A Path of Frugality

This is the first post on a year-long path of frugality. My husband and I recently transferred to Northern California from the East Coast and challenged ourselves to live as frugally as possible for the next year. I moved a month before he did (April 10th), jobless, with a month's salary in my savings account, and discovered that I can live on a lot less than I was. I started looking through my "penny wasters" and saw so many places I could cut out or at least cut down on. I have to wait for a California Nursing License before I can find a job, so I have watched my pennies very carefully. Mark and I enjoy our toys, love traveling, and our two incomes have enabled us to live like we wanted. I challenged myself to, over this year, build my savings, pay off debt, and simplify our lives. I figured Mark would be hard to sell on the idea and I resigned myself to the fact that while he may not be willing to take the challenge, I would still follow through on my journey. He raised his eyebrows when I pointed out a 10 cent savings here, a 20 cent savings there and so I painted it in a whole picture approach. Frugality doesn't mean doing without, I explained, it meant using our hard earned money the best way we can. 10 cents doesn't seem like a lot but I quickly calculated and pointed out a month and then a years savings and he was quickly won over. He jumped on board, full speed ahead, and admittedly, it might be the freshly baked snacks he has gotten, the good meals I've cooked, and the shared vision of paying off our debt that won him over. We don't do anything halfway and jumped in feet first! Shopping has become a game, we watch the gas prices closely, and plan ahead. The purpose of this blog is to, hopefully, ignite the fire of frugality in others, to share ideas, to pass along what we learn along our journey.
If you have tips, ideas, recipes, questions, or comments, please either post in the comment section or email me so I can post your thoughts to the blog. Pass the link along to your friends and let show the bad economy that we won't buckle, we'll fight back and not only survive, but to be a stronger financial community.