3/11/2009

frugal

the quilt

What am I the most frugal about?
Books and furniture. I see no reason to pay full price for either and will happily wait for a good deal. On the latter, I usually wait until I can find it free either by dumpster diving or freecycling.

Where do I typically pay full price?
Probably food--although I tend to shop at stores where I can buy the foodstuffs I want at reasonable prices. Also, I will opt to buy the ingredients to make my own foods rather than buy overpriced prepared foods, which saves.

Where do you go frugal and where do you splurge?

[Note: Picture above is of a quilt that I pieced and sewed for my kids' school a few years ago. All of the fabrics were donated by the children and I assembled them in a collage fashion around some childrens' drawings to make something that (IMO) turned out to be high energy and fun. I loved playing with all of the donated scraps of fabric and seeing the way they worked together--making patterns out of the randomness. The quilt cost very little to make, but seems worth far more because of each child's contribution and because it has "character."]

6 comments:

Lucy said...

What a wonderful quilt.

We have owned very little new furniture in our 27 years of marriage. I buy most of my clothes at the thrift store or the Target sale racks, but that can't be considered frugal because I own many times more clothes than I could ever need. Occasionally we participate in a food co-op.

I just started knitting dish cloths out of the string Felix's newspapers come bundled in while I sit in the car waiting while he delivers them. That is more to keep busy than to be frugal, but my sister laughed hard when she saw them and said she'd take as many as I give her. Also she agreed that our grandmothers would be very proud.

Anonymous said...

That quilt is so gorgeous! Amazing craftsmanship and creativity.

I splurge on clothes but would rather buy a few pieces and wear them to threads than have a lot of anything. I am frugal on pricing where wine is concerned. I'll drink almost anything but find that it is easy to find economically priced, good tasting wine. I also buy ingredients and assemble my own food most of the time.

Erin G. said...

I love the quilt! It's awesome!!

Brooke said...

I've always wanted to see a picture of the quilt because I remember you describing it to me. How wonderful!

Elissa Minor Rust said...

That quilt is amazing! I'm the same way about furniture--to me, it just isn't worth breaking the bank over when there are so many creative ways to get what you need.

As a writer, though, I'm in favor of buying books. :) Every time somebody tells me that they "borrowed my book from a friend . . ." I silently think, "You owe me my 7.5%!" Do the math on seven and a half percent and you'll know why I need to be so frugal about furniture. (I jest, of course. Sort of.)

littlemissattitude said...

I'm frugal about most things. In fact, my best friend calls me the "Queen of Frugal". :)

But, I will spend extra money for the good sourdough bread at the store (not much of a baker, me), and I've been buying more new books lately. Oh, and I'll spend for the good wool when I want to knit something special.

Elaine