Frugality with a purpose...

I have always been a frugal kind of gal. I have been called everything from frugalista to tightwad. I prefer frugalista, of course :)

My penny pinching ways have always been for the benefit of my family. I am of the opinion that if my husband brings in the money, it’s my job to stretch it as far as it can possibly go. One of my favorite ways of accomplishing this has been to make my own laundry detergent and fabric softener. This saves me about $25-30 per month.

Another way we stretch our dollar is to once-a-month cook (OAMC). I get together with some of my favorite friends and cook about 200 meals in about 5 hours. We buy all of the ingredients in bulk so, our savings are significant. I then take about 40 meals home and freeze them and just pull them out daily. If we made dinner at home every night, our meals would cost around $10. If we ate out a meal for our family would be no less than $30. If I estimated that we would eat out twice a week and cook at home the other five days, that would cost $110 per week or $440 per month. Our average OAMC meal cost $4-5 and sometimes less. That costs only $35 per week or $140 per month. That gives me a savings of $300 per month. Plus my family is eating healthier food and we are around our table for precious family time.

Here is where it gets good!! With my $360 per month saved I can feed 14 orphans every month or one orphaned child for 8 years!! I could also save that money and once a year have $4320 for a mission trip. Sounds like a good deal to me!!