Living Frugal

I recently found a blog entitled Frugal Village. The woman who writes the blog has a great taste for style, creativity and staunch frugality. After reading her archives for hours on end, I discovered....the forum. This place has been my home for the past few weeks, as Hubby and I are trying to get our feet solidly on the ground. Having only been married for two months (today! Happy two-month anniversary!), we're still figuring out our budget, how it works, and what can or needs to be changed. It doesn't help that it is Christmastime, and we were ill prepared for the extra spending! We have gone waaay overboard on our gift spending, and we were definitely not prepared for wrapping gifts and decorating the house. We've done admirably with those last two categories, and we've tried making up our excessive gift spending by spending less than $10 for our gifts to one another. This budget living is tough stuff!

One of the favorite practices of the wonderful people who frequent the Frugal Village forums is cutting back on utilities. I have learned more ways to lower electric and gas bills in the last month than I ever thought possible! I've begun closing doors to bathrooms and closets; every time I open one of those doors and feel the 5-10 degree difference between outside and inside, my insides grin with satisfaction, knowing that my heater doesn't have to bother working to heat those rarely-used spaces. My thermostat has gone from toggling between 72 and 75 to staying at 68 all day except the 2-3 hours in the afternoon when I have students. I've begun unplugging appliances when they are not in use, working in the dark kitchen rather than turning the light on, and opening all the blinds in the house so I can manage during daylight hours with little to no electric lights at all. This month's electric bill came yesterday, and there was almost zero change from the month before. I was a little deflated, but then I realized it has been only the past two weeks or so that I've really been careful about these practices. I hope that next month will really show the affects of my efforts! 

In the mean time, we're saving up cash for travel next week. We've only eaten out once so far this month, have been saving bookoos on gas in the past month and a half, and have been managing with free items rather than upgrading (thanks for the chair, Marshall!). Today is our two-month anniversary, and last night Hubby asked me what I wanted to do. He offered the dollar theater, which only charges $1.50 for a regular evening show. Usually a great, affordable date! This time, I said lets borrow a movie and stay in! I think we're both feeling great about finding new creative ways to save money, and Frugal Village is my favorite place for ideas and encouragement!