First of all I want to thank all of my readers who are still visiting this website despite the lack of updates lately. This past year I haven’t been able to keep up with ShopaholicSavers.com as much as I would have loved to. Here is what my life usually consists of-

– My Family and B (my bf who I live with)

– Teaching several classes at a large university

– Being a full time Master’s Degree Student

– Conducting my own research studies at the university

– Working a second job at a restaurant

– Sometimes working a third job for my friend’s online business

– Maintaining my household

I know this sounds crazy even to me! But you can understand why there are several things that I love that just got squeezed out of my schedule because there are not enough hours in the day. These Included-

– Running this blog

– My online eBay business

– Couponing all the time

At the moment I am on summer break! Yay! So I have finally restarted my eBay business, I’m trying to get back into couponing, and here is my first post back on this blog! A lot has changed in a year! I have been so busy that some of the more time consuming frugal activities in my life have been reduced (including couponing) but others have started or stayed the same. A year is a long time to recap a lot of frugal living activities but I want to hit some highlights-

– I saved up enough money to buy a new-to-me car with cash because my car that I bought off of eBay for $2,000 nearly 8 years ago is nearing 200,000 miles and these things don’t last forever. However, my little car just keeps on chugging with a minimal amount of maintenance. So while I would like something newer, nice, more reliable etc. It still gets me back and forth from the university 45 mins away without any major problems so I can’t justify buying a new-to-me car yet (even if I might want to).

– While we are on the subject of the car I should mention the savings of not getting things fixed that don’t have to be fixed especially because I am uncertain of how long I will really be driving this car. So here are some things I haven’t fixed- 1. The windows roll down just fine but are really, really finicky about rolling back up but eventually they always do (even if it’s the next day) so they haven’t been fixed, 2. My gas gauge isn’t entirely accurate anymore, I’ve noticed the needle going back and forth too much but my mechanic said this will be around $300 to fix so instead I set the trip meter when I leave the gas station and it really hasn’t been a problem, 3. After I smashed the car into a pole and my mechanic was able to fix it for cheap the paint on one fender is slightly another color (see above photo). This slightly embarrasses me that I work so hard and have a good job and drive a slightly two colored car. I wish it didn’t bother me but it does, but so far I haven’t repainted it, although there is a local place that will repaint the entire car for $189 and since this may make me more likely to drive the car for even longer (and save even more money) painting the car might not be that bad of an investment.

– I switched a $35 prescription to generic and it’s free! Yay! That’s a savings of around $400 a year.

– B started a new job at a local hospital and instead of going out any buying new dress clothes he went to our local thrift shops and bought everything he needed including three pairs of dress pants, dress shirts etc. in mostly name brands for around $30. You can’t even buy a pair of men’s dress pants for $30 at a regular store.– We found a cheaper brand of healthy rat food. Walmart sells theirs for $2 a bag as opposed to $16 at the pet store. We have to buy around 3 of the $2 bags to equal the same amount of food but this is still a huge savings.

– While I did mostly take a break from couponing, I also lately haven’t found the coupon deals to be a good as they used to be. Probably because couponing is now so popular, stores are being more careful about coupon rules and deals. So instead we have switched strategies and are shopping at ALDI and Dollar Tree more often. There are some great deals to be had there and we are still saving money and saving time too. Not that I won’t still coupon but at the moment this is saving more money.

– I am currently working towards a Master’s Degree for FREE! That’s right! By working for the university they are paying for my Master’s Degree! How exciting is that? I would not say that this is easy as far as time, energy, and effort go but free tuition is amazing.

– I am recommitted to living a more chemical free, eco-friendly lifestyle. We still do not buy any paper products (besides for toilet paper) and I have been buying only chemical free cleaning and personal care products. Some chemical free products can be more expensive but some are cheaper (I will do a post on this soon) and not buying paper products saves a lot of money.

– We have recommitted ourselves to eating healthy. Again this is one of those things that can be expensive but I have found some tips that have saved us a lot of money that I will share soon.– We were given a $2,000 Ragdoll cat for free that we love! More on that soon.

– We have spent a lot of time at home this year. We love our home. We work hard to make sure it is a calm, peaceful place. Loving being at home can save you a lot of money. Often we would rather cook at home than go out to eat at restaurants or watch a move from the couch rather than the theatre.

– We have also been enjoying going to the beach (We live in Florida!). We bought a $20 beach pass that will soon pay for itself and so for a couple dollars gas money we get to enjoy the amazing beaches and ocean around us!

– My sister is planning a fabulous and frugal wedding that I can’t wait to tell all of you about because if you are planning a wedding she could save you a lot of $$$$$$$

– We are having the opportunity to travel this summer and make up for a year when we were too busy to get away. We are crossing more places off of our dream places to visit list and we couldn’t be more excited. Stay tuned for a traveling on the cheap article.

So this article represents my recommitment to frugal living. I won’t say I ever gave up on frugal living but now I want to save more! So come back and visit and see what frugal fun we are up to.