Thankful Thursday - Life Doesn't Suck As Much As I Thought

If you haven't figured out after reading this post, in less than one year I went from being a Spend-A-Holic to (according to my husband)a FrugalDiva.

While the circumstances weren't quite as dire as what happened to Fussy (the sponsor of this post), as I said before...it came down to a decision to radically change my spending habits or to put my children in day care and go back to work.

And despite the changes to my life, despite the "Did you have a coupon for that?" jokes from my friends every time I buy something, despite the occasional dirty looks and eye-rolls from cashiers and fellow shoppers......

Despite all that, life really doesn't suck when you make a decision to lead a frugal life. 

In fact, we have things on the agenda that we normally wouldn't have done (like the Free Hershey Park tickets), we can host the neighborhood kids to play with ours in our back yard and not bat an eye at throwing hot dogs on the grill for all of them (because I got most of them for free, along with the Hershey Park tickets)....and when we are at my father's shore house at the end of next week?  All of the food that we take that I used to go out and drop $100 for has already been paid for with about $10 (and yes - I WILL be bringing the Planters cashews and mixed nuts...I only have about 16 cans of them that I got for $.36 each!  That reminds me - I should pack Kool Aid for the kids as well!)

I'm not dragging the kids with me to the mall to feed my shopping addiciton any more.  Good thing, because they REALLY hate shopping with me and would act out and I would end up with the veins in my neck bulging as I yelled at them that there would be no pizza in the Food Court if they didn't behave at Sephora (although my 2-year-old daughter has developed quite a shoe fetish).  Instead we are playing at the house, the park and the back yard. We went to the free movies with them last week (although it did cost me $18 for popcorn and 2 sodas...would it KILL my husband to drink Diet once in a while?  Especially when a movie soda is $6?)

And the best part?  My husband and I no longer fight about money.  Because frugalness at the grocery store has spilled over in to the rest of my life and he sees how many hundreds of dollars less I am spending each month, when I DO want to splurge on something like a $35 pedicure (which I am getting as soon as he gets home from work), there is no arguing and no questioning on if I really need it.  Of course I don't NEED it.  But considering I haven't had one in almost 8 months and in that time I have saved thousands of dollars, there is just no way he is going to fight me on it....especially when he knows how happy I am after I get one.

Oh - and the best part (aside from the fact that I'm getting a pedicure in about 5.5 hours)?  With people finally starting to feel the pinch at the gas pump and the grocery store...many of those people that have been laughing at me for almost a year are now asking for advice on how they can do it as well and saying how they wished they started doing it sooner.

The frugal life certainly doesn't suck!  In fact - ALL the cool kids are now doing it!