10 Valuable Vintage Homemaking Skills That Save Money in 2025
Discover vintage homemaking skills that not only save money but also bring charm to your home. Embrace the art of frugality with timeless techniques!
From Grandma’s Kitchen to Modern Living: Adapting Vintage Homemaking Skills for Today
Homemaking skills are just as relevant today as they always have been. One important reason, especially in today’s economy, is to save money. With people spending hours a day on their phones and binging streaming services, time really is not a valid excuse to not try incorporating some of these into your life this year. See how much you will save just by trying a few of these vintage homemaking skills.
Budgeting
This one seems like a no brainer, but budgeting is definitely at the top of our vintage homemaking skills that save money list for a reason. In a world where there wasn’t credit cards and instant loans, vintage homemakers had to keep up on the budget. In order to keep the budget in line, they had to be frugal. Very important skills to have in 2025 and skills we seem to be lacking in our modern world.
>> How to Create a Budget to Save Money <<
Meal Planning
Families usually had a small collection of recipes that they’d rotate. They’d plan their meals, see what they had in the garden and the pantry, and shop accordingly. This is another of the vintage homemaking skills that we have seemed to lose in modern times. We can easily have anything delivered to our doorstep, so why plan? Meal planning saves money by eliminating food waste, saves time and money from having to pay fees or run to the store, and allows us to not have to second guess what’s for dinner.
>> How to Make a Meal Plan + Free Printables <<
Cooking from Scratch
Cooking from scratch is one of the vintage homemaking skills that we seem to have lost the quickest. When convenience foods came on the scene and women started to join the work force, it made sense that we’d stop spending so much time in the kitchen. I won’t say I make everything from scratch, but by doing it more often or as often as you can, you can really stretch your budget and save money.
>> 40+ Easy, Frugal Crockpot Meals You’ll Love <<
Cleaning with Natural Ingredients
Vintage homemakers used simple, natural ingredients like vinegar, baking soda, and lemon juice to keep their homes clean and fresh. They didn’t have huge selections of chemical laden options. Some are nice to have, but most are just unnecessary. Not only do they cost a premium, but they are not great for your health.
>> How to Make Homemade Orange Cleaner <<
Sewing and Mending
Sewing and mending are skills that every vintage homemaker knew how to do. If I’m being honest, I struggle with this one personally. I have always had the desire to learn, but always would get easily frustrated and give up. I have since started to do these fun sewing projects. Even just knowing how to mend clothes allows you to save money by prolonging the life of your clothing.
>> How to Save Money on Kids Clothes <<
Home Remedies
While I am super grateful for modern medicine, I have to say, we as a society are ridiculously dependent on it. I have friends who will take their children in for the slightest coughs and mild fevers. Vintage homemakers knew honey worked great for a cough and a wet rag would help a child feel more comfortable with a fever. These types of tidbits of knowledge can drastically reduce health care costs for most people.
Canning and Gardening
This is another area I could improve in as well, but it’s definitely one of the superior vintage homemaking skills. Growing your own food can remarkably reduce your grocery bill. I hear people complain about this one, specifically that gardening costs money, land, time, etc. My argument is that my 83-year-old grandmother grows several things on her apartment patio and window sill. As you may have guessed, she isn’t rich and doesn’t have the mobility most people do. Yet she still makes it work and saves money in the long run!
>> 27 Great Depression Frugal Living Tips to Try in 2025 <<
Hospitality
As an introvert, I get it. As a phone obsessed society, I see less and less people meeting together in person. I also rarely see friends and families getting together in their homes. They always think they need to go out and do something. One of the important vintage homemaking skills was having people over to grow community. This is something my family started incorporating when we started paying off debt and living within our means. It’s not only easier with small children and more personably, but hosting others versus going out is certainly going to save money.
>> How to Have a No Spend Month in 2025 + Free Printable <<
DIY
Vintage homemakers didn’t have the privilege of being able to turn on Youtube to see how to do just about everything. Yet they were still able to resourceful and creative. They could repurpose and reuse things. Just by doing this with a few items in our lives, we could easily save so much money, just as our vintage homemakers did before us.
