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My Frugal life - Paying for Prom and Eating Meat on a Budget

My Mother was raised during the depression so being Frugal is a way of life for me. Mother would never go anywhere unless it was to work, she did all her shopping on the way. If a store was more than a block or two off her route she didn't shop there.

Our gifts were either from Gold Stamps or she rebuilt, repainted, and remade finds. To this day, I can't remember ever having a birthday party, they were a waste of money. Now that I have raised my family, I thank her. My husband and I have raised 9 children, 5 lived with us full time, without my having to work outside the home.

Here are some frugal things I do...

For gifts I rebuild, repaint, and remake finds. This includes children's birthday parties. I just can't make myself give them up. My youngest daughter has been planning for prom all her high school life. She has 3 dresses to chose from without costing me anything. The dress she is going to wear she got from our church. Our church had a barn full of clothes for any member that has a need and she fell in love with a dress they had. She has volunteered her time in exchange for the dress. I actually have 2 two children going to prom this year and have spent less than $100.

For My Son

I got his clothes at a thrift store:

Tuxedo... $20
Shirt... $4
Shoes... $7
His (Senior) ticket... free
Date's ticket... $35
Date's corsage... $12.50

For My Daughter

Dress... Free
Shoes... Free
Senior (Senior)
Her Ticket... Free
Corsage 12.50

That's a total of $91.00 and both kids look great.

When they were younger I could feed us all on $50 a week. A 5 pound roll of hamburger made 4 meals. We would eat 2 pound roast for Sunday night. A 10 pound bag of chicken leg quarters for the remaining meals. For just $16 we had meat for every evening. I would also buy 10 pounds of potatoes, some noodles, and 14 cans of vegetables. Any extra money went for soaps. shampoo, and snacks. They ate lunch at school and I ate leftovers for lunch.

Randa from Martindale, TX

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