Family's thrify ways pay

Even optimist Lorilee Lippincott is preparing for another potentially punishing year.

The stay-at-home mother of two already grows and cans her own produce at the family's Elkhorn area home. She shops at Goodwill and garage sales for clothing and makes everything from scratch, from pizza crust and ice cream to laundry soap and bathroom cleaner.

Years of honing such thrifty ways helped the family weather several weeks this past spring without an income.

While Lorilee says she feels blessed that husband Bryon has work right now, the Lippincotts are further cinching an already tight belt in anticipation of another unpredictable year for the family's construction business.

“Especially since this spring, we've really had to focus on getting our budget down,” Lorilee said. “These last few months I think I've whacked a couple hundred dollars off our budget. It's something we've always tried to do, but it's amazing how the economy can show you how to do it better.”

Like the Lippincotts, many Americans are trying to better manage saving and spending.

According to a survey of 1,000 adults by Putnam Investments, Americans are focused more on their financial health than on their physical health, with “saving more” the No. 1 New Year's resolution for 2010, cited by 36 percent.

A TD Ameritrade survey showed that of respondents who plan to make a financial-related New Year's resolution in 2010, 63 percent said they plan to save more money, compared with 59 percent in 2009. Forty-eight percent resolve to pay off debt, such as credit cards, education loans or mortgages, up from 45 percent in 2009.

In the coming year, the Lippincotts' top priority is building up their savings cushion, and they also want to pay down their only debt, their mortgage. Their monthly budget puts expenses at about $2,000.

The driving force to save money is not just to have more for themselves, Lorilee said. Their spending decisions are guided by a focus to have their own business, help others and allow Lorilee to stay home and home-school their children, Lily, 6, and Ian, 2.

“We always give to God and others before we pay ourselves and wish we could do more,” she said. “With the recent downturn, it has made us glad that we have always been against debt and lived below our means so we could help others. It is hard for me to process that a night out at a restaurant could sponsor a child for food, water and school for a whole month.”

Lorilee, a native of Red Deer, Alberta, Canada, and Bryon, who grew up on a farm near Blair, both attended private Christian schools growing up and Union College in Lincoln. Lorilee graduated with a degree in international business, Byron graduated from Doane College's Lincoln campus with a degree in business management.

Lorilee, 29, and Bryon, 32, met in Lincoln through mutual friends, married in 2002 and moved to Elkhorn to start their own construction business, after living and working in Grand Island.

They started out “in the hole” financially, Lorilee said, because of student loans, marrying right out of college and a pregnancy soon after the marriage. But since then they have paid off much of their debt and practice cash-only spending, even on big-ticket items like vehicles.

When they started the company in May 2007, Bryon, the sole paid employee, did mostly residential construction and remodeling.

Although the economy steadily worsened that year and into 2008, he stayed busy until February 2009. To supplement his residential work, Bryon took on some commercial jobs this past May. Since September he has done only commercial work.

“We're thinking commercial (construction) will continue to hurt for a while, so we're praying and doing everything we can to take care of our family and make sure we have a cushion, to make sure we have work and to help those that need help,” Lorilee said.

They donate regularly to humanitarian and religious causes, including the Omaha Food Bank and World Vision.

They heat only half of their 2,000-square-foot home, and they keep the thermostat at 64 or 65 degrees during the day and 50 degrees at night, sleeping with heated blankets to keep warm.

“My children aren't freezing,” she said with a laugh.

The family also doesn't often run the air-conditioner — only twice last summer. They keep the house cool with open windows and fans at night, and by pulling the shades during the day.

In the summer, they line-dry clothes. In the winter, they try to schedule use of heat-generating appliances like the oven in the morning to help warm the house.

The family's big garden supplies them with fresh food to freeze, can and dry. They make their own jam, peanut butter, bread, spaghetti sauce, salsa and other foods to save money and to avoid unhealthy preservatives and sweeteners, Lorilee said. Last summer they canned more than 250 jars of food.

When they find good sales, they stock up in bulk. One recent sale with coupons reduced $4 boxes of cereal to just $1.25 each. As a result, they now have 30 boxes in their basement.

Lorilee cuts the kids' hair, and Bryon shaves his own head.

They drive older cars so they save money on insurance premiums, and they choose high deductibles. When the shock absorbers on her 1999 Lincoln Town Car recently went out, Bryon researched the problem on the Internet and replaced them himself, saving about $800, she said.

They rarely eat out — maybe once a month. Preparing meals at home is a family affair and a form of entertainment, Lorilee said.

Because she buys Christmas gifts year round when she sees items discounted by 75 percent, Lorilee spent only about $25 on Bryon for about $150 worth of gifts, she said. For the kids, she spent $15 to $20 each.

For the new year, they will put home improvements and vacations on hold and pay down the mortgage. They plan to pay an extra $5,000 on the $87,000 mortgage, essentially doubling their principal payment for the year.

When Bryon was without work this past spring, he fully remodeled the interior of their home, which was a foreclosure in need of repair. Lorilee said they paid $94,000 for the house in 2007 and think the improvements significantly increased the value. They used cash to pay for the remodeling materials.

The improvements helped the Lippincotts recently refinance at a lower interest rate, getting them closer to their long-term goal of living debt-free. Their payment will increase only $30 but will significantly reduce the amount of interest they pay over the life of the loan and will cut the length of the loan in half, to 15 years.

Lippincott initially hesitated to share her thrifty ways, thinking it might sound cheap or odd to some people.

And she doesn't like to characterize the family's spending decisions as sacrifices or this year's extra spending cuts as “painful.”

“It feels like a far better way of spending money,” she said.

Contact the writer:

444-1183, christine.laue@owh.com

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