"Frugal and Loving It"

I recently read an article in a special edition of Women's Day magazine titled: "Frugal and Loving It."

"Serious times call for serious measures," stated the author who decided to try a month-long experiment to see what small changes she could make at home. First she implemented new rules by taking only one trip to the grocery store per week and found that limiting her trips to the supermarket curbed her temptation to buy things impulsively on a quick spin through the aisles; thus, saving her on the average between $20 and $30 a pop, equaling $80 a month or $960 per year. In addition she noticed the once-a-week shopping led her family to eat a lot of the food that's been sitting around the house, sometimes for months, take cereal for example.

Second, she would pack her children's lunch once a week instead of paying for school lunch saving $4 per week, $16 per month or roughly $117 per year.

Third, she ordered her two monthly prescription drugs (cost $75) through a mail-order plan provided by her insurance company, paying now only $121 for a three month supply, yielding a yearly savings of $416.

She mentioned other savings, but stated the most valuable lesson she learned throughout this process was that when you stay out of the stores, the temptation to shop is diminished. For birthday presents, anniversary gifts and personal needs, she now shops the Internet, registering at sites like FatWallet.com or Google's promotion codes by filling in the store name, which leads to an online ordering code that may result in discounts or free shipping. Sometimes, she added, you could use both. She also registered at dmachoice.org and had her name taken off a half-dozen catalog mailing lists.

It isn't that difficult to achieve some savings she concluded: "We didn't really give up anything in the process -- we just found new ways to get to the same end."

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