Frugal Journey

I don't write a whole lot about frugality here in my blog. The main reason being that if I were to write about frugality, it might sound like a post on "How to spend excessive money on groceries" or something like that. And that is becasue frugality and the measure of it means different things to different people. These days sleep is a little elusive for me and I was thinking about it and what it means to me and what I learned since I started on this journey.

I was never a great spender to begin with. When you have to live on $600 a month, with a very real possibility of no income over the summer, frugality comes naturally. Especially if you are aspiring to graduate with no debt. Although I never spent inordinately after I started working, I never thought much about any of my purchases either. I might shop around a little bit, but that was about it. I never questioned the necessity or the long term value much. I believe that after graduating school, where I denied myself a lot of things, I felt a sense of entitlement. Today when I clean the cupboards, I come across a lot of those "entitlement posessions," which now serves the sole purpose of creating clutter and getting on my nerves.

When I started blog-reading in 2006, frugality was a thread in most of the blogs I read although they were not expressly blogs on frugality. As is my personality, the experiment on frugal practices was mostly crash and burn. I was high on saving money by couponing for a while and then suddenly, I lost the charm. The lack of health didn't help. But the experiment helped me in many learning many lessons, some of which I am going to share here.

1. It created awareness.

I became aware that I might not be as frugal as I thought I might be. The first step in implementing a cure for anything is realizing that there is a problem. One of my bad habit was stocking up on fruits and vegetables and then throwing them out as we (usually) never managed to finished them on time. It never occurred to me that though it is nice and good to eat fruits, I don't have to buy strawberries, cherries, watermelon, pineapple, grapes, and oranges all in one week.

2. Its not the same for everyone.

There is no standard measure of frugality. It varies. We don't have the same privileges or restrictions as a 1-income family as of now. So I don't have to run from pillar to post trying to save 40 cent on grapes while ignoring other things. There is a funny story that goes with it. My life is all about irony. I was once trying to hit 3 or 4 stores getting good deals on different stuff on the way back from work. Then I went to CVS scoring free toothpaste, and by the time I got home, I was too tired to cook and we ordered pizza. The cost of the pizza was more than what I saved and I ended up with free toothpaste I didn't really need. I had to laugh at myself on my money saving skills. There are time, flexibility, distance restrictions that might make it difficult for all familes to implement all the excellent means and methods of money saving that might be found online.

3. Food habits.

We are a predominantly veggie family. I once posted a picture of the amount of veggies we eat. And that is only half the week. Most of them are not even available in the traditional grocery store. And yes, it is expensive. The spices? Expensive as well. So the nice weekly $40 food budget which works for the family of 4? Doesn't work for us. I tried cheaper Asian stores, but the quality was bad, most of the veggies were half rotten and it was just not worth the trouble.

4. Sitting on making a decision

Or in other words, intentional buying. This has been the biggest money saver yet. Before I started on this journey, if we needed something, we always bought it. No brainer, right? Afterall, we are not talking about wants here. That is what I used to think. Now, I look for alternatives. A good story would be about the tape converter. I promise I will post that soon.

5. Not all needs are created equal

Recognizing the difference between a need and a want should have comes to me easily. But again, the sense of entitlement pokes its ugly head. We travel a lot, we get lost easily, so we need a GPS. The sub conscious thought is this: everybody has a GPS, I want one too. never mind that my phone has google maps and web access, I deserve it becasue I work so hard and I am so special. When I look down deep into the recesses of my thought process, a lot of needs end up like this. This is not to bash anyone who buys GPS. The point is to tell you how I challenged my thinking on wants that on the surface looks like needs.

6. It is not meant to suck every joy out of life

We travel a lot, and we love doing it. We take 1 or sometimes 2 vacations in a year. Although vacations never made the cut and I never questioned that expense, I was more cognizant of the choices I was making while I was traveling. Again, irony abounded. For example, I am a water person. I do not drink tea, coffee, wine etc, and started to drink coke only after coming to US. That too very sparingly. The same with juices. We still buy juice in the house for my husband, but I never bother to drink any just becasue I don't like it very much. That being the case, I noticed that I would order juice at a restaurant when we travel! Basically I would order juice for many times the cost at a restaurant (and not even drink quarter of it), but drink water at home. How stupid is that?

7. It is not meant to hamper giving

There is always a hoarding mentality that comes with saving money, but it is important not to go overboard with frugality that it becomes painful to give. I always think of "give as I go" a good way to do it. If I wait until all my personal goals are settled, then many years down the line, I might have the money, but not the heart to give.

Were you always frugal or did you learn along the way like me ?

These Red Shoes

I own these red shoes. I think they are pretty. It matches a cute red outfit I own. Other than that they waste space in my cupboard. I cannot wear it as they have high heels and I cannot walk more than 2 minutes in them.

I was walking on my way somewhere and I saw it in the store. It looked pretty, I tried it on, and it fit. I forgot that I am not supposed to wear high heels because of my ankle problem. I forgot that my husband prefers that I don't wear high heels. And I forgot that I absolutely had no need to buy them as I own about 10 pairs of shoes in different colors and styles. And that is not including flip-flops. Yet, I did. I wore it once for a fancy dinner out with my husband. Red dress, red shoes and a red necklace.

I did look cute.

For about 15 minutes until after I got there.

After that all I could think of were my pinching legs and constant fear that I would turn my ankle. It was a dinner show presentation and there was some walking around to do. I was miserable when I got back home and I wrapped up my pretty red shoes and kept it away.

These are the lessons I learned from the pretty red shoes.

1. It might look good, seem to fit, but does not mean it is the right choice for you.

2. Know and appreciate your uniqueness as a person before you invest in something.

3. If you are married and your husband has an opinion on something, it is usually a good idea to give heed to him, especially if he is older and knows you very well.

Replace shoes with any of the new theories, isms, doctrines and whathaveyou and there is a good lesson to remember.

And as far as material things are concerned, it reminds me to be careful in what I am buying, storing up treasures this side where moth, and rust and thieves destroy.

Book Review 2 (Updated)

Update: I think it will be helpful if I actually say which book I am talking about. It is Serve God, Save the Planet by Matthew J Sleeth

I think it is an appropriate review for today, this being celebrated as Earth Day and all. One can hardly escape it. In the bus, on TV, in the paper, in my company website, in the EPA site, in google.

I think this book gets the distinction of being one non-fiction book that I read the fastest. It is a small book, and it is divided into small chapters. It is definitely an easy read. There are some aspects that I disagree with the author, but the thing that really got me is how he advocates a turn away from materialism. His emphasis is on how we can save the environment. Whether or not you believe in the larger question of saving the environment because of our longing for a new heaven and earth, this book is well worth your time.

There were two points he presents which really struck a chord with me. One is his emphasis about the continuous cycle of buying more. The more we buy, the more we cling to the things we buy. Dusting, cleaning, maintaining. And don't I know it well? Especially since owning a house. The other point he makes is to ask yourself if God would have you buy it. I am not saying that after I read the book, I sold my house and lived in a cave. But it did open my eyes and really helped my perspective. How even our tiny actions has such an impact on the environment and not just on others here in America, but all over the world.

We are making some lifestyle changes, but it is not very easy. I feel having lived in India for 23 years, it should come easy to me. But the truth is it is not. Having used a clothesline for 23 years, and a dryer for 5 years, one would think I can easily shift to air drying clothes. A dryer, dishwasher, car are all luxuries that I got used to which is now very difficult to unlearn.

One example he gives is great. We use a power mower for mowing grass which releases all these emissions to the atmosphere and then we pay money to go to a gym in a car which releases more emissions and then use machines (which use electricity, hence more energy usage) to exercise.

A wonderful read albeit some points which gave me a slight pause. I got to warn you that if you are QF lifestyle family/individual you will not like the chapter on population fallout. Just a friendly warning.

I give the book a 9.0/10

Coming Later- The Hiding Place by Corrie Ten Boom

Have a frugal little Christmas

Nothing in life is free. Well okay, some things are. Air, laughter and salvation. Although I wouldn't bet on anything other than salvation.

Couple of days back I got a gift card for Victoria's Secret (No, I am not linking. If you don't know what that is, google is your friend) It was for $10. Now, I did not need anything from VS technically, but I could not resist the urge to get something for free. Also, I had to do some Christmas shopping and so braved the mall which I usually avoid like the plague. I pick up a small $10 of perfume which I didn't really need and walk to the counter. The total came up to $10.70 and I gave my $10 gift card. The lady at the counter said that I cannot use it since the total before tax needs to be $10.01 for me to use the card. I think she made up the rule just then. And then she gave me an excellent suggestion. I could spend $10 more on stuff I do not need and use my gift card to get the 10 bucks off. What a truly ground breaking idea!! I never thought of that before!!! I said thank you very much, but no and gracefully walked out.

I think I would rather tear up the card than spend $0.71 there.

So, here I stand. I refuse to be manipulated by a store which sends you a gift card for $10 and not allow you to use it on a $10 product. I guess they were irritated that I did not come with a $10 gift card and leave with $50 on my credit card.

Enjoy with me and have a frugal little Christmas and do not forget that the best gift in the world (and the reason for this season) is free.