FORT MEADE, Md. - The recession has everyone looking for  ways to cut back — from eliminating the daily cup of coffee to canceling the cell phone — but one local military family is going far beyond the occasional coupon when it comes to being frugal.

Toni Anderson says she’s saving a lot of dough by making her own flour and bread. In fact, she’s “just making a lot of stuff from scratch.” They were spending about $1,000 a month on groceries a couple years ago. They’ve been able to halve that amount.

It’s all part of the frugal lifestyle she and her husband David have been living for the last two years. At their home on Fort Meade, Toni home-schools their six children. Lucky number seven is on the way.

The military’s housing allowance saves them a lot, but Toni has become expert at saving more money to furnish the home and outfit the kids.

“I’ve been able to find name brand stuff at yard sales and thrift stores for 50 cents,” she said.

At one of those thrift stores, she found a men’s Hawaiian shirt and made it into a dress for her daughter.

“I think it was about a $1.50.”

The Andersons installed compact fluorescent light bulbs to save on electricity. Toni brown-bagged this year’s Christmas presents to save on wrapping paper. And almost always takes on the chore of the kids’ birthday cakes. The family’s TV is 20 years old.

“My daughter’s headboard, upstairs on her bed — somebody in this very neighborhood was throwing it away,” Anderson said.

What’s more, the couple does it all on only half of David’s income — the rest goes to savings. While not all families can be this frugal, there are some lessons we could all learn — like keeping your monthly expenses at about 50 percent of income.

“Now you’re spending more along the lines of 70-75 percent of your income goes to your monthly expenses, which really, for a lot of people, just is not leaving a dime,” Anderson observed.

For the Anderson’s, the frugal life is less about money and more about security and happiness.

“There are plenty of people that are rich, but they’re living poor. They live paycheck to paycheck because they spend everything they get,” Anderson said. “I feel like we have a great life, I don’t feel like we want for anything.”

03/02/09

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