A brilliant US site - Thriftiness becomes us

http://adrienne22.wordpress.com/2008/06/20/changing-the-way-i-think/

I like to think that I do my research... a media degree and a life spent sorting out other peoples lives means that the more information I have to back up my actions the more comfortable I feel.

So, when the frugal girl came into my life I said "Oh hello.... did you bring anyone with you?"

The times they are a changing and the boom we have all enjoyed with limitless credit, cheap borrowing and easily maintained credit scores is fading. It remains to be seen where this is all heading and getting into the political arena isn't something I'm comfortable with (too much research to do!). I often find myself looking back at women who have had to deal with so much harder times, who approached the whole situation with style and stamina. My Grandmother's (well probably your great-grandmother's - feeling old today) generation had to make do and mend - they had no choice - post war there really wasn't a lot of anything to go round and my mother generation struggling with the 3-day week and strikes in the 70's and 80's it's pretty clear that we've got no idea what struggle really is.

I know this isn't really fair to all and this really does come from a middle-class university educated stand point. But I've earned at the bottom and the middle of the scale and I've taken advantage of the "free" credit and I've got myself in a mess and back out again. Which I think most of us can say when we come out of the other side of our 20's.

Being terribly serious - but I guess I'm illustrating the real reasons behind this site. I'm feeling the squeeze - my food and fuel bills are effected - just as everyone else's are and that means that our fun money is shrinking. The idea behind this site is that your fun money can still be fun, just because there's less cash, shouldn't means there's less fun. Money is useful, but it really can't make you happy - so why should you let it make you miserable?

I have digressed enough - I have been scouring the Internet for fellow frugal girls - having some issues finding fellow Brits! It seems there is a dearth of fab, fun women all across America who are keen to live life taking a creative approach to how they use their resources. This seem to be a key theme, it's not really about how much money you have - but about how you use it.

The link at the top of this post is to a really clever article written by
Adrienne on her site "thriftiness becomes us" (see link to her home page on the right hand side of this page). It's all about how she approached the problem of her bookshelves.... I love it - the basic principles can be applied to everything really....

She is looking for more storage space for her books. Already owning 4 sets of shelves, but needing more room. She takes us through 3 steps:
1) look for shelves in the thrift store
2) look for shelves in yard sales
3) make the shelves I have work.

I love this approach - she has never once thought "go to IKEA and pick up some new shelves" - even though IKEA is a cheap option - she's looking at minimum spend!!!

The main parallel I found with this approach is - my WARDROBE!!!! It's the time of year when we're all packing our bags to spend some time away from home (my thrifty holiday involves Ryan Air - calling in a favor and staying with relatives who happen to live abroad) and the holiday wardrobe is always a good excuse to go out and by a themed set of brand new clothes and accessories - usually "hanging" the cost of some items - simply because they match.

I was researching the holiday capsule wardrobe in a forum on the moneysavingexpert site and I can see - we're all similar - a good pair of trousers, couple of skirts, swim wear, couple of pretty tops etc etc.... all with a similar colour theme in order to get the most our of the fewest clothes. GREAT!!! in fact LOVE IT!!!


I'm applying the two principles above to my holiday packing firstly:
1) can I make what I have work?
2) can I borrow anything from my friends?
3) does Primark or eBay have an alternative for less than £2.50?

Frugal dressing is a whole different ball game - I'm enlisiting some of my wonderfully trendy friends in order to create the "Frugal Fashionista" - watch this space - and watch out of Gok's new programme on the subject - he's my hero!!!

Thanks to Adrienne for the inspiration and thanks to all the fellow frugal girls who are spreading the love! :)