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| From Katy's wonderful website: http://thenonconsumeradvocate.com/ |
One of my absolute favorite bloggers, Katy of the Non-Consumer Advocate has a series of weekly posts entitled "Five Frugal Things." I LOVE these posts from her because they share little things she does throughout each week that help contribute to her frugal, non-consumer lifestyle. It's the little things we choose to do everyday that help make a big difference in the overall picture. I've learned a lot from those posts.
I've been keeping track of little frugal things I do every week just to keep myself on the right track, to remind myself why I'm trying to save money and use less "stuff": mainly to pay off debt, live more simply, and produce less trash for a happier planet. My hope is to try to start sharing some of those frugal achievements here on the blog, as it's something that's a big focus in our life right now.
Another important lesson lately is that you can be frugal with more things than just money, you can also be frugal of your own resources by using your time wisely and your energies mindfully.
Frugal Five 3-23-2015
- Cooked 3 meals on Sunday so we would be less tempted to eat out later this week. This not only saves money on future meals, but saves me valuable time later this week. I'm not always able to do this, just depending on our Sunday schedule, but I was thankful I had the time and energy to get it done this week.
- Spent 2 hours last night repairing the bottom sheet of my favorite set of queen size bed sheets. They are about 11 years old, soft and super comfortable, but had lately developed a few very small tears. I patched the pairs and I'm crossing my fingers this sheet set will last another few years, as they are quite pricey to replace.
- Was frugal with my time on Sunday... along with making a few meals ahead of time, I also did all of our laundry from the past two weeks. It was a lot of work at the time, but will give us a lot more time to relax when we get home from work this week.
- We rented a redbox movie on Saturday when Michael's parents were visiting. Redbox DVD's cost $1.60 (with tax) for a 24 hour rental. We used to rent most of our movies from Amazon streaming service, but streaming the movies can cost anywhere from $2.99 (cheapest) to $6.99 for a 24 hour rental. It's definitely cheaper to drive (or walk) the 2 miles to the local Dollar General instead (presuming you always return it on time!)
- We also planned on having a simple dessert of ice-cream after a homemade dinner on Saturday with Michael's parents. I bought a box of ice-cream for $3.99 + tax. When it was time for dessert I opened the ice-cream and found that it was really old and gooey and I was just mad. At first I just tossed the ice-cream in the trash and went about trying to find something super quick instead (we had chilled, sliced bananas & strawberries drizzled with chocolate sauce - that had been intended as a TOPPING for the ice-cream! Oh well! It was healthier anyway! lol) -- After thinking about it later though, I realized just tossing the ice-cream was not in my benefit. I pulled the old ice-cream out of the trash and placed it back in the freezer and returned it the next day. For $3.99 + tax, it was worth the very short drive back to the store for an even exchange.
Is anybody else super lazy and generally not up to returning bad items back to the grocery store? (Shopping is not my favorite...) Trust me, from now on I will be more willing to do returns... (Especially if the item is heading towards the $5 mark! lol)!
What frugal things have you accomplished this week?
