7 Vintage Homemaking Skills That Can Save You Money Today

Vintage homemaking skills can help you save money and simplify your life. Learning how to do these skills for yourself means you might be able to keep your things for longer or make more of your family’s own things, like bread or yogurt. 

In the past, home makers were frugal and did everything themselves without thinking about it that much. It's just what they did back then. 

Learning a few of these skills can help you be more self-reliant, take care of your family, and save more money. Just because old fashioned homemaking skills were popular in the past doesn’t mean they aren’t still relevant today!

1. Making Your Own Bread 

If you’ve never tried a slice of homemade bread, fresh out of the oven, you’re missing out. Nothing is as good as a piece of homemade bread. And making your own lets you control exactly what goes into the bread. A loaf of homemade bread is significantly less expensive than a loaf of store-bought bread of the same quality. 

While baking bread is not difficult, it does take time. Luckily, most of this time is spent waiting for the dough to rise, so you can put it on while you do other chores. 

In the past, homemakers would knead the dough by hand, but today, we have bead makers that can do it for us! I like making the dough in the bread machine and baking it in the oven. I get the handmade-from-scratch feel without all the time and effort kneading my own dough would require. 

2. Doing Home Improvement Projects Yourself 

Knowing how to repair things around the house means you don’t have to pay someone to do it. Plus, it feels good when you can fix something yourself. While you probably wouldn’t find homemakers in the past installing new wiring in the home, they could certainly unclog a drain, paint a wall, and troubleshoot finicky appliances. Of course, there is something to be said for having your husband take care of some of these tasks. ;) Still, learning new things will help you continue to grow in your homemaking tasks. 

3. Reducing Waste 

Anyone who knows me knows I am the queen of reducing waste. It’s always quite an accomplishment for me when I convince myself to throw something away.  

Homemakers in the past didn’t always have the luxury of buying something at the store, and they had to be able to make do with what they had. For many, this meant reducing waste by saving everything from string to bits of paper. 

Food waste tends to be especially problematic for many people today. It's easy to buy way too much food at the store so you don’t run out, only to find you can’t eat it all before it spoils. A couple of ways you can reduce waste is by planning your meals for the week, so you only buy what you need, and by purchasing more frozen vegetables instead of fresh ones since they last longer. 

4. Growing Your Own Food 

While you don’t have to become a full-fledged farmer, knowing how to grow at least some of your own food means you can buy less food at the grocery store. Homemakers in the past had kitchen gardens, where they would grow commonly used vegetables and herbs.  

Today, many people learn how to garden by growing herbs. This also saves you money because spices and fresh herbs are often quite expensive at the grocery store. Knowing how to dry and crush herbs allows you to preserve them for the winter months. 

5. Canning Your Own Food 

When homemaking on the homestead, women would can everything they couldn't eat from their gardens. Canning your own food might not seem as frugal as buying a cheap can of vegetables at the store, but it’s a great skill to have and it lets you preserve some of the food from your garden. When we were younger, my sister and I used to help our mom make and can homemade jam in the summers, and we gave these as gifts around Christmas. We also went apple picking and canned homemade apple sauce later in the season. 

6. Cooking Meals from Scratch 

If you’ve been homemaking for a while, you may already cook your meals from scratch, but learning how to do it even more can save you more money. For example, I like to make chicken broth with the bones after we’ve had a whole chicken for dinner, and I freeze the leftover broth. That way, I don’t have to buy canned broth or bouillon powder, both of which have lots of additives that really don’t need to be in my broth. 

7. Mending Your Own Clothes 

You don’t have to be an expert seamstress to learn how to sew. Both hand sewing and machine sewing have their place, so it’s handy to know how to do both. When you learn how to sew, you can make household items like dish towels, curtains, and cloth napkins. Once you’ve advanced your skillset, you can also make some of your family’s own clothing. 

Knowing how to mend will also help your current clothing last longer. Don't throw away a shirt just because it’s missing a button or has a tear! Learning how to repair that rip or add a new button means you won’t have to buy a new piece. 

 

What are a few of your favorite vintage homemaking skills?