Frugal Family

Living on the cheap isn’t about being poor or not having nice things. For me it is about making the choice to consume less and to live more simply. When I need something I turn to the local classifieds, thrift stores and my friends first before I venture out to the store. Likely the OCD memory serves me well because if I do stock pile anything I have a photographic recollection of where it is.

I haven’t bought an article of clothing new, in a department store, for a long long time. I do buy ‘new’ things now and then mostly from artists and people who design the clothes they make. For the most part I shop in thrift stores. When I travel to a new city one of the first things I do is locate the museums, library and thrift stores (among a few other local landmarks). So much is said about a city by it’s thrift sellers. How much support there is for the local hospital, pro-life, salvation army, even the Value Village has a voice.

Being thrifty is in large part about being patient. It’s about making do or going without until you find that thing you’ve been looking for. Last summer I thrifted a pair of Chaco sandals for $7; they fit me perfectly and I love them, they were exactly what I had been looking for for a couple years. This summer I was at a clothing swap and in the pile of leftovers I found a black skirt that was exactly what I had been looking for high and low in thrift stores in the previous couple months. Could I have bought those things new? Yes of course I could. And I could have paid over $100 for those two things combined but instead I paid less than $10 simply because I was patient.

Currently I’m on the lookout for a food processor. We killed our last one about a year ago and I haven’t yet found another to replace it. It means we don’t get to enjoy one of my favorite treats, raw date cookies but it also doesn’t hurt us not having one. I can bide my time and when that perfect item shows up oh how glorious it will be because I waited!