Frugal

When we got our townhome rented out, and received our stimulus check, Jared gave me a big surprise. He told me that we would each get a sum of money to spend on whatever we wanted. We have been living quite tightly up til now, and have been on a pretty strict budget for the past couple of years. So this was a big surprise! It is a rare occasion that I get the luxury of spending money on desires, rather than needs.

Please don't get me wrong here-- I am not complaining in the least. I love my life, and wouldn't trade it for anything in the world. I don't mind living on a budget. In some ways it makes life less complicated. I grew up watching an amazing mother and father handle money prudently. They were never wasteful in spending. It taught me to be frugal as well.

Very frugal. In fact, I may be a little overly frugal at times. I will scrimp and save where ever I can, even cutting myself off from necessities at times. I reason with myself, trying to find some other way to fill the need that would cost less. (For this reason, Jared has to take over a lot of the shopping, because I would come home without half the items on the list!) Together, we have become the masters of finding deals, using coupons, shopping clearance and hunting sales. We only buy off-brands. We save where we can.

All of this is very well and good for normal daily shopping. However, when I stepped out of my "save or die" mentality to explore the world of possibilities on which to spend my fun money, I went into sticker shock. The things I am attracted to, are NOT on the clearance rack. There are no coupons. They never go on sale. But I bucked up, and after an hour-and-a-half of weighing my selections, I carefully chose a few items, and dolled out some of my precious green. The next day, I brought them all back. I decided they weren't the best possible items on which to spend my money.

Today, I made another attempt at denting my fun budget. This time, only 2 of 3 things are going back. Progress!