I am trying to become more frugal with all my spending. I gathered more than $30k in credit card and loan debt over the last 10 years so I am slowly working on getting that fixed.
So I was used to spending on useless items like weekend trips to Marshall’s, Amazon, coffee, fast food, etc.
If you were ever a shopper like this, what habits helped transition you to live a frugal lifestyle? Like right now I was scrolling through here and saw someone post a lovely photo of their home that looked so airy and clean and inviting, it almost made me want to go shopping for something to freshen up my home too. So that gives you an idea of how I would end up getting into debt. But now I’m thinking I should just clean up my home and move stuff around.
What changes helped transition you to become frugal?
byu/Latter_Intention_143 inFrugal
Posted by Latter_Intention_143
8 Comments
Train yourself to notice the many ways in which companies try to scam you out of your money, often in the name of convenience. Take pride in not being the kind of person who can be easily tricked into losing money on things.
Get offended by the prospect of paying that much to not have to think. Be proud that you can think and do math.
Consider how you get what you pay for. If a company is offering something at a price that seems unfair or unreasonable, buy it elsewhere if you must buy it at all — not because you couldn’t afford to pay the markup if you wanted to, but because paying the markup signals to the company that their behavior of charging so much is acceptable and encouraged.
For me, it wasn’t overnight but it was reading the book Your Money or Your Life and doing the exercises, especially the ones looking at monthly totals and asking if those expenses were justified, as well as applying my hourly rate to see how I was using my “life-energy”.
We’re brainwashed into spending our hard earned dollars in ways that aren’t serving us without realizing what’s happening. Like you, I was treated shopping as a hobby. With the exercises I already mentioned, I was slowly confronted to the influences that led me to spend money, and buying stuff I didn’t need, and which I already had at home.
for me, i started taking look at things in the longer term perspective rather than shorter term and focused on the actuall ROI for anything in the longer run. This mindshift alone, helps you stop buying randim, daily fillers which have no use the next day, week or even month!
Excel spreadsheet of monthly expenses. Monthly income. Plan to save + pay off debt (used Snowball method). It worked! I did this for close to a year.
Scottish thrift runs in the family.
There were several changes. One is I hate taking money out of savings. So I had to work with what was coming in each month. I started seeing wonderful things at thrift shops and eventually bought most of my clothing and household goods at them. I started giving myself $100 a week in cash to buy lunches and anything “stuff” oriented. Not groceries, but thrifted stuff and craft stuff as well as lunches out. That helped because it seemed like I was always charging stuff – every day. I also stopped getting my nails, brows etc done. I trim my own hair, but go in for haircuts. We now max out 401K, Roth and HSA and save about 50% take home.. To incentivize all this saving, we go overseas at least once a year for vacation.
Keep track of your expenses – whether it’s writing it down on paper or using an app. Seeing how much you spend and where can be eye opening.
Setting a budget and paying with cash was helpful for me. Being able to physically handle my money was a game changer. I became more cautious of what I was spending my money on.
Set aside a “pin money” type allowance each month. Sometimes I spend it-sometimes don’t. But when its gone I stop.