Savin' Up

Hey all! It's good to have you reading, again. Six out of the last eight days I suffered from migraines, so I spent little time on the computer. Which was really hard. But I mostly sat in the dark with a caffeinated beverage, or water and  ibuprofen, trying to cure the pain. My fabulous husband gave me a massage almost every day (incentive to fake the occasional headache? Eh... no, I can't do that). But now I am migraine-free and so happy.

So, due to lack of work the week leading to Christmas break, for several reasons, I had a pretty pitiful first paycheck of the year. My husband and I try to live a frugal life, but this past month we've had to step back and take an even closer look at what we really need, and what we can live without. So, for you, I will set my pride aside and share some of the ways we have decided to cut back and save money.

1) When we first moved, we decided not to buy snackie foods for the most part. No fruit snacks, pop tarts, chips, etc. We would get cheese, crackers, and we bought ice cream by the gallon, along with a few toppings to choose from, because ice cream lasts a long time when it's shared between two people who only indulge on occasion. We slacked up on this rule around Thanksgiving, but we have implemented it once again. When we do have snacks, they're usually homemade, and dessert is a luxury here. We don't eat it every night, and feel so much healthier that way.

2) Laundry here is $1.25 per load for washing, and then for drying as well. That's $2.50 per load, which really didn't seem like a big deal when we first moved in. But after a week and a half, the hamper starts looking pretty full, and it's time to do laundry again. For us, that's usually two or three loads of clothes alone. Then there's sheets, towels, etc (about once a month or so). So we made a cut in our budget here, too. Don't worry, we didn't cut laundry out of our budget completely! Just drying our clothes in the dryer. Last weekend we tried out bringing our clothes back up to our room to air dry them, and it worked out fine. They're not quite as soft, but beating them out a little while they're in the process of drying takes care of that for the most part. We're going to head out to Target and pick up a drying rack for about $20 soon. This way, we'll be doing four loads of laundry for the cost of two if we were to dry them. That money adds up.

3) I noticed that I'm running out of household cleaners, especially my bathroom/kitchen surface cleaners. It makes sense, because those are the rooms I clean the most, since they're the rooms where the most germs happen. As I was ravaging my cleaning solutions cabinet to see what endless list of things I need to buy on our next shopping trip, I noticed that I had a huge bottle of Pine-sol tucked away in there. I normally just use it to clean the floors, I mean, that's all it's normally credited for, right? Turns out, that stuff can be used for just about anything. Bathtub, sinks, floors, counter tops, toilet. This stuff does it all. It's also much cheaper than most other cleaners, and is super concentrated so you add it water. Using Pine-sol (or an even less expensive generic) will really be giving us more bang for our buck.

4) One more thing that we do, which we have been doing since we moved in, is try to save money by using as little electricity as possible. We have all of our computer hookups, internet, etc, and our television and everything that goes with that, plugged into power-strips.  We don't turn them on until we need them, so normally at the end of the day after we get home from school/work, and we turn them all off every night. We also unplug all chargers, and kitchen and hair appliances when they're not in use. If you don't already do this, it can be hard to get used to, but once you start consciously doing it, it slowly becomes a habit, and it saves money as well as helps the environment.

So, to you who are poor like my husband and myself, there are some ideas for you to implement into your own lifestyle. I hope this was helpful. It doesn't feel good to watch the bank account dwindle and hope and pray to make it to the next paycheck, but it does feel good to be doing things to help save money.