Well, about like everyone else. Have always bought clothes/stuff at thrift stores. Saved a bundle on disability devices too. I buy ahead of the need. Right now I have to break down and purchase a new wheelchair tho….just flat wore out the free [barely used] one I got 30 yrs ago. And I’m only a part-time user.
When we last moved, I replaced all my kitchen stuff at thrift stores/garage sales. Kept upgrading as I found stuff. Very satisfied with what I have now. Got breadmaker as gift and thru various times, DH will make all of our bread products. Not at this current time – we’re really pressed for energy. But BLECH! Store bread is awful. His cinnamon rolls are glorious….so homemade is certainly no sacrifice. He uses the breadmaker for the dough mixing/raising process, then bakes in the oven. Very high altitude – there’s several tricks to baking successfully up here and that’s one of them. Wore the gears out of one breadmaker and have current one from family member that didn’t use it. Makes great pizza dough too….since they don’t deliver way out here.
Buy in bulk and break it down into insect/water proof containers. Have cool basement storage. Cook from scratch with some store cans, etc…. but no pre-made, freezer foods. Yuk.
For a time we had home made/grown nearly everything including our own eggs and goat’s milk, butter, soft cheese. Would like to get back to that — on a different physical layout. This steep mountain terrain makes EVERYTHING way more laborious than it needs to be.
Always been big gardeners tho again, this location has limited that. Canning/dehydrating. Our dehydrator has to be nearly 40 yrs old….and only has air flow on one side now so ya have to turn the shelves. We use things til they are only good for junk….and then we recycle parts.
Recycle clothing …begin with good stuff from thrift store. It’s going-into-town clothes first. Then as it ages, it’s at-home or barn clothes. Then it’s cleaning rags or rolled into bandage materials…especially stretchy T-shirts. Need a lot of bandage stuff for human and the animals.
Our rural neighborhood had a thing going for a while….a recycle bag of clothing. You take a look at what you could use from the bag(s)…then add what you don’t need to the bag(s) and pass it on. In a month or two, it comes back to you with different stuff in it. 🙂 [‘course in these days, one might have to worry about bedbugs, etc] 🙁
We haven’t had TV in …40 yrs? We have laptops and minimal Internet. Need Doppler weather map forecasting. No cell service in our granite mts, but we have one simple cell phone. DH uses it for a seasonal business and we use it for emergencies in town. It’s an unlimited plan ..minimal payment for each day you open the phone. It works well with our limited usage. Have basic land line phone….with old Princess style phone on hand for frequent power outages. Otherwise the cordless units are ALWAYS with me as a safety thing.
Too far out to go to movies/sports events/whatever else people go to. ?? DH loves movies….from the library. We’re both book people and have tons of books for reference/fiction. We read them over and over. We used libraries til I discovered FREE ebooks. Not tellin’ how many thousands I’ve collected. 😉 Limited mobility days – I’m reading or on Internet. Or writing my own stories when creative energy hits me.
Dunno….our life is pretty simple and the lifestyle takes up all our time/energy. No expectation of grande things, I guess. Like everyone else here, seems like.
Major annoyance? Things that break/wear out/don’t work before I think I’ve had my money’s worth! Hmph. Like the expensive ‘farm tarp’ from Tractor Supply….that has thousands of leaks along the storage fold lines…..just a couple of months after we put it on. #1 major headache of this past year….and we couldn’t take it off to TAKE IT BACK! Augh!
OldMtWoman …nice to see folks that think like we do!