Thrifty Thursday

 

In reality the last week was not really thrifty, mind you by staying with Kurt and Kris we did save money on hotel bills and most meals. I even packed snacks for our trip up to Drumheller, and back to Kris's in Regina. So I guess that was thrifty. 

I thought that perhaps today I would share the joys and perhaps some of the frustrations of living a thrifty and frugal lifestyle. One which we now enjoy and will continue to live.

By taking a thrifty lifestyle on (since I pay the bills and look after most spending) took control of spending and other resources so as not to be wasteful.

It didn't happen overnight, nothing ever does. Instead it took Harvey being laid off when we were first married and looking for ways to cut expenses. Some ideas were much easier to introduce into our lives, they seemed to fit so easily. Others were just not the right fit. I slowly learned that what works in one case will never work in another. In some cases sacrifices were made in order to spend in others.

We found that gradually the stresses of every day life no longer seemed to affect us much. I think learning that we did not have to "keep up with the Jones's" was our first real step on this path.

Paying off debt was another wonderful step on this thrifty and frugal path. It took awhile, but once all the credit cards were paid off we could manage to pay off what we charged monthly. No more carrying charges. Now our cards are still used but they are used and paid off immediately and we have cards that give us a percentage of our expenditures back.

Once that was completed I started to put money away so we could pay off our home. Once that was finished (15 years before it was supposed to) it was time to use that to put away for our retirement and save for special trips and a new vehicle. 

Over the years we learned that purchasing the least expensive item was not thrifty. Buying the best that you can afford is. One does not need to purchase the best, but somewhere in the middle is great. Things last longer and work better. Shopping the sales, garage sales, and secondhand stores gave us many excellent items that we still own today (or the boys own in their homes). Since we planned where we were spending our hard earned cash no one could call us cheap.

Using everything up to the very last drop saves us and saves the environment. Back when we were first married I am pretty sure that did not happen. I now scrape out the last bits from a jar of peanut butter, cheese whiz, or jam and put it into the new one for example. We also no longer throw out clothing that is no longer fit to be worn or no longer "fits". Instead they are cut into usable squares for quilts, refashioned (those that don't fit) or cut into rags to be used for cleaning. 

I learned to cook more from scratch and Harvey planted a garden which enables us to have fresh veggies each day, and allows me to process the excess for winter usage. There are items we don't grow due to lack of space, but it is amazing how much can be grown in a city lot. 

This year I started to forage for fruit and have been learning how to make various personal items like scrubs and oils. I may try my hand at flavoured vinegars and oils later on. 

I have also started to use substitutions instead of running out and purchasing that item. There is almost always a substitution that can be found online. 

So those are all joys and just a few of them as I could write for hours on all I have learned and enjoyed for the last 43 years of our marriage.

Really there was only one great frustration.... I tried a thrifty move I had found in a newspaper article. I save toilet paper rolls for about a month and then sat in the middle of my living room floor and proceeded to take apart 2 ply toilet tissue to make 2 rolls instead of one. Harvey came home to a tearful wife and mounds of white all over the floor. He helped me roll them up (was not an easy task like the article stated it was) and made me swear not to do anything like that again. I learned from this that not all thrifty moves are a good fit and even now I consider all the ramifications before trying something new.

Everybody have a wonderful evening.

God bless.