipes: http://www.karipatterson.com/2012/03/09/24-switch-to-non-toxic-household-cleaners-52-bites/ … Thanks!