Last June our regular frugal lifestyle received a major hit: our one car was totaled.
We avoid debt where possible so we paid cash for a replacement, but our bank account were reduced to uncomfortable levels. We vowed to get back to our normal pitiful savings asap.
Today, 8 months and 10 days later, we achieved that goal.
If you've followed this blog since last summer, you know some of the tricks we've used to squeeze the most out of our limited resources.
One important aspect I haven't mentioned is the help of others.
Americans are enamored with the rugged individual myth, the loner who takes on the world, the outsider who pulls themselves up by their own bootstraps. But the real world doesn't work like that; no one makes their own boots, let alone handcrafts the bootstraps. We all are part of a community and need the give and take of other people (a hard truth for this hermit-inclined introvert to accept).
Help has come in big ways and small, both sought for and unexpected.
The loan of a car, free bags of kindling, the return of canning jars thought long gone, a neighbor plowing the driveway after a blizzard, the opportunity to earn a few dollars working the polls or substitute teaching, free wood from a remodel down the road, a gift of cash when least expected (thanks Mom!), being able to use free social media to sell a few unwanted items, the STAR program that reduced our taxes to a manageable level, and the NYSERDA loan program that saved us when the furnace died.
Thanks to all. As the saying goes, it takes a village to be a tightwad.
We will now take one or two days off from extreme frugality, then pitch back in and get that loan paid off!
