Iron

Over the summer my family floated down the Itchetucknee on innertubes. The kids were in front, then the men and then Julie and I.  She told me about this conference she wanted to go to at the end of September.  It was being put on by Jenny at Southern Savers and Jennifer from Balancing Beauty and Bedlam and it was going to be at Ridgecrest in N.C.
Sign me up I said.
Then we met up with our other friend that had gotten seperated from us and we invited her too.  But really, our friend Anne should have been with us too but she had recently had knee surgery so we called her up and she said if she was strong enough by then.
So we went.
Anne was on crutches.
Shanel I booked it to each conference room ahead of the mob of other attendees so we could save our dear friend a seat.
All of us agreed the best session was from the Nester.
She shared with us how different shades of whites are friends.
That was freeing for me.
I thought white was only friends with it's exact match.  I have been afraid to paint anything white in living room because it wouldn't match my white pottery barn t.v. armoir.
I know t.v. armoires are out,
I'm okay with that.
Anyway, besides myself she was the most frugal person I have ever heard...except she pulls it off well.
Very Well.
And she was gracious and unpretencious.
She talked about getting rid of stuff.
So what do I do?
In my attempt to get rid of stuff I threw away Elise's spelling words for the week....not quite what was called for.....should've started in my room.

The rest of the sessions were encouraging because I am already saving money on our grocery budget, I am already cooking cheap. I am already spending next to nothing on clothes.

But I have relised that I need to work out of an envelope that has only our grocery cash for the week in it...and when it's gone, it's gone...and if there is extra then save it for a week when I need it.
Another thing that I have not been doing is keeping a log of how much I spend on the items I buy regularly.
How will I know if the sweet peppers are cheaper at Sam's or Publix...turns out there is only a 5 cent difference.

As we drove home from N.C. I suggested we take the info that we know and use regularly in our households and hold a living frugally seminar at our church for our ladies. In attempt to work toward that goal we are meeting to put together what we know. The first week we made crock pot lasagna together, tomorrow we are going to make stuffed shells together.  We'll see what becomes of it.
Maybe nothing.
Maybe it is a good way for some iron to sharpen iron.

As iron sharpens iron,
So a man sharpens the countenance of his friend. Proverbs 27:17

Here is another website to check out:
The Fun Cheap or Free Queen