Featured in the Carnival of Personal Finance #234 – Weirdest Toy Crazes Edition – at the Surburban Dollar
Last Sunday, my husband and I were watching Home by Christmas on the Lifetime Channel. *Correction: Sorry, previously I said Home for the Holidays.
The movie is about a housewife whose husband has an affair with a 27 year old and wants a divorce. The wife just wants to get the relationship over with, gives the house to the husband, and moves to a one bedroom apartment. Unfortunately, she gets mugged and ends up in the hospital. During this time, the thieves clear out her bank account of $15,000, she is evicted from her apartment and is forced to live in her car.
She hits rock bottom.
Fortunately, she makes great friends with another lady in the same situation. What I admired about this movie is that even what seemed like nothing, they made do.
- For exercise they stairmastered a building’s 18 flights of stairs
- They ate food from shopping store samples and open house buffets
- They got their hair done at a salon where stylist trainees volunteered their time
- They still dressed to the nines buy shopping wisely at the thrift store
- Intellectual stimulus was kept in tact by reading at the library
- They volunteered their time at the church to help other people
It made me think… If these women can make do with the resources they are limited to, could I “go for broke” to help my get-out-of-debt journey?
Sure, I’ve written a post on frugal living, but can I hold my self accountable for frugal living? What are some of things I could be doing right now to increase my frugal living? What are some of the things I do practice in my quest for a frugal life?
Frugally Saavy Guidelines
Want to buy a book or a DVD? Stop! Frugally Saavy would be heading to your library and checking it out. Need to put into practice again. But I do rent from REDBOX. Oh ya, get free REDBOX rental codes at InsideRedbox.com. Now there is really no excuse for me not getting my DVD rentals for free.
Want to go clothes shopping to fix that need for instant gratification? Frugally Saavy would be to head to the second hand store with time to shop and score some great deals. With $20 in my hand I can score some great finds! Need to put into practice again. Especially now that I dumped out over 1/2 my closet. I didn’t tell you – my husband didn’t say anything to me, but he did notice I ‘dumped’ my closet because he followed suit and donated a large bag of his clothes to charity! Way to go hubby!
The other thing you might do – buy a few quality pieces of clothing and maintain them. What are your thoughts on this?
Wanting to munch on convenient snack foods? Frugally Saavy would be to buy produce and prepare it yourself. When you get home from the grocery store, cut up veggies and sort fruits into individual packs; they are ready on hand when you want to munch. Need something salty or crunchy? Buy pretzels, raisins, nuts and chocolate chips in bulk and make your own trail mix. Need to put into practice again! Silly me for not doing it because I LOVE fresh veggies and healthy snacks.
Need a coffee fix at your local Starbuck’s? Frugally Saavy would buy a regular coffee to satisfy your fix. The Sumatra blend is a great coffee! BUZZ! I’ve been sucking up the mochas with whipped cream. Fell off the frugal bandwagon on this one!
Need to exercise? Frugally Saavy would use the great outdoors! The stairs or even the curb provide enough for stair stepping. Get out and walk or run. These days many parks are equiped with an exercise track. YUP! My husband and I have frequently been exploring new trails these days. It’s so refreshing!
Want to save at the grocery store? Frugally Saavy would plan my menu & grocery shopping around ads. Go for the generic brand items. Ding! Ding! Ding! I am good at this one. Buy generic when feasible and shop according to what’s on the ads. I love it when I have coupons that help save even more on my bill.
Need to save on the utility bills? Frugally Saavy would bundle up, dress down, flick off switches, and unplug those boxes. Learn to wear sweaters and socks when its cold. Dress down when it’s hot. Keep the lights off when not needed. My husband is very good at this concept and keeps me in check. And when the summers give off the heat I head for the beach. I’m also a stickler for the electricity being off. Just ask my kids – I’m barking at them all the time to flick off the TV, the lights, etc…
Want to really be frugal? Frugally Saavy could stay home and off the computer! Find things to do that keep you busy at home; clean out the photos, tend the garden, clean out the cupboards, rearrange a room. If you stay at home and off the computer then you know you’re not spending money. Yes! For the most part we have been staying home or we go hiking. When we go to the store it’s because it’s on our budget and we go for exactly what we came to get.
Conclusion
It looks like there are some areas may benefit from “going broke”. Living a frugal life requires one to be conscious of thier choices. I am not living frugal because I have to but because I want to become debt free (heck ya!).
So, starting today I am “going for broke” and will be keeping track in making conscious decisions to live frugal. Hey, even if I gain an extra $18 back in my wallet… that’s $18 closer to becoming debt-free. Have you put your frugality into ‘re’check?
Conclusion to the Movie
The two woman collaborated together and start their own realty business using resources in community; they also realize eachother’s strengths and weaknesses – one sells the homes and the other manages the home loans. The women found a niche that helped other realty companies. That niche allowed them to piggyback their resources from the other realty companies in a win-win situation.
OMG. I didn’t realize the storyline for Home for the Holidays. Sounds really interesting. I’ll need to see when it will be on again. And I love your ideas for frugal living. One thing you can’t be when you’re frugal is lazy. Must… fight… laziness!
Sorry, I just found out it is Home by Christmas. It is a good movie. I love all those holiday movies on Lifetime and Hallmark. You’re right, you need to TAKE AWAY THE CONVENIENCE to be frugal. It is tough! Especially in an ever so convenient society!
Thanks for the RedBox link to free codes, we have one right around the corner from us! Also, I too am having trouble breaking free of my Starbucks addiction, so I sympathize with you. I’m trying to switch to their via 4 days a week, but am only doing it about 2. Those dollars add up!
As for the movie you reviewed, I think that most people who end up as ‘Urban Nomads’ (there is a company with this name creating mobile sleeping containers and I love this term) who are sane and intelligent, quickly get their act together and don’t live this way for long.
thanks for the post!
You’re welcome. I told my husband about the site, too. And that I have no excuse not to get free movie rentals. You can reserve the movie you want online, too. That way you know it’ll be at your Redbox (what a clever kiosk).
Starbuck’s totally adds up! I have to sneak to Starbucks w/out my kids or I’d be paying for them, too (terrible isn’t it? lol). That’s a college education payment right there! 😉
Sleeping containers? Going to check that one out! Thanks for stopping by!
Loved this post! Lots to think about, lots to consider. And some of it cracked me up! This is just what I needed this afternoon!!!
I am glad. Lately, I’ve been thinking about the little things I do or could do to remain frugal – like saying no to buying hot chocolate so that I can come home and fix some while sitting by a nice fire. Or the hard stuff, like walking in the store and moping out because I am only buying one thing (there is really cute stuff during the holidays). But it will all be worthwhile in the end. I know it will!
I am glad I could give you some cheer! I hope everything is well.
Christine
Great post! It’s a good movie and amazing to think about actually living like this. We could make due with so much less. Actually less is more sometimes. Our goal is to cut out unnecessary expenses so we picked up a pretty good financial planning book by Anthony Manganiello called “The Debt-Free Millionaire”. It helped us really examine where we are and define what we need to do to reach our financial goals. Time to start REALLY tracking expenditures and using your suggestions above!
I am glad you found a planning book that works for you. It took me a good 3 months to get a really good budget and plan to help in our debt free journey. So keep at it and remember its a journey – so it’s not always uphill. Just remember to breath, move steady, and keep at it. The challenges are there to make you stronger.
I used Mary Hunt’s Debt Proof Living, then I found Motley Fool’s Bad Debt to Income Ratio and combined it with Dave Ramsey’s Total Money Makeover. The last two are very big influences in my journey.
Living frugal is taking the convenience out matters – plan, plan, plan. 🙂
Thank you for stopping by!
interesting movie. i might check it out. normally i run from lifetime movies but this one sounds like a winner.
as for frugally savvy tips, i couldn’t agree more with your tip on clothes: “The other thing you might do – buy a few quality pieces of clothing and maintain them. What are your thoughts on this?” of course this is assuming that they aren’t stolen from dry cleaners! sorry, i didn’t mean to bring my problems to your blog;-).
So, I found this nice suit at the swap meet… just kidding. That is such a bummer. Did you find some nice, but cost friendly replacements? Maybe you could try using Dryel from now on. That way your clothes stay in your dryer. 😉
Actually, it is a good movie. Seen it a couple years in a row now. Love the holiday movies on Lifetime and Hallmark. That is about the only time I watch those channels. It’s inspiring movie. And that is another thing about living frugal – have a good attitude. If you’re frugal because you’re totally broke – make it a positive game – “not spending buying this cup of coffee will save me $4.00, compounded…” and don’t use “I can’t buy this cup of coffee because I’m broke”. Also, have a road map – where is this frugal life taking you – is it to be debt free? or to travel? or to just live a simple life.
You’re more than welcome to bring your problems to my blog. BTW, I can’t wait to try that Chai from TJ’s!
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