My Frugal Year

Wow. This really has been a busy week. This working two jobs, having a family and going to school thing can really kick my patootie sometimes. This week is one of those times.

This got me thinking – savings isn’t just about money. It’s about time, too. Now time is a funny thing. I hear people talk about “saving time,” but that really isn’t the right way of putting it. There is no time bank. You don’t save time and put it away to use later. Not technically, anyway. But you can use time more effectively, in essence giving you more time to do the things you want to do. Like take a nap. Or play with your kids, or just sit and have some coffee with a friend.

Time is a funny thing. It’s truly a “spend as you go” asset. It’s use it or lose it, period. It doesn’t earn interest and doesn’t magically grow. So how DO you figure out how to be more thrifty with time? Well, there are lots of experts out there with really good advice on how to use your time. I’m lucky enough to know one of them – and she’s truly an expert. She lives what she teaches and her life is evidence that what she teaches works. Her book, “Find More Time” is one of the best, down-to-earth, solid advice books I’ve read on the subject. It’s well worth the time to read it.

Trust me, you’ll love it!

It’s been a ridiculously busy week and it’s only Tuesday! I’ve been, in the spirit of frugality, working on getting a working computer for the family member I mentioned earlier. The laptop I was trying to fix is sadly DOA. No hope. But between the cases, motherboards and hard drives we had laying around here, we managed to “frankenstein” a pretty decent computer. Got it installed today at their house and everything is working. Cost: $0! That is a beautiful thing.

My husband did a quick shopping run and saved a few bucks. Yay for guys who like to save too!

By the way…the crockpot creation from Sunday turned out great. Everyone loved it. Served it over tortilla chips and put some shredded cheese on top, a little sour cream and salsa. We’ll be doing that one again for sure!

Deal for today: Don’t forget about Drugstore.com’s Deal of the Day. You never know what you’re going to find!

Spent: $57.68
Saved:$10.79
Transferred to savings $10.79

Year to date savings:$103.27
I can do better than that next month!!

It’s a cold, gray Sunday here in Colorado. The kind of day where you just want a warm cup of coffee or hot chocolate. And the kind of day when there’s nothing better than the smell some something cooking in the crockpot filling the house. Now I’m no expert cook, but I’ve gotten pretty good at knowing what to toss together in the crock that will likely taste good by dinner time.

Today I didn’t have a recipe handy, so I am winging it. I had thawed boneless skinless chicken breasts. Three really big ones. I had a hankering for something semi-spicy. So this is what I did: Sprayed the crockpot with cooking spray (makes clean up much easier), chopped the chicken breasts into chunks and tossed that on the bottom. Then checked the cupboard for what kind of canned goods I could use. Found some kidney beans, diced tomatoes and corn. Right on. Mixed those up and found a packet of chicken taco seasoning in the pantry. Mixed that up with the canned goods. Took a couple cups of rice, put that on top of the chicken then dumped the mixture of canned stuff and taco seasoning on top. Closed the lid and – voila! In several hours we’ll have dinner! No idea how it’s gonna taste, but I have a feeling it’ll be ok. We’ll have it with some tortilla chips and shredded cheese on top. Yum.


That’s a nice, frugal Sunday dinner for ya.

There’s another savings thing we’ve implemented for this year that I’m excited about. With my husband’s job he doesn’t get specific vacation time, but he does get vacation pay on his paychecks. For the past few years we’ve not done anything with it – just went into the account for regular expenses. Now when we get his checks, I take the amount of vacation pay and transfer it into savings and keep track of it with Quicken. So we’re saving that money to take a real vacation. This is something we’ve not really done – real vacations. So by the end of the year we’ll have a nice sum set aside to do a fun trip with the family. Good times!

No one is leaving the house today, so there won’t be any spending. This is a good thing!

Hello! Hope you all are having a fabulous weekend. Today was a great day with family and friends. We went to celebrate a friend’s 40th birthday. It was a great party at Lucky Strike. The kids and my husband had a great time bowling and I just socialized and took pictures. It was a blast. Tonight is just relaxing at home and finishing a homework project I had.

Not much in the way of spending today – just seven bucks for parking. They get ya downtown on that! But that’s a small price to pay for good times with good friends.

Now there is a My Frugal Year network on Ning! Come visit and join the discussion about all things frugal. Share your favorite frugal tips, great deals, and have a good time with some online frugal friends.

There is a difference between “frugal” and “cheap.” Cheap seems to have a negative connotation. That word brings about notions of Scrooge-like behavior. Being frugal or thrifty is a positive thing and to me, it doesn’t come from a place of lack or unwillingness to share. It’s just smart. I’m frugal and thrifty so that I CAN do things I enjoy, donate to causes I believe in and to create a better life for my family. In my life, being frugal brings a feeling of abundance to my home, so I think it’s a truly positive thing.

Today I blew four bucks on a Chai Latte at Starbucks. Not too frugal particularly, but that’s ok. What that brought me was a couple hours with a dear friend. Being frugal doesn’t have to mean that you never treat yourself! Saving is important – but that Chai Latte with my friend was a sanity saver.

No other spending this day, so nothing saved but my sanity – so I think of that as a really good day!

Uneventful couple of days. I broke the cardinal rule and ran to the store on my way home with no list or coupons. Luckily I didn’t go overboard and just got what I needed. I just saved a few dollars with my store card. Bo-ring!

My frugal thing for today was trying to fix a family member’s laptop so she doesn’t have to buy a new one. I managed to at least figure out the problem and it’s going to be less expensive to fix it than to get a new computer.

I do have $50 coming my way from my favorite online survey company, so that’s a really good thing.

That’s about it for now.

Spent: $48.48
Saved on store card: $3.19
Transferred to savings $3.19

Year to date savings: $92.48

That’s an average savings of $4.20/day which adds up to over $1500 for the year. Not bad, eh? Hopefully I can bump that up even more!

I love free stuff. Free is my favorite four letter word So today is the day you can go to your local department store and take advantage of the latest cosmetics settlement. If you have one of these stores near you, you can go get one free product.
Bergdorf Goodman, Bergner’s, Bloomingdale’s, Boston Store, Carson Pirie Scott, Dillard’s, Gottschalks, Herberger’s, Macy’s, Neiman Marcus, Nordstrom, Parisian, Saks Fifth Avenue or Younkers. Go to the official settlement website to see what the deal is and find the list of available products. I just got back from Macy’s with my “My Insolence Eau de Toilette.” It’s quite delightful…and did I mention free? Go NOW…today, before they run out!

Didn’t spend anything today, so didn’t save anything technically. But not spending is saving in a way. Today’s focus is on the making of the money. I went to work and am working on updating some of my websites. I do have a lot of surveys in my inbox to do, so I’m sure I’ll earn a few dollars there. Currently I’m waiting on checks from a few survey companies. It’s sure great extra cash. Just spend the time you normally would messing around on the internet and do a few surveys. Next thing you know you have checks coming in and money being put in your PayPal account.

It’s a frugal dinner tonight, and one of my favorites – BREAKFAST! Fried egg sandwiches with bacon and cheese and hashbrowns. Yummmmmy!

And how can I let today pass without acknowledging the really important thing that happened today. We have a brand new President. It’s time to for the country to come together to support our new President in the fixing on what’s wrong with this country. We may not all agree on the best ways to do this, but I do believe we can all come together in prayer with good thoughts for President Obama and our great country. It’s an exciting day and I am looking forward to seeing how the growth of this country unfolds. God bless America!

My view at the Democratic National Convention

Monday. Yep. That’s about it. No shopping or fun stuff to report. Been working too hard and trying to get things done around the house.

Can I make an embarrassing admission? The tree. Yes, the Christmas tree. It’s still up. With decorations. Clearly, something must be done. That’s a frugal night – taking down the tree. Nothing to spend there. However I fear this may be the last year for the poor, decrepit thing. It’s probably ten years old. Hopefully I can find a screaming deal on a new one for next year.

So no, didn’t get done what I wanted to get done today. I spent most of the day working on homework and catching up on laundry, so my basement project was yet again delayed. No biggie – I’ll get to it. That makes me laugh because I have about four years worth of “I’ll get to it” down there. I just don’t want so much time to go by that I suddenly have twenty years of “I’ll get to it” down there.

I did take a little trip to the thrift store today and got an adorable pair of jeans for six bucks and a couple of shirts for my son. My son is growing out of things faster than I can keep up. And me…well, I needed an extra pair of jeans that actually fit until I lose this spare holiday weight.

Speaking of holiday weight…in case you didn’t gain enough, Hickory Farms is having a killer sale. I mean RIDICULOUS prices on some seriously yummy stuff. Very well worth checking out. That is some serious savings – like 75% off. Can’t go wrong with summer sausage and cheese!

I love lazy Saturdays, don’t you? It didn’t start out lazy. There was an early board meeting for a non profit group I’m involved with, but the rest of the day was just hanging out with the family. I like days like that. We didn’t go out or do anything really. We were just all at home doing our thing. Reading, playing on the computer, watching a movie. It was nice.

No spending today, which is good since I made the Costco run the other day. Since today was a lazy day that means tomorrow needs to be a productive day. I plan to do some de-cluttering in the basement. It’s my plan to be nice and ready for a good weather weekend to come along and finally do this garage sale I’ve been meaning to do. Garage sales are a great way to get rid of stuff that’s just clogging up your home and to make some nice extra cash. Nice way to beef up the savings account! The only problem is that it’s January in Colorado. This means any given weekend there could be a blizzard or 70 degree weather. Makes it tough to plan. The best I can do is get everything organized with price labels and when the weather cooperates, throw a Craigslist ad up and a few signs and get it done.

So, we’ll see how much I actually get done tomorrow!

Some deals and coupons for today:

Betty Crocker Coupons

Nestle Toll House Coupon

Enter to Win $100 in Grocery Money – Carnation

$10 off at Old Navy – Expires 1/20/09