How are you frugal on the island? (Lloyd, Lloyd Harbor: short sales, real estate)

[zulu400]

Originally Posted by rocafeller05

How frugal are people living here?.....I know people that dont turn their thermostat above 62 deg. in the dead of winter! Brrrrrrr. They do this b/c they cant afford the heating bill.

I've been to some of my friends houses who keep it that low and wear 2 layers head to toe.... I can't do it !!

[atypicalLIer]

Originally Posted by thebobs

just don't eat at white castle. You'll spend more money on toilet paper thus offsetting the cost of saving money by eating there.

roflmao!

[Ziggi813]

Originally Posted by zulu400

I've been to some of my friends houses who keep it that low and wear 2 layers head to toe.... I can't do it !!

I have little kids/babies...just not an option...especially when one of them is sick (which in the cold months is all the time) I have to keep the house warm...

[KellyFG]

great topic, it saddens me that the "crisis" has inspired people to be frugal....things would be so different if everyone lived appropriately over the last several years.
I've posted my tips here on CD before but here you go
The library as others have said-ours gives free computer classes, great craft & childrens classes plus you can request books online & they email you when they are ready to be picked up. I look at Amazon, find the new books I think I'd like & then request them via my library's website.

We do not subscribe to satellite radio, no DVR or TIVO, no magazine subscriptions, Newsday only on Sunday because of the coupons.
We only have one cable box & doesn't have all of the channels.
We upgraded one of our TVs to an LCD when an old one died-we negotiated and got it for a song.
The PC I'm on right now is 9 years old, I service it & I'm careful about viruses-no need to upgrade when this works great.

All of our stuff is on power strips, less frequently used rooms get turned off when not in use.
All outdoor lights are on photocells or timers. We use only CFBs
No nasty blowup holiday energy sucking "decorations"
We have a pellet stove-LOVE IT!
We buy oil COD for the best price
We improved the "R-value" of our home by changing windows & doors replacing insulation and closing off drafts.
We do not use A/C
Keep the curtains closed on hot sunny days & open on on cold sunny days.
We have well water with a filtration system

I drive a hybrid-I'm averaging 54.8 MPG these days. We keep our cars till they die. My last car was a Dodge Neon with 140,000 miles. We don't get extras we don't need like leather seats or navigation. Never leased a car in my life.
Always stay on top of your cell phone provider for the lowest priced plan.

We buy and sell things on Craigslist. We also use freecycle often, we got all of the rocks, the liner & pump for our pond on freecycle a few years ago.
We compost
I grow a large organic garden, shop locally at farm stands for stuff I don't grow.
We raise chickens for eggs, if you really want to learn about food-try raising it yourself.
I buy only all natural, organic or kosher meats.
I always shop from a list and with coupons. The best way to save on groceries is to start collecting coupons in an organizer, sit with your cookbooks and the weekly circulars, determine what the best deals are-buy one get one free meat or whatever & find recipes that work with what is on sale. Create an entire menu for your family for the week, cook enough for leftovers for lunch or a second dinner.
We bring coffee breakfast & lunch everyday from home.
We rarely eat out, if we do we often use Restautant.com for GCs
No single sized water bottles or snack packs. very few ziplocks and paper towels.

We make very little garbage.
I've been using totes instead of store bags for years.

I have very specific items I buy at BJs and I don't even look at the center aisles in the front of the store-that is all non-necessity crap.
I agree with Target having low food prices but if you cannot resist the urge to wander the rest of the store, don't bother going there. Their marketing is among the best & you will spend TRIPLE what you saved on the food on crap you didn't need.

I have gone for months at a time without paying full price for anything except Gasoline. I will not buy clothes or shoes or household items unless they are on serious sale or I have a major coupon. I never shop for sport.
I sell things I no longer enjoy at yard sales or a consignment shop, donate everything else.

Hang your clothes out to dry.
No chemicals of any kind on our property, I'd rather have dandelions than cancer. The "lawn" industry in this country is such a scam...if people were not sheep and would realize that fluffy super green Kentucky blue lawns are not native to LI and therefore very difficult & expensive to create things would be better.
We water for no more than 8 minutes per zone every other day if it has not rained in 24 hours. The amount of water that is wasted on LI for irrigation is obscene.
I use a manual push mower-no gas or electric.

We spent $5,000 on a total kitchen reno 5 years ago, no granite or SS appliances-but no debt either. We do not follow the masses and get tricked into buying "high end" crap with the equity in our home, we buy what we can afford & what WE like.

We bought a house on LI with waterview for $260,000 in 2004...we were approved for double that amount by our lender but refused to overextend ourselves.

We grieved our taxes two years ago & are doing it again this year.

We spend our summers in our yard & in our lake kayaking, fishing, swimming, hiking. We take advantage of all of the free things you can do on LI year round.

If I think of more, I'll add. Keep the idea coming, this is a great topic!

[alexei27]

I love it when Kelly posts on this stuff. Awesome!!

To add...we saved a TON of money (and reduced our footprint) by using cloth diapers on our girls instead of disposable. Yeah you have to clean them...but it is not nearly as bad as is sounds.

We figure diapers cost $0.40 a piece and with 2 kids...10-12 diapers a day. Over a year thats over $1400 plus wipes...not to mention the 2nd/3rd year until potty training. We invested $600 in cloth diapers/wipes and everything else we need. Its really a no-brainer.

[lialleycat]

Originally Posted by dman72

The recession has little if anything to do with people buying new TV's. It has a lot to do with overpriced housing. A $1,000 Tv, in the grand scheme of things, is not going to break anyone. However, buying a house for 500K that's should really be worth 300K..that can break a lot of people, and did, and still is.

The problem is the attitude of 'I want it now and I want it new'. The people who bought new houses with interest only loans so they could get the house NOW are the reason for the recession. Rather than spending less and getting a fixer upper and -g-d forbid - learn how to do some work around the place yourself instead of hiring every little thing out.

[lialleycat]

Originally Posted by rocafeller05

How frugal are people living here?.....I know people that dont turn their thermostat above 62 deg. in the dead of winter! Brrrrrrr. They do this b/c they cant afford the heating bill.

I keep my house on 60 when I'm not home and fire up the pellet stove to warm it up economically once I get home.

[dman72]

Originally Posted by lialleycat

The problem is the attitude of 'I want it now and I want it new'. The people who bought new houses with interest only loans so they could get the house NOW are the reason for the recession. Rather than spending less and getting a fixer upper and -g-d forbid - learn how to do some work around the place yourself instead of hiring every little thing out.

There are plenty of short sales and foreclosure houses on LI that were definitely not purchased new. There are many people in mortgage trouble who didn't get interest only loans. It's time that everyone put the emotion away and look at what really went on over the last 5 years or so, instead of simply repeating the same media fed cliches about people buying flat panel TV's and 600K houses on a migrant farm workers salary. Sure, there are a few cases of things like that, but is anyone foolish enough to believe that is really what caused these issue?

[zulu400]

The banks are a joke.... Q4 of 2008 they had billions of losses.... Q1 of 09... they are in good shape ? Give me a break.... If I can write of my losses, I'll make profits every quarter !!
Once the banks have to account for more and more depressed properties on their books (maybe this year) they will have to show losses.... and then be prepared to pay more and more for things like milk, bread and gas, because the Govt will step in to protect the icons of American industry and the financial institutions and blah blah blah and its going to print, print, print $$$$ and then some !!

[atypicalLIer]

Originally Posted by dman72

There are plenty of short sales and foreclosure houses on LI that were definitely not purchased new. There are many people in mortgage trouble who didn't get interest only loans. It's time that everyone put the emotion away and look at what really went on over the last 5 years or so, instead of simply repeating the same media fed cliches about people buying flat panel TV's and 600K houses on a migrant farm workers salary. Sure, there are a few cases of things like that, but is anyone foolish enough to believe that is really what caused these issue?

There were many things that brought his about, no argument there. The most visible portion of this whole mess are the people who bought above their means -- whether it be interest only or with falsified loan apps.

I've seen people move into this community who are bitten by the "I have to fit in' bug. They 4 year car they arrived in is jettisoned for a new luxury model car, a Dumpster arrives and the decent kitchen the previous owner had was ripped out in favor of the latest high end trend. Out at the curb sit appliances of various ages, some in very good condition. An appliance truck rolls up and every stainless, high dollar appliance known to man gets delivered. The 50-something inch size TV box remains at the curb, empty, announcing to the neighborhood that the pseudo-nuvo riche have arrived.

The contractor is back again, under the guise of a new bathroom...only thing is that he is installing a side door and a few days later he's carting in bottom rung, apartment size kitchen appliances.

Mr. & Mrs. PseudoNuvo suddenly can't meet their mortgage payments. Dagnabbit! They need to bring in a tenant.

This lasts a few years. Next thing you know, the landscaper is gone and little Johnny Pseudonuvo is mowing the lawn. The kids aren't attending camp any longer. That once new luxury car has lost it's luster over the past few years, and hasn't been replaced with the newest model. In fact, they are preparing to turn it in.

A For Sale sign is imminent.

People buying/living beyond their means contributed to this mess. I would love to live in Lloyd Harbor, but it would be a big stretch for me, and not worth the worry. I don't fault people for having dreams -- dreams are free. I do fault them for not being realistic when they reach for a brass ring they can ill afford. What does this teach the next generation of homeowners?