Five Days to Frugal / Day 5...Deny yourself.

Use it up,

Wear it out,

Make it do,

Do without

Denying myself is something I'm working through. I have to really consider what I'm doing these days, and I don't always enjoy it either. Is it a want or a need? I want a new comforter for my bed...I don't need a new comforter. I want some new tennis shoes...I don't need new tennis shoes. And I have to say here, I have had my tennis shoes for over two years, and they were never shoes I just loved when I bought them. I kind of just settled. And those tennis shoes will. not. wear. out. They are like the Energizer Bunny tennis shoes. I think I may even be buried in them. And right now, even though I've worn them, and worn them, and worn them, I cannot justify buying new shoes that aren't needed. Anyway, I could go on and on about my wants verses needs, but I think you get the picture.

I really think this whole denying yourself is so foreign to our culture today, too. I hear all the time in the media and I've even heard friends say it, "You deserve it!" Okay. Let me tell you what I really deserve.

I end my frugal post here. Consider your giving, consider your habits, consider your food and clothing. And deny yourself and learn to be content. That's worth repeating...Be content. Remember Paul...he new what it was to live in plenty and to live in want, yet he was content. Let the Lord be the source of your joy and your blessings. When He gives, you will overflow.

Five Days to Frugal / Day 4...Consider what you wear...

I really should have ironed that shirt before I took the picture. Oh well. That is Moose's shirt, and the only reason he has a Ralph Lauren Polo is that it came from...Goodwill. When ironed it looks brand new. I also snagged another one up the same day I bought this one. Goodwill, in my area anyway, is very hit and miss. But when you hit, it's usually like striking gold as with this shirt and the other things I've bought there.

One of my favorite movies is Love Comes Softly. There is a scene in which Missy asks Marty why she has so many dresses because you can only wear one at a time. The Bob commented recently that we all really have conservative wardrobes...as in our closets don't overflow. So much so in fact that when we go somewhere for several days, I'm usually really scraping to pull stuff together for us to wear. But the other 99% of the time, we are good so it's really okay. Moose only has one pair of nice pants. One. That's all he really needs. The only place he needs them for is church or another function in which you'd dress nice (funeral, wedding, etc.) So, that one pair of pants gets worn every single Sunday. Do you think people notice that he wears the same pair of pants every Sunday? I dare say they don't. He has two or three shirts to wear with them, so change the shirt and you've changed the whole outfit. In order to get the most out of what I buy for the children to wear, I try to buy a smidgen on the large side. That way they worn for more than one year, hopefully....unless someone has a growing spurt or something. That's another reason not to have too many pieces for your children...they outgrow them so fast!

My final frugal clothing thought is that not only do we have a conservative number of items in our closet, but they are also conservative in style. Trendy is for the moment, conservative wears well after the moment has passed =)

Five to Days to Frugal / Day 3...Consider What you Eat

I was at Jessica's blog today, and she made the comment that sometimes being frugal isn't necessarily being cheap. Sometimes it's getting the best quality for the least amount of money. I thought that was a good point to make. You can see that post here. It's her ideas for a frugal Thanksgiving. And on the subject of Thanksgiving and food, since the pay cut, I do consider what we eat. So, once a week we have a bean meal. Does my family love it? No. Does my budget? Yes.

The Bob and the kids just tolerate my bean meals, but I actually like a good bean meal. My bean meals are not fancy: northern beans and corn dodgers (found in a Little House on the Prairie cookbook), pintos and corn dodgers, or black beans and rice with you guessed it....corn dodgers. I like saying corn dodgers. Doesn't it sound like fun food? Anyway, you can see the black bean and rice meal if you click on recipe under labels in the right side bar.

In addition to beans, we've taken away some junk food which is not only good for the budget, but good for your health. We went from drinking Cokes almost daily to mostly on the weekends. I buy about 2 2-liters a week, and when they are gone that's it. We also quit buying cookies and such. If we have a sweet treat, usually it's something that I have to make.

As I mentioned in my previous post, we've also started eating more left overs and trying to not waste so much. Frugality is not only considering cost, but about being a wise steward with what the Lord has given us.

Five Days to Frugal / Day 2...Consider your habits

I'm a creature of habit, and change for me does not come easy. My friend Lisa and I joke all the time about how ingrained some of my habits and characteristics are. For example, when I go to Sam's, Walmart, or Target, I always park in the same area or row. That's just one example. I won't bore you with others. Even though I am such a creature of habit, it seems new habits are hard for me to establish. However, since the big pay cut, it was good motivation to start some new habits =) Here's some of the new frugal habits we've taken on:

-Live like a mole. Do you really need that light on? I was on our utility company website the other day and their rule of thumb for exiting and entering rooms is the following:

For standard light bulbs, if you will be out of the room for more than 5 seconds, cut it off. For the new fancy fandangled energy saving light bulbs, if you will be out of the room for more than 15 minutes, cut it off.

-Use cash. Let me repeat that. Use cash. Use cash. Use cash. I fought this. I fought it hard. My reasons for fighting it...we've always lived on a budget. I track our expenses. I know what I'm using my debit card for, keeping good track of our checking account and balancing it. I know where those debit card purchases are made and why I made them. Yeah...well, the small little problem with that is the debit card allowed me to stray from the budget. A smidgen more than I intended on groceries here. A trip through Sonic there. It adds up. More than you think it will add up. I now take out cash once a week, and there is no straying with cash. When it's gone, it's gone...and painful. The cash is used for groceries, household and cleaning items, dog food/pet food, if anyone needs something like a haircut, if there is a gift I have to buy (birthday, baby, wedding), any needed miscellaneous thing, etc., etc., etc., and also for eating out...which brings me to point #3...

-We stopped eating out so much. Before the pay cut, we were eating out a lot. More than we realized. On average we were eating at a sit down restaurant once a week in addition to fast food once or maybe even twice a week. Now, we still hit the fast food once a week. And a lot of times we hit fast food due to lack of planning on my part. I need to work on that some more. But we've not been to a sit down restaurant in forever. And ever. And ever. Not really, but it has been so long that I can't remember the last time we went to a restaurant where they brought your food and drink to you and that you had to tip. {{Sigh}} I can't wait to return to my favorite Mexican Restaurant. When we do, it will be a real treat. I may dream of Shrimp Quesidillas tonight after this post.

-And finally, consider what you use and what you waste. Living on a Dime has some really good statistics on how much food that is purchased in the US gets thrown in the garbage because we don't eat it. We are working on that. We eat left overs more than ever before, but there is still room for improvement there.

So that's just four ideas. If I were to pick one out of the four for you to implement, I'd say it would be to use cash. You will just be so much more thoughtful about your purchases. You'll be using what the Lord gave you to manage wisely =)

Five Days to Frugal / Day 1...Consider what you give

As goes with many people these days, we enter the ranks of those feeling the tight economy of the past year. "They" say were coming out of it. I gotta tell ya, not sure that we're seeing that yet. The Bob runs our very own little plumbing business. He works very hard. Very. About 3 months ago, we had to cut our pay. The cut was deeper than we originally intended...or wanted. But we decided it would be more wise to live on less now before things just snowballed and got really ugly. And hopefully, to prevent things from getting really ugly. I'm happy to say, we've not entered ugly yet. So, here we are living on less, and I am reminded of how easy it is to feel the pull of stuff. The pull of luxuries. The pull of comforts. I feel it almost daily. However, I am seeing the frugal side of me really work. Most of the time I'm just a frugal wannabe, but the next five posts will be how I'm working me some frugal.

So, we cut our pay. However, last time I checked we didn't have to worry about where our grocery money was coming from or if we were going to be able to pay our light bill or mortgage. Really. Don't feel sorry for me. Because so far, we've just had to give up comforts. Comforts, I like saying that word. It just sounds so fuzzy, cozy, and warm. But there are those, who do worry about those things...the mortgage, the light bill. They are worried about their next meal. They are worried if they will make their next mortgage payment. Or maybe with Christmas fast approaching, they are sad that they can't get their children just a little something. Maybe sometimes being frugal is giving? Usually when money is tight, giving is the first thing slashed. Deny yourself some comforts so that you can give something to someone who has nothing.

The child that receives this box will probably fall into the nothing category. I found it interesting that the list suggestions Samaritan's Purse (run by Franklin Graham) gave with the boxes included basic things like toothpaste, toothbrush, and soap. To be honest, if I gave my children toothpaste for Christmas, they would look at me like I had grown two heads. But that in part would be that they've never had to do without toothpaste, I suppose....

All this to say...if you, too, are finding yourself plunged deep into the difficult financial downturn these days...if you are feeling the pinch and the pinch is painful, but you are not worried about your mortgage or food on the table.... if at all possible, don't stop giving....don't stop giving unto the LORD. Don't deny Him what's rightfully His.

"For where your treasure is, there will your heart be also."

Good Blogging Finds #1

I'm just putting out here some new blogging finds (because I need to spend more time in the blogging world!) and how they relate to me.

First up is Amy at Momadvice.com/blog in which she did this:

In February (I know that's 3 months ago...I just found it this week), she posted her adventures in spending absolutely nothing except what it took to live. Food (not fast food - that is a luxury) and gas for the car. That's it. No trip through McDonald's or Starbucks. No materials and items for craft projects. No movies, CDs, or books. Food and gas, People. Why does this speak to me? One, we eat out waaaaaay too much. My children and I hit a fast food restaurant at least once a week. I figure that averages out to about $75 per month....on a stinkin' Big Mac! Or in my case a Fresco Bean Burrito from Taco Bell. And the second way it spoke to me was that we don't need nearly what we think we do and impulse purchases are a downfall for me! There, I said it. I cave to the occasional kitchen or house item, the pack of gum for my children (sugar free mind you), or an item of clothing even though my laundry tells me that we all have plenty of clothes. One clothing item in particular....flip flops. I adore flip flops. Cute, little Yellow Box flip flops are my favorite. But I'll take Target, Payless, and Walmart, too. This year The Bob put us on a "No Flip Flop Purchase Summer". Why? One, he can't stand them, and thinks one pair is plenty. Two, shouldn't one pair be plenty? I still have flip flops in really good shape from last year, so I absolutely don't need any. At all. Nope, I don't. But oh, I waaaaaant some. I torture myself by looking at them in stores any chance I get. I have to tell you it's killing me. So, if I end up missing or dead, it's from flip flop deprivation.

If you have a chance, check out her posts on this. It will open your eyes, too, I'm sure to areas of your spending that could be improved.

Finding Freedom Friday: Financial Goals.

Financial goals. Do you have them? You should. You really should. This year The Bob and I have two simple goals. Well, they seem simple, but sometimes everything works better on paper than in real life. But we are really working on these two things:

1. Saving. In the past couple of months we've purposed to put more in our savings account than we have saved in six months. Oh, we could have been purposing to do that all along, we just didn't. What a waste...but better late than never. Also, we recently upped the amount of our 401K. That may not seem wise being that the market has been so volatile, but our investor at Edward Jones assures us that we are "buying low". And we are in the market for the long haul. And he's been really good in helping with things us over the past 5 or so years. We have a good relationship with our Edward Jones guy, he communicates things to us, and we trust his judgement. So, a saving we will go....

2. The ole grocery budget. This pretty much falls on me and me alone. I'm attempting the game of coupons matched to grocery ads and shopping and planning meals around grocery ads. I find encouragement to do this from blogs like Stretching A Buck or Jen at Balancing Beauty and Bedlam. They are really good at this. Really good. I'm not so good yet. Emphasis on yet, and I'm going to continue working on it. My progress in that area is as follows:

1st week - I saved 28%

2nd week - I saved 52% (but that was a week I needed almost NOTHING, and bought very little. So, not a normal week.

3rd week - I saved 30%. You can see that week here.

This week - I saved 35%

Jen assures me that there is a learning curve to this, and it will get better. I hope to be consistently in the 50% range in the near future. But I do have to say even the 30% range is good for me, because I used to be in the 15% range.

So, that's it. Have you set any goals, financial or otherwise, for 2009?

I just can't tell...

how much I'm really saving? Okay, so here's the picture of my grocery purchase today:

And let me say before I continue, this was a PAIN. I don't know how Gayle does this every week. Putting all those groceries out to take the picture and then having to put them where they really go....a pain, I tell you. Anyway, this is what I got...and PLEASE do not throw rocks at me for what you feel is nutritionally inadequate or too junky, okay? Okay. It is as follows:

28 ct. case bottled water
24 ct. tea bags
4 lb. sugar
Bottle of Tartar Sauce
Toilet Paper (12 double rolls)
Bacon Bits
Strawberry Pop Tarts (no rocks)
Basil
Mustard
Italian Dressing
(4) can green beans
(4) can diced tomatoes
(1) cream of chicken (fat free)
(1) cream of celery (fat free) (I mention fat free because it cost more than reg.)
(2) can mushrooms
(2) chicken gravy mix
(2) spaghetti (16 oz ea)
(2) Rotel
(4 ) shredded cheddar cheese (2 cups per bag)
1 gallon of milk
1/2 gallon chocolate milk
Large Coffee Mate French Vanilla Creamer
(3) Grands Biscuits (5 ct.)
Hand Soap (Refill Sized)
(10) Banquet Frozen Dinners (again, no rocks)
(2) Frozen Brussel Sprouts (there, the healthy stuff is back)
(1 )Frozen Corn
8 lb. bag Chicken Leg Quarters
2 lb. bag lettuce / salad mix
1.2 lbs tomatoes
1 Pineapple
5 lb. bag red potatoes
(2) Family Size Bag of Tortilla Chips
(2) Microwave Popcorn
1 lb. bacon
Lunch Meat - ham
Lunch Meat - chicken
Loaf of bread
Total: $102.68

This came from Kroger and I saved 30%, so they say. "Store Coupon" savings was 34.53 and Manufacture/Bonus Coupons was $6.05. So according to them my total should have been adding back savings from sales and coupons $143.31. What I really want to do is go buy all of the exact items at Walmart and see what their total comes to not having the sales ad and coupons. Anyone want to do that for me? I didn't think so. I just don't know...do you think that looks like a good amount of food, considering what was bought, for $100? Oh, and the reason why the only meat you see is the 8 lb. chicken and 1 lb. of bacon is that I have other meat in the freezer :)

And today was a double post day, because tomorrow there's this:

Happy Birthday, Granny!

Granny is bottom row, center in this picture. She is surrounded by her sisters...I love this picture. It's one of my favorites. Granny is not really my Granny but my mother-in-law. I call her Granny, because that's what my children call her, and because it fits. Yesterday was Granny's birthday. She turned 83.

Granny was raised during The Great Depression, and The Bob and I like her to tell us the stories of life back then. She grew up one of 9 children, was extremely poor, picked cotton from can to can't, and was only schooled until the 4th grade. She married The Bob's Dad in her early 20's. He worked at a steel factory for about 40 years, and retired in his early 60's due to health issues. He only made about $10 per hour at retirement...and that was in the mid 1990's. With such a meager salary they were still able to send their two boys to private school, not accumulate any debt paying cash for everything, and build a small little nest egg of savings. Granny could give lessons in being frugal. She is one of the most content women I know. She has little and wants for nothing. Material possessions do not impress her.

Granny is quite the character. She doesn't meet a stranger and will talk your ears off if you give her the chance. Sometimes you've not a clue as to who or what she's talking about. But that's okay. You just have to smile and nod your head every now and then. She loves to go dancing. Let me repeat that. She LOVES to go dancing. When she meets you, one of the first things she will probably ask is if you like to dance.

Yesterday was Granny's birthday, and she is 83 years young.

Ye Olde Budget...

It's linky linky time again with Phoebe! I love her frugal linky parties, and this week is on budgeting. I am very passionate about budgeting. So passionate, in fact, I have been teaching some local home schoolers the joys of budgeting. Some people hate budgets, but not me. I think it goes along with my list making personality.

My earliest memory of budgeting comes from my Mom. She would use a steno pad and keep track of money coming in and money going out. I was always a bit fascinated by that even as a child. Really. The Bob and I have been married for 14 years, and we started budgeting very early on in our marriage. Though not the case when I was single (that's another story for another time), we have always been careful with how much debt we get our self into. There's a plan in place to get it paid off as quickly as possible if/when there's an occasion that we do take on any debt. Right now, other than our house note, we have no debt. It's a beautiful thing. Getting our house paid off, which should be in about 9 years, will be heaven.

We follow a combination of Dave Ramsey and Larry Burkett. We're probably more Larry Burkett than Dave Ramsey. If you've never heard of Larry Burkett you can go to his website at Crown Financial Ministries. Larry is actually deceased now, but the ministry he started is still going. They have a ton of free stuff to help people in budgeting. Following a budget over the past years has gotten us through hard times with our business and helps keep our checkbook balance where it needs to be. It makes us mindful, extremely mindful.

I hope I don't sound like we have it all together and that we're all that and a bag of chips? To be honest, we still struggle with the discipline of some things. Like oh say, saving. Not retirement saving, but saving saving. This year, we are really, really trying to focus on saving more. It's one of our top priorities. Considering the economy and the state of the Nation, it may be more of a challenge, but it's challenge we're willing to tackle! Also, I'm trying to tackle the grocery portion of the budget. I may never be a Phoebe or Gayle, but I know I can get it down. I'll keep you posted on that. Actually, if you see this post from yesterday, you'll see what I'm working on to accomplish that :)

A beautiful site...

I stumbled upon this site through Phoebe's site. It is a beautiful place. She takes the sale ads matching up online coupons and Sunday paper coupons. She does all the work for you, People! I went to Kroger today and took $23 off my bill. For the first time ever, I planned my list around what was on sale and used the Stretching a Buck site. That alone saved me 23 smackeroos. And I didn't even have any Sunday paper coupons. And my sick computer would not print out the online coupons. I have since remedied my sick computer and next time I'll be printing out online coupons. Next time I will so have the Sunday paper coupons in my hand. I know if I had the extra coupons that I could have probably saved another $10 or so. Yep, it's a beautiful place.

It's all in the plan, man...

Phoebe is having a menu planning linky. I'm joining in.

I am a list maker. It's what I do. And I cannot even fathom going to the store without a menu plan and a list. I have a really, really good friend that does go without a menu plan and a list, and it boggles my mind. Although, part of me does appreciate that go with the flow attitude. Anyway, go with the flow isn't me so much.

Phoebe gave us the following questions:

How many weeks do you shop at a time? It has been one week at a time, but I'm trying to move it into two weeks at a time. Heathahlee is shaking her head right now. She shops two weeks at a time, and I am CONSTANTLY picking her brain over what she does to do that. I'm going to get it to two weeks if it kills me. And it probably will.

How do you keep track? A list on the fridge of what we run out of or are low on is always running. Then when I make my menu once a week (again, moving to two weeks), I write out what I need for those recipes.

How do you decide what to eat? Ummmmm. What sounds good. Really. I know some people shop around sales, and I should do that, but I don't. I do like to try and have, much to my family's "delight", one bean meal a week. I love beans, my family not so much. They'll learn to love them though :)

How does this help you? If I did not menu plan and make a list, I'd never have what we needed in the pantry on a consistent basis. Never.

So, that's it, and to me, it's pretty elementary. But for people like my non menu planning, non list making, good friend, maybe it's not?

Behold the Bean

This is a re-post of a post from my former blogging days. I'll re-post some other things from those days later on. Anyway, I love beans. In particular, I love black beans. Love them. This is very frugal as it was a recipe by Joni McCoy of Miserly Moms that I tweaked a bit to fit my palate:

Black Beans & Rice
2 cans black beans
1 can diced tomatoes
1 large diced onion
1/2 T. minced garlic
1 T. oregano
1 cup of chicken stock

Mix all the above and cook in crock pot for at least 6 hours. With a slotted spoon, serve up some of those beans over rice. Especially yummy if you top with a little cheese, a little sour cream, and homemade or fresh salsa.

Saving Moolah

Phoebe has a money saving linky post going. I've not had time to read but a couple of ideas from others, so mine may duplicate. Also, let me preface this by saying that I know that I've not arrived in frugalness. I don't even want to say what I spend each week on groceries. So, I won't. Just know that I'm no Gayle at Grocery Cart Challenge or Phoebe for that matter. However, after thoughts rambling through my head these are my ideas:

*Order off the $1 Menu at fast foot places. After joining Weight Watchers, I have found that I am now quite satisfied from the Wendy's $1 Jr. Burger as I would be from ordering the regular sized Wendy's Single.

*I shop at Aldi when I can. I don't shop there every week as I live 25-30 miles from there, but a couple of times a month I stop in and shop and stock up there. If you don't have an Aldi, maybe you have a Save A Lot? If you don't have either, well....I don't know...

*You can cut back on the amount of detergent you use when washing clothes or running your dishwasher. And I have not noticed any difference whatsoever in doing so. I can see that my clothes are still getting good and clean, and nobody has told me yet that I stink.

*The fact that it's on sale does not necessarily mean that you should buy it. Are you really saving money if it's something that you don't need? Now, I know there is a flip side to this coin. There are a lot of CVS Shoppers who have this huge honking stock of stuff. That's not necessarily what I'm talking about. I know you put a lot of time researching and doing that, and you walk away with everything almost for free. This is what I'm talking about:
There is a clothing store not far from me going out of business. Everything is way way marked down. The clothes horse wannabe in me wanted to stop in and take a look. I know a look would end in a purchase. So, even though there were probably some killer deals, I've not been. Why? Because I don't NEED a thing. Nothing. Nada. Zero. Zilch. If I don't NEED anything, why buy no matter how good the deal? Do you get the picture of the emphasis being on NEED?

So, there are my measly ideas. Again, I've far to go in frugalness, but I'm always working at it :)