Black Friday is creeping up on us!
Sarah at Positively Frugal has posted an article to help you frugally spend on Black Friday and other holiday sales.
It is not too late to plan your spending so you won't be swept away by all the hype of the sales season.
Click here to go to the article!
While you are there, subscribe to her newsletter and get a FREE Budget Worksheet.
It seems like the older I get, the faster the Christmas holidays come around. For me, I have taken care of avoiding the debt since I have not celebrated Christmas for a very long time since a lot of the people close to me have passed away. I just don't feel it anymore. However, it was a problem in the past.
The last seasons I celebrated, I cut way down on Christmas decorating. It was once an obsession for me to decorate to the max. It was beautiful, but expensive. Anyway, that is where I started and just became very aware of where every penny was going. Not being cheap, just frugal.
Another thing I cut out was the large open house Christmas celebration where we set up a large buffet of food that was outrageous now that I think about it. It seems like we would invite everyone we knew. It got out of hand fast and got bigger and bigger every year. The smart thing would have been to make it a pot luck celebration where everyone brought a plate of food. Well, it went away the last few seasons I celebrated.
Mary at Everyday Cheapskate has an excellent article with lots of tips on how to save money during the holidays.
Click here to go to the article.
I know it is early to start posting holiday stuff, but it takes time to start planning in order to save money.
Learning to be frugal with money by saving where you can so that you can spend where you want. In my opinion, this is the foundation of being frugal.
A frugalista mindset focuses on what she/he needs, not trying make purchases based on what others have. The major premise is to focus on needs.
Frugal spending habits is a good starting point to gain the mindset. Remember that being frugal isn't being cheap . . . a positive attitude is key in anything you attempt to do.
Keeping a budget and sticking to it is very important. Take your time to set your financial goals in order to develop a realistic budget. A frugal mindset tracks expenses often as it relates to the budget. I've developed a mindset of checking it every day, makes changes as necessary.
Sometimes an emergency will make it necessary to update your budget. It is not always easy. But being frugal can make it easy to manage the emergency because you have probably saved money and hopefully put it in your savings to cover emergencies. That one thing has saved me from a financial disaster when an emergency arises . . . I'm retired on a fixed income and saving money has become a major thing.
Your life situation will guide your mindset if you just give it lots of thought. Just remember to make it about needs, not wants and save what is left over at the end of the month.
One of the things I do as a frugalista is research high dollar purchases. Educate yourself on various features of the item and how they affect the cost to start off. Know exactly what you want before going into the store and purchasing the item that has features you don't need. If possible, familiarize yourself with the brand and compare store prices.
Unfortunately I am currently in the market for a new washing machine and have no idea what I actually want. So I was very happy to come across the following article from Mary Hunt of Everyday Cheapsake that goes into everything you need to know before making the purchase of a washer or dryer.
Click here to go to the article and check out her blog while you are there.
Frugal people understand the value of their money and don't indulge in unnecessary spending.
Being frugal is not being cheap. A simple explanation is possessing an awareness of being over indulgent in spending. Ask yourself "do I really need this?" before making purchases.
I'm a serious frugalista! Read on for some of my thinking on being frugal.
In the past, I would overwork myself to make more money. For what? So I could purchase more stuff? Currently, after a lifetime of overindulgence in my purchases, my house is stacked with way too much stuff that I should never have bought. Now I have to get rid of the unnecessary stuff so I can live an orderly life and be comfortable in my surroundings.
I often laugh at my former self for foolishly spending money instead of realizing that retirement and a fixed income was in my future. What was I thinking? Or was I thinking at all about my crazy spending?
One of the most important things I do to make it easy to stay frugal is to keep a budget and stick to it.
My favorite way to overindulge and spend too much money is ordering meals from Door Dash rather than having to cook a meal for one that I really don't like to do. If I didn't keep a budget and track my spending throughout the month, it would be so easy for me to overindulge in placing those orders.
Set financial goals!
Tracking my spending throughout the month keeps me living within my means. I am aware of the fact that I am living on a fixed income through Social Security and have to stretch those dollars and leave enough at the end of the month to go toward my savings to cover emergencies.
Don't spend more on name brands . . . buy generic! You'd be surprised at the difference in cost. From what I have found in my research, most items are made at the same factory. The only difference is the label and the cost.
I could go on and on! I've gone through some rough financial times and try so hard to not go back. There are so many little things I do that I will discuss in future posts.
A great article on how to be a beginning frugalista . . . click here.
Cutting costs of everything has become a challenge lately! I don't think we are alone . . .
One Good Thing by Jillee has an excellent article on frugal laundry hacks with some great tips. Click here to go to the article.
The combination of Dawn and white vinegar as a DIY cleaner is frugal magic. You can just about forget all other cleaners . . . talk about saving money!
Check out the following articles to find out more:
New Uses for Dawn and White Vinegar
Since the pandemic began, we have used a shopping service to shop and deliver our groceries for us. Of course, that made the already rising cost of groceries go way up.
Needless to say, I've been looking for ways to save money on groceries. Although I have posted DIY recipes for laundry detergent in the past, I have not yet used them. Mainly because they are powder detergent.
Today I found a recipe for liquid laundry detergent. Click here to get the recipe.
My painted white kitchen cabinets are a nightmare to keep clean. One of these days I'll get around to painting them another color. In the meantime, I'm going to use one of the DIY recipes found in the following article.
Click here to go to the article.
As time goes by, I'm learning how to use vinegar in so many ways thanks to articles I find on the internet like the one featured in this post.
Click here for the article.
