Frugality and Common Sense

I read an article today about people who routinely go dumpster-diving to find food and other things they need. The woman featured in the article was not poor or homeless or even down on her luck - she just chooses to do this for the sake of frugality. I don't know if I agree with her mentality but I do know this - people tend to throw away perfectly good stuff all the time. All one needs to do is drive around during "clean-up week" and see the evidence on the berms of every yard in town.

I think it's very easy to get an upside-down view of "needs" versus "wants" in America. I remember after our fourth child was born, our oldest daughter was mortified to see me resort to using cloth diapers during a difficult financial stretch we were going through. I laughed at her expression as I diapered our youngest and told her that when she was born, I almost always used cloth diapers. Her grimace only deepened!! Then I told her when I was a baby, disposable diapers were unheard of! It was a good moment to teach her about needs versus wants.

We live in a small town, so the grocery prices here are higher than they are at the larger stores in the larger town my husband works in. I almost always purchase items on sale, and once a month or so I go to Wal-Mart or one of the bigger stores (like Cash-Wise) and stock up on staples and bulk items. I recently got the largest sizes of rice, sugar, flour, pancake mix, syrup, boxed cereals, and a few other things that we always use. It's so easy to whip up a batch of pancakes for a quick meal around here. And the kids love them for breakfast!

I don't know if I'll ever resort to actual dumpster-diving, but I'm not opposed to utilizing the thrift stores (I LOVE going there!) or things like eBay, Craigslist, and FreeCycle. As a matter of fact, our dryer just died - and I am picking up a used one today from someone on my FreeCycle list! I'm so thankful!

I could write lots more about this but my hubby wants the computer. Or does he need the computer? Hmmm...