DaddyOat has taken a lot of flack in the past from myself and friends for his ability to be quite 'thrifty'. To be honest, everyone thought he was just cheap.
But as time has gone on many people, including myself, have had to eat our words.
Many of our friends have started to come to us asking us about sales, prices and what is a good deal and what is not so good. {Especially on toilet paper...DaddyOat is VERY knowledgeable when it comes to whether a 'sale' is a good deal for the toilet paper your getting...and weird skill, I know}.
The 'thrifty' {or cheap} nature of DaddyOat has passed on to me. I'm a deal hunter and if I can do it myself at a better value, you can bet I am going to do my best to try it for myself. Together we've managed to keep our heads above the waster, financially speaking.
Day by day though, for all our scrimping and saving seems to amount to nothing. Sometimes it has just felt like we have no money ever {yet the Lord has always abundantly provided for us! Praise to Him!}
But the other day everything changed. All the cheapness has finally paid off, and we can see it!
We are extremely close {like EXTREMELY close} to being 100% debt free!
Somehow, all the student loans we had {2 years worth for BOTH of us} are pretty much paid off in 3 years since leaving university. It's almost hard to comprehend that we won't owe anyone anything. It's a liberating feeling, and I would wish everyone could share it because I know how threatening debt can be to the peace of a household.
So I'm going to just share a few steps of what we did to get this far in such a short amount of time...these may or may not work for you...but they can't hurt.
1- Flyer Shopping & Buying in Bulk
Every Friday we would scour the flyers to see what deals were being offered each week and we would stock up on the items that were staples in our home. We would also only buy pricier items, like cheese, if they were on sale.
2 - Collecting Points
Most credit cards offer some sort of rewards, we searched out which would be better for us and got one we could redeem points for groceries. Then all our major expenses, like our $700 car bill, or our annual car insurance payment, we paid on the credit card, all the while making sure we had the money to pay it off. Then we ended up with a boat load of 'points' to redeem for over $100 worth of groceries.
3 - Eating In
Instead of celebrating by going out, or succumbing to laziness by ordering in, we almost always ate at home. If it was a celebration, we'd 'splurge' buy buying a few special groceries and cook at home. If we were too lazy to 'cook' we'd whip up something easy like rice and veggies, or soup and sandwiches.
4 - Avoiding the Mall or Online Shopping
This isn't so much a proactive step to saving money but you'd be surprised how quickly we'll buy something that 10 seconds ago we didn't realize we 'needed'. Online shopping and window shopping have a tendency to make us discontent with what we have and spend our money for us.
5 - Gifts
When Christmas or birthdays come along and family ask us what we'd like we always ask for more practical items, like gas or grocery store gift cards, or if they want to get us something a little more 'personal' we'll ask for our favorite, but pricier organic items, like coffee, shampoo, chocolate or tea.
6 - Keeping Bills Low
All our friends named Bill are less that 5 feet tall.
ahhahaha...I'm hilarious.
No really, we avoid using any electricity during peak hours, we hang out laundry to dry in all seasons {hang indoors in the winter}. We don't leave lights on in rooms we're not in and we keep the heat lower while we're sleeping. We don't have air conditioning. And most recently we've stopped flushing the toilet for #1....hows the ol saying? If its yellow, let it mello. If it's brown, flush it down.
7 - Borrow & Share
This step can be as diverse as you want.
For us its meant that we don't have cable, we borrow television series from friends or stream online.
When we host friends, we almost always do potluck.
My mom had a bread machine so I ask her to make me loaves when she can.
If we are going somewhere with friends that's far away we try to work a carpool together.
We trade books with friends and family all the time.
8 - GIVE
We may be thrifty, or cheap, but we're not greedy. Our finances have always been from the Lord and because of that we've always been prepared to give when the need arises. And we've found that blessing others returns blessings back in some form or another.
* * *
What thrifty habits do you have?
But as time has gone on many people, including myself, have had to eat our words.
Many of our friends have started to come to us asking us about sales, prices and what is a good deal and what is not so good. {Especially on toilet paper...DaddyOat is VERY knowledgeable when it comes to whether a 'sale' is a good deal for the toilet paper your getting...and weird skill, I know}.
The 'thrifty' {or cheap} nature of DaddyOat has passed on to me. I'm a deal hunter and if I can do it myself at a better value, you can bet I am going to do my best to try it for myself. Together we've managed to keep our heads above the waster, financially speaking.
Day by day though, for all our scrimping and saving seems to amount to nothing. Sometimes it has just felt like we have no money ever {yet the Lord has always abundantly provided for us! Praise to Him!}
But the other day everything changed. All the cheapness has finally paid off, and we can see it!
We are extremely close {like EXTREMELY close} to being 100% debt free!
Somehow, all the student loans we had {2 years worth for BOTH of us} are pretty much paid off in 3 years since leaving university. It's almost hard to comprehend that we won't owe anyone anything. It's a liberating feeling, and I would wish everyone could share it because I know how threatening debt can be to the peace of a household.
So I'm going to just share a few steps of what we did to get this far in such a short amount of time...these may or may not work for you...but they can't hurt.
1- Flyer Shopping & Buying in Bulk
Every Friday we would scour the flyers to see what deals were being offered each week and we would stock up on the items that were staples in our home. We would also only buy pricier items, like cheese, if they were on sale.
2 - Collecting Points
Most credit cards offer some sort of rewards, we searched out which would be better for us and got one we could redeem points for groceries. Then all our major expenses, like our $700 car bill, or our annual car insurance payment, we paid on the credit card, all the while making sure we had the money to pay it off. Then we ended up with a boat load of 'points' to redeem for over $100 worth of groceries.
3 - Eating In
Instead of celebrating by going out, or succumbing to laziness by ordering in, we almost always ate at home. If it was a celebration, we'd 'splurge' buy buying a few special groceries and cook at home. If we were too lazy to 'cook' we'd whip up something easy like rice and veggies, or soup and sandwiches.
4 - Avoiding the Mall or Online Shopping
This isn't so much a proactive step to saving money but you'd be surprised how quickly we'll buy something that 10 seconds ago we didn't realize we 'needed'. Online shopping and window shopping have a tendency to make us discontent with what we have and spend our money for us.
5 - Gifts
When Christmas or birthdays come along and family ask us what we'd like we always ask for more practical items, like gas or grocery store gift cards, or if they want to get us something a little more 'personal' we'll ask for our favorite, but pricier organic items, like coffee, shampoo, chocolate or tea.
6 - Keeping Bills Low
All our friends named Bill are less that 5 feet tall.
ahhahaha...I'm hilarious.
No really, we avoid using any electricity during peak hours, we hang out laundry to dry in all seasons {hang indoors in the winter}. We don't leave lights on in rooms we're not in and we keep the heat lower while we're sleeping. We don't have air conditioning. And most recently we've stopped flushing the toilet for #1....hows the ol saying? If its yellow, let it mello. If it's brown, flush it down.
7 - Borrow & Share
This step can be as diverse as you want.
For us its meant that we don't have cable, we borrow television series from friends or stream online.
When we host friends, we almost always do potluck.
My mom had a bread machine so I ask her to make me loaves when she can.
If we are going somewhere with friends that's far away we try to work a carpool together.
We trade books with friends and family all the time.
8 - GIVE
We may be thrifty, or cheap, but we're not greedy. Our finances have always been from the Lord and because of that we've always been prepared to give when the need arises. And we've found that blessing others returns blessings back in some form or another.
* * *
What thrifty habits do you have?
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