While generic brand items, especially groceries, seem to have improved in recent years, there are still many things that you need to watch out for that may seem to save you money at the time of purchase but may end up costing you more in the long run.  With the advent of the Dollar Store, it has become very easy to find “bargains” on everyday personal and household things, but as we all know, cheapness and quality don’t always come hand in hand. Save yourself - money, time, aggravation and, most importantly, your family’s health - by not saving on the following things

9 Things to Not Skimp On

• Cheese

  A few cents per ounce can be the difference between delicious and gross. Luckily for us, the generic brand at our grocery store is really good. A lot of cheap brands of cheese are bulked up with potato starch which has a horrible texture.

• Shampoo and Conditioner

  Occasionally I fall for those 97¢ bottles of shampoo and conditioner because they smell like strawberries or coconuts. But experience has taught me that these yummy hair products promote an increasingly scruffy appearance. The difference in the quality of your hair after a single wash with a good shampoo is worth $3-$5 dollars a bottle. And a 40 oz. bottle of Pantene or Herbal Essence is very economical.

• Electronics

  Cheap electronics may save you money at the time of purchase, but it adds up when you have to make the purchase 3 or more times within the period that a well-made product would have served you. Not to mention the time lost and significant inconvenience. $20 or $30 more spent on a reliable brand will infinitely pay off in the long run.

• Batteries

  Cheap generic brand batteries don’t last as long as brand name batteries and may not be as well-constructed. Battery fluid is toxic so it is worth spending a few more dollars to make sure yours are leak proof, especially if you have children or pets.

• Household cleaners

  Kill germs, not your family. Cheap and little-known brands may cut corners and not list harmful ingredients. Overexposure to certain toxins lead to things like skin irritation, respiratory problems and cancer.

• Bakeware

  If you grease your pans and still have to pry out your food with a knife and spend more time scrubbing the pans than eating, upgrade your bakeware and you will be able to eat more of your baking.

• Dollar Store Pencils

  Dollar store brand pencils like “A+ Homework” will find you spending more time trying to sharpen the pencils than actually writing. The wood and lead are of such poor consistency that they splinter from beginning to end. If you are lucky enough to achieve the likeness of a sharpened pencil, it doesn’t write as well. And we won’t even go into the eraser.

• Pet Food

  Better quality pet foods will keep your pets healthier, improving your finances and quality of life. A pet with kidney disease, cancer, or other illness may cost you $1,000 or more a month. Poor diet in young animals may affect the development of joints, immune systems, and intelligence. I have also read that certain artificial food colors causes aggression in both people and animals.

• Human Food

  For the same reasons as pet food.

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Money on the Mind: Social and Psychological Ramifications

I came across an interesting article on MSN Money last night titled Does money make you mean? which described a study conducted on a group of subjects who had been preconditioned to have money on their minds when various experiments were conducted. The study found that those with money on their minds tended to be more indifferent and less helpful toward others, preferring to do things on their own and waiting longer to ask for help when help was needed.

The Study

The “money primed” group was preconditioned by doing puzzles with money-related words, reading essays containing references to money, being shown posters of money and given play money and tokens to handle. This group was then combined with the control group (not preconditioned to think about money) in several staged situations. In one test, the group was assigned to complete a puzzle and told that help was available if asked for. Money-minded subjects waited longer to ask for help than the control subjects did. In another situation, a passer-by “accidentally” spilled a box of pencils on the floor and the test subjects were asked to help; those who had been “money primed” picked up fewer pencils. When asked to donate to a university student fund, “money primed” subjects gave less.

The researchers concluded that the money-minded subjects weren’t consciously being rude or selfish, but were simply indifferent, as if they didn’t know how to help out or couldn’t see themselves as having a role in someone else’s life.

This Sounds A Lot Like Me

When I read this, my first thought was that this sounded a lot like Madoline and me. Ever since moving to California and needing to live frugally, we have become very independent and tried to be as self-sufficient as possible. When something in our house breaks, we always try to fix it ourselves. When we find that we can’t do it on our own, we usually procrastinate a while before finally calling someone in to fix it. This is, of course, due to the fact that we are money-conscious and try to save whenever we possibly can. While we do not dislike being around other people, we also don’t actively seek to get involved socially.

At this time in our lives, most or all of our behavior is influenced by money. We do not have close family or friends whom we could go to for help if we needed it (because we have moved so much, we have lost touch with childhood friends and most of our classmates now live all over the world and have their own families). Because we don’t feel as if we can rely on people, money is the only thing that can guarantee our health and security.

Money Can Buy Happiness

My second thought after reading about this study was that this is natural survivalist behavior. In this day and age, one simply cannot survive without money. True, money can’t buy “Happiness” bottled and ready to go. But, money buys food, pays the mortgage and doctor’s bills. Money makes sure that our pets, who are our family, are well fed and taken care of. Money is what will keep us healthy and comfortable throughout our lives. And health and comfort play a big part in one’s happiness.

So, at this time, I’m afraid we are just as the research finds - indifferent and unhelpful (with the exception of this blog, hopefully) - not out of hate for others, but out of necessity to ensure our own future survival. As many others do, we dream of one day being financially free. We hope to one day be able to give to causes we believe in and even start charitable organizations of our own. But in order to be able to help others, we have to be able to help ourselves first.

Recommended reading: Does money make you mean?

When brought Sophie home, we gave her a baby-wipe bath (she couldn’t have a real bath as she had recently been spayed) because she was so dirty from being at the animal shelter. As soon as we finished cleaning her up, she began sneezing. A couple of days later, after being licked about the mouth and face by Sophie, Wolfgang started showing symptoms of illness - low energy and clingy (our dogs tend to stick close to us and lean their heads on our shoulders or legs when they’re not feeling well), and a day after that he got a fever and stuffy nose.

In all the years we’ve had dogs and cats, we have never had one catch a cold before (we had a horse that did). We did some searching on the internet about dogs getting colds. Many people are of the opinion that dogs don’t get colds like humans do, but it turns out they do, and small dogs especially are prone to cold and easily fall ill and sometimes die from it.

Madoline made a sweatshirt for Sophie to help keep her warm and we kept her in her crate to keep from getting Ludwig sick, too. Her cold didn’t seem too bad; she slept a lot, sometimes sneezed, but didn’t seem to have congestion problems. Wolfgang, however, couldn’t sleep the night his nasal congestion began because he couldn’t breath through his nose. When awake, he panted through his mouth. Every time he put his head down to try to sleep, he couldn’t breathe again. Madoline stayed up with him all night, and first thing the next morning we took them to the vet.

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While browsing the WiseBread Forums today, I came across an interesting thread in which a member asks: Is “Simple Living” Just Another Term for “Giving Up”?

Several members responded with various opinions:

• There is a difference between simple living and forced poverty.
• Not everyone enjoys the rat race.
• It’s a choice.
• It’s a form of retirement.
• Some live the frugal life because they have no other choice.
• Frugal does not mean “easy,” but instead takes work and ambition.
• It’s the means to an end.

I thought I’d add my own opinion to this and go more into why we live the way we do - sort of a continuation/elaboration on Our Family Financial History which tells how we came to be where we are today. The answer to this question, as evidenced above, is different for everyone depending on your station in life - age, personal goals and lifestyle preferences.

For us, the last answer, “It’s the means to an end,” is closest to our view of “simple living” or “frugal living.” For me, simple living is not just another terms for “giving up.” I like to think of it as “saving up” and making it possible to “live it up” in future years.

Though, I think this has much to do with where we are agewise in our lives. Madoline and I are in our late twenties and we have many years ahead of us. But for someone at midlife, retirement or late-life, it would probably be different.

Our Reasons for Frugal Living are:

• To pay off our house as soon as possible
• To save up to attend graduate school
• To save up for a replacement car when the time comes
• To make sure we and our pets have enough (or more) to live on in later life
• To be able to live as comfortably and healthily as possible in later life
• To be able to help extended family who may need assistance
• To be able to travel and see the all the places we’ve been wanting to see
• To own a small farm on which to keep horses, sheep and dogs
• To be free of debt and worry
• To be able to have the things we want be they large or small
• To be able to pay our taxes - sad, but true

Frugal Living as a Choice

At this time in our lives, we cannot really afford to not live frugally. Our business is still in its development stages, and we are still considering other career paths. Because we prefer to avoid debt and our business is small, we have been using our cash to invest in sewing machines and materials for the business.

So for us, frugal or simple living is a choice because our present lifestyle is also a choice. At this time, we’d like to have a shot at making our business work because we prefer to work for ourselves and be able to work from home so we can be with our dogs who are our closest family. This is the reason we bought our house where the closest city is 40 miles away. We could move to a large city and get full-time jobs if we really wanted or needed to, but for now, we want to try to make our business work.

Frugal Living as a Means to an End

One of the ways in which we hope to make our fortunes is by investing. This also requires some capital other than regular savings and and emergency fund. So that is another reason we live frugally - to save as much money as possible to invest.

How about you? Do you live frugally? If yes, what are your reasons? And if no, why not?

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Some people—especially those related to us—will surely ask us why we chose to adopt this little orphan when we already had two dogs to care for and our income has suffered noticeably in the current economy. We had actually discussed frequently over the past three years the possibility of adopting a small dog as a model for our pet costuming business.


Border Collies have long been our preferred pets and while Ludwig and Wolfgang are great models, using such large dogs to test new patterns and designs wasted a lot of time and materials, especially if we had to correct the patterns and sew them more than once. But we were worried that adding a third dog would disrupt the equilibrium of our family, that there might be personality conflicts and jealousy. That’s not to mention the additional burden on our time and finances such a change would bring.

A few months ago, we put a link on our blog for Dogs in Danger, a website featuring shelter dogs who are due to be euthanized if they do not find a home very soon. We had hoped placing the link would result in some adoptions of needy dogs. Well . . . . good news! It worked! Although we didn’t end up with one of the dogs on this website (the suitable ones being too far away), looking at all the pictures and descriptions of poor homeless dogs made us finally decide to adopt. After all, an adoption would benefit all parties. It would provide a home and family for the dog while making our business more efficient and hopefully more lucrative.

Another reason for adopting at this time is that foreclosures are causing many owners to give up their pets. By taking a dog out of a shelter, we could make room for another, reducing the euthanasia statistics by one. When the digit 1 represents a life, it’s not such a small number after all.

We began searching online for dogs at local shelters who might be a clothes model, pet, and little sibling for Luwie and Wolfie. There were so many cute ones that we were actually tempted to take two . . . or even three. But finances being a consideration, we had to be practical and choose only one.

There was a dog at the Lancaster Animal Shelter who instantly caught our eye. She was listed as a chihuahua, though we think she is half Italian greyhound or whippet. The poor little dog had actually been recently adopted and returned with the complaint that she was too big for a chihuahua and was very nervous and unhappy to be back at the shelter. Not only was she physically perfect for the job, having a neutral color and clean outline, but she was (and is) incredibly sweet and submissive, and went limp like a ragdoll when picked up.

With a payment of just $38.00, this little girl became our Sophia (pronounced “so-FYE-uh” in the 18th century way), Sophie for short. And we are glad to announce that everything worked out happily. We are fond of Sophia, who is our first toy dog, and she seems quite satisfied with us. Wolfgang is delighted to have a new friend and Ludwig is beginning to get curious about her after raising his eyebrows (he really does) and saying “What’s this?” for 24 hours.

Sophia has started a new life as a little princess with a big wardrobe and has reached the happy ending of the doggy fairy tale which is a “forever home.” Of course, we couldn’t wait to dress her up and already made her two new outfits. Isn’t she lovely?

* * * * * * * * *

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With the charms of summer also come not-so-charming and unwelcome visitors. With consistent 100+ degree weather in the desert we call home, 6- and 8-legged visitors (or really more like trespassers) are almost a regular part of life. But we have discovered a few safe and relative effective ways to keep the trespasser traffic under control without endangering our health or that of our children/pets Ludwig and Wolfgang.

Ways to Safely Repel and Kill Ants

Ants are the largest problem for us. In this desert, there are more types of ants than we have seen anywhere else we’ve lived - there are tiny red ants, medium ants, and jumbo ants (luckily the jumbo ones don’t see fit to come inside).

Prevention is the Best Medicine

The most basic, safest and easiest way to keep the ant traffic down is simply keeping the kitchen as clean as possible.

• Avoid leaving dirty dishes in the sink.
• Wash pots and pans immediately if you cook anything with meat or a lot of oil.
• Wipe the counters several times a day with soap. A minuscule crumb or little drop of something sweet can quickly bring a hoard of ants.
• Take out the kitchen trash everyday. Take out trash immediately if it contains meat, bones, greasy paper towels and napkins, meat packaging and sweet things.
• Avoid eating in bedrooms, and be careful of dropping crumbs in other rooms of the house.
• I’ve also found that having the air conditioner on helps.

Creepy Fact: When you dispatch an ant on duty, you are in fact killing a “she” and not an “it” (or “he”). Worker ants are all female. The males are only used for breeding.

Ways to Safely Kill Ants

Sometimes keeping clean doesn’t keep them away completely (scouts sometimes explore squeaky clean counters), or if you miss a crumb or two. If you have children or pets as we do, the fewer poisons you use around the house the better. Even if you don’t have children or pets, it is best to avoid using toxins as they will affect your health.

• Vinegar
  Vinegar is our preferred ant killer. It kills small ants almost immediately and is completely safe. Simply spray the ants and wipe them away.
• Yeast and Sugar
  Mix some dry yeast and sugar and leave it out in a place ants frequent. The sugar will attract the ants to the yeast, which once brought back to the nest and consumed, will expand in their bellies and kill them. This method might cease to work after a few times as the ants might wise up and avoid the yeast. Caution: Make sure the yeast is in a location that can’t be reached by your pet(s). It’s not poisonous, but ingestion can be dangerous.
• EcoSmart
  I recently discovered a natural and effective insecticide called EcoSmart, which is made of organic vanilla, cinnamon and rosemary oils. It kills ants and other insects on contact and smells nice while at it. It is also affordable at $3.87 per can at Walmart. This is the only commercial insect repellent and killer we use in our house.

Keep reading for tips on repelling and killing other insects (spiders, roaches, silverfish, etc.)

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