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My Goals


First things first. I guess I should begin by explaining why I'm writing this journal. I'm doing it because at this point in my life, my goal is to save money. Not for any particular item or goal, but just for my personal sense of well-being and security. I'm a newlywed, 24 years old, no kids, two cats. I make a pretty decent salary for someone my age writing for a magazine. It's enough to support myself and my husband, a full-time graduate student, with no problem. But we're not without difficulties. My husband Mark was a Ph.D research assistant at his university, but he's made changes in his study plans and therefore has lost his assistantship salary for the summer. We live in a top-floor apartment with big windows, and our cooling bill goes up to about $200 a month in the long hot Texas summers. Once Mark graduates and gets a full-time job somewhere, we'd like to purchase a house. We need new cars, new bedroom furniture, and to declaw the cats. None of this is immediate, but they're all things that we can't do without a little money in the bank.


But the main reason that I'm doing this is because I'm tired of spending. We live in a culture that is obsessed with spending money. When we watch our favorite TV shows, commercials urge us to buy overpriced fast food, nonnutritious processed snacks, or expensive toys. While reading the Sunday paper, we come upon big glossy sales ads promising that we can save tons of money if we'd only buy this newfangled appliance, or that fantastic car. No wonder the average American has an $8,000 balance on his credit card.


So I'm rebelling. I'm going to see exactly how little I can spend and still live a happy, fulfilling life. Bear in mind, this journal is not going to be about deprivation. My husband and I are hardly deprived. We have cable TV. I buy department-store makeup and the occasional new outfit. We do purchase "luxury" items that we really love, like name-brand sodas in a can and whole-bean coffee. So we're not over here miserable or anything. I'm hoping to dispel the notion that you have to spend to be happy, or have money to be happy.


With that, let me go over the basic things I, The Frugal Duchess, hope to include in my journal:


Recipes. Food bills are some of the easiest household expenses to minimize. As a rule of thumb, I'm going to try to limit it to recipes that cost $3 or less per person, unless it's just fabulous or it's a holiday.


Money-saving tips. Things I do to save money here and there.


Other sites with good stuff. Mostly sites about frugality, saving money, financial articles, et cetera.


Scam warnings. Stuff about fraudulent work-from-home schemes, bla bla bla, you know.


General bitching. Saving money isn't always a walk in the park. I reserve the right to complain.


Thanks for reading. I hope to see you back here.

Hi all! This is the first post in my official frugality journal. I work full-time, make a decent salary and am very happily married; however, I feel that my husband and I could be saving more money than we are currently putting away. Sooo, this journal will be about my trials and tribulations - as I pass by that expensive yet so perfect pair of shoes, as I try to save money at the supermarket, as I (hopefully) watch my bank account grow. Enjoy! Soon I will have messageboards, guestbooks and places for you to comment.