In Pursuit of Frugality

In recent weeks I have been reading a book on being frugal. Frugality is not new to me. It's just something that I felt needed a bit of a kick into higher gear.

I've now finished the book and will do a review of it when I post what I've read this month, but for now, let me say that I was disappointed. Not in the book I should hasten to add, as I feel that the author did an admirable job with the topic, but disappointed all the same.

First, I'm already doing 99% proposed and have most of my adult life. You knew there were some tricks to being a stay-at-home homeschooling mother/pastor's wife, right? So my disappointment wasn't in the book per se but in the fact that I didn't find a whole lot of new material. A few, yes, but not much to merit the cost of the book. Oh, wait. Ha! Ha! I didn't buy the book. I obtained a copy from the library. The only books on saving money that I ever bought were the "Tightwad Gazette" books. (You might have noticed them on my cookbook shelf a few weeks ago.) Those books have been worth every dollar I spent on them even if I haven't been able to bring myself to drink reconstituted powder milk. But I digress.

My second disappointment is that I didn't write this book. Obviously someone had the idea to do so and has made quite a bit of money doing it. In fact, the author was featured in her local paper because she decorated for the holidays with things that cost her nothing. Zilch. Nada. Here I am reading the book post-holiday and you know what kind of holiday decorations were gracing my tables and mantle? Yeah, you guessed it. The same things decorating her house. I let Pastor Dad read the page as my witness. So my second disapointment stemmed from the fact that I wish I'd had the forethought to write this book first.

I am now composing a list of frugal ideas of my own that I will share soon in a future post. And I know some of you want me to continue my homeschooling series. I'm compiling my list of scriptures that the Lord used to show me that homeschooling was His plan for our family. That will be coming soon, too. I promise. Tonight The Bear plays his last basketball game of the season and I should have more time to get these things written.

More importantly, just think of how much money we'll be saving on gasoline when not required to make a 60 mile round trip at least 4 days a week for basketball practice and games! Now that's the best money-saving idea I've encountered all month!