Friday, November 21, 2008

Make it do! - Frugal Friday

The last few weeks for frugal Friday I have been sharing ways to live by the motto, "Use it up, wear it out, make it do, or do without!" that I heard a lot growing up. I have shared ways to "Use it up!" and ways to "Wear it out!"


I think "Make it do!" has a lot to do with being creative to make what you have work. We live in a society where people want things now! They don't want to wait so they purchase things on credit, like furniture, a vehicle, or day to day stuff. I think about how, as newlyweds with no money, we had to "Make it do!" As I look around my house and think about the things I do, there are several instances where we continue to practice the philosophy, "Make it do!"



We desperately need a shade for our kitchen window. We have a valance, but during certain times of the day, the sun shines right in the window and blinds anyone sitting at the kitchen table. We looked at blinds that would work for this window, but found they were very expensive. I plan to make a shade, but for now our shade is an over sized towel (above). It isn't pretty, but for now it works perfectly!


Speaking of uses for towels...the door from our kitchen to our garage has a huge gap in the bottom (that brings the cold in and the heat out). We should either A. get a new door, or B. put some sort of weather stripping there, but again that is an expense. The solution, a rolled up towel fits perfectly and keeps the cold out!


Another example would be the month of October when I had a $100 budget for the whole month. There were many times I wanted something more "fun" than what I had, I had to make it do. We ate things that weren't necessarily restaurant quality or utterly delectible, but we decided to "Make it do!" (and we lived!).


By the way, we are also making it do with the UGLY green trim in the kitchen (as you can see from the pictures) - there are ugly green cabinets to match along with ugly green sponge painted french doors. We won't be getting new cabinets and trim, we are going to paint. It is quite an undertaking, so we are taking it slow - and "Making it do!" for now!

So...what about you? What are you doing to "Make it do!"?

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