Welcome back, Sheryl! I'll give this blogging thing a try one more time!

This is the new "face" of my blog. I want to share ideas and thoughts about a little journey I've been going on - trying to be frugal, health conscious and more "world aware".

This summer, Zach & I have had to scrimp and stretch the money we have in order to make it through. Since I'm working only a 10 month job, that means two months out of the year, I go on EI and our paycheque gets cut in size. It's been a lesson in needs vs wants. I don't think we've been doing all that well, but I can see some changes starting to emerge in our daily struggle to balance the joy of living and the price of living! Here are a few plans that I came up with during the summer that I want to share with you. If you have other ideas, please, let me in on them!

I'm going to start with the Frugal part. This is one of the hardest things to do. It's so much easier to just say "I'll pay for it later" or "I'll just put it on the VISA for now" or even "We don't go out with those people very often. We can splurge just this once". It's really easy to stay in those habits of socializing at restaurants or movie theatres. Even going out for ice cream gets expensive if you do it once or twice a week in a hot summer. So, these are my first forays into being frugal and consciously trying to spend less and re-use more.

Being Frugal

1. Shopping at second hand stores. Amazingly, I have found some really great items of clothing at second hand stores this summer (I had some money given to me for my birthday that was strictly ear-marked for clothing). The "problem" with shopping second hand stores is that you can't go there with an exact idea of what you want or you'll never find it - or you won't find it in your size - AND you have to have A LOT of time. It was nice that I had time off this summer to afford the time it took to look through racks upon racks of clothing. The result, though, definitely felt earned!

2. Food budget. I've been making things from scratch. My favourite things involve tomato sauces or tomato based casseroles. Tomatoes are cheap. They taste great stewed, fried, raw, or in a grilled sandwich (see delicious picture below). Zach has been taking leftovers for lunches (instead of Michelina's) and I have actually managed to stash up to 7 lunches in the fridge for the future. I'm pretty proud of my attempts at cooking from scratch. I'm not very good at it - really not at all - but I hope that practice makes perfect... or at least tasty.

3. Driving less. Zach & I only have one car. I sold mine in Spring in with the hopes of saving money (and helping to finance the wedding!). This summer, I've been trying to cut down on the amount of driving we do. For example, I try to drive Zach to work only once a week. I'll look at my week and plan errands and day-time outings for one day. It seems to have been helping a lot!

4. Coupons. I'm becoming a coupon freak... but, they help!

5. Buying fruit and vegetables that are in season. I made a sandwich today with tomatoes and slices of zucchini that I bought at the farmers' market on the weekend. It tastes good to eat fresh, local food.

So, that's all I've got for now. I'd love to hear more ideas on how, when and where to save money. In the country we live in, it just seems extra hard sometimes to stop living excessively. Maybe we can help each other a little :)