Frugal Living: Have a Half Dayby Mary Ann Romans | More from this Blogger 07 Jan 2009 07:44 AM
What is a half day? A half day is when you go around your home or day and consciously choose to only use half of the amount of the stuff that you usually use. To keep it simple, approach each product or service and then half it to the best of your ability. By doing this for one day, you can have fun in the challenge, while learning what products or services work just as well when using half (and of course, which don't). If you are a list maker as I am, make a list of your results. Home schoolers can turn this into a family scientific project, complete with lab notes on the experiments, the observation and the results. Here are some examples of how you can find things to halve in your half day. Use half of your regular laundry detergent in a load of laundry, half of your normal fabric softener or half of a fabric softener sheet. Serve half the amount of meat at dinner (supplement with extra rice, pasta and or salad, if needed). Use half the amount of shampoo and body wash, and cut your disposable cleansing cloths in half (if you use them). Use half a packet of hot chocolate or half a tea bag (share the bag with a friend or save it for a second cup later). Drink half the amount of soda or juice (water is a great substitute). Eat half as many snacks today. Use half of the amount of dishwashing soap or dish detergent. Use half the amount of squares of toilet paper (most people use too much). Use half of the amount of lights. Either use one less light in the room, leave the the lights on for only half the time, be diligent about shutting them off, or really examine if you need to turn on a light when you enter a room. What other ways can you find to practice as part of your half day? Mary Ann Romans writes about everything related to saving money in the Frugal Blog, creating a home in the Home Blog, caring for little ones in the Baby Blog and now relationships in the Marriage Blog. You can read more of her articles by clicking here or subscribe to the blog using the subscription box on the right. Favorite Deal Websites: Related Articles: 6 Ways to Reduce Our Use of Paper Products Pantry Challenge: Campbell's to The Rescue! Learn more about Mary Ann Romans  Mary Ann Romans is a freelance writer, wife and mother of three children. She lives in Pennsylvania with her husband, the kids and a 16-pound cat. Relevantfrugal tags User Comments RobertD (10) 07 Jan 2009 12:22 PMI like the concept although we arrived at from a different route. When we started our budgeting life the goal was not to become more frugal it was just to payoff our debts. When you first start to pay down a lot of deb not much happens so for the first few months we kept cut back more just to be able to pay a little more. After a few months you realize that most of what you cut you do not miss, this made us even bolder, we cut even more especially the grocery bill. We now eat less then half the meat we use to, and 90% less prepared foods, but we eat as much of the rest as we always did, except bread. I started baking my own and bread consumption went up by about 20% but it does cost about 60% less. Those looking for hints to cut cost an help making a budget check my website www.budgetingsense.com or try www.wisebread.com another great resource.  Mary Ann Romans (26886) 08 Jan 2009 07:11 AMyes, we love our homemade bread, too. I made bagels yesterday, and they were hardly cooled before they disappeared. When we buy store bought bagels on a rare occasion, they last for days. diybob (30) 08 Jan 2009 08:08 AMI have become out as frugal as I can. I found a way to make some extra money in my spare time to save more. I've been making a good $300-400 / month. I do surveys and offers on http://www.cashcrate.com/996129 . Every little bit helps. Do you know of any other good sites to make some extra cash. Mary Ann Romans (26886) 08 Jan 2009 09:10 AMI tried cash crate for a while, but after I got inundated with spam, I stopped. Community Tags conservation, frugal living, how to buy a generator, how to, recession, save money Discuss this article
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