Rising food prices from inflation may cause households to cut back on their spending habits, but some parents take it to the extreme. In an episode of "Extreme Cheapskates," a mom of three admitted to some bizarre hacks to slash her family's monthly household expenses.
Jordan Page, 27, from Utah, will do what she can to cut corners and make her money stretch elastic, urging her kids to do the same.
On the show, she shared: "My kids are total cheapskates, they know you don’t waste anything, you eat every bite of food on your plate, pick up every penny you see."
Finishing their plates isn't too hard for her kids, though, as Page counts out the perfect amount of cereal for them (14 flakes each) and waters down the juice (one part juice, five parts water). Bacon is off-limits in the house except during Christmas, and when possible, she also freezes her breastmilk to make it go further, while the children are young and don't eat very much.
She also bakes cookies on the dashboard of her car to avoid spending money on power. She rations out toilet paper for each family member as well, effectively cutting toilet paper use from 300 rolls a year to only 40. (Related: Financial preparedness: Save money by reusing these 10 items.)
Food waste, however, is Page's pet peeve. And if she can help her neighbors out with their leftovers, she will. By walking around the street with a basket to get food from her neighbors, she was able to cut their monthly food spending to $180.
Frugality works in the Page household
People think her methods are on the extreme side, but Page says she doesn't care about their opinion because it works for her and her family.
While she has already figured out a way to save money on every aspect of her family's life, she is determined to cut back on spending even further as she plans on trying backyard farming with six chickens and a goat for their garden. They are also paying to raise a piglet off-site.
According to her calculations, the family can have $12 worth of goat's milk and half a dozen eggs per day by doing so. And in six months, when the piglet is more mature, they can also have bacon every day for a year at hundreds of dollars below store prices.
"Are we cut out to be backyard farmers? I don't know," she said. "But the numbers add up and there's something to be said for saving that much money."
"On a scale of one to ten of being a cheapskate – ten being the highest – I'd probably say 11 or 12," Page's husband said of her habits. (Related: Frugal woman manages to quit job and travel the world by eating trash from the dumpster.)
Her methods may be effective at saving money, but the show's viewers were more disturbed about how far she would go to pinch, arguing that she is putting her children's health at risk with her "extreme" methods.
A YouTube user wrote that there is something disturbing about how Page has money to buy nice clothes, maintain her hair and put on makeup, but she cuts corners for her kids' nutrition.
Another said that Page isn't about saving her money, but seeking control. "No one wipes their a** or eats a single cheerio without her permission.''
A third said that it was surprising the mother "didn't collect her kids' tears and use them like water."
Others, however, praised Page for being so frugal, with one pointing out that not caring what the neighbors think is admirable. "In my neighborhood, a lot of our neighbors are so damn stuck up and they're making it so I can't even park in my own driveway anymore."
Another said that baking cookies on the dashboard was creative.
While she was taught to save her money, Page did not grow up frugal to such an extreme degree. She and her husband did spend their money and fell into financial ruin before they turned their lives around by becoming extreme cheapskates.
"It wasn't until our financial disaster that I learned what it really meant to be frugal," she shared.
In doing so, she was able to pay off a $15,000 credit card debt in a year and has since learned that they didn't have to spend big to enjoy life.
Thousands now follow Jordan on social media and attend her money-saving boot camps. She has also signed a book deal.
"Being frugal is not about giving up everything you love, but learning to get everything you love the smart way," she said.
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