Still Here, Still Frugal

Hello Frugal Hordes. Been busy working at my job. I have to be busy right now, because I was pretty lazy there for a while. Actually not that lazy, just lots of interesting family drama.

But things have quieted down a bit so I can turn my attention back to frugal doings. Here’s a good one from my BFF AKA The World’s Most Frugal Bride:

She’s been on the hunt for wedding invitations, but nothing has really grabbed her. As she told me “I just didn’t want to pay $39.95 for 20 invitations.”

The other night, my phone rang. It was Frugal Bride. She was really excited, because she had scored a Frugal Wedding Coup. She was at Big Lots for another reason, when something told her to wander over to the office supplies section.

And there they were! - In all their glory!

Martha Stewart wedding invites, and yes, they were $2.00 for a package of 40 invitations.

I haven’t seen them yet, but she says they are really pretty. All white, with eyelet trim. They’re to be used in your computer printer, and include a booklet on suggested/proper wording of wedding invitations, plus the envelopes, plus “reception immediately following”, plus the RSVP card.

They had more than enough packages for her entire guest list, and she told me she spent less than $10.00 total.

Naturally, I needed to go back in time to check on my own invitation situation when I got married. Just how frugal was I?

Ok, you win Frugal Bride. Your invites are cheaper than mine. Sigh.

I tried, though. I got the cheapest made-to-order invitations I could find. Plain, classic, I really liked them. But I think I still paid about $150.00 to $200.00 for them.

But, you know, back then I didn’t even own my own computer. A lot of people didn’t. My sister, who was in grad school at the time, owned an extremely expensive setup, complete with LOUD dot-matrix printer. My other sister and I were always at her house, doing homework. But there’s no way we could’ve gotten a decent invitation out of that thing.

So times have changed for the frugal bride, and definitely for the better. All thanks to advancements in computers, printers, and the advent of the Internet (which didn’t exist in the same form it does today back when I got married. Heck, we didn’t even have Windows, just DOS, back then).

Ok, now I’m going to see if I can dig up an old invitation, and take a picture of it to grace this post. Hmmmm. Where the heck are those things?

Here’s a reception card that I found. See, very plain. That is, if you can see it. It came out really blurry. I hope I don’t need a new camera, though I think the problem is that I’m a terrible photographer.