My Frugal Year

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.

Being stuck at home will certainly put a damper on spending! My husband had to take the good car today. The “other” car…bless it’s little engine…doesn’t do snow. Seriously. I love my Subaru Forester. That thing gets through anything. The other car is a 1988 Mazda 323 that’s been hit by a garbage truck. It’s not pretty. But my goodness, it’s frugal. Hardly costs anything to run and insure. It’s just these pesky days when he needs the Subaru and it’s snowing, I’m stuck. Luckily I was able to do some work remotely and I have a very understanding boss.

So there’s a frugal topic for you – cars. They can be money-sucking beasts or they can be useful tools that can be used in a frugal manner. I suppose we could replace the old Mazda…but why? It runs. It gets us from point A to point B. It has great gas mileage and doesn’t need premium fuel. Our self-esteem isn’t wrapped up in how cool our vehicles look. Nope, we’re in no hurry to replace it. It’s a rare occurrence that it creates a transportation problem like it did today. 99% of the time, I could drop my husband off at work or the Light Rail station and go on my merry way. So it didn’t turn out to be a big deal. And I couldn’t do anything about the urge to shop.

I guess that’s a good day all around!

Snowy Day in Colorado

And here’s a happy freebie for ya! Get a coupon booklet with $27 in savings for cleaning products!

Again it was a no spending day. I think of this as a good thing. It usually means we’ve got everything we need, which we do for the moment. There will need to be some grocery shopping this week, but nothing major.

I spent the day hanging out with the kids, working on my homework and updating a few of my Squidoo lenses. If you haven’t heard of Squidoo, it’s a great site where you can make your own FREE single page sites on whatever topic strikes your fancy. I currently have 69 lenses. My favorites are on working from home, living frugally and I have a bunch on various Broadway topics. It’s a lot of fun, it’s free, and you can actually make money doing it. Check it out and make your own lens!

Have a terrific week!