I have been wanting to make a new post for a few days now, but every time I come to update, I shy away.  The truth is I’ve been making quite a few money mistakes lately.  I’ve been spending too much and it is making me feel horrible!  Much of the spending was done while we were on vacation.  I told Mr. Money how bad I felt about it, and he told me “relax, we’re on vacation.  You can spend a little extra.”  Granted, it really wasn’t that much money, but it was more than I had planned on spending.  Here are a few surprises: $30 each way for luggage on the airline.  Horrible! $2 for a soda or water on U.S. Airways. Not nice! $260 to board our dogs (a necessity) Around $280 for spending on things while we were in Colorado. There are some things I wish we had done differently.  I wish we had set aside money specifically for this trip.  I think we would have been better off had we used cash, or even bought a [...]

For months we have been going back and forth between purchasing a Costco membership.  The frugal side of me didn’t want to spend $50 on something I wouldn’t physically see.  I felt like that was money I was throwing away or being frivolous with.  One of our family friends has a membership there and we had been going with her.  When she left the country for 6 weeks, we were running low on dog food and decided that with as much fresh veggies and fruit we eat that it would be worth it just for those three things to buy our own membership. We did it Sunday night.  I’ve been two times since.  The first time Mr. Money and I went grocery shopping and the next I had to return peaches that someone (not me) didn’t check to make sure they weren’t moldy.  They were pretty gross.  I’ll have to say Costco was amazing about taking them back. We bought a lot of fresh fruit, vegetables, and even some things we hadn’t planned on because they were a really good [...]

Personally I believe frugality and “going green” go hand in hand. For example, when you replace your conventional light bulbs with CFL (compact fluorescent lamps), you are saving money in the long run because they use a lot less electricity than your regular light bulbs and last a heck of a lot longer too. The other day I was reading a message board, and the issue of “family cloth” came up. If your first thought was “what in the heck is family cloth?”, then you were thinking along the same lines as me. Family cloth, also known as cloth wipes, is basically reusable cloth toilet paper.  They are 4″ x 6″ squares of fabric, mostly flannel or cotton, that you use to wipe yourself with.  When you’re done, you put them in a “wetbag” and then wait until you are ready to do laundry. When you have enough to launder, you throw them in your washing machine on hot with a little baking soda if you choose. You get bonus points if you use laundry detergent you made yourself. When [...]