Saving Money

My frugalness partly stems from desperation born out of the fact that I am certainly NOT a guru of having a budget and staying within it. So, let me suggest right now that you search out Amanda's "Finance Friday" posts at her Bel Jour blog if you want real advice on financial planning with horses.

I did a little spring fall cleaning at the barn today, and realized something: I'm unreasonably cheap sometimes. I thought it might be fun to share some of my more embarrassingly cheap habits along with some more useful, practical ones. Plus a short list of the few things I don't mind paying for.

Filed under "Why?"

- This cardboard bridle number from a show, that I reused 3 times. A cheap number holder is what, $2? And yet, I used this. And saved it, too, for an unknown future use.

- Friend with a sawmill: "Hey T, I will load up my giant dump truck and deliver shavings to you for $50". Me: "No, it's fine, let me just fill up all these old feed bags my other friend gave me and I'll store them in my car port at home. It won't look untidy at all, and it won't be inconvenient to take those tiny bags to the barn every day. Or to recycle a million old feed bags.  I'm saving $50 for a winters worth of shavings, after all!"

I didn't want to park here or anything.

- Multiple used saddles that theoretically should have fit. I've been lucky and didn't take a financial loss, but the inconvenience is ridiculous.  Lesson learned. When Sophie is grown, she is getting a mid priced saddle bought directly from a fitter or built custom. Still risky, but I'm done with guessing.

- The manure fork with the missing times. A new plastic fork costs what? And yet it's been a year now with the stupid broken one, waiting for it to "really die"

- Hay nets made mostly of baling twine. Another item that rarely needs replacing and is cheap, and yet I get all crafty with the baling twine and spend way too much time creating intricate repairs.

Filed under "I'm not one of the cool kids, but it's worth it."

- Buying pretty browbands to update my old bridles, rather than replacing them.

- I'm the person that bags up or throws in the trailer the clean shavings from when I strip stalls at shows.

- First aid kit made up mostly of generic brand drugstore items. Stored in a reused bag from a rainsheet I bought.

- I sweep out my hay room at least a couple of times a week and put the sweepings in hay nets for Bridget. I didn't realize this was cheap until I saw everyone else just leaving theirs on the floor and throwing it in the manure pile when they get a new load of hay.

- Bedding pellets from the hardware store. They're actually wood stove pellets...they take a little longer to fluff up than the ones marketed for horses, but they're half the price.

Mixed with about 10 bags of sawdust :)

- Bathing supplies that are actually just my shampoo and conditioner from home. Oh, and dish soap for grungy tails.

I buy sulfate/silicone free stuff anyway, might as well share it.

-Detangler/leave in conditioner that's again, actually just watered down human product.

I went crazy and bought this stuff once. It's amazing. Even more amazing is that 6 years later, with multiple refills of homemade conditioner,  the spray bottle still works great!

-Only blanketing if I don't have time to groom. In this climate, blankets aren't necessary if your horse has their winter coat and shelter. Blankets = $. My horses aren't kind to blankets. So, they each have a rainsheet I use only if I know the weather is going to be awful and my time for grooming limited. Oh, and I didn't clip this year - I have the time to cool B out and therefore save $ on clipping and blanketing.

This year's blanket

-Reusing the above rainsheets once they're old and not able to hold waterproofing. They're my stable blankets at winter/spring shows.

- If I don't truly need it, it had better be priced at <$100 and >50% off original price.  It would be better to not spend at all, but I allow myself one of these things per month.

Filed under "Not negotiable"

- There are a few things I do not cheap out or compromise aon. Good quality hay and feed being the first.

- Good vet, farrier, saddle fitter.

- Excellent coaching.

-A safe, healthy place for the horses to live.

And, that's about it?

Oh boy, reading this over, apparently I have serious issues with wood shavings, lol.