Thoughts from a frugalista!

 

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.

7 Weird Ways to Save $4000/Year

Yep, it says weird ways to save money.  It doesn't involve making any cuts or changes to your current budget and savings methods.  Having said that, making little changes to our spending habits along with doing some of the weird little things that may seem insignificant, we can have extra money to either save for something special or stretch the monthly budget to a comfortable level.  It all adds up!

The Captain and I have utilized weird ways of making a little extra money, like using Bing to do searches and get paid in Amazon gift cards.  We accumulate the gift cards until we have enough for a purchase we have set as a goal.  While it didn't put money in our pockets, we were able to purchase a little treat just for doing searches on the internet.

We also use Google AdSense on all of our blogs to make actual money.  Check it out if you haven't already.

Filling out surveys and watching videos is another way to make money on the internet for those who have the time to dig in and do those things.  We have done those too and were paid in Amazon gift cards.

Rewards points from charge cards can certainly add up.  We are awaiting our first $50 Red Lobster gift card just for using our charge card.  Of course we have come up with a plan to just filter all the expenses through the card and pay the card immediately so we don't accumulate a balance . . . just valuable points.

I could go on and on with little things you can do, but you get the idea.  Think outside the box!  Click here for those 7 weird says to save $4000/year.