How to get a pair of designer jeans for $6. . . .

Awhile back (early December, in fact), I took a bunch of clothing to two local consignment stores. Last weekend, I finally had a chance to visit one of the stores to see if anything had sold. As it turns out, I had $90 in sales! I could either choose 40% in cash or 60% in store credit. I was leaning toward the cash until I found a pair of designer jeans that *almost* fit me - luckily they're a brand (Joe's) that stretch and stretch and stretch, based on past experience.

So I bought 'em and only had to hand over $6. Granted, I 'spent' an additional $54 of store credit but that was based on the sale of clothing I hadn't worn in years. So I consider this to be a good deal, especially since the length of these jeans is perfect and being rather petite (5'4") that's a definite plus! And, after two days of wear, they've already stretched out to such a degree that I don't feel like they're too tight in the waist or hips. Begone, muffin top!

I still have to make a visit to the other consignment store; perhaps I'll that next weekend and see what's on the books for me there. . . .

Three months to go. . . .

My boss asked me for the specifics of myproposed drop to part time status next fall---in the form of an official letter that she could take to HR to get the ball rolling. Yikes! Putting it on paper really made it seem real, and it also made a tiny wave of anxiety zip through my body. Have a I saved enough? What if I lose my second job? Can I work upwards of 65 hours a week between the internship, the day job, and my night job, without going completely crazy???

A positive outcome of the experience is that I was able to nail down my start date at the internship, which should be September 1st. Since I'm a natural 'planner', this made me feel much more comfortable. On the flip side, this is about two weeks to a month earlier than I anticipated, meaning that I have less time to pad the savings account.

I'm doing very well so far with my goal of getting to $4,000 (I'm at about $2,700 right now), and if I'm very good over the next three months, I should reach my goal, or at least very close to it. I'm still amazed that I started saving in January and have made it halfway! Just think if I'd started saving money when I was in my twenties---or even my teens! I do regret the time (and money) wasted, but then again, I'm also grateful to have 'seen the light' even at this late(r) date.

I'm committed to paying attention to what I spend each month, and decreasing expenditures where I can. Here's a list of budget tips from a recent CBS article that helped motivate me to continue on my frugal path:

• Save on personal care products: the article discusses using smaller amounts of products like shampoo, conditioner, and toothpaste, which is a great idea. I would add that local drugstores and grocery stores OFTEN have great deals on these items. If you keep your eyes open for sales and use coupons or rebates, you can often get these items for free, as my recent post shows.
• Save money on clothing: CBS urges us to splurge on an accessory, rather than a higher-priced item of clothing. Slightly ridiculous is the suggestion that we purchase two necklaces this year and nothing else, for a $600 savings. That seems unnecessary when there are so many thrift stores around, just waiting for frugal shoppers to grab those deals. I know that a trip to a thrift store often scratches my itch to shop---even if I don't find anything I want to buy.
• Save money on entertainment: a reader commented recently about the $1 DVD's that are available at Redbox, which I think is a great deal! If you're willing to be patient, you can also rent DVD's at the local library, which is something I've been doing for a couple of months. I've been very happy with the selection and I love getting random emails from the library to let me know a DVD is available for pickup (they'll even mail them to me). The bonus (aside from the price)? I get to keep the movies for up to two weeks!
• Save money on exercise: I canceled my gym membership when I was in the midst of paying off my credit cards, and in November---when my balances finally fell to zero---I renewed it (I waited for a special deal when there were no initiation fees, of course). I've been going to the gym regularly for $29.99 a month, and I feel that this is a fair price to retain my sanity. Exercise truly keeps me balanced and healthy. I also bought a DVD that I use in the mornings when I don't have time for a gym visit, which I'll use for years. Aside from that, there's the great outdoors---parks, paths, sidewalks, outdoor tracks---that are free for the taking.
• Save money on your ride: One of the reasons I moved to Portland was to get out of my car and have access to more public transportation options. I LOVE riding the Max (and, to a lesser degree, the bus) each day to work. When gas prices went through the roof last summer, I was barely affected because I can---if I choose---walk three blocks to a bus stop where I can grab a ride downtown. Granted, it's a LONG commute compared to taking the highway or even surface streets to work. But I save on gas, I save on parking, and I save the additional miles on my already high-mileage car. Even if public transit isn't an option, consider carpooling! You'll save money AND the environment. . . .
• Childcare: somewhat sadly, this isn't a line item in my budget! However, if I had kids, I'm sure the outrageous costs of childcare would be a major drain on my finances. I have friends who make use of flexible grandparents and other relatives as well as friends to provide low-cost (or free) daycare. In my opinion, this is seriously an area where a little government investment would make sense. I think a lot of single (and coupled) parents will continue to live in poverty because coordinating and paying for childcare is simply overwhelming.

As long as I can keep these expenses low this summer (and next year), I should be fine. Although I'm feeling a little anxious, I've been crunching the numbers and I think I'll make it. In fact, in spite of the many hours I'll be working each week, I'm looking forward to this next challenge! I can do anything for nine months!

My frugal weekend. . . .

Yesterday I spent the day in frugal pursuits, designed to both save me money now and in the future! Here are the highlights:

Bought a box of Gain detergent at Walgreens on sale for $5.99, and used a $3.00 Register Rewards coupon that I already had, plus a $1.00 manufacturer coupon that I got in the mail. Result? An entire box of detergent (40 loads, which I'll stretch into 60) for $1.99! It would have been .99 cents, but the $1.00 register reward that should have printed with my Gain didn't, and I didn't notice this until later (of course). I may go back and ask for this to be corrected. . . .

Did my regular monthly grocery shopping trip, at which I purchased a bunch of cilantro. Since I'm only using a tenth of it now, I made a batch of cilantro pesto, and froze it for later use. . . . (note: I used pine nuts and pecans---the nuts I had on hand---in place of the almonds in this recipe).

Made a batch of Chilaquiles (like a Mexican lasagna) so I'll have lunches (and one dinner) all week long, saving me the money I might have spent at my favorite local eatery near work----Chipotle.

Found two pound blocks of cheese (cheddar, Monterey Jack, mozzarella, and Colby) for $3.89 at Winco! That's a pretty amazing price (I know this because I'm still using my Price Book). I purchased one of each, and spent Sunday with my friend the Cuisinart shredding most of it to be placed in the freezer.

I didn't do ANY homework, but hey, at least my freezer is stocked!

Frugal kitchen tips. . . .

By the end of March, I was committed to not making a trip to the grocery store to replenish my refrigerator and cupboards (I will admit to purchasing more coffee---it gets ugly around my house when there's no coffee). I started cruising the recipe sites (like Allrecipes), where I can enter the ingredients I have and want to use, and the site spits out a few recipes that might work for me. In this way, I was able to make it through March, and even made use of some items in the refrigerator that would have gone bad had I not used them up. . .

In any case, this end-of-month desperation not only resulted in my spending a bit more time in the kitchen, it also inspired me to search for other ways I could save money in and around that crucial room; after a search of my beloved internets, here's what I found:

• Challenge yourself. Last month, Money Saving Mom challenged herself to eat from the pantry for two weeks! With a husband, two little girls, and a little one on the way, going two weeks without a trip to the grocery store is the definition of a challenge, but she made it through! This is similar to what I did, although with just myself to feed, I think my challenge was probably a little easier.
• Make use of the freezer. I have three sad, BLACK bananas on my counter. I never ate them, yet I can't seem to throw them in the composter yet. A friend suggested making banana bread, but I think they're even past that use (these are some OLD bananas, folks). What I didn't know is that I could have peeled and frozen those bananas before they got really bad. Apparently, freezing fruits and vegetables is a time-honored way of preserving them until you need them, and there are many ways to go about doing this, according to this website.
• Apropos of that last bullet, growing your own fruits and veggies can be a great way to save money during the summer and fall months. And knowing how and when to freeze them is a wonderful strategy to enjoy your bounty throughout the year! I've started my seeds and am (im)patiently awaiting my first tomato of the season. According to this CNN article, many Americans are growing what's being called 'Recession Gardens' this year. I think this is one of the few positive reactions to our dismal economic environment.
• Don't forget the leftovers! Since I'm usually so busy during the week, I've been trying to make a large batch of something (lasagne, stir fry, a casserole, etc) on the weekend. That way I have a nice Sunday dinner, but more importantly, I have lunches for the rest of week, making it much less likely that I'll go 'round the corner to Chipotle for a $7 burrito!
• Mom was right when she told you to eat your vegetables. A diet that is lower in red meat and higher in fruits, grains, and vegetables is not only healthier for you, it's cheaper! You may even live longer, according to research. I recently came across an article that shows that people who eat proportionally more red meat are more likely to die from cancer and other diseases.
• Eat locally, and eat with the season. I can't tell you how many times I've paid three times more for a piece of fruit in January, that grows in my area (or at least the western United States) in the summer. Where is that winter peach coming from? Probably someplace very far south of Portland, that's for sure. So not only am I paying a premium for the fruit, my craving is adding to carbon emissions to get the darn thing here!

I'm sure there are many more ways to save money in the kitchen, these are just my favorites, and the most realistic for my life. Perhaps you're into drying fruit, or canning, or raising chickens, and if so, I commend and admire you!

The Frugal Family Guide. . . .

Hey all, this is a late-day post to turn you on to a wonderful article I just discovered, in the online version of Newsweek. It's called The Frugal Family Guide, and although it's not really a 'guide' per se, it's a rather funny essay by a writer named Steve Tuttle.

Mr. Tuttle writes about his parents (who are in their late 60's, early 70's) and their lifelong commitment to frugality. For the senior Tuttles, frugality isn't just a reaction to the latest grim economic news. No, living thriftily (is that a word?) is just a state of mind, something that comes naturally, and has allowed them to send two kids to college, pay off their house (that they built themselves), and amass a rather large savings account.

THIS is what I aspire to. To live frugally not because I have to, but because it's the right thing to do. Mr. Tuttle's parents remind me of my grandparents (now in their 90's) whom I used to think of as 'miserly' but who re-used anything they could rather than replacing with a shiny new 'thing' (my grandmother still had her 50 year old working toaster when we moved her into an independent living facility). My grandmother can afford to live in a nice apartment with good nursing care and in close proximity to her children because she and my grandpa lived like the Tuttles.

Anyhow, this post was supposed to be a few lines intended only to introduce you to this article, but I'm so blown away by the simplicity and common-sense approach of it that I seem to have lost control a bit. . . . Enjoy!

A frugal vacation. . . .

Hey there! I'm on the beautiful Oregon coast, without access to a computer (gasp!) so I'll be back next week!

Have a frugal week!

How I squandered my financial fresh start. . . .

New here? First read The Early Years, and then The Middle Years. . . .

Once upon a time, almost two years ago, I was debt-free (except for my student loan). I sold my house in California (just a wee house, in a rural part of the state---so my ‘take’ was less than $50,000 after three years of ownership). With the proceeds, I paid off my car, my credit cards, and my home equity loan, leaving me with about $15,000.

I took a giant breath and moved to Portland, Oregon, to start a new life and a new job (at a lower salary---but hey, I was debt free, remember?). Somehow, I now find myself once again a slave to credit card debt, saddled with a mortgage that is probably too large for my salary, and with over $50,000 remaining on my student loan. How did this happen?

I was so unused to having money in a savings account---an actual cushion! It felt so great, I was loathe to spend any of the money on piddly, every day stuff. So I used my trusty credit card when I visited Target, Home Depot, and Bed, Bath & Beyond, knowing that I had the money to pay it off every month----which I didn’t. Pay it off, that is.

I then used much of my remaining ‘house money’ to purchase a house in Portland---now, granted, the home I live in is even smaller and cozier than my California house, and cost less than the sale price of my California home----but it cost over $60,000 more than my first house originally cost, and with me at a lower salary than I was then, the mortgage payments now seem almost overwhelming. And of course, you know what happens when you move into a new house or apartment, especially if you’re an ‘owner’! There are needs, after all! More trips to Target, Home Depot, and Bed, Bath & Beyond----adding to my creeping credit card debt.

Each month, as I continued to live as if I hadn’t just bought a more expensive house on a lower salary, I would take a little here and there out of my savings account, to cover dinner out with friends, or the electric bill that came due at the end of the month, or the auto insurance premium that I hadn’t thought about until the day it arrived in the mail. And so it went. Until my savings account was so meager I began getting nervous. Which was a good thing, because that anxiety caused me to re-evaluate how I was living, and most importantly, how I was spending.

I think the combination of ‘starting fresh’ two years ago, a new outlook on life---free of credit card and auto loan debt, after all---and actual money in my savings account served to create a false sense of financial security. I bit off more than I can chew---almost. I am, after all, ‘making it’, as they say. I am paying my mortgages and other bills each month on time, and I’m even finding ways to pay off my credit cards---for the last time.

I now realize that I squandered what could have been my ‘financial fresh start’. I can kick myself for letting this happen, or I can learn from it---I choose to learn.

Taming the beast. . . . .

Good news: both my state and my federal tax refunds have been deposited into my checking account!

Bad news: I've already spent almost $100 on totally unplanned, frivolous, non-necessities!

My original plan was to dump the majority (if not all) of my refunds onto my credit card debt, effectively wiping out two credit cards (at $190 and $794, respectively) and then dropping the rest onto my third (and last!) credit card. But there was something about seeing all that cash in my usually anemic checking account that made me go a little crazy!

Before I stopped, I had purchased a pair of shoes (on sale), a sweater (on sale) and a new spring top (also on sale). Do you like how I justified my purchases with the fact that they were on sale? I must have "saved" about $80 on my almost $100 worth of purchases! The guilt set in when I got home, and realized that by shopping for things I didn't need (but craved) I was sabotaging my own plans for financial independence. And that the pattern of letting money disappear from my life so quickly and for such trivial reasons is how I got so far into debt in the first place.

So, how did I tame the beast? This morning, I logged in to my checking account and started putting my money to work---on debt reduction. I paid off the two credit cards, and will put another $500 on my third card. If the money is literally gone from my account, then I won't be tempted to spend it on small, trivial things, as I have in the past.

My spending spree was a good reminder that my shopping beast is still alive and well, just waiting for an opportunity to rear its ugly head. It was also a good learning experience---in the past, I would have waited until the very last minute to pay the "boring" bills with my refund, by which time most of the money would be spent. This time, I learned to pay the bills early, to avoid the danger of spending my refund on things that won't contribute at all to my future financial security.

Finding frugality. . .

My first post! Since this is numero uno, a little background and explanation may be necessary.

First, I started this blog as a means of exploring, developing and further inspiring my journey toward a reasonable level of frugality. I don't want to live in the woods, eating tree bark and wild mushrooms (I don't even like mushrooms). Not that there's anything wrong with living a 'Thoreau-esque' existence. To each his own, whatever floats your boat, you get the drift. I like my life in general, there are simply some financial habits I'd like to---actually, NEED to---change, as painful as that may be in the short term.

No, what I'm attempting to achieve is a better balance between how much I spend, what I spend it on, and how much I am able to save and invest for a more financially secure future. This journey started last summer, when I read (finally!) Your Money or Your Life (otherwise known as YMOYL), by Joe Dominguez and Vicki Robin. One of my New Year's resolutions for 2007 was to borrow more books from the library, rather than buying them new and then either letting them gather dust in my house, or passing them along to friends and family. When I sought YMOYL at my local library, there were about 40 holds on the ten or so copies available!! I waited, and waited, and waited and then waited some more for 'my' hold to come up in the queue, and when the library notified me some three months later that it was 'my turn' with the book, I had almost forgotten what the book was about and why I even wanted to read it in the first place!

I consider myself lucky that I did check the book out and read it in its entirety. I was so moved and inspired by the ideas presented by Joe and Vicki that I actually used a birthday gift card to purchase the book at our local Powell's Books (the best bookstore ever, by the way----please visit if you're ever in Portland). Although it was November, 2007 before I began tracking my spending in earnest (one of the first steps in the YMOYL 'plan'), I vowed to spend 2008 working on my new goals---to pay off debt (including, eventually, my mortgage), to be more conscious of the 'stuff' that I bring into my life, and to plan now for a comfortable, financially secure future.

So, in short, this blog will share my own personal story with you. Within these pages, I hope to find kindred spirits, to learn more about my own issues with money, and to connect with others who are trying to find a better balance between being a consumer and being financially independent.