(And here I mean "cheap" with all of its negative connotations. We're in the neighborhood of things like "miserly", "skinflint", and "scrooge", ok?)

My theory has long been that when you exercise extreme frugality in ways that only affect you, it's fine, but when you start negatively affecting others, then you're veering into cheap territory.

I wrote about this in some greater detail in 2022 (Am I frugal or just ridiculous?), but some examples:

If you use a raggedy bath towel for yourself, fine. If you make your guests use a towel with holes in it, that's cheap.

If you get a free unopened bottle of ketchup from your Buy Nothing group, fine. If you take 32 packets of ketchup from the cafeteria, that's cheap (your excess use affects the cafeteria, not just you).

If you serve yourself beans, fine. If you serve beans to someone who hates them, that's cheap. Get some chicken, and eat beans some other time.

Basically, if you are selfish and inconsiderate in the ways you spend money, then you're being cheap.

But now that I'm thinking about it, I suppose there are other ways to be cheap. For instance, if you save money by staying in a beach hotel that is a dump, that might be cheap, whereas if you find a discount off-season in a nicer hotel, that would fall into the "frugal" category.

Or, let's say you took free food intended for hungry people, even though you are not anywhere near going hungry. That seems cheap to me, and it also seems to fall under the "selfish and inconsiderate" umbrella.

Help me come up with a working definition!

I want to hear all of the things you think of as cheap behaviors, and then we can figure out how we define cheap vs. frugal. I do think my "Who does this affect?" theory at least partially explains it, but it feels incomplete.

So, tell me: what money-saving behaviors have you observed as cheap, not frugal?

P.S. In this context, we are only considering instances where money-saving is a choice. In other words, this is not a discussion of poverty, because in such cases, there is little choice involved.

The post What does it mean to be "cheap"? appeared first on The Frugal Girl.

My most comfortable pair of scrub pants is from a store called Scrubs and Beyond. Unfortunately, they are the pants I accidentally bleached at work.

I have been making do by scribbling the bleached area with a Sharpie before a shift, but I really wanted another pair. They don't make this exact pair in black anymore, though, so I hopped onto eBay and found a pair.

I don't mind that it's just the pants with no scrub top; I like to have the pants to wear with my hospital t-shirts (like the fundraiser ones we buy during Nurses Week).

2. I repaired the seam on my bleached pair

My poor pants with the bleach marks also developed a little top-stitching problem.

So, I snipped the extra thread off and used my machine to do a repair.

Not perfect, but certainly functional enough for a pair that already has a bleach issue. 😉

3. I got my fridge pretty empty!

As a person who tends to have a full fridge, this is an accomplishment, made possible by fairly minimal grocery shops for two weeks in a row.

This has forced me to use up what's already in there, and I took advantage of the emptiness by doing a thorough cleaning (like, taking all the shelves out and washing them!).

Now my fridge is tidy, I know exactly what's in there, and it feels like a fresh start, which is always good when you're fighting food waste on the regular. 🙂

4. I got a free tire repair

One of Zoe's tires had a slow leak, so we made an appointment at the Midas near us, because they offer free tire inspections and repairs.

Apparently, the problem was a previous plug that had come a little loose, so they replaced that and now her tire is good to go.

I don't think every Midas offers this service, but if you have one near you, it's worth it to check! I've gotten lots of free tire repairs over the years this way.

5. I meal-prepped

I work Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday this week, so yesterday I did some food prep. Boring and predictable, but hey, it consistently saves me money.

I've been eating lots of overnight oats recently, but this week, I switched it up and made a batch of egg bites to cover me for breakfast (in the morning, I just heat them up and add a piece of toasted whole grain bread, plus some fruit.)

And then for lunches, I made some chili-over-rice bowls, with cilantro-lime sauce to go on top.

Your turn! What frugal things have you been up to lately?

The post Five Frugal Things | scrub stuff appeared first on The Frugal Girl.

It seems like you still fit in gym visits and walks, and of course you've outsourced your lawn mowing - a huge win! But I'm wondering how you keep your house clean, or clean enough, I should say. I'm finding it tough to fit in even spot cleaning at times, and it feels like there must be a simple way to get cleaning efforts into my weeks, but I can't quite identify them. Would love to know how you keep your home cleanish with your busy schedule!

I love how you phrase that: clean-ish. That's what describes my house most of the time. It's not ever white-glove ready, but it's reasonably and functionally clean.

I think letting go of perfectionism when it comes to house-cleaning is actually helpful for most stages of life. I mean, if we wanted our homes to be perfectly clean all the time, even underneath the furniture and on top of the picture frames, we could clean all day, every day!

But that is not a very good use of a life, in my opinion, so I prefer to settle for a clean-ish home.

Also: since my life has no routine right now (my work shifts are different every week), I do not have a regular cleaning day. 🙂

Here's how I make it work.

1. I lean slightly minimalist

Emphasis is on "slightly" here, because a true minimalist would faint at the amount of possessions I have.

But in general, I don't keep a wild amount of possessions around. This makes it much easier to clean and tidy my house.

For example, if you own 52 shirts, you could end up with a pile of 52 dirty shirts. If you only own ten shirts, though, you're never going to have a dirty laundry pile with more than ten shirts (nine, probably, because you need to be wearing one!)

Same goes for dishes; they can only pile up so high if you own a limited number.

Also, it's easier to clean/wipe/dust areas that aren't full of stuff.

2. I focus on tasks that pile up

When I am very busy, I prioritize jobs that would get progressively bigger if left undone. Laundry and dishes are two such tasks.

I also count something like organizing/cleaning out the fridge, because if you don't get moldy food out right away, the problem grows!

On the other hand, it takes the same amount of time to vacuum four weeks of dust off your mantel as it does to vacuum one week of dust. No biggie to let that slide for a bit if you need to.

3. I try to tidy as I go

Some of keeping your home clean and tidy is about how you move through it.

For example, I typically:

• put dirty dishes in the dishwasher right away
• put dirty clothes in the laundry basket when I get undressed,
• recycle empty containers right away
• sort mail when it comes in (most gets recycled)
• wipe up messes when I spill things

And when I come home, I try to put things in their spots; keys go in the key bowl, lunch box in the kitchen for unpacking, workout clothes in the hamper, backpack hung on a hook, and so on.

These habits help me keep things decently neat even if I have no time to do a dedicated cleaning session.

4. I own three vacuums

This seems a little crazy, I know! But hear me out.

When I moved here, I had no vacuums, so I bought an inexpensive little vacuum to get me by.

(Mine seems to be discontinued, but this Kenmore one is sorta similar.)

Then, since my nice vacuum was at my other house, I bought one just like it on eBay.

However, I noticed I missed having a robot vacuum (also left at the other house), so I bought one for myself.

(Here's why I like having a robot vacuum.)

About once a week, on a day off, I run the robot vacuum. This takes a little bit of work, because I have to move all the curtains/chairs/other stuff out of the way so it can thoroughly clean my floors. It's definitely less work than regular vacuuming, though, and it does a great job of getting cat hair cleaned up.

I use the inexpensive little vacuum when I have a minute to do a touch-up, like the bathroom floor, the kitchen, and under the dining table. It's also great for a quick run to get up any stray cat litter bits.

The big vacuum is the one I use the least; I mostly get that one out when I want to use the dusting attachment, when I vacuum my car, or when I need to vacuum my living room rug (all the floors here are hard surfaces; no carpet.)

For quick cleaning, I do highly recommend having one of those inexpensive vacuums around! And the robot vacuum is an overall time-saver as well.

5. I fit small jobs "in the cracks"

In my imaginary ideal world, it seems like it would be nice to have a set weekly time when you clean the entire house. That appeals to my routine-loving self.

But my life is not routine right now, and honestly, it hasn't been ever since I started nursing school in the fall of 2023!

So, I have made peace with here-and-there cleaning. Got five minutes? You can wipe down the bathroom sink. You could fold a single load of laundry. You could wipe down one shelf in the fridge.

A tiny bit of cleaning is better than none, and tiny bits do add up.

6. I do bigger cleaning jobs on an occasional basis

Growing up, we always cleaned the house thoroughly once a week.

Currently, I...don't. Ha. I don't do a whole bathroom clean each week. I also don't wash my floors very often. And I don't dust every week either.

Ideally, it would be lovely to do those things weekly, but I settle for "occasional" instead, and interestingly, nothing terrible has befallen us as a result.

Busy readers, what tips would you add to mine?

P.S. If you have kids, I recommend giving them responsibilities. You do not need to do this all yourself. My kids were responsible for their own spaces and their own laundry from a young age (I think Zoe started doing her own laundry when she was maybe six years old!), and I also gave them chores for shared spaces (like the kitchen and bathroom).

I also think significant others should be sharing the load (the two Patreon posts I have this week are sorta adjacent to this, and I 100% did not even plan it that way!)

The post How I keep my house clean-ish appeared first on The Frugal Girl.