Posted in Simple and Frugal Living

Come here often?  Then you know that if there is a way to save a buck, yet maintain quality, I want to know about it and spread the info to the world.  Being a good steward is paramount in my life.  However, there is a side to frugality, I have yet to address.  Why?  Mostly, because I don't want to admit that I may be over zealous at times, and there is a cost associated with that. 

Yesterday, there was a sale over at the always fabulous, Homeschool-Estore.  This was a sale I could not pass up.  It was the day after Mother's Day sale.  This was not your ordinary sale of homeschooling items.  No sir.  This was a list of 28 FREE items, just for the downloading.  All one had to do to get the free items was login and download.  Nothing could be simpler, right?  Well, that's where this story goes off road.

The sale was to begin at 8 am.  I got on the computer around 7:30 am so I could do a little email first.  I went to the site at 8 am and there was no sale yet posted.  Me being so smart and frugal, I decided to do a little blog reading while waiting.  By shortly after 9 am, there still was no sale listed.  I went back and read the email.  Had I misunderstood?  No, I hadn't.  The sale finally appeared on the website.  However, when I went to download, I couldn't get any of the items to download.  I got several different types of error messages, but none which allowed me to download.  Alas alack, me thought.  No problem.  I can keep trying, because I have until midnight.  How long could it take?

OH, I am now not only off road, but trying to drive through a thick forest!  Hours later, I still had yet to be able to download one item.  So being the noble gal that I am, I decided to email the owners to see if they could help me rectify the situation.  Not too long afterward, I found a new note posted at the sale, apologizing for any inconvenience, but that there was an overwhelming response and their site was slow.  Ok, I thought....long suffering.  I actually envisioned their email box filled to the brim within a short period of time with emails from inquiring moms. 

I stayed the course, as it were.  I continued to try to download.  No luck.  In my "free" wait time, I thunk and I thunk.  I began to think about how estores run and the servers that support their systems.  Amazing to me was the fact that I knew a little of this jargon, even if I couldn't formulate one intelligent sentence about them.  Good times.  I often thought about walking away.  Just another thought.  How could I ever act upon such, and give up my opportunity to get some curriculum for free?  Never.

I am here to say that 13 hours later, I still had not been able to download one item.  It was late.  I had wasted a day.  My mind began to spin about the millions of moms who were able to access the sale.  Jealousy and envy set in.  But, not for long.  I began thinking about the wonderful opportunity the Homeschool-Estore had provided to any mom who was able to download even one item.  After all, I am not the only mom in need.  I also began to look at how stressful this may have been for the owners.  I am not certain, but I am slightly sure that they must have had at least a few cranky emails. 

This said I am trying to download now.  I continue to receive the same messages and in fact, I am coming to the realization that I may not be able to access these downloads (Oh if I only had broadband or Fios!).  Yet there is a lesson to be learned here.

Frugal is not just about saving money.  You must also crunch numbers constantly.  When something looks too good to be true, it usually is.  I have found myself getting cranky, irritable, yelling at my puter, and neglecting the olders, the hubby, and the littletons, all in an effort to save some money.  But let's look at the numbers.  To date, I spent 18 hours trying to get free curriculum.  If I had been working for $5/hr, I would have made $90.  For $90 I could have outright purchased my curriculum choices and had enough leftover to take me and the family out to a nice dinner.  End of the story, in an effort to be a good steward of our money, I failed miserably.

Discernement was trying to kick in.  Truly it was.  But my sense of frugality would just not let go.  It still isn't.  It's like and addiction to saving money.  Is this what God would advise?  I highly think not.  God would have told me to pack it in after the first few hours and call it good.  Yet my internal drive to accomplish my goal and save money was the strongest part of me rolling.  Sometimes, you have to discern to cost of being frugal, to assure that your efforts are not costing more than your savings. 

These are my thoughts.