40 Ways to Know If You're Frugal

if you're Frugal there's things that you do and things other people [Music] notice consider this your Frugal quiz we did some studying and we came up with 40 items of which to base whether your Frugal or not on and we're going to keep score here in our little studio location but before we get going if you don't know us I'm Larry and this is Phil Phil this is my youngest son Phil he's sitting in for Hope tonight isn't that wonderful and we're from under the median where every week we bring you videos on practical frugality I'll be reading from a list that hope compiled on Frugal points and between philli and I will'll determine whether we do these as a family or not and do these add up enough to make our family a Frugal family so Phillip let's go with the very first point here the first one is you consider grocery shopping a competitive Sport and proudly tell everyone about the total of Mount that you saved do you think we do this oh yeah we do this all the time it is kind of a point of Adventure when we go out to the grocery store to see how good we can do on the items that they have offering for sale or on special aisles number two your idea of a Splurge is buying the store brand cereal instead of the generic one do you think we do this yeah a little bit I I think I think the closest we've gotten is maybe getting like actual raisin brand or actual Cheerios rather than the generic brand from Aldi well I can't remember the last time we did that most of the time we buy the mville brand from Aldi and those are really cheap we don't really eat a lot of ceral we don't eat cereal for breakfast we eat either oatmeal or cream of wheat which we think are actually better than eating cereal but it's nice on a Sunday night isn't it to have a bowl of cereal just as fun or to have some as a snack food number three you reuse teab bags until they resemble ancient artifacts I don't I don't think we've done that too much on I don't know we haven't been crazy tea drinkers but I don't think we've reused tea bags a ton I I don't reuse them at all once I have tea out of a tea bag I'm done I want full strength and that that now hope and Dan are different they will reuse and reuse and reuse until that teabag has nothing left of it but that's that's for them I'm not like that I'll drink some tea and then I'm done uh number four buying in bulk makes you feel like you've won the lottery what do you think about that one oh yeah we find all kinds of different things when we go to the the Amish place in Cuba it's all the time we find different things if you add up what we save in buying let's say oatmeal in bulk compared to what it costs new it's a major amount of savings because a big bag a big 50 lb bag will only cost about $26 and when you add up what 50 lbs would cost you if you went to the store and bought it just off the shelf one at a time it would be at least double that amount so we really like buying in bulk and it is a little bit like hitting the lottery for us we feel pretty good about that one so that one definitely yes your wardrobe is a collection of hand me downs thrift store finds and garments from a decade ago yeah yeah definitely I think that almost all of my wardrobe consists of that in fact I don't think I've ever bought a piece of clothing new before I would feel like ripped off if I bought a lot of clothing new now I have some clothing that goes way back even more than a decade I have a jack jacket it's a yellow windbreaker from the 1970s I bought it shortly after I graduated from high school and I still have it and I still wear it when I'm riding my bike in the spring so there are some just some pieces of clothing that last a long time I like it when Jackets last a long time too I like a jacket to last for at least 20 or 30 years as long as you're not too hard on them you keep them clean you you keep them neat they'll last a long time there's no point in replacing that anytime too soon you've mastered the art of DIY repairs with duct tape as your trusty sidekick yeah I I I don't I don't think we've used that quite as much I think more than anything we've used like we've used bumper stickers a couple times we we've used bumper stickers a couple times I forgot about that that's so true I've uh I've accidentally backed the car into something on the the Crown Vic years and years ago we had a Crown Vic and and it scratched the bumper a little bit and it was right in a place where a bumper sticker would go just perfectly so I put a an FM radio bumper sticker right over the blemish and by it looked this as good as new yeah now what we don't do I'm not a big user of duct tape I'm not into duct tape but I uh I will use glue uh I like to glue things together but I use it appropriately to do the job that it's intended to do I don't try to use it for everything so we're not big duck duct tape people per se so I'd have to say no literally to say literally no on that one we we don't really use duct tape as a repair item your version of a luxury vacation involves camping in the backyard I think that James and John did this a lot more than I and Dan did yeah uh I think I've maybe done it once but I definitely wouldn't call it luxury vacation no I I think the Smoky Mountains is calling your name again that was a good vacation and we need to go back there and I would love to take you guys out to Colorado sometime that was one of my favorite states to go visit there's so much to see their so much natural beauty that we just don't have in our backyard not quite no uh so I would say no to that one we definitely don't spend luxury vacations in in our backyard yeah free samples at Sam's are the highlight of your Saturday afternoon oh man you go at the perfect time you don't even need to get lunch when you get home that's right yeah we'll go there and we'll use that as our lunch and and we go there to buy things we don't we're not just going there for lunch but now I don't I don't think they've had as many samples lately as they used to have they used to have about nine or 10 samples and what they do is they put them all throughout the store so you if you're into the samples you're going to get around to the whole store and find some things to purchase that's their idea of having those items that are uh offered for tasting uh your kitchen is decorated with drying washed plastic Ziplock bags yeah that's definitely true when you when you finish washing the dishes you'll usually come down and see a Ziploc bag on the faucet from time to time yeah we put them over the faucet or we put them over the water container yeah um you know hope got me on to that I didn't use to collect the Ziploc bags at all I would throw them out once they're done you know one and done is what I figured Hope was the one that got me into washing and saving those and if you're talking about Ziploc freezer bags those are pretty thick and they're well made they'll handle quite a few washes before they're worn out so yep we'll use them until they actually rip or they have a little tear in them and only then do we throw those things out retail therapy to you that means strolling through the clearance aisle uh maybe I I think that Mom does a lot of this this would be a yes for Mom Mom does a lot of this I feel like I I you we're we're both let more of the we go into a store to get what we need to get and then we go out bet you bet yeah I I like to go in with my list conquer what's on the list pay for it and I'm done I I don't like spend any time shopping now will go in and she'll find three areas in Kroger that has clearance items and she has to go to all three of them no matter when she shops and go through everything and make sure there's nothing there that's going to escape the clearance price from her cart your idea of a gourme meal is anything you can cook using leftovers I definitely we've definitely done this from time to time yeah we'll be like what are we having for supper oh we're having leftovers and I would say for sure we eat our leftovers we make enough food so that it's extra and we'll use leftovers for the next meal but we also like to go through the back of the uh the pantry and look through everything there make sure we've used everything up make sure we used everything up in the refrigerator and hope will put a lot of things together and make a really good meal I mean they're they're good so I don't mind doing that at all I would say yes to this one we definitely take our leftovers and repurpose them into a new meal the words sale and disc account have a magical effect on your mood yeah that that's definitely true uh when whenever whenever that's mentioned it's always like oh so what was the actual price yeah it's it's really good if you feel like you're getting a better price on an item than what they normally sell for it's like you're winning at something you're you're you're getting ahead it's a way to make some ground on something and save money so we always like it and feel better if if we can get something on sale or on a discount your friends know not to ask you to split the bill evenly at restaurants what would you say to that one I mean I've been to restaurants so uh so so we just don't go out to eat that much we just really don't go out to eat no I I don't know if that has a direct effect on our family just cuz we may maybe twice a year no and then the other thing about splitting the bill evenly with friends we usually order the things that don't cost a lot off of the uh off the menu anyway in fact we don't usually order soda or coffee we'll just drink water if we go out to eat and frankly with our our vegan lifestyle we really don't enjoy eating out that much there aren't that many places that we can go and get a really good meal we usually go out to eat if we get a some kind of a a um a card that will pay for it or we we get something from maybe as a gift somebody's given us uh some some money to go out to eat on and we go out as a family but we don't split it with other people uh I've never split my ticket with other people that I've gone out to eat with I pay for what I buy and they pay for what they purchase uh okay so I would say no on this one you've calculated the cost per use of every item you own oh absolutely we've done this so much yes yeah I do that a lot with my car I want to keep the cost of driving my car down to the minimal so I'll I'll check out to see how much does it cost to take Philip to work it's 10 miles one direction to take Philip to work so if I take him to work and come back home and then pick him up I've driven 40 miles so don't I check every time about what mileage I'm getting with each trip and I make sure that I'm getting the best mileage that I can we got 40 miles to the gallon in the Honda Fit today yeah and in colder weather it's really hard to get good mileage so we felt like we really won and that gives you a good feeling you know when you can kind of beat the system save a little bit of money doing that and the other thing that we save money at on this same idea is with electricity we try to use items that don't use that much electricity and try to save that way don't put a lot of lights on in a room use the smallest TV possible uh that kind of thing uh we use thermoses for the coffee that way you're not heating the coffee up uh every time you want a cup of coffee there's just lots of things you can do to save money and I think that makes us Frugal so that one I would say absolutely yes your phone is a relic because you refuse to upgrade until it's absolutely necessary what would you say to that one Phil uh I'd say that's uh pretty accurate yeah this is our basement phone people I kid you not and it works perfectly you know what's nice about this phone it never runs low on batteries and it's always plugged in and we always know where it's at because it has to be kept in one place so there are some advantages about these old relics of the past now do we have different kinds of phones besides this yeah but I mean when you're downstairs you certainly can't miss when this one's ringing you sure can't no we have cell phones we do have newer phones though including cell phones and some others around the house that are much more portable than this one but it's fun having this old Relic yeah around you get a sense of accomplishment when finding loose change in your couch cushions yeah you think we find Loose Change in the cou couch cushions I don't know if it's a couch cushions but definitely when we're like out on a walk or something and we find or like walking around in the parking lot of a place and we find something it's definitely accomplishment yeah yeah it is kind of nice cuz it's unexpected a lot of times I'll find Loose Change in the car it'll be where you where you put a like your your coffee cup holders there'll be maybe a quarter sitting there or a nickel or dime now we do keep quarters in the car because at Aldi you have to use a quarter in order to get one of their carts out they have to put a quarter in to pull the cart out and take it into the store so we do deliberately Keep Change in the car for that reason but sometimes it's nice to find extra change it's like it's like a gift you know a little gift that you have coming to you you've turned off lights in your house to save on electricity even if it means nav ating in the dark I don't know if navigating in the dark is something we do well I know Dan does that Dan does that a little bit Dan does that he does keep the lights way down uh but we definitely turn a light on when we're on in a room though to move around and stuff I might put a minimal amount of lights on so it's just enough to maybe light up the area the problem with Hope's broken arm you know hope broke her arm uh about uh about two weeks ago and by the time you see this video uh that was because of not enough Lighting in the area that she was walking through unfortunately though the sun had gone down and our light switches aren't near the doorways in the basement where we were editing the video she went to get the hard drive went out the room was dark and she tripped and fell so next time we'll light that up it's not worth having your house darkened even just to save a little bit of money if somebody's going to get hurt badly that's definitely not an advantage so I would say no to this one uh we don't we don't keep the house dark in order to save money on electricity your idea of a fancy coffee is brewing it at home in your mismatched mugs what do you think of that um yeah we we definitely always Brew our stuff at home I mean it's by the time you get around to getting a coffee every day at Starbucks it's not worth it I think I think the coffee is just as good Brewing it at home as long as you have the a good coffee mix it will taste as good as it did at the restaurant and I don't care about the mix mismatched mugs there I I like them I like what we have in our mug Supply it's kind of fun I have my favorite one this is one of my favorites here and there's no other to it this is the only one like it so that's there's no match for that mug and that doesn't bother us at all I would rather save the money than go to the store and spend like $5 on a cup of coffee oh my gosh who could afford that we can't so I would say yes definitely to this one receiving a free pen makes your day and you guard it like treasure what do you think of that like like if you go out to a place where there's a lot of meetings and different things and they give away free pins what do you what do you think about that possibility uh I'll just say this we've gotten a lot of pens over the years I think all I think all of the pens in our house our free pins this is one to our bank that has our bank the name of our bank on that one uh I would say all the pins in our house our free pens we don't when's the last time we bought a pen I can't remember I don't think I've ever seen us buy pens in our lifetime Lifetime and we don't and we get a a PF of free pin so it makes sense to get free pens and keep them and use them yeah so yes to that one for sure you've hosted potluck dinner is because sharing the cost is a The Frugal way to Feast what do you think of that I don't I don't think so I I don't I don't really think we've hosted many potluck dinners to be honest we haven't we haven't um but we have had potluck dinners with our friends where we've met uh with Dave and Donna and John and Linda at their house and we've all bought food and I guess you could call that a potluck we we decided ahead of time which what we you know what each person was going to bring with whether they were going to bring a salad or or bring a sandwich or whatever it was so uh and I would say that's good by sharing the food you do save some money that isn't our point in doing it though we're not doing it to save money we're we're doing it to be friends and to have fun yeah so I don't I don't think that's our point in doing it but um I don't think I would really call that a Frugal thing but it is a lot cheaper than eating out so I guess in that line of thinking it is Frugal and we could say yes to it even though we really don't practice that for the sake of saving money we're on 21 your holiday decorations are a mix of handmade crafts and items from the dollar store what do you think of what we have for our Christmas decorations yeah I think the good portion of them is stuff that's handmade and stuff from the dollar store or from garage sales and estate sales a lot of our uh ornaments on our tree C clear back to the 50s and 40s Y and I I have some ornaments that go back to my childhood that I've kept from when I was a kid I have just a couple things still left from those days and they mean a lot to me those mean more to me than anything you could buy new anyway so I'd say yes we definitely have items that are used that we decorate with I don't think we go to the dollar store too much for these I can't remember I can't remember going to the Dollar Store this reminds me of our first disagreement When Hope and I were first married my mom bought us a a 3-foot Christmas tree and we had no money and hope was going to put the tree up put it on the stand and just leave it it had no lights it had no ornaments and I said I'm going to go get ornaments and light so I went and bought silver and gold ornaments and a a light a string of lights to go around it and I just did it I went out bought it and put it on there uh because I just didn't want to have that without decorations that was our only tree for several years for about I don't know five or six years that was our our Christmas tree little little three-foot uh tree uh you know the exact price of every item in your grocery cart before reaching the checkout every time yes we're always calculating as we're going along so I have this much left in my budget for the month this is how much I'm spending means I'm going to have this much amount left every time we go shopping we're always calculating along the way exactly uh hope will tell us what we have for that trip and then she'll make you keep track and add it up on your calculator if you're if you're with her or if I'm with her she makes me do it and that way we don't go over our budget we don't want to go over the uh especially the food budget it's so easy to go over on the food budget um number 23 you've turned your thermostat down so low that your friends think your home doubles as a freezer well yeah we keep it we keep it pretty low what one of my friends when he was staying here he was like oh I I was talking to him the other day and he's like oh uh dad was having me uh turn up the thermostat he was like oh up from 52 well we do keep it pretty cool at night now right now we're keeping it warm because hope and I are both uh sleeping in separate beds upstairs with her broken arm I and then she's out in the living room I am keeping it warmer for her because I don't want her to get cold so we're running it at 68 right now we run it at 65 during the day and at night 62 we lower it down to 62 to save a little money then you get into your nice warm bedding uh and you stay pretty warm philli has a really good way to stay warm how do you stay warm in your room uh well it helps that my room is directly above the furnace that does help that that keeps your room quite a bit warmer also my computer is in there and that lets off quite a bit of heat so yeah a lot of times they'll come in my room she's like holy cow it's warm in their room can I move in that is right now you're your computer is something you built so you saved some money and this isn't on our list but but Philip saved some money on his computer by building one up from scratch right you just figured what parts you needed you put them together you had John help you out a little bit on that I think didn't you yeah well I figured out the parts I bought the parts and I built the computer because it would cost more to have someone else buy like a lot more it would cost like $3 $400 more to have someone else buy it and ship it and no it's not worth it I'll just do it yeah yeah so he saved money doing that and all of our kids like to get good deals on things you have a dedicated drawer for ketchup packets and soy sauce from takeout yeah we do and whenever we we buy stuff typically we'll have a lot of sauces so we'll have leftover stuff we can use at a later date Yeah we actually put them in separate cups like we put the mustard in separate cups to keep it organized the ketchup and uh yeah that's fun to do uh certainly a lot cheaper than having to buy it all the time at the store and you know if you got it left over you might as well use it keep it organized uh your friends ask for financial advice knowing you're the Frugal Guru in the group what do you think about that even at my age my my friends still ask me from time to time uh my my thoughts on this certain Financial purchase all right yeah we have friends that might ask us uh do are you willing to do this or would you do this or would you do that uh they might and if they see something nice in our home they might ask us where we got it and how we got it then we'll then we'll tell them so yeah I mean once you know somebody that's really good at doing something it's always good to seek out their advice right so because that other person has worked hard at it might save you some time so yes to that one for sure you reuse gift wrap so skillfully that your presence look like a work of art in repurposed paper no we've never reused Gift Rap no um we uh we'll buy it on sale after Christmas we'll find hope we'll find it on sale somewhere and she'll buy several rolls of it to use maybe two or three years later it'll it'll keep for so long and she'll get so much of it that we'll use it for quite a few years afterwards now here's what I do when I'm wrapping something to save a little money on gift WP I'll use newspaper I'll use I'll reuse old usable newspaper and I'll try to find articles that match the situation that that are equal with a birthday or maybe I can find the name of the person it's going to go to in the paper cut that out and put them on make it kind of fun so yeah so we definitely will save money on paper but we don't really reuse it and rewrap stuff up into used paper no so I would say no to that one uh number 27 you've calculated the exact mileage to make car trips worthwhile based on gas prices well speak of the devil how about that we just talked about that one a little bit ago yeah we definitely do that and we also try to find the most efficient ways to go yep and and we'll use Map Quest and different things or uh or our our inline car uh device the GPS on the car to to get the best route so we're not wasting any time or energy or any driving getting from one place to another your home decor is a mix of hand me- down furniture and thrift store Treasures oh absolutely absolutely that I would say perfectly yeah absolutely perfectly uh I have a bookcase from when I was growing up we used to have world book and sapias on it I spent a lot of time as a child looking through those in fact even in high school looking through those and enjoying reading those we didn't have the internet we had World Book you know our Encyclopedia set um we like repurposing I have some old clocks that that we use old radios that we have in the house uh most of our furniture is purchase at a thrift store and we get a really good price on it when James was working at a thrift store we would get a little discount we'd get it at Half Price yeah and when Daniel worked there they would give it to us at half price so we ended up getting some really good deals on stuff but I'm looking at a chair right across the room we purchased uh an old 19 I mean an 1880s rocking chair for I think it was like $45 it's a it's a uh an oak chair really nice and so I think Furniture was made so much better anyway a long time ago it's worth having old furniture everything was made better a long time ago yeah and we've had a lot of furniture given to us when somebody breaks up their house uh they'll call us and say do you want to look at what we have we're just going to throw it out and we'll look at something we'll go yeah there's nothing wrong with that we'll bring it home and and use it absolutely yes to that one your favorite words are BOGO and two for one no I don't have any idea I don't even know I know I rent that I go BOGO I have no idea BOGO is buy one get one oh free that's what it is I didn't know I've never heard of the term I hadn't heard of the term I hope had heard of it so buy one get one free uh that's a good deal I mean if you can find a deal at a store where you can basically you're getting 50% off of theice that's fine I'm not sure that I really look for deals like that they're kind of hard to find if if you come across them though and you need the item the main thing for me in buying any item that's on sale is if I don't need it it's not a bargain if if you don't need the item it's not a bargain to you you're just spending money you don't need to be spending so if it's something you planned on buying in the first place then buy one get one free is a good deal I wouldn't say yes to this for us your favorite words and two for one uh mine are well some of my favorite words are it's free out to the curb yeah somebody's throwing that out yeah let's go get that I'm more into doing that than I am buying one getting one free yeah um number 30 you've turned washing dishes into a water saving competition um a little bit Yeah I think you try to you try to fill up the area as with as much water as possible to the point that it's just enough that you need to cover a dish right and when I'm rinsing them I try to use as little as possible so you get the item in get it right under the water turn the water off and put the item in the strainer now here's what we do with our dishes though and I don't know if it saves a lot of money it saves time when we wash dishes we put them in a strainer and let them air dry most of the time and not wipe them right away we'll wipe them maybe oh couple hours later and they won't be much water on them and then put them away but uh so I don't know if that saves a lot of money we try not to use a lot of water though while we're doing dishes uh we try to put maybe a third of the water into the dish pan and then as the as you're rinsing you can fill it up slowly with water as you're you're rinsing you keep that water going into your dish pan and then you're you're keeping the water up at a pretty good level because every time you pull a dish out you pull some water out and it drips down the sink and into the drain so I would say technically yes uh we do we I don't think it's a competition it's not a water saving competition but we do try to save water when we do dishes mhm your browser history is full of price comparison sites before making any purchase yeah definitely as far as online purchases go mom will always cross like check across different sites to make sure she's getting the best deal possible oh yeah she'll spend the whole afternoon sometimes on an expensive item going through making sure she can find not only the best price on it but the best deal for the company that's selling it and the model that you're looking at for that item I do the same thing uh when I'm buying a car I'll take weeks and weeks at just researching the models that I'm looking for and I narrow it down to the model that our family can use and then I'll spend another two or three weeks just looking at that model in places that are around us maybe 40 miles from our home and what what can we do to get the best deal so it does pay to take some time and go online and do that so absolutely yes to that one number 32 you've mastered the art at regifting without getting caught um yeah we've done we've done we've done a fair amount of regifting I think you know I don't find regifting a problem you just have to make sure you know where the gift came from yeah and you don't give it back to that person so as long as you don't give it back to the person that gave it to you you're you're pretty good I don't think of it as a thing about getting caught at because if somebody gives you an item they're giving it to you to do whatever you want with it yeah after you've been given an item it's up to you to decide whether you're going to use it resell it uh set it aside for a while give it away to a good friend maybe they could use it more than you could that's up to you so I don't have a problem with regifting I don't see it as an issue of getting caught I don't I don't see it from that standpoint at all because you just kind of you just want to be careful not offend the person that gave it to you by giving it back to the your ideal date night involves sharing a single desert to split the cost well how do you feel about that one Phil I uh I wouldn't know you haven't dated anybody yet not yet no would you would you be willing to split a dessert to split the cost to split the cost um probably yeah well let me let me tell you about dates if you're asking a girl on a date you're not going to split the cost with her that's going to break you up with that girl real fast because if a girl has to pay money in order to go out on a date with you and you've asked her out that's not good now I never made hope pay for anything when we dated however in home here when we when we have a date night and we spend some time here at home our date nights cons consist of just pretty much watching a movie off the TV enjoying our time together uh down in the family room maybe getting some popcorn to eat or or something to munch on uh we don't split the cost we just split the time we take the time between this so in this one I would never split the cost ever on a date I never made hope pay for anything that I asked her out on she didn't pay any money I just wouldn't do that it's not Kosher so I would say no on that one 34 you carry a big purse full of snacks into the theater well yeah do you do that when you go to the movie well when uh when Aunt Mary takes us she would always she would always do that oh she does so she'll brings some food into the theater well she'll at least bring like a couple cans of soda and some stuff with us from like Dollar Tree and I I still do that I still bring stuff from home oh okay I don't have a problem with that uh hope and I don't go to the theater we just don't go out we don't go out to movies I can't see paying money to go to a movie when it eventually is going to come out and as a DVD or a Blu-ray or it's going to be on TV or it's going to be on one of those sharing networks uh on the internet I just don't see a point in going to the theater and hope has trouble sitting through movies she gets motion sick at a movie theater it's just how how her how she visualizes things it makes her motion sick so she really doesn't enjoy going to the movie theater so once again we watch movies at home on our TV set and I love watching DVDs and Blu-rays anyway uh that is the way that I do it we don't worry about carrying snacks into a movie theater so I would say for us no but for you yes I do yeah you do that okay um 38 your idea of a tech upgrade is buying a refurbished Gadget yeah I mean if you can get it in good enough Condition it's definitely fully worth it why not why have to spend the money on an item just because it's new and in the Box how long does it stay new and in the Box about 30 seconds right yeah now when I was growing up I always had items that were several models older than what was popular and I saved a lot of money when people were listening to CDs I had a real D Real Player running eventually we bought a CD player but I was usually a couple uh technology places behind where everybody else was and I didn't care it didn't bother me at all I loved AM radio when FM came out I listened quite a bit to am eventually switched over to FM that kind of thing so if you keep up all the time with technology advances though you'll be spending a lot of money I didn't even get a cell phone till about a year ago I didn't have a cell phone I had one from work and it worked fine they let me use it for personal calls as long as they were local calls and didn't cost them any extra money I could use it for that um but I didn't see any point in it and and when I bought a phone I bought a used phone not a brand new one y so we still you know exercise the saving money I idea from that I think that's uh that's something that's in here too your favorite restaurant is one with the unlimited bread sticks or complimentary chips and salsa or peanuts or peanuts or peanuts yeah at all the time I mean if you Dy in at nante I mean you get free bread free bread yeah their bread is awesome they bread it's sweet bread oh my gosh it's like candy that stuff is so good it is worth going there if you ever if you ever come to the Midwest avanes you want to keep that in mind absolutely definitely one of our favorite places but once again hope and I really don't go out to eat very much you go out more than we do I did go out more than you do Philip goes out with friends all the time you go out to this went out the other day with the friend who Avan you're right very good very good well nothing wrong with that I did that when I was your age to your travel bucket list consists of destination where you have friends with spare rooms so you only travel to places where a friend has a room free for you what do you think of that I uh I think to an extent if it's somewhere you want to go might as well but also know do we do we practice that have you I don't I don't think so I don't think the only the only time I can remember doing something a little bit like this was we had a family a real nice family homeschooling family uh James became uh a a pen pal with one of their sons they invited us up to their home and they live up in northern Wisconsin and we went up there and we enjoyed it so much that we went there for several years every year afterwards now we didn't do it just because it was cheap because we would be at their house and we would help them with some of their their food costs and we didn't just go up there and live off of them um we did it because we love the family and it was so fun to be with the the family but when we went to the Smoky Mountains we didn't look for people's houses to stay at we stayed at the Airbnb homes and really enjoyed it that's where you save up your money because you're Frugal you have some money in order to spend a nice vacation so I I don't think that we um we really do that I don't think I don't think that one would be a yes for us we don't look for places to go just because somebody can give us a free place to stay you barter skills instead of paying for services um yeah we've definitely done this in the past oh yeah um I've done that we had a friend of ours that wanted to do our will he was an attorney and I traded videotaping their wedding for him doing our will so that was trading services and we've done that many many times so that can be a good benefit and why not especially if you know people that can do really good work you've mastered the art of making your own cleaning supplies from House hold items household items no I don't think we have definitely not done that not that I can think of no we buy things at the store to clean with good quality cleaning supplies and we don't just make do with so now you can do that you can use uh alcohol as a cleaner you can use all kinds of different things as as a cleaner that you buy at the store there's nothing wrong with that but we don't typically do that we go ahead and and buy what we need and then use that um hope has made laundry detergent homemade from different things but she had to go get the material she we didn't have it in our home she had to go buy a certain kind of soap and certain kinds of materials in order to put it together she did save quite a bit of money and made some good laundry detergent by doing that so I would say no to that one number 40 you've hosted a clothing swap party to refresh your wardrobe without spending a dime so you go to a friend's house and you chain you trade clothes with them no no we've never done that once so no no no no we'll go to Salvation Army or Goodwill or any thrift store and and get clothing that way I think this is a a Goodwill shirt it doesn't uh it doesn't do too good on the pockets anymore but it's a I think it's a Goodwill shirt I love the shirt uh you can get good clothes that way but we don't trade our clothes with friends I don't think we do that so we're going to tabulate and add up to see whether we come out as frugal people based on this study or not so we added up the nose how many did we say no to out of the 40 and we came up with 12 items that we said no to and so we figured that into 40 that becomes 76% yes 76% is more than half so we are Frugal according to this study but not super frugal mhm uh I think it's it's just all how you define it they defined it in a very specific way that didn't really fit the way we do a lot of things and that might be the case for you too this was just for fun it was just a fun exercise and you got to see Phillip a little bit on camera who's never been on camera before true well not in your camera no no that's that's true Philip and I've done a lot of bike riding together and he's he's really kind of my buddy we spend a lot of time together we like to watch TV yeah old science fiction programming together and all kinds of stuff so we watched the Star Trek not too long ago did yeah yeah so that was fun so uh so I hope you enjoyed this and if you enjoyed it give it a like And subscribe and if you have some ideas on what you would do differently on some of these put them in the comment field we like to hear from you we enjoy hearing anything that you guys say in the comments now if you're looking for some real Frugal habits we have done a video on it and we have it right over there

Channel: Under the Median

Views: 50,525

Keywords: under the median, budgeting tips, save money, save more money, frugal, frugal living, extreme frugality, extreme frugal tips, extreme frugal living tips, frugal living tips and ideas, frugal hacks, frugal habits, habits of frugal people, tips for living frugally, creative frugal habits, creative frugal tips, frugal quiz, frugality quiz, how frugal are you?, frugal lifestyle, fox tapercastaits

Id: 2Cw7GGgqk9U

Length: 41min 30sec (2490 seconds)

Published: Fri Jan 26 2024