Harvey and I have not always had a habit of saving, and I have not always economically managed the household funds to the best of our advantage.
It took Harvey being laid off of work for almost a year and trying to live on unemployment for the light bulb to go off.
Ever since that time I have purposefully watched what we have spent, taking the time to price things out to get the most bang for our buck.
Over the years since then we managed to pay off our house in 12 years rather than 25, and pay cash for each of our vehicles. It has also enabled us to pay off our credit card in full each and every month. Now I know some of you are shuddering over the credit card thing, but we do get money back each and every year. In fact with my credit card I buy groceries and since I buy them from the Coop that I am a member of we get twice the money back. This enables me to actually get probably close to a months free groceries every year.
I always save all the change from my wallet every two weeks, and any cash that is left from my biweekly spending money gets stashed away as well.
Old clothing is donated if it is in good shape, if not, zippers, and buttons are removed (they can be used over on other items) and the clothing is cut apart either into rags for cleaning or into usable quilting materials or patches for other clothing.
When I make meals leftovers are saved and used for another meal. If the food isn't frozen (such as leftover roasts, leftover chicken, turkey or ham), it is stored in air tight containers and used within a few days. It is amazing how many wonderful meals a person can get from a Sunday dinner (always our big meal of the week) and then the carcass of a chicken (or two), or a turkey can make lovely stock and still more meals.
Rather then buying lots of tupperware or expensive plastic containers I have been know to collect ice cream containers, soft margarine containers, yogurt containers and the like specifically for storing all those lovely leftover in the freezer.
Through saving and thrift we are having a wonderful retirement with enough to see us through and even take a trip or two every year. Perhaps not big trips, but nice relaxing holidays.
It has even enabled us to help Kurt and Kris.
Will we continue to be thrifty? Of course, it has become a habit now and one the two of us enjoy immensely.
Everybody have a wonderful evening.
God bless.
We have a credit card. We do get cashback on purchases and we do pay it off every single month - we don't use it to buy anything we don't already have the money for. The reason we have one is that we bought a large item with a debit card once and the company went bust, we had no protection, had we used a credit card we would have had more chance of getting our money back.
ReplyDeleteIt has become a habit for us too...though sometimes I fall off of the wagon! My goal in 2016 is to strap myself to that wagon and never again fall off! Thanks for the inspiration!
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