HALLELUJAH!

Thursday, April 24, 2008

Frugality Pledge

Natalie McNeal of the Frugalista Files was on Talk of the Nation this afternoon, and I am inspired. I'm going to take a frugality pledge of my very own. Granted, I'm just going to pledge for the time between now and when I leave for Scotland to see how it goes. I'm not going to be quite as draconian as Natalie (I have to have my dry cleaning), but I'm going to try several of her ideas and see how much money I save.

Here's the plan:

1. No shopping. None. Zero, zip, nada, niente. No Ebay, no Etsy, no sales, no vintage, no nothing. This part should be easy, because I have everything a single woman could possibly want.

2. No buying new books. This means that I will have to renew my library card, so that I can still participate in my book groups.

3. No eating out. This means that I will have to cook more often and brown-bag it to work. I may have to make some exceptions when I'm on the road, but the one thing I can do is avoid fast food. It's expensive, it's bad for me, and I tend to use my own money to buy it when I'm travelling. If I stop and eat at a sit-down restaurant when I'm on the road, I use my company credit card.

4. No entertainments that cost money. No concerts, no movie theaters, no plays, no ballgames, no new DVDs, no new CDs. Of course, the library has DVDs...

5. No air conditioning until June. This may be tough, but I'm almost never at my house during the hours of the day when the house is the hottest, so I should be able to manage.

7 comments:

Miss Janey said...

WOW! Miss Janey is impressed. She's not even sure she could achieve ONE of these for a month. Hats off, honey.

PhantomMinuet said...

Thanks. Let's see how I do. :-)

Thoughts on Life and Millinery. said...

Say hi to your local Information Goddesses for me. Us librarian types rock.

Kanani said...

Okay, I admire this deeply.
(Though think haircuts should not be included in this!).

I too have so much stuff I could probably outfit and apartment with everything from crockery to furnishings. I also have so many books --and keep getting more advanced copies from people who want reviews. I'm at the point where I take bags of them to the library to donate.

Can't wait to hear how you do. I think it's a good idea, and frankly --I think the rush to acquire things constantly makes us all a bit meaner and desperate.

xxx
K

PhantomMinuet said...

I too have so much stuff I could probably outfit and apartment with everything from crockery to furnishings.

Me, too. In fact, along with my pledge of frugality, I'm also decluttering with the idea of having a garage sale in May.

Always In Style said...

I admire your strength and wish I had some of it!

I try to justify my spending by selling cast-offs on eBay but I really need to learn to say NO.

Good luck!

tangobaby said...

That is a very admirable goal! I hope you will be very successful.

And when you are in Scotland with all that extra spending money you've saved, you will be so proud of yourself.

(I am on a frugality pledge against my will...it's so darn expensive where I live.)

What Min Is Reading on a Rainy Day

  • Thrice the Brinded Cat Hath Mew'd, Alan Bradley
  • A Fatal Grace, Louise Penny

Min's Current Conditions

My photo
Nashville, TN, United States
If it was a perfect world, I'd be out of a job.