Monthly Archives: September 2008

Being frugal doesn’t mean giving up the hobbies you love

In general, most frugal folks don’t like to admit that the frugal lifestyle deprives them of anything. We pride ourselves in the ability to find ways to get the things we want in life without spending too much money. There are certainly sacrifices involved, but for the most part, we’re able to find creative ways to live a full life on less money.

I’m trying to find balance between frugality and deprivation. It’s tricky to know the difference when you’re just starting out. But I think it’s crucial to balance the two, or you risk resenting your frugal lifestyle and giving up.

I love to quilt. I’ve been doing it to some degree since I was a teenager. It wasn’t until after I graduated college that I got my own sewing machine and started really getting into it. About a year ago, I gave up quilting for my frugal lifestyle.

You see, quilting is an expensive hobby. Compared to the high cost of beautiful handmade quilts, it’s relatively inexpensive. But fabric and thread and other notions can run pretty steep.

Over the weekend, I dug my two unfinished projects out of storage. I’ve put hours and hours of labor into these two quilt tops (one of which was sewn completely by hand), but I stopped short of quilting them a year ago because I deemed quilting a frivolous hobby that would have to wait until we had more income.

Well, now we have more income. I’ve decided that wasting my hard work and the money I already invested in the fabric is more wasteful than spending the extra money to finish them. All of that money and work, and we don’t even have the quilts to show for it?

So I headed to the fabric store and bought batting, quilting thread, and fabric for the backing. Even with a coupon for 40% off the fabric, I ended up spending $30. I’ll have to rework some of our unnecessary spending in our budget to make sure we don’t go over (with my husband’s blessing, of course). But now I have everything I need to complete two beautiful quilts that would cost hundreds in a store. Well, maybe not hundreds, but much more than I paid for supplies.

My point is this: being frugal doesn’t mean giving up the hobbies you love. Is there something that you really love to do that you’ve given up because it’s too expensive? See if there’s a creative way that you can reduce its costs or limit your spending on it without giving it up completely.

For me it was quilting. Rather than giving it up completely, I’ve decided to work it into my budget. Can I afford to spend $30 a month on quilting? Probably. But that seems a little excessive to me, so I’m compromising. I decided to attempt hand-quilting one of them. This will extend the amount of time it takes me to finish it. I’ll be able to enjoy this project longer if it takes me longer to finish.

Because I only quilt for a little while in the evenings, it will probably be another 3 months before I’m ready to invest in the materials to start a new project. Hopefully, I’ll enjoy hand-quilting more than machine quilting, and I’ll be able to extend the time it takes me to finish projects. That way I’ll always have something to work on, but I’ll spend less money.

My husband’s expensive hobby is movies. He would go to the theater once or twice a week and rent movies every day of the week in between if we could afford it. His solution is to rent old classic movies at the library for free. His university has a huge selection of quirky classics that he’s never seen before. We haven’t given up the theater completely, though. Every month or two, there’s something we really want to see, so we go to the last matinee on Sunday when tickets are cheapest. We still end up paying $10 for two tickets, but that’s a huge discount compared to the Friday night ticket price ($8.50 per ticket).

Maybe you love photography, but you don’t want to spend hundreds on equipment. Look into a used camera or get creative with the digital editing on your snapshots. Maybe your beloved hobby is scrapbooking, but you can’t afford all the materials. Limit yourself to a reasonable amount of scrapbook spending each month proportionate to your budget, and take a break when you reach your limit. It may take months to complete your projects, but that will just make them all the more satisfying when they’re done.

Above all, being frugal is about finding a way to live the lifestyle you want without living above your means. Get creative. Find a way to make it work. You might be surprised what you can work into your budget if you want it badly enough.

How do you make room in your budget for the hobby you love?

My thoughts on automatic bill pay

I’m a firm believer in online bill pay. Who isn’t? Just a few clicks and the bills are paid. No stamps, no checks. It’s simple and fast. Like most technological innovations, I don’t know how people lived without it.

I don’t feel that way about automatic bill pay, though. While automatic debit makes things even simpler (you don’t even have to think about it!), I’ve always been incredibly uncomfortable with the idea.

I really like sitting down once a month and mindfully paying my bills. I like the peace of mind that comes with clicking and checking those bills off my list.

I don’t like the idea of money being withdrawn from my account without doing it myself. We build a cushion into our checking account, so there’s no danger of an automatic payment overdrawing our account. But I like that there are never any surprises when I check my balance. I always have a pretty good idea of what my balance is because I know what’s coming and going from my account. I don’t want to be reminded that a bill was due when I log in and notice that the amount has been deducted.

I like having control over when I pay my bills, too. I like to sit down close to the first of the month and get everything out of the way. When I was in college, I used to wait until the last minute to pay bills. I would check my balance and mentally subtract the bills that were due in order to figure out my “real” balance. I never paid them until just before the due date. This got me into trouble more than once. Why I didn’t just pay my bills and be done with them is beyond me. I most likely procrastinated because I was always strapped for cash, and I didn’t like seeing my balance go down.

Now that we don’t live paycheck-to-paycheck, getting those bills out of the way is liberating. I don’t dread it because I know the money is there, so I like to check it off my list.

Paying my bills myself every month allows me to monitor charges and possibly fix errors before they’re posted to my account. I don’t trust myself to take the extra time to look at my statements if I’m not sitting down to pay the bills.

Does this make me a control freak? Probably. But I think if there’s one thing that we should be control freaks about, it’s money. For me, automatic bill pay is a dangerously hands-off approach. I understand that it may be a real time saver for most people, but even in this automated world, I still like to have some degree of physical control over my money. It’s not going anywhere until I say.

Taking 20 minutes out of my day once a month to look over my statements and send my payments gives me the time to give myself a financial checkup. It allows me to double-check my budget to make sure I’m on the right track, and reconfigure things if necessary.

When it’s over I feel a wonderful, peaceful feeling of, “Well, that’s done.” I don’t want to worry about whether a computer glitch might botch my payment or not send it at all. I just want to know that it’s done.

I also love that when I look at my balance a few days later after all the payments have been posted, I know exactly how much money we have. I don’t want to look through my transactions to see if a payment has gone through to figure out my “real” balance.

What about you? Does automatic bill pay save you time or cause you stress?

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Protecting your freezer stockpile in a power outage

When Tropical Storm Hanna was pummeling us with wind and rain last night, I have to admit it wasn’t just the noise outside that kept me awake. I woke up at 3 a.m. to realize the power was knocked out, and I was worried about our stockpile of chicken breasts, beef, and steak in the freezer.

Obviously if the storm had been more serious, our meat would have been the furthest thing from my mind. But in this case, the only thing the storm really caused was a power outage and some heavy wind. As I lie there in the complete dark, I realized: I never thought about what would happen to our bulk meat investment if we lost power for more than an hour or two.

I did consider our freezer before the storm hit, but honestly I wasn’t expecting to lose power for very long. Luckily we didn’t. It was probably only out for 2-3 hours.

The night before the storm, we bought a 10-pound bag of ice that we stuffed into the freezer. We arranged the meat on the bottom of the freezer, and stuffed the bag of ice on top of it. We also followed the advice of Kacie at Sense to Save and froze a gallon jug of water to take up the extra space in the freezer. We also keep our Kitchen-Aid stand mixer’s ice cream maker attachment in the freezer in case we decide to make ice cream on the spur of the moment. It stays pretty cold for pretty long after it’s frozen.

As soon as the power kicked back on early this morning, I checked the freezer. The meat was still rock solid and very little ice was melted, so I think it’s safe to leave it in the freezer.

However, I hadn’t thought about what I would do in the event of a long-term power outage before the storm. I had a lot of time to think about it last night when I was tossing and turning, though. I decided that if the meat was partially thawed by the time the power came back on, we would cook all of it up today, use as much as possible in bulk cooking, and freeze the meals. Throwing it away would have been the last resort in the event of a long-term power outage that lasted all day. If the meat thawed completely, and we couldn’t cook it immediately, I wouldn’t have risked it.

What about you? What steps do you take to protect your bulk meat purchases if the power goes out?

Menu Plan Monday & Grocery Round Up: 9/6-9/12

As it turned out, Hanna wasn’t too bad at all. The wind and rain kept me up all night, and the power was out for a few hours, but overall it was pretty mild. Thankfully. Now that the skies have cleared, it’s back to business as usual today.

We spent $57 on groceries for the week! That includes 5 pounds of chicken breasts bought at $1.99/lb. Most of our meals are chicken-based, and $1.99/lb. is the cheapest I’ve seen it in my grocery stores, so I like to stock up when it hits that price. We should have plenty for the next few weeks!

And now on to our menu plan:

Saturday: Blackened catfish and rice pilaf
Sunday: Round roast and mashed potatoes
Monday: Chicken fajita tortilla soup
Tuesday: Sandwiches/leftovers
Wednesday: Whole wheat spaghetti with marinara
Thursday: Three-cheese stuffed manicotti
Friday: Homemade pizza

We were in the mood to mix things up this week, so we took a lot of time planning our meals to include new things (the manicotti) and old recipes that we haven’t made in a while (chicken fajita soup). I’m really looking forward to our menu for the week!

Now head over to Org Junkie for more menu inspiration!

TGIF Link Round Up: Tropical Storm Edition

We’re expecting the storm to hit sometime late tonight. It’s still a tropical storm, but it’s inching close to Category 1 hurricane status. Hopefully it’ll weaken before it hits us!

I’m relieved that the storm shouldn’t be too intense, and actually looking forward to an excuse to hide in my apartment all weekend. Despite the fact that it only lasted four days, this week has been a particularly long one for me.

And now on to the round up!

I participated in three blog carnivals this week:

And on to the blogs that inspired me this week!

  • Kelly at Almost Frugal asks how do you take your hundreds? This is a really interesting concept about the psychology of cash. Personally, I would ask for five 20s. I don’t like the way I feel when I break a hundred dollar bill, but I don’t give small bills enough weight to hang on to them. I’m just hesitant enough to break a $20, but it’s not quite as painful as $100. Honestly, though, I’d prefer to have the $100 direct deposited into my bank account. I would get the best use out of it that way
  • Kacie at Sense to Save asks how you find the lowest price. I like her system. I can’t tell you how many times I’ve made a purchase only to find the same item for cheaper a week later. Doh. I also love the link she shared to PriceProtectr.com. I had no idea that existed, but I’ll be sure to use it in the future!
  • Dana at Not Made of Money shares the top four reasons to use online bill pay. I can’t remember the last time I wrote a check to pay a bill (except for rent … my landlord charges tenants a $5 convenience fee to pay online. Um, I’ll write a check, thnx). For some reason, though, I have an aversion to automatic bill pay. I know we have the money each month, but I don’t like the idea of money being withdrawn from my account automatically. It may be a hassle, but I like the practice of mindfully looking over my finances once a month and paying my bills.
  • Sara at On Simplicity writes about the reality of the wedding of your dreams. I love her advice on keeping things in perspective. She urges brides to ask themselves, “Will I care about this in 10 years?” before making any decisions. It’s easy to get swept up in wedding mania. Reminding yourself of what’s truly important to you can not only save you a ton of money, but a lot of stress, too.

That’s all I’ve got for tonight. Wish us luck with our first tropical storm. I’ll be back tomorrow for more frugal fun!

Preparing for the storm

Looks like Hurricane Hanna is headed right in our direction. Yikes. Unless it drastically changes course (which could happen) it will probably get here tomorrow night or Saturday morning.

At this point it’s a pretty small storm. They’re not really sure if it will be a category 1 hurricane or a tropical storm. Either way, we’re not talking about massive destruction here. Whew.

But it could mean we’ll be stuck indoors for a day or two due to heavy rain and wind. It could also mean a power outage. We don’t really know what to expect, because we’ve never experienced a hurricane. That’s all the more reason to overprepare, though.

We’re headed out tonight for some provisions. Here’s what we’re picking up:

  • Batteries for the flashlight and radio
  • Ice to pack into the freezer so our meat won’t spoil if we lose power.
  • Foods that don’t require refrigeration or cooking (granola bars, applesauce, cereal, crackers, etc.)
  • A few gallon jugs of water

We may not even need this stuff if the storm is as mild as they’re expected it to be. We feel better being prepared, though, and we should really have a stockpile of water and batteries anyway.

Besides, we might need these provisions and more next week if Hurricane Ike (currently a Category 4) follows its projected path to the Carolina coasts. We’ll be more likely to evacuate than stick it out if that storm comes our way, but the snack foods might come in handy on the road. It’s too early to know for sure where Ike is headed, but my point is that we should be prepared for this storm and future storms now that hurricane season is upon us.

Unfortunately, we hadn’t planned for a mid-week grocery trip to stock up on convenience foods when we set our budget. This could throw things off for us in that department. It’s a bummer, but this is just a reminder of why it’s important to build an extra cushion into your budget. Luckily, I planned for a $400 grocery budget even though I wanted to shoot for $300-$350. So hopefully it won’t throw us off.

I’m hoping it’ll be some rain and wind and that we won’t lose power at all this weekend. I guess we’ll see! I’m just happy we’re going to be prepared.

To all of you who have experienced hurricanes: What else should we do to prepare?!

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Dressing your wedding on a dime

I realized early on that no matter how silly it seemed before I started planning, looking the part of “the bride” was important to me. My wedding was really my first and only chance to really overdress, and since I knew I’d have the pictures forever (more on the photography later), I really wanted to look fabulous.

I didn’t want to spend a fortune on a dress I’d only wear one day, though.

Here’s what we did to outfit the bride, groom, and attendants stunningly, simply, and affordably.

Wedding Gown

I’ve heard a lot of things about David’s Bridal, positive and negative. The fact of the matter is they have a huge selection of dresses in a lot of different styles, and they’re pretty affordable. Was I treated like a princess? Um, no, and I didn’t need to be. I just wanted a deal on a dress.

I bought my dress during the $99 gown sale. Unfortunately, the selection of $99 gowns is pretty limited. I didn’t find anything that I liked in my size.

It didn’t matter, though. I had already flipped through a catalogue and found a dress that was exactly what I’d envisioned. I tried on several dresses, but I ended up going back to the first dress I saw in that catalogue, the first one I tried on. It was on sale for $50 off the original price. David’s Bridal has this sale about 4 times a year, so make sure you buy your dress during the sale.

The really nice thing about David’s Bridal is that they usually have your size right there in the store. I can’t imagine special ordering a gown without being able to try it on first. You never know how it’s going to look until you try it on.

I really lucked out as my dress fit absolutely perfectly right off the rack. I saved a ton in alteration fees. Even though it fit perfectly, they tried to convince me to order it a size up and have it altered for a “custom” fit. Um, no, it fit fine. Don’t let them talk you into alterations you don’t need. If you feel comfortable, then it fits. They might try to tell you that it doesn’t, but only you know what’s comfortable for you.

If you decide to go with David’s Bridal and you do need alterations, I suggest you do some comparison pricing at other places. Sure, having David’s Bridal do it is probably more convenient, but you can save a lot by taking it to a private alterations shop.

Wedding Accessories

I went ahead and ordered everything at David’s Bridal. The grand total for dress, shoes, undergarments, and veil was a few dollars over $500. Yikes. It adds up so quickly!

I considered buying things on eBay, but honestly, I didn’t really want to do that. Choosing everything specially to match what I envisioned was important to me, so I made room for it in my budget. I don’t regret it.

The Tux

Our original plan was to buy Tony a new suit that he could wear at the wedding and to future events. He has a black suit that he bought in high school that still fits, but we both wanted him to look extra spiffy for the wedding.

We looked at a lot of suits. Tony wasn’t crazy about any of the suits in our $300 price range. We wanted to stick to our budget, but he didn’t want to buy a suit that he didn’t like just because it fit into our budget.

Just for comparison’s sake, we stopped in at a tux rental shop to check out prices. When Tony saw the classy three-piece tuxedos and I saw the prices (about half what we had budgeted for a new suit at $125), we decided to go with the rental.

The bonus was that his best man wore a matching tux, and they looked great in the pictures.

It would have been more economical to buy Tony a new suit that he could wear later, but he already has a black all purpose suit. The tux looked extra snazzy at half the price.

The Attendants

Choosing attire for our attendants was super simple because we only had a maid-of-honor and a best man. Tony’s best man wore the same tux as Tony. My maid-of-honor and I shopped for her dress when she visited us a few months before the wedding. I picked the color, and she picked out a dress that she liked. Simple.

We got her dress at David’s Bridal as well. I really like that they have many different styles in the same color. It makes it easy even for brides with large bridal parties to allow their bridesmaids to choose something flattering and unique to their styles. An added bonus was that my maid-of-honor was able to order her dress in North Carolina when she visited and pick it up in Indiana.

We spent a total of $625 for bride and groom attire. We were very grateful that our attendants picked up the tab for their own attire.

When I look at the photos, the only lasting thing we have from our wedding day, I’m really glad we didn’t cut corners on attire. We both looked our best, and most importantly, we felt great in what we wore. That’s what’s really important when it comes to choosing your wedding attire.

Growing herbs indoors?

This week Works for Me Wednesday at Rocks in My Dryer is backwards — bloggers post their problems and open up the comments section for solutions. I’m reposting a question that I asked last week about indoor herb gardening.

For those of you who don’t have time to read my long, sad story of herb failure, I’ll give you the short version: I want to grow my own herbs to save money, but I don’t get enough natural sunlight in my apartment or on my balcony to sustain them. Does anyone have any inexpensive tips for indoor gardening without natural light?

I’ve heard that fluorescent lights work, but I’m not sure how to set something like that up. I’m willing to invest SOME money in this if it will work long term and solve the problem, but absolutely no more than $100.

Thanks to anyone who can help me with this dilemma!

Working an unexpected raise into the budget

Last week we found out that Tony is getting a raise for his monthly teaching assistantship stipend, which works out to about a $160 increase in our monthly income after taxes. Woo hoo!

This is particularly exciting because we weren’t expecting it at all. We thought it was a mistake when the deposit was higher than normal last week. But he called and they confirmed that yep, it’s a raise, and we can expect that amount every month from now on.

Today when we sat down to rework the budget for September, we were amazing at how much money $160 is when it’s put to work in a budget. In the past we probably would have blown that extra money and still felt strapped for cash at the end of the month. Now that we’re budgeting, this extra money will make it a lot easier for us to reach our goals.

We decided to divvy up the extra money between savings and debt. We’re putting an even $300 toward savings, which is about a $75 increase. We also upped our debt payment by $75, bringing it up to $325. We still won’t make our final credit card payment until November, but our final payment will be small.

We haven’t decided what to do with the extra $10 floating around in our budget. We might tack it on to our entertainment budget just to give us a little extra mad money every month. Snowflakes and other miscellaneous income will continue to go into our savings account to save for Tony’s tuition, our future expenses, and emergencies.

Yay for raises! We weren’t expecting to see an increase in our income so soon, but I’ll take it!

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