Defining Frugal Living
Frugal living is making the necessary choices to live within your means. By living within your means, you keep yourself and your family from the bondage of consumer debt. Living frugally isnât the same as living a miserably unadorned, Spartan lifestyle. And being frugal isnât the same thing as being cheap or chintzy. Frugal living is simply being economical in the use of your resources. For example:
My house is filled almost to overflowing with my favorite Victoriana dĂ©corâpurchased at garage sales, thrift stores, and retrieved from Grandmaâs attic.
Our family of five dines in fancy restaurants on special occasionsâoften with coupons or during special offers.
We see nearly every current movie we want toâby waiting for it to hit the cheap theaters, by allocating some of our entertainment budget for a movie splurge in a first-run theater (eating before we go, of course, so we arenât tempted by $3.50 sodas and $4.50 bags of popcorn, and going early in the day to a discount matinee showing), or by waiting for the video release.
My three kids are dressed in fashionable, brand-name clothingâusually purchased secondhand or from the clearance racks at their favorite stores.
We eat high-quality, delicious foods at homeâlovingly prepared from sale items at the grocery store.
Donât slip into the extremes of saving or spending money, but find a balance that works for you and your family members. Sometimes moneyâs so tight that you have no choice but to be a miser. Other times you need the comfortâand the therapyâof a nice restaurant dinner with your spouse, far away from the kids and the pressing responsibilities of life.
To Be or Not to Be: Reasons for Living a Frugal Lifestyle
âTo be or not to be.â Hmm. Well, Hamlet may have been dealing with bigger issues than whether or not to spend his money on gourmet coffees, but deciding to live a more frugal lifestyle in the midst of commercialism run amok isnât necessarily an easy decision. I mean, after all, what will the neighbors think if your family is still driving the same old car five years from now?
Keep in mind the reasons you live a frugal lifestyle: getting out of debt and then staying out of debt, living within your means, saving for college or a down payment on a house, affording nice vacations, or living through a financial crisis (such as a job loss) without losing your shorts. If youâre satisfied with the choices youâre making in your life, donât worry about what other people think about your frugal lifestyle.
For many families today, frugal living isnât so much a matter of choosing not to join the consumer spending spree as it is a matter of necessity. The rising cost of living, stagnant wages, unexpected corporate layoffs, compounding personal debt, and high medical bills all contribute to the modern familyâs financial difficulties.
Whether you need or choose to adopt a frugal lifestyle, living frugally can help you achieve your financial goals and live through financially tough times.
Saving money and meeting financial goals
Whatever your personal or family goals may be, cutting back on regular expenses can help free up money for other, more highly valued, purposes. For example, if your family wants to take an exceptionally nice vacation next year, but you donât want to work an extra part-time job to pay for it, what can you do? Well, an easy solution is to cut back on your regular expenses throughout the year, and then save the difference for your dream vacation. Europe, here we come! (See Chapter 2 for goal-setting advice and Chapter 3 for budgeting advice.)
Dealing with stagnant wages or low income
Itâd be great if every job provided regular raises, adequate medical coverage, and cost-of-living increases, but unfortunately, not all employers are able to provide these benefits for their workers. But by cutting back on personal and family-related expenses, a family may be able to continue living within its means, even if the cost of living creeps higher than wage increases. For example, if youâre spending $700 per month on groceries to feed your family and then you cut that amount in half, your family just received a $350 per month raise. (Donât think cutting your monthly grocery bill by a few hundred dollars is possible? Check out Chapter 4.)
Some families value having a parent stay at home while the kids are young. In todayâs economy, however, two full-time incomes are almost a financial necessity just to afford the rent or mortgage and other basic needs of life. But by tightening your money belt and keeping true to your personal priorities, affording a stay-at-home parent can become a reality for your family.
Living through a job loss
A major job loss can be devastating for any family. To make matters worse, many families are living so close to the edge financially that even a brief period of unemployment can be just enough to send their house into foreclosure and make their utilities unaffordable. If youâre unemployed right now, a drastically reduced spending plan for your family can mean the difference between drowning under a load of debt and staying afloat until the current crisis passes.
Even if you havenât lost your job, discovering how to live frugally can help you build up a financial cushion that will carry...