You have heard it said before, and I am sure it will be said for eternity, or as long as people are interested in saving money. Being organized helps to save money. While there are certainly dozens of reasons and ways that being organized can save you money, I’d like to share a personal story about exactly why I need to be organized in order to save money.
Spring cleaning always starts in February for me. Simply because by February, I am so sick of cold weather and so tired of looking at my four walls that it’s time to just get busy.
So yesterday I decided to go through our DVD collection and actually alphabetize it. I typically keep it that way, but with five children and constantly purchasing new dvd’s, you can imagine that from time to time it gets messed up. We have over 500 DVD’s. Ok, catch your breath, I am sure you are thinking….yeah that’s frugal. But you know what, it is frugal how we have come to own many of them, so that really isn’t the point. Besides, it is our one main weakness.
With a library sized collection of DVD’s, we love to share them with our friends and family. Because of this, I had started a spreadsheet several years ago, and I record the title, the movie release year, the rating and a brief summary of the movie.
After I have it all done, I print out the sheets and add them to a folder. We share them with our friends and family, so we can “rent” movies to them.
So what does this have to do with saving money? Well let me tell you the story about what occurred yesterday. It has been almost nine months since I have updated our list. That’s a really long time when you realize how many dvd’s we have purchased in that time.
Imagine my surprise when I got to at least eight or nine titles and found I had duplicates of them! I was first really surprised. Then, I was confused, and then I just plain got angry. I thought, look at all this wasted money. If we had updated this information it never would have happened. Why? Because we actually do check from time to time before making a purchase.
So, if there is something you collect or purchase a lot of, and you are able to make a list, do it! And then remember to faithfully keep it updated! I have done this exact same thing with CD’s, magazines, books and scrapbook idea books.
Please don’t waste money like I did. Get yourself organized and stay that way. It has now been proven that it does save money!
For more articles on organizing in a frugal way see the organization section in the frugal living blog or visit the forums.
Nicole Humphrey writes articles for the Scrapbooking Blog and for the Frugal Blog. She also guest blogs on a variety of topics. You can read more of her articles by clicking here.
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