Getting a Job or Not - Savings - Part 1

My $100 a week to save or earn is going along quite well.  I have earned $45 in the past week and I have saved $32 for a total of $77 in my “$100 a week savings account.” 

I saved $22 by trading services in return for getting my nails done.  Now before anyone asks why I am living a frugal lifestyle and getting my nails done, it is the one thing that I do for myself that is worth every penny.  To sit for an hour and have a dear friend tend to my nails and polish them is a treat and is also cheaper than seeing a  therapist.  It is the one thing that I asked my husband if we could still afford when I chose to stay home and it is the one thing that I have scrimped and saved to make sure that I could afford to have done every other Wednesday. 

I need to concentrate on saving money as that will be a big part of meeting my goal.  I’m looking at saving money on clothing.  Namely – I’m not going to buy any clothing for myself.  I have plenty of fabric on hand to sew tops and other things I need but I think I will find the most savings from repairing clothing that normally wouldn’t get repaired.  I’m talking about socks and underwear here folks.  Yep – a little needle and thread to sew holes in socks and repair undergarments will work just fine.  In fact, I’ve started to do this already. 

I use pads sometimes and the sticky backs to these pads can wreak havoc on fabric fibers in the crotch of underwear.  I have several pairs that have worn thin in the crotch from using these pads.  I took 4 pairs of underwear that had the fibers worn thin and a couple had holes in them.  I sacrificed 1 pair and used a double thickness of this fabric to sew onto the crotch of the 3 pairs of underwear that had holes in the crotch or the fabric was quite thin.  I didn’t get my sewing machine out to do this, I mended these by hand.  The result is that I have 3 nice pairs of underwear with a little extra thickness in the crotch.  This will extend the life of the underwear. 

Now before anyone says that this is something that isn’t worth their time, I want to ask this question.  How much time do you spend watching t.v. or a movie?  What about being a passenger in a car for a lengthy car ride?  Place items to mend in a basket and then when you are sitting and watching t.v. reach into your basket and start mending.   

Too many times we toss things out that could be salvaged if we just put a little time into it.  These items have already been bought and paid for and it can be such a waste just to toss them out without trying to salvage them. 

To replace these pairs of underwear would have cost around $10.00.  They were repaired while I was watching a movie that I had planned on watching.  No extra time was expended and I have the satisfaction of salvaging these articles of clothing by repairing them.

I am taking $32 from our checking account and will move it to my $100 a week savings account.”  ($22.00 saved from trading services for a manicure and $10 saved from repairing my underwear.)  This will bring my total earnings and savings for this week to $77.