Last month, I decided to see how long I could go without grocery shopping, just by using up the stuff I already had on hand in our cupboards and freezer.  I hadn’t been stockpiling anything and we didn’t have a huge amount of food stored, but it was 15 days between shopping trips, as opposed to my normal 7.  And when I did go back to the grocery store, our bill was only about $40 higher than it usually is, so it was definitely worth some kitchen creativity to use up some of what we had on hand before buying more groceries.

There’s a great Goodwill just around the corner from the grocery store, so I decided to treat myself to a little thrifting that afternoon.  I spend a total of $42 at Goodwill…

We are going to a wedding in June, and I went looking for a new dress to wear.  I found this, plus shoes that are a perfect match and were still tied together with the little string that retailers use to keep pairs together:

I got a great stainless steel bowl that I’m planning to use as a planter, and a black pan that I can use to sun dry tomatoes this summer.  I also got a cute little wooden step stool for our son to use in the bathroom – and it folds into a chair too!  In the pan you can also see some Melissa & Doug wooden stensils:

A friend of mine is expecting a baby girl this spring, and I got this adorable little dress/bloomers set, along with about four yards of super cute fabric that I will use to make something for the baby.  I haven’t decided what I’m making yet, but I’m sure inspiration will strike:

I also got a complete croquet set for out backyard:

And even though I know that I don’t need any more clothes, I did buy two tops for myself.  The brown one is LOLE, and I could tell it was a well made shirt as soon as I saw it.  After I got home, I looked up their website, and all of their basic long sleeved shirts sell for about $45 – $60:

All of that for $42.

Thanks Goodwill, for making it possible for us to have nice stuff and still fund our retirement accounts!

Sometime later this year we’d like to start finishing our basement.  For now, it’s just a huge storage area, but we have big plans for it.  Our first financial priority this year is our HSA and our IRAs, but after that, we’re planning to start putting some money into the basement.  We’d like to use as much recycled, reclaimed, and salvaged material as we can for the project.  There are two Habitat for Humanity ReStores in the area, as well as at least two other construction material yards that sell salvaged materials.  In addition, I’ve been watching the free section on Craigs List.

Tonight, I hit the jackpot.

One of our plans for the basement is a workout room.  For now, my husband and I both do our workouts in our bedroom, and our weights are stored under our bed.  It works, but since we have all that space downstairs, a workout room makes sense.  One of the things I wanted for it was big mirrors, as we both feel that mirrors help us maintain our form when we exercise.  But mirrors – especially big ones – are not cheap.  Tonight I found a free listing on Craigs List for two wall mirrors; each one is 3 feet by 8 feet.  I have no idea how much those would cost if we were to buy them new, but I’m sure the price tag would give me shivers.  Happily, all we have to do to get these is drive ten miles into town.  I was the first response the lady had, so they’re ours.

For the last few days, I’ve kept the local Craigs List free page open as a tab on my computer, and I just refresh it every few hours.  As long as you can resist a whole lot of stuff that you might like but don’t really need (since that equals clutter!), it’s a great way to find awesome deals as soon as they get listed.

A reader emailed me a few days ago, asking for my thoughts on buying a car – so I figured I’d share.  I drive a 1991 Honda Civic wagon.  It has 218,000 miles on it, and has never once left me stranded on the side of the road.  Well, the muffler fell halfway off one time, but I was able to tie it back on with a rag that I had in the trunk, and make my way home MacGyver-style.  My husband and I bought the car in 2003 for $2300 cash.  We bought it from a private seller; he had been the only owner, and gave us meticulous records of all of the service work that had been done on the car over the 12 years he had owned it.  In the years since we bought it, the car has needed very little work, and has been very reliable.

I have no plans to get another car until mine just won’t go anymore.  At that point, we’ll look for another car, likely one that is around ten years old.  We’ll buy from a private owner again (Craigs List makes things like that pretty easy these days), and pay cash.

Driving an older car means that insurance and license fees are very low.  We pay $50/year to register our cars (it was $25 in our old city, but we also had to pay $25/car every two years for emissions testing, which we don’t have to do here), and only carry liability insurance on our vehicles.  We both have clean driving records and have our auto insurance, homeowners policy, and liability umbrella policy with the same carrier, so we get a discount on our insurance.

Coolness and looks play no part what so ever in my car shopping decisions.  A car is strictly for getting me and my family from one place to another, and most of the time it’s parked in my garage.  Anyone who cares about whether my car is cool or not isn’t a person whose opinions matter to me.  There are some factors that I do consider worthwhile when it comes to choosing a car: safety and fuel economy.

When it comes time to buy another car (hopefully a long time from now) we will look at safety ratings and fuel economy numbers, and base our final decision largely on those factors, combined with availability and price.  In terms of safety, yes, I know that there have been a lot of advancements in car safety since my car was built 18 years ago.  But my own driving is the biggest factor when it comes to my family’s safety in my car.  In 16 years of driving, I’ve never had a ticket (nor have I ever talked my way out of one).  When I drive, I drive.  Nothing else.  I don’t eat, mess with my phone, or look at a map while I’m driving.  I would never dream of driving after I had been drinking.  I always wear a seat belt and never exceed the speed limit.  My opinion is that those things make me safer – even in my old car – than someone in a brand new Volvo who is eating a burger and talking on the phone while tailgating the person in front of them.

Fuel economy is a major issue for me.  Environmental conservation is a huge priority for me, and driving – in any kind of vehicle – is something I try to minimize specifically because of fuel consumption.  We live in a small town (5000 people) and I don’t drive at all in our town – I bike or walk instead.  The town is only a few miles from one end to the other, so there’s no justification for me to drive anywhere here.  We have baskets on our bikes, and backpacks, and our son’s stroller has a compartment underneath that is perfect for hauling groceries or library books.  I usually make a trip into the nearby town about once per week (ten miles each way).  I combine all of my errands into one trip, and make sure that I don’t drive more than 65 mph on the highway into town (even though the speed limit is 75).  Keeping my speed down and avoiding aggressive driving while I’m in town means that my car averages 30 mpg, even though it’s almost 19 years old and on the larger side as far as Civics go (it’s a full wagon, with tons of room in the back).  Considering the fact that I drive less than 2500 miles per year, and that my car gets 30 mpg as it is, buying a new car in order to boost fuel efficiency doesn’t make sense – from a financial perspective or from an environmental perspective.  The energy required to build my new car would offset the small gain that I would make by driving a more efficient car (and it would take a hybrid to get significantly more fuel efficiency).

For a small segment of the population, space is an issue – if you have more than five people in your family, you’ll probably need something bigger than a car in order to have seatbelts for everyone.  But I will note that I often see large SUVs and minivans driving around with two or three people in them (or worse, just one person).  Unless you literally can’t fit your family into a car, why pay for more vehicle than you need?  Not to mention the higher fuel, insurance, and licensing costs that go along with larger, more expensive vehicles.

For an even smaller segment of the population, four wheel drive is an issue.  I would say that this is limited to people who live in small, snowy mountain towns where the roads aren’t plowed after every storm, and people who live on dirt roads.  In most urban areas, four wheel drive isn’t necessary.  In my opinion, it’s detrimental; I notice that as soon as the snow flies and the roads get icy, people in SUVs often think that they can still drive the speed limit.  And they end up in the ditch.

Driving an older car that we paid for with cash means we have no car payments, which is the best part of the deal as far as I’m concerned.  We’re saving money now for the day when we will eventually have to replace my car.  I haven’t thought much about a replacement, as we have two vehicles (my husband drives a 1990 Audi) and could use the other one for a while.  But I doubt that we’ll spend more than $5000 when it comes time to get another car.

I’m curious to hear your thoughts on this subject.  Do you have car payments?  Are you trying to get rid of them?  Did you buy your car with cash?  What is the most you’ve ever spent (or would spend) on a car?  Are you (or would you consider being) a one-car family?  Would you ever consider giving up your car all together and switching to bikes and public transportation?

I noticed a couple weeks ago that our son was starting to ourgrow most of his hand-me-down shoes.  His toes have gotten to the end of his size 5s, so I knew it was time for a trip to the thrift store.  I decided to get him two pairs of size 6 shoes, as I figured that would last him until he needs a bigger size. 

It only took me a few minutes to find exactly what I needed.  I found a pair of Stride Rite shoes (super cool, with little surf boards all over them – my husband said he’d like a pair in his size) and a pair of Lands End shoes, both size 6, and both with almost no wear at all (no toe imprints inside, no wear showing on the soles).  I also found a pair of size 6 winter boots – just in time, since we’re supposed to get a foot of snow over the next two days. 

As a bonus, I came across a miniature catcher’s mitt, which my husband thought was my best score of the day.  He got out his own glove and started playing a toddler version of catch with our son as soon as I got home.

All together, I spent $12.  For two pairs of shoes, boots, and a mitt.  I knew that Lands End and Stride Rite are good brands, but just out of curiosity I checked their websites to see what sort of a deal I got.  Most of the shoes on the Stride Rite site were in the $40 – $55 range, and the Lands End shoes were about $30.

In keeping with my mission to declutter our house, I dropped off a carload of donations at the thrift store.  The catcher’s mitt wasn’t on my list, but it was just too awesome to pass up.

If you’re not already shopping in thrift stores, you gotta start!

At our old house, there were two thrift stores within a 15 minute walk; now the closest thrift store is ten miles away.  I’ve mentioned that we very rarely go thrifting anymore, which has been helpful in my mission to purge the house of clutter.  These days, I only go to the thrift stores if there is something we really need.  I went a couple days ago, on a mission to find a small set of shelves to put by our back door.  We take our shoes off when we come in the house, and they end up in a big heap by the door.  I was looking for shelves that would fit into the small corner by the door and give us a neat place to put shoes.

There’s a Goodwill right next to my favorite grocery store, so I combined the two trips.  Within a few minutes in the Goodwill, I found a perfect set of shelves.  They are homemade, solid, and heavy, made of real wood.  Exactly what I was looking for, and for the bargain price of five bucks.  Since I found the shelves so quickly, I decided to browse around a bit.  I soon stumbled upon a great carry-on bag.  It was solid and well-made, with a retractable handle and wheels to roll it along miles of concourse.  It had tons of interior and exterior pockets, and was just a handsome bag overall.  I wanted it.  Up until a short time ago, I’d have bought it, simply because I wanted it.

But my new clutter-purging self decided to pass on the bag, for lots of reasons.  I already have a great backpack that works just fine as a carry-on.  It also works for hikes and day trips, which can’t really be said for the wheel-about carry-on.  I’m trying to eliminate uni-tasking objects from my life as much as possible, and a purpose-made carry-on bag isn’t really good for much else besides air travel.  If I were a frequent flier, I might have made a different decision.  But the last time I flew anywhere was in 2007.  We have a toddler now, and flying doesn’t sound so appealing anymore.  In fact, traveling in any form doesn’t really seem like as much fun as just hanging out at home with my husband and son.  In addition, my understanding of how my actions impact the planet has increased dramatically over the last several years, and these days the idea of flying just conjures up images of greenhouse gasses rather than exotic destinations.

So I put the bag back on the shelf for someone else to find, and left the store with the small set of shelves.  The corner by our back door is now neat and tidy, and I don’t have to find room in the basement for a bag that might come out of storage once every couple years.

All is good.

If you’ve been reading my blog for a while, you know that I’m not fond of toxic chemicals in our house or yard.  We grow all of our veggies using organic methods, clean the house with baking soda and vinegar, and avoid food additives like preservatives and food colorings.  So it should come as no surprise that we don’t want our son wearing pajamas treated with flame retardant chemicals.

I know other parents who feel the same way, and their solution has been to go out and buy new cotton pajamas that say “wear snug f’itting – not flame resistant” on the tag.  I have found a few pairs of these at thrift stores, and our son has been wearing them this summer.  But he’s starting to outgrow them now, and winter is coming.  I know that I could go back to the thrift stores and search through the pajamas to find more that aren’t treated with flame retardants.  But I’m trying to avoid shopping in general – we already have too much stuff, and I don’t want to add anything else.  I’ve been sorting through our stuff and weeding out clutter, and it feels great.  We live ten miles from the thrift stores now, as opposed to where we used to live, which was half a mile from two great thrift stores.  This is great for my efforts to save money, get by with less, and avoid consumerism in all its forms – including buying used stuff that we really don’t need.

So our son is now wearing sweatpants and sweatshirts to bed.  We have several that will fit him all winter.  They were hand me downs and items that I purchased at thrift stores before we moved, and they make perfect pajamas.  I pair them with warm socks, and he’s all set for the night.  Thrift stores are frugal, but making do with what we already have is even more frugal, and it serves a secondary purpose of keeping the clutter in our house to a minimum.

Yesterday I baked a loaf of whole wheat bread in our sun oven.  Then I decided to make eggplant sandwiches.  I had a fresh farmers market eggplant, which I sliced up and drizzled with fresh garlic, olive oil, salt, and pepper.  Then I put the eggplant slices in the sun oven and left them there for about an hour.  Halfway through their cooking, I added a bell pepper from our garden to the sun oven, and roasted it along with the eggplant.

I assembled the sandwiches with tomatoes (from the farmers market – ours aren’t ready yet), lettuce from our garden, mustard, and vegan mayo, along with the eggplant and roasted pepper.  They were amazingly tasty, and I love that all the cooking was done for free.  As a bonus, it was done without heating up my already warm kitchen, and while I was able to get other stuff done in the house.  Here’s a picture (I’m not a food photographer by any stretch, so please ignore the glare):

We also installed a clothesline yesterday, which I’m very excited about.  Actually we just installed the poles – we still have to add the lines, which we’re going to do tomorrow.  My husband found the poles at a scrap metal place he’s been frequenting lately.  They had been cut off at ground level, so they’re a bit shorter than normal.  Once we got them embedded in concrete they’re only about four and a half feet high.  But they will work perfectly… after all, I’ve been using folding clothes racks that are about four feet high for the last two years.  The best part about the poles was that they were scrap metal, sold for 25 cents a pound.  He bought a bunch of other stuff with them; we don’t know exactly how much they cost, but we’re guessing it was probably around ten bucks.  One of the T-bars was broken, so my husband snagged another piece of pole scrap and welded on a new T-bar.

We commented on the fact that our new clothesline area takes up as much space as we had in our entire backyard at our old house.  Here, it’s only taking up a tiny little area of yard to the side of our house.  Reason number 742 that we’re glad we moved!

We decided to start taking our son to the pool this summer.  And that means swimsuits.  Our son has several cute ones, thanks to birthday gifts, and my husband is pretty comfy in his standard trunks.  I hadn’t bought a new suit in several years, but I have several that are in good shape, and I tried them on last week.  The bottoms fit just fine.  But the tops are, uh, a little tight.  And I think they will continue to be that way as long as my son is nursing.

So, a shopping trip was in order.  You all know I’m a huge thrift store fan, but for things like socks, underwear, and swimsuits, I prefer places like TJ Maxx, where the clothes are much less than mall prices, but new (it’s an off price retailer, and they have all sorts of name brand stuff at discounted prices).  We have a TJ Maxx just a few minutes from our house, and I went browsing through their swimsuit selection over the weekend.  I found a suit with it’s original retail tag still on it ($109 – yikes!), a perfect fit, and a TJ Maxx price tag of twenty bucks.  The tag said it was irregular, but I can’t find anything wrong with it at all.  Score.  Now I don’t have to worry about flashing the babies in the wading pool.

I also got a nifty sun shade for the jogging stroller, for five dollars.  Our son pretty much always rides in the Moby Wrap or Hip Hammock, but when I go for a run, I put him in the stroller.  I don’t really like putting sunscreen on him, so he tends to wear long sleeves and a hat when we go out.  The stroller is old (it was a hand me down, which we happily accepted) and just has an awning over the top.  The front was completely open, but my new sun shade clips onto the awning and works perfectly.  We were out for a couple hours yesterday afternoon while our house was being shown, and he was in shade the whole time.  Five dollars well spent, even if it was an impulse buy.

Last night I decided that we needed some new pajamas for our son.  He’ll be one in a couple weeks, and this is the first time we’ve ever had to go clothes shopping for him.  This is due to the generosity of a friend who gave me her son’s hand me downs (which were given to her as hand me downs – we’re really into recycling around here), and to the fact that I believe that it doesn’t matter what babies wear as long as they are comfortable (thus you’ll never find me at the mall looking for cute outfits for him).  Anyway, after nearly a year, we had run out of pjs that fit.  So we headed to our two neighborhood thrift stores today, on a pj mission. 

I found lots of pajamas (including two piece sets that have not been treated with flame retardants, one of which had never been worn).  In addition to the pajamas for our son, we found all sorts of other goodies.  We spent a total of $46 between the two stores.  Here’s a look at our loot:

Two pair of zip-up pjs, a sleep sack, and a cute little shirt.

A Columbia jacket for me, two pair of shorts for my husband, a big saucepan for our solar oven, a yoga band, a garlic storage container (I currently store all of my produce in one huge bowl on the counter.  So my garlic snuggles with my mangos.  Now the garlic will have it’s own little home), and a Hip Hammock.  The Hip Hammock was only $3.50, and I tried it out in the store before I bought it.  I still love my Moby Wrap when we’re walking long distances, but it’s not the easiest thing to put on.  The Hip Hammock took about 5 seconds to get on, and our son happily rode around in it while we finished our shopping.  I checked it out online when I got home and found that some had been recalled a few years ago, but this one is a newer model that hasn’t had any problems.  Not bad for $3.50!

And more stuff for the little guy:  Two sun hats, a pair of swim trunks, two more sets of pjs, a really cool jacket that I think is handmade (it doesn’t have any tags or logos in it.  It’s amazingly well made), a pair of little guy slippers, a soft book with all sorts of little person-friendly activities that our son didn’t put down the whole time we were in the store, and a sweatshirt.

All of that for $46.  Have I ever mentioned how much I love thrift stores?  I can’t imagine ever shopping anywhere else.  Even if we made twice as money as we do now, I think I would always see it as a waste of money to buy things brand new.  Not only are there bargains around every corner when you shop second hand, but I love the idea that you never know what you’ll find when you go thrifting.  It’s always an adventure.

I sold our old bed frame yesterday, for $20.  I put it on Craig’s List and got about ten responses within the first few hours.  So I guess I could have sold it for more, but I really wanted to get rid of it, and the $20 price did the trick.  It’s nice to have it out of the house, not taking up space anymore.  And the $20 is nice too.

Selling the bed frame made me start to look around at the possibility of selling some of the other stuff that we’re getting rid of in our effort to declutter our house.  I typically just drop everything off at the thrift store, and rarely sell anything.  I thought about the possibility of a garage sale, but my husband pointed out that a garage sale does involve a lot of time and effort compared with just tossing everything in the car and taking it over to the thrift store.  And everything we’d be selling is small stuff – there’s no big ticket items.  This post from the Joy of Frugal Living sums up my thoughts on selling our stuff as opposed to donating it.

A few years ago I tried buying clothes at a low-priced thrift store near our house and then re-selling them at a higher priced consignment store in a nearby town.  It was ok, and I did come out a little bit ahead.  But when I factor in the time and effort, it was a pretty low-paying adventure.  I think that the same would be true of selling the stuff we need to get rid of now.  Most of it is clothes and small household items – things that would mostly sell for $5 or less.  We tried listing some clothes on Craigs List last year, and nobody contacted us at all, even though they were pretty cheap.  I think that a garage sale would be the best way to sell our stuff, and neither of us really wants to put in the time required to set up a good garage sale.

So yesterday I made a trip to the thrift store and dropped off a huge bag full of stuff.  As we continue the decluttering process, we’ll keep making trips to the thrift store.  It’s a Habitat for Humanity store, so the proceeds go to a good cause (as is the case with most thrift stores).  I figure I’ve gotten a lot of benefit from shopping at thrift stores over the years (especially that particular store), and it makes me feel good to be able to donate back to them.

I think that if we had furniture or expensive stuff that we were getting rid of, we’d try to sell it.  But we tend to keep expensive stuff until it reaches the end of its useful life.  I have some friends who sell stuff on eBay and get pretty good money for their stuff.  But their stuff was a lot more expensive than ours in the first place.  Just about everything we have was second hand when we got it, and didn’t cost a lot of money.  Maybe that’s why I’m ok with just donating it when we don’t need it anymore.

What do you think?  If you had a bunch of low-ticket items that you wanted to get rid of, would you hold a garage sale or donate everything to a thrift store?