An Inspiring Story of Frugality
Hi! I'm Mrs. Micah and I blog about all things personal finance at Finance for a Freelance Life. I also run a small blog consulting business and blog on blogging at BlogCrafted.
Today, I'd like to share a story of inspiring frugality that I heard this week. One of my friends is a doctoral student in psychology. Recently, her husband decided to go back to school and they've had to make a lot of cutbacks. She's also taken a job back home in Delaware (about 2.5 hours away) one day a week doing group sessions, something she'd done before moving down here. It pays a good deal more than her externship.
The drive cuts into her real earnings, but she's found a great way to make up for it.
On Friday, we were discussing some delicious fudge she'd bought and she told me how she'd managed to use doubled coupons and a BOGO to do so. Then she dropped the name of a store in our hometown. It turns out she and her husband are making up for much of the cost of the trip by buying groceries while they're up there.
That shouldn't make a big difference, except that the cost-of-living where they are in Northern Virginia (NoVA) is shockingly higher than in most parts of the country.
For instance, I popped into their Safeway to get some chocolate chips and discovered they it cost a full $1 more than here on the Maryland side of DC, a increase of just over 20%. Back home in Delaware they cost even less. There's also much more selection in our MD store or the DE stores, space is less of an issue. And yesterday their gas cost $3.05 compared to $2.69 here and $2.42 in DE.
I expect that they could save 15-25% on pretty much everything. Buying their gas in DE makes the commute cost less. When you factor in the total savings, the cost of working so far away has gone down dramatically and her real earnings go up.
I was inspired by her creative frugality, which turned a tough financial situation into a much better one.
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7 Responses to “An Inspiring Story of Frugality”
October 26th, 2008 at 9:02 am
[...] I’ve got a post at Frugal Hacks about my friend’s inspiring story of frugality. I was blown away by the simplicity and common-sense of her idea, as well as the effect it had on [...]
October 26th, 2008 at 11:08 am
I have a 30-minute commute (no sitting in traffic, though, thank goodness!), and am always amazed at the difference in the price of gas in that town vs my town. It’s always 15-20 cents/gallon cheaper there!
October 26th, 2008 at 3:21 pm
Not to mention, no sales tax in DE!
Very nicely written, Mrs. Micah.
October 26th, 2008 at 5:44 pm
I’m intrigued by your comparison of MD and VA prices. When I lived in Montgomery County (MoCo) I would always fill up my gas tank and buy groceries when I was in VA, where it was cheaper.
Safeway is egregiously expensive for things like chocolate chips.
October 27th, 2008 at 6:08 am
When we moved from Colorado to Philadelphia I was appalled at the increase in the price of groceries especially considering the options are less in Philly (due to space constraints) we used to be able to get a full weeks groceries for around $70 in Philly buying less organic and more generic it costs $130! Gas in NJ can be 50 cents cheaper but you have to pay $4 to cross the bridge… We try to combine grocery shopping, gas getting and other errands in NJ so we only pay the toll once.
October 27th, 2008 at 9:11 pm
@Melissa, thanks! And if you’re the Melissa I’m thinking you are, thanks for letting me write about it!!
@Peony, I don’t know how these compare to Montgomery. DC gas is certainly on par w/VA, but I never make it over to MoCo. PG is much much poorer, however, and while our prices are higher than most places they’re generally lower than our rich neighbors.
@N, I know, the space thing is a real issue in some DC areas too, though I’ve found a reasonably large Giant with pretty good prices. But every grocery store I’ve been to in NoVA is cramped.
October 28th, 2008 at 9:26 am
Good example. I live in northern Fairfield County, CT, where gas prices are about .20 cheaper than in southern Fairfield County, where i work (45-minute drive).
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