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There are some things I do to save money that I don’t love- foregoing shopping and limiting my Sushi intake for example. But there are also some things that I started doing to save money that have had the side benefit of improving my life or the lives of my family members.

Making my own cleaning products is one example of this. The average American uses about 25 gallons of toxic products per year in their home, including 62 toxic chemicals linked to allergies, birth defects and cancer.* I had never really realized this until I got tired of continually buying products that I literally flushed down the toilet or washed down the drain. While searching for recipes for homemade cleaning products, I stumbled upon this information and I have never looked back. Now, not only do I save a lot of money, but I feel good each time I pull out my cleaners.

It is possible to use a homemade product, comprised of a few natural ingredients that you probably already have around the house, to clean pretty much anything. Susan Sumner, a food scientist at Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University, found that a spray of Hydroden Peroxide and a Spray of Vinegar kills virtually all Salmonella, Shigella, and E. Coli and is more effective than chlorine bleach and all other commercially available kitchen cleaners. After reading this, and a whole host of other information available on the internet, I am confident that these homemade cleaning products, in addition to being cheaper than store bought cleaners, really do the job.

Making the cleaning products is easy too- it takes about 10 minutes once a month to mix up some vinegar and water; assemble baking soda and lemon juice, get out some hydrogen peroxide and rubbing alcohol, and put everything into easy-to-use spray bottles. Some of my favorite recipes are posted here, but one of the best parts about this is you can scent (or not scent) your cleaning products according to your own personal tastes. Some months, I am in the mood for Lavender so I use a few drops of Lavender Oil. Other months it is Citrus or Vanilla, and at Christmas time I like Peppermint Oil (which also has the added benefit of acting as a natural mouse repellent). The scents from Natural Essential Oils, which you can also make yourself if you have a nice herb garden, smell much more natural and fresh than the scented cleaners you can buy in stores, and they don’t contribute to polluting your home either.

Another frugal decision I made which has greatly improved the lives of my furry family members is to raise my dogs naturally. This means that instead of feeding my dogs Kibble, they get fed human-grade raw meat I can purchase from the grocery store. There are lots of websites which fully explain the benefits of a raw diet for dogs so I won’t go into a lot of details here about why I made this decision, health wise, other than to urge you to do your research on this, using this site as a great jumping off point.

While it is true that I could get the less expensive (and low quality!) Kibble for cheap or free with coupons, feeding my dogs raw meat is less costly than purchasing the premium brands of Kibble (like Innova Evo or California Naturals) which are the only brands that are really healthy enough to feed our furry friends. Furthermore, feeding an unnatural Kibble can cause a whole host of health problems (everything from diabetes to increased risks of hypothyroidism or even cancer) which will require expensive vet visits. Kibble also doesn’t do anything to clean canine teeth, so at some point you will probably have to pay to have your dogs teeth brushed and perhaps even cleaned under anesthesia, a risky procedure which can cost between $450-$750.

Once you factor these costs in, feeding raw is much more cost effective (especially if you stock up when meat is under $1 a pound, buy in bulk from friendly local butchers, or make friends with hunters who will give you scraps for free!). And my dogs have shiny coats, endless energy, beautiful plaque-free white teeth, and embody the very essence of the saying “fit as a butchers dog”.

Cooking at home, instead of eating out, is another frugal habit that has improved my life. I’m able to control what goes into our food, so we don’t eat a lot of preservatives or unhealthy/unnatural products. I’m also able to control portions… we don’t go out and spent a lot of money on food so we don’t feel compelled to finish a too-large portion and become overfull and obese. Some may argue that cooking at home will only improve your life if you are a good cook- night after night of burned dinners arguably won’t improve anyones quality of life. However, there are some simple recipes everyone can make. A crock pot, a wonderful investment for the frugal (find one at a garage sale where they appear in abundance), turns the art of cooking into merely assembling some ingredients in a pot and pressing the on switch… something even the least Julia-Childlike person can do. Lasagna is another pretty basic and great meal, pasta with some of the wonderful new jarred sauces (bought with coupons!) is always a treat, and its sort of hard to mess up a basic casserole. There are tons of easy and cheap recipes out there for the finding, so anyone can become a passable cook. Besides, you don’t get better until you practice.

Shopping the sale flyers for groceries has also improved our lives because it encourages us to try more variety. This prevents us from falling into the same dull routine of cooking the five dinners we’re good at and comfortable with. We discovered a great recipe for a turkey spread with dried fruit after scoring some ground turkey for .58 a pound; and some great summer vegetable soup recipes when the farmers markets were teeming with an overabundance during harvest season last year.

These are just a few examples of how being frugal doesn’t mean staying home eating Raman while watching fuzzy antenna TV! For me, it helps to remember that being frugal isn’t all about sacrifice, but instead about doing more with what I have and making wise decisions which improve my life both financially and in other ways!

Anyone else have any frugal habits to share that have made their lives better, as opposed to being sacrifices?

*(Source: Prosperity Without Pollution, by Joel S. Hirschorn and Kirsten V. Oldenburg, 1991).