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What is frugal living? You may be a bit surprised at the answer. Perhaps we should begin by talking about what frugal living is not. It's not a way to get everything you want in life for free. You may have heard about or seen on television reports of people going around seeking free deals on anything and everything. They stayed at hotels that offered free breakfast and ordered every free item they could get their hands on.
You can, indeed, save a little cash with such techniques, but they are not the driving principle behind frugality. No, frugal living is actually a way of thinking that leads to a better sense of financial responsibility. We all want to save more money and spend less (and in today's economic climate we need to), but many people don't really know just where to begin to make a change in their lifestyle.
Well, a fundamental tenet for frugal living involves the creation and utilization of a budget. Let's face it; we should all have some sort of budgeting plan so that we don't spend too much money. Even if you make enough to splurge some months, wouldn't that extra money be better suited for saving or investments that can make you more money? A budget can help you do just that.
Contrary to popular belief, living frugally is not as difficult as you might think. It doesn't involve cutting out your spending altogether. In fact, the best way to begin a frugal lifestyle is to focus on one area at a time and make small changes. These modest adjustments will lead to more substantial things down the road. But, in order to do this, you must determine exactly where your money's going right now. For instance, if you bring home $3,000 a month but by the end of that time you're scraping the bottom of the barrel, then there's a problem that you should address. A budget will enable you to precisely track where your money is being spent. And, once you know where it's going, you can find ways to divert it to the places where you actually need it to go. That's a big part of frugal living – purposely sending your money in specific directions. You might save money for a summertime family vacation or a home improvement. Finding the money to put away will be surprisingly easy when you develop the habit of making frugal choices on a daily basis.
But, don't try to go it alone; get your family involved. After all, it's a lot easier to turn a ship when you have the help of the entire crew. Give them a rundown of the goals and encourage everyone to work together to come up with ways to reach them. Before you know it, you'll all be living frugally and actually enjoying more perks. With additional money in the bank, you'll develop a 'cushion' for emergencies, and you'll probably also find everyday life to be a lot less stressful.
