Wear it out! Frugal Friday

I have written a few articles about how much I love and try to live by the quote, "Use it up, wear it out, make it do, or do without!"

This week for Frugal Friday, I'd like to talk about ways we can "Wear it out!"

When thinking about this article, I was picturing a threadbare sweater or old worn out shoes. I don't think that "Wear it out!" means that we shouldn't take care of our stuff, quite the opposite. I think it means that we do what we can to take care of our items, but keep using them until they are too worn out to be functional anymore.

In one of my articles I wrote about my car. I drive a 1986 Jetta (it looks just like the one pictured above). The thing is old, but I cannot part with it because it still runs great. We do what we can to take care of it so that it can keep on going. At $1,000 dollars over 2 years ago, we have definitely gotten our money out of it. From now on the longer I drive it the longer we go without a car payment. What we are trying to do is put the amount we can afford for a car payment into a savings account so that when the Jetta dies, we have a great down payment on a different vehicle (we will likely buy used).


Another thing that is part of our "Wear it out!" strategy is our TV. We have had it for over 5 years and it is fine. While I (and especially my husband) would LOVE a flat screen plasma HDTV with all the bells and whistles, we don't need it. We will keep this TV until it doesn't work anymore - we got the digital converter so we are all set!

If you haven't noticed my reading my blog, I'm not much of a girly girl. I like to look nice, but I don't own any jewelry besides a few pairs of earrings and my wedding ring. I don't care much about the latest styles in clothing. It just isn't my thing. I had to say that in front of this next item because some people might think this is weird - my husband and I share socks. Every few years (we have done it twice in our 8 years of marriage), we buy several packages of white tube socks. They all go into the same basket in our closet. Whenever we need socks, we just pull out two socks and they always match. If one sock gets lost in the dryer, it doesn't matter because we always have many more socks that match it exactly. As the socks wear out (i.e. are full of holes :)), we take them out of circulation and use them for rags or whatever. When we get to the point where it seems we don't have a good selection of socks, we buy a new set and retire the old worn out ones to become rags or sock puppets. This strategy works really well for us. If you don't want to share socks with your husband - you can just do this yourself!

Amy Dacyczyn of the Tightwad Gazette (I highly recommend this book!) has an interesting "Wear it out!" philosophy. She has a shoe "system" where she has three pairs of sneakers:

This years sneakers - these are new sneakers that she bought this year and wears only for outings.

Last years sneakers - these are the sneakers that were new last year that she wears on a daily basis around the house.

The year before last sneakers - these are the sneakers that she uses to mow the lawn, do yard work, etc. (I guess those would be the ones pictured above:).

I wear a lot of $1.00 old navy flip flops and other types of shoes, so my sneakers stay nice much longer than one year, but this is a system that can be applied to a lot of things, like jeans for example.

How about you? What are some of your "Wear it out!" strategies?