- Hey, guys, it's Dana, and it's time
to talk about money. And in this video, I wanted to share with you 15-ish frugal things that you can do that people did during
the Great Depression. So let's talk about that. So in the 1920s in the United States, it was the Roaring Twenties. Things were really good, the economy was fantastic, and then in 1929, the stock market crashed. So during the 1930s, a lot of people had to get
really creative to save money. That was the Great Depression as its called. And during that time, they did a lot of things
that we can still do now, even though it's 100 years later almost, that we can do to save money. So one of my all time absolute favorite movies is "Misty of Chincoteague," and I think that movie is from 1961, but in the movie, it's about ponies, which I like ponies, but in the movie, those two kids and they
live with their grandparents and there was this one fantastic scene with the grandfather
that I just love so much. And the grandfather is paying
for something at a store, and the guy says to him, I can extend you credit. You don't have to pay right now, I can give you credit. And the grandfather just freaks out and is really insulted, so insulted that the shop owner who's his friend offers
to extend him credit. - [Shop Owner] Your temper about? - I'm not losing my temper. I'm just trying to figure out
what's going on around here. - Well, we heard you
were in a little trouble. We were only trying to help. - How much do I owe you? - [Shop Owner] $18 even. - And so then he pays him with his cash, and so I just love that scene because of the just now, everybody uses their credit
cards left and right, no big deal, but then, it was really
shameful to not pay with cash. And so that is number one, is to stop using credit cards and pay for things with cash. When you buy things on credit, then you have interest and you usually end up spending more money for that item than you would have if you had just paid for it to begin with. Number two is to cook all
of your meals from scratch. I really like this. I think it's actually healthier, anyway, to do that, or just cook your meals at home. Stop eating out. Cook your meals at home. Overall, I think it'll be healthier and it's probably going to increase time spent with your family together cooking. I think that, yeah, cooking from home, cooking from scratch. Eat your leftovers. I love eating leftovers. I actually think they test
better sometimes the next day. However, my husband never
really likes to eat leftovers. I think it's fantastic. So you took the time to cook it once and so eat it again the next day or the day after or if you had it for
dinner the day before, eat it for lunch the next day. It'll save you so much money if you stop throwing out all of your leftovers. Save them and eat it for your next meal. Don't buy new, buy secondhand. Stop buying new products. You can go and shop thrift stores, flea markets, you can make it a game, have fun with it. And if you buy something
that is slightly used, clothing is a big thing that comes up, then it's going to save
you money a lot to times, and mostly, sometimes it's an exactly as good condition as
it would be brand new. Also, cars, buy your cars pre-owned, not brand new. That way, somebody else has taken the beating on the drop in value. So as soon as you buy a new car, you drive off the lot, it's going to just, I mean you've already just lost several thousand dollars just by
driving it off the lot. Let someone else take that, you buy it pre-owned, a year or two old, it'll save you a lot of money. So buy used, not new. Used is such a bad term. I don't know, it's not used, it's just, it makes it sound like it's used up. Just pre-owned. Speaking of clothes, when the weather drops, or the temperature drops, and it gets colder, don't turn up your heat. Just put on more layers of clothing. In our house, we actually each of us has a robe and I love my robe. I guess you can call it a house robe, but I wear it all the time at home, it keeps me, it really does help keep us all warm and it makes me feel cozy and it's just like the Mr. Rogers thing, like when I get home from work. It's like remember when he would sit down, take off his shoes and change from his work
clothes to his home clothes? I like when I get home, I do change my clothes
and I put on my robe, and the robe just makes
me feel like I'm home, I'm relaxed, and it switches my brain from work mode to home family mode. So wear more layers so
that way it'll help you so you don't go and turn up the heat. Spend more time with people. If you watch older movies, speaking of older movies
earlier in the video, or older TV shows, people are just sitting
around playing chess or sitting at parks or
sitting together at home. And so do more of just
spending your time with people, not necessarily traveling, going out, doing lots of things that are costly. Try to stay and do things, just spend time together. Next, don't throw things away. So if you have a pair of jeans and there's a hole in it, then cut them off and make them jeans for the summer, which I have over and over again multiple times in my life. So you are just reusing things. Don't throw them out just
because they have a hole or a stain on the bottom. See if there's any way you can patch it, cut it, figure out some way to repurpose it before you discard it. And then, it can still be of use to you, if just find a way. Or like old towels, you can rip them up and use them as for cleaning rags, or we use cloth hand towels instead of paper towels, so try to figure out ways to reuse, repurpose things before
you get rid of them. Plant a garden and grow your own food. I do not do this, but I really would like to, and my friend Cara on the farm, I've talked to her before
about growing potatoes 'cause I love potatoes. I know it's not that hard. I just, I really need to do it. I think this spring I might actually, finally plant my garden, but try to grow some of your own food and that will save money. And it wouldn't be a video of mine if I didn't talk about cloth diapers. If you've been watching
me for years and years, you we cloth diapered three
out of four of our babies. So stop using disposable products and try to use cloth. Or if it really is intimidating to you, I say just try it. At least try it even if you cut the amount of disposable diapers
that your buying in half. That will still save
you money if maybe half the time you're using some cloth diapers, then yeah, so cloth diaper, if you can, your babies. Wear an apron. Again, if you watch shows
from the 1950s, 1960s or people living during
the Great Depression era, they always were wearing an apron because it helps to minimize the amount of stains on your clothes and makes your clothes last longer. So when you're cooking or cleaning or doing things around the house, put on an apron. It'll help protect your clothing so that maybe you don't
have to wash it as much or it's not, you don't have to get rid of it 'cause it's all dirty, stained up. So wear an apron. Speaking of washing, maybe don't wash your clothes
after each time you wear it. I know some of you are like. But no, really, if you have, I don't know, jeans or a pair of pants
that you wore for an hour, maybe, 'cause I have some
clothes I wear to church. I'll wear it to church for an hour, then I'll come home and
it's perfectly clean. It's not dirty in any way. So maybe you take it off and you can hang it back up and wear it again before you just throw
it right in the washer. Too many of us are too quick to just throw it in the hamper. You put it on, I don't even like this shirt, I don't wear it today, you take it off, you put it in the hamper. You didn't even wear it, you didn't wear it at all and you're just putting it in the hamper. So maybe try to minimize the amount of washing you're doing for certain things that are really not dirty. Go to the library and
think about sharing things. So lots of us don't maybe necessarily walk into a library anymore, but get a library card. You can borrow things digitally. I talk a lot about the apps that I use or I read or listen to
audiobooks that I check out from the library through
my app on my phone. So get a library and try to share things, get a library card and try to share things with other people. You can do swap meet stuff. Just try to think about how you can, again, now buy stuff brand new, but how you can borrow it and give it and share it and spread things around. This works good or entertainment stuff. If you have a certain book that you love, maybe you wanna give it to someone else, they give you a book, just try to share the love. Work extra jobs. During the Great Depression, they had to bring in as much money as they could from lots
of different sources, so maybe there's a way
you can pick up some extra money somewhere
to help you save money. And so, look for work
in different locations. Ask people if they need help doing certain things, and maybe you'll discover that you got an extra little side gig somewhere that you hadn't anticipated. Dry your clothes inside or outside if it's nice
weather on a clothesline. So stop using your electric driers, I guess what I'm trying to say. In the winter months, you can actually hang
your wet clothes inside and it will help with the humidity, so you don't need a humidifier. Also in the winter months, so consider maybe not drying
every single load of laundry. Maybe you can do every other one where you take it out of the wash and hang it to dry inside the house, or like I said, outside if it's nice
weather on a clothesline. That will help you save money 'cause you're not constantly
running your electric drier. Our electric drier broke a while ago and so we had a good couple of months where we were hang drying
everything in the winter inside. And it was a little bit
of extra work to do that, but it will help you save money. So if you're able to
maybe consider doing it. Okay, and then lastly is to DIY, do-it-yourself anything that you can. If there's something you're able to fix up or without hiring a repair person, then do it. It's fantastic if you
have the skills to do that or maybe you wanna learn. With YouTube readily available, you can pretty much learn how
to do anything on your own, at least give it a shot by yourself. If these a lot of supplies
involved or tools, maybe you don't wanna do it. Just make sure you're checking to see maybe it is just less expensive just to buy something new
versus all this hard work and labor and supply cost. Might be more expensive to fix it than it is to buy a new
one is what I'm saying. But if you can fix it inexpensively, then consider doing that. Try to fix up your own stuff. Okay, so hopefully that
gave you some ideas of how to live frugally just like they did during the Great Depression and frugal does not mean cheap. I don't believe it means cheap. So many commentors on prior frugal videos are always saying, you're cheap, you're cheap, and it doesn't have to be cheap. It doesn't. You can make this stuff be, you can have some, if you make your own clothes, they can be incredible. They can be higher quality, better than what you can buy in the store, and that's not cheap clothing. So being frugal just means you are mindful of how you are spending your money and that you are thoughtful and you care about it, but it doesn't mean that you are cheap. I don't think that those
two things are synonymous, but obviously some people do, but I just wanted to say that at the end. They don't have to be the same. Okay, you get it. All right, you guys. If it's your first time here, be sure to subscribe. I'm here every single week
talking all about money, and we're a family of six
in the Philadelphia area, and that's it. I'll talk to you next week. Bye, guys.
