When Thrift...Isn't

I love my thrifty friends. I admire their creativity and penny-pinching skills. I love reading thrifty blogs. I love seeing photos of beautiful homes created from thrift-store finds and handmade gorgeousness. I love it all, truly, and I am very inspired by all these amazing people.

However, I cannot always (or even regularly) duplicate their thrifty successes. I've beat myself up about it for a long time, wondering what was wrong with me, and why I didn't "get it". I've finally realized though, that it's not necessarily a fault on my part. We all have differing levels of disposable income. We all have differing resources at hand.

I don't have any stores nearby that will double and even triple coupons on 35 of the same item that already has an earth-shattering sale price. Heck, 75% of the time, the coupon books we get do not have discounts for already-on-sale items, and about 99% of the time, that applies to things I actually want to buy.

I don't have the money at hand that would allow me to buy a $100 dining set, even if it is $1500 lower than the original asking price and a Super Thrifty deal, for sure.

I don't have thrift stores nearby where I can get a sturdy dresser for $10, and can repaint it myself for a better-than-new addition to our furnishings--their prices are up too. Gas prices prohibit driving all over town to yardsales on the off-chance that I could get such a deal.

I can't build our own furniture and call it thrifty, because $50 or $100 in materials is still that much money that wouldn't be there to pay the gas bill or the water bill or the property taxes.

And I do not have the mental accuity required to successfully accomplish once-a-month shopping. Tried it. Multiple times. Each time, my accounts at the end of the month flashed a bright neon "FAIL" at me. I also tend to spend more when I go to multiple stores in order to catch multiple deals. Ultimately, I spend less when I max out at two stores, with a set list of simple, cheap foods to buy. And keep our menu boring. Right now, we eat to live.

In other words, for every level of thrift, there are some people who do not have the ability to call it thrifty in their own situation. It doesn't mean those who can are not thrifty. They are using wisely what they have. Which is the best any of us can do.

Thrifty, for us, right at this moment is this:
Not buying stuff. At all. Unless it is absolutely, positively, unavoidably needed.

Not going places. We have family visits, we have homeschool gym, we have shopping/library day, and there's work related driving. That's about it. As much as we'd like to, at the moment going to the midwife center picnic, or special events several hours away, or to the other side of the city for no good reason are things that can't happen right now.

Using what we already have. Sometimes in creatively "alternative" ways (see the previous post on grass cutting).

Accepting that Clean, Tidy, and Reasonably Functional is the maximum that can be accomplished with the house, and that decor and furniture will have to wait.

Putting up with ugly carpet. Putting up with ugly bathtub. Putting up with ugly linoleum. Putting up with sweaty windows. Putting up with not-enough-bookshelves.

Shopping for necessary items starting with the cheapest place possible--St. Vincent De Paul on $1/item days--and then moving on to Dollar General and Big Lots, and if I absolutely have to, then looking at other stores.

Borrowing (thank you, Mom and Dad!).

Keeping our eyes peeled for free stuff. Truly free stuff, as in free stuff that does not need money spent on it to make it useable.

Practicing conservation with what we already have rather than putting stuff we can't afford on credit because it promises to "pay for itself in 2 years"--toilets, front-loading washers, etc.

For us, right now, that's Thrift. And you know, it's not actually a bad life. It's not a thrilling, magazine-worthy, picture perfect life. It's not a situation we're looking to maintain ad infinitum. Sometimes it does seem interminable and frustrating. But we have what we need (my waistline chimes in with "Yea, even an overabundance, verily!"), and we have each other, our family, and our friends. Anything else is icing on the cake.