Save 100%
From a blog called Small Notebook:
One day last week I surprised my daughter with a trip to the mall so she could run around the children’s play area. All of a sudden, I saw lots of stuff that I didn’t even realize I needed until I saw them on sale. Especially sales for children’s clothes.
These are the stores I have been to in the last 30 days:
1. Thrift shop, once, because the Boy and the Husband needed new slacks and the FYG needed new shoes. The guys found pants, our daughter didn't find the shoes.
2. Grocery Store with a department store (not a Wal-mart, but similar to that or a Target, just a local version)- we bought needed groceries and I bought my daughter the shoes.
3. A drug-store because my 12 year old cut a pretty deep gash in his thumb with a friend's hunting knife, and we were out of bandaids and peroxide. We stopped at a drugstore instead of a grocery store, because that was on our way home, and a grocery store was pretty far out of our way.
4. I did buy something online, a math textbook for the 14 year old. I used Amazon Affiliate links and Swagbucks purchased Amazon gift certificates to buy it.
I didn't set foot inside a mall, coffee shop, restaurant, bookstore, or any other place to spend money. I didn't go anywhere where you have to pay an entrance fee to get in, not that there's anything wrong with that, it's just those things are not the only or even the best way to have a good time. I had a good time anyway.
Here are some things I did instead:
Went to church
Taught a lady's Bible class.
Went to visit a friend
Went to a big family volleyball tournament and watched my husband, son-in-law, two youngest children and several friends play volleyball all day while I sat in the shade and visited with my eldest daughter and friends.
Cooked with the kids
Cooked with the kids again, and again.
Had friends over for dinner (lots of times)
Went to three different libraries (this is fun for me) on three different days, one of them all by myself, and picked up four excellent old books for free at one of them.
Took the kids and kidlets to the park- an old fashioned park in an old fashioned town where I used to come to visit my great-grandmother and my late uncle and one of the slides and the merry go round spinning thingy are the same exact ones I played on forty years ago. That connection and continuity is so funny to me because I am 48 years old and the longest time I have ever lived in one state is nine years, and I was 17 when we left that state. I haven't lived in a single house longer than five years since I was 8 years old- but here I am in a place where the family connections and roots go back nearly two centuries. Weird.
Took the kids and kidlets joy-riding in the golf cart. Sang at the top of my lungs while doing so. Drove it along the grassy verge near enough to a highway that we could wave and be waved at. Yes, we live in the country and I love it.
Took the kids and kidlets to a free movie in town (our theater shows a free kids' movie once a week all summer long. We saw Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs). Did not buy popcorn, candy, or 'even soda,' which shocked my young foster/godsons, but they had a grand time anyway. It was a truly free movie.
Read books.
Watched a movie at home on my laptop with my two youngest children.
Read aloud to the youngest two and my two foster/godsons, who live with us Saturday night through Wednesday night.
Admired my flowers- they fill my soul with a rich sense of quiet joy.
Spent precious time with different members of my family who fill me with even more joy.
Played a couple of word games.
Tried out a few new recipes.
Started a rearranging project in my bedroom.
Ate cherry tomatoes fresh from my garden
Played with my grandson
Organized my freezers
taught a child pig latin
I know there are other things- this is just off the top of my head in five minutes at 2 in the morning. Why 2? Well, besides being a procrastinating night owl, one of the other things I did this month, this week, in fact, is have a tooth out and it's keeping me up.
The point is- look at that long list of fun stuff- most of it was free. Some of it required some extra gas or groceries, but mostly I tried using what I had in my hand for the cooking.
So how did I save 100%? All those things I did not buy because I wasn't at the store to see them and discover suddenly that I needed them- I saved 100% on them. Instead of investing money in junk, I invested time in people, in relationships, and in my mind (the book-reading).
It's a much better return for the money, as the resulting joy is longer lasting, deeper, and more meaningful than the superficial pleasure over a new dress (that's going to go out of style), a fancy restaurant meal (that you will flush a day later and it will look just like every other meal you've flushed), or a nifty gew-gaw for the home that you will have to dust and shift for years (it would be less embarrassing for both of us if you didn't ask how I know that).
Save your money. Stay out of the stores and go do something simple, free, and fun with your family.
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7 Responses to “Save 100%”
July 16th, 2010 at 7:02 am
I hope everyone will read the entire article at Small Notebook also. From the excerpt, you may not realize that she did not buy anything, and the point of the article was that there will always be things on ‘sale’, but that you don’t have to buy things you don’t need just because it’s on sale.
July 16th, 2010 at 10:57 am
“taught a child pig latin”
onderfulway!!!!
July 16th, 2010 at 11:29 am
Exactly, Sheila. Esyay, Fairydust. Unfay!=)
July 16th, 2010 at 12:43 pm
What a wonderful reminder that the best things in life are free. I’m like you, if I go to the Mall or to a store, I will always find something I suddently need or want. It is just better if I don’t go. Thanks for the time it took you to write such a thoughtful piece!
July 19th, 2010 at 9:31 am
I discovered this simple approach to saving money–i.e. staying out of the stores–when I started homeschooling. Suddenly I didn’t have the free time to shop for all the things we “needed.” Within a few months my husband was commenting that we had more money left at the end of the month than usual! That was even with the expense of buying homeschool books and materials. Staying out of the stores (and off the shopping websites) keeps me away from temptation.
July 21st, 2010 at 12:17 pm
I also avoid television and magazines for the sake of advertising. When I’m bombarded with images of what my life “should” be, I start to feel discontent. Ignorance is bliss: I don’t know what I’m missing!
July 28th, 2010 at 11:06 am
I also started to avoid the television because it is bombarded with advertising and promotions that will tempt you to buy items which are not needed. Staying away from television helped alot, it showed me the world which I was missing out on.
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