A lifetime of careful spending, saving reaps rewards BY SUE WEBBER • CONTRIBUTING WRITER The appearance of an AARP card in your mailbox may have come as a startling reminder that the official senior citizen designation is rapidly approaching. But there is an upside. Many senior discounts and deals for restaurants, theaters, hotels and car rentals begin to show up at age 50, as well. Ken and Jan Mrugala of Plymouth made good use of deals and discounts long before they officially became senior citizens, however. “So many people are maxed out on credit cards,” Ken said. “Why pay 30 percent interest?” The two, married for 46 years, grew up in northeast Minneapolis and were raised with frugal values. “Ken saw how hard his parents worked,” Jan said. “He talks about working on a truck farm in northeast Minneapolis. The kids were taken to Brooklyn Center or Brooklyn Park to bunch radishes and onions.” If a teenager got a part-time job when the Mrugalas were growing up, it was expected that he or she would save some, spend some and give some to the church, Jan said. “That’s how we were raised,” she said. The Mrugalas brought the same frugality to their own home in New Hope, where they raised a son and daughter. “If we wanted something, we waited until we saved for it and then we got it,” Ken said. Now residents of Plymouth, the Mrugalas have three grandchildren. “We pretty much always lived within a budget,” Jan said. “It was the only way to operate efficiently. You have to stretch what you’ve got as far as it will go.” She sewed clothes for the children and herself. Ken, a woodworker, shops the odds and ends bins at a northeast lumberyard and Menards and saves scraps of wood. He recently finished making pull-out drawers for the pantry in his son’s home. “He cuts corners wherever he can,” Jan said. “He doesn’t throw many things away because they can always be reused somehow in his workroom.” The couple has always been masters of couponing for groceries and using dining cards for dinners out. They choose to frequent places that offer coupons. “We mostly get gas on Tuesdays at Super America because they double competitors coupons,” Jan said. SAVING - TO PAGE 7
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