Cheap Like Me

There came a time in my life when I realized that I was a cheap person. Well, not cheap in the stingy sense, but in the "I don't need new jeans yet" or "I can get by with what I have" kind of way.

I grew up with a mom who clipped coupons, and there wasn't a rebate or UPC offer she didn't participate in. We got a rocking horse from dog food bags (I was too old to really enjoy it), stuffed Baby Muppet dolls from diaper boxes (again, too old), various offers for glasses, clocks from cigarettes, and magnets from butter. We do like free stuff in this family!

While I was frugal, I still had room to improve. Once I became a mother, and wanted to be a mother who stayed at home to raise her son, I realized I had a lot to learn and adjust in order to make this dream happen. It just didn't seem possible.

We had to put our 15 year mortgage up to a 30 year mortgage. Our cell phones went bye bye. Our satellite dish and newspaper subscription as well. Recently we got the newspaper back, but it isn't looking like something we can continue to afford if we also give to our church now that we actually attend, so who knows what the future holds there.

I ran across the Tightwad Gazette, volumes 1-3, quite by accident. It was on a table display at our library, and naturally the title intrigued me. Little did I know I was still in high school when it came out, and had discontinued.

I read about things that I do, and things that I could do, and was just amazed.

Why would anyone pay for certain things that they could do themselves? Like baking bread.

Now, I learned the hard way that baking my own bread in the warmer months means rapid mold growth, but the warmer months in Michigan are not very many. However, with the bread machine I bought for under ten dollars at the thrift store, combined with buying the bread flour and yeast in bulk, I saved a lot of money making my own bread. And this is even factoring in that I typically buy my bread at the day old store for 79 cents a loaf! In the colder months, I make our own bread. My darling husband once had the nerve to ask when we would have "real bread" again, and I told him that until recently, this WAS real bread and to just eat it. Who the heck turns down homemade bread?