The Hustle of Sistah Ant

I have a little ant on my blog because she is my reminder of the story about the ant and the grasshopper (see my first post).  I imagine that while the ant was gathering for the future, she wasn’t gobbling through all her stuff ‘cause she knew she’d need it later - it was the right attitude to take towards her stuff.  For me, frugality is about the attitude you take towards your stuff.  How much are you willing to pay for it?  How long should you try to preserve it?  When it is better to let go and spend money to get more?

In line with Mapgirl’s post, here’s a (probably not comprehensive) list for how I stay frugal.  Just a note - I’m remembering these things by tracking what I generally do from when the alarm goes off to when I sleep at night:

I have a small apartment with very little space, resulting in lower rent and a tendency not to buy stuff unless I have somewhere to put it.

I don’t pay professionals to do my hair.  I use Suave (cheap but quality) hygiene products - shampoo, body wash, etc.  I do my own eyebrows, bikini line hookups, pedicures, manicures, facials, deep conditions, the works - ever since before college.  Over the past several years of experience, I have obtained all the same tools the professionals have, and I’m pretty good at stuff.  The few times I use professionals, it’s to treat myself and remind me what I’ll get to do when I’m finally a baller.

I wear gas-permeable contact lenses - they last as long as a pair of glasses as long as I keep ‘em clean.

I don’t go "shopping" for clothes, purses, shoes, accessories and the like.  When I buy things like this, it’s a planned, budgeted, and necessary expense, not a recreational or emotional purchase.  I don’t dry-clean, I use Dryel.  I mend buttons.  I take good care of my clothes so I don’t have to keep buying.  I still have clothes from when I was in high school.  I use shoe polish.  I buy timeless and stay away from trends.  Needless to say, I don’t have a Louis Vuitton anything.   Name brands are for people with retirement funds and no old credit card debt.  My time will come, and when it does, I probably won’t buy that stuff then, either.

I take the bus to and from work.  My job participates in a program where I receive transportation vouchers for the cost of my transportation - the paycheck withdrawals are tax-free, reducing my taxable income.  I save mileage on my car’s engine and I save on gas and parking this way.

I eat instant oatmeal for breakfast at work.  The weekly cost is cheaper than eating out, or even having cereal and milk.  Breakfast takes the edge off of my hunger so I don’t have to eat bigger, more expensive meals later on.

I keep salad ingredients at work and make salads, or I have whichever frozen meals were on sale for $2 or less at the grocery store that week, depending on my whim.  My job also provides fruit, granola bars, fruit cups and yogurt to promote our health, and I use them to supplement the lunches I bring.  I never spend more than about $15 a week on the first two meals of my day.  If I eat out for lunch, I choose from the dollar menu or get a couple of $1 hot dogs from a cart.

I cook dinner, or my boyfriend does - one way or another, we try not to eat out for dinner more than once a week or two, or three.  And if we do eat out, it’s cheap, like Chinese or pizza.  Going out to a nicer place does happen, but not often.  I pretty much cook chicken or ground beef that were bought in value packs that I repackaged to smaller servings - I stopped eating as much pork and beef when I was in college and couldn’t afford to buy them.  Rice is a staple of almost every meal, one, because he’s West Indian, and two, because it’s a filler and it stretches our stir-frys and stews.  I usually don’t buy lots of snacks, I just fill up on real food (unlike my boyfriend, who can eat a lot AND snack a lot).

We are the king and queen of leftovers.  Storage containers and freezer bags, cling wrap and aluminum foil are our friends. 

I don’t pay for cable. And I don’t pay for internet.  My laptop has WIFI and I use it for internet, as if I were in a coffeehouse. 

I don’t have a house phone either, just my cell, with no text message package and no insurance.  I don’t buy ringtones, and holsters, and shiny doodads and whatnot.  I don’t surf the web on my phone, I don’t check email on my phone, I don’t use it as a stereo, I just use it to call folks.

General Stuff: 

I buy gas in New Jersey.   It’s as much as $0.30 -0.50  cheaper per gallon over there, so when I go to visit someone or run an errand there, on the way home, I pick up gas.

I buy stuff on sale.  If my favorite yogurt isn’t on sale, I don’t buy it until it is on sale.  If my oatmeal is 1/2 off, I buy more than I need in order to tide me over to the next sale.  I know the good sales from the fake ones, ‘cause I watch the prices.

If I travel, I stay at someone’s home, not a hotel.  If I can get a deal on a rental, I’ll drive that instead of putting miles and wear on my own car.  I don’t take big vacations.  I visit family - THAT’s vacation.  Either that or we’ll take a daytrip to somewhere like the park or a beach or the boardwalk.  I’ll save cruises and Europe and Africa and the Caribbean for after I worked out the household budget in a house I actually own.

Movies?  Matinee.  Evening is a treat.  We don’t go often, and when we do, we eat before we go - then we don’t need popcorn and jumbo sodas or candy.

Dancing?  Performances?  We’re either known at the door, on the list, performing, or in before the price goes above $5. 

I’m not a smoker or a drinker, so I guess that saves me money, even though I don’t feel it because I have no previous expense on that stuff to compare it to.

Birth control is a great way to save money on diapers, pediatrician co-pays, family insurance coverage, college savings, and Kid’s Meals. 

Books and CDs?  Used or borrowed.  I rip CDs into my computer for my media player - which keeps me from having to buy tracks and albums online.  I like the library, used bookshops, or book fairs for books.  I only have one magazine subscription, Black Enterprise.  Knowledge on the cheap!

I get money at registers for free cashback, not at foreign ATMs. 

I keep my car’s operation maintained well (with coupons sent to me from the shop).  But I only use car washes when I’m embarrassed - otherwise, the rain is my friend. 

I throw stuff out when it needlessly takes up space, isn’t efficient, doesn’t work, etc. and when I replace it, I get durable, efficient stuff.  Keeps me from annoying and expensive repairs and problems. 

I use plastic shopping bags as lunch boxes, deep conditioning caps, trash bags, garbage bags (do you know the difference?), and for general tote needs.

The dollar store is my friend.

I don’t see any of this as deprivation.  I don’t miss what I can’t afford yet, ‘cause I haven’t had it yet.  I enjoy my life.  I enjoy debt repayment.  I enjoy the idea of having my own house, and maybe even rental property one day.  It especially doesn’t feel like deprivation because I’ve been living like this since I got my first apartment about 8 years ago, so this is the rhythm of my thinking - making decisions like this come naturally to me.  And I’d probably be in twice as much consumer debt if I hadn’t been frugal all this time.