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I think it was Ben Franklin that observed that if we buy 1 thing we don't need we soon feel the need for 10 other things we don't need to go with it. And true it is--at least under most circumstances. But there are exceptions.
If a kitchen is set up right, arranged for convenient breadmaking, a loaf of bread can be made in about one and one-half minutes of actual work time from start to bagging up the loaf. In my area the machines sell in thrift stores for five to 10 dollars and the ingredients might run, at today's prices, at 25 or 30 cents a loaf when bought in bulk. But what I'm talking about is more than the direct savings on bread. The raw ingredients of bread, flour, yeast, salt and water store very well. They don't become a perishable product until made into bread. When one avoids trips to the store to buy bread she completely avoids the risk of buying other items less needed than bread. The bread is so delicious and easy to make that it soon assumes a larger percentage of our diets, crowding out more expensive--and often less nutritious--foods which carry the savings even further. I make variations of Cornell Bread [search] made famous 60 or so years ago by Clive McCay, professor of animal nutrition at Cornell, who conducted the longevity experiments with rats. And we can be sure that what's good for rats is good for us since rats and people have a parallel evolution! Also, making one's on bread sets a standard for the simple living that spills over into all our affairs and makes us savers in other ways as well.
Another lever is a vegetable garden which has similar benefits as a lever to those described above. But beyond that, gardening gives us interesting and healthful work to do at home crowding out trips to the mall or to Starbucks. In our household we are market gardeners and we have a lot of experience here. We share our experience at our website http://www.wholesystemsag.org where you can also read an article that ran in our local paper four or so years ago featuring my then 13 year-old daughter making bread.
And I think another great lever for frugality is trading one's car in for a bicycle. In this way trips to the store are strictly limited as is the poundage of purchases that can be carried back. I'm giving this serious consideration right now--since both of my old cars have recently died--even though we live in a rural area 8 to 10 miles from any serious shopping. But at age 72 I'm thinking of an electric assist. Also my kids can help out with a ride to town once in a while since I spent so much time, as a single daddy, driving them around when they were growing up.
Good living to you all, John.
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