My husband and I have recently started to see financial matters in a new light. I think it may be because we have never (until recently) in 17 years of marriage, made a budget. That never really put us in the red though so we saw no reason to change. But now with a new house and some other financial obligations we are starting to see that operating without a budget and a plan has meant lots of wasted money over the years. Lots of money we could have saved rather than pissing it away willy nilly.
At any rate, these days I am all about budgets, Dave Ramsey, Clark Howard, and giving every dollar an assignment.
Frugal wins for the week include:
- Soap score. I meant to make some DIY foaming hand soap to refill my existing dispensers but then I noticed that most of them were broken and cracked from being reused and abused. So I bought six new soaps at Menards for .88 cents each and with mail in rebates they will end up being only .33 cents each.
- We also needed lawn rakes since our new yard actually has trees. Bought two rakes at Menards for $4.99 each and after rebates they are .99 cents each. The leaves we rake up will be mulched and spread around our apple and pear trees for winter.
- Took two surveys that paid in $5 Amazon gift cards. Used that money to buy a book on Straw Bale Gardening. We have borrowed it from the library a couple times because this is the method we plan to use next year. I figure we need a copy of our own. It’s awesome.
Frugal Fails:
- Bought a cheapy $15 bluetooth headset for work after the headphone jack on my phone broke. Argh! I was not willing to go even one day without my podcasts so I bought cheap from Big Lots. It broke after one day and I lost the receipt. Double argh! Now $60 later I have the LG Tones I wanted in the first place.
What frugal strides have you made lately?
