Quarantine life has been really hard on a lot of people. And understandably so! Most of us are used to coming and going as we please and having access to all the food and household supplies we need.
And that’s only the tip of the iceberg. Add in working at home, schooling at home, and working while schooling at home, and suddenly nothing is normal.
While we didn’t specifically prepare to shelter-in-place for a pandemic, some of our ingrained frugal habits made the adjustment to quarantine life a little easier for us than for many people.
I want to share with you the frugal practices from our pre-pandemic life that made our quarantine life easier than it would otherwise be.
While we’re all looking forward to life going back to normal, the truth is, this pandemic is not the only major disruption we’ll experience. Chances are good that something else will cause serious life upheaval in the future, whether it’s a natural disaster, financial crisis, or another pandemic (or a resurgence of this one).
5 Frugal Habits to Master Now
Whether you’re reading this while still staying home or after your world has re-opened, these frugal habits can pay big dividends.
If you really want to up your frugal game, join the Frugal Fresh Start Challenge. For the next 28 days we’ll help you get your budget under control so you can reach your financial goals! You’ll get the free workbook sent to you when you sign up!
1. Cooking from Scratch
You don’t need to be a gourmet chef to make and enjoy a home-cooked meal. If you’re new to cooking from scratch, start with simple recipes. Start with the meals you like to eat and learn how to make them for yourself. Learning to cook can be one of the most impactful frugal changes you can make.
As you get more confident, choose other staples you can make at home. While making staples at home can save you money (compare the cost of homemade versus store-bought bread), it does take time. You don’t have to commit to always making these staples from scratch, but knowing how to make them can really come in handy.
While we were working to pay off six figures of student loan debt, I made all of our bread (which ends up being a lot with a big family). I took a break from making bread at home for a few of years, but got back into it during the pandemic. I’ve also added some new kitchen skills during the pandemic, like making tortillas and homemade cheese from powdered milk.
2. Not Wasting Food
It’s never cool to waste food, but when money and resources are scarce, you definitely don’t want to be throwing out food. Get in the habit of eating everything you buy and cook before it goes bad, including fresh produce and leftovers.
When it comes to not wasting fresh produce, I have some specific strategies that will help you.
We typically do one big grocery shopping trip each month, so it’s important for us to be able to make our produce last without wasting it.
I love leftovers. I also make more than we’ll eat just so we’ll have leftovers! I love getting a break from fixing dinner a couple of nights a week! Plus, my kids love days when we have a “leftover buffet” and they can choose their favorites from the last several meals.
Make not wasting food a habit! You save so much money by just not throwing food away!
3. Regularly Stocking Up and Buying in Bulk
With a big family, we buy most things in bulk. It’s almost always cheaper to buy in bulk than buying in small quantities. And even when the containers themselves aren’t bigger, I still tend to purchase in large quantities.
We do our regular grocery shopping for a month at a time. That sometimes gets me funny looks and questions from the cashiers.
“Wow! This is a lot of sugar! You guys must go through a lot of Kool-Aid!” (Ha! I don’t even think my kids know what that is!)
“I’m sorry, but I just have to ask what you’re going to do with all of this bread.” (Make a million sandwiches, of course!)
The goal is to stock up on things when the price for the item is low, and buy enough so you won’t have to buy it again until it is on sale again. This way you never have to pay full price for things. It also means you don’t have to buy everything every month. If you’ve seen my grocery shopping hauls, you’ve seen this principle in practice.
My last monthly grocery shopping trip was at the beginning of March, before we started our Quarantine Food Storage Challenge. With all the panic buying and hoarding going on now, I’m sure I would get disapproving looks if I went to the store and bought like a normal-for-us grocery trip. For us, stocking up is just what we do, it’s the only practical way to feed our family of 8 without running out to the store all the time.
4. Stocking Personal Care Supplies
We don’t just stock up on food. We try to stay stocked on other household supplies we’ll continue to need.
I typically have 3 to 6 kids in tow when I’m shopping. I don’t want to go up and down every aisle to get one of every household product each month. Instead, when we start to run low on deodorant (or if I find a great deal), I stock up with enough to last several months. I don’t buy toilet paper every month. When I buy it, I buy several large packages. It has been over two months since I bought toilet paper and it will be another couple months before I’ll need to get any.
Shopping ahead like this gives me wiggle room because I buy before we absolutely need something. I have the flexiblity to forget a couple of times or wait for a good price. This not only saves me sanity, it saves money because I’m not making extra trips to the store which inevitably include impulse buys.
I know my prices too, so I can tell when a deal on Amazon is as good or better than what I can get in the store. The toothpaste we get for the kids, for example, is always cheaper on Amazon. The toothpaste the grownups use is cheaper at the store.
5. Ditching Disposables
What were the first convenience items to disappear from stores after masks, disinfecting wipes, and hand sanitizer? Toilet paper and other disposable items like paper towels, paper plates, diapers, and more.
I’m not suggesting giving up toilet paper. Some of my friends have moved to bidets, but I’m still in the TP camp.
But we’ve ditched most other disposables.
We have used cloth diapers with the past three and a half kids (we started when our third was 9 months old). We use a disposable at night, but could give that up if we needed to.
We always use real plates, bowls, and silverware (except when we have large parties) so we aren’t in the habit of regularly purchasing paper goods.
We use dishcloths and kitchen towels to clean up spills instead of paper towels.
Ditching disposables has kept us from throwing away money for years. Not having to rely on disposables during quarantine meant we didn’t feel like we were going without and didn’t have to stress about running to the store.
Frugal Habits For The Win!
Frugalizing your life really can make you more resilient in potential emergency situations. You won’t feel the effect of hard times so keenly and in the mean time you’ll save money and resources.
If you want to up your frugal game, join the Frugal Fresh Start Challenge. For the next 28 days we’ll help you get your budget under control so you can reach your financial goals! You’ll get the free workbook sent to you when you sign up!
- What frugal habits do you have that came in handy during the pandemic?
- What new frugal habits are you planning to keep or working to cultivate?
I stock up on food and supplies when they go on sale so was pretty well stocked when covid hit thank God for that I was raised frugal and still that way at 63.
That’s great Linda! That’s what I do too! I’m glad you were stocked. 🙂
I find I overbuy if I go into stores like BJ’s or Costco. One of my favorite ways to avoid impulse buys is not to even go into the store. I’ve been making bread, cornbread, banana bread, but I was rarely eating out prior to the pandemic. Family of 2. I rarely buy paper towels, plastic baggies, make my own laundry soap, use a drying rack, make a homemade ginger tea, etc. I am retired so I have more time than many young families.
Definitely do what works for you! That’s great that you can use your extra time to DIY and bake from scratch. 🙂
I also buy several things in bulk. Luckily, I had just purchased toilet paper when the quarantine began. I still have not had to purchase any. I also had an abundance of toothpaste, deodorant, and soap. I also have soap making supplies in my crafting stock pile. I normally cook from scratch so this did not affect us much. I literally can’t remember the last time I was in a restaurant. We have a pool and many acres of land and woods behind our house to keep kids occupied for hours. I can honestly say the pandemic did not impact my life a lot.
That’s great Linda! It definitely feels good to be prepared so that you aren’t impacted so much!
We are a small family of two — so when I buy in bulk, I usually portion foods out into smaller packages. I buy chicken breasts on sale, then cut them into portions and freeze them. I can take out what we need for a meal. I also do the same with hamburger — I portion out approximately 1/2 pound portions, which is plenty for casseroles for the two of us. Neither of us like leftovers very well, unless I can “re-make” them into something else. Leftover baked chicken + a small package of mixed frozen vegetables, a can of cream of chicken soup, and leftover biscuits or a bit of pie crust makes chicken pot pie. My daughter made a chicken casserole this week that had sour cream in with the chicken. I added some diced green chilies, half a can of enchilada sauce that I’d frozen the last time we had enchiladas, wrapped the mixture in flour tortillas and sprinkled on some grated cheese to make chicken enchiladas. We eat the leftovers a lot more regularly when they are “made-overs!”
Those all sound like yummy Nancy! I love that you call them Made-Overs! That’s a great alternative to leftovers. We do some of both around here.
Having fruit trees and a garden help for being frugal but also for high quality produce and when pandemics happen no problem for fresh produce or being able to store the extras.
We will be planting fruit trees this winter! I can’t wait! 🙂
Honestly, I worry that if every one continue to buy in bulk the supply chain will never recover. I mean we still go into the grocery store each week and struggle to find all of the selection we once used to be able to find. I personally haven’t and don’t plan to change my budget for shopping (because its just me) but I am hoping to reduce my waste and increase the amount of time between trips to the store so that I can spend my time elsewhere. For example I will have a million house projects come august when I move into my first house (new construction). I have asked for a bread machine and I am considering making my own bread but I am concerned that it might not be a good value for one person. Any thoughts?
I think there’s a difference between panic buying and buying in bulk. When you buy in bulk you make measured, considered choices about what you need and what you will use. When you panic buy you buy out of fear. There’s an LDS scripture, “If ye are prepared ye shall not fear.” (D&C 38:30) That’s very true. I prepared for this pandemic early by purchasing measured quantities in January and February. Nobody cared; I got the occasional odd look but nobody said anything. In March, people started to buy out of fear. When stock was at its lowest I knew we would be okay, because we were prepared. Now we are at a lull in infections. My town hasn’t had a new infection in 6 weeks, although the numbers are growing elsewhere in the state. The grocery stores are full again. I’m using this lull to prepare for an inevitable second-wave. I intend for us to always have a 3 month supply of food on hand, not just because of Covid 19 but for other reasons too. We will be prepared, because if we are prepared we need not fear.
I lost a friend over this; she started to panic in March and instead of doing something proactive about it, she lashed out at me and ended the friendship. Fear makes people behave irrationally. That fear ended up costing her a friend; it also ended up costing her $20,000 because my CPA husband could’ve helped her get additional government funding for free, but he’s not going to offer to do that for her now. It’s never a good idea to make decisions when you’re afraid. So, you prepare. Because when you’re prepared, you give your mind the space it needs to think rationally and make careful, considered decisions.
PS – Re the bread maker – See if you can find one second-hand. Bread makers are something people buy but often never use, so if you put the word out that you’re looking, you can probably get one for free or very cheap.
I total agree with what you had to say about panic buying versus buying in bulk (but I’m sure that comes as no surprise to you!). People’s food consumption rate hasn’t changed drastically, so the supply chain will eventually recover. Hopefully more people will learn the value of having some food storage and put it into practice so they won’t feel the need to panic buy in the future. This pandemic has definitely been a wake up call for lots of people!
Hi Lindsay! I think a bread machine is a great idea for one person. It’s much more practical on a small scale than on a larger scale (like for our family of 8)! Like Becca said, they are a great thing to find second hand. I see them at thrift stores all the time!
Re the bread maker: it is such a time saver! I use to make 6 to 10 loaves at a time using my big bowl and a hand mixer. But life changed and I was given a bread maker 22 years ago. We are empty nesters now and I use it more now than ever, but almost only for dough. Pizza dough, pretzel dough, yeast roll dough, coffee cake dough! I love it for the ease and time it saves me. I don’t really like the baked bread…mine ends up with a strange looking hole in it . . . so I take the dough out, shape it, let it rise and bake in regular oven in a loaf pan. Have fun!