Are You Sinking Your Ship?by Mary Ann Romans | More from this Blogger 05 Sep 2007 10:24 AM Are you two bucketfuls away from disaster? You may be unintentionally sabotaging your savings and sinking your household ship. One of my favorite dead people is Benjamin Franklin. Now maybe this is because I live in Pennsylvania, and I am not too far from Philadelphia and Franklin is a big part of local history as well as the history of our country. But I think it goes a little deeper than that. Franklin was a true innovator, creative and true. I see those same qualities in many of the frugal people that I meet. One quote of Franklin's goes like this: "Beware of little expenses; a small leak will sink a great ship." I love that quote because it really makes me take a look at our household (our great ship) and see what small areas where money is exiting our house (leaks). I think we usually do a good job with saving on larger things, such as eating at home, shopping around for the best prices, buying second-hand, etc. But those little areas, well, they sometimes get overlooked. And over time, they can build up until you wonder why you are underwater. So with some thinking, here are my own possible leaks and how I might plug them up. School lunches. For the first week of school, my son buys lunch. While the cost isn't astronomical, I could provide a healthy, nutritionally balanced lunch for a quarter of that cost. We could save the cafeteria lunches for special occasions, or as an expense that he could earn. Long showers. Two of the people in the house take significantly long showers. A solution to plug this leak (ironic, isn't it?) would be to set a timer or alarm. Leftovers. My husband believes that if something is too small for an adult meal, then it is not worth saving. But small adult meals could make good-sized kids meals, a dinner could become a lunch, or the smallest bits could go into freezer soup. I'm not sure how to get him to change his ways, any suggestions? What are your household leaks? Mary Ann Romans writes about everything related to saving money in the Frugal Blog, technology in the Computing Blog, and creating a home in the Home Blog. You can read more of her articles by clicking here. Related Articles: Using Combinations to Save Money Save Money Now! Living Frugally in 10 Minutes or Less The First Principle of A Frugal Lifestyle: Reduce Learn more about Mary Ann Romans  Mary Ann Romans is a freelance writer, wife and mother of three children. She lives in Pennsylvania with her husband, the kids and a 16-pound cat. Relevantfrugal tags User Comments No comments on this article yet. Be the first to comment! Community Tags Expenses, frugal, saving money Discuss this article
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