Do without - Frugal Friday

For the past four weeks for Frugal Friday, I have written about one of my favorite phrases - "Use it up, wear it out, make it do, or do without!" This week I would like to share some ways to "Do without!"

Looking at my lifestyle compared to others, there are many things I am doing without.

1. hip clothes
2. new vehicles
3. cable TV
4. nice furniture
5. a laptop (but I want one sooooo bad!)
6. I could go on and on...

However, because of my choices there are other things I am doing without (or will be doing without as soon as we accomplish our goals):

1. stress over money
2. debt
3. keeping up with the Jones's

In many cases, doing without also means you free up money that you can use to pick up bargains and yard sale finds. There are many things that I would never pay full price for, but I have an abundance of because I picked it up at a yard sale:

1. Books - I do have some books I purchased new, but most of them are yard sale finds. A few years ago I happened upon the mother lode of children's books for $.20 each! Yes, that's right and I bought about 40 of them. My son and daughter has an extensive book collection, none of them were purchased new.
2. Kids clothes - granted, I do get a lot of hand me downs from family (THANK YOU!), I have purchased tons of clothes at yard sales for my kids. If I was purchasing their clothes new, they would have about 1/4 of their current wardrobes.
3. Kids toys - ditto above, my kids have a lot of toys. This is only because I pick them up at yard sales for less than $1.00 (most of the time). Any new toys they have were gifts.
4. My food stockpile - the frugal lifestyle I have chosen has also allowed me to build up a great stockpile for the future.

The best part about 1-3 above is that when I am done with most of these things, I can sell them at my own yard sale for at least as much as I purchased them for making the use of them FREE! (Of course that won't work in all cases, but if you pick up your stuff at the lower end of the spectrum of prices, you can usually re-sell it for at least the same price.)

So there you have it - doing without???? Is it really doing without?? I would say it is more like doing without the things that don't matter, so you can focus on the things that do as well as be thankful for what we do have!