Living a life of frugality often goes hand-in-hand with finding substitutions and new, less-expensive ways to do things. For the most part, this is done with very little effort. However, there are times when it is necessary to invest a bit more time into finding creative frugal alternatives.

Spending time to save money is often one of the best ways to boost your family’s frugality. This is time that is most definitely well spent. In The Complete Tightwad Gazette, Amy Dacyczyn gives the formula to figure out just how much you “earn” on an hourly rate by practicing certain frugal ideas. That is a great way to figure out if the time you are spending is really worthwhile in the long run - if your savings equals your sweat.

Here is a list of some tried and true frugal practices that I employ in our home. While I have not figured out the exact time/savings expenditure ratio, I can say without a doubt that they do save us money on a very consistent basis, and that I absolutely consider all of these habits time well spent.

1. Cooking/baking from scratch. As an easy example, I can make a dozen tortillas in 25 minutes for roughly 35 cents, or less than 3 cents each. I can purchase 8 tortillas of the same size for $2.56, or just over 35 cents each.
2. Washing and reusing glass jars and plastic containers from the grocery store. I have never had to buy any tupperware or similar product as a result, and I don’t feel guilty if I just need to throw a container away once in a while.
3. Making cleaning products from scratch. Sometimes it takes a bit of effort, especially when you are just figuring the correct process to use. That initial expenditure of time will pay off in the long run though.
4. Growing your own produce. Although I currently do not live in a location where it is possible for us to have a garden, I do have some herbs growing, and we’ve had tomato and strawberry plants in the past. This is a no-brainer in my opinion. Yes, gardening is work, but the savings you’ll reap in produce savings makes it so worthwhile.
5. Learning new skills. This is a HUGE one in the frugal lifestyle. Skills like sewing and canning can be very labor-intensive during the learning process, and even then after, but the savings are enormous.
6. Using coupons and rebates, and learning the ins and outs of the CVS or Walgreens savings programs. This is an investment that brings an almost immediate return, and the amount of money you can save is just about equal to the amount of time you are willing to put in to the process.
7. Similarly, menu planning and list-making require a pretty hefty expenditure of time, but the savings return can be enormous. This has proven to be one of the most worthwhile ways I spent my time when it comes to living frugally and saving money.
8. Researching avenues to do things more frugally, including reading all the wonderful frugal, tip-filled blogs out there. If you learn things during this time that you begin to implement in your home, and thus save money, the time spent online is actually an investment in your frugallity.

For more Frugal Friday, stop by Crystal’s blog.

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