Feeling Less Than Frugal
Feeling a bit defeated, I sat down to write my Frugalhacks post. The truth was that I was not having many frugal thoughts these days. I hadn't even tallied up my latest grocery shopping purchases to subtract from my food budget. It wasn't that I was afraid I had gone over my limits, just that I really didn't want to see how much was left for the rest of the month!
Several birthdays hosted at my house, (I am not complaining, they were glorious!) visits out requiring food that I didn't have on hand and working on a project for Husband that keeps my from having extra time, has left me less than frugal. I wondered how could I expound on the frugal life while I was thinking thoughts of too many purchases without frugal care?
Taking some time to analyze my dilemma was helpful. Sometimes the busyness of life can overwhelm my senses so much that I lose sight of the blessings of seeking to live the frugal life. This life really isn't based on my feelings. Feelings come and go and are not necessarily truth. Sometimes to make a little bit of extra money, it costs a little bit of extra money. The fact that this month has not been as careful a month as many is okay because of all those other months of more frugal living. This project which is taking extra time now, will hopefully provide more funds than those I am losing by not cooking more carefully.
Maybe part of my problem is that once I loosened the belt a bit, I did not like the feelings of having to tighten it again. And so I pondered on how it can be much easier to write about the frugal life than it is to live that way. I found it much easier sharing of how I survive in South Texas without air-conditioning until evening when it is 100 degrees outside, than the actual process of perspiring and trying to function in such heat. (Unless you are Kimc. She loves it!) I assured myself that I wholeheartedly believed that cooking from scratch really is the way to go, even though it does seem to complicate life sometimes.
Yes, I guess I just needed to give myself time to reflect on my lack of frugal feelings. Feelings or no feelings, I reminded myself I had not gone over budget and careful food shopping for the rest of the month will be a great antidote to get me back in gear.
Anyone else ever struggle with feeling less than frugal these days?
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6 Responses to “Feeling Less Than Frugal”
July 14th, 2011 at 6:48 am
Feeling less than frugal today. Yes, when you have hospital bills more than you have income one will feel less than frugal. That is why I am reading, learning cutting where ever I can. I know where most of the buys are now. I no longer drive with the air conditioner on, I open all a4 windows instead. We sit with the living room light out and allow our back yard flood light to light our way. Sstop using paer towels instead we use those washable micro cloths, buy our wet ones at the dollar store and many other foods and things there too.The large clear bag that the hospital sends you home with, I use it to store my empty soda cans, and I can see what I am reaching for and it is so much faster redeeming them. Keep us the great work
July 14th, 2011 at 8:07 am
Gayle:
What an encouragement your are! Love your attitude and hope that you will find ways to work on those hospital bills.
July 14th, 2011 at 8:56 am
Love sweating in a house without ac? I think you have me confused with someone else. I enjoy ac very much and don’t live sweating at all.
But I do love our electric bill in the summer, and in our 3rd year without ac most of us are finding ourselves thoroughly acclimated. This is certainly a journey that gets easier as you go!
July 14th, 2011 at 9:05 am
Sorry Kimc! I just thought you enjoyed hot weather!
July 14th, 2011 at 6:47 pm
I was just thinking about this very thing last night. The past few weeks we have been overwhelmingly busy. I have not had time to prepare frugally as I normally would due to circumstances out of our control. It is so true that the times we are careful, help make up for the times we aren’t. Thanks for the encouragement!
July 16th, 2011 at 3:41 pm
Yes, I have found it very hard to be frugal the last few months, between my chronic being I’ll, the hotness of summer and my dh working out in the sun. So we try to buy convenience frugally and look toward warm instead of hot weather to pick up frugal again .
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