My daughter (widowed at 39) and her two boys found it hard to remember to shut off the lights in the boys' bathroom, the bedroom, and the kitchen. Her solution was to have motion detector lights installed and it works great! It was a pretty inexpensive way to solve the problem.

Stay in the room that has the window cooler, avoid opening doors and cook outside using camping equiptment and plug in pans like gridles (for pancake), skillets (for whole chickens and ground beef) and rice cookers. Eat your fruit and vegetables raw. Keep the curtains closed during the day. If you are lucky enough to live where it cools at night, open your house and vent it out capturing the colder air. Use a cheap fan to move the air or get a whole house van. I also found that when my husband layed insulation in the attic it helped alot. Many older homes have very little or no insulation.

This is a great thread Charlee. Sorry I missed it when you first posted it. We freeze food we aren't using so we don't waste it. What needs to be thrown away, we give to our chickens or the dogs. Chickens will eat almost anything including watermelon rinds right down to the thin outer layer (it's funny). When we have a bull slaughtered DH cuts it himself and I vacuum seal it. We give the heart, liver and other parts to our friends who enjoy those cuts... lol. I am trying to cook for 4 even though there are only two of us and throw the last half into the freezer. With busy lives it is so nice to just thaw something out and quickly heat it up. I am going to try the soap recipe. I am just now turning to vinegar and water for cleaning most things since I have discovered how wonderfully it works without all the other chemicals.

Goodmorning all
in relationship to what Charlee was saying. my father is a retired trucker, he told us that one day he was given a tour of a clothing warehouse( where they put store labels an such on) he said that each area had the same clothing but one side was lets say going to your better stores, and here was other that was going to walmart,kmart,target..so ladies n gents just because you buy at the better stores does not mean that you are getting anything better then the others

We only buy grocery items that are on sale and yes I use my Food Saver and freeze about everything. I make large casseroles for the two of us, divide it into three sections, eat one and vacuum seal the other two. We freeze grated cheese by placing one cup in a cheap sandwich baggie and then put as many as possible into a gallon freezer bag. Only need to take out what is needed for casseroles, etc. I also freeze onion slices when onions are on sale. We are not able to go get wood for the wood stove anymore but buying the presto logs cost us more than our electric heat. We do keep a supply on hand in case of a power outage. I buy my fabrics at garage sales and buy flat sheets when they are on sale at Fred Meyers but I won't pay more than $3.99 per sheet. I buy my clothing if possible at garage sales. We only use cold water with our washing machine. We don't buy fresh vegetables or fruits but buy it in cans when on sale at Bi-Mart and stock up for at least a year. We don't live where a garden will do well. We buy cleaning products, toothpaste, etc in large quanities but be sure and check the pull-date first. We don't go to movies and very seldom eat out. It is a rare treat for me to buy fabric from LQS or Connecting Threads but I wait until it goes down on sale to $3 or less per yard.

Always had my eye on the budget, shopping list and coupons. Now that it's just DH and I and we are in our 70's we shop for the best prices for our meds instead of our food, LOL!