Blarney bloggin'

The only thing I've done to celebrate St. Patty's day, so far, is throw a corned beef in the crockpot. No green on, no Shamrock shake, will do corned beef and saurkraut (for my husband! 'cuz - blech!) for supper tonight. I enjoy a good Rueben sammy, but without the bread, swiss cheese and thousand island dressing - the corned beef and saurkraut are gross! I hear your taste buds change every 7 years, though, so I'll give it a whirl...

The past two weeks, with Grace being sick one week and me being sick the other, have been sort of an indulgent two weeks. No checkmarks at the end of the month for me, that's for sure. I'm working this weekend on getting back on track with the old goals. Especially the menu planning on the budgeting. I have been looking around and have come to realize that frugality is a mindset. I found a post on 168 Ways to Be Frugal at Beingfrugal.net and reading through it - some of the suggestions seem a little um..."out there", but to me most of them sound like uh...COMMON SENSE...?

Grocery shop with a list...
Eat less...
Don't buy from vending machines...
Stay home as often as possible...

Um - der! Granted some of the things on the list were new ones to me:

Keep your freezer full - it's more energy efficient
Batteries in the fridge
Soup starters

but most of this stuff is just using your head, however - NONE of this stuff I used to do. I have definitely found that frugality is a mindset and it's not one that I possess. Frugality is something I do not have a natural bend towards. Even as I kid I can remember that my brother would save all his money to buy something big - Nintendo, etc...and I would just buy whatever I wanted, when I wanted - I rarely saved. Boo on me. The old quality vs. quantity concept. (Any wonder he's the accountant??)

I have to work at being frugal, at being cost-effective at not going for the convenience factor, but looking at what are more practical methods to the ins and outs of living i.e. baby wipes, baby food, coupons matched with sales, menu planning from the coupon/sale matchups. This is a whole new ballgame to me and quite frankly - living frugally isn't all that fun when you get right down to it. Granted, a simplistic mindset is definitely easier and more liberating and I don't think I really get caught up in materialistic desires (I could care less that our TV screen is only 27 inches and not Hi-Def...I could care less that we don't have a Wii system...I could care less that I only have 4 pairs of shoes...etc...) but at times it's so draining to be thinking frugally all the time. I think that's why I like to make it a game of mine - maybe so I won't get bored? So I won't abandon the principles I've learned once money isn't tight? Who knows, but I do wonder when/if I will get to the point where being frugal and financially wise/smart will become second nature and I don't have to concentrate on it all the time!