Frugal on Friday 13th...

Our family has been on a journey.  For the past 10 years we have been making changes to our life to stop the slow leak of financial ruin.  I am not exaggerating when I say ruin.  Debt is a killer... a heart stopper... a marriage killer.... a stroke waiting to happen.  It brings stress and for us stress has brought a lot of health issues into our home.

At this juncture in our lives we are trying to reverse the damage and get back on track.  Most days do not feel like we have made progress but when I look back and evaluate the past few years I see that things are getting better.  Here is a list of changes we have made...

1.   We tithe on every dime we make now... without fail.  For us this was very important.  We want to be obedient and this was one way God has called us to.  It has been a way that God has taught us to trust Him.

2.   We have cut out the non-essentials.  No more cable television... no more land line phones... basic internet instead of the fancier versions.  Did I mention cutting paper products, too?  We are completely on cloth now except for toilet paper... cloth napkins, towels to clean up in the kitchen and bathrooms, sponges for cleaning and washing, no paper plates or plastic utensils.  I love that we made this change a lot!  It is just fun to sit down to a set table with all nice things even if the nice things are plates from Dollar Tree or the local Goodwill.  It is lovely!

3.   We use what we have and we buy used when we need something.  We buy used cars when we need them... we buy used clothing or sew it when we need it.  Used computers... used books... used appliances.  We are fine to use basic phones and old game systems... like a PS2 instead of new Wii or PS3 or other things.  We buy used video games when we budget for a new game, too.  We play LOTS of board games.  Dan even picked up two used games for Christmas gifts for the kids this year from the local Discovery Shop (resale).  We got an old television for free a few years ago and it works just fine and it is not hanging flat on a wall but it is in a cabinet we converted.  We may eventually upgrade on some of these things but the debt will be gone and the money saved before we ever upgrade.

4.   We DIY what we can... home haircuts by Mom... homemade food... homemade gifts... home repairs we can do ourselves or barter for the work.  Remodeling on our own... painting... refinishing... refurbishing... we do it ourselves.  The home we purchased was half the price of other homes in the neighborhood because it needed and still needs a lot of work but we are raising the value with every project we complete and it is not breaking the bank.  We do what we can when we can.  We make our own detergents and cleaners.  This year I am planning on learning a few more skills... soapmaking... drying fruits and veggies for storing and using when we go backpacking... developing new sewing and crocheting skills.  I am working on a bigger garden plan this year, too and hopefully I will be harvesting seeds this year, too... to grow more next year without purchasing them.  Pinterest is my new inspiration on so many DIY things these days.  If you have never checked it out you should... so many ideas!  ;)

5.   Paying off debt as quickly as we can.  Let me just say that we have paid off half of the debt we started with two years ago and we will soon be down to one debt left.  There is light at the end of this very long hard tunnel.

6.   Use it up... not buying more yarn... not buying more books.... not buying more fabric.  We are using things we have before we dare buy anything else.  It serves two purposes... one, to save money and two, to clear out the house of all the clutter.  Clearing the clutter, for me, is clearing my mind and I love this feeling.  I also use the library and the paperbackswap website for books.  I am addicted to collecting so this is good for me to change these habits.

7.   I mentioned homemade food above.  I will elaborate a bit here.  I make my own stock from chicken and turkey carcasses.  I buy fresh and freeze or bag it myself such as blueberries when they are in season... freezing and bagging those for use in the off season.  I bake pumpkins and harvest the meat from those to use in baked goods throughout the year.  Other fruits and veggies get treated the same way so that when the winter months come we still have something of the bounty that was summer to enjoy.  I am planning on sharpening up the old canning skills this next year a lot more.  The more we can do ourselves the more money we save.

8.   Budgets and Menus... We use a budget most months.  We are still learning how to do this well.  We have been on the Dave Ramsey plan for almost two years and have been hit or miss with the budget but we are getting better.  Menu planning, grocery list making and shopping on a budget have saved us a great deal of money.  Cooking and buying in bulk has been a good practice when we can afford to do that.  Even when we could not we would just stretch a meal or two a week to have leftovers to freeze for another meal later.  We also pack our own lunches and do not eat out.  Our oldest has even taken to coming home for lunch a few times a week to save on lunches out at school.  When we plan we save... bottom line.

9.   Being generous... this is a lesson God has been teaching me slowly.  We share what we have when we can with others.  We are learning to give things away and help someone else who might need something more than we do.  We have been donating to a local abused women and children's shelter organization.  Dave said to gather your stuff and sell it but we just were not comfortable with that.  We are both put off by having a garage sale.  It is not the garage sale that is the problem so much as we would just rather give it to someone who needs it right then and there.  I have shopped garage sales for specific items myself but we feel better donating it than selling it.  It is our own thing and we do not expect other people to feel the way we do about it.  I held on to our baby crib until God told me to give it to someone specific this Christmas and so it went... to someone who truly needed it and could not afford their own.  My heart was full with the knowledge that I gave it to the right person.  That is what I am talking about... just being will to give it away.

10.  Cutting back... we have been setting our heater to 65-68 and wearing a sweater around the house during the coldest days and at night it goes down to 55.  We turn out the lights during the day and limit where they are on at night.  We take shorter showers and wash fewer loads of clothes.  One of the things that I want to do this year is get a clothes line.  I have been wanting one for many years and we just have to dig in and build one.  It will be a summer project when I have Dan home to dig big holes for the poles.  Other things that we watch are our minutes we use on our phones and that rooms not in use get blocked vents until we need them open again.  We have been using some firewood this year to heat, too, instead of just running the heater and who doesn't like a cozy fire!  LOL

It is a journey... we learn something new every year as you can see.  I even have GOALS to learn new things to make our life more frugal.  I don't think I will ever stop learning better ways to save money.  The only thing I probably won't do is cut coupons.  They would not do us any good anyway.  We never buy name brand anything so there is never a coupon for what we need plus I don't take the paper (another thing we cut out) and would not have time to cut them if they did come to the house or e-mail.  Making things from scratch saves us more money and time in the long run.