My Year of Living Frugally

My Year of Living Frugally


One girl-about-town found she could cut her plastic habit without downgrading her first-class lifestyle...

I found inspiration in this post by Laura Hollinger as I’ve been trying to live my life this way ever since I got married and had a baby. My husband and I routinely joke about our infrequent haircuts (it’s been 6 months for him) and when we do go to the stylist/barber we get a real chop and for $20 or less. We try to cook as much food as possible at home as well as make our own baby food. Once we're done with diapers and formula the savings will be huge. Formula costs as much as beer! On Saturdays the local thrift store discounts clothes up to 75% off which is a huge savings on the essentials for the baby. After all, she’s been growing like a weed, and we find practically new items. Last week, my best find was a pair of size 5 Airwalk snow boots in pink for Miss Eva for only 30 cents!  My husband (who never shaves much lately now that he’s Mr. Mom) has probably a year’s supply of shaving cream now that the Gym has been handing out coupons for free shaving cream. We recently discovered the Grocery Outlets (about an hour drive from our house). They have some great wines for $3-$4! We routinely look for the wines that had the highest retail price and are now drastically discounted. I splurged when I paid $6 for the Larry Bird wine, only buying one to taste test. Then later, came to discover that this wine originally sold for $70-$80 a bottle. I was sorry I didn’t buy a case. But do I really need it? No, it’s more important to filter off extra funds into my daughter’s college account or home repairs. We recently opened up a Upromise Savings Master Card. So now, for every dollar we spend a percentage goes directly into Eva’s college account. We like this better than those cash back cards since we are forced to save this money just for her. My husband still occasionally jokes about signing me up for “What Not to Wear” since I prefer to wear sweats and running shoes. I signed myself up for 6 months of intensive personal training. Once I commit to working out and losing weight then I’ll reward myself with a little retail therapy. Until then, I'm enjoying watching our savings grow.