It's Springtime! Get your Garage Sale List together!

There are several things that came up in conversation over the Winter that my kids or I would like to have that are clearly garage sale purchases. For instance, my son wants a soccer net. Now, I can imagine that a lot of soccer nets may get torn or broken before they are discarded. I can also imagine that a well built soccer net that has survived a kid or two would be just the kind of cumbersome thing someone would like to unload at a garage sale. There are several of these kinds of things that have come up over Winter which have inspired another one of my many lists. I love lists. They keep me focused, remind and applaud me when entries are crossed off. So, anywho, I made up a Garage Sale list for 2009 just to get us excited for Springtime Garage Sale season. If you keep a Garage Sale lookout list you can share it with other garage saling friends. You may find that someone you share your list with has something on your list that they want to dispose of. For instance, my mom seems to spot things that I am looking for rather quickly (sometimes in her basement!). For some items, you have to tell everyone you know and be patient. There have been two such items that I waited nearly two seasons for before I landed them one of which was an upright freezer. I scored it for $50 and it was only 3 years old! The other was a bike trailer. I told everyone I knew about my desire for a bike trailer. Right about when I was going to give up and pay retail I finally found one right down the street. Now the part where my husband backed the van over the beloved bike trailer is another story. So if you see another bike trailer out there, I am on the hunt again. Ugh!

In case I get lucky with any of my readers, here is my current list. I haven't browsed Craigs List or FreeCycle.com lately so maybe I'll get lucky there?

Garage Sale 2009 List

Hamburger press/maker/shaper
Garlic Press – preferably pampered chef
Pasta maker
Pastry/Pasta roller for ravioli edges
Cake décor tools
Attachments for kitchen aid mixer

Girly Bedroom Lamp
Girly Trash Can
White/floral vintage curtains for girly room

Soccer net for backyard

Always:
Picture frames – black, white & silver 11x14 and bigger
Gift wrap & bows
Girly hair accessories
Kids clothes/snow suits/boots/etc
Picnic table - large with attached bench (octagon preferably but any kind)
Yard tools (rakes, shovels, bulb planter, hand shovels, etc)

Frugal Habits – Skip the Juice, Eat the Fruit

We all know that juice is packed with calories. I haven’t come across too many parents who give their kids free reign with regard to juice intake. Juice that is truly juice, 100% fruit juice, has many health benefits as evidenced by the nutrition label on the container with all the vitamins. Juice comes from fruit so what is the harm? It is a processed food that strips away the fiber from a fruit. It is also expensive, (as are all processed foods that claim to be “healthy”). Eating the fruit that juice is made from is much more beneficial than consuming just the juice from the same fruit and it is usually less expensive. I know that someone reading this wants to bring up the fact that some juices are fortified with additional vitamins. If you aren’t eating a well-rounded diet that provides all of your required daily vitamins perhaps your doctor will provide you with a script for a vitamin, (cheaper than over the counter vitamins), otherwise just eat a healthy well-rounded diet of whole foods with natural fibers that will satisfy your hunger without excessive calorie intake (yea, sure, says the sugar addict) and save some bucks on unnecessary juice.

Do my kids drink juice you ask? Sometimes they have orange juice with their breakfast but otherwise we do not buy any other juice keeping the grocery bill down and fruit consumption up. On top of that, juice is a special treat to my kids and is much more appreciated that way.

Stop Renting your Wardrobe

I have been washing and ironing my husband’s work shirts for 5 ½ years now (gasp!) and was interested to hear, on the radio the other day, that stay-at-home moms are getting hit with cutbacks by having to iron the family’s clothing rather than sending them to the drycleaner. I had to laugh at the horrible lives of these stay-at-home mothers ironing for the first time in years. More evidence of how spoiled middle-class Americans really are for the comment to have even been made.

When purchasing new clothing I always skip over things that must be dry cleaned. That’s right, ALWAYS, with the small exception of business suits. If you are paying to have your clothes dry cleaned you will be paying more in the long run to keep them than you paid to buy them. I see it as rental wear and I refuse to “rent” my clothes. Due to the available fabrics years ago, our garment choices were limited and if you were a working professional, dry cleaning was a necessary evil. Now, there are so many alternatives to the dry-clean-only fabrics, (aside from the traditional suit which seems to be reserved for interviews only these days) that there is no “need” for such things in our wardrobes. Sometimes I wish I had a wasteful habit like regular dry cleaning so that I would have a way to save some money to put to better use..

Ideas for Lent that may Create Frugal Habits

Here are some ideas of things that you can give up for Lent that maybe you never thought of that could also create a new frugal habit for your family. If you choose to give up one of these things for lent not only will save money but you may also discover that your family does not “need” them after all:

1) Dry cleaning
2) Juice (eat the fruit instead)
3) Fabric Softener
4) Cleaning Chemicals (use vinegar water & reusable rags instead)
5) Catalogs & other advertising media that arrives in your mail (trash them immediately)
6) Shopping for unnecessaries
7) Eating out (take up cooking and meal planning for every meal)
8) Coffee from the “outside” (brew your own at home)
9) Tabloid magazines
10) Cereal (other than homemade cereal of course)
11) Cable (look into reconnection charges first if you are certain that you will be reconnecting)
12) Entertainment that costs money
13) Cleaning services, babysitting or other services that you pay for but can do yourself or do without
14) Newspaper

There are people even in America who have given up all these things or never even had them to begin with and they are still alive! So yes, it can be done. Most of these things I have been able to give up (or never had) for prolonged periods of time (years) and I still have friends, a social life, healthy children and a wonderful marriage. Really, it will not kill you, I promise.