photo by aldinegirl12

DEAR SARA: One of the local stores is running a special this week on cereal, snack mixes and a couple of other things. The deal is really good — 10 for $20, with an instant $10 savings coupon. It works out to $1 a box. My boyfriend said it wouldn’t do any good to buy it, because you can’t freeze it and we won’t eat it fast enough. Can I prove him wrong? Can I freeze cereal without it being mushy when it thaws? — bigaraycing, Maine

DEAR BIGARAYCING: Cereal has a long shelf life. Check the date on the box. It typically has a best-used-by date that’s about nine to 12 months from the purchase date. You have plenty of time to store it and eat it. You can freeze cereal, too. You can use it as needed instead of thawing out the entire box. If you have a Foodsaver, you can vacuum-seal cereal in a bulk-storage canister, too.

DEAR SARA: In what ways are you more frugal than your parents? I am almost 40, so I grew up in the 1980s when having a lot was all around and very few talked about “green” products or lifestyle. Even so, I consider myself much more frugal than my parents in many ways. Of course, this may be due to having more children, being self-employed, societal influences and some other factors that differ between our lives. (I’m not trying to judge, I’m just curious about how we are changing.) — S.L., e-mail

DEAR S.L.: My entire family was frugal, but I never felt deprived. It wasn’t from a lack of money. It was simply having respect for the value of hard-earned money. In some ways, I think they were more frugal than I am. My dad hunted and fished, for example, and my mom did home canning, and we never ate out. When I think about my most extreme frugal times, I remember my mother doing the same things. I probably spend more on my kids and food in comparison. There seem to be a lot more choices now than when I was growing up. If I split hairs, my parents spent more on clothing than I do. I also rarely use credit cards. I own a larger home, but I have more kids. When my mom visits, we shop at thrift stores and garage sales together — not because we have to but because we want to. All things considered, we’re pretty equal in our frugality.

DEAR SARA: How do your children accept a frugal way of life? — Eva, e-mail

DEAR EVA: My kids are young (under 9 years old), so frugal living is just a way of life. As they grow older, I will continue to teach them my core values. They’re great kids and seldom ask for much. I don’t know what the future holds, but I’ve taught them not to be afraid of being their own people. They also know the difference between wants and needs. There isn’t anything wrong with children experiencing disappointment. Life is filled with it. It builds resilience, and learning how to handle it is an important life skill.

My kids understand frugality is about creating less waste. We don’t shut the lights off because we can’t afford to pay the electric bill; we do it because it’s less wasteful. My kids appreciate simple things. That’s not to say they don’t want things. They do. But they understand priorities, perspective, choices, trade-offs and how to be happy with what they have. One of my favorite sayings is, “That’s them. This is us.” It started when I taught them about “monkey see, monkey do” in regards to not climbing up a slide just because others did. It has become a saying that applies to a lot of situations and boosts their independent thinking.

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