Frugal Attempts

Brunch with Friends Breaks the Bank

2008-07-09T04:38:00.002-11:00

If I am trying so hard, why is my bank account still suffering? I took my child out of daycare and got a cheaper, by the hour babysitter. I put my little girl in cheaper, bus -them- to- field trips -yourself, day camp. Yet I am still using my reserve credit.
Okay, I fell off the wagon a little....
We had friends visit this weekend who are..well actually I think they are frugal, but they also make a lot of money. And spend it.
We had a $300 brunch. That's right. $300. I think it is the most expensive brunch I have ever had in my life. It was lovely. Nice fancy hotel restaurant with spiced pear martinis and and ocean breezes on the veranda where we sat- www.spicedpear.com. I had a great bloody mary and very tasty soft shell crab. Okay....so I blew $150 (it was $300 for 4 of us). But where the hell is the rest of my money? The babysitting, at least was free.
This may speak to the fact that I techinically don't have a food budget and even if I did, I blew it on spiced pear martinis last weekend. But I don't know what to do about "budgeting" for things like a nice dinner or in this case brunch with friends (especially when I have a free babysitting opportunity!). What do other people do?

Learning to Love Mediocrity For the Kids

2008-07-02T06:03:00.003-11:00

I am working so hard to be fine with things that are not great, but are good or at least fine. It's hardest with my kids and I am hoping they are small enough not to notice too much. I am sending my daughter to a camp that is down the hill from where our house this summer. No need to even drive (save on gas), full day (so husband and I can work) and cheap. Don't get me wrong, it's cute. They have nice black and white photos of kids on the walls and a pirate ship play structure out back and they are doing a whole section on farms and went berry picking and made the requisite camp tye-die T shirts. But, it's low budget..meaning that it turns out that to get to the field trip to the farm, I have to drive her there myself (sort of defeats the working mom thing) or leave her booster seat and another mom drives her. No bus, no cute matching camp t-shirts, no pool. My daughter also informed me that they eat popsicles every day and go out to the pirate castle playground 3 times every day.....so basically if I had 4 kids, a babysitter, a swing set and some popsicles, I could achieve the same experience. It's fine, it's fine I keep telling myself..and she's only 4, but I think of the camp at her pre-school which was literally twice as expensive and now over an hour away and feel like I'm jipping the kid.
And my little boy is home now with a very on -the -cheap college girl home for the summer who costs a fraction of what his daycare costs, but you can tell he's lonely and he cries when I leave because he's not used to her. She's fine...she puts sunblock on, takes him to the playground...but he's used to a nice air conditioned daycare center with lots of kids, story time and a yoga instructor. He's 2 and I am "saving" about $1000 per month for the summer months with the cheapy camp and cheap-ish babysitter. Please tell me I am doing the right thing!!!!

Mom Blog

2008-06-26T00:57:00.001-11:00

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Clubbing

2008-06-25T23:35:00.005-11:00

I remember very little of what my economics professor in school said. Shockingly little. But I do remember him saying very clearly, "If you can get an account in a credit union, do it". Of course I don't remember exactly why- economically speaking, but credit unions to me always seemed to be these quaint little things left over from the 1950s with things like passbooks and Christmas clubs.
Inexplicably, I am now eligible to join one because there is one in the lobby of where I work. Now mind you, it's for university employees (lots of professors work where I am) and I am not a university employee, but apparently, just working there is good enough for them and they happily took my ID and set me up with accounts.
Now they calll them Holiday clubs and they even have Vacation Clubs. I thought it was more exciting than it really was. Clubs always sound that way. But really, they are just savings accounts within your savings account (so I had to open a savings account). And then you choose a dollar amount to get pulled from your savings account every paycheck and put into your "club accounts." Holiday ones go November to November, meaning I have already missed 6 months of opportunity, but then at the end of November, my "club" money just gets thrown back into my regular savings. The vacation one works May to May, I guess assuming you are saving for summer vacation. That's it. It's sort of like hiding money from yourself. Anyway, so I chose $50 per paycheck for my clubs, which now I am realizing that since I was just talking as the lady typed it in (not writing it down myself) that I am not sure if I said $50 total or for each account. Huh. I guess I'll have to wait until the first statement because she didn't say how I could check on the amount- see what I mean by hidden? But, I might be having a pretty merry Christmas with all that cash! Okay, it might only be like $600 but still, I am proud of myself even if it does involve somewhat clandestine maneuvers to have my money join a club.

So Much for Doing Nothing

2008-06-23T06:00:00.001-11:00

Dropped my daughter off at camp and then managed to drop $202 on mostly kid stuff at Wal-Mart. Oops.

Money for Nothing

2008-06-23T00:02:00.002-11:00

I really do not spend a lot of money when I do nothing. I discovered this when I looked in my wallet yesterday and found the vast majority of the $100 I took out the other day. This is very unusual for me. My dad used to say that money burns a whole in my hand- he probably does still say this in fact and it is still true, espescially cash. My ultimate frugal tactic just might be laziness. Sure I went grocery shopping this week and that set me back a bit and we went out to eat once, but to a "family restaurant" at 5pm at a place that had a larger than life size Tweety Bird sculpture and I didn't even drink (though I was tempted to due to the Tweety Bird ambience) and I splurged on a large Frappuccino twice. But other than that- nothing. My little girl needs a new bathing suit, but she has a few that are fine "for now"- which probably means all summer. The weather has been great and we have a season pass to our local beach and I have officially gotten lazy. Which means doing very little work at work, including internet browsing (usually at my nemesis www.oldnavy.com) and I have no energy to attack places like Wal-Mart or a mall on off hours. If you just buy groceries and eat at home (except for Tweety Bird) and go to places outdoors like beaches and playgrounds you really don't spend a lot of money. Of course, my kid is wearing a stretched out bathing suit and because of the Frappuccinos and laziness, I am really not losing any weight, but at least I am not spending money!

Gold Digger

2008-06-18T23:49:00.004-11:00

I am always looking for clues at my in-laws house. I poke around to find out if there is some secret to unlock that shows me how they are so frugal and so rich. Okay, I grant you, my father in law is a doctor, so it's not as they or at least he doesn't get paid well, but he also has a first wife whose alimony he still pays and had 2 kids to put through college and has things like malpractice insurance and other not small expenses. But, I know for a fact that they have off-shore accounts, millions in retirement, season tickets to everything musical event in the city and have gone on safari vacations with their own personal sherpa.
Over the years, I have seen my mother in law do a few quirky things that embarass me as well as her son. I know that she wraps the leftover sandwiches from office meetings and takes them home for dinner and saves used wrapping paper like a fiend. But the other day, I noticed an odd thing on her To-Do list, which read, "Find old gold".
Now maybe she and her husband are melting it down in their extra bedroom, but I feel as though I am missing one her "secrets" that would get me to closer to a vacation avec sherpa. I suspect that like stale lunch sandwiches and wrapping paper, she has found a second use for her jewlery.
I checked out www.GoldKit.com and if you believe that Good Morning America wouldn't steer you wrong, then it seems legitimate. Then again, it does seem sort of stupid to put your jewelry in a box and throw it in the mail.

Food for Thought

2008-06-17T06:17:00.000-11:00

If you want to spend less money on food, I highly recommend doing the self service check-out line next time if there is one at your grocery store. I went in the other day- alone- since my husband was watching the kids and as all mommies know, solitary grocery shopping counts as "alone time" for moms.
Anyway, since I didn't have too much stuff or two kids wrestling in the cart, I tried out the self service scanner. This particular store doesn't have price stickers on each item..so unless you're keeping a running manual log of each item's cost (which obviously I am not), much like Wal-Mart, scanning things in can be somewhat of a shock. Nothing like a disembodied voice announcing the price of each item to make you pause and think. It's like your own personal grocery conscious.
$4.99 for processed turkey meat and not much of it made me think that next time it was worth standing in line at the meat counter just to feel like I got my money's worth.
$1.79 for a big tub of Cool Whip Lite did not seem like a big deal, particularly since it's also a low point value on Weight Watchers (yes, despite the cost, I ended up joining), but $1.34 for those individual cups of "On-the-Go" cereal that my kids like make me think that next time I'll buy in bulk and their "On-the-Go" experience can be out of a baggy. Same with the individually packaged bags of Goldfish- for $5.49, I'll bag my own.
The very nice looking, but probably neither cheap ror low fat organic Peanut Crunch granola got left behind because I couldn't find the bar code and I wasn't about to get on the loud speaker for a price check. That is another perk of the self service check out...you can re-think your decision right there and there's even a convenient little shelf off to the side, should decide not to take those Goldfish afterall or that maybe you don't really need brownie mix.

Buck a Book..

2008-06-14T05:59:00.001-11:00

Aside from saving money, these days I am looking for ways to make a little more money. I have sort of missed the boat on eBay because to me it just feels like a huge online garage sale, so I checked out www.webuybooks. to see if I could off-load some books that have been following me around the past several moves (I tend to move a lot) and have yet to be read or shelved. You plug in the ISBN number and click, it tells you if they will buy the book, for how much and how much of a shipping discount they will give you. So, I am thinking, "Great! A little extra cash!". I plug in 7 books- some novels, some "For Dummies" books and click. Total value...$5.92. Looks like I am the dummy for buying Feng Shui for Dummies for $30 when its resale value is $1.24.
50% rebate on my shipping costs. So, I have 7 heavy books, which I'd have to box up, get over to the post office and mail..undoubtedly for more than $5.92, and then wait for $5.92 to show up in my Paypal account. Um..no. In the end, I'd probably end up in the red when I could just as easily donate them to the local libary along with the Pilates VHS tape I was planning to donate because I already knew that wasn't going to be a big online ticket item!

Invisible Savings

2008-06-10T05:01:00.000-11:00

So this is exciting because I will not have a mortgage payment this month and no rent either. No, I am not homeless- though my child did change out of her pajamas in the mini-van today, but I'd need another whole blog to explain my real estate situation.
I am not alone. I have a friend who is bunking at her in-laws (in the name of Camp Grandma) for a month and renting out her place and will *save* all of her mortgage costs too.
Can you imagine if even for one month you didn't have to pay your mortgage? What would you do with all that money? Well, of course the frugal answer is save it. Don't you love that Sex and the City where Carrie figures out that she spent all her potential downpayment savings on shoes. Anyway, like Carrie, am I really going to save it? It could just as easily go to some expense I just haven't thought of yet. I could decide that now that I have a little "extra" money, I stop shopping at Old Navy and bump up to Ann Taylor or treat my family to a pool club membership for the summer or even get a weekly babysitter and my husband and I can enjoy dinner out like grown-ups (with money). Then I'm not saving anything. I'm just cost shifting.
My new pet peeve is how people talk about how they are "saving $2 by not buying coffee" or "saving money by not putting their kid in camp", but really lots of people (including the frugal wanna-be me) probably just spend $2 more on lunch that day or spend more on trips, toys and activities for their kids. Unless I put that $2 in a piggy bank the minute I don't buy the coffee,
and write a mortgage check to myself this month, I'm not sure I am saving anything!

Why I Love to Hate Old Navy

2008-06-04T03:59:00.000-11:00

Because it's cheap. For awhile I was an Old Navy addict. When I was pregnant with my first child was just about the time they started promoting their maternity clothing and who doesn't want cheap maternity clothes! Then after both babies, when I had not returned to my "regular" weight, my babies were growing and growing and I had no time to shop for any of us. Old Navy to the rescue. A few clicks and I'd have 10 items and have spent over $100 (and $5 shipping). In one order I could get new baby clothes, some cheap pants for me in my new size and a normal enough looking shirt my husband could wear to work. But then we'd go somewhere, to a holiday party or a restaurant and I'd realize that the whole family would be dressed in stretched out, already fading cheap clothing and we'd be a pretty shabby- looking foursome.
I moved on to Lands End for awhile which had the same convenience of online shopping for the whole family and looks a bit cuter. But now with my new-found frugal nature, ON is creeping back in. My daughter needs shorts for the summer, my husband does not own jeans without rips, I am still a larger size...
Yesterday I found myself with 11 items in my cart totalling about $140.
I clicked off. I hate Old Navy- because it's cheap- if you aren't buying for a family of 4, twice a season.
$140 not spent.
But my kid still has no shorts for camp.

The Cost of Being Fat

2008-05-29T11:34:00.000-11:00

I am a little fat these days, it's true. It's a little late to call it "baby weight" since my youngest walks and talks, but let's just say that I was a certain weight after the kids were born...and I have stayed that way. I try to eat healthy more often than not, but I guess I still eat enough to maintain my new fatness.
I avoid most information on the economy because it's depressing, but I have started to notice little signs that costs are going up. And I mean little, small print signs. One little sign was at the drive thru at McDonalds- I love that new iced tea, saying that you are limited to 2 extra ketchups (if you ask), but after that, they are charging 10cents per packet or something like that. Then at work, I was getting an English muffin and peanut butter with my coffee and I noticed another little sign that peanut butter packets had gone up to 25 cents each, but I am sorry, you need a peanut butter packet for each side of the bread and this breakfast puts me back $2.35. At lunch, I go to the bagel place, "must be craving carbs" as my crazy officemate would say. For $5.50 I have a toasted bagel with "flavored" cream cheese (1o cents more than regular), a Diet Coke and another plain bagel for afternoon snack. Not only does it become clear how I am keeping the weight on, but I've spent $7.85 for the day on food and basically have had no real food yet!
So, then I bet my husband- who also appears to be carrying around "baby weight" from the past several years, that we should go on Weight Watchers online together. In fact, have you checked that out lately, www.weightwatchers.com ? There is an entire section just for men, which apparently helps them sort through the dilemma of nachos vs. wings (which I sort of resent, because I have this dilemma as well). But it's $29 to join, then $17 per month, per person -both sexes. An extra $90 a month for our family to lose weight- is that really wise extra spending? I mean, I might be able to forego the extra peanut butter packet for 25 cents, but that's not going to save me that much money or make me that much thinner!

Frugal or Foolish?

2008-05-26T10:46:00.000-11:00

6 days in August... The number of days the baby would be in daycare if our college babysitter can leave her boyfriend to come watch him all the other days, spending God knows how much on gas and if my boss will let me work from home on Mondays this summer so said babysitter can go home at a decent hour and if my husband can work from home the other days of the week. So, we've decided to cancel daycare for August to try to save ourselves over a thousand dollars. FRUGAL.
But, that's a lot of "ifs" and there's a lot riding on lots of pieces of the puzzle fitting together and depending on other people. A few things slip out of place- the babysitter flakes out or my husband *needs* to go into work a day he thought he didn't and we could end up paying double for emergency daycare, rental cars or who knows what else to handle those 6 days.
The 6 days- well between Grammy babysitting, back-up daycare at work and maybe a sick day, we're going to just wing and hope for the best. Frugal, I hope and not foolish.

www.freeflys.com

2008-05-21T04:15:00.001-11:00

Ok, so now I am officially sold on this site and wishing it was more frequently updated. I have gotten free eye cream- which I used on my trip to Denver (conveniently packaged in 2oz package) and a free sample of Kashi granola arrived on my doorstep the other day. I grant you it was barely enough to pour in a cereal bowl, but it was perfect to pop in my purse and eat mid-morning instead of buying an overpriced Odawalla bar. Yes, you have to sign up and answer some bizarre questions (like how many times must I check "No" to being a tobacco user) and of course give your real address so they can ship you stuff. But, a totally free, perfectly good product landed on my doorstep a few weeks later. Money saved? Well, I didn't exactly put $2 that I didn't spend in the bank, but that is a different story.

Friends with Money or Frugal Freeloading?

2008-05-19T13:36:00.001-11:00

So it seems I am having better luck getting free stuff these days than I am actually learning to be frugal. It's my birthday today and so far, I got a free trip to see my best friend in Denver (thanks husband with frequent flier miles who felt bad about no Mother's Day gift), free housing in Denver (thanks best friend) enough free food to literally to overstuff myself three times over (thanks amazing chef who is married to best friend in Denver), bought $85 worth of clothing *not* on sale (thanks mother-in-law who gives random gift certificates) and a free pedicure and spa product (thanks friend who just had a baby, has a rich husband and used my birthday as an excuse to come into town). Really, quite a haul I must say. Should I feel bad? I mean, when I list it all out it seems greedy- more like frugal *freeloading*. Taking spousal frequent flier miles are one thing, I mean, he forgot Mothers Day... but I rarely stay with people, eat their food or get big ticket item gifts from not so close friends. But you know what? I had a damn good birthday and on such an occasion, it was great to have friends with money... rather than be frugal.

Frugal Food

2008-05-13T12:56:00.000-11:00

The first in a series of posts I am sure. So, here I am all proud of myself that I suffered my 20th reunion wearing a Target dress (which, by the way, was a huge success). Plus, I also paired it with a black pashmina that my husband found on the ground, picked up thinking it was mine and put it with the other dry cleaning- so it was free!

Okay, but then the babysitter totally kicks my a** because she made us dinner, this great pasta with chicken in a cream sauce, yummy garlic, onion, cheesy bread and a chocolate cake and announces that the whole meal was under $20. I am in awe. Okay, admittedly I am partially in awe because I really cannot cook well and it would have never occurred to be to put that Lipton onion soup mix on garlic bread. But that aside, being frugal with food is one of my biggest challenges. I love freshly cooked food, yet I cannot cook so I order take-out more than I should.

And price comparison is probably my biggest failure. It seems like everyone I know is magically able to keep mental notes on which store has the cheapest maple syrup per ounce (Christmas Tree Shop, apparently, according to my cousin) or seems to maintain some hard and fast personal rules like, "Always buy toilet paper and soda at Target" or "Never buy milk at BJs". But I just don't get it- remember my lack of innate frugality. Should I be keeping a log on maple syrup prices as I go from store to store? What do I do if I am at BJs and realize that I am out of milk?

I guess I should ask the babysitter.

$200 at Target

2008-05-09T13:22:00.000-11:00

And that sounds like a lot but actually that's pretty easy to do..because I got EVERYTHING on my list, including things like milk. I know, I know, $3.79 is probably not the best price for organic milk, but I suffered from the dilemma that I had no babysitter for the afternoon, a 45 minute segment to take my kids with me before nap time and NO grocery store in close proximity during this 45 time slot and I really needed milk. Do they have drive through grocery stores anywhere? I swear that would be genius for mothers of young kids.
Anyway, I had to get more beach towels and they were $9.99 so I do feel dumb that I didn't think hard enough about how many I needed at Bed Bath the other day. And I got an okay cute little jersey dress to wear to my high school reunion and frankly if that isn't frugal I don't know what is. People at my reunion no doubt have bought entire outfits at Talbots, Ann Taylor and up...no doubt a few designer, designers in there too and I know I just can't afford that so frugal Target instead of credit card debt- yeah me. I reasoned that something new will make me feel better and I went to an all girls schools so it's not like I am seeing my sophmore year boyfriend or something and people will be looking at me for 2 seconds anyway and move on.
But I got the best, most comfortable bra EVER...for $9.99 so that is very exciting and I thought I'd try the Target brand diaper pull-ups because they were $5 cheaper than the brand I usuallty buy. Now, a mother moment here- when your kid is really little you have to buy whatever brand fits their butt or you'll just end up ruining entire outfits...and each butt is different, with my daughter we got Huggies, my son Pampers..but now he's older and frankly the mess factor is much less so I bought these. Added bonus that they have pirates on them and he was very excited.

Store Coupons

2008-05-06T23:22:00.000-11:00

I really don't like coupons. I am torn between feeling like they make it seem like I am paying with food stamps and the idea that they are a consumer ploy to have me get 10% off something I would not buy in the first place. So I admit to having thrown many a Bed, Bath and Beyond coupon in the recycling bin, particularly since they apparently have expiration dates. But, what I have learned is Bed, Bath and Beyond is happy to take those little flyers and just scan them one after the other. I had to buy teacher gifts and I thought beach towels was a cute idea and I saw they were having a sale (see, I am looking for sales) - towels for $7.99, so I got 5 and used 4 coupons which gave me about a $6 savings total, so it's ALMOST like I got a free towel.
Of course then I went right over to Christmas Tree Shops because they were also having a sale and I did have the little circular thing with me, but I still don't get that place, sometimes you need the circular thingys sometimes you don't. They had beach towels for $9.99 that looked yuckier, so I felt pretty frugal. And I got Croc looking shoes for myself for $4.99!

Oh IKEA, how I love thee

2008-05-04T14:25:00.001-11:00

Let me count the ways. I love your sleekeness and your always cool looking furniture. I love all your extras like bright colored mugs and $14 rugs and cleverly shaped flowers vases for one small stalk of freesia. I love your clean bathrooms and baby changing stations and even those strange little meatballs that are $5 WITH mashed potatoes. But, I never seem to buy anything (other than the meatballs). I should...because I shop a fair amount, have old, ugly coffee mugs and not enough rugs,but IKEA never seems to make it to my list of places to buy things like mugs or 49 cent CUTE dishtowels or even nice inexpensive sleek furniture. Okay, I don't always need dish towels, but if I did or do or if say I wanted to get cute, inexpensive stuff for a hypothetical housewarming (like,mine) or a bridal shower, I could get lots of nice looking, not cheap looking stuff there. Maybe it is because IKEAs are always sort of in the middle of f'ing nowhere in a parking lot unto themselves or maybe it is because I always go there as an alternative to a McD's rest stop on my way to somewhere (clean bathrooms, nice meatballs) not to shop and their online stuff is limited and has no meatballs. Must put IKEA on my shopping list and perhaps take Job Lot off- that stuff is crap.

Free Stuff

2008-05-02T13:21:00.000-11:00

Freeflys actually works- www.freeflys.com. I am VERY proud of myself. I signed up awhile ago and gave my real address and a few other things I like not to reveal online- though I always give a fake birthdate and while I used to make myself younger, I now take a strange pleaure in plugging in my older sister's birthday- it just amuses me. Anyway, I finally got free eye cream samples in the mail. I've never really heard of MURAD brand, but they are perfectly fine little eye cream packets that would be great for weekend trip somewhere. Unfortunately, the free Dunkin Donuts coffee sample has not shown up yet, so I am not totally sold that the site works 100% of the time and there isn't that much to choose from because I don't need baby formula and don't want Whirley Pop popcorn..but, it's a start and unlike the Clinique "free gift" I did not have to spend $50 first. Progress on my part I think.

Frugality in Birth and Death

2008-05-01T10:09:00.000-11:00

I like to give gifts. I really, really do. And I often try to be frugal when I give gifts, because I like to give them and if I am not frugal, I'll break the bank, which means I often give shabby gifts. So a friend's mother-in-law just died and they are out of town. I've never met the mother-in-law and she's not *that* good a friend, but I feel awful because it was sudden and it's just sad. If I had the money, I'd buy the couple a restaurant gift certificate so they can take themselves out when they are ready.
My other friend just had her first baby. She's been super nice since I moved back to this God forsaken place and has invited me to every event and even tried to make playdates for me (before she was even a mother). We're going to the baptism and the card specifically says no gifts, but if I had the money, I'd get the *mom* a super spa gift certificate to someplace near her house- I even had this whole plan to email a mutual friend and find out where a nice spa was.
But I do not have the money for either.
I opted instead for charity donations, which I hope are legit ...you never know when you aren't actually writing the check to the place. So, they'll get a card with some color printout that says "a donation has been made in your name. And a combined total of $50...I also just can't be that charitable. That's nice though, right?

What Amazon Friday sale?

2008-04-30T02:27:00.000-11:00

Uh- yeah, so ordered $104 on Amazon yesterday and yes, I feel I needed everything...and the thing of it is, I'd love to buy stuff on their Friday sale day, but I really doubt that Daisy Head Mayzie is going on sale (and it was only $9.99 and my daughter's current favorite book). I admit, I really have a hard time attempting any frugality when it comes to my kids. I should have stopped myself on the 'Where the Wild Things Are" hardcover at $17.95 or the Ramona the Pest box set at $19.99, which would have reduced my total to $66.06 -ha-666-and thus we see the devil of spending mocking me. Okay, I grant you, the Pyrex 6 piece storage set *might* go on sale, but if I read one more story about how I might be poisoning my family with re-heating plastics (hence also the Born Free sippy cups purchase), I will go crazy with guilt and panic. And clearly, that to me is worth $104-um, or at least $66.06.

Want Not.Net

2008-04-28T12:36:00.000-11:00

So first, let me say, Thank God for this lady or I would never even have realized that Amazon.com has sales on Fridays. So, in addition to having the coolest job ever where she apparently is paid to blog all day and look for sales online, actually her site www.wantnot.net does save me a lot of time looking for deals on internet shopping because she basically spends her entire day doing just that and posting the info.
I'm not sure that this is actually a giant step toward Sabrina Frugality, but it does combine the concept of online shopping-which I LOVE and being frugal. However, this lady also has a lot of links to stores on her site so it's very tempting. I also currently have a very unfortunate problem with an elusive UPS man and no neighbors who will sign for packages..so those two things have really cut down on my internet shopping anyway.

Frugal Attempts

2008-04-27T00:47:00.000-11:00

Let me start off by saying, I am not frugal by nature- hence the attempts title. If there is really an antithesis of frugal I might be it..and I don't mean frivilous..I mean, I am just bad at frugality.

Let me also say I am not a blogger by nature and only now and again will post a comment on some mom or working mom website or browse my Uncle Arthur's crazy political/motorcycle diaries (seriously, the man is over 70 and is way cooler than Easy Rider ever was..check it out..http://dataporttwo.blogspot.com/) . I love that guy..and actually, as it were, I think *he's* also frugal...

But as I mentioned, I am not, but sadly (I think), for various boring and some stupid reasons, I am at a point in my life where I have to learn to be frugal. Penny-pinching, penny stretching-cheap. People, it's a painful process to learn at this stage of the game and with no teachers.
Luckily, with the economy and the reuse, recycle environment..frugality also makes me trendy and that always make me happy.

So, here I document my ongoing attempts at being frugal, welcome suggestions and if nothing else, amuse myself and others in the process.

Here goes............