Frugal Friday

 

As I sit here on the first Friday of the month of January, I find myself surprised that almost a full week has sped by. 

I thought I needed to give myself another look at the meaning of frugal and get the meaning deep down inside. If I want to become a bit more frugal over the next year, I better understand what that means. I refuse to be so sparing that life is reduced to a where can I cut costs attitude, I have seen where that leads. I just want to save enough to enjoy life as we age.

The Collins Gage Canadian Dictionary says frugal means avoiding waste not much to go on really. So yours truly decided to use her old friend Google for a bit longer definition if possible. Low and behold the definitions I found pretty much mirror my good old dictionary. Not really a bad definition, but one that leaves a great deal to be desired from my point of few. Guess that means each of us can define frugal and frugality the way we wish.

So what frugal things have I been up to this week?

1.  I have been very good at shutting off lights in rooms not in use, and in the evenings when I am knitting the only light comes from the one above my chair and perhaps some candles. It is cozy and warm looking.

2.  This year I have decided that if there is too much of something left over and it will feed the two of us it will be frozen. Too often I have left such things in the fridge to eat for our lunches and too often I have had to either eat it all myself or toss it. Not going to happen any longer. I am considering doing this even if only one portion is left and then have a clean out buffet.

3.  I wanted to see what I actually spent on groceries as our grocery budget line includes paper products, OTC drugs and medical paraphernalia, pet food (when Grandcat comes), and any cleaning supplies. So I found a small notebook and have listed the first shop of the year in it. This will be interesting. I will fill you in on my totals each month.

4.  Using up some small balls of cotton yarn making dishcloths. I need to replace some of mine, I also want some for the silent auction at the reunion, and I will put some away to use as gifts when needed. 

5.  Decluttered under the kitchen sink, and the coat closet was cleaned in the hallway. I found the button to fix my dress coat (which happens to be about 20 years old), I was worried at first that I would end up having to search my button jar for entirely new buttons. Things are looking much better in both areas. On to some more decluttering and organizing at some point today.

Everybody have a wonderful day.

God bless.