Friday, April 11, 2008

The Virtuous Woman

I've been doing alot of reading here lately on different blogs about being frugal & thrifty; the homemaker that God wants us to be. I like this definition that I found online:

Frugal:
–adjective
1. economical in use or expenditure; prudently saving or sparing; not wasteful: a frugal manager.

Here's what Proverbs 31 has to say~
'Who can find a virtuous woman? For her price is far above rubies. The heart of her husband doth safely trust in her. She will do him good & not evil all the days of her life. She...worketh willingly with her hands. She is like THE MERCHANT SHIPS; she bringeth her food from afar. She openeth her mouth with wisdom; & in her tongue is the law of kindness. She looketh well to the ways of her household & eateth not the bread of idleness. Her children arise up & call her blessed; her husband also, & he praises her...a woman that feareth the Lord, she shall be praised.'

I love that phrase...Like Merchant Ships....if you notice over to the right in my blog links there is a great blog entitled 'Like Merchant Ships'. She has some awesome advice & tips....be sure & check it out!!

Along with all my blog-reading, I also checked out a book at the library the other day...'The Tightwad Gazette' by Amy Dacyczyn. I've only gotten so far into it....trying to make notes as I go along....stuff I want to share here. But what I've been amazed at so far......is the stuff that we already do & just take for granted. For instance....here's a list from her book of '10 Painless Ways to Save $100 This Year':

1. Purchase 10 articles of clothing at a thrift store/yard sale.........No problem....do that ALL the time anyway!

2. Hang 4 loads of laundry per week....Also very Do-able for me. I hang as much as I can out anyway. Smells so nice after it's been on the line.

3. Once a month, make a pizza from scratch instead of ordering out.....Ashley laughed out loud at this one...we do this on Saturday night every other week & HAVE for ages now.

4. Write a good letter (or email) instead of making a long distance phone call......I added in the email part because this is what we do. I chat with mom every day online & also my best buddy, Danielle. Both of which would be long distance calls if we talked on the phone.

5. Reduce your soda consumption by at least 4 cans per week......The only SODA (us southern folk drink COKE) consumed in this house is what Chris takes to school...one each day. I hardly ever bought Cokes before then. Unless we just happen to pick some up on special occassions....but it's NOT an every day thing. And of course, what I DO buy is on sale.....like today....stocked up at Food Lion for the last couple weeks of school & the guys' fishing trips they take. Pepsi products were 12 pk cases.....4/$11....that's $2.75 per 12 pk.

6. Bake one batch of bread per week......OK, so ONE thing off this list that I DON'T do. ;-P

7. Save $50 each on 2 kid's BD parties by making homemade decorations, cake, wrapping paper, etc.........DUH!***See notes below***

8. Reduce your smoking by 3 cigarettes per day......Ummmm.....we don't smoke.

9. Reduce your whole milk consumption by 2 Gallons per week...........I can't even remember back to a time when we ever drank whole milk. Maybe for the babies when they were little, but we've always drank skim.

10. Pack 4 inexpensive lunches per week..............Chris most always takes a lunch & Clay tries to. Pretty easy for him having access to a frige & microwave, etc. I usually just pack him leftovers from supper the night before.


***As to the birthday parties......I ALWAYS bake my birthday cakes. Don't ever think I have gotten them a store-bought cake. As for the wrapping paper....we do alot of gift bags & of course you MUST save them & reuse them. We have this one blue gift bag with polka dots & sparkly blue fingies around the edge....I don't even know who gave a gift in it first.....but that bag has been around & around & around.....between Sarah, me, Ella & Maw. I have the bag right now & it's so sad...ripped down one side & I was just going to toss it....thought we had certainly gotten our money's worth out of it, but the kids had a fit & said we COULDN'T toss the blue birthday bag. So, in true 'hill-billy' fashion....I whipped out the duct tape & fixed 'er right up! Ha! Here's a little run-down of how much I spent for Jon's BD today. (which doesn't include the bow he's getting......it IS his 13th BD after all!)

~earphones-$4
~3 Old Navy Tshirts-$1.99 each ($5.97)
~various little tools-$4.60

~cake mix-.78
~frosting-$1.38
~candles- already had some in my drawer
~ice cream-2/$4.99

$14.57-treats
+ 7.15-cake/ice cream
------------------------
For a Grand Total of $21.72! Not too bad at all!

And BTW, the wrapping paper this year was .84 from the clearance bin at Target!

3 comments:

Babydoll said...

Love all the tips. I try to be frugal as well!!

Fatcat said...

I do a lot of those things too. I was baking bread quite frequently until I lost the blade for my bread machine. It's the darndest thing, we can't find it anywhere!

Anyway, thrift shop, check. Yard sales, check. (I got my daughter 2pairs of capris and a pair of shorts on Saturday for 2.50!) We don't drink sodas (cokes!) either. We drink skim milk, tea, koolaid and apple juice. Oh yeah, and my 2 cups of half strength coffee every morning!

I love the 1 gift bag and duct tape story! We've been known to wrap in white freezer paper and let the kids decorate it.

Fatcat said...

Apparently, even though I'm tired tonight, I still feel the need to put in a lot of exclamation points, LOL.