No, I Can't Volunteer For That

My name is "Amy," and I can't say "no."

It's not a matter of desire. Every time somebody asks me to do something and "yes" comes out of my mouth, I really do want and mean to say "no."

But I can't.

So, like any person who is trying to be frugal with her time, I am working on it.

This morning when my wonderful husband informed me that at some point today I would more than likely be volunteered for a whole slew of things against my will, I said "no, no, and no thank you!"

Go me!

But when someone called yesterday and asked if I would make a desert for a gathering Wednesday evening ... I said "yes."

(Just between us I "made" it by making a trip to Costco. Mmmm. Costco pie!).

All of this just goes back to the "best use of time" bit that we've been talking about now for quite awhile. If volunteering gets you towards your goals in life, it's good. If it doesn't, it isn't. ... I must practice more "no."

Frugal Win of the Week: Vocalpoint!

I opened my mailbox yesterday to find a package of three free pampers diapers, a coupon for $3 off any package of pampers and at least four coupons for $1.50 off the same.

WIN WIN WIN!

Just the day before I had been silently lamenting my lack of Pampers coupons. The commissary is running a pampers sale, as is Target this week, that I would LOVE to have a coupon to make even better. Yes, we are cloth diaper folks, but when Dave is in care on post off and on during the week they require regular diapers. We are almost out.

Thank you, vocalpoint for making a diaper steal!! And I'll be hitting up Target for a similar deal later this week. Win! Win! Win!!

Which brings me to this: go, join Vocalpoint. And I mean right now. Go here to do it. I have received a whole hill of stuff from them, not the least of which is a full size bottle of Panteen. And their stuff always comes with high value coupons. Coupons included with another panteen sample scored FOUR BOTTLES of free shampoo, etc. at the commissary a few weeks ago. Not even kidding.

Frugal Fail of the Week: Blew it Big Time

It's time for the end of month budget assessment. I should be excited about this moment. But I'm not. Instead, I'm in dread. Why? Because I know how much I blew the budget this month. Or at least I sense it.

... moment of truth ...

Ouch.

Blew the grocery/household goods budget today for the month by buying a new quilt for our bed. (the one we got for our wedding has a big tear in it on a seem in a place that I can't repair it). Eeeesh.

Blew the clothing budget (a generous $200 a month that in previous months I didn't even come close to meeting) by a LOT. This is due to my stop at the Nike store (where I bought more than the frugal win), the purchase of a dress for our upcoming military ball, Luke's frugal win and more! It's a little unreal. I can't believe we spent that much on clothes.

Now that I've taken in my shock, let's examine the lesson in all this: the point of keeping a budget is knowing and controlling where your money goes. We make mistakes, yes, and we learn from them. And in the end, even though I spent more than I wanted to and therefore saved less, I DO know where my money went.

~~~~~~~~~~~

A second frugal fail, brought to you by the city of Tacoma. Seriously, how DO you build a ramp in the wrong place?!

I Love Me Some Public Whatever

I was wandering through the library the other day when I had a little life flashback. You know, one of those moments when you see a replay of part of your history in your mind. Not quite a dejavu, mostly just a vivid memory.

It is safe to say that as a teenager I had major dreams of becoming a librarian, even talked about getting a college degree in library science so that I could be The Librarian (not just one of those book organizer types). I realize now that I have a better sense of, well, fashion than many of the people who choose the library as a full time calling (and I really don't dress that well) as well as more social skills. These clearly make me a bad candidate for such a job. (And also, the "library science" degree required more math classes than I was willing to take. ... I pretty much wasn't willing to take any).

Another thing I recalled was the amount of time I spent in the library exploring the stacks, reading, borrowing, returning and just being educated. I logged enough hours to last me a life time. When you're a teenager your full time job is to learn, grow and explore. The library made that happen.

This memory brought up another thought: I think people don't take advantage of the library the way they should. Heck, I don't take advantage of it as much as I should.

As far as the consumer is concerned, the library, just like other public services paid for with your tax dollars (or, in my case, someone else's tax dollars ... let's hear it for the military!) is a full time practice in frugality.

I don't know if this has occurred to you recently, but let's give it a think: the library has free books for the taking (er, borrowing). FREE. Hello! FREE! This is Bumble Thrift, we LOVE free things here!

The library also has free movies. I think this is something people think about even less than the books. I'm going to go ahead and credit Abigail with reminding me of this last year. While it may take a little more patience than, say, going to the store and buying any given season of TV or renting a new movie, a quick visit to and request via the library Website and BAM! you have a stack of free movies waiting before you know it. (OK, fine. In the case of my request for "The Blind Side," "before you know it" is more like "after 145 other people are finished borrowing it." Technicality).

It was the library that inspired us to cancel our Netflix account. We were receiving, after a "very long wait" more often than not, some newer release movies, but mostly classics and documentaries, several times a week. We were not watching said movies more than on the weekend. It was costing us about $20 a month.

Now, instead, I've moved our Netflix movie list to the library request page. Anything that I'll be waiting to watch after 123,343 other patrons we'll just rent on Redbox for $1 (or, more frequently, free given the number of promos that business runs). And we are saving $20ish a month.

The looser here is Netflix. The winner? My pocket book. I rule this a frugal win!

And give it a think: what other public services (pools, tennis courts, parks) are you underutilizing all the while spending gobs on the same thing elsewhere?

Frugal Fail of the Week: Facebook much?

Welcome to your weekly frugal fail, the time of the week that I confess to some sort of spending atrocity or complete inability, despite my best intentions, to do anything more than spends gobs of unnecessary cash, or time or both. It happens to everyone, but confession is good for the soul, right? (and maybe a little entertaining for you):

After some more thought, part of the missing time below was blown on Facebook last week. Despite my good intentions (and win! from the week or so previous) I was unable to steer clear of the frugal time ruiner for much of last week.

Where does the time go on Facebook? I piddle it away looking at pictures, stalking former boyfriends, laughing at poor clothing choices, wondering what people aren't saying as they don't comment on that picture of me in a wet suit, and that sort of thing.

Tips, anyone, on breaking the Facebook addiction?

Frugal Win of the Week: more clothes

Welcome to the weekly Frugal Win, a time that I get to brag about some sort of awesome frugality that I achieved and that you wish you could achieve. Ha! Just kidding. If you don't like bragging or you think I should be brought down a peg, check out the weekly Frugal Fail. "Pride cometh .... "

We spend a lot of time in the Bushatz household buying new clothes for me. It's a mystery as to why I need new clothes all the time, but I swear I DO. (ooooor maybe that should be the weekly "Frugal Fail?")

This week we did a little shopping for Luke using this deal at Sears. We were able to buy just over $50 of clothing with the promise of getting $50 rebate for more later. So, we basically will get $100 for just over $50. What was an extra bonus is that all of the stuff we bought was on major sale as well.

What we scored:

Dockers dress pants: regular $48

Dockers dress shirt: regular $30ish

Another dress shirt: regular $30ish

Frugal win, I say! (And so does Luke)

Frugally Absent

Sorry, dear readers, about my MIA status over the last week. I'll go ahead and contribute that to two things:

1. Triathlon training (although this is mostly a lie as the pre-race week has something like "senioritits" going on ... you just don't care anymore).

2. Focusing on frugal time

Since I already admitted the first one is mostly, well, bull, let's focus on the second.

I am astounded by how much I got done last week and it is all thanks to being very, very purposeful with how and on what I spent my time. A sampling:

Sunday -- morning spent with friends, afternoon spent on one-on-one time with Luke and David as we explored the Mt. Saint Helens area, including some way cool lava tubes. It was amazing and so much fun.

Monday -- Workout, library, coffee with a friend, grocery shopping, work

Tuesday -- Very productive work day with lots of writing, but no workout (see senioritis above).

Wednesday -- Semi productive work morning, workout, quality time with David, farmer's market, intense household organization/cleaning time (like the deep dark cabinets you never get around to cleaning but must. be. done.)

Thursday -- Bible study all a.m., workout, work

Friday -- Time with Luke and David in the evening proceeded by very productive work afternoon and mixed in with no less than 10 loads of laundry. I know, right?

Saturday -- Triathlon! And the family time/errands

Sunday -- Church, quality family time

Now that I've written that all out, honestly, I see room for major improvements. For example, on the days I worked half days I haven't the foggiest idea what I did the majority of the morning of afternoon I did not work. I DID manage to spend major time reading and playing with David every single day, but not hours on end. So where did the time go? Food for thought.

We are also trying something new: making Sunday family day and family day only. We are planning to go to church in the morning and then spend the afternoon exploring where we live, playing tennis or doing something else fun and active together (if the weather would only cooperate ...). Yesterday, for example, we visited the Steilacoom history museum and then got the week's grocery shopping out of the way (it was really rainy, folks, grocery shopping wont be on the to-do every week OK? We were GOING to go on a nature hike but it just didn't happen). It was really neat to hit up a place just down the street with us and learn so much about where we live. Score.

So, here's my question for you: how can YOU better use your down time? Think about it, and reign in those hours.