Ways I Save Money

In Self proclaimed repurposers ... from Barn on the Web - Daily Happenings, RJ asks,

“So what have you repurposed to save money??”

First of all, let me tell you that RJ is a teenager who lives on a farm in Oklahoma and he is a blogger. I found his blog through a knitting friend and I’m absolutely fascinated by his postings. If you have a chance, I highly recommend subscribing to his blog. You won’t be sorry.

I thought his question was a great one because everyone likes to find ways to save money. Well, mostly everyone. I have to admit that when I was a teenager, I hated the things my parents did to save money and I swore when I became an adult and independent, I would never do things like this! Boy, was I wrong! I know, never say never!

Learning how to save money is an important lesson for my students. Even though they might not think they will use it now in their lives, they may remember some of these lessons when they are older and need to watch their money.

We buy in bulk a lot of things we know we will use and can save more by buying in bulk like toilet paper and rice. We look at unit prices when we shop. We turn down the heat and wear more clothes in the winter. In the summer we turn up the air conditioning or we open windows. We also turn off our hot water heater when we aren’t using it.

I recycle many things around the house. I use old paper shredding machines without the motor as waste baskets. I use huge Rubbermaid tubs as worm composting bins. An old plastic trashcan became a leaf composter. We were given these huge 275 gallon square plastic tubs that we turned into rain barrels and hooked the gutters into them. I use old 5 gal. paint buckets as my water buckets and weeding buckets for gardening. We found a beautiful ceramic butter churn without the top and with a crack in it for near nothing and it is now a waste basket in one of my bathrooms. Things we can’t use go to Goodwill or to someone we know who can use it but we rarely throw away things.

I guess that is why we have so much clutter and we collect things (see Monday’s post on Clutter). I hate to get rid of anything because I keep hoping I will find another use for it.

What do you repurpose? Please share!

Original picture by Pat Hensley