Frugal Boot Camp: Frugal Luxuries by Tracey McBride

I first purchased this book when it was published in 1997.  I cannot imagine not having space on my bookshelf for this lovely book.

And there's good reason why I chose to end my boot camp with this book.

Tracey McBride elevates frugality.  It's not about being cheap or miserly.  It is about living well, savoring the good things, learning to make the very best out of the lesser things and moving gently through life to a rhythm that is different from that of the world at large.  It is because of Tracey that I began to keep a gratitude journal after I left my last job and money was so very, very tight.  Every night I wrote out five things I was grateful for and I found that often enough, the things that had meant the most during the day had little to do with cash flow and a great deal more to do with appreciation.  It amuses me no end that at times I wrote out the menu for the day.  Amazingly the ones most appreciated and which tasted the best were also the most economical ones, but they were seasonal and delicious. 

While I understood the rudiments of a frugal life (which Tracey beautifully explains with quotes from well loved authors and clearly written explanations), I had not gained the 'better life' ideals.  I learned these from Tracey.  Not only how to better manage our income but how to graciously ask for help (calling debtors and creditors if we were unable to make a payment),  how to enhance what we had (using herbs and wine or fruit juice and vinegar to create the subtle quality of wine in a dish), and how to expand a wardrobe (purchase only items that will go with at least five other pieces in your current wardrobe) among many other tips and helps.  The final chapters under Shelter are probably the most lovely chapters of the book.  It is through these chapters I learned to scout thrift and yard sales to look for beautiful pieces to bless our home and enhance our lives.

Beauty in frugality is a rare thing.  It's a delicate balance of not only stretching the dollar but making sure that the stretching of it is both gracious and life enhancing.  I know this from experience now, but I learned of it first from Tracey.

I get hard focused sometimes on 'making do' but ultimately I want to live well, in a genteel way, if you will.  While I might well be focusing on 26 ways to stretch my grocery dollar, I want above all for the people who sit down to my table to never guess that the meal was merely a means to stretch a dollar.  I want them to gain a wonderful memory of a meal eaten with good people, in a home filled with peace and joy and lovely things.  

Frugal Boot Camp: Blogs Worth Reading

During my weeks of Frugal Boot Camp, not only have I been reading the books upon my book shelves and scanning Pinterest for interesting money savings tips, I've been reading the archives of some of the blogs from my favorites list.   Some of these bloggers are fairly new to me.  Some, like Rhonda and Annabel I've been following for a good long while.   I spend a good bit of time online (don't ask how much, please.  You'd be shocked I ever get a thing done!)   Some may be new to you.  This is a shortened list because I follow other's blogs on a less regular basis but I follow them.  I just prefer to keep my favorites list short and then I'll do a marathon reading day and catch up with others.  But I wanted to share a few of my favorites with you.

Can I just share how I go about reading blogs?   I follow a few weekly.  I visit some on a routine basis throughout the month.  Now and then I take time to go to a blog I've enjoyed and read all the archived posts.  Another day when I've a need to rest harder I'll go to a blog and read through their blog rolls, the blogs they've listed in the side bar that the follow.  I've found some terrific blogs this way.

The blogs I'm featuring here today are here because they boost my frugal thinking power. I've learned things, I've thought harder about the things I do and why, I've been inspired  by the bloggers I'm listing below.  Some you may be familiar with as well. 

http://thebluebirdsarenesting.blogspot.com/  Annabel started blogging about 3 years ago after she left a group list I'd stumbled upon.  I've followed her ever since.  Annabel adds elegance to being frugal.  She makes the most luxurious things and yet none of them are pricey.  She's a great one for 'getting the look for less'.

http://ifyoudostuff.blogspot.com/  I've known Rhonda via email, various groups and her blogs and mine for years upon years.  We've raised families together and seen life changes together and I count her as a true friend.  Years ago when I was having trouble staying motivated, I posted Rhonda's blog title on my kitchen bulletin board.  "If you do stuff, stuff gets done."  It was just the daily reminder I needed when I was gazing at a project I had been procrastinating tackling.   Rhonda's money saving skills are spot on.  She cooks from scratch, she sews, she decorates, she gardens.  She works hard in her home and she's an inspiration to me every time we 'talk'.    And if you're looking for a recipe, check Rhonda's.  I've never ever tried a recipe she recommended and not liked it!

http://aworkingpantry.blogspot.com/  I'd heard about Patsy for years before I visited her the first time.  I thought I wasn't much interested in her blog at first, as I seldom use canning to preserve anything, but there came a moment when I realized that Patsy had a lot to teach me about building a pantry. Over the years I've come to appreciate what she has to offer. 

http://www.theprudenthomemaker.com/blog/  Brandy has a lovely blog.  She is a talented gardener as well as photographer and she too has seen the hard times and lived to tell the tale.  She is such a gracious spirit and truly does her best to make things beautiful.  Her blog is fairly 'new' yet but she has a world of information and such on her website so explore it fully.

http://gdonna.com/  Sarah mentioned this blog to me about a year ago I think.  I let it go unnoticed for a  bit but after her second mention of it I went and then another reader mentioning her to me, I went ahead and checked it out.  It's such a charming old fashioned sort of blog and interesting as can be.  It's full of good solid thrift. 

http://atrayofbliss.blogspot.com/  I discovered Mimi's blog about the time I did Annabel's.  I've only recently gone back to read her archived material.  It's a blog full of gems...which suits Mimi's sparkling style.

Now there are many more I read, but I don't have time or room to share them all.  However, if you'll start with these few and read some of those featured on their bloglists, you'll soon have a world of new bloggers to boost your frugal fitness.

P.S.   Sarah mentioned in comments about Laine's letters.  How could I possibly forget?  I've got that link in my favorites list as well!  And yes, she was very influential in my early frugal years of homemaking!
http://web.archive.org/web/20040609142553/http://lainesletters.com/letters.html

Frugal Boot Camp: More Than Enough

As part of my frugal boot camp I read back through archives of the old Penny Ann Poundwise newsletter and this article stood out as a good reminder of things I might do yet to trim and cut our costs.  We no longer make instant coffee, so the tip on the coffeemaker isn't good but we have cut our coffee consumption this past week.  I still run the dishwasher and washing machine on short cycles unless things are heavily soiled, which is very seldom.


Penny Ann Poundwise
August 5, 2005
More for the Money
How Much Is Enough?

Several years ago, when I first started writing this newsletter, I
wrote a column titled same as this one. I've had occasion to ask
myself the same question again this week.

Frugal Boot Camp: The Complete Tightwad Gazette by Amy Dacyczyn

 
From $4.03 to $16.97 in paperback on Amazon this book includes all three of Dacyczyn's Tightwad Gazette books. 

Amy Dacyczyn published "The Tightwad Gazette" newsletter for several years.  The books she later published were compilations of the articles and recipes and tips she shared in those newsletters.  Her very practical, down to earth manner of writing clearly explains cost breakdowns (I found my own scribbled calculations in the margins of one page), the mindset that is required, and many practical recipes, examples, and more related to living a frugal life.

Questions, Answers and Comments, Oh My!

Since the bulk of the past month has been all about Frugal Boot Camp,  I am going to address comments chronologically starting with the first post of the month and working my way through to the last post.  I won't be highlighting individual post this month.

I mentioned saving dishwater to water plants rather than running extra water.  Sarah reminded me that Granny and Grandmama both had two dishpans, one for washing, one for rinsing.  I do remember them both taking those dishpans outdoors and dumping that water on the flowers outdoors.  Sarah wisely suggests pouring the water into a bucket to take outdoors.

Saving water was a hot topic during this first post. Gramma D asked me if I'd been told "If it's yellow let it mellow..." No, we weren't.  Granny had an outhouse (and for a short time during my growing years so did we.), but that was one area of 'savings' we didn't use. 

Both Sarah and Gramma D mentioned Joanna York.  I vaguely recall reading her articles in women's magazines.  I did a search to see if anything came up but I didn't find a thing about her.  I was sure she'd written a book or two but I'll have to look a bit harder to find that.

Off the Beaten Path

We were sitting in the kitchen talking the other day when a strange car pulled into the yard.  The man in the car drove around and looked hard at our new shed and then pulled up to the porch and stopped.  It seems when the delivery truck brought the shed last Monday they stopped first at his place.  He sent them on, but was intrigued.  He'd come to see the shed up close.  Now honestly, I was a little put out.  This is not at all the usual around our home!

John went straight to the door and spoke with the man.  They walked about and looked at the sheds and came back to stand in front of the back porch.  He and John talked a good little while and John took him out to the new shed so the man could examine it more closely.  This man was interested in purchasing a shed for his property.  John smiled when he came indoors, a little of it relief.  To come up to our house takes a bit of boldness.  People don't generally show up here except on purpose. We don't live on a main road and you have to drive about a quarter mile into the property to get to the house.  You don't just wander by our place.  However, it helped to discover this man is actually a neighbor.  He lives up the road from us and like our place his is off the road, just not as well hidden as we are. 

Frugal Boot Camp: All New Square Foot Gardening by Mel Bartholomew

All New Square Foot Gardening by Mel Bartholomew is a revision of his popular book Square Foot Gardening.  Available on Amazon for $10 and up,  I found mine at Dollar General for $5.

Why a revised book?  Because the author simplified his method in several ways.  He now urges that a gardener not dig six inches down in the earth below the garden boxes but simply use a good soil mixture atop a barrier in the bottom of the box (weed mat, cardboard).  He's added upright supports for some plants in the boxes.  He's made the boxes more portable by suggesting some of the boxes have bottoms so they can be placed on patios or near a home's doorway.  In short, he's made gardening even easier as well as frugal.  Because fewer seeds produce a maximum crop and labor is decreased his methods insure a novice gardener a good measure of success and because the size of the boxes can easily be accommodated to the smallest yards, every one who's interested may have a garden.