I’m frugal by nature. Even before I became a Christian, I felt it was wrong to be wasteful . In 1970 I made a decision to follow Christ and thereafter I realized that my inherent frugality was innate because I found in the Holy Writ in the letter to the Romans that God’s law is written on the heart of mankind and in the Bible God instructs us to be good stewards of the earth.A couple of practices my frugality has led me to are as follows.
How often I wash my sheets...
- My rule of thumb was to wash them once a week, every 7 days. But I got to thinking…we shower at night, go to bed clean. If I switched to washing the sheets every 10 days, I’d reduce the number of loads washed and dry from 52 to 36.5, which I think is a considerable savings.
How often I get my hair cut....
- I have very short hair which needs cutting quite often. Every 4 weeks had been my rule…but when I changed the frequency of washing my bed clothes it dawned on me if I switched to getting a hair cut every 5 weeks I’d go from 13 times a year to 10.2 times a year. I pay $37.00 for a hair cut, not including tip, so instead of spending $481 a year for haircuts I spend $370 in a calendar year saving me $111 per year. Currently I’m entertaining the idea of letting my hair grow longer---into a style that will only need a trim every 6 months. And while in that process I’m now going every 6 weeks instead of the fifth week. There is talk at my salon of a price increase too…and mind you I get my hair cut at J.C. Penney’s so I’m not going to a high end salon. And I live in TN which is relatively inexpensive when it comes to the cost of living.
These are just a couple of ideas. I do a lot of other “saving” things---like using micro fiber and water which I’ve found to be superior when it comes to cleaning eliminating the need for almost all household cleansers. I posted about it here.
Basically it is a game to me---I get a bigger kick out of saving then I do spending! I hope my husband appreciates me (smiling).