Too Much Real Life, Not Enough Frugality

Sorry it has been so long since my last post. As you have probably guess, I go on jags with this blog and queue up a bunch of posts all at once. Good thing, too, as my life got insanely busy in mid-March, and really hasn't calmed down all that much. Aside from our regularly-scheduled insanity, I was spending a lot of time working with a coalition of high school sports parents from across the school district. Our district was threatening to cut several sports programs--including the most important sport in our household, swimming--to save money, and we were not about to let that happen. Thankfully, swimming, wrestling, gymnastics, and golf survived the budget cut process. Good thing. If swimming had been cut for my oldest son's senior season, it would have been a disaster.

We went on a 9-day vacation over Spring Break to see my family and to attend a college reunion, and I haven't yet recovered from that. Sometimes vacations are too much fun.

I feel like between the vacation (rental cars, accommodations, food, baggage check fees) and various and sundry expenses since that time (a new inducer motor for our furnace, for starters) that I'm not practicing my best frugality skills. But, I am recommitting right now and hope to get another queue of posts going.

Thanks for reading!

What's Your Vice?

My frugality vice is definitely Clorox Disinfecting Wipes. They aren't exactly a necessary purchase—or are they? Could I do the same thing with a washcloth and some spray cleaner, thus eliminating the need to throw out the used wipes? Sure, I could. But, I find that the benefits from this product—namely convenience, effectiveness, and germ-killing—are something I am willing to pay for. I like having them at my fingertips in the kitchen and bathrooms. They are quick to use. I'm more likely to grab a wipe and shine a grimy bathroom countertop on the fly than grab a clean rag and bottle of spray cleaner. I really like these wipes in the kitchen, where they are infinitely more sanitary for cleaning the counters, especially when cleaning up after preparing raw meats, etc.

The true, fanatical, frugalite would surely eschew these, as they tend to fly in the face of reducing spending and waste. However, I look at it as a trade-off (kind of like the Kyoto Protocol but not with the dire consequences to our atmosphere): I religiously cut coupons, look for sales, and recycle; I buy used whenever possible, and do my homework before making any purchase. To me, that gives me a little leeway to use a product that truly makes my life easier and more efficient, thus saving me time.

What's your favorite not-quite-frugal-but-definitely-worth-it thing?

Just Walk on By

Yesterday, I went to the mall for a haircut (the first in about 3 months). The salon was having a special for anyone who could prove their unemployment, offering 1/2 price haircuts. Woo hoo! I made sure to tip my stylist (who is amazing) based on what the full price of the haircut was, though.

After the cut, I was wandering the mall and looked in the window of Dress Barn, one of my favorite stores. There were so many cute tops in the window, I literally had to stop and tell myself not to go into the store, that I had more than enough summer tops in my closet, especially for just kicking around the house and the pool, like I will be doing this summer.

When I was working, even though I prided myself on always shopping the clearance rack or the sales, I never really hesitated if I saw something cute on sale. I would get it, and rationalize it by telling myself what a great deal I got and how well it would go with everything else in my wardrobe. But, the reality is, most of what I bought is now hanging in my closet, unworn.

The frugal moral of this story is to just walk on by when you are attracted by a store window display, unless you really have a legitimate need.

Reality Check: Cell Phones

Reality Check is a recurring feature here on RLF where I will look at one of the monthly spending categories I listed when figuring out our monthly expenditures, and break it down a little further, exploring options for cutting the expenditure down. Today's expenditures: cell phones.

We have been with our carrier, T-Mobile, on a family plan for years. I can't even tell you how long. My husband, my oldest son, and me are on the plan together (our middle-schooler doesn't get a cell phone until he reaches high school). It is such an old plan that it doesn't even have a fancy name. We share 400 minutes a month and my son has 400 text messages a month. Total bill with all the taxes is right around $81/month.

We use the cell phone for all our long distance, and even so, with three of us on the plan, we never come close to the 400 minutes. I guess we aren't chatty types. My husband uses his cell phone the very least (maybe if he could actually feel the phone when it is set to vibrate, he'd answer it more often...but that's beside the point); in fact, on the bill we received right after my layoff, he used three (3) minutes!

I researched a variety of plans from a variety of carriers online and talked with representatives from T-Mobile and TracFone (which I was considering getting for my less-than-talkative husband), and was unable to come up with a cheaper plan. This is primarily because no one offers a family plan with such a low number of minutes anymore. If we had moved my husband off of the family plan onto a prepaid plan, T-Mobile's plan ($10 for 30 minutes that expire after 90 days) was better than TracFone's, but it still would have saved us only $20 every 3 months. However, we won't do that now because my husband stepped up the pace, and used 27 minutes on our most recent billing cycle.

Sometimes it seems like a disadvantage, having already been trying to live reasonably frugally prior to the layoff, because there are fewer "luxuries" to trim. Really, the only way we could cut down our cell phone bill would be to get rid of cell phones altogether. I'm not ready to take that plunge just yet. With a teenager who will be driving this summer, and who is already supremely busy, having that easy way to be in contact is a mind-easer.

Reality Check: Allowances

Reality Check is a new feature here on RLF where I will look at one of the monthly spending categories I listed when figuring out our monthly expenditures, and break it down a little further, exploring options for cutting the expenditure down. Today's expenditures: allowances.

When I was working, we would take $180 in cash every payday (bimonthly) for family allowances and split it as follows:

• Christmas Envelope: $27 (saving toward Christmas expenses, which oftentimes gets raided for birthdays or other times when we need cash)
• Husband personal spending: $77 (he has a large DVD collection, which is where most of his $$ goes)
• My personal spending: $42 (half of which I put into a special "mental health fund" to pay for things like occasional massages, pedicures, etc.)
• Boys' allowances: 50 cents for each year of their age, plus an extra 50 cents (for example, my 12-year-old gets $6.50), then 10 cents for each mark on the chore chart
• Leftover: (usually less than $20) goes into a community cash wallet to spend on other incidentals requiring cash.

I have already cut my own personal spending allowance in half, and I am trying to get my husband to do the same, though I am facing a bit of opposition to that right now. I'm considering just taking $10/pay period for my own personal spending, but only if my hubby agrees to cut his back as well. Sorry, but I am not going to make all the sacrifices here!

I've debated about cutting the Christmas envelope contribution down, but one thing I am really hesitant to cut back is the boys' allowances. I think that would only serve to worry them unnecessarily.

Sound off on this topic if you have opinions--what do you think about the whole spending money issue? I'd love to hear from you.