Friday, November 2, 2007

Frugal Friday

If you missed my Frugal Friday post last week, please check it out here: The Frugal Fridge

This week’s Frugal Friday tip:

I think there is a quote that says, "If you take care of the little things the big things will take care of themselves". Or, "If you take care of the pennies the dollars will take care of themselves".

So my Frugal Friday tip for today is to take care of the small things. Looking back over this week I can think of many "little" things I could have done to be more frugal.

1. I paid county taxes one day late on our vehicle. Interest - $4.93. What’s so bad about this is the tax office is located right across the street from my office and I was actually in there the day before paying taxes on behalf of my office. AAARRRGHHH!!!

2. I returned library books late. Late fees - .50

3. Bought lunch at work instead of taking it 2 days - $8.00 (I could have at least bought something off the dollar menu, but was burned out on the dollar menu items and home made sandwiches!)

4. Waited until my vehicle was near empty to buy gas, Gas went up .20 per gallon this week in my area. If I had filled up a couple of days ago I could have saved $5.00. (Of course this could have worked in my favor, you never know when its going up or down, but I kind of knew it was going up..... Hubby told me.)

5. I’m sure we could all come up with some things we could have done more frugally!

That is a total of $18.43 that could have been given to my church or used to buy food for my church’s food pantry! This is not a huge amount but you can see how it could have been a much larger amount easily. Paying one credit card payment late will cost you $40.00. Can you tell this has happened to me before? Never again!!!

Its plain to see that disorganization and procrastination are the culprits in the lives of many people who have money problems.

My plan is to get back into the habit of organizing my week. This means writing down on my day book the due dates for things that incur late fees, such as library books and taxes. I also need to plan what I’ll be taking for lunch as well as the menus for the week.

Also the bill box at my house is in total disarray! I need to file stuff immediately!!!! If this had been done I would have seen the tax bill that needed paying!

I already have a strategy in place to keep our regular bills paid on time. I have listed all of the bills, their due dates and amounts on an index card which fits in the front of my check book. I can glance at it each week to see where I stand.

So lets get organized and stop procrastinating! That’s definitely one way to save money without pain!

For more frugal tips please go to www.biblicalwomanhood.com/blog.htm

7 comments:

Susan said...

Good points! I am terrible about getting library books back on time and picking up holds on time - there's a 50 cent charge for not picking up a hold within 7 days. And all this when I have e-mail notification from the library and I use Library Elf, an online notification system! LOL

Carrie J said...

Very good reminder. It does all add up very quick. If I don't write it on my calendar and keep it in a very public place I forget. Post it Notes on my backdoor also work well. LOL

Lori Harris said...

Same thing with our taxes! The vehicle excise tax got lost in the move and of course we hit with those stupid late fees! Have you tried setting up automatic drafts? That works wonders for me (and I know that you know how forgetful I am) :)

Mom2fur said...

A few months ago, I realized I could pay 'last minute' bills for CCs over the phone. Dang, it costs me $9 or so a pop...but at least the bills get paid and I don't get stuck with a $35 late fee charge. And heaven knows what it does to your interest rate.
Discover Card, btw, does not charge for this. I don't know why the others do...then again, the whole CC business is like legalized loansharking, IMHO. They'll get every penny from you.
I have been trying to keep better track of when bills are due and have been pretty good about them. You are right...those little bits of money add up!

Elizabeth Sue said...

Great post Debbie. It is the little things that nickle and dime us from our goals and helping others.
P.S. I am still doing that post in the coming weeks about coupon organiztion.
P.P.S You grandbaby is getting so cute, I feel the need to have another baby!!!!!!

Anonymous said...

Hi Debbie,
I was looking at my leaky places today too. I don't handle the bills in our home. Dave takes care of that and gives me an allowance. I need to get better at using my allowance each month.
Thanks for sharing.
Hugs
Elizabeth

Little Penpen said...

I got caught with a $40 late fee recently... never again!!!

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