Frugal Living – It’s Easier Than You Think

We live in a world that encourages us to spend our money as fast, or even faster, than we earn it. We can hardly help ourselves. Advertisements and commercials bombard us at every turn: advertising is even embedded into the films and television programs we watch (companies pay to have their commercials aired during the Superbowl and television characters drink Starbucks and talk on iPhones in order to sell more Starbucks and iPhones), and plastered on the sides of our own purses (what do you think those tell-tale “C”s on Coach purses are there for?). Every day, in numerous ways, we are encouraged to spend more money, trying to keep up with our friends and neighbors who are spending as much as they can to keep up with us.

The spending cycle can be stopped. You can learn to live more frugally. This sounds horrible, I know. We have been taught to think that frugal is code for cheap, poor, desperate and sad. That simply isn’t true. Living frugally allows you to take back your money and to have control in how you spend it. To live a frugal life simply means you are going to think about your purchases. You are going to identify what is reasonable for you to purchase, what that purchase will really do for you. Frugal living will save you money and can also be good for the environment. You don’t have to buy a new Prius to be “Green”, you know.

Take a day to review your life and your possessions. You will probably find that you are better off than you think and have more that you have led yourself to believe. It seems obvious to have a roof over your head and food to eat, but the fact is, not everyone is lucky enough to have even this little. Are you healthy? Do you have friends and family? Do you have a job that you enjoy or at least puts the food on the table? Do you have internet and a computer you can access?

The point is to look at the details of your life and instead of focusing on what you do not have (your best friend’s $500,000 house), focus on what you DO have (an apartment or house you can afford).

Once you have changed your mind, in the sense that you are focusing on what you do have and what is good in your life, you will be emotionally able to enjoy the fullness of what is there instead of the emptiness of what isn’t there. This one step will instantly help you become a happy person. And this will make it easier for you to make wise decisions about your money because you are not relying on things that you do not have to define your happiness.

Truly happy people do not tend to waste money trying to fill emotional voids. Unhappy, dissatisfied people get caught in that trap. One you find satisfaction in what you have, living frugally will become easier, even fun. Your live will be enriched, even as you learn to waste less.

And I do mean “learn”. It will take practice. Everything in our culture is focused on consuming more, spending more, keeping up with the neighbors. It’s on television and in movies.  Think of the little lies you witness every day, the lies that are telling you that you need to buy more, look younger, and live bigger.

For example, watch a movie in which the central character has a job similar to your own. For instance, I am a nurse. I cannot tell you the number of movies and television shows I have seen where the nurse lives in a home far, far beyond the means of a nursing salary. Sure, a nurse may be married to a person with a higher income and therefore, can afford a more expensive home, but few nurses can afford enormous beach front properties in Southern California, or huge downtown loft apartments filled with Pottery Barn furniture. It is the big lie that makes you feel that what you have is subpar and that all you need is “more” to make everything right in your life. You are left feeling dissatisfied, cheated, and perhaps even incompetent.

Pay attention to where your money really goes. You can only correct your spending habits when you know where the money is going. Believe me, once I did this and really gave it some thought, I found the next steps much easier to do. When you look at your credit card bill and see that you paid more for interest than what went toward paying down the bill, you may experience a response similar to mine. I was angry: at the credit card company for being so greedy and at myself for being such a fool.

Of course, some of us are already spending as little as we can, especially in the current economy. 

If you are not already doing so, consider couponing to save on groceries. I know it seems small potatoes, but you can make a big difference in your grocery budget if you utilize coupons wisely.

Consider making some things instead of buying prepared – cleaning and preparing your own salad greens. Why pay twice as much for pre-bagged salads? You’re probably already rinsing that anyway, due to fear of e coli! Cook your own potatoes. Cut your own chicken. None of these kitchen tasks take very much time.

Make your own coffee. 

Make your own lunch, at least once or twice a week.

Use a refillable water bottle and put a filter on your tap. Not only is it frugal, but it is good for the environment. Habitually buying bottled water is one of the craziest, most irresponsible purchases we make in this country.

Drive the car a few more years. You will get more for your money.

Keep the cell phone you have if it works. Do you really need the extra services a smart phone provides and that you will pay for, or will you just end up using it as a phone, just like most of us really do? Of course, you might find that you need these extra services. It isn’t wrong to have high-end items, it is simply wise to consider why you want them and if they will actually serve you well.

Take the money you aren’t spending and save it. Put it in a piggy bank, or a savings account, or a money market account or your retirement account. Just save it. It’s yours.

Send money automatically from your paycheck to savings and retirement accounts. This will keep you from agonizing over that $100 that should go into savings, but now you want to spend on shoes. Just be realistic when you budget and allow for purchases. You will, most likely, really, really need shoes, or a new (or new to you) car, at some point!

Back to credit cards. Every time you carry a balance, you are giving away more money in interest. As you are paying a bill, you are probably paying more in interest. And for what?  A dinner already eaten?  A dress long forgotten?

Do you pay a gym membership? Do you actually go enough to make it worthwhile? Do you go there to run on a treadmill when you could run outdoors for free?

Pay for cable you are never home to watch? Or watch too much?

Buy books you will read once, when you can borrow them from the library?

These are just a few steps to help you start living a more frugal life. The most important thing is to live mindfully. Think about why you spend your money the way you do and make the decision to waste less of your resources. You will find that as you learn to waste less of your own resources, you will in turn, automatically waste fewer of the Earth’s resources.