Okay, I've decided that the best motivation for saving is to save for something that's a "high priority" in Amy D's terms.
Hopefully that will get us onto a better path for living frugally, too - and it will end up being a change we can live with for the longterm.
So, with a cruise ahead for our big 10 year anniversary, I think it will be a lot easier to say "no, we don't really need that" or "do I HAVE to buy this New/Now/At All"?
I have already invested in a few things that I see as items that will help us down the road to save money. We organized our laundry room and put in shelves that are filled with (bulk purchased) pantry staples. We also finally got a freezer, so I hope that we can grow some berries and freeze those we do pick/get on sale, etc. (And homemade chili and spaghetti sauce and things like that). It's already just a relief to see everything at a glance, know what we have "in stock" and what we need to buy to complete meals for that week. What a difference! I also paid off the rest of our car insurance (so we don't have to deal with that all summer!), both (very small) credit cards (rebuilding credit to get a better interest rate on our home - so it's an important thing for us to have those), helped out a mom in need, and paid a few other things off.
I also invested in cloth diapers. It was an amazing deal and I decided to go ahead and get small, medium, and larges at one time because it was a price I would *never* get again - even used. With one in diapers now, we spend about $50 a month ($600 a year) in diapering supplies. With two in diapers come August, that would be $100 a month (1200 a year), for at least another year. So, for the initial investment of $500, I will be saving $2500 over the next three and a half years!!!
That's HUGE!
I am also taking baby steps at reducing our grocery spending. Now that I have so many basics in the pantry, I know that I just need to supplement that with fresh/perishable items and occasionally replenish what I have when it's on sale or financially possible (say, I only need 1/2 my grocery budget for that week, then I could use the rest to restock the pantry items we've used). I am cutting down our grocery budget by $200 a paycheck - that's $400 a month. That's an annual savings of $4800!!!!!!!! Wow. It's amazing how that adds up. I also reduced our Target budget by $20 a paycheck ($40 a month, $480 a year) and reduced our gas budget by $50 a paycheck ($1200 a year).
(Also, any bonuses or expense checks that DH gets will go into savings). The way I've calculated our budget, we should have TWICE what we need for the cruise by September 1st - and that's not a strict budget, when it comes down to it (between $100-$150 leftover out of each paycheck!).
Now, things will change around that time - child support is going to go up
and we will have to start paying back student loans in November. But, the anniversary cruise is going to be attainable and I think it will be a great motivational tool to begin saving more than we frivolously spend.
And we always have sizeable bonuses and tax returns to either invest or apply to debt (ie. mortgage and student loans).
I keep pulling out quality clothing for my youngest dd that my 13 yr old dd wore. I also have a few items (cow & lizard, mulberribush, hanna etc) that my 12 yr old ds wore that are now being worn by my infant nephew. I'm not a gymbo fan, so my handmedowns aren't gymbo, but the items I saved still look nice. At a hsing event the other day, one of the 9 yr olds (an old friend) was wearing the first organic shirt I bought--(for my now 17 yr old!)- and it still looked nice. I have no idea how many children have worn that item over the years. lol I rarely buy anything brand new, however.
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