Being Frugal

I recently posted on a "how to save money" question on a money saving website and thought I would post here my writing on ways to save money.

Make the initial investment (because thats what it is) in bins that seal well and fill your pantry with bulk items like flour and sugar (both can go in a big bin and stay fresh) buy bulk spices and pasta's. Use powdered milk so you can run to the store less often, powdered milk can be used in most recipies the same as other milk, if your recipe calls for a cream use condensed milk, if you want whole fat milk use condensed milk and add water. The savings are immense and having a full pantry and spending a few extra minutes at home preparing these things keeps you out of the store. Preparing food from scratch is expensive for the initial ingredients but when you realize you are making bread for 50 cents a loaf instead of the dreaded 3+ dollars that most stores charge you realize just how important those ingredients can be. If you dont know how to cook from scratch there are MANY websites that offer free scratch recipies.

For most cleaning tasks you can use old rags and not paper towel, you can make your own laundry soap with borox, washing soda and a bar of grated soap for only pennies on the dollar. http://theprudenthomemaker.com has many recipes for a lot of these ideas.

Borox has been arround forever, add some to a wash pale with hot or warm water and clean your cabinets, walls and most furniture. It has directions on the side of the box for "other uses". The only "neccessary" cleaners for your home are bleach, borox, dishsoap and ammonia (for cleaning glass).

If you have an infant breastfeed if you can, if you cant, buy the store brand of formula because it is cheaper and it has to, by law, meet the nutritional requirements for your infant. Use the powdered formula instead of premade or liquid that you add water too because powdered is far cheaper. Use cloth diapers, this is not only a very simple thing to do, but they will last through several children, are easy to wash and will save you a lot. Most babies use around 3000 diapers before they are potty trained, if you buy good quality all in one cloth diapers that are adjustable from 9 to 35 pounds (about 20 dollars each for quality) you will only need about a dozen and possibly a few spares and this is obviously going to save you a boat load over time. If anyone wants information about cloth diapers feel free to message me.
Keep a grocery list that is premade on the fridge so when you do need something you can put it on while your in the kitchen thinking about it. http://grocerylists.org has wonderful lists that can be downloaded and printed as required. They even have a vegetarian list available. Watch the ads and flyers of stores you do your shopping at, they often have great sales and when combined with coupons you save even more. In September Walmart usually has an anniversary sale that offers food as well as household items at great prices, I got my microwave 5 years ago for 40 dollars and I got my coffee pot last year for 12 during their anniversary sale.
Finally, if you live in a town that charges you for garbage and not for recycling look for the recycling symbol on the packaging of what you purchase. I normally have about 1 bag of garbage per month which costs 2 dollars a bag and i always have my recycling out and ready to go usually consisting of a bin of cardboard, paper, shredded documents, cans, cleaning bottles, shampoo and hygeine containers etc.
I hope my list helps some of the more frugal people out there!!!