Frugalous

Teapots

Originally uploaded by pigpogm

Part of the decision to move to a much smaller home – in my case moving from a house I’ve owned for 12 years to a rental apartment – is the understanding that a smaller place means less room for stuff.

You understand this on a logical level but perhaps not on an emotional level until it comes time to start deciding what moves with you and what must be disposed of by selling, donating, etc.

This is particularly hard if you have a collection. I know people with collections of crystal figurines, clocks, lighters, ashtrays, salt and pepper shakers, baseball caps…

I’m not a particularly sentimental sort and I’m not big into collections. Ok. I did collect books (several thousand hardcovers) for years. And perhaps I had a brief lapse and collected Beanie Babies a while back but generally… I’ve never been much of a collector.

However…
19 years ago on my honeymoon I had bought a lovely handmade pottery teapot from a local artisan. I’m not a tea drinker and I’m not sure what struck me about the teapot but I had to have it. I parted with $75 for this teapot and was happy to do so. It had pride of place on a shelf in my kitchen.

And then…
My mother got the notion that I wanted to collect teapots. First it was a Christmas gift of a teapot that looked like a hound dog wearing a Scottish style tam. Then on my birthday a teapot shaped like a rooster. Both of these got displayed along side the original art pottery piece in my kitchen.

And then…
My mother-in-law and my sister-in-law got the notion that i was collecting teapots. Over the next several years I was gifted with teapots for Christmas, birthday, Mother’s Day, anniversaries – any gift giving occasion and soon I was overrun with teapots.

And I still don’t like tea.

I began to comment how I didn’t like tea and I was a coffee drinker. No one got the hint. By now the shelves in the kitchen were bowing under the weight of all of these teapots and having run out of room to display them there they’d begun creeping onto the bookshelves and tables in my living room.

Being young and not wishing to appear ungrateful – after all it’s the thought that counts, right? – I continued to silently resent the teapots. By this point I had clowns, more dogs, cats, an elephant, several elaborate teapots that looked like an old fashioned sewing machine, an old potbelly stove, and a chess board. I swear I was having nightmares about teapots forcing me to drink tea after a while. At last count there were over 50 teapots in my teapot collection.

And I still don’t like tea.

I can’t even imagine if I had to deal with all of these pots today. Fortunately, a few years ago I finally worked up the courage to put a halt to the teapots and no longer have any – other than my original artsy teapot.

The problem with a collection is it often overruns your space and becomes a weight on you. When the last teapot was gone I felt a sense of lightness and freedom. I hadn’t realized how much the burden of all of these possessions – the dusting and the space they take up – had become until they were gone.

And I still don’t like tea. I’m addicted to coffee. But please, for the love of all that’s good and right in the world, don’t buy me any more coffee mugs. With my luck it’ll just turn into another collection.

For most of my life I’ve been under the impression that owning a home was always the best option financially. Dozens of personal finance books seem to say the same thing and I bought into it. Hook, line and sinker.

My family has spent the last dozen years or so scrimping to pay the mortgage, property tax, insurance, maintenance, utility bills, lawn and landscaping expenses. We bought appliances, lawn mower, hedge trimmer, snow shovels, wheel barrows. We planted annuals, perennials, sod, shrubs, trees and hanging baskets. Lawn fertilizers. Grass seed. Squirrel baffles for the chimney. Bird-proof vent covers. Christmas lights. Animal proof garbage cans. Multifunction sprinklers.

None of which we had to buy when we rented during the first few years while our children were young. Over the past dozen years of home ownership we’ve spent so much money on the “joy” of maintaining a home that I’m almost ill at the thought. All of the vacations we couldn’t afford. All of the investments and opportunities that we had to walk away from because we had every cent tied up in a house. It’s a nice house. I like it a lot but now a part of me resents it too. It’s cost us a lot of money over the years. It’s appreciated considerably in value over the 12 years but the hidden costs offset that considerably.

Once I got my head around the idea that I didn’t have to own a house – a lovely sense of freedom hit me. I can rent a nice apartment, in a nice area for less than half my combined mortgage, tax, and insurance payments each month. My utilities are included in my rent so I don’t have to worry about how a hot summer or a cold winter will affect my bills.

I have the freedom to know that I’m living worry free. If the toilet backs up or the roof leaks I don’t have to worry about it. I just pick up a phone. I don’t have grass to cut, weeds to pull, snow to shovel.

Not only is renting going to be considerably less expensive financially – it’s going to free up a significant amount of my time.

I plan to live on a fairly tight budget but this time it’s by choice not necessity. Now I can invest extra money in mutual funds and other investments. If I held onto the house as an “investment” I’d rarely if ever have any extra money. Usually when I did have a little extra it would when the furnace would die on a cold night or the electrical panel would act wonky and off went that extra money in the pocket of the repairman.

Yes, once I really started thinking about renting vs. owning, I’m shocked I bought into the hype for so long. Apparently I’m not the only one who thinks renting makes sense over owning.

A quick breakdown of the costs of renting versus owning for me:
Rent = $768 per month – includes utilities
Own = $1620 per month – includes mortgage payment, insurance, property taxes – does not include monthly utilities which run approximately $200/month

My cost of living is reduced by more than $1000/month – freeing up that money to be invested in high interest savings, stock market, bonds or mutual funds – any of which, if chosen wisely, will result in a higher rate of return than my house would have over the coming years.

And the reduction in stress and worry is really invaluable.

I’m Merlene Paynter. I’m 39 years old. I’m the mother of two teenagers. I’m changing my life.

Frugalous is a combination experiment and journal as I change just about every part of my life. I’ve left my marriage of 19 years. I’m starting my own business. I’m selling my house and moving to an apartment. I’m conquering my fears and learning to drive a car. I’m going to live a debt-free and frugal lifestyle while I save and invest to make some of my dreams come true over the next 5 years.

None of these changes will be easy. There have been tears and will be more to come. There have been doubts and will be again as I move through these changes.

What I do hope is to offer you some practical advice on how to have a frugal but fabulous life. A lot of the debt reduction and frugal websites and books tell you all of the things you should do to save money. A lot of it seems to be recycled and rephrased and repackaged but there’s not a lot of new information. I’m really hoping I don’t fall into the habit of repeating the same old stories. I’m also hoping that if I do you’ll forgive me. I think we all know by now that if we save the $5 on the price of a latte we’ll be rich. That’s how it works, right?