Frugal Framnett

So you like that extra sharp cheddar cheese, huh? But you are on a budget and don’t know if you can afford to buy it?

Why not, go ahead and purchase it, but

Realize, the extra money you spent on it has to come from somewhere. Perhaps you will have to go without something else or cheap out on another purchase. For instance, instead of going to Macy’s to buy a new shirt you will go to Wal-Mart or Goodwill instead.

I found priorities very helpful in building our house. Priorities seem obvious, but most people don’t face priorities until they start running out of something then they have to decide how to spend more carefully. For example, we chose not quite top-of-the-line appliances for our kitchen, but they are pretty hifalutin. I chose a good insulation for our exterior walls, we have very nice cabinetry, and we chose, good flooring for our floors (tile, carpeting, & oak). However, we decided to leave out granite countertops, parts of our basement are unfinished, our deck is smaller than desired (however, it is still plenty large), we balked at one water treatment option (reverse osmosis for our kitchen water), and I did not think much about wall treatment or colors and the like.

We decided we wanted a real nice kitchen and I am very concerned about utility bills. Our decisions on the house reflected those priorities (however, granite countertops were low because the cost of such countertops includes more than just the cost of the granite, I was informed we would need to have some more structural work done to support the additional weight).

The idea is to maintain an average level of spending. If you push down on one side you can raise up the other side and still be average. Likewise if one side goes up then the other side has to go down. No, you can not have it all!