Incospicuous, Pioneering Money Saving Solutions Part 2

Understanding of Frugality

This is typically not an easy concept to grasp, especially if you have no experience in budgeting, living beneath your means, and/ or you just may not be interested in it.

I really want to encourage all of my readers (and anyone you may share this with!) to stretch yourselves and try to understand the operational definition of the word, "Frugality." It's not to be confused with the word, "Cheap."

The Wikipedia definition of frugality is as follows:
"Frugality is the quality of being frugal, sparing, thrifty, prudent or economical in the use of consumable resources such as food, time or money, and avoiding waste, lavishness or extravagance.
In behavioral science, frugality has been defined as the tendency to acquire goods and services in a restrained manner, and resourceful use of already owned economic goods and services, to achieve a longer term goal." 

This is vastly different than the definition of "cheap," (choose your own; none of them are pleasing), and cheap is a close relative to "Miser." Trust me; this association does nothing good for anyone! The reference in the Wikipedia definition of miser includes a reference to a Scrooge! If you've ever read Charles Dickens'
"A Christmas Carol," you know that a "cheap" person isn't respected or honored in society - as portrayed in the movie, of course.



(For further study on this, check out Proverbs 31:10-31.) 

When I was working at my old company several years ago, a man I used to work with was sharing an anecdote in which he declared, "I am not cheap; I'm value-oriented!" I laughed, but really - that's true. He is not cheap. He is a generous person who is always on the lookout for a great deal. Truthfully, that's the day I started to pray about how I might better use my time and budget/ resources!!


On to the good stuff....

Some of you may remember my post last year  in April that featured my Homemade Laundry Soap recipe. This is going to be my first tip for this post! :)

3) Make your own laundry soap. I really love making my own laundry soap! I saw the tip years ago on 19 Kids & Counting, and thought, "That might be a good way to save money....but I doubt it works." I waited quite awhile before I decided to try it. Despite many nay-sayers' opinions, after I made it and we tried it out for ourselves, I have to say that this is an awesome recipe, and it really does work. I have come to the conclusion that if you make it and you don't think it works, you might have done something wrong along the way. (As I have previously!) There are many recipes out there, but we use this one: 

4  Cups - hot tap water
1  Fels-Naptha soap bar
1 Cup - Arm & Hammer Super Washing Soda*
½ Cup Borax

- Grate bar of soap and add to saucepan with water. Stir continually over medium-low heat until soap dissolves and is melted.

-Fill a 5 gallon bucket half full of hot tap water. Add melted soap, washing soda and Borax. Stir well until all powder is dissolved. Fill bucket to top with more hot water. Stir, cover and let sit overnight to thicken.

-Stir and fill a used, clean, laundry soap dispenser half full with soap and then fill rest of way with water. Shake before each use. (will gel)

-Optional: You can add 10-15 drops of essential oil per 2 gallons. Add once soap has cooled. Ideas: lavender, rosemary, tea tree oil.

-Yield: Liquid soap recipe makes 10 gallons.

-Top Load Machine- 5/8 Cup per load (Approx. 180 loads)

-Front Load Machines- ¼ Cup per load (Approx. 640 loads)

*Arm & Hammer "Super Washing Soda - Baking Soda will not work, nor will Arm & Hammer Detergent - It must be sodium carbonate!!

We still use buy our fabric softener, but because the homemade laundry soap isn't nearly as sudsy, we use far less than we did previously. Thus, we saved a lot of money on it, and stretched our dollars much further than we would have using highly-concentrated laundry soap! See details about this in my post from last month. 

Today, we went to Winco, and I found all the items needed to make the laundry soap there. The price breakdown is as follows:

20 Mule Team Borax (4lb. 12oz. box) $3.38
Arm & Hammer Super Washing Soda (3lb. 7oz. box) $3.17
Fels-Naptha Bar Soap $0.97 each

This breaks down to approximately the following cost per batch: (remember that each bar of soap yields one whole batch, each box of Borax yields 19 whole batches, and each box of Super Washing Soda yields 6 whole batches).
Borax: $0.18
Super Washing soda: $0.46
Fels-Naptha Soap: $0.97                              Total cost = $1.61 per batch!!!

This next tip is related to convenience and money leaving your wallet before you even realize it. Brace yourselves...  

4) When banking, only use the institution's ATM/ Debit card machines. Quite frankly, I know many people who just run to the nearest ATM when they need cash. This can get very expensive, and the fees range anywhere from $0.50-$5.00 per transaction! Stop and think about it before you make that decision: Can you really afford to do that even once a month? If you only get cash out of a random ATM once a month, but the fee is $2.00, that's still $24.00 per year! For many of us, that's at least a half of a tank of gas now. If you do it every week, it's $96.00 per year. That's money that you are literally giving away to banking institutions for convenience. You wouldn't want them charging you fees on your checking/ savings accounts, so why give them money to pocket in another realm? Plan your trips accordingly, and stop to get cash from your banking institutions' ATMs only.

A little anecdote on being open-minded about saving money. 

I could never do any of this without my sweet husband! He's so supportive of me, and always respects my jurisdictions as my own. I try to do the same for him! Today, when we were at Winco, though, he made the comment, "Sweetheart, I am making an executive decision. From now on, when we purchase cheese, it will be from Winco." I smiled and whole-heartedly agreed! Generally, we do not shop at Winco, because I struggle with big crowds (slightly claustrophobic), and we don't generally have time to do that kind of shopping when it's the least crowded in there. However, because my husband requested it - and because he had our best interests at heart - being frugal and responsible, good stewards of our resources - I will make the effort to get up early on my days off, or stay up late one night every other week to go at a quiet time. :)

The moral of this little story is to be open. God will provide the resources, if we are good stewards - that has always been my motto! I do not have all the answers, and neither does my wonderful husband. But if we pray for and with each other, help each other, and strive for common goals, we can accomplish anything with the Lord!!

Incospicuous, Pioneering Money Saving Solutions Part 1

As a married woman, I am convicted with my responsibilities as a wife and homemaker.

Don't get me wrong; I do have a job outside of the home, too, and I absolutely love it. But even though it's a fantastic job working with people I love in an environment that I thrive in, it doesn't hold a candle to my calling to my husband and my home.

One of the many responsibilities I have at home is to save money and conserve. A few of my friends and family members have asked me over the years how I save money, and whether I have specific tips or tricks that I employ to help me utilize our budget to the best of my ability. So, I decided to do a few posts in a series about it. :)

Here, in the first post, I'll identify a couple of key "ingredients" to my success in managing our budget. Please know that by success, I am using the yardstick that Robert and I have decided upon based on our individual situation.

I'm going to also identify a few necessary points that I use (that may be redundant, if you have read some of my previous posts - so sorry!), to keeping my budget under control. 

1) Remember that having a budget means that your money is working for you - not the other way around. While it is our responsibility to earn money, there is no reason we should have to work to keep it working for us the way it ought to. What I mean by this is simple: The money that we earn is God's provision for us. Thus, it is His before it is ours. We are called to honor Him with what He provides (Pr. 3:9-10), and to be good stewards of our blessings (1 Cor. 4:2, Luke 16:10). This is something that everyone has to pray about and decide for themselves within their homes and with their spouses. I am personally convicted that the best way to honor the Lord with what He's blessed Robert and I with means to stretch our dollar as much as possible, and be conservative.

2) Having a budget is worthless unless we know what it is, what it means, and how to use it. For us, that means that I am responsible for the planning and execution of our budget. But there is a step in between those two that Robert and I do together - that is implementation. We are both convicted to be in open communication about our finances, and this step means that we talk about what's going on with our budget. Robert may not sit down and "pay bills," as some refer to it. Instead, he has entrusted me with that part of our budget. But he knows what's going on with it, and gets a "bottom line" every week or month, or whenever he wants it. :)

I'm hoping the aforementioned information about how I do things in my home will help form the foundation for this series. :)

Now onto the good stuff!

Some Inconspicuous, Pioneering Money Saving Solutions:

1) Examine your insurance policy. I'm referring to automobile/ homeowner's/ renter's insurance. Do you know what you are paying for? Most people really don't! As for myself, I actually did something that is completely against my convictions about dealing with services I pay for: I put 100% of my trust in our insurance company, and truly believed that they would catch any extra expenditures coming out of our pockets and tell me about it. Ha! How naive! I finally decided to call them about this time last year when Robert turned 25, knowing that we were entitled to a rather significant discount for his age and experience. The woman I spoke to told me that was unfortunately not true. I was shocked. I was certain we had it all lined up! Disappointed, I hung up and didn't give it a second thought. A couple of weeks ago, I called again to have them go over our policy with a fine-toothed comb. The gentleman I spoke to ran what is called a comparative analysis. After 10 minutes of many questions and confirmations, I learned that we no longer needed to pay for "gap" coverage on my vehicle! That was such a relief. The sad part about that remains that I should have called and asked for that review about 6 months ago. But I'm thankful for the opportunity to save a little extra money monthly and semi-annually upon our policy renewals, as I know that it's in our best interests.

2) Check out your subscriptions. When we get our renewal notice in the mail for our local newspaper, I always call the customer service department about it. The big payoff for us was about 2 months ago. I got a "DailyDeal" update through the newspaper which I signed up for as a "loyal" customer at the State Fair last year. These deals were supposed to reward customers who had been subscribers for their loyalty. The offer was for 20 weeks of services for $14.95 (regardless of what day or days you subscribe. We only subscribe to the Sunday edition of the paper.) I paid for it, and when I called to redeem it, I was told that I was unable to use it because it's only for "new" customers. I was transferred to the marketing department, and calmly explained the situation to their marketing agent. She apologized, explained that she understood my concerns that a service for loyal customers was unable to serve them, and transferred me to the cancellation department. Because we had dealt with about 8 out of 12 weeks of late or no delivery at the beginning of this year, I made sure that I brought that to the attention of the representative I was speaking to. She was able to pull up the notes on our account and see that we, in fact, had called for several weeks regarding our issues with the delivery service. She was able to give me a big discount for our renewal, refund my money I paid for the "DailyDeal," and now we have service through January 2013 for less than what I originally paid for 3 months of service! That's equivalent to about 5 months for free! Also, we only subscribe to magazines when we get at least 50% off the cover price. In fact, I recently subscribed to Country Living magazine for 3 years - and only paid $14.99. That is such a treat for me, and pleasant for Robert, knowing that I got such a great deal on something that I will enjoy!

The bottom line notes of these tips are as follows:

• Always speak kindly and graciously with customer service representatives. Give grace and be humble and honest. You are way more likely to share your concerns and have them heard from an understanding ear, and the representatives are more likely to be willing to work with you to find a common ground, discount, refund, etc. to correct a mistake or continue your loyalty to them.
• Ask if you don't know. Take control of your finances, because ultimately, you are responsible for those blessings which the Lord bestows on you!
• Good deals are good, great deals are better! Make sure you really seek out and do the research before you spend money on something, whether it's groceries, insurance, or magazine/ newspaper subscriptions.