Category Archives: Simplicity

What made you decide to live frugally?

Every frugal family has a unique reason for choosing this lifestyle. For some people, it’s a job loss. For others, it’s the birth of a child or the desire to be a stay-at-home parent. For us, it was a gradual change, but I do still remember the day I made the conscious decision to live frugally.

When we arrived in North Carolina before my husband began graduate school, we had quite a bit of money in the bank (about $10,000 to be exact). We’d saved for a year knowing we would need a little padding until I could find a job.

In the beginning, I wouldn’t say we were frugal. We spent too much on groceries. We bought a lot of new things for our apartment. We adopted a puppy (which I absolutely don’t regret). Even though we were careful, we weren’t what I would call frugal yet.

We’d been living here for two months, and I had no leads for jobs despite sending a ton of resumes. I was beginning to worry that we were going through our savings too quickly. It’s scary to look at the bank account and see a lot of money going out with nothing coming back in.

Then I finally got a call for a job interview. I was thrilled. I even went out and bought new clothes for the interview. They called me in for a second interview. Then a third and a fourth. I met everyone in their small office. I thought I had the job in the bag. Our spending had gradually increased. I was so sure I’d be working full time soon.

They invited me back to meet with the president of the company for the second time. I was positive this was the hiring interview. It was such a relief.

The day before the meeting, they canceled. For some reason that I’ll never understand, they decided not to hire me at the last minute.

Devastated does not describe how I felt. I was completely crushed. After two months of sending resumes and six weeks of interviewing with this company, I thought this had been my shot. I thought this was the perfect opportunity. But it didn’t work out.

I was absolutely depressed for days. Then I started fretting about money. Our savings was running out. I had been counting on this job for six weeks, so we’d spent more than we should have leading up to the rejection.

I realized I would have to take a part-time job outside of my field until I could find something else. I also realized we were going to have to live on a lot less money than we’d hoped. Even with freelance writing jobs, it just wasn’t enough to cover the gaps.

If I couldn’t do anything to increase our income, we’d need to decrease our spending. At the very least, we’d be able to get by without increasing our debt or worrying about paying our bills.

Frugality empowered me to pick myself up, dust myself off, and get on with my life. I realized that I had more control over our financial destiny than I thought. For so long I thought the only answer for us to improve our financial situation was to make more money. When I realized that wasn’t the case, a huge weight was lifted off my shoulders.

We made under $20,000 that year. And yet we were still able to plan our wedding, pay off a chunk of credit card debt, and keep our heads above water. We didn’t start saving again until we paid off our credit card debt and I was hired full time, but I’m still proud of the progress we made on such a small income.

Even though our income has finally increased some, the lessons I learned in that year will stay with me forever.

What made you decide to live frugally?

A day off from my to-do list

relaxOne of the easiest goals I set when I came up with The List was taking a day off for no reason. At least it should have been easy. Unfortunately, taking time off has always been tough for me.

Like a lot of women, I’m always juggling a million things at once. I’m a wife, an employee, a blogger, a friend, a daughter, a sister, a dog owner, CFO of our household … and my responsibilities continue to grow. With so many things to do, it’s hard to take a break. Even on vacations, I have a long list of what we want to do and see. There’s never time to just sit and be.

My point isn’t to whine. To be honest, I don’t know that I could live any other way. I enjoy being busy, taking on responsibility, crossing things off my to-do list. There’s nothing more satisfying for me, and I wouldn’t continue to add to my list if I didn’t relish in getting it all done. If I had to sit still more than a few minutes at a time, I’d probably go crazy.

I’ve gotten so used to being so busy all the time, though, that I forget sometimes that taking a day off is an option. My days are spent with one to-do list after another, which is fine most of the time, but I need to remember that it’s okay if I don’t get everything done sometimes. It’s okay if I take a little time off.

Last Monday morning after my parents left, I was feeling overwhelmed. We had such a great time with them, but I had a long list of to-dos, and not enough time to finish them. I was exhausted and overwhelmed. So I talked myself into doing something I’ve never done: I called off work.

I’ve never taken an unplanned day off from any job. I’ve worked through fevers, personal crises, and any number of other events when I really just wanted to stay home.

After debating with myself for an hour, I finally called my boss and told him I wouldn’t be coming in. I was stressed about his reaction, but I wasn’t surprised that he was supportive. I’ve been there for a whole year, and this is the first time I’ve called off without requesting the time off at least a week in advance.

In order for this to be a true day off, though, I couldn’t treat it like another busy weekend. I spent a little time writing, but other than that I didn’t cross anything off my to-do list. I didn’t do my laundry. I let the dishes pile up. I watched movies, took an afternoon nap, and spent the day doing nothing.

I would be lying if I said I didn’t feel guilty at the end of the day. I’d taken a full day off, and nothing was done. But it was a wonderful reminder that doing nothing can be an option occasionally. It’s okay to take a day off every now and then. On Tuesday, everything on my to-do list was still there. Slowly but surely throughout the week I was able to catch up.

If you’re like me and you can’t remember your last real day off from your to-do list, I urge you to take one. Call off work if you can. Ask your spouse or babysitter to take the kids for the day or even for just a few hours, and take some time for yourself to do nothing. We all need a mental health day every once in a while.

Photo by fd

The bottom line: Frugality is about quality of life, not money

For me, frugality isn’t just about money. It’s not just about a bottom line. It’s not just about asking myself, how much did I earn this month? How much did I save? How much is in the bank?

Goals are so important to frugality, but they can also make frugality a little counter-productive. When you spend so much time setting goals and scrimping and saving, it’s easy to lose sight of the real goal — happiness and peace of mind.

Yes, frugality is about saving money. But the true bottom line is quality of life. The whole reason I want to get out of debt, save money, avoid living paycheck-to-paycheck is because I want to live better. I don’t want to worry about money. That’s why it’s so ironic when frugality occasionally leads me to do just that — worry about money.

When I worry about money now, it’s so unnecessary. It’s not because I can’t pay my bills or buy groceries. It’s because I forgot a coupon at home and paid an extra 30 cents for groceries, or a slight setback prevented us from hitting our savings goal for the month. Those are the times when I have to stand back, look at how far we’ve come, and remind myself to relax.

I continue to be mindful of my spending and save as much as I can, but I draw the line when it crosses over from mindfulness to worry. I’m frugal because I don’t want to worry about the money issues that really matter, like making ends meet or covering emergencies. If I still worry about money after all of this hard work, then what’s the point?

If you sweat the small stuff when it comes to frugality, take a step back and ask yourself why you’re clipping coupons, budgeting, saving. No matter what your overall goals, chances are your motives are the same — you want a better life. But fretting about every last penny isn’t the life I envision when I think about my best possible life.

When you’re kicking yourself for leaving a coupon at home, worrying about how long it’s going to take you reach your final goals, just take a step back, breathe, and remember the real bottom line.

Ask yourself: Is this improving my quality of life? Many of my frugal habits do: menu planning, budgeting, saving. At the end of the day, those things make me calmer and happier.

But the ones that don’t — worrying, depriving myself, sacrificing my comfort or happiness for a little bit of money —  shouldn’t be a part of my lifestyle.

Comfort & complacency – frugality’s worst enemies

A year ago, our situation was drastically different than it is today. Our savings was depleted after months of bringing in less than we needed to make ends meet. We had a little money in the bank, but not enough to sustain us for very long.

We were living frugally out of necessity. Though our spending was cut to the absolute minimum, I estimated that our savings would last only a few more months. I could count the number of restaurant meals we’d had in a year on one hand, and we never spent money on anything but necessities. We were in frugal survivor mode.

A month later we were married, enjoyed a frugal honeymoon in Washington D.C. that we’d saved all year to take, and came home with a little nest egg from generous friends and family who had attended our wedding. I wanted to save the money, but I feared that our situation would force us to spend it to continue paying our bills in a few months when the rest of our savings ran out.

Thankfully, I was hired at my job a week later. The additional income helped us start saving again, pay down our remaining credit card debt quickly, and turn our financial situation around.

Eleven months later we have no credit card debt, 60 percent of our emergency fund in the bank, and we’re on our way to paying cash for a vacation in Europe all on the equivalent of one full-time salary. We’re considerably more comfortable and nowhere near as stressed about money. And yet, we’re still in danger.

The more comfortable we become, the easier it gets to edge toward the lifestyle we’ve fought so hard to resist. When I look at our bank balances, I feel calm instead of stressed. But that makes me more likely to forgo cooking dinner for a meal out. We can afford it now, right? When I see a good deal on clothing or books, I’m tempted to drop the cash. I deserve a little treat for my hard work, don’t I?

Comfort breeds complacency, and while I’m okay with being a little more lax about our spending than we used to be, I don’t ever want to be complacent. I always want to be mindful of our spending to ensure that every penny we spend is for good reason. I’d rather go out to dinner to spend a date night with my husband than head to a restaurant because I’m too tired to cook. I’d rather save our money for one memorable experience than fritter it away on a thousand little things I won’t remember a week later.

Now that we have more income and more savings, our finances are less stressful, but our impulses are harder to control. When I see a big screen television on sale or browse a bookstore, I’m no longer resisting because I can’t afford it. After all, the money is right there. I could easily withdraw it from our savings account and buy any number of things. The more comfortable we become, the harder we have to work to fight it.

Lately I’ve felt complacency creeping in, replacing the desperation to keep our heads above water that we felt last year. I’m aware of just how much money we’ve saved and so tempted to spend it. The struggle to pay our bills has been replaced with the struggle against our culture and our spendthrift natures.

Every day I remind myself that our goals are more important than frivolity. It’s a constant battle, but it’s one that I’m willing to fight. The reward of accomplishing our financial goals is much greater than the brief satisfaction we’d get from instant gratification.

Menu Plan: 4/18-4/24

This was quite an expensive week at the grocery store — $68. Yikes. But we needed olive oil, and we ended up needing two separate types of meat, something that doesn’t usually happen.

This week we tried to focus on planning lunches for me. I’ve been struggling to find lunch ideas that are healthy, cost-efficient, and tasty enough to help me avoid the temptation of my co-workers’ daily lunch invitations.

Here’s the menu for the week, broken down by lunch and dinner.

Saturday
Pizza

Sunday
Roast, potatoes, and green beans

Monday
Lunch: Leftover hash with roast, potatoes & veggies
Dinner: Leftovers/sandwiches

Tuesday
Lunch: Sub sandwich
Dinner: Pasta primavera

Wednesday
Lunch: Leftover pasta
Dinner: Tacos

Thursday
Lunch: Leftover tacos
Dinner: Balsamic chicken with baby spinach

Friday
Lunch: Peanut butter and jelly
Dinner: Pizza

For more menu plans, visit OrgJunkie.

Living life under the frugal microscope

Since the economy tanked, it’s become a little easier to live a frugal lifestyle without facing judgment. No matter how bad the recession gets, though, we still face people who just don’t get it. We’re constantly answering rude questions about how we choose to live our lives.

“Why are you throwing your money away on rent when house prices are so low?”

Because we don’t have money for a down payment and we’re not ready to lock ourselves into a mortgage anyway.

“You mean you share a car? Why?”

We don’t want to take on the expense of an additional car when we can easily survive with one. Not only would another car mean an additional car payment, it would also mean more insurance, more gas, and more emissions.

“What do you mean you don’t go out to dinner or buy yourself things? You work too hard not to enjoy life.”

We do work hard, but we’d rather save for future goals than spend all of our money today on things that matter less to us.

“Why wait for the things you want? If you want to take a vacation or buy something, just charge it now and pay it down later.”

I’ve lived through the stress of high interest credit card payments. No thanks.

It’s frustrating to face this judgment from people around us. Our closest friends and family are supportive, but we still face a handful of acquaintances that don’t understand our choices. Instead of accepting that we’ve chosen to live differently, they treat us like we’re deprived and practically living in poverty because we don’t make the same choices they do.

I must admit that it can be tempting to give in. I would love to eat out a couple times a week, refurnish our apartment now, take off this summer for Europe instead of waiting another year, take advantage of a housing market that’s pretty much bottomed out. But I know we’d never reach our goals if we gave in, and those goals are more important to me than getting what I want right now.

Fighting the temptation is easier than facing the judgment, though. Maybe someday I’ll be that person that truly lives the life I want to live without caring what others think, but for now it’s just annoying.

I feel like living the frugal lifestyle puts us under a microscope. Because our choices are different, people feel like they have the right to comment on things that are none of their business.

The worst part is, when I answer their questions, they tend to act defensive. I’m not judging their choices, and would never compare their situations to my own, but when they ask me why we live the way we do and I explain myself, there is always a feeling that I’m judging them for not saving, living on credit, or taking on a mortgage they probably can’t afford.

How do you handle the frugal microscope?

Don’t waste your money on individual snack-sized treats

Every afternoon around 4 pm, I start craving something sweet. There are always treats hanging around my office, but none that I want to eat since I’ve been trying to lose weight.

At the grocery store over the weekend, I decided it might be nice to bring sugar-free Jello snack packs. They’re sweet, and at only 10 calories they wouldn’t add on to my calorie count for the day. When I saw the price on the snack packs, though, I couldn’t bring myself to pick them up. Almost $4 for six little half-cup snack packs? Ridiculous considering the cost of a package of Jello.

So I decided to make my own snack packs. I have little half-cup Tupperware that we use for condiments and snacks. I bought a package of sugar-free Jello for 89 cents, poured it into the individual serving-size cups, and voila! Snack packs for 1/4 the cost!

If you pack your own lunch for work or your kids’ school lunches, then you’re all too familiar with the high cost of individual serving sizes. Instead, invest in some good snack-sized Tupperware (or reuse plastic baggies) and make your own snack-sized treats.

Snacks like chips, crackers, Jello, and pudding are cheaper in bulk. Split them up into individual serving sizes for convenient lunch snacks or just to control your portions. You’ll eat less and spend a lot less on snacks, and that works for me.

TGIF Round Up: Spring fever edition

I apologize for not posting yesterday. I’m still catching up from the craziness during the month of March, and my creativity just hasn’t been up to par. I’m hoping to get my mojo back soon so I can post something new and fresh for you every day!

The work week is ending with rain, but the weatherman has promised sunshine and 70s for the weekend. Tony and I are hoping to get out of the house and enjoy the spring!

This week I participated in a brand new personal finance carnival, the Carnival of Pecuniary Delights. It was created by Penelope Pince of Pecuniarities. She’s also the founder of my new blog network, Pecuniary Associates, and she kindly included my post about using our emergency fund to buy new tires.

Wise Bread is hosting the carnival next week, so be sure to get your submissions in by Wednesday at 6 pm if you want to reach Wise Bread’s huge audience.

And now for some more reads from the personal finance blogosphere this week:

  • Cash Money Life offered a fun round up of April Fool’s pranks around the Web. I’m usually not a big fan of pranks unless they’re fun and harmless, but these were a lot of fun!
  • The Happy Housewife (who just welcomed a baby girl this week … send your thoughts for a quick release from the hospital!) somehow found the time to share this great do-it-yourself baby sling. So cute and a fraction of the cost of store-bought slings.
  • Not Made of Money offers some ideas for brown bag lunches.
  • Almost Frugal shares seven crazy money-saving ideas.
  • Small Notebook cleaned out her spice cabinet for the first time in a while with some humorous results.

And a few from the Pecuniary Associates:

I’m hoping to get back on track with my blogging this weekend (and enjoy some spring weather, too!) Happy Friday!

Spring cleaning can help you make (& save) money

clutter
photo by florriebassingbourn

One of my goals for the next few weeks, despite my busy schedule, is to get myself motivated to get some real spring cleaning done. We’ve been living in the same apartment for two years, and we just signed the lease for another year. We’ve got some serious clutter build up that I’d like to clear.

My weaknesses are closets, drawers … anywhere that I can stuff things to deal with them later. It’s a terrible habit, and every few months or so I have to whirl through the house clearing away all the things I don’t really need that I stashed away “just in case.”

For some reason I insist on keeping things for much longer than I actually use them. That’s why I’m really pushing myself to get organized and get rid of everything we don’t use, including books, CDs, and DVDs.

Since I’ve been so busy, it’s pretty easy to push something like cleaning aside for other, more lucrative pursuits. In an effort to motivate myself (and hopefully some of you), I’ve thought up some ways that cleaning can actually help you save and make money.

Your clutter may be worth money.

Your junk may be worth something to someone. Every month that it sits in your closet collecting dust is a missed opportunity for extra income.

A clean house leads to better focus.

Have you been struggling with work and home life? Do you feel scatter brained and unorganized? Clutter reduces productivity, which could be preventing you and your spouse from reaching your maximum earning potential (not to mention getting the most out of home life). Hidden under all those papers and junk mail could be bills that may go unpaid, leading to late fees or worse. Getting organized will leave you freer to make more money and maximize your income.

You may find something that you need but forgot you had.

Do you have a list of spring and summer items you need? A fan, summer clothes, your kids’ Easter baskets? Before you run out and purchase them, make sure you’ve dug through all the clutter in your closets, attic, where ever you store things. You might find something you need that you didn’t even remember storing away. If you already have it, you won’t have to spend the money to replace it.

If you can think of any other ways that a clean house can improve your finances, please add them to the comments! I need all the motivation I can get. :)