Frugal is not the same as being a miser or poor

[00:00:01]Hey there, welcome to Inzie Money Mama where you can find freedom from the daily grind through budgeting, simple living, and adventure. Um we've been talking so much about frugality lately and that's not the only thing that my channel is about, although you may be um forgiven for thinking that it is. Um I do spend some money sometimes and today I'm going back to Bed Bath & Beyond cuz I've bought some light shades online, lovely wicker light shades online. I'll try and put a little photo in quickly here um if I can and they've arrived, but they are absolutely ginormous. So, I'm back to try and get a refund there. Then I'm off to Bunnings cuz I need to buy some um frost cloth for a couple of trees and then I'm going to um take you guys out to the Hellaby's factory shop where we can see what kind of bargains I can get in the meat department. And while I was returning my lamp shades, I ended up having a look at the carpets. I really like that one there. Um it's got 60% off at the moment, so I wanted to show my husband a few options and then go back and get one of those because we need one for our holiday home. Um we actually need one for our actual home, but holiday home is what I'm buying for at the moment.

[00:01:19]Oh, I'm interested to know what's going on here at Hellaby's today because there is hardly any car parks.

[00:01:28]Really busy here.

[00:01:31]You're not allowed to take photos inside the shop though, so I better put this away, I think.

[00:01:37]Well, the shop was completely dead, so I don't know where all these cars have come from, but I'm off home. I've spent $50.95 at the Hellaby's factory shop in Otorohanga and it's a bit of a mixed bag, isn't it?

[00:01:52]You know, sometimes you go there and you get one thing and you just stock up on heaps of it. The next time that's not there, it's something else. That's the thing with a factory shop, so I'll be home soon and we'll go through my box and I'll show you what I got.

[00:02:08]Okay, so I'm back home. I'm going to show you what I got.

[00:02:12]It's blooming cold in this room. I need to get into the lounge and light the fire. It's um going to pour with rain, I think. But, I will quickly do this. Um so, I went in, I swapped the light shades. Well, I didn't swap them. I returned them. They gave me a full refund. They were perfect except that they were giant.

[00:02:36]That was the only thing that was wrong with them.

[00:02:38]But, while I was there, I saw these winter pajamas on sale.

[00:02:47]So, I bought these for my daughter. Now, they had been Oh, they've left the coat hangers on them.

[00:02:54]I've only just noticed that. I don't actually need these coat hangers.

[00:02:58]Never mind.

[00:03:00]Um So, we've got $79.90 90 and they were 50% off.

[00:03:08]So, yeah. Nice woolly cotton pajamas. I think flannelette jammies are the nicest thing. I made my daughter and son Well, they actually made their own last year. Um but, my daughter's grown out of hers and my son's ripped his, so new winter jammies. And this is what I got for my son.

[00:03:30]Um they've got flannelette bottoms.

[00:03:33]Let's see. And just a black kind of t-shirty top.

[00:03:37]And that's cool cuz they're in the Canterbury colors.

[00:03:40]Kind of a bit like a Swanndri sort of a look.

[00:03:44]Yeah, so they'll both be warm. It's nice Oops.

[00:03:48]It's nice to have new warm winter jammies. I always get them summer pajamas at Christmas time and I haven't really gotten to the habit of doing something wintery. Um but we do have solstices coming up. So, I'm thinking maybe I'll wrap them up and I'll make that a new tradition that they get winter pajamas every solstice. And I will keep doing that for the rest of their lives and their kids' lives when they have them or hopefully if they have them um and their partners and all that kind of stuff because I love traditions and things change as kids get older, but it's nice to have some things kind of built into your year so it's meeting the need but also making it a little bit fun. So, I'm going to wrap them up.

[00:04:29]And then this is my Hellers haul.

[00:04:34]So, $50.95 I told you guys already.

[00:04:40]400 g of pork mince.

[00:04:46]These are a you know, just sausages, aren't they?

[00:04:52]Premium sausages.

[00:04:58]I got lots and lots and lots of ham for the freezer because this was I think a $1.99.

[00:05:07]So, that's a really good price.

[00:05:09]Um So, I've got lots and lots of sandwich ham and if I make something like a bacon and egg pie, I just chuck in a thing of ham. I don't go and buy bacon, I just use ham. And that's absolutely still perfect.

[00:05:23]Um lots of sausages obviously cuz I'm at this Hellers sausage factory. So, lamb and herb sausages. Sometimes we put sausages in a curry or my husband does, I don't tend to do that. And I got these here, they were old-fashioned beef sausages. They were frozen so they're cheaper when they're frozen because these um expired on the 17th [snorts] of April and they've been in the hell of freezer. And now they're going to go straight into my freezer. So, same same, I think.

[00:05:56]And then I got this Oops, sorry, it was noisy. I got this shaved pastrami meat.

[00:06:03]Again, like if I was buying all this straight from the supermarket, I reckon I would be looking at about at least $80, maybe more, probably more, but at least $80. So, I feel like I'm well stocked up now.

[00:06:22]And some sausage meat for making sausage rolls, cuz my daughter loves to make sausage rolls every school holiday, so that there's some sausage rolls for lunch boxes.

[00:06:33]So, that's that. So, that's my $50. I'll turn you around and I'll show you again what I got.

[00:06:40]So, that's $50 worth of meat. I should actually put these sausages on this pile.

[00:06:45]So, 1 2 3 4 5 sausages, one pork mince, 1 2 3 4 5 6 hams, 1 2 3 4 pastrami, and one sausage meat.

[00:07:02]There we go.

[00:07:04]And two sets of Jim Jams.

[00:07:06]So, while we're chit-chatting about buying things, because, you know, people think frugal people are just misers and spend no money, um or have no money. Being frugal and being poor and being a miser are all very different things.

[00:07:21]So, here is something I have recently bought for myself.

[00:07:27]This is not a need. This was most definitely a want. And you know how long I've wanted a pair of Berks?

[00:07:34]Um prob- most of my adult life. And you know what? I've just never bought them, cuz I felt that they were just way too expensive. Or at times when I thought, yes, I will go in and buy those shoes, they didn't have any that fitted me. You can see there, I wear a really small shoe.

[00:07:50]And sometimes they just didn't have them. And then the time would pass, and then I'd think, oh, no, I'm not going to buy those.

[00:07:56]Well, do you know what? I'm turning 50 this year, and I just decided that if you want a pair of Birkenstocks, just get yourself a pair of Birkenstocks. And so I went out and I just spent the money.

[00:08:06]And that was that. And it was really um money well spent for me. I will wear these forever.

[00:08:14]They're lovely. They're great traveling shoes. These are kind of like my good traveling shoes, I would consider them.

[00:08:19]Um when I travel, I have two pairs of shoes.

[00:08:23]I will have these, cuz I'm going to be in sunny places, right? I'm not going to need winter boots, I would hope. So, I'm going to show you my next purchase that I've just recently made as well. I've been very, very spendy of late. Um the next purchase I've made also relates to traveling shoes.

[00:08:42]Okay, and here's the next kind of spendy purchase I made. Um neither of these shoes are cheap, so I'm not buying cheap. I'm trying to buy quality, and I want these to last me a long time. Um so, Teva sandals, I've been a fan of gosh, I think they they were I looked them up and they came out, or they were kind of created in 1983.

[00:09:05]I wasn't an adopter of the Teva sandal in 1983, but by the mid-90s, I would have had a pair of Teva sandals, and I've had sport sandals ever since then. And sometimes I've changed brands, like Merrell. The ones I've had pre prior to these were Keens, and they lasted forever. I didn't really like the fit of them, though. But I have worn them until they died, and I've had them for over 8 years. So, these I say more of a need than a want, but I went for the new season's color, cuz I liked that color better.

[00:09:38]Um that's a want rather than a need.

[00:09:41]They're super comfy and I'm sure they'll last a really long time, so I'll probably not buy another pair of sports sandals for about another 8 years.

[00:09:51]So, what's next?

[00:09:53]Well, the fun doesn't stop there for me.

[00:09:57]Here we go. This is another thing I've bought. I bought this last week.

[00:10:02]A pair of togs.

[00:10:04]What you might call a classic pair of mum togs.

[00:10:08]They're really nice.

[00:10:10]They're $159. They have the thing I like about them and why they are so expensive, cuz I had to go to a um I don't know what you'd call it. Like a an a lingerie shop, I guess is where I got these.

[00:10:23]Um so, you get togs that have a proper underwire.

[00:10:28]So, your boobs stay in the right place.

[00:10:31]>> [laughter] >> That's really the moral of that story.

[00:10:34]That's why I have them. So, they're not kind of just like off the rack togs.

[00:10:38]But, they look really nice. I'm most certainly not going to be putting them on and doing a twirl for you, but I'm about to go away on a holiday. So, each winter I like to go away with my family somewhere sunny and just get away from the cold Christchurch weather.

[00:10:54]And I'm out of togs. So, again, the last time I bought togs was 8 years ago. Um they uh there's still a little bit of life left in them and I would go swimming with them at a pool, like if I was going to go and swim lengths, but I didn't want to wear them I don't know.

[00:11:12]Would you really say togs are a fashion thing? They're not like a sit around in your togs kind of pair of togs. There's a few little holes in the back and things like that. So, they're fine for chlorinated water, but these will be used in the sea and I'm very excited to have them. So, there's another $159.

[00:11:31]Don't know that they'll last me um 8 years like my other ones, but you never know.

[00:11:39]And then I bought this book. I was after some book recommendations from a friend.

[00:11:43]I got recommended this book and another one called Yesteryear.

[00:11:48]And I wanted to take a book away on my holiday.

[00:11:52]Um we're going for 2 weeks.

[00:11:54]So, I want two books and I'm hoping I can still find Yesteryear. I bought that um second hand and it cost me $10. So, it's very unusual that I would buy a book new because I feel like you don't get your value at all from a book when it's brand new. Unless it's a like a textbook, you know, that you're going to read over and over again.

[00:12:17]Uh it doesn't even say how much that used to be.

[00:12:20]But anyway, you can read the back of it if you're interested. Um yeah, a friend of mine says it's an amazing book. There's another one that comes after it. So, I'll have to wait and see.

[00:12:30]But that's the end of it. That's all my spending done. I've got nothing else left now.

[00:12:39]So, that's all the things I've bought over the last couple of weeks um barring food, but you can get an idea of what our frugal household is like. It's not about never spending a dollar.

[00:12:51]Um sometimes it's about figuring out instead of spending the dollar, can we use something that we already have? Can we make it with things we already have?

[00:13:01]Could we borrow it? Absolutely, that's part of being frugal. But frugal doesn't mean you never spend any money. It doesn't mean that you have this ascetic life that's miserable. No, we spend money where we get value. So, even just here today sitting in front of this fire, that wood cost $1,800. That's what the wood for a year will cost us. Um it's going to be more next year because I guess the price of petrol and what have you will be up, but that's how we keep warm.

[00:13:34]Um woolly pajamas. Again, keeping warm, being comfortable. That's really important. I would rather wear my second-hand jeans with my homemade jersey, my old long-sleeve t-shirt. It's actually my daughter's hand-me-down.

[00:13:54]I would rather do those things so that we can have some of the other things that we want. And that's kind of the way frugality in our house um happens.

[00:14:06]Let me know in the comments below if if it's different in your home or if you're kind of the same as me.

[00:14:12]Look forward to catching you guys next week. Bye for now.