Ideas For Frugal Living

I Hate Feeling Like I'm Posting to Myself...
but I feel like posting so here goes:

Thrift is not simply not spending money. We all spend money, we all have to spend money to live. Spending is not evil, over-spending is. For me, thrift means setting priorities; our mortgage is our highest financial priority right now, follwed by our car payment and the usual bills, food and gas for the car. We pay all of that stuff first. After all the nessesities are paid for then we spend something on our wants. Thrift means getting the most you can for your money. Like buying my kids all their scool clothes for less than $100 through judicious use of thrift shops, tag sales, trading with other moms and MAJOR sales at retail stores. Sometimes I fail to find everything they need before they need it and I am forced to pay full price. That hurts. But I shop sometime years ahead of what my kids need so this happens pretty rarely.

Just a few short years ago we did not do things this way. We didn't worry about our expenses, we just went out to dinner because all our friends were going. We bought really cool presents for all of our friend's birthdays, always had a bottle of wine on hand, beer, etc. We had fun, we were spontaneous. But it wasn't so much fun calling the utility companies to explain that we were going to be a little late... again, or our landlords, or the car loan people. It really sucked feeling like we were just getting by, just treading water but getting nowhere.

Two books helped us to change our habits and change our lives; "The Tightwad Gazette" and "Your Money or Your Life." I can't reccomend either book enough. They saved us financially, they really did. We still had to do the work, but the books were a great help in shifting our attitudes. If you are struggling financailly, and are desperate enought that something as radical as thrift is starting to sound reasonable... check them out at your local library post haste. :)

Current Mood: cheerful