Sometimes I wonder which comes first… creativity or frugality?

Most of the time, I think being frugal inspires us to be creative…. but there are certainly times when using a little creativity can be frugal, too.

Several years ago, back when snail mail was still cool, my frugal friend Marta and I would write each other letters. I always enjoyed getting snail mail from her because she usually did something fun with the envelopes (i.e. stickers, collage, drawings).

So imagine my surprise when I got a letter from her in the EXACT same envelope that I had sent her a letter in! She had turned my envelope inside out and mailed me a note in it!

This inspired me to try to reuse the envelope again. I thought that would really throw her for a loop! So I figured out a way to fold the envelope and send it to her. But then she sent me another note IN THE SAME envelope, and I had to get creative again.

In total, we mailed that same envelope back and forth to each other SEVEN times. Granted, we had to keep putting on new stamps, but the fact that we were able to use an envelope that many times just shows you what a little creativity can do.

Sometimes it just takes one person looking at something in a different way to spur your creativity. And that, in turn, can help you be frugal.

So go ahead… reuse that envelope. I dare you!