Is Frugal a bad word?

"Let me ask you, is ‘miser’ a bad word? What about ‘cheapskate’? Or ‘stingy’? How about ‘thrifty’? ‘Frugal’?” Some folks shook their heads no to all, some giggled, and many gave all-knowing grins. We had been invited to speak to the Welcome-Newcomer Club of Galesburg, Illinois at its monthly meeting.

This was our first live speaking engagement as Frugal Living Press. (Yes, we did the “Paula Sands Live” TV show in Davenport, Iowa, but that was TV, and this was in-person!) I was pretty sure I could handle this on my own, and standing before this group of about 30 women, I felt very comfortable—they certainly lived up to their name. Each one had been given a handout with information about our company, three of our favorite blog entries and two of Carol’s wonderful recipes (printed on both sides of the paper to save trees and money).

I spoke for about a half hour, giving background to our business and how Carol and I met (high school science fair) and why we believe we are filling a niche that needs to be filled in these tough economic times. Then I asked if they had any frugal ideas to share.

One woman’s husband came up with the idea of lining the garbage can with a garbage bag, then lining that bag with a plastic bag from the grocery store. If the store bag doesn’t leak, the expensive bag stays in; if it leaks, the whole thing is replaced. No messy pail and a big savings on trash bags.

Others talked about doing things like keeping unused napkins from fast food restaurants to bring to meetings to save money. Members participate in a fund-raising raffle at every meeting. I had brought two of our books for door prizes, so they had their usual fund-raising raffle for the baked goods first (for those who paid for the tickets) then put the tickets back in the drawing and gave those who were not in the raffle a ticket, and drew from that. (This saved raffle tickets.) We were all surprised when the winners were sitting next to each other!

We want to thank Vickie Dowers for inviting us to participate in this group’s monthly meeting. I have to say, I was impressed with the two missions of the group: They make it a point to contribute to the community in some way every month (food bank, etc.) and also have ongoing social events (like bridge) to keep active and have fun. Below are pictures that were taken that day. You can see we were all having a great time!