Frugal Living

When I was a kid, I had a best friend named Jennifer who lived a few houses away from me. Jennifer's family was very different than mine in many ways: she had a very strong (too strong) father figure at home to my single mom; she had an older brother to my only-child-life; she was a first generation Cuban-Amercian, and I was not; she lived in a frugal household, and I lived in a poor one.

I have one troubling memory from my time as Jennifer's best friend: I remember being told that if I peed at Jennifer's house, I was not allowed to flush the toilet. Flushing the toilet, I was told, was only for big jobs. The concept of letting pee rest grossed me out (still does); I didn't care if there was the cute little rhyme they used: "if it's brown, flush it down; if it's yellow, let it mellow." I didn't care if they thought I pooped every twenty minutes, I had to flush. I just had to.

So, Jennifer's family created my first distaste with frugal living. Now, I'm all for being smart and debt free with your money. I'm all for delayed gratification (heck, I've had tray tables as end tables in my living room for seven years), but real frugality, the kind of frugality that measures shampoo by drops and doesn't let you flush the toilet, not only grosses me out, but it kind of makes me mad.

Similarly, my mother-in-law takes a lot of grief, namely from my husband, for her couponing ways. She's not shampoo-counting-not-let-you-flush kind of frugal, but she knows where her money is going, knows the cheapest spot for gas, and doesn't mind asking for a rain check.

And, until recently, her ways seemed a tad bid foreign to me. But, thanks in part to the Zotti family (Madeline, I swear, we're going to connect at some point!), I've started going frugal. You see, the Zotti's introduced me to a website that will tell me what coupon to use and when. I don't have to clip coupons or track sales; it does it all for me. That's my kind of frugality. So, for about a month now, I've been sticking to a plan: collect piles of coupons, print list, cut the coupons I need, shop only one day a week. And, here's the deal: I've saved a boatload of money... enough money to buy a freezer for the garage.

But, then, I think partly because I'm not consumed as much with the China adoption community, I've started to go overboard. No, really. It's starting to become a competitive thing. Like today, I bought: 9 boxes of cereal (yes, nine!), the largest jug of All laundry detergent, 6 things of fabric softener, 2 jugs of spot carpet cleaner (hello, two kids!), 2 boxes of Ziplock bags, 3 things of Secret deodorant, 2 bags of Hershey kisses, two Reece's bars, 3 doses of Nestle Toll House cookie dough, 1 bag of Pampers Cruisers, a really snazzy new lotion from Olay, Clean and Clear facial cleanser, a new mascara, a thing of Tide detergent, and 2 dental flosses all for 46 bucks. It was crazy. I think my total bill was over 156 bucks... and then, the coupons began. I walked away with half of the stuff for free (well, sales tax).

At one point, near the end of this trip, I lost my coupons. I had spent an hour collecting everything in my cart, and with two screaming kids, one who had just dumped chocolate milk all over the only outfit I had (what was I thinking?), I was about to lose it. I ran up and down the aisles looking for my accordion file (yes, I admitted it). At one point, I thought the woman who had stopped to talk to Grant was baiting me with her kind conversation only to take off with my coupons (I told you: I'm in deep). I even said out loud, "Now, who would take off with my coupons?"

But, I found them, went home, put two grumpy kids to nap, and later in the day, ventured back to the same store for one more round (but this time with Daddy). This is when I knew it was bad: Grant approached five different employees to ask if they "had seen his coupons." At one point, he even said, "Now, who would take off with my coupons?" The sales lady at K-Mart was both concerned and confused. Daddy and I cried with laughter.

So, I'm just going to admit that we've hit a new level of frugal in our house. I'm still not going to worry about how many baby wipes I use (oh, because believe me, if I need twenty a diaper, I'm okay with that), but I do now know how to use the system and have finally made time to use it.

So, Jennifer, hats off to you and your family. I still don't want to count squares of toilet paper, but I'm closer to that than I might want to admit. I almost asked for a raincheck today, so I'm starting to see my mother-in-law's wisdom. Tomorrow's schedule: off to Walgreens for free lotion, free chapstick, free cough syrup, free cough drops, and this time, I won't forget to bring a sucker or two for the kids in hopes they stay quiet long enough for Mommy to make it out alive.

Here's a pic of what my day at the store did not look like: two kids playing peacefully.