The Money Mustache Community
Learning, Sharing, and Teaching => Ask a Mustachian => Topic started by: 2ndTimer on June 23, 2015, 10:42:20 AM
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A year or so ago, I found a nice flannel pillowcase for !.00 and made it into handkerchiefs. Today I have a cold and I am able to reach in a drawer and pull out a clean one whenever I need it. I feel fairly terrible and would certainly have opted for the tissue option rather than make them today.
What frugal fruit have you recently harvested from a tree you planted a while back?
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I made some vanilla extract using a middling vodka and some vanilla beans I purchased from Safeway on sale. Every time I take that bottle out to make cookies I thank my past self. :-)
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In 2007, we test drove a few new autos. Had the itch to "upgrade". After a long discussion we decided to keep driving our old (paid off) mini-van and instead invest the $500/month would-be-car payment into DH's 403b with his new employer.
The job lasted six years. He faithfully invested the $500 every month + employer match + gains.
Today the account is worth $90,000, and we're still driving the mini-van...
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I just rented out my basement! That's an extra 950 little green employees every month.
In 2013 my Past Self worked her ASS off to DIY most of the basement renovation. By end of 2016, all my capital invested should be returned and after that every new dollar is pure gain.
Thank you, Past Self, for staying up until 2 AM on so many nights working on that basement!!
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I thank my past self for planting raspberry bushes two years ago. After a few handfulls of my very own raspberries I never want to go back to fruit from the supermarket :) Zero effort now they are established, harvest just keeps getting better.
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I planted raspberries 10 years ago- have loved them since I was a kid but refused to pay the high prices in grocery stores... We have 20 quarts in the freezer from this year's haul- and that wasn't even all of them, we just ran out of freezer space!
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I thank my former Pre-fired self for being a tightarse!
There are these moths that fly out when I open my wallet though..:)
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I often thank myself as I sit in repetitive high stress meetings. I thank myself ALOT!
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I made some vanilla extract using a middling vodka and some vanilla beans I purchased from Safeway on sale. Every time I take that bottle out to make cookies I thank my past self. :-)
I do the same thing with Kirkland vodka and vanilla beans. I put vanilla in DH's oatmeal every day, so I use a lot of it. I refill a Costco-size vanilla container from the ginormous vodka bottle and thank my frugal Past Self every time. Also, I just keep adding new beans, the old ones still have life in them after the first batch. So Easy.
I like this thread. It reminds me of a favorite quote. "The best time to plant a tree is twenty years ago. The second best time to plant a tree is today." Can't wait to see all the other coments come in.
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What frugal fruit have you recently harvested from a tree you planted a while back?
Every dollar I ever saved.
Buying a super cheap foreclosure instead of the much more expensive house I could have afforded. I've saved so much each month, and I was able to pull a bunch of cash out of it after fixing up, and by investing that during the big market runup, it's paid for about half the house just in market returns.
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Every time I open the freezer and find a bounty of huckleberries, or bite into a tomato fresh off the vine, or...well...a lot of food prep stuff :)
Mostly though I would say doing some cheap solo travel and living by myself overseas in my early 20's. Taught me how little I can survive on, what I value most, how resilient I can be, how it is okay to ask for help. The ideas and experiences I had basically shaped the whole direction of my life. While I missed out on some prime working years, I still consider it a win.