Saturday, The work of being frugal

 

It does take more work to live a frugal lifestyle.  Anyone who says differently would be selling you something.  But is it worth the work?  Sometimes it is and sometimes it isn't.  The secret is finding out what works for you.

You can spend hours perusing money saving strategies, but they often involve more time or more work.  Sometimes you just don't have the time and the money saving goes out the window.  I have so been there. 

But with careful planning and organization (not my strong suit) you can learn to work at frugality and have it become part of your routine or your life style.  Such as setting the coffee pot the night before so you wake up to good coffee rather than stopping at Starbucks on the way to work. Making sure you have breakfast options that are readily available so you are not eating at the doughnut cart. ( Did someone mention doughnuts?)

So much of a frugal life style is about planning.  For instance I know my husband is going to want lunch and dinner.  I personally could survive on chocolate , diet coke, cheese and crackers and popcorn.  I have to remember to take meat out in the morning so it is thawed by dinner time.  I usually double cook so Hubs can have the leftovers the next day for lunch.  We cook at home which saves money, and we eat all our leftovers which saves waste.  Cooking more than we need for one meal saves me time and the cost of utilities cooking again.

Coming up with a menu plan for the week or the month (whether you stick to it or not) takes time and planning.  You need to go through cupboards and freezers.  You may have to look up different recipes.  Nothing is more frustrating than planning a meal and then finding out  a key ingredient is missing and then you are running to the store, wasting time, gas, and you usually never leave the store with just that one item right?

This is where having a stockpile of food stuffs that you regularly use on hand.  For instance I use canned chilies, making enchiladas.  We probably have those once a month and I also will cook these for others when called upon to take in a meal.  I have found in the past I have no chilies.  So aggravating. Now I keep at least 4 cans as back up in the storage.  When I use a can or cans I will put that on my grocery list.  Never less than 4 cans.  I do this with several different one of a kind items. When I use something up it is replaced. I just replaced a jar of mayo as I used one up and I had a coupon for $1.00 off.  The new jar was placed behind the 3 that are in storage.

Baking supplies are really only bought at Christmas. Buying baking supplies is part of the Christmas budget.  This is the most frugal time to buy these products.  Yes I have 25 lbs of brown sugar (making pancake syrup)and powder sugar.  I will not run out all year.  I can bake almost anything, anytime and not worry about not having an ingredient. 

You have to spend time reading the grocery adds to find the best prices.  Going to the store and just buying a can of tomatoes without comparison shopping is wasteful. Lil sis just shops and never compares prices and it drives me crazy.  She thinks I am cheap and I think she is wasteful.  But we both learn from each other.

It does not always pay to buy the generic or the cheapest.  I learned this in a very painful way with hemorrhoid meds. (TMI) I was taking a low dose chemo that caused sores throughout my entire digestive system, from my gums right on through (more TMI)  I suffered and was in terrible pain for about 3 weeks.  The sores healed from my gums on out.  In other words first in last out.  I bought the generic meds, they were so much cheaper.  I read the labels and ingredients were the same.  But the amount of the ingredients was different.  The ingredient  that brought relief was way down on the generic meds. ( it was way down in other ways again with the TMI) I suffered much longer than I had to.  It did not save me any money.  I ended up spending way more as I prolonged the agony.

Growing a garden is very time consuming and can also be expensive if it is not cared for properly.  It also is a learning experience and very satisfying.  I love the fact that I never have to buy tomato products other than catsup. I can my own tomatoes, it pays to do this.  However I don't can green beans, as I can usually buy them 3/1 if I watch for sales and it costs more to buy the seals and the energy.

Learning to cook quick simple meals, takes time and is certainly not as east as take out, but the cost savings and the health benefits are no comparison.  I loves me an oreo  (well actually I loves me about 8 oreos, but who was counting?) For that small $4.00 bag of oreos you can make 6 dozen cookies for about $1.25 and they will be larger than oreos.....

Dang now I want cookies.  What things do you do that take time that also pay for themselves in frugal terms?  Have you ever done something to save money and it turned out to not go well? Are there some areas of your life where you are very frugal and other areas where you are not? Let me know in the comments.

Have a great and productive day staying positive while you are in the negative.

Kim