What goods or services do you NOT buy?

[jengod]

Inspired by the Prudent Homemaker's What I Don't Buy page (and Bea Johnson not buying trash bags, etc.) I was wondering what things YOUR family makes a conscious choice not to purchase because of a voluntary simplicity value system, because you have a skill set that makes it superfluous, because you have a different value system than the manufacturer suggests you ought to have, because you have a more economical way to do something, or because you simply think it's ridiculous to buy such a thing.

http://theprudenthomemaker.com/blog/entry/doing-without-what-i-don-t-buy

Two that I can think of for myself are:

* Sage and chives -- We did a home improvement project last year that left us with this strange little dirt strip next to the house. I planted sage, thyme and chives there, and it is only watered by hose drips or rain. The thyme is almost completely dead, but the sage or chives are thriving and should be happy in that spot for years to come.

* Keurig cups or other single-serving coffee products - I buy whole coffee beans in bulk and grind them myself for use in a French press, which I believe is more economical and produces less waste. Part of my daily coffee ritual is rinsing out the grounds from the press into the mulch of my garden.

* Fabric softener, dryer sheets or stain pretreaters all seem superfluous to me.

[Bracken_Joy]

As for food stuff, I'm reminded of the "DIY food items" thread. It's still a work in progress on some things (STILL don't have a BBQ sauce recipe I like, and I'm on attempt... 13? I think), but there are some things that are absolute wins- we make all salad dressings and mayonaise ourselves, for example.

As for other home things? We don't have a cleaning crew or yard crew or anything like that. We don't send things to dry cleaners (except once per year for our large quilts). Umm I'm trying to think of what else. It's sometimes hard to notice an absence if you've been doing it long enough!

Oh! We also don't outsource fitness. No personal trainers over here! DH comes up with positively maniacal workouts for us to do in our home gym.

[AlwaysLearningToSave]

Recycling pickup services. 

I used to pay for this but after discovering MMM, we quickly identified it as a needless $15 per month expense when we can make a once, maybe twice, per month trip to the free community recycling drop-off not far from our home. 

I refuse to go without garbage haul-away services, but I really wish I could just pay for once or twice per month pickup rather than the twice-per-week schedule the trash company maintains.  It is hard to fathom the amount of effort it would take to generate enough non-recyclable garbage to actually fill that container twice per week. 

[acroy]

hmmm....
STUFF:
New clothes
Single serving... anything
Fresh spices - it goes to waste. Grow our own now.
Prepared meals (from the frozen food aisles)
Fast food (rare exceptions)
Candy, Cookies
Apps/ electronic crap

SERVICES:
Cleaning
Cooking
Yard/house repair & maintenance
Vehicle repair & maintenance
Can't think of hardly anything we don't do ourselves.

[Bracken_Joy]

Apps/ electronic crap

Oh yes, that's a good one. We spend no money on apps, music, books, etc as "one off" purchases. We either have streaming access- amazon prime or google music, or our public library, or we go without.

[ac]

I don't buy lawn maintenance.  I just mow the lawn myself.  Often my 4 year old "helps," and its fun bonding time.

I also don't buy gym memberships.  Instead I do active things like...lawn maintenance.  A double wammy. 

I'm about to do some diy termite pest control.  If it works, I spent $95 on chemicals rather than $1800 on the full service.  If it doesn't work, I'll have giant amounts of damage to my house. 

[Exflyboy]

hmmm....
STUFF:
New clothes
Single serving... anything
[/s]Fresh spices - it goes to waste. Grow our own now.
Prepared meals (from the frozen food aisles)
Fast food (rare exceptions)
Candy, Cookies
Apps/ electronic crap

SERVICES:
Cleaning
Cooking
Yard/house repair & maintenance
Vehicle repair & maintenance
Can't think of hardly anything we don't do ourselves.

All of the above plus..

Cable TV
Roof replacements
House re-modeling
Airplane constructions... Yes I'm serious, I built two of them..:)

[MEER]

Books. It makes me sad, but it used to be my biggest expense after travel. Now that I can download books from the library, I rarely buy them.

[Noodle]

I don't buy grocery store bakery desserts. I'm a pretty decent baker, and I know how much the ingredients cost. It just pains me too much to pay an exorbitant amount for cruddy food when I can make something better at home for much less (heck, what I make with mixes tastes better than the bakery department stuff). I will admit that my stuff tends to taste good rather than look good, but it doesn't seem to make a difference to how clean the plate is when I get it back...

[smalllife]

I forget people pay for lawn service .....

Hair cuts and hair product
(Most) pre packaged food
Canned beans
Laundry detergent
Gym membership
Cable
Convenience stores

[vhalros]

I make my own yogurt (we eat a lot of yogurt), tomato sauce, and broth (use the left over ends of various vegetables), so I don't ever buy those things any more.

I don't have cable TV of any sort either.

[lakemom]

* Fabric softener, dryer sheets or stain pretreaters all seem superfluous to me.

I don't use softener or dryer sheets but with kids stain pretreaters are a must!

[Astatine]

This is kind of I don't know what I don't know (and cultural norms are different).

Stuff we don't buy:
Fresh herbs
Zucchini over summer
Fresh tomatoes over summer
Muesli bars (we make our own)
Never owned a clothes dryer

Services we don't use:
Mowing/garden
Haircuts
Pay TV (aka cable)
Cleaner

I'm sure there are more.

[MicroSpice]

Interesting. There are lots of things we don't buy, but the things that stick out to me because they tend to be ubiquitous among our peers are:

1. Cable/satellite TV
2. Bottled water. Seriously. At a child's party that we recently went to, I got myself a glass of water out of the tap and everyone thought I was a freak. "You do that at home, too? Without a filter?"
3. A microwave. We don't have one, and it totally messes with people. They don't understand how we get along without it. It's hilarious. My MIL keeps offering to buy one for us, but we don't have anywhere to put it anyway, so why would I want one more thing that I have to find a place for?
4. Gifts for each other (i.e., spouses)

[AllieVaulter]

Bottled water!  Portland water is delicious.  But even if it weren't, I'd get a filter, not bottled water.

Napkins.  On the occasion when we buy food, we get a ton of napkins.  And when it's just DH and I eating...  we very rarely need napkins. 

Paper plates/cups.  We have ugly correlle dishes and I love them.  They're super tough, easy to clean, lightweight...  They're awesome.  We even use them outside.  And when one breaks (this has happened twice in 10 years)...  oh well!  My MIL found a ton of dishes that match my pattern for super cheap at a garage sale.  We're set, in fact, we'll probably sell some of them because they break so rarely. 

[FLBiker]

Cool thread.  We're on board w/ virtually all this stuff.

A couple of differences - we also don't buy napkins, but that's because we use cloth.  Got a bunch at a thrift store years ago.  Same w/ diapers (not from thrift store, but almost all from consignment sales).

Do lawn maintenance, bike repair, some veggie growing / canning, etc., tap water, no booze, no daycare (for the next 1.5 years, at least), no fast food, and so on.

And we use to be very simple in our laundry, but diapers have changed our game a bit. :)

[frugaliknowit]

1.  Cold cereal (got tired of waiting for sales, then buying 24 boxes which clutters up my very small space...just make oatmeal).
2.  Dryer in condo complex laundry room (hang stuff up).
3.  Cable TV
4.  Land Line
5.  Movie Theaters
6.  Most processed foods (cookies, cakes, frozen entrees, meats with nitrates).
7.  Automobile and related expenses (use bike/transit/cabs/uber/rent occaisionally).
8.  Soda Pop
9.  Books (when available in library).
10. Cleaning