frugality - Surviving and Thriving

What’s your “a-ha!” moment?

October 5, 2015June 12, 2010 by Donna Freedman

Discovering that your paycheck won’t cover even minimum debt payments. Buying a house, or being unable to buy a house. Feeling suffocated by the (costly) clutter in your life. Wanting to stay home with the kids but fearing you can’t afford it.

All these defining moments turned spendthrifts into thrift-thrifts.

A couple of years ago I wrote a Smart Spending blog piece about what a reader called “a-ha!” moments. The reader, posting as “Bigdreams,” solicited such stories in a Smart Spending message board thread.

Some “moments” are epiphanies. Some are slowly dawning realizations. Readers variously described the experience as a slap in the face, a kick in the butt, a good hard look at oneself, a God-given wakeup call, the sudden glimpse of a bleak future.

However they arrive, a-ha! moments carry the same basic message: Something has to change.

I travel with mayonnaise.

December 23, 2020June 8, 2010 by Donna Freedman

Recently I flew to Anchorage, Alaska for a 10-week housesitting gig/visit. I generally go with just a carry-on bag, but my new neck-supporting pillow takes up a big chunk of that bag. I couldn’t stuff much Stuff into the small space where the pillow wasn’t.

A real frugalist just hates to pay checked-bag fees. Were this to have been a short trip I’d have simply used a rolled-up towel under my neck. But 10 weeks is a little long to subject my creaky neck to a tube o’terrycloth. Into the bag went the pillow and into another bag went a bunch of my stuff.

Plus some birthday presents, and some mayonnaise.

Frugal materialism.

January 15, 2016June 2, 2010 by Donna Freedman

One of my earliest articles for MSN Money was called “Living ‘poor’ and loving it.”* In the essay I noted that there’s real joy in knowing that you have everything you need and some of what you want.

But what if your goal is to have more than one of everything you need, and a whole bunch of what you want?

Why you need a nap.

July 12, 2015May 26, 2010 by Donna Freedman

When I was a child I loathed naps. There was just way too much to do to spend daytime hours lying on a bed. These days I crave naps because, well, there’s just way too much to do.

I wish I could distill the essence of sleep and sell it in pill form. I’d call the product a “napsule.”

When you buy cheap, you get…longevity?

May 18, 2010 by Donna Freedman

I am wearing flip-flops that I bought at Rite Aid when my daughter was two years old. Abby will be 32 in August.

Granted, these zoris didn’t get a whole lot of use during my 17 years in Alaska. But I’m still amazed how well they’ve held up. I’m also grateful: They kept my feet off the ground for three days straight when my broken toe convinced me not to put on a real shoe.

Abby has her own cheap-but-dependable anecdote, which she detailed in a blog post called “Unexpected quality.” Her favorite pair of shorts, which she’s been wearing for 11 years, cost $10. It amuses her how “some of the cheapest things turn out to be so ridiculously durable.”

Inattention can cost you. Ask me how I know.

October 22, 2015May 17, 2010 by Donna Freedman

On Friday morning I was rushing through my exercises, as usual, and thinking about five other things, as usual. Preparing for a hamstring stretch, I swung my left foot up toward the cedar chest. I missed, and the top of my foot hit the couch.

Side note: It’s not really a couch. It’s a loveseat/sleeper, a purply-pink fabric stretched over a frame made of steel, or possibly bricks. The corner, where the steel/bricks meet, was where my second toe connected.

Instantly I unleashed multi-syllabic swear words. The air turned blue overhead. I swear the loveseat blushed. After hobbling around the living room like a football player who’s just taken a crotch shot (Walk it off, Freedman, walk it off), I said out loud, “I have got to start paying attention to one thing at a time.”

Calypso bread.

October 22, 2015May 12, 2010 by Donna Freedman

Every so often I stop by the Jimmy John’s sandwich shop near my apartment. Not to buy a sandwich, though: To spend 50 cents on one of yesterday’s baguettes, which I call “calypso bread.”

That’s because it’s day-old.

Daaaaaay-old.

Daaaaaaa-aaaay old.

Any of you who aren’t laughing yet, follow this link. Go ahead. I’ll wait.

I have given birth to nerd-dom.

May 11, 2010 by Donna Freedman

Today is my daughter’s second wedding anniversary, and the blog post she wrote confirms what I already knew: She’s as big a geek as her mom, and she found herself a geek to marry, too.

Happy graduation! Here’s a toilet brush.

May 20, 2016May 6, 2010 by Donna Freedman

Know a college senior who’s moving into his own place post-diploma? Want to give a gift even though you’re on a budget? Forget the $20 bill or the iTunes card. Instead, buy some dishtowels, a laundry basket or a johnny mop.

Your preparing-to-launch student may have saved up the first and last month’s security on an apartment. But does he have a can opener?