Take it slow

I went by Books-a-Million today and found the other book that I've been wanting to read: Amy Dacyczyn's The Complete Tightwad Gazette. The book is HUGE - nearly 1000 pages with tiny font similar to a newspaper; hence the term "gazette" in it's title, I suppose. I've only made it to page 113 so far, but I've gotten a good mixture of interesting tidbits on how to be more frugal, as well as some pretty extreme examples of how to be a tightwad such as how to get cheap return address labels by cutting out the mailing labels from your junk mail and gluing it to your reused envelopes. Okey dokey, then...

Today's tip comes from the preface - "Choose one new idea a week. One new skill per month." That's a great way to not become overwhelmed by trying to become more frugal. If you usually stop by Blockbuster's a time or two a week and rent an armload of movies (that, if you're anything like our family, you don't take the time to watch before they are due back), then try out the Redbox machine that I talked about in the previous post instead. That's a 33-50% savings for a movie rental right there (if you take it back within 24 hours). If you eat out regularly, cut your eating out to a couple of times a week. You'll see an immediate difference in the money that's left in your pocket, I promise.

Find the fun in being frugal!