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Frugality means being able to cook from my pantry should I need or want to. My pantry is to me one of the keys to frugality when it comes to feeding my family delicously and nutritiously.
My path to frugality starts with my food budget, I am so lucky to have a lovely walk-in pantry. This being the case, I do wonder how I let it get out of hand, but out of hand it got.
Here's the shameful state:
Well today I gave it a quick once over. This is not my final pantry cleaning, but it definitely has it back to usable, and useful. I can now find what I need when I need it. Finding what I need when I need it in my pantry is a sure money saver, and therefore very frugal. Plus, this pantry now makes me happy, I like to just open the door and stand there gazing into it's shelves.
Here is my pantry now - - ahhhh...
As I write this, I am sitting pretty on my bed actually with a steaming cafe late that I just brewed. I hear the plow guys outside clearing my driveway. This little luxury will cost me $35. Now this is not a huge amount of money, but when there is 10" of snow, well then it costs me $75. Plus there can be many snowfalls in NE that require removal.
Last year I spent at least $750 on snow removal. I am considering buying a good snowblower which costs about that same amount. I confess I am scared on many levels. Since my beloved travels a lot, I'd often be stuck handling the machine all by myself, they look so big and I am smallish; maintaining the machine looks daunting; storing the machine, my garage is already the epicenter and as yet untouched capital of my clutter issue.
Surprisingly all the neighbors, even those who would never cut their own grass, have a blower, they are all men though. One of the men is flimsy, he's had a heart attack. I should be at least as capable as he is. No? oh, I don't know, it's not the expense of the blower, I am just scared to own such a big machine. What if it breaks? How will I even get it home? I'm sure Home Depot delivers. Actually one of my neighbors is a single woman and she handles her own blower nicely, she is 3X my size. I am 5'6" weighing 119 lbs, she is 5"5" weighing maybe 225lbs. She packs a good bit more power than I.
I admit to having difficulties handling any domestic things going wrong. I keep my home in tip top shape because I am literally frightened of more than one thing being broken at once. Disrepair and dilapidation gives me panic. A "fixer-upper" would never be in my cards. I would make an excellent "Hotel Resident" don't you think?
Meanwhile I sit here deliberating, my hard earned money flows, or is literally plowed from my door. I think I need to buy this monster of a machine. Stop making girly-girl excuses, be a woman, invest in the machine, and happily snow blow my driveway.
Frugality means sometimes spending to save. Over the years, how much have I already spent on snow plowing? I could have already bought a truck with a plow.
To be sure, all my emotional barriers aside, the purchase of a snow blower makes excellent fiscal sense. But I am in the process of simplifying, not adding big mean machines to my cluttered garage. Well, better a few useful machines than the useless clutter that now resides there. Poor garage.
Hopefully I can allow my intellect and good sense to override my emotional barriers. As I write this, my barriers seem sillier and sillier. We shall see.
Do you have panic over owning too many big machines, things that are not liftable? Is it just me with these issues? Is it just me that feels safer with junk than machines?
