I have never been taught the value of a dollar. My parents kept things like that a secret. Although I remember being yelled at for asking to use the car during one of our country’s ‘gas rationing’ years, I don’t remember my parents explaining why during their rant. Thankfully my lack of financial knowledge has never gotten me into a pickle I couldn’t get out of and I have always managed to get the bills paid before they became overdue.
However, due to recent events, I need to get myself into the learning curve of understanding the value of a dollar and making it stretch further than I am able to imagine.
As you may remember, my FIL has spent much of this past month in a hospital in the bigger, bigger city. During this time, my husband has been living in a hotel with his mom in the same bigger, bigger city. (I just had a call from my husband this morning, they are releasing his Dad today!) This means that my husband’s annual leave and FMLA is disappearing and many days are being clocked in as ‘leave without pay’. This isn’t a trend that is going to change any time soon. My FIL has been diagnosed with pancreatic cancer and will require radiation and chemotherapy in the weeks and months to come.
For us as a family, this means being available for any need that may arise. For my husband, it means taking time off from work. For me, it means reducing my client load (a source of income that has me saying ‘I can’t believe I get paid this much for doing this - the blessing of having an education in a much needed field) - my teaching is at night so that can remain as is. As you may remember I have already begun reducing my client load when I made the decision to homeschool - now it may virtually have to be non-existent. These are decisions that must be made when your commitment is putting family first.
Being frugal is going to be a challenge for me. I found some great suggestions through the Frugal Friday meme.
What are your suggestions to get me started?
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When my grandfather was in the hospital an hour away and I had to stop part time work to drive my grandmother there each day I picked up a few tricks.
Pick up cheap snacks in bulk of the sort you are likely to get at the hospital. I carried all sorts of things–juice, granola bars, nuts, whatever was necessary to keep from buying snacks at the hospital (those vending machines are expensive.) Also find a place that has super cheap gas and combine trips when you have to go out. We did a lot of school stuff in the car–and still do much of our learning while driving through conversation, tapes, and reading. Make or pickup some easy to heat meals in bulk–we ate a lot of stir fry which is cheap and fast because I was too tired and would be tempted to go out to eat. Keep bags fulln of what will be needed at the ready. We kept a spare set of clothes in the car for each of us and had activity bags for the kids and a bag o drinks and snacks by the door ready to go. It saved a lot of stress and forgotten items when we were already stressed (forgotten necessities cost money since you have to purchase something to replace them and that is expensive at the hospital).
As for the one staying home, make sure the fridge is well stocked in case things get bad and you are going to be away from home a lot (we bought several loaves of bread and froze them, two made into sandwiches and froze so we had quick food.) The less “we are out of this so I have to run out and get it” trips the cheaper things will be. Keep change on hand and make sure it is budgeted or marked down. Keep a place in your bag for receipts so you don’t get a surprise at the end of the month (hospital stays always ruin our budget but saving the receipts and keeping costs in mind helps–I found that taking out a set amount of cash and only spending that kept things simpler than trying to do a regular budget–all you have to write down is the cash you took out.) I am sure I have more tips but will have to think back and remember.
Danielle Says: Thanks Heather!! One of my biggest concerns is the big chunk of time the commute will take into our homeschooling. Your suggestion here is perfect. As is the extra clothes. We did find ourselves spending an unplanned night and this did result in extra $ spent. Thanks again for the great advice, I am off to print your comment and work it into my plan of ’staying afloat’ during this stormy time.
Danielle, check out this blog by a fellow Oregonian…she’s got TONS of suggestions and her thriftiness is amazing. She wrote a great entry on frugality just the other day, and she has several more in her entry links as well. She’s definitely worth checking out:
http://www.peterpanandfamily.blogspot.com
I’ve spent most of my adult life “robbing Peter to pay Paul”, juggling finances. We’ve always had enough, but never a lot of extra. I dunno…I come from thrifty New Englanders who grew up during the Great Depression and I’ve always been careful with money. I have no great wise advice…for me, it’s always been a part of life, keeping a close eye on finances. Wish I could help!
Danielle Says: Thanks for stopping by Miss Kris! I am glad to see you ‘up and about’
It seems as though we continue to have much in common…to include ‘robbing Peter to pay Paul’. It seems as soon as we are able to stop doing that another tidal wave of life comes crashing in! I really love that website that you recommended…and also her ‘diet’ blog. Thanks!!!
The thing that works best I think is not going shopping. You won’t buy anything if you’re not in a store. And since you do need to buy food, plan what you will buy ahead of time and then don’t allow yourself more than 5 (or whatever item number or dollar amount) of extra items not on your list.
Since we are in the same situation of going back and forth to hospitals, I would say accept all help offered. We would be in bad shape if we tried to do everything ourselves.
Danielle Says: Thanks Heidi for taking the time to stop by and say hello! You are in my prayers this early Monday morning as dear Baby faces surgery. I agree that one thing that will help will be curtailing my ‘retail’ therapy and keeping to my grocery list (especially since I purchase our groceries at Walmart). Keeping you in my daily prayers!
I’ve started a new homeschool meme for Mondays and I thought that you might be interested. If you want to participate, just write a post about a highlight from your past week of home learning. Then, come to my blog and sign Mr. Linky.
I will be linking on Monday!
Danielle Grins: Funny you should mention this Ellen. I had stopped by earlier today and noticed the beautifully bright button for Monday’s meme and knew that I would love to participate! Thanks for the invite
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I have had to be frugal most of my life,and now on a pension I still do but not so much as when I was a single Mom with a 3 teenage sons at home and a deadbeat Dad who did a bunk to Europe. One of the things I had to resort to was putting all the bills on a spreadsheet and cycling the payment of them. I found most companies don’t get upset if you miss a month so I would pay the electricity one month and the telephone the next and so on. I simply did not have the money to pay everything up to date. The other thing that helped I think was have a good sit down talk to my boys about money and the lack thereof, when they understood the situation they did not ask for things and we all made do with a greater grace.