Wii

I really want a Wii.   And I want Wii Fit to go with it.  These are going on my wish list.

Cancelled Lynda.com Membership

I signed up for one month of lynda.com memberhsip specifically to watch the videos about Photoshop Elements 6 on the Mac.   I promised myself that I would cancel the membership before the month was over and I did that today.   I have three days left to watch those videos now, so I had better get busy.

Picked Up Library Book On Hold - Delayed Gratification Pays Off

Yesterday I picked up a book at the library that I had placed on hold.

This might not seem like such a big deal, but it is the first time that I had ever actually put a book on hold.  Usually I just wander through the library and pick up things I find interesting and sign them out.  If there is a book I hear about that I really want to read I usually order it from Amazon.

So this is a big step forward.  I heard about this book by reading an online forum.  Instead of running to Amazon I ran to the library web page, found it in the catalog, figured out how to reserve it, and waited for it to come in.

Let's hear it for delayed gratification.

Renewed My "Go World" Subscription

This is one subscription I would never find at the public library.

I would hardly call it a frugal purchase at $40.00 a year for four issues, but it is something I want to continue with.

I am going to make an effort to estimate the costs of playing go for a year and see what percentage of my allowance that turns out to be.

Bought Two Books Today On Amazon

I have been wanting to buy the new Missing Manual book for the iPod since I heard it was coming out at the end of October.   I decided that since I had resisted the urge to buy the Kindle that I could afford to splurge to purchase this book to get the most out of my iPod.

I also bought a book similar to The Tightwad Gazette book, which I already own.  It is a book published by America's Cheapest Family.

Online Learning Subscriptions

There are two sources for online learning I really like a lot.  One of them is Lynda.com and the other is Kelbytraining.com.

Because I can only spend so much time viewing tutorials I don't subscribe to both sites at the same time.  That would be really wasteful.  I will subscribe to one site for a month and watch as much as I can.  Then I will take a month or more off and devote my time to studying from books.   This way I get the most for my money.

Lynda.com has a series on the Mac version of Photoshop Elements 6.0 right now.  So I will subscribe for a month and watch my fill of tutorials.  I'll complete that series, maybe even watch it twice, and then see what else is of interest before I cancel my membership.

Lunch Meat

Lunch meat is really expensive.  You end up paying at least $8.00 a pound for it.  They don't even sell it by the pound anymore.  They list the price by the half pound instead so you don't get too scared when you buy it.  But I'm not fooled.

For the past six months or so I have been saving a lot of money on lunch meat by buying pork tenderloin on sale and cooking it myself.   The regular price is $8.00 a pound.  But I can find it for $4.00 a pound on sale.  When I do I buy as many as ten packages and wait for the next sale.

Freezing My Gym Membership

A major expense each month is my gym membership.  It comes to nearly $70.00 a month. 

Up until the time I injured my shoulder I felt as if I was getting my money's worth for my membership.   I was going about five times a week to the gym where I was doing upper body work, lower body work, and cardio on the treadmill.

Unfortunately, I injured my shoulder doing the upper body work, and stopped using the machines altogether and was only using the treadmill.   For over a month now I have been getting physical therapy for my shoulder three times a week, and as a result I stopped going to the gym even to do the cardio on the treadmill.   

I have felt really guilty about that, and decided to put my gym membership on hold for six months.  That will cost me ten dollars a month, but it will give me six months to determine if I will be able to replace the gym with walking outdoors, and doing videos indoors such as "Walk Away The Pounds".  I also have Fit TV on cable.

The six months I am freezing my membership are the six months that will be the most difficult to work out outdoors, so it will be a good test of whether I should cancel my gym membership.

$70.00 a month is just too much to pay.

I Want The New MacBook

My next major technology purchase is likely to be the new MacBook.

This month I got ahead by $450.00 through careful spending.  Perhaps I should not allow myself to buy the new MacBook until I have deliberately saved enough extra money to make the purchase even though I could afford to buy one right now.

Had A Good Month Cutting Down Personal Spending

I get a personal allowance of $700.00 a month.  This sounds like a lot of money, but out of it I must purchase every single item that benefits myself personally other than medical expenses and getting my hair cut and my gym membership.   My go lessons come out of that money and my go books and go workshop expenses, technology purchases, clothing, magazines.

This month I made a special effort to cut down on expenses.  I allowed some magazine subscriptions to run out.  I cancelled my membership to Kelbytraining.com.   I resisted some technology purchases.

The one major purchase I made this month was a Bamboo Fun graphics tablet which I bought for $100.00.  But even that purchase was half the price of the larger tablet I really wanted to buy.

My frugality paid off and I managed to keep my spending under $250.00 for the month which allowed me to bank over $450.00 dollars.  

My purchase of an iMac last April brought my personal money account below $5,000.00.  I don't like to let it dip that low, and can't remember when it has been below $3,5000.00.  I like to know that I have the money to buy things when I want them.

Savory Bread Pudding

I got this idea from making a sweet bread pudding to use up whole grain bread ends.

I had about a third of a load of rye bread and a half of a bunch of broccoli, and I thought that I could make a bread pudding out of it with eggs and cheese.

What I used:

broccoli (about three cups cooked and chopped)

rye bread (about five slices cubed)

three eggs

a cup and a half of milk

grated parmesan cheese (about four tablespoons)

three slices of swiss cheese chopped

ground garlic pepper

I put the bread in a baking dish

mixed the rest of the ingredients together and covered the bread.

I baked at 350 degrees for an hour.

It was pretty good, but I think that maybe it would have been better to use chicken broth than milk for the moisture.

Update on this:  My husband didn't really like this very much.  I will probably find a way to use the rye bread for a type of stuffing in the future, or modify this recipe to see if I can get him to like it better.

Not Getting The Kindle

Thank goodness that I had a whole week to come to my senses about whether or not to purchase the Kindle.

I found a website where you can keep track of the books you are reading, Shelfari, and it gave me new strength to resist the urge to buy the Kindle.  Shelfari is like a social networking site for people who read.

I don't travel often enough to need to lug 20 books at a time along with me, so I don't need a Kindle.   I don't need to have the instant gratification of downloading a book to read within minutes of hearing about it.  I can wait for a month or more for it to become available at the library.

My Dishes

I have only had one set of dishes.  I bought Pfaltzgraf dishes because I wanted to be able to buy items from stock to replace broken dishes.

I have spent a lot of money on specialty pieces, but I figure that is cheaper than changing my pattern periodically as many people seem to do.

A few years ago they stopped making my dishes and I was really upset, but recently they have started to produce them again in limited quantities from China.

The other day I broke down and ordered over a hundred dollars worth of dishes.

Still Resisting Kindle

I am still resisting buying the Kindle, but I might give in.

I decided to look into ebook readers for the iPhone and I downloaded two of them for free.  I also found that I was able to download free ebooks directly onto the iPhone using my home network.

Kindle

I saw the Amazon Kindle on Oprah on Friday.   I would really like to buy one but I know I shouldn't.

The device costs more than $300.00 even with the $50.00 discount they are offering Oprah viewers.  She says the device pays for itself, but that is assuming that you are going to purchase brand new hard cover books at the cost of $27.00 each.

I see this device as a great convenience, but as creating a new expense I don't currently have, namely new fiction books.  At nearly ten dollars each and probably a new book once every two weeks this could create a new $260.00 expense each year.

Of course it would be nice to actually read the books that people are talking about.

I have seven days to consider the purchase with the discount.

Considering that this is a new cool technology, this is a battle that I might lose.

Hair

Saving money on my hair has probably been the easiest and most dramatic savings I have been able to achieve.

I used to get my hair professionally dyed and cut once a month for a cost of nearly $100.00 a month or $1,200.00 a  year.  Considering that I did not always cut my hair when I had it dyed I would say it was closer to $1,000 a year in total cost.

When my husband lost his job a few years ago and we were looking at ways to cut costs the first thing that came to mind was my hair.  I didn't balk.  

I went cold turkey and grew the gray out without resorting to expensive salon treatments to ease the transition.  I just did it.  I also cut my hair short.  This meant that it had to be cut every month because it grows so quickly.   My hair expenses went from $1,000 a year to $456 a year.  Since growing out the gray completely I have gone to a longer cut that only needs trimming three times a year for a yearly cost of $120.00 a year.   

Total savings of $880.00 a year.  If I can find a cheaper hair salon I can save even more.

Trying To Be Frugal

This blog has been created to document my struggles with frugality.   Some cost cutting measures will be easy.  Some will be difficult... and some will seem impossible.

What feels like a wasteful purchase to some might feel like a necessary expenditure to others.   This is going to be the place where I hash out my decisions about how to save money.  It is where I will celebrate my victories and admit to my failures.