My Frugal Year

Well, it’s clear things aren’t settling down any time soon so I must simply press on and try to update here whenever I can. I have all my grocery and savings receipts all in a pile waiting to be added up. A lot of the savings have been blown because of my lengthy illness and now this new curve ball.

My husband was rear-ended in his car two weeks ago. He’s injured and is not yet able to return to work. Frugality is of even more importance now. Part of what is particularly upsetting in this situation is that his car, which will sadly never be driven again, was the most frugal little car that ever was. We got it close to ten years ago, and it was old then. But it was the little engine that could. The thing wouldn’t stop. It was a 1988 (yes you read that right 1988) Mazda 323. It was not pretty, but it ran and it ran cheap. and now it looks like this:

Sad Car

So…this is what has been distracting me of late. It hadn’t yet been a week that I was finally feeling better from the bout with pneumonia when this happened. Now the kids just got out of school, I’m trying to work as much as I can, and I’m still in school. So yes, I feel terrible about missing my daily or even weekly updates. I will try to do better now.

Speaking of school, I’ll have my Associates Degree in a month, then about a year and half to get my Bachelors. I’m getting there…slowly but surely I’m getting there.

…but I haven’t been posting lately because I’ve been ill. Pneumonia, to be specific, and it’s been more than a month that I’ve been sick. So I will be posting again – I promise! I just need to get lots of rest and get better. I’m just glad it’s not swine flu!

Meanwhile, check out these cool blogs:

$5 Dinners
Frugal Freebies and Deals

Be back soon…

There just hasn’t been much shopping to be saving these days, which is good. This means my stocking up has been working. We haven’t had to do a lot of those annoying little trips that add up.

Since my last update, I’ve spent $132.36 at the grocery store and saved $35.62. Not the greatest savings ratio, but not the worst either.

We’ve been to the museum once more time since getting our membership. That was such a good idea. A year’s worth of entertainment for the family for $80. Love that. We’ll be going back again soon – they have some new exhibits coming in.

Another fabulous frugal thing is free theater tickets. Through my job I occasionally get great tickets to shows. My husband and I had a date this week and we got to see the touring company of Phantom of the Opera for FREE. That saved over $140 right there. Not that we would have spend that had we not gotten the complimentary tickets, but still – great deal.

So…, where are we? Let’s see, since last update:

Spent $132.46
Saved $35.62
Transferred to savings $35.62

Year to date savings $238.40.

And for your deal of the day – don’t forget about GoDaddy’s great deals on domain names and hosting. They have some specials going right now. Check it out:

Have a frugal day!!

We enjoy lots of cultural activities that are available here in town, but the expense can add up. Something to consider is memberships to certain organizations which allow you free or discounted admission throughout the year. We were going on an outing to the Museum of Nature and Science this weekend. In planning the trip, I noticed online that by purchasing a family membership, if we only visit the museum twice in a year, it more than pays for itself. I see that as $80 well spent. Now, for the next year, we can visit the museum any time for nothing. They always have something new to check out, so it’s a great deal.

Lots of museums, zoos etc. have those kind of membership deals. Check out what’s available in your town. You may discover some great savings there!

Freebie of the day:
Free subscription to Woman’s Day

Yes, I know…it’s been a while. I’ve been overwhelmed with school work, work work, home work, family work and just a lot of work in general. I have, however, dutifully saved all my receipts to keep track of what the heck I’ve been spending/saving.

I just have time for a quick update today, so I’ll make it short and sweet. Since I last posted:

Spent: 291.92
Saved: 99.51
Transferred to savings $99.51

Year to date savings: $202.78

Don’t forget about great printable grocery coupons you can get free online!

I will post more over the weekend!

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!