Have you been going through your spending looking for a place to make some cuts and save money? Star Bucks put a store in my town a few years ago, about the time that I got cancer. After my numerable operations, I was no longer able to drink coffee, but if I hadn't had those operations, I can tell you where a healthy chunk of my weekly budget would be, at Starbucks for a mocha latte, yum! That is until I realized how much of my money was going to Star Bucks, and that I would prefer to keep that money in my pocket, that is.
But before I replaced my Star Buck's fix, I would try to think of something to replace my fix with. Not something that would cost the same or nearly the same amount of money my Star Buck's cost, that wouldn't make very much sense and I wonder if it would be worth the effort expended in the first place? Or would I slowly resume the same habit again?
I would try to figure out when I was most likely to buy my Star Buck's. Did I buy it on Wednesday, the middle of the week, or to celebrate Friday - the end of the week, or to make Monday's less Monday-ish? Did I buy it when I was driving the kids and the decibel level was at leaf blower level, or on the long trip to the doctor's office? Or did I buy it just because it tasted good?
Once I figured the when and why of buying Star Buck's, I would start figuring out how could I replace the habit in a satisfactory way.
If I simply wanted to replace Star Buck's, I could buy some Coffee Mate, prepare coffee with it and spin it in my blender with ice. The savings would be significant.
But what if I wanted not only to not drink Star Buck's, but wanted to stop drinking coffee all together? Then I would start experimenting. Could I replace a cold, sweet latte with hot or warm tea? Could I replace it with herbal tea that I made into ice tea? These ideas might not be instantly appealing to everyone but rather an acquired taste.
However, after trying the teas as a replacement for a few weeks and still not enjoying it, it might be time to admit defeat, even a temporary defeat and try something else.
Seltzer or club soda might make a good replacement . You could even try stirring a few teaspoons of concentrated juice into it to flavor it. Or maybe even plain water with lemon or lime juice mixed in.
It takes a while to change habits, and the longer you have had a habit, the longer it takes to change it.
Some things to remember:
1 If you take something away, make sure you replace it with something else.
2 It takes time to change habits, and each person is an individual. Don't judge yourself by someone else's success or failure.
3 You might give in to temptation. Don't beat yourself up about it. Just resolve to get back on board, that day.
It's dawned on me that I haven't posted about being frugal in a while. I'm still doing the frugal living, as best I can with the UNCONVERTED, but I haven't written about it.
At Christmas, my daughters were making a lot of cookies, and I was doing a lot of cooking. We were all using the sink a lot, and it showed! See the first picture. It was a complete, dirty, mess. I was ready to start cleaning it, when I thought, "You know, I should take pictures of the before, during and after of the sink to show that the frugal, non chemical cleaners really do work."
So, here is the sink before cleaning.
And this is the sink after sprinkling, ultra cheap baking soda on it.
Then I sprayed vinegar (I keep white vinegar in a plastic spray bottle) on top. The big globs of white in the sink is where the baking soda and vinegar have reacted with each other.
Then I scoured the sink using a paper towel (yes, it should have been with a rag, but today I used a paper towel) and then rinsed the sink out.
And this is the sink afterward. See how clean and shiny it is? And no chemicals to hurt your septic system or the environment were needed!!
You never now what is going to come up in conversation, the other day it was Go Girl. I had no idea what a Go Girl was, but waited for someone else to ask. I figured that I could Google it later on to find out, if needed.
"You know, it's a fud." I had no idea what a fud was either. I have pictures on my blog, so I'm sure you know.
Fud, as in ef u dee, fud. Go ahead and Google it, so I did. I wish though that I had stayed around for the whole conversation, because now that I know what a fud is, and generally how to use it, I'd like to ask more specific questions.
Apparently, fuds have been around for a long time, I just haven't been aware of them. May-be you have?
F emale
U rinary D evice ( or D irector) was the clever answer to non-existant or dirty toilets. The first one, or I guess to be more accurate, the first patent was in 1918 by Edyth Lacy. She called it the "Sanitary Protector." It was to be made of cheap material, so that it could be used once, and then discarded. Since then, many more fuds have been made. Most of them are made of silicone, and are made to be re-used. They aren't cheap either, then again, they are an investment in not having to worry about germy, toilet seats ever again. Truly, I am starting to think, that instead of training our daughters to sit on a potty, we will be training them to use a fud. One fud maker, the p-style, actually offers a bulk order discount.
We've seemed to come full circle now, the latest addition to the fud is the Urinelle from France. It is made of paper, and is bought in packs. Use it once and throw it away.
Now according to all the customer comments that I have read, fuds are incredibly easy to use, and take very little practice. I, on the other hand, am probably one of the least graceful (is it possible to be the most least graceful? If so, I am.) people you will ever meet. But you are supposed to be able to use these without having to "drop trou", if you wear zippered or button pants. Wearing a dress or skirt makes it that much easier, but I rather doubt it, and elastic waisted pants are a bit more tricky. Anyway, one of these days, the fear of the drug resistant germs and spotty toilets will probably drive me to buy a fud, though I'm not sure which one. They really do seem like a good idea.
And for you contest lovers, GoGirl has a sweepstakes going. The deadline is December 31, 1010. There are a lot of pretty nice prizes, so check it out. Here is the link http://www.go-girl.com/sweepstake.asp
I think it all started with the bread winner in the family. He was asked to stay a little later, come in a little earlier or give up a few hours of his day off. And because he was the breadwinner, he was nervous to say no, besides, it was a chance to make a few more bucks for the family, and who couldn't use that? It was the responsible thing to do.
Then it was the mother in the family. She was asked to bake cookies for the class party, and bring brownies for the PTO cake sale. Could she sell gift wrap to help support the Boy Scout troop, and this was her territory for selling Girl Scout Cookies. It was for her kids school, and her kids community after all, so how could she say no?
And our town park needed to get rid of those dangerous and outdated monkey bars, and wouldn't it be nice to have that pre-school play area, the one with the musical bridge, you know, just like the one they have at the playground at the next town over from us? And the baseball field is just atrocious! It needs to be ripped out, turned over and reseeded. It makes me ashamed to have any of the other teams playing on our diamond. And since it was for the community, who could say no?
Then the ranch across the street got an addition that changed it from a one story into a two story. The house next door got all new landscaping, and the house a few doors down got all it's concrete work changed into brick. And our little house looked so.... shabby compared to the other houses, so we took out a second mortgage and spruced the place up. It was the right thing to do.
Then Sharon's teeth came in crooked. They weren't detrimental to her, but no one's kids have crooked teeth anymore. So even though our dental insurance didn't pay for any of the orthodontia work, we had the work done anyway. We just put it on the credit card. Ouch! But it had to be done.
Mom had to take a job outside of the home for us to be able to make our bills, so the school hired someone to do all the jobs that Mom couldn't volunteer for anymore. Then the taxes had to go up to pay for the salary, for the person who gets paid to do the work Mom used to volunteer for.
Do we know how to say "no" anymore? There was the time back when I was a kid, that grownups had the prerogative to say "no", and they didn't have to explain why. They were the grownups, they said no. That was the end of it. No.
Many families didn't have a second car, a color tv, any of the game systems, a yearly vacation, gymnastic lessons, after school sports, flute lessons or braces on every one of their kids teeth. And they didn't have to try to find excuses for it. They didn't have it, that's the way it was. They just said "no."
Are we brave enough to follow their example?
No, I won't take on more hours so that I am working nearly 12 hours a day. No explanation, just no. Obviously, I don't mean not to help out when there is a crisis at work, or a down sizing. But if and when the economy ever goes back to what we used to know as normal, don't let yourself become a serf. At the very least, don't give up your Sundays.
No, I won't take on every volunteer job thrust on me until it is as if I have a full time job that takes away the quality time with the very kids that I'm supposed to be staying home with.
No, I won't be pressured into keeping up with the Joneses (neighbors statistics say I won't even know) and putting my family into financial peril by taking out a new mortgage or home equity loan.
No, I won't be pressured into cosmetic orthodontia work, cell phone plans, allowances, cars or anything else that society deems is absolutely necessary for kids nowadays and digging a financial grave for myself by trying to afford something that I can't.
No, I won't let my taxes go up, especially when most people's salaries are either stagnant or actually less than 5 years ago, because a grass sports field is no longer the style and everyone else has astro turf, because the school wants to increase it's budget, because the police want a new station, because the town wants to put in new street lights.
I don't have to tell you why I am saying no. I am the grown up, and I say no.
Tell me you don't recognize this scenario: You, your husband and three of your children got into your car to go to an appointment. It should have taken you about an hour to get there, may-be about a half hour wait before you got to see the doctor, dentist or who-ever, and then an hour home. You should have been home well before dinner time, so you made no preparations for otherwise. But the directions to the place weren't as clear as you thought they were. Or there was a detour. For whatever reason, your hour trip became an hour and a half and because of this, you missed your scheduled appointment. After waiting almost an hour, you finally are seen. On the ride back home, there is an accident. Or road work. You're stuck in traffic, and everyone is hungry. Or thirsty. And the diabetic in the car really should have a shot of protein. You know that if you stop for a burger for one kid, you will buy for everyone, after all, it's been a long day, and it doesn't seem it will be ending anytime soon. You shudder to think of what this trip will do to your budget, but it can't be helped. Or could it have been? There is no more sure way to see your money dissipate than to stop at a fast food joint or a gas station mini-mart. The first danger of course is your hunger, thirst or both. The second danger is how attractively packaged the food is, and how quickly you can get your hands on it. The answer is to bring it yourself. I heard a groan. Was that you? C'mon, fess up. It was you wasn't it? Because you were remembering the smooshed peanutbutter and jelly sandwiches, stinky tuna and warm Yoohoo! from when you were a kid. Well, you're all grown up now. You are in charge, and with a little preparation, you can both save money and pack a nice roadtrip snack. I am writing for a roadtrip that will last an afternoon, so approximately 4 to 6 hours. 1st: who are you packing for? Yourself? Two people? A whole tribe, more than 4 people? Toddlers? Anyone with a medical condition? These are all important questions and will determine how and what you pack. 2: The amount of people you need to pack for will determine the size of the container you will need. For one or two people, a soft-sided, personal cooler would probably be large enough. For up to six people, a zippered, insulated cooler that you can get inexpensively from stores like WalMart will probably suffice. For a bigger crowd, a large Coleman cooler that fits into the hatchback will be your choice, or, if your kids have their own insulated lunchbags from school, you could use these, with extra food in a large insulated bag. I really can't emphasize enough how important it is to have these insulated bags to prevent food getting warm and possible food poisoning. They are really worth the investment. 3: You can buy cooler packs that you put in the freezer the night before. Supplement this with juice boxes that you freeze the night before, or better, bottles of water. Make sure you have enough cooling power! 4: The actual food. Take into consideration the dietetic needs of your riders and specific likes. For example, for my diabetic husband, I will pack a few hard boiled eggs and a little packet of salt we got at a previous stop at a fast food place. He needs the high protein, low carb count of eggs. However, someone in our family absolutely despises eggs; the mere wiff of one can start this person vomiting, so I'll have to pack something different for this person. Some foods to consider packing: hard boiled eggs; fresh fruit like apples, pears, bananas ;small citrus like clementines and tangerines; crackers with a ziplock of peanut butter or cream cheese; small bagels spread with butter, cream cheese or peanut butter; washed, peeled and chopped into sticks carrots, celery, peppers, broccoli and cauliflower with a small container of salad dressing for dip. 5: Drinks. Bottled anything can be expensive, not as expensive as buying the same drink at a fast food or convenience store, but still expensive. We keep bottled drinks to a minimum. If we are using our big Coleman cooler, then we fill some Rubbermaid/Tupperware drink containers with icetea, lemonade and even a fruit punch. Depending on how long your trip will be, you could buy bulk bottled drinks at a warehouse store and cool them in your refrigerator the night before. You might consider buying steel bottles for family members, and refilling from a larger bottle as needed. You might argue, why not reuse plastic bottles that beverages have already come in? It certainly would be cheaper, but so much evidence is coming out that unhealthy chemicals leach from plastic that you may want to start phasing out your plastic water bottles. (For more info on this you might want to check out these websites:http://healthychild.org/5steps/5_steps_5/ , http://environment.about.com/od/healthenvironment/a/plastic_bottles.htm )
6: Prepackaged food. Even if you buy all prepackaged food at the supermarket or warehouse store, you will still pay significantly less money than if you bought it at the convenience store or mini-mart. This is one option. Another option is to buy large bags of chips, pretzels and popcorn and re-package them into ziplock bags or small food containers (margarine tubs, Rubbermaid, Tupperware). You might also consider buying cereal bars or dried fruit rolls. Again, buy large quantity boxes, bags or canisters and repackage nuts, caramel popcorn, dried fruit, granola. 7: Items that prevent the ick factor: your small bottles of water can be used with napkins to wash off sticky hands. So can a container of baby wipes. Other "ick factors" can be an upset stomach, so remember to include things like Tums, Pepto and Gas Ex, just in case. All these things can be bought ahead, and stored in the home. A few cooler packs and/or bottles of water kept in the freezer don't take up so much room that they are detrimental. A little thinking and preparing ahead can save you a ton of money! For more quick takes : Conversiondiary.com
