Today’s Thirfty Thursday post is inspired by an issue of The Tightwad Gazette (a monthly newsletter circulated in the 1990’s about frugal living written by Amy Dacyczyn). My friend Terry had saved all her newsletters, and graciously shared them with me. I am so excited to read through them and find all kinds of interesting information to pass on to you. I suspect this will be one of many Tightwad Gazette inspired posts.

A concept Amy wrote about in the edition I was reading today was:

Active verses Passive Savings

She explained that saving money, is just as much about what we DON’T do as what we DO.

We are saving just as much money by cutting down on eating out as we are by making more items from scratch. This concept was really encouraging for me, because I often feel like in order to save more, I must do more. This can feel very overwhelming, and the reality is there are only so many hours in the day.

She also explained there will be seasons in our life where you are being more actively frugal (when you have more time) and seasons when you must rely on the passive frugality you have made a part of your life style.

This concept was so enlightening and encouraging. It challenged me to think not only about what I can do to save, but also things I can not do to spend less. These ideas also relate to my “true cost” discussion earlier in the week. I want to learn to incorporate both passive and active frugality in my life in order to be an effectivel steward of both my time and my money.

I hope you find these thoughts beneficial, and I would love to hear your opinions in the comment section.

One more thing for today, I would like to share a picture that I promised in last week’s Thrifty Thursday post about using old magazines to make homemade bows. These were my first attempts:

I am pretty happy with them, and I think it is very much worth the short time it takes to make them. Why buy bows new when you can make them out of something you already have? The more I learn, the more I realize going green and saving money really are two peas in a pod.