Using what you got

One way I have discovered to be frugal and save lots of money is just using what I already have. Seems like a no brainer doesn't it? Well let me just ask you this. How many bottles of shampoo, lotion, body spray or facewash do you have lying around? If its more that one of each, you have fallen into the same wasteful habit as I have. I have 20+ bottles of lotion in my house! Can you believe that, over twenty! Not all of them are full and not all of them are full sized. Most are purse sized. I admit a while ago I might have hit up a certain fragrance store in the mall during a sale and acquired about six bottles of yummy smelling hand lotion. I still have three of those bottles. Its obvious that more than a year later I did not ever need to get six at a time. I definitely do not need anymore hand lotion, and my old self would be going again to get the new seasonal scents that all my friends are now carrying in their bags. I have decided to hold strong and I am going to use every last lotion bottle before I buy another one. But its not only hand lotion that is a problem. I also have body lotions, gels, creams or butters in large numbers. I have pretty dry skin and sometimes a certain type of lotion no longer cuts it so I switch. I use gels and lighter lotions in the spring and summer; creams and butters in the fall and winter. Now nothing is wrong with this. It is what my skin needs to stay looking healthy. The problem comes in that every season I seem to be buying another bottle of lotion instead of digging out what is left over. I have decided not to do this anymore. I am going to finish every last drop of lotion and then buy only what is needed at the time.

I've noticed a problem with toothpaste. This is not only a problem I have, my husband is very guilty of this one also. He will decide we are getting low or that he needs to try a different type and he will buy another tube. That would be no problem if we would just finish the old tube. Problem is that everyone likes to take the easy road. Its much easier to gently squeeze a new toothpast tube than to roll up and power squeeze the last weeks worth out of an old tube. So I counted up all the tubes of paste we have and there are four adult toothpaste tubes. We DO NOT need to have that many tubes lying around cluttering the medicine cabinet. I have been working on one of those old tubes for the last two weeks now. There was a lot more toothpaste in there that what we thought. Guess we weren't really running out.

Another way to use what you got is to get around to using those products that were given to you (or maybe you bought it) that you don't really like. My husband uses a certain hair paste and I have been trying to get him to use this gel we got for free that is in the hall closet. He won't do it. We purchase a small tub of his hair paste every two to three weeks, if he would just not do that and use that tube of gel for a couple weeks we would have that money to put elsewhere. We already have the gel in our posession, might as well use it. He could even just use it for days around the house when no one but his family will see that his hair is not looking the same. But its not only my husband that is guilty of snobbing things that aren't exactly what we wanted. I to have been picky about certain things. I am changing that starting today. I just ran out of the bodywash and lotion that I use for my son. Usually I would go buy some more, but I am going to use the wash and lotion I was gifted. I dislike the scent, but I am going to save about $7.00 using what I already have. Its not much but it definitely counts. Plus there is the added benefit of decluttering the house. Its much easier to organize when you own less things. I hate clutter and it is definitely an obstacle I have to overcome.

I could go on and on talking about what is over stocked in this house. It is pretty grim. But you get the point. Use what you got and you may find all sorts of savings waiting for you.

Cellphone update

Its been a few months and it is time to post an update about the cellphone plan change. I still miss my Verizon a lot, but definitely not the extra cost of using it. Every time I think about the cost of using it I become more content with the issues I have with Cricket. The phones are not as nice, and I really do miss my Droid. I just remind myself that I am saving $120.00 USD a month. I can live with any issues that arise as long as the phone makes calls. I do have some concerns/ dissapointments with using Cricket but nothing to make me ever go back to Verizon. My main concern with Cricket is that coverage drops out in our house in certain places. And its the oddest places to. I can be in the living room and kitchen, but if I enter the living room from the left side of the kitchen the call momentarily drops out. No such problem from a right side entry. If I lean over the sink the caller cannot hear me. If I go to my son's bedroom the caller cannot hear most of what I say. And don't even think about switching a load of laundry in the basement. You can go down and move all over that basement, but try to go back up the stairs and halfway up the call will drop. There are other weird happenings with the coverage, but these are the ones that happen the most. My sister and my friend both have used Cricket for several years and swear by it and have no such problems. They do live in the center of town whereas I live on the outskirts. I am pretty sure this has something to do with it. I do not pick up all the TV channels they do and I think its a location issue also. My sister and I have the same antenna and we are both using an HDTV. I must just be to far away to get good coverage. We also live near an airport. My husband swears I am crazy and this has nothing to do with it, but it seems to be certain times of the day that the phones and TV are not working well. I should keep a log and prove I am not crazy :)

All in all I am content with the change we made. Someday when debts are paid down I am going to be glad we will have extra money to put in the bank.

The Hiatus is ended

It has beena long time since I blogged and I am SO GLAD to be back at it. I took a short hiatus due to no longer having internet in the house. We got rid of the internet because it was an extra expense. We did a lot of our surfing on our phones and it just didn't make sense to spend the extra money. I really wanted to keep blogging, but it is near impossible to blog religiously on a phone even if you get the app for that. But things are about to change. I have to decided to take online classes and the internet will be coming back to this humble home very soon.

I have done a few frugal things since I last blogged. One thing I did was to tie rubberbands around all the soap dispenser's necks so everybody could only get so much soap per pump. I know that it might sound silly, but I am going to try every reasonable change I can to save a penny no matter how small. My husband has since converted us all to the foaming dispensers, he takes the refill for the regular soap and mixes it with water and its the perfect mix. We do not sacrifice cleaning ability and the refill lasts an even longer time now. I haven't put rubber bands around the necks of these dispensers because they just don't seem as wasteful. I even let my oldest pump it a couple times because she finds it to be fun. I won't be lecturing her about wastefullness when it is just foam. Not to mention that I no longer have to chase after her and her palms that are leaving sticky soap residue prints everywhere. The pre-foamed soap is definitely easier for a small child to rinse off. I am so glad to have figured out another way to save a penny that works for us.

Slashing the cost of talking

I've taken a very huge step to cutting the amount of money we need to spend every month. I switched from Verizon to Cricket. I had to break my contract to do so and pay the fees, but in the long run it will be much cheaper than it would have been to stay. I will miss my Droid and the faster internet but what I will miss most of all is my number. The number was my first cellphone number that I got nine years ago. It was like a rite of passage, and I felt like an adult! I went and got a Cellular One contract my second year of college and I payed only forty something a month. Then Alltel bought them out and I added my husband to it and the costs went up. Then Verizon bought out Alltel and it got more expensive. Then the smartphones! Geez talk about expensive! We still have smartphones. We just pay a lot less to use them. I wish we were ready to just give up the cellphones all together, but not quite that frugal yet. We have no contract with Cricket so who knows, maybe we will do it someday. I am not sure of the exact amount saved, but I know that it is over $120.00 USD. Thats a lot of money that can go towards something else or into savings! Feeling really good about this first step. It was really hard for us to do emotionally. I'm hope I can keep the momentum up.

The journey begins

Call it silly, but one day it struck me that we didn't have to spend all the money we do on "necessities" like cable, entertainment, or vacations. The average family spends a lot of money on these things. We really can't afford to do these things as long as I stay at home with the children. Leaving them to go to work is not an option for us right now for many reasons. There has got to be cheaper options that will leave my family just as satisfied. I am determined to stop our money from hemmorhaging out of our wallets at such a fast rate. My husband works hard and I think he deserves to see a bank account with some fat numbers in it. I have already started my journey to frugal, but I have only taken baby steps. I am about to get much more cutthroat. I think that if we are as frugal as we can be, my husband won't have to work so hard and we will be able to provide our children the life they deserve. Some may call me cheap, boring, or a homebody because of the changes I will make. I am going to just ignore them, because frankly they're not paying for my kids, my bills or paying down our debt. Boy is there a lot of debt. I am going to be as honest as I am comfortable with in this blog. Prepare to see some pictures of the clutter and things I have accrued because I "needed" them. Its ugly, or at least I think so. Money wasted on an item I "had" to have and now collects dust. So if I don't truly love it, need it, or use it; I'm tossing, donating or selling it.

Another reason I am going frugal is to simplify and declutter. It would be less stressful and freeing if we didn't own so much. We live in as small a space as comfortable to save money and all the things we have gained over the years have frankly become an eyesore and a hindrance. Letting go of things would make it easier to clean and find things, ultimately saving time. Time is something I could always use more of.

This blog is going to chronicle my struggles, roadblocks and successes on the journey to a simple, decluttered and of course frugal life.