So as I mentioned last week my family is getting ready to get on the road full time and travel. This means we are selling 95% off our stuff and getting ready for the community yard sale! We started in the formal living room we don't use and from there moved to the 2 car garage that is packed full of stuff and no room for cars and ended our journey in the basement.
It was this day I discovered I had been living lie. It took me a few weeks to be able to tell you about it because really I know you come to the blog to read way to save money and learn to be more frugal. The lie I had been living was apparently I was not very frugal.
See I THOUGHT I was doing great. I was saving money every month, cutting bills where I could. I would watch our electric bill like a hawk and yell at people to turn off lights in the house. I would limit our eating out (even so it would get away from me here and there). We have a strict budget for each category we spend money on. I shop around I use coupons, but not to the full advantage I could be, I have to admit.
But as I sort through my desk in my living room, I found unused notebooks I didn't know I had, boxes of envelopes and about 500 pens and pencils. It didn't get much better in the garage. I started going through my holiday stuff first and my fall decor I had 3 sets of salt and pepper shakers 2 of which never opened. Un used tablecloths and table runners and placemats. Decor with price tags still on.
It got worse! We found 4 boxes of diapers and I had just bought a box the week before because I thought we were out. 2 boxes of wipes again I thought we were out and had just bought a box. 4 brand new kitchen cleaners all unused. A case of sports drinks that went bad before it was used and multiple duplicate cleaning items, none of which I knew we had.
My husband also wants me to point out we found 6 , yes SIX, cases of paper in the garage because I can't resist a free with rebate deal on printer paper since we homeschool. He is only letting me take 1 with us on the road so we are selling the rest.
My only reason for this happening is that we let our garage get so overcome by stuff and not keeping it organized that we might as well have been throwing money out there and forgetting about it.
So there you have it I'm not as frugal as I thought. Between the unused stuff, the doubles the forgotten stuff and the stuff that went to waste we guess-imated we had wasted about $700 since we moved to this house. This is my story as to why a bigger house isn't alway better and why moving to a small RV is going to save us money in more ways then 1!
I felt the same way when I did spring cleaning. I can’t believe how many duplicates and triplicates I have of some items. But, it is the first step in realizing what I have, so I don’t waste money buying what I already have.
That happened at my house on a smaller scale. I hadn’t cleaned out our bathroom cabinet in I dont know how long. I ended up having enough toothpaste and soap to give some away and still have plenty in reserve.