Christmas 2008-Being a Frugal Renegade Part 3
Posted by: KarenLynnThis was the first year since I have started my frugal lifestyle back in 1995 that I have finally seen the ease or the rythymn of my frugal life style. I never realized how many things I just do out of habit. Some of the things that all of us frugalites do without even thinking. For example putting the chips from the party bowl, back into the sack, not putting out too many appetizers at once to avoid waste, realizing that one or two bottles of wine for the table is enough. All of these things I do out of habit without even thinking twice. I realize people who come over see my mini-compost trash can on the counter and watch me crack eggs and slide the shells right into the container. I have a basket on the counter that I automatically put canned beverages in as we cash in our aluminum in our household. Those pennies add up. Being a Frugal Renegade isn’t about going to major extremes. It’s about consistency with habits, creativity, and resourcefulness.
This Christmas was refreshing to me because I did not go through any inner struggle about not having a ton of presents for people. I handed over presents that I thought were thoughtful and caring and did not worry about what they were doing for me and my family. I have a budget and I stuck with it for our families. I noticed that all the gifts we gave were appreciated. I also made a lot of homemade gifts this year, I found some fabric dumpster diving actually. It was a very clean dumpster and I made decoupage plates and gave out plates with plate racks. The fabric’s were very nice and I was even given requests for plate for next year. I purchased the plates and racks at local yards sales, and I bought the modge podge with a coupon so each plate cost me about 50 cents to give out! That was my first “creative” Frugal Renegade action this year!
I am looking forward to continuing my journey and coming up with my goals for next year! Stay tuned for my final blog on being a Frugal Renegade Part 4 which will entail my New Years goals for being a “Renewed Renegade!”