Frugal...I know...it sounds like living a life of counting every penny, buying day-old bread, wearing hand-me-downs and always fretting over how your money is being spent. Basically boring. But it really doesn't need to be that extreme.
Our family lives a pretty modest middle-class lifestyle. We "own" our home, but there's a mortgage still to be paid; and my husband and I share our house with our daughter and her two young children. My husband is an interior finish carpenter, and, as is the case with so many others in the building industry, he hasn't had a lot of work this past year or so, and that means we have had to be cautious with our spending.
But, somehow, it all seems to be working out ok. We've paid off our credit card and have a goal of never being in debt, because we want to save first and pay cash for everything, except possibly a new vehicle and our house. And even with those large purchases, we are setting our goal to pay them off as soon as possible. We want to save for our retirement, give more to charity and take a few vacations...nothing to extravagant, really, but no more sleepless nights of worry. So, I started searching the internet for resources on how to accomplish those things. I wanted to have more ideas on how to save money and make better use of the things I do have so we would be in control of our money rather than it controlling us. Unfortunately, most of the websites I found were addressing the situation of people who were already deep in debt...that's not our case. We just don't have much money to spare at the end of the month, and we'd like to change that. The other type of websites I found in abundance were providing tips on coupon clipping and how to make the most of them. That's not a bad thing, but it just doesn't fit well with our situation either, because we don't tend to use most of the products coupons are printed for, and I don't have time to clip and organize and shop at more than one or two stores.
So, I've decided to write my own blog about frugality, and I'm planning to include ideas on everything from stocking your pantry with good buys, do-it-yourself projects, finding the best health insurance for your needs, having fun with your family without going broke and knowing which charities are responsible with the donations they receive. I'm looking forward to input from other people too, so please feel free to share!
Next blog....Being Frugal Can Be Fun....Really!
Hi Cathy,
ReplyDeleteIt's great to see you blogging. I'm not sure I have a lot of ideas about living frugally, but here's a starter place for our family - using re-fillable water bottles. Our daughters dance three days a week, and we have often purchases mega-carton fulls of water bottles for them to take, which doesn't make sense, considering our well water is free and clean. So, we've been trying to actually use our re-fillable water bottles. Good for the budget and then environment.
Re-fillable water bottles are the way to go, and were actually the subject of a blog my daughter-in-law, Kara, wrote just a couple of weeks ago. I think it is rare to have tap water that is not good, potable water in the Pacific Northwest; and those who generally only drink bottled water would be very surprised to learn that it is also bottled straight from the same water source that supplies the water to their kitchen faucet.
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