Lessons in Frugality

Posted on January 14, 2008
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I have always thought of myself as a fairly frugal person. I don’t spend hours shopping for clothes or furnishings, I don’t spend hundreds of dollars purchasing them either. I buy used when I can and have been fairly lucky in my used purchases. I buy my books from either the thrift store or used on Amazon.

I have discovered lately though that I am not as frugal as I thought I was. I was reading about some little thing over the weekend and thought that I would pick one up. It wasn’t expensive, just a little kitchen gadget that would make cooking a little easier. As I was thinking about purchasing it, it dawned on me that I would probably only use it once or twice a year and that the $20 I would spend on it could be better spent elsewhere.

Then it dawned on me that maybe, just maybe, I was getting the whole frugal thing. I must admit that under normal circumstances, I would not have thought twice about getting it. It didn’t cost much and I would have rationalized the purchase away.

My income famine this month has forced me to not only think about the $100 I might spend on something but the $5 as well. Survival this month is going to depend on whether I can save the little stuff. I have already had to dip into the emergency fund just to buy gas to get to work.

So I am turning into Scrooge. I have found myself totally up what it cost to cook a meal, and how much that is per serving. Knowing that I have a good homecooked meal in the freezer or fridge that cost me $2 might keep me from grabbing that burger on the way home that ends up costing me $5 and isn’t nearly as good.

I have taken a lesson from Trent at The Simple Dollar in his post on Adventures In Frugality. I am used to cooking for a large family and it’s easy for me to throw together enough food for an army. Instead of stuffing the leftovers in the refrigerator to turn into science experiments, I am bagging them in single serving amounts and freezing them. Just from this weekends cooking I have 4 nights of dinner and 5 breakfast burritos.

Another habit I am going to break is going out to lunch every day. It generally only costs me $5 to eat out and I have no place to warm up lunch so have to take cold sandwiches. Problem is that the $5 a day adds up to $25 a week and $100 a month. That’s 25% of my food budget and money I could better spend elsewhere.

So looking on the positive side of this month’s crisis, I might come out a more frugal, less wasteful person. I am learning lessons in frugality as well as in promoting my business.

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