Eureka! I'm soo geeked!

I guess today is a blogolicious day.

So, I may have mentioned before that I have a tendency towards thrift. It's not something that really comes naturally to me, at least not from my mom's side of the family. My mother's family was pretty solidly middle class, but lower middle to middle middle, not upper middle. However, they (for 3 generations at least) have always aspired to a little more than what they can afford. It hasn't always been pretty.

My other grandma used to laugh and say that I had champagne tastes on a beer income. (Well, I was a kid, so I didn't have an income. What I had was an uncanny ability to like the most expensive thing, without even seeing prices.)

Anyway, thrift is something I have developed over time. It all started when I was a young adult and got in over my head with credit cards. Store charges mostly, because it was so neat to have my own Lord & Taylor charge. (ahem)

Several years ago, I read a few books about simple living that began to change my perspective. Now, something must be defined here. Simple living can mean different things to different people. There's a magazine called "Real Simple" (which is about $5 a pop!) which is chock full of crap you can buy to make your life "simple." That's not what I'm talking about. I like to call that "Spendthrift Simplicity."

I'm talking about actually simplifying your life. Most of the time, that means "not buying X" (making do with Y instead). It means understanding what is and isn't a bargain. Often, what is thrifty and frugal is also good for the planet (those CFLs are an excellent example). String bags, however, are an example of something that is simple and good for the environment, but not thrifty. After all, I'm not paying for grocery bags. But I did it anyway.

Anyhoo, there are a couple of people that have been giants in my journey towards frugality. One is a woman named Doris Janzen Longacre, who was a Mennonite who wrote two books in the late 70s: Living More with Less and The More with Less Cookbook. Doris sadly died of cancer even before the second book was published. Some of the info is a little dated, but a lot of it is still good.

Also on the list is Amy Daczyzyn. She wrote a newsletter called The Tightwad Gazette for several years, and all the issues are available in a single book format, "The Complete Tightwad Gazette." I own it, and it is one of my favorite books of all times. Every time I crack it open, I find some new info.

The third is a woman called Pat Veretto, who was the "About Guide to Frugal Living" on about.com. I didn't subscribe, but I would go there every few weeks and check stuff out. Well, then one day around January of this year, I went to the page, and she wasn't there, and it said "Interviewing for Replacements" or something.

I was really upset. Really. I mean, I don't know the woman. I never even emailed her. As far as I could tell, she lives in Big Sky Country somewhere (Montana, the Dakotas, Wyoming?), is a Christian of some stripe or another, seemed very maternal (and I mean that as a compliment), and was really REALLY thrifty. And I really liked her. It was kind of like being able to channel my dead grandmother for advice (no, she's not that old - she just seemed friendly, knowledgeable and possessing skills that my grandma had).

Well, the other day, after going back to the about website for the 14th time (just in case I missed something the first 13 times) I decided to google "Pat Veretto" frugal living.

Well, I found her! She has a blog! It's tricky:

http://patverettosfrugalliving.blogspot.com/

I am SOOO geeked! I'm in the process now of:

1. Going back and reading every post.
2. Checking out the sites on her blogroll
3. Drafting a non-stalky email to tell her I'm glad she didn't disappear off the blogosphere (that's harder than it sounds!)

I just thought I'd share the news, share the link, and with gas prices rising again, I think I'll post an occasional thrifty post. (Especially since I just bought a gallon of milk, and it's now $3.25 at Kroger!!!! Did the cows unionize?)