I retired a few years ago, and with the resulting change in income,  I'm all about learning how to economize. Economizing means using personal and family resources where they will do the most good. You use what you have to get what you need or want.  Strategies you might use include:  substituting, conserving, utilizing, cooperating and finding free goods and services.  (source: PennState)

Believe it or not,  economizing not that hard to do and it doesn't necessarily mean you have to live a spartan life and be miserable because you are doing "without".  Simply changing habits, re-prioritizing and learning to be a wise consumer will make a big difference in your budget.  Yet, you can still be happy.

It's pretty obvious that we have become very used to convenience and getting things "fast".  People are very busy, time is "limited" and we try to pack as much as possible into our day.  We have also been subjects of very clever marketing and advertising strategies that are based on science and human behavior research that takes advantage of our habits and facilitates decisions we make.  (This was a topic of an earlier Musing - Power of Habit.) Generational changes have also created a mindset of "I deserve it ", "I'm worth it." and "I want it now.".  (That topic was discussed in an earlier Musing - Generation Me.)  Consumers also tend to very wasteful.  We discard functional items just because we want the newest, latest and greatest.  We have a tendency to overbuy, impulse buy, and practice daily living habits that lead to waste.  (ie. An easy way to save water and money is the subject of an earlier Musing) 

Living On a Dime website (link appears below) offers great ideas in a variety of areas that you can choose from and incorporate into your lifestyle.  Some of their ideas are very easy, and some require more effort and commitment.  What works for you may not work for someone else.

Food and groceries consume a large part of our budget.  Learning to economize in this area can make a significant impact on your budget and life!  Here are some ideas from Living on a Dime that I have found make a difference for us.

1.  Control trips you make to the store.

I found this habit change was very significant.  Naturally, by doing this, you will be saving money on gas AND you will be saving your TIME, which is valuable too!  Just being present in a store increases the likelihood you will make purchases, and most importantly, make unplanned purchases.  Limit your trips by planning, and grocery shopping less often.  A great idea is to eliminate going for one week (and if you must go to get bread or milk, STICK to your list, grab those couple of items and leave before you end up loading your cart with unplanned purchases).  Make an effort to plan meals with what you already have in your pantry vs. running out to get what you need.  I try to have a pantry/freezer day at least once a week, using only what I already have on hand.  You can be creative!  You will use your food pantry items that might end up being forgotten about and ultimately being tossed in the trash.  Our family even practices a tradition we call "backwards day".  Eating together as a family for a traditional breakfast is a rare occasion for us.  Every so often, I will have "backwards day" and serve breakfast for dinner!  This helps me to use things from the freezer (sausages, bacon) and pantry (ingredients for pancakes, waffles or french toast) and even eggs (I don't know about you, but I sometimes end up with an overabundance of eggs that I bought on sale). 

2.  Be flexible and learn to substitute.

Find out that you don't have what you "need" to make a meal?  Sometimes it is tempting to just run out and pick up the missing item from the store.  (see #1).  Often you can simply substitute an item to make things work!  Yesterday, we had pulled pork for dinner and I had planned to use hamburger buns (in my case, homemade) to make sandwiches.  However, I had a "failure" and my buns didn't turn out as planned.  Did I run out to pick up buns?  Nope! We went to Plan B.  I had flour tortillas in the fridge, so we simply had pulled pork wraps vs. pulled pork on a bun.  This substitution worked out just fine and I saved a trip to the store.

3.  Shop sales, take advantage of coupons and try generic brands.

This idea has been around a long time.  One excuse for not using coupons is "I don't have time".  Things have changed and many stores are promoting the convenient use of e-coupons.  You have savings available straight from your smart phone!  Don't forget to visit websites of favorite products.  They often have printable coupons available!  Store sales fliers are now on line too.  Many times, generic brands can be substituted for brand names.  Give them a try and find out which ones you and your family likes.  There can be significant savings by simply switching to generics.

4.  If shopping warehouse stores-exercise good judgement.

Warehouse stores are very popular avenues to "save money".  They really do offer great prices, but not on everything.  Sometimes, when using coupons and sales, you can actually get items cheaper at your local store.  Warehouse stores have packaging that requires you to buy in bulk/large quantity.  One great idea is to split your bulk purchases with others.  You will share in the savings and end up not throwing  away money OR product! If you can't use that amount of product in a reasonable time, you may not be saving money at all.  In addition, the ever changing inventory in warehouse stores also encourages shoppers to "browse" to see what's new.  Fun to do, but dangerous as you will most likely come home with unplanned, impulse purchases!  Make sure you shop with a list, don't be tempted to overbuy in large quantity, which may result in waste and be sure to put some thought into that impulse buy item you have put in your cart.  Evaluate whether you really need the item, or is it simply the "great bargain" that's driving your purchase. 

Pennsylvania State University has a great document about economizing and cutting corners. (link appears below).  It has over 100 GREAT ideas you may want to take advantage of depending on your circumstances and personal situation.  Here is a synopsis of their general strategies.

1. Substitute

Substitute less costly for more costly resources.  Develop a habit of thinking "What can be substituted that would do the job for less money?"

2.  Conserve

Avoid waste.  Develop a habit of thinking "How can we make all items last?  How can we use it more efficiently?"  (example- see my Musing about Saving Water and Money)

3.  Utilize

Find new uses for resources your already have.  Develop a habit of thinking "What are the talents, time or other resources we have that could be put to new, more productive use?"

4.  Cooperate

Resources can be multiplied when you cooperate with others. Think: "How could I or other family members share time or talent with others to stretch our resources?"

5.  Find Free Community Resources

Personal or family resources can be greatly enhanced through use of community resources.  Think" "How can we use and support public services for family welfare, education, health and recreation?"  (easy examples include: using your public library, community parks and recreation programs, and visiting free concerts and fairs.)

http://www.livingonadime.com/saving-on-groceries-make-do/

http://osceola.ifas.ufl.edu/pdfs/FCS_HF/cuttingcosts.pdf

Welcome August.  It's supposed to be the dog days of summer, but where I live, it's been a pretty comfortable and maybe even a cool summer.  With the 4th of July come and gone, price reductions on summer merchandise started to clear the shelves for guess what?  BACK TO SCHOOL!  What may be the 3 most dreaded words for kids around the country are actually welcomed by parents who want to see their children back on regular schedules and busy with learning.  I am sure parents are hearing "I'm bored!" much too often, and have had enough. 

Back to school has become quite a marketing blitz that starts in the middle of summer and marches along until the kids are finally back in school and seated in their desks.  I've been through it with two sons, and have been part of the shopping throngs looking to get school supplies and the back to school wardrobe assembled.  As always, you want to do it right, but get it cheap.  Advertising can really put the pressure on to "overbuy" and potentially come home with every "must have" item...and this isn't just for elementary and high school needs.  There is the college crowd and the dorm "must haves" that can empty your wallet.

It takes a savvy shopper, some planning and some realistic restraint to keep to your budget.  Some things to consider are taking inventory of what you already have that can be reused, shopping sales for loss leaders or incentive items and taking advantage of rebate offers.  For clothing, a money saving strategy that helps is to shop thrift stores for great deals.  For dorm shopping, thrift stores and craigslist offer excellent buys on gently used furniture, small refrigerators, microwaves and other items.

Below are some links to help you with planning for the "back to school" shopping blitz.  Hopefully it will help you to save you some money.

http://www.livingonadime.com/save-money-school-supplies/

http://www.consumerreports.org/cro/2012/07/back-to-school-on-the-cheap/index.htm

http://www.moneycrashers.com/back-to-school-supplies-list-tips/

I recently wrote about the rise of thrift stores and the popularity of re-purposing and being "green".  It seemed like a good time to also talk about minimalism, collecting and hoarding behaviors in people.

Cable shows about hoarders are popular and offer an informative and sometimes shocking look at how serious a problem hoarding can be.  Serious hoarding disorder is a debilitating and even life threatening problem rooted in a psychological disorder. The show offers insight into the extreme end of this behavior and the difficulties it causes to the people whose life it touches.  Being a "continuum of behavior" there are also less extreme and even functional manifestations of these behaviors including collectors and at the other end of the continuum, minimalists.

I think many of us are functional "collectors".  That's the type of person that is a "saver".  They like to keep things "in case they might need or could use it later", or "it's too good to get rid of", or they feel "sentimental about things" or just like "having it".  Collecting is not necessarily a bad thing, unless it starts to get out of control and causes problems with daily life. 

Personally, I know that we are collectors, for all of the reasons I've just listed.  In addition, my parents passed away, and as part of closing out their estate, some of their "stuff" found it's way into my house. With both of us working, we just never took the time to seriously "thin" the collection.  It always fell to the bottom of the "to do" list.  We just went about our busy lives.  We've lived in the same house for 24 years.  Things just naturally "accumulated"!

Now that both of us are retired, we've been taking the time to seriously look at our "stuff" and get rid of things. I like to employ the "keep, donate, sell or trash" mantra.  My brother and I did that when dealing with our parents' estate.  Once done with that, I started going through my own closets and storage boxes.  Doing that helps you find out what you actually have, maybe locate something that was misplaced or forgotten about and also gives you an opportunity to eliminate things from your household.  It was hard to do at first, but I've kept at it and have successfully started to declutter our lives. 

One practice I've employed is this:  If I'm not sure what to do with something, I keep it to "think" about it.  I go through our "collection" annually and have slowly removed unneeded items each year.  I like to think of things needing to "earn" their right to take up space.  If it's functional, truly useful or irreplaceable/sentimental, it can stay.  If something has passed though my hands more than once or twice and has not "earned its space",  it's probably time to let go of it because we really don't need it.  It's very liberating to let go of "stuff" and simplify your life.

The last steps of decluttering your life is to stop adding things with unnecessary buying and organize what is left.  A place for everything and everything in it's place.  Having a cleaner, less cluttered and organized environment is very gratifying and helps you to maintain the hard work you have done.

One last thought.  I recently read about changes in lifestyle of the younger generation vs. older generation.  What is meaningful to the older generation (with thoughts of passing it along to the kids) is not necessarily important or desired by younger people.  Many younger people have different priorities, are more mobile and tend to value "new" things vs "old" things.  As a result, treasured or sentimental "stuff" left by the parents ends up in estate sales, trash or is donated.  What has amazed me personally, is family heirlooms (like family bibles and significant memorabilia) along with family military items and even photographs of ancestors being sold at estate sales.  Sadly, the younger generation is not necessarily interested in great grandma's wedding photos, or grandpa's military uniform or medals.  Different generation and different type of thinking.

Below are some links about hoarding and collecting you might be interested in reading.  The information might be helpful to you or for someone you know.  There are also  great tips for organizing and decluttering.

Just about everyone loves a bargain.  Saving money with coupons, sales, discounts and bonus bucks are methods consumers take advantage of to make their hard earned money stretch farther.  Warehouse membership stores have been very successful, in part, because they offer lower prices and savings to consumers. 

There is another money saving shopping opportunity that has been growing in popularity. Second hand stores and resale shops, now more commonly called thrift stores, have been around for a long time.  There was a time when they were not attractive to most shoppers.  They carried a stigma that you must be "low class", poor or homeless to shop there.  But over the years, while estate sales, garage sales and flea markets have been the staple of the bargain hunter, thrift stores have enjoyed a rise in popularity.  I think the increasing popularity is due to a change in the perception of thrift stores along with the trend towards recycling, re-purposing, being "green" and of course strategies for coping with a challenging economy and rising costs for everything!  One person's trash can become another person's treasure.  Just because you are finished with something does not mean it is not useful to someone else, or doesn't have significant usable life left to it.  Thrift stores keep many things from ending up in a landfill when the items gain new life in a another household.  Many items at the thrift stores are barely used, some are even new, with tags still on them.  There are name brand and designer items available along with vintage and collectable items.  Whether you are shopping for smalls or even larger items, there is plenty to choose from in different departments of the store (childrens, men's, womens, housewares, furniture, appliances, jewelry, books, electronics).  You never know when you will find just what you were looking for.  You will save money and if the thrift is connected to a charitable organization, you'll be helping needy people in the community by funding the group's services and outreach through thrift store profits.

I've always enjoyed estate sale and garage sale shopping and I've visited a few flea markets.  Sometimes I find a treasure and sometimes I don't.  As more thrift stores open up in the area, I've stopped by at those too!  They are no longer the dingy, dirty, messy environments they once were.  Good quality thrifts are clean and bright.  They have a great variety of merchandise and they employ retail marketing strategies in how they set up their stores and display things.  It's a pleasant place to bargain hunt.  Thrifts in my area run great daily specials along with senior and student discounts, color tag discount of the week and the uber bargain: 5 for $5.00 clothing specials.  It's even become an acceptable practice to not only shop a thrift, but to be able to talk to others about your adventures and the bargains you found!  If you don't want to be recognized while shopping at a thrift, you better wear a disguise, because chances are your friends, neighbors, coworkers and other family members are shopping there too!!  (Yep, I've run into all them at the thrift!)

Here's some examples of my bargain treasure finds:

2.00    Like new scarves that retail for 15-20 dollars.
9.50    Like new Hamilton Beach single serve coffee maker that retails for 50.00
5.00    Like new Toastmaster Bread Machine that retails for 45.00
25.00  Partial set of dishes in very good condition that matched my dishes. The pattern no longer in production, so it was
          great buy and I was able to expand my set.  Same dishes sold on replacement websites would cost over 100.00
6.00    Set of 12 like new red wine glasses.  Same glasses retail for 30.00

Here are some great links to articles with interesting information and shopping tips for seasoned as well as newbie thrift shoppers.  What are you waiting for?  Make your list and get going!  Good Hunting!

http://usatoday30.usatoday.com/money/industries/retail/story/2012-07-05/thrift-shopping-trend/56037332/1

http://www.cnn.com/2013/06/11/living/thrift-store-style/

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2014/04/29/thrift-store-shopping_n_5175646.html

http://www.huffingtonpost.ca/2013/10/16/thrift-store-shopping-tips_n_4108664.html

Do you drink coffee?  We do, and we produce a significant amount of used coffee grounds.  I make coffee with a Keurig coffee maker and also with a coffee maker that uses loose grounds.  I hated to think of all those grounds going in the trash.  There has to be a good way to repurpose used coffee grounds.  I did some research, and was amazed to find many ways to put used coffee grounds to good use.

We now collect our used coffee grounds and  work it into the soil.   Worms love it, they multiply and grow fat.  Worms are very healthy for the soil. 

I even empty the k-cups into the grounds collection container before throwing out the cups.  I hope a day comes when they will make the cups environmentally friendly so I can recycle those too.  Until then, I've included a few links with ideas to repurpose k cups! 

Below are several links to give you some ideas on what to do with your used coffee grounds.  Maybe you will find a use that works for you.

https://shine.yahoo.com/green/20-unusual-uses-coffee-183200501.html

http://www.theprairiehomestead.com/2014/02/uses-for-coffee-grounds.html

http://theearthymama.com/10-ways-to-reuse-coffee-grounds/


Here are links for repurposing used k cups.

http://ecogreenlove.wordpress.com/2014/03/13/reusing-k-cups/

http://blog.crosscountrycafe.com/blog/bid/329173/More-Ways-to-Reuse-Keurig-K-cups