How frugality saved my marriage

It's time we sat down and had a little chat about frugality.

What does it mean to be frugal? Well some people may define it as being 'cheap'; Webster defines it as "characterized by or reflecting economy in the use of resources".

For those 25 and under, being frugal can be the difference between swimming and drowning. So frugality is those little floaty-devices you wear on your arms while swimming, metaphorically speaking.

Lets go over 5 grand-tastic ways to be frugal:

1. Go used or go home. If you are trying to get your hands on something, or if you REALLY need it, try to find it used. You can use sites like freecycle.org or craigslist.org to find used things and save some smackaroos.
2. Brown bag it. I've mentioned this in previous blogs, but if you want to save some serious cheddar and be a real breadwinner, you have to make time to make your lunch and bring it with you!
3. Use a 30-day list. To kill impulse buys, create a 30-day list. When you want to buy something that is not a necessity, put it on this list with the date. You are not allowed to buy this item for 30 days from the date. Stick to it or don't bother.
4. Find free entertainment or stay home. Staying home might not sound the most dandy to some people, but if you invite friends over and dust of your old Hungry Hungry Hippos game, you'll be having fun before you can say Jack Johnson. Finding free entertainment is easy too if you look in the right places like local free papers.
5. Use the library. Another topic I've visited in my blogs, the library. The library supplies you with anything and everything you need to have a good time at home. You can get new release movies and CD's for free and have them much longer than a video store due date. For those people who still take time for a good book, I think the library might have something like that for you too.

So in these times, lets use our heads and not our wallets.

A great site to visit is http://www.frugalvillage.com/ for more frugal living tips and tricks.

Hope everyone is happy, and saving money!

Myles

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