What part of your house shows your frugality? How?

[Judi Dial]

When we bought this house I was surprised to find the bathroom closet shelves are oak stair treads. It looks good, didn't cost us a dime, and I'm really impressed with the previous owners' thinking of this.

Of the things that I've done, the one I'm probably proudest of is my fancy brass coat rack by the front door. A friend of mine had a boutique, someone ordered it and hadn't bought it, so I got it for cost. I love that thing and I sure wouldn't have paid the retail price either!

I figure we all must have things like this. Pieces to our house that we think are really cool and were cheap originally. What's yours?

Judi

[disneysteve]

My wife would probably say that way too much of our house shows our frugality (or is it my cheapness ).

[GREENBACK]

I have redwood paneling in the living room from the 50's. Try to do that today and it will cost a fortune.

[mommyof4]

My clothes closet. I haven't bought very many new clothes for the past year or so. I wear my clothes until they are worn out. BTW, I found a hole in a favorite pair of work pants the other day, so I guess that does warrant a trip to Kmart to replace them.

[disneysteve]

Good answer, mommyof4. Yes, our clothing definitely shows our frugality. I have dress shirts in my closet that I've had for 15 years. I have casual shirts that I've had for over 20 years.

Jewelry is another area. I've had my watch for about 21 years. When I stop into the jewelry store that we use (because we're friends with the owners), he always harasses me about still having the same watch. Why should I replace it? I like it and it works. I put a new band on every couple of years and I'm good to go.

[Ima saver]

I will have to admit that when we built our new house 12 years ago, I gave away all my old furniture and bought everything new. It is nice to have a new house and new furniture. I completely furnished my house for about $7000 and I think I did a pretty good job.

[Caoineag]

Basement. We have this very nice and very expensive (well not for us but new it would be) HE Steamwasher. Its a thing of beauty, our friend who lusts after expensive things would love to have it. But there is no dryer anywhere to be seen and we have clothesline run everwhere to hang our clothes to dry (we don't have to pay for a humidifier because the clothes add moisture to the air, very nice in a dry climate)...

All the lights. They are cfl's even the one outside. Also the thermostat, its a mere 65 in the house (but that only tattles in the winter since no one leaves the heat on in the spring, summer or fall out here).

Everywhere else, it doesn't show unless I tell you how much my fancy appliances actually cost me or if I point out the closet extender oak bar that gives me a second level to hang things or the clearanced fancy curtains and curtain rods.

[MonkeyMama]

The most obvious thing about our frugality is that we don't have a lot of clutter. The garage is empty, and we don't utilize most of the closet space. We also doubled the size of our home in 2001 so half the house may be a little more cluttered but the other half is rather bare (dining room, living room, kids' rooms, just minimal furniture and toys. We never understood why buying more house meant running out to clutter it up ASAP. We knew it would happen with time).

What isn't so obvious to the naked eye is that almost all of our furniture was hand-me-downs or bought second hand. We have a nice brass coat rack as well - hand-me-down from my boss. I have gorgeous dining chairs that were handed down from a co-worker. A nice recliner my sister was going to throw in the dumpster when she moved out of state. A lot of furniture from my grandma-in-law. I inherited our kitchen table from an old roommate. Most the rest we got new but cheap at a warehouse (a couple of couches and the kids' furniture) or we had as kids (desks, stereo equipment, etc.). The funny thing is this works out for the best. My dh and I can not agree on furniture if our life depended on it. Our only new, expensive piece of furniture (in the $1k range) is a sectional couch. I now think it is ugly and hate it. At the time it was merely a compromise. I am sure most people would think it's our cheapest piece of furniture - hehe. Since most of the hand-me-down stuff is pretty nice.

[Joan.of.the.Arch]

Well, you might get the impression of frugality the moment you see my house. It has a huge ugly, ugly, ugly fiberglass awning over the front porch. Anyone with any taste and just a little money for updating would have replaced it long ago. I think it dates back to the 1960's, but I will not replace it until it is no longer functional. Trouble is, the darn thing just keeps on keepin' on. We found out it is even piano-hinged to drop down so that the second story can be reached for trim painting and gutter work.

I thought fiberglass would degrade in the sunlight, and that I'd get to build a new porch roof in a few years, but this thing seems to be built for life. I hate it, but I hate waste, too, so I won't replace it. It helps a little that some houses around us have similar awnings over their windows. The houses on my street are as old as 1880 and as "young" as 1955, so you see all kinds of stuff here. "Character"? Yeah, our houses have got it. So Judy, my house has a piece that was cheap when put on, but is definitely not cool!

[My English Castle]

My freezer shows my frugality. I have little bits and pieces of things, veggie scraps for soup stock, meat I've stocked up on, other stock ups and those big milk jugs filled with water to make it even fuller and hopefully run cheaper.
I have a love hate relationship with it, and had to pitch something unrecognizable from it this morning.

[Investing First Steps]

My house's lack of existence shows my frugality!

[maat55]

I hide the frugallity in my house by doing the work myself.

[GREENBACK]

Originally Posted by My English Castle

My freezer shows my frugality. I have little bits and pieces of things, veggie scraps for soup stock, meat I've stocked up on, other stock ups and those big milk jugs filled with water to make it even fuller and hopefully run cheaper.
I have a love hate relationship with it, and had to pitch something unrecognizable from it this morning.

That's so funny.
That describes my freezer(s) exactly.

[mom-from-missouri]

Ours is full of antiques-that we use. Even the old cookstoves (one kerosene and one wood) that can be fired up in a power outage, hand drills, kerosene lamps (kerosene is cheaper than batteries in an outage)...We have 2 furnaces, so both floors don't need to have the heat on if not in use, front loading washer, clothes drying racks that hang in the garage when not in use, and clothes line strung in the basement like an earlier posters, cfl bulbs inside and out, water saving shower heads, triple insulated radon windows, many of my and my daughters clothes in the closets are from thrift stores, my 1950's popcorn popper that we still use, by the contents of my freezer and pantry-you can tell we buy in bulk, by the stack of firewood by the door and in the barn, by my newest laptop which is 2001 and the newest PC in the house from 1998 that we still use....by our used homeschool books, by our library book and movie stack, if you look at my desk you will see the paper I print on has already been used on one side, by my coupon book, the leftovers in the fridge and freezer, by my canned goods, by the foil over the south windows in the summer, the garden, my dishrags are what once was bath towels that outlived their life as a bathtowel, the chickens in the yard that we free range to avoid buying feed, the medicines and injectibles in the fridge so we can give the horses and cows the shots ourselves to avoid the vet bill, my husbands tools that show he does our own mechanic work when warrenties allow it.......

[sakigt]

My fridge and pantry are stuffed with food. Half because I stock up when things are cheap and half because we hardly ever eat out.

I visit friend's homes and they hardly have ANYTHING! They must be eating out nearly every meal.

[minnie1928]

Right now my powder room is showing my frugality. I have 1+ loads of laundry hanging on a drying rack sitting over a heat vent. After last month's gas bill, I hate running the dryer if I don't have to.

[Cassandra]

I can tell you where not to look: my closet. ;-)

I would say my bathroom is the most frugal place. I don't wear makeup, the only hair products I use are shampoo (Suave) and conditioner, and I don't use a lot of products for my face (I have Neutrogena face soap and that is it). The most expensive thing in my bathroom is probably my water pick.

[disneysteve]

Originally Posted by Cassandra

I would say my bathroom is the most frugal place. I don't wear makeup, the only hair products I use are shampoo (Suave) and conditioner, and I don't use a lot of products for my face (I have Neutrogena face soap and that is it). The most expensive thing in my bathroom is probably my water pick.

Same here. My wife doesn't wear makeup or perfume. Our shower has a bar of soap and a bottle of shampoo and conditioner for each of us (regular stuff, not fancy salon products). No high end stuff. Just the basics - powder, baby oil, toothpaste, etc.

[whitestripe]

interesting thread!
for starters, i only buy foundation (which is very UNfrugal, at $48 a pop) and powder, all other makeup products i get for free from samples etc.
we don't own a drier.
we don't have aircon or a heater. (though in our new house we plan to buy an air con unit - still no heater though)
i don't think we have ever bought a new piece of furniture - DF made our bed, bookshelves, day bed and tables, and we bought all side tables, chairs and drawers from opshops.
a lot of the furniture that DF has made comes from recycled pieces of flooring (DF is a flooring installer and finisher).
our clothing: i would say that 95% of DFs shirts, and about 80% of my shirts, are plain tshirts we have bought for cheap (under $10 each - usually $5 each) and have screenprinted ourselves.
music: well, this would be me being lucky more than frugal - my dad works in the music industry as a buyer, so i get tonnes of free music all the time
our towels, table cloths, most sheets and pillow cases: all come from when DF and his mother worked at their family run commercial laundry business - you could buy cheap items from the laundry, and they would often get big piles of stuff free when it wasnt claimed from the big hotel chains.

thats all i can think of right now!

[PrincessPerky]

I think my pantry says healthy not frugal, mostly basics...no mixes or the like..not to much white flour stuff.

I would guess my living room says tech geek..clutter of electronics. though obviously not new ones.

I imagine my bedroom says lazy, clutter of stuff, including Christmas stuff still waiting to be put away.

Most of my walls say KIDS with all the art work on them, nothing bought, all kid made. (some kid photos)

My yard says desert, everything I try dies, I can't grow flowers, grass, a handful of lillies is all that is green. (which is why I wont touch the back where nature has taken over, that is green and beautiful)

My new kitchen cabinets might say frugal, the one is a turned on it side cabinet and a shelf husband is going to build to finish it off. I doubt I would have paid for custom fit even if I were rich enough to afford it.

I really dunno what my closet says about me, but I do know I can fit things from highschool, which I did not need reminded may have been 15 years ago.

His garage says something too, but my opinion of it includes to many swear words for this family site.