Frugal Living

OK so we read this article in the Readers Digest about a family who spent nothing extra for 30 days. I think they gave themselves a $100 for the month and paid only their essential bills. They didn't do meals out, the impulse shopping etc. We thought it would be interesting to see how frugally we could live for 30 days---and the very next day our fridge died. Literally died. It is 8 yrs old and has had 3 repairs totally 1/2 of the total original purchase price so i figure at this point, adding any cash to this appliance is a bad investment. Immediately we race to Sears. We find a fridge. It is 2K with deferred payments for a year. We buy it. We find out it can't be delivered till next week. 7 days plus of living with only coolers for our essentials. Hmmmmm. We start thinking more clearly when we get home. The appliance is so expensive. and the wait is so long. We can get a used fridge for free from where I work. It will be used. It will be smaller. It will be I repeat--FREE. We decide that we will try downsizing our fridge size. We need a new dryer. Desperately. We have been going to the laundramat when the weather has not cooperated with our drying efforts. This can't honestly continue. Also I need to warm towels for the kids when the weather really gets cold because our bathroom is cold for them. A new dryer will run us about $600.00 That is $1200 less than what we were going to spend on a fridge. So I guess we are still spending yet i think we are coming out ahead of the game. Now we just need to figure out how to pay for the 2 ton of pellets and the repair to the stove . . .