I mentioned yesterday that I wanted to share some of the things I do to save us money. Now, I could tell you to sew your own toilet paper or make a nutritious soup out of nuts you gathered off the sidewalk...but I'm not going to. Not only because nut broth sounds disgusting, either, but because I'm not that kind of money saver. I'm just not, and probably you aren't either. I enjoy the occasional depression era activity as much as the next gal, and heaven knows saving your butter wrappers to grease cake tins has intrinsic value, but as a long-term solution that sort of mentality is bound to fail. We don't live in a society that encourages that level of thriftiness, and I can't bring myself to do it.
This being said, I do use some 'make it do or do without' type goods. I make my own broth, for example, and I reuse my tin foil a few times. But as a general rule I follow one big overarching principle when trying to save money, and I'm going to share it with you right now.
Amy's #1 Rule For Saving Money
Obey Your 'Poor Point'
So, I've been 'cheerfully money-less" my whole life. My parents believed in raising my sister and I simply, and so we grew our own vegetables, made our own toothpaste, even did laundry by hand on occasion. And because this was normal for me, I never felt deprived in the slightest. I have friends who got cars for their 16th birthday, and so I imagine that if asked to wash their jeans in the bath tub they may have felt put upon! And ultimately, that's the whole thought process behind my theory of a poor point - the point at which you feel poor. It will differ from person to person even within a family, but, and this is the trick, you can't cross the poor point. If you do, you'll feel deprived and sad and you'll rebel against your own thriftiness and all of the money-saving tips in the world won't be able to save you.
For David, the poor point is food, specifically meat. If he opens up the fridge and there's lots of good, prepared food that he likes to eat waiting there for him, it doesn't matter if we're sitting on 23 year old bean bag chairs, David doesn't feel poor. For my parents, the poor point was air conditioning and wine, for my sister it was always the ability to bring her dogs to the vet, you get the idea. The poor point is usually pretty obvious, but if it isn't it will be as soon as you start seriously trimming the budget.
Now, two things. The first is this: The poor point isn't to be confused with what you "want" your poor point to be. If you say that for you, you feel poor without 450 thead count sheets that you replace every 4 months and 30 year old scotch, well, maybe what you are is a wee bit spoiled! Your real poor point is usually pretty cut and dried. It's Heinz ketchup over the store brand, buying that coffee on the way to work, a standing friday night movie date...not just buying wool every time you feel like knitting or golf weekends on the fly.
The second thing is this: Your poor point is not fixed in stone. Sometimes I'm ok with buying $50 worth of groceries for the week, and sometimes that makes me feel like Oliver Twist. Sometimes I can wash Samuel's diapers by hand, and sometimes I can't. I just can't. My poor point, through the effect of other factors, has shifted temporarily. And it can shift more permanently, as well. I've owned a washing machine for a year now, and honestly if I had to go back to the laundromat I would feel really poor. And on the other hand, supper used to mean meat every night to me, and my poor point has changed on that; I can eat pasta or beans now and not feel broke.
So, there you have it, my best advice on how to live happy when you're poor - just don't let yourself feel poor.
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