I always thought that I was a smart consumer, and I really have been. It is a rare occasion that I buy clothes or shoes at full price, I stock up on the coupon items at Costco, and I love trolling Goodwill on 50% off day. I look for sales and read customer reviews before buying big ticket items and I know exactly where the clearance end caps are at all my favorite retailers. I have always been thrifty but I am realizing what a BIG consumer I have been. When I find something on clearance that I know will be useful in the future I stock up. For example, Target clearanced a bunch of shoes months ago and I bought the kids two pairs each even though they were several sizes too big. Who can pass up tennis shoes for $3.24? And when Chicken nuggets were $4 off at Costco I bought 5 bags reasoning out that although I was spending over $40 in the moment, I was saving $20 in the long run. On top of that, there are areas where I don't worry about being too thrifty and just indulge. I love shopping for the perfect baby shower, wedding shower, or birthday gift and when I find something that fits the bill, I can always find a way to justify the cost.
Jon and I really enjoy taking the kids on outings and day trips as well as a couple of vacations a year. We usually don't write up a very strict budget for these little breaks from the daily grind, but I try to keep things in balance by maybe splurging on an extra night at Great Wolf Lodge but bringing a cooler of food instead of eating out. Jon and I also like to go away together several times a year as well as go on dates several times a month. It seems reasonable because we aren't flying off to a five star resort in Hawaii, we wait until we find a great hotel/airfare combo in Vegas and instead of gambling we take in a show and as many buffets as possible. And our date nights aren't spent in fancy restaurants or going to expensive concerts, they are usually dinner at Azteca and a movie, or even just getting Cold Stone and then perusing the travel section at Barnes and Noble. Granted, we have to pay a baby sitter and the final tally on the evening is always around $50 but can you really put a price on strengthening a marriage?
It wasn't always comfortable. We worked really hard for the first 5 years of our marriage to get to where we're at. We ate a lot of top roman, spent all school holidays scrounging for overtime, made gifts for one another, rationed out gas so that we could splurge on Subway Sandwiches for a picnic date, and our big vacations always included finding the cheapest hotel along the Washington Coast. When we graduated and started making a professional income it was really fun to live a grown up life style. So that is what we've done for the last 7 years, not lived extravagantly or lavishly, just comfortably.
Oh, how I miss you fiscal years 2003-2010. We are now living on a military paycheck and boy oh boy, is it a financial adjustment. Let me just note that I totally supported and still do support Jon's decision to leave the rat race of retail pharmacy management. It was lucrative but soul crushing for him. The military is paying off our all our $88K in student loans and he is loving the versatility of being a medical services officer in the military. It was a prayerful decision and I know that it was the right one for our family.
With that being said, I did the budget last night and my little bubble of comfort is no more. Instead of feeling like I'm hanging out in my favorite pair of yoga pants I am now feeling like I am wearing a bone girdle under an unforgiving holiday dress. Try taking a deep breath in a dress like that! Nope, definitely not comfortable.
I am going to need to be so much more than a smart consumer to make this work. I am entering the waters of needing to be down right frugal. So I have been thinking of ways to reduce, simplify, and consume so much less. IT IS AN ADJUSTMENT! But the funny thing is, I am kind of looking forward to the challenge. Its like going camping. You work hard to have a home where there is heat and light, a stove in your kitchen, and a working toilet in your hall but every so often you long to just get back to basics. You head off into the woods and construct yourself a shelter from the elements, bring heat and light to your space with fire, cook your food over the flames you created, and dig yourself a latrine. And somehow there is great pride in doing it because the thing is done by the sweat of your brow and your own cunning. That is how I feel about this new financial age, like I'm going on a financial camping trip.
Already, I'm re-evaluating what things in my life are more luxuries than necessity. Paper towels for example. Really what do I need paper towels for? We can wipe our fingers on those square napkins that come like 500 to a package and I can clean my windows and mirrors with old newspaper. Done, just shaved $10.50 off the monthly budget. Next, laundry detergent. It is $13.99 for the kind we buy, but my cousin told me that she makes her own laundry soap and it comes out to like $1.50 for 100 loads and works great! But wait there's more! I am clipping coupons -saved $115 last shopping trip with discounts and coupons-, watching youtube videos on how to groom your own dog-BAM! just saved us the $42 I have been putting out in dog grooming every 6 weeks-and then there's toting all the kids old clothes to the consignment shop instead of Goodwill, selling their old toys on Craigslist (if your interested, I am getting ready to put up a HUGE lot of ZuZu pet stuff soon, mostly because they annoy the crap out of me-why in the world would a hamster moo and who was the genius who decided they wouldn't have an off switch-and because the kids just don't play with them anymore), making my family homemade Valentine's sweets instead of buying them gifts, finding all the free family fun things to do and coming up with my some of my own, and I'm trolling through blogs on how people find ways to be thrifty and frugal in their lives (if you have any leads let me know).
So I have about 18 months of getting back to basics before things become comfortable again and although I am a little daunted by the task, I think that it will be really good for me and for my family. Already I feel such empowerment every time I can say, "I really don't need that" and walk away not even really wanting it. It is amazing how much mindless shopping I did and how much of what I bought wasn't needed or even wanted until I saw it on a clearance end cap. I am going to have to change my thinking and my habits and I'm sure there will be an adjustment period with some painful moments when I just want the "camping trip" to end so I can get back to the luxuries of life before, but I am also sure that there will be a lot of growth and that if I'm mindful, this period in our lives can have a lasting impact on all 5 of us.
