What You Don't Buy

Today as I was driving my daughter to school, I watched a police officer pulling over a car for speeding, I assumed. It got me to thinking, the town where my daughter goes to school is a small town. It has one traffic light. It is a four lane highway with a turning lane in the middle. When the state built the road a few years ago, the city wanted the speed limit to be 30 MPH, but the state of Tennessee said no, it had to be 40 MPH. 

Well, as you can imagine, the police regularly patrol this road. Even after you leave the city limits on both sides, you have to go about one mile before the speed limit goes back to 55 MPH and many people push it and go 55 before they are legally allowed to, which is what, I assume, happened to the driver today. I try my best to stay right under 40 because I don't want a $100 speeding ticket. Sometimes I get to thinking about other things and catch myself over that speed limit, but I try to be careful and I am for the majority. 

This thought process led me to thinking about other things I don't want to spend money on, so I made a list of items I don't spend money for and they include things like...

Coffee, beer, wine, soda pop. I drink a pop once in a blue moon, although I do buy them every now and then for my daughter and I do keep Sprite on hand for sick tummies. While these drinks are good for other people, I don't drink them because I don't like them, which, lucky for me, just happens to save me money. I mostly drink water, and occasionally tea. 

I don't keep up "appearances" or keep up with the Joneses. There is no way for me, a single mother on a limited income, to keep up with some of the other people in my life. And you know what? It does not bother me. I'm happy for people who have realized the American Dream. My sister is one of them and I'm very happy for her and her family. That just wasn't in the cards for me, and I'm OK with that. I am happy on a daily basis and I love what I do for a living. Yes, sometimes life if hard, but I still find blessings everyday that I am grateful for. 

We don't take yearly vacations. One of the reasons is because I do not like traveling far from home without another adult with me, so that is more of a personal reason for not going than financial, although it does save us money. 

I don't spend money on a gym membership. We have plenty of ways to get exercise at home without spending money for a gym membership. We live on 40 acres here and we can find a lot of things to do that will help us in that area without spending any money. 

I could list other thing, but I'm curious, what are some things you don't want to spend any money for?

Belinda
CFO ~ Chief Frugal Officer
Professor Penny Pincher 
© Belinda & Frugal Workshop, 2011 and beyond.
“Use it up, wear it out, make it do, do without”
"Reduce, Reuse, and Recycle ~ It will help you save money"

Ebay, Etsy, Amazon Sales & Are You Throwing Away Money?

My sales on Ebay are still helping me to earn some extra income and now I've opened an Etsy shop for any vintage items I have and I have started selling books on Amazon. 

I'm not sure how well Etsy will do, since they are vintage items and therefore priced higher than Ebay items, but I have already made my first sale there and Etsy charges less fees than Ebay, so it may be worth it in the end. 

Time will tell, but having the extra income from Ebay has helped me a great deal the last six months, so I have plans to continue. In fact, my daughter has been selling things on Ebay as well and she is thrilled to be making some extra spending money. 

Here is a picture of my egg cartons that I save. Did you know that there are things you are probably throwing away that you could sell on Ebay? Things like egg cartons, toilet paper tubes, paper towel tubes, and even empty inkjet cartridges? Just look at Ebay for these things and you will see for yourself. I've always saved my egg cartons and inkjet cartridges, but now I'm saving toilet paper and paper towel tubes as well. 

Belinda
Simply live by the rule of not spending money you don't have. 
© Belinda & Frugal Workshop, 2011 - 2015.

Tip of the Day

Tip of the Day:

The following tip comes from Chef AJ. She saves her spice bottles when they are empty and reuses them. 

She says that research shows that most people don't eat 30 distinct and different meals each month, but rather repeat their favorite meals every week. 

Chef AJ says her Red Lentil Chili is no exception. Instead of measuring out all 7 of the spices everytime she goes to make it, she uses several empty spice bottles and makes them all at the same time. Then all she has to do is grab one and put them in her pressure cooker with the rest of the ingredients. 

I have always done this with taco seasoning mix that I make up, although I just place them into small bowls. I make about 10 at a time and it is a big time saver, but now I'm going to start saving my spice bottles for this purpose.  :)

Belinda
Simply live by the rule of not spending money you don't have.
© Belinda & Frugal Workshop, 2011 - 2015.

Rambling

Good morning to all my frugal readers. :)

Today is Wednesday and I have the day off, which is nice because I have several things, paperwise, that I need to work on today. I worked yesterday and I'm working the next two days, so today will give me a bit of a mental break and I can get some other things done. 

Today was bill paying day for me. I have expenses during the month of January that I don't normally have every month, which falls under the periodic expenses section of my budget. Auto Insurance, license plate renewal, Insurance membership yearly renewal, are all things I paid today. There was a statewide auto Insurance increase, which raised the cost of my insurance about $20 or $6.00 per month. seems like everything but gas is going up in price right now, but I'm still happy over the price of gas, which is $1.65 here right now. 

Grocery Store Run

Since I was off this morning, I stopped off at Fresh & Low to pick up some things. I'm glad I did as I went in there to buy some flour tortillas to make my daughter some pinwheels. I found a great deal. They had the Chi-Chi's flour tortillas priced at $1.60, but they had coupons on them for $1.00 off a package. How great is that? I love it when products have peelies on them. I paid 60¢ for each package and bought 9 of them. I also picked up corn chips, chili beans, black olives, pepperoni, batteries, potato chips, and feminine products and ended up spending $36.75. 

WFD Tonight

Tonight for dinner I am going to make pizzas. I have several cans of Pillsbury crescent rolls on hand that I bought for 25¢ on close out, because they are close to the expiration date, and I am going to use those for the crust. I already have spaghetti sauce on hand and I bought pepperoni and black olives this morning to top them with. 

I'll leave you with this thought this afternoon...


Simply live by the rule of not spending money you don't have. 


Belinda
CFO ~ Chief Frugal Officer
Professor Penny Pincher 
© Belinda & Frugal Workshop, 2011 and beyond.
“Use it up, wear it out, make it do, do without”
"Reduce, Reuse, and Recycle ~ It will help you save money"

Cuisipro Foam Pump

Pictured above is a Cuisipro Foam Pump that we received as a Christmas present last month. I've used foam soap pumps before and even have a Bath & Body Works one at the kitchen sink, which I am reusing. I have this soap pump by the bathroom sink and I really like it. 

First off, it has a suction cup at the bottom of it, so it stays in place instead of careening off the edge of the sink when it's almost empty. (I've had to rescue more than one bottle of soap for that reason). Also, the bottle comes off the suction cup in order for you to refill it. 

All I have to do is add about 1/4's worth of liquid soap into the container and fill the rest with water. I've been using the same container of body wash since Christmas to refill this foam pump and and still have over 2/3s of the body wash in the bottle left to be used.  A record for us here. 

Also, according to the manufacturer, this pump is made of a durable plastic that will not break, crack or peel. Time will tell on that one as I've had more than one pump go bad on me. I save the good ones and reuse them when one breaks on me. A saved pump has come in handy more than once here. 

I think what I love best about this is according to the website, it will reduce my soap usage up to 75%, which is a lot! We wash our hands multiple times per day here, so if this is going to save me money in the long run, I am all for that.  :)

Belinda
CFO ~ Chief Frugal Officer
Professor Penny Pincher
© Belinda & Frugal Workshop, 2011 and beyond.
“Use it up, wear it out, make it do, do without”
"Reduce, Reuse, and Recycle ~ It will help you save money"