Welcome to Centsable Savings Stories and Struggles!
I am lining up frugal shoppers to share their stories for the next month, and I need your help. If you’ve ever thought about sharing your story, now is a great time to do it! Email me at centsable.katherine[at]gmail.com if you are interested in participating. More details are at the end of this post.
This week we are featuring Charlene from My Frugal Adventures. Charlene does a great job of making the distinction between frugal and cheap. I’m sure you’ll enjoy reading her story. Thank you for sharing, Charlene!
I hate being called cheap.I hate it because people don’t understand that adopting a frugal lifestyle has actually allowed us to live in abundance and to regularly donate to charity.Our family has also learned how to prioritize, become more disciplined and (hopefully) set a great example for our children.
I have always been mindful of my spending.I was never a person to spend hundreds on shoes or handbags even though my husband and I had a comfortable income.My downfall was the smaller purchases–$30 at Target, $25 at Ann Taylor, $5 at Starbucks etc…So in a way, I would nickel and dime our paychecks away.
One day I discovered Dave Ramsey and our lifestyle has changed for the better.When we found Dave, we made a commitment to become debt free, but we weren’t really dedicated.Since we had a good income we were able to plow through car loans and credit card debt quickly.We then created a comfortable emergency fund of 6 months of expenses.We decided not to bother paying off my student loans since they were “only at 3% interest,” and we went back to our prior spending habits.
Within the last two years we have had a baby, are expecting our second baby, sold our house in Washington and relocated to California.We spent every penny we had on a down payment for a gorgeous house in an idyllic community.Finding jobs was a little harder than we anticipated and my husband finally got in with a great company getting paid significantly less.His schedule is incredibly flexible and we are fortunate to have a lot of quality time as a family.He also traded in his two hour daily commute for a six minute commute!It took me five months to get a job at less than half what I made before.I was working part time, and after six months of employment the company went out of business.Did I mention I was 7 months pregnant? Oh, and it took 10 weeks to actually receive unemployment.
These setbacks would have put many people into serious credit card debt and possibly foreclosure.But not us, due in large part to my discovering couponing when we moved to California.I started finding blogs that would lay out all the deals.It was hard to believe how much free stuff was out there!Now that I have become fairly good at couponing, I still occasionally get the feeling that someone is going to chase me out of the store and demand payment.It amazes me to think of how mindlessly people spend money, and I remember back to when I was one of those people.
I have taken control of our spending and reduced our grocery bill alone from $120/week to $30/week.It is a wonderful feeling to be a SAHM on a small budget and know I am doing my part to effectively manage my resources.I also started blogging to help other families learn how to stretch their dollars and live on a budget.I consider couponing my hobby, and it has proven to be extremely lucrative.I also think positively every week– how can I create nutritious meals for our family on $30?I get a little thrill when I come home with hundreds of dollars of merchandise for pennies on the dollar.Rather than being depressed by budgeting, I keep imagining the day that we achieve our goal of being debt free.And as silly as it may sound every coupon I clip is that much closer to achieving our goals.
Amazingly enough, our income has been cut by a third, and yet we are saving more than we ever have before.We are 100% committed to rebuilding our 6 month emergency fund (which is a challenge since we live in such a high cost of living area) and getting rid of the student loans once and for all.We can’t wait for the day that we can start sending in extra payments on our house and are so hopeful that we will be totally debt free at 45.
So back to why I hate being called cheap.We are not a stingy family.By using coupons, sales and promotions we are able to virtually triple our dollars at the store.I have a large stockpile of items I regularly go through and am able to donate large amounts of much needed items to charity.I can also entertain and give generous gifts to people by creative shopping and using all the resources out there to our family’s advantage.
Each week we feature a different shopper’s story. Centsable Savings Stories are the stories of people just like you who are working toward reducing their budgets, bargain hunting, living a more frugal lifestyle and constantly learning along the way. If you are interested in sharing your family’s successes and struggles, please contact Katherine at centsable.katherine[at]gmail.com. Blogger and non-bloggers are both welcome to participate. Click here to read the stories of shoppers featured in the past.
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