Frugal ... what is it?

I have been thinking of doing something a little bit different ... I would like to introduce "FRUGAL FRIDAYS". I will try to post a frugal tip or thought each friday, though I assume I will miss some fridays once in a while. Without further ado, here is my first official FRUGAL FRIDAYS post.

There are so many aspects to being frugal that I am not sure I can even mention or think of them all. Sometimes I believe we can even be caught in a false sort of 'frugality' and not even realize it. I am not sure where all this applies or even if it applies to everyone or even to every season of each of our lives ... but here is where the thought started.

Blackberries.

When we first moved here to SW MO I was SO EXCITED to learn that there were wild blackberries, as many as we could pick, free for the taking. Very frugal, right? My mind immediately went back to our time living in the pacific NW. Big, juicy, sweet blackberries. We had a nice, mostly private place we could go pick berries and would get them by the gallon for not much effort. Yes, there were thorns, sometimes it was quite the tangled mess, and clothing would get snagged, however it was well worth the effort and time it took to pick them. So naturally I was excited when I found out we could have free blackberries again.

The first summer we were here we went with buckets in hand, heavy clothing on our bodies and high expectations in our minds ... but we soon learned it was nothing like our blackberry days in Washington. The berries were a bit smaller and not quite as sweet. The brambles were tighter, the thorns more plentiful. The weather was MUCH HOTTER and very humid. We all got sunburned even though we thought we were protected AND we were in the trees. The mosquitoes were a nightmare. Ticks. No end to them. We had to be alert for dangerous and deadly snakes and spiders. None of these things were an issue in Washington!! But, we pressed on for several hours and a few days and managed to get about 10 gallons or so [I forget exactly how much] that first year we were here.

The next year we set out again but did not get nearly as much. There was a drought and not much going on with the berries. Also, it was way too hot. The year after that I was not feeling well so we skipped it. And then this past summer I had a revelation.

10lbs of frozen blackberries could be purchased through our bulk food order (Azure Standard) for about $20.

Now, some might think that is not a very good deal nor is it very frugal. But let's think about this now. That's 10lbs of blackberries for $20!! No picking. No brambles. No snakes or spiders. No ticks. No unbearable heat or sunburns. No driving to our remote picking spot. No mosquitoes. No picking through the buckets of berries to get out the bad ones and the bugs. No washing or soaking. No spending hours upon hours harvesting, cleaning and processing. No labour spent. It's JUST 10lbs of berries for $20.

As time becomes more precious, we no longer have much of it to do things like spend  hours and a few days picking berries. Maybe some day we will, however at this season in our lives we simply do not have the time or desire to do all of that work for not much return. We must weigh all the sides. Sure, something might seem like a good deal on the surface, however once you really dig in to it you start to realize that maybe it was not such a good deal after all??

Do you get what I'm saying? Maybe there is something you have discovered in your life like this? If so, feel free to share - maybe it will help someone else?