I'm mentally celebrating a kind of 'first' for Beloved Hubby and me. He's been off for most of the week, but today it was back to the old grind. We had to pick up lumber for the job, and I wanted to visit Dollar Tree, so we combined our errands and went together.

In a real 'first' for us, we managed to get it done without stopping off for lunch or even a soda, even though we left at prime lunch time ! It's so easy for us to spoil each other with a big soda or coffee at 7-11 when we go out together - and half the time, we add lunch to the treat. Not today. It was kind of hard to put aside the expectation, but once done, it was easy - and it'll be easier next time. We're pretty frugal on most things, but eating out is a weakness of ours !

We got the wood and a strip for the bottom edge of the front door. We can't see daylight there anymore ! We've been pushing a towel against the door these last few cold weeks. The place we went to (coughLowescoff) had several sizes and types of strips, and Beloved was upset at the $8 to $12. price on most. I found one for $3.92, and as it turned out, that worked. I love my bargain-hunting eye !

I had a minor score, too. Found some garage door cards. They're  designed for prospective buyers to hold in front of their current garage doors, to help determine what style to buy. We're not replacing our garage door (we rent), but the cards will work great for some doll windows I'm making ! Yeah, I can print out something similar with our great Brother printer/scanner/fax, but this way, I don't use up our ink !

I hadn't planned on going to Dollar Tree, but I had to, and it ended up saving me a couple bucks. I'd volunteered to provide cookies and pencils for Dearest Son's Friday school holiday party. I'd intended to buy a pack of Disney Princess and a pack of Cars holiday themed ones, even though they were $2. each for just ten pencils. But Mal-Wart was sold out of both. So DTree to the rescue ! I got 24 iridescent ones, in a wide mix of colors, for $2. I have to confess, I kept a green and a silver one. His class is only 18 kids, so it's not depriving anyone... but I still feel a bit mischievous.

I also bought a bag of generic Fritos, which we ate half of with our chili lunch. There's enough for lunch tomorrow, too. Dinner was chicken pasta salad, with garden rotini, and there was a serving of leftovers on that, too. We buy these huge boneless frozen chicken breasts at Sam's, and just one will provide three chicken pasta salad meals. I'll cook one, use a third of it fresh, and freeze the rest, so dinner's super-fast two out of three times !

The only other thing we bought is an experiment that has to wait 'til tomorrow. About two Christmases ago, my BIL bought Dearest Son an Easy Bake oven. Why, I'm still not sure. Anyway, long story short, the little round pans are AWOL. And just now, Dearest is interested in the thing. DTree had small silicone baking pans in various fun shapes... so I got a star one, in hopes it'll fit in the opening. At least we found the paddle-thingie to put stuff in/get stuff out. I'll try tomorrow, while Dearest's at school. I'd hate to have him get excited and then let down this close to the holidays.

Finally got the last of the lace from Saturday's yard sale bagged up. I swear, by the time I was done, having it all was more punishment than present. Used every recycled baggie in the house, too. I already know there is no way it'll cram into the storage tote I use for that... and I already dumped about 30 yards of the stuff into the donations box !

In other frugal news, I recycled two large Mal-Wart sacks and the bag the lace came home in - in our home trash cans. Jack and DC love their new dry cat food. Mal-wart was sold out of their usual Special Kitty, in all flavors, and the same size and weight of Kit and Kaboodle brand was the same price. So they're feasting on that. We enjoyed re-watching Wall-E tonight with dinner, so I doubt we'll think about cable again any time soon. We turned off our TV back in '04 - Dearest was acting out everything he saw, so we didn't have much of a choice. Every so often, we think of getting TV again (it's all DVDs now), but we end up not doing so. I hope we just keep it as idle thinking.

0 Comments | Post Feedback

I told my then-friend, eventually my Beloved Hubby, a long time ago that I'd rather have a single dandelion over a dozen roses. Anybody could stop into a florist or even a grocery store and buy flowers. Didn't require much thought. But the dandelion -  my guy would actually have to think of me beyond  'all women like x' to know that I'd much rather have the flower he knelt down and picked himself, while thinking of me. Roses are easy. Dandelions you have to mean.

When we got married years later, it was February. But the silk flower bouquet he made for me contained a single fresh yellow dandelion. Where he found it, he wouldn't say. But it meant the world to me.

I was reading a discussion about food pantries and how they're being overtaxed these days. And I was grateful we hadn't had use for one in the nearly eleven years we've had together. But I think sometimes I enjoy it when things are tight. I have to mean it when I buy something for me, because the funds aren't there for me to be thoughtless with. For the last few years, we haven't been ridiculously wealthy, but we've had the funds for indulgences. And my doll and sewing Lab shows it - my fabric hoard is at SABLE (Stash Already Beyond Life Expectancy), and I probably have enough lace and ribbon to decorate an entire Rio Carnivale. I have so many dolls that I barely have time to play with them all. And let's not get into their clothes and furniture ! Please !

True, nearly all of the wonderful happy-place things I have were bought second-hand, but they still speak of readily available funds. There's been times that I couldn't go to yard sales or thrift stores, because we really were broke. It's expensive to be broke. You can't take advantage of sales, because it's taking all you have to get through today and part of tomorrow. But even when times were tough, they got better, and we'd focus and together, we'd get the household to 'fighting weight' again.

So when I hear about how bad things are getting, I'm glad we're already living the way we are.  I don't like Starbucks, I'd rather have Pumpkin Spice Cappucchino from 7-11 - or peppermint coffee from my own $5. coffee maker and 50c yard sale thermal carafe. And two candy canes from a 10c box of 'em I bought last January. I don't feel deprived, but rather indulgent when I get that big 95c cup o' go-juice.

I also feel prepared to deal with downturns. I've done it before, will do it again, and I know new tricks from my friends here that I'm eager to try. I'd much rather have available funds, but I'm glad I'm not used to a steady diet of $800. purses, $300. haircuts, and $60. manicures. I make my own purses - talk about an exclusive clientele ! - Beloved Hubby cuts my hair (and he's good at it !), and I'm just not invested in any level of grooming that requires me to leave the house to obtain it. Shoot, if it weren't for washing dishes and my hair, my nails probably wouldn't even get cleaned every day !

We're all very lucky we're adaptable and make it a practice to live beneath our means - even if we don't always obtain our goal, at least we try, and the effort is the reward, too. I'm at my most creative when I'm challenged, and I think most folks are like that. It's too easy to spend our way out of a problem, something our govenment goes all too well, but it doesn't change Business As Usual.

When I'm too broke to spend, I think. And that may be why I'm looking forward to the challenges of our changing economy. I've gone too long having fun - now it's time to get creative !

2 Comments | Post Feedback