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Extreme Frugality Tips
Filed under FrugalityNov 24
Need Some Tips For The Road To Extreme Frugality?
Start Your Frugal LIfe With Our Easy Extreme Frugality Tips
I have mentioned it before, and I will mention it again. Some people take extreme frugality pretty far, and you tend to read about them on popular blogs or see them featured on TV news story.
But you should not shy away from your experiment in frugality because you have heard about some guy who paid off his debt by living in his car or a family that only ate their own home grown chickens, eggs, and produce. A lot of very frugal people shop in stores, take vacations, and indulge in new clothes, trips, and entertainment.
The frugal lifestyle may be compared to a healthy diet. A diet should not be something one goes on for a few weeks to lose 10 pounds, but should be a lifestyle change that will lead to better fitness. Therefore, you should take steps to incorporate extreme frugality into your life, but not in so severe a way that you will never sustain it!
Extreme Frugality Tips For Newbies
These tips are hardly extreme, but are really the same advice that prudent grandparents, money managers, and credit counselors give out. However, these tips can get you started on your new frugal lifestyle!
What are your goals?
First figure out what sort of financial situation you would like to have in 6 months, a year, or 30 years. You must be reading this because something about your current situation has made you unhappy.
- Some people are here because they are drowning in debt. They do not see an increase in income in the near future, so they know they must cut expenses so they can lower their credit balances. Others may not be drowning – yet – but understand that servicing their current debt is not a good way to become financially sound.
- Others are fairly secure right now, but worry about the future. They may want to retire early, or even on time. Planning for a secure retirement is one of the primary reasons that people become more frugal. They know that frugality is a way to save more money for retirement, and also to be comfortable during retirement.
- Still others do it because they believe in frugality as a necessary lifestyle change. They realize that things have not made them happy, or they want to quit the day job to purse more meaningful work.
It hardly matters if you want to be more frugal because you have real money problems, want a more secure future, or just do not want to be tied to your present job. Just make a note of the issues you have with your current spending habits, and also make a note of your future goals.
Make A Plan
One of the first things you will need to do is to set a budget. But you probably cannot set a budget until you know how much you are spending right how.
- Print out your recent expenses. This could include your bank and credit card statements. You may also find this free online budget calculator useful too. I know that when I tried it, I was surprised by how much money I needed just to keep current with my monthly bills.
- Figure out your budget. There will be necessary expenses, for things like utilities and transportation. These will be interesting to note because this will be a good time to figure out how you can lower them. There will also be unnecessary expenses, or some spending you could replace with more frugal alternatives.
- Can you lower any fixed expenses? Could you replace your long commute in your own vehicle with mass transportation or a van pool? Can you decide to raise your thermostat in the summer and lower it in the winter? Could you simply shop around for cheaper Internet services or electricity? Some quick fixes may be quite simple.
- Plan your shopping better. I think a lot of us get into trouble, not because we buy too much stuff, but because we do not buy things the frugal way. Some frugal people do not give up eating meat, for example, but they get much better deals when they buy portions of a cow from a local farmer. They actually say they get better, fresher meat that way too. If you are not ready to buy a freezer to stock lots of meat, maybe you could just explore getting better values by buying larger sizes of toilet paper, etc.
- Attack your debt. Make sure your new budget includes a debt attack plan, especially if you are serving a lot of unsecured debt (credit cards). I will discuss some debt attack plans in later articles.
- Set up an emergency fund. Your first step should be to establish an emergency fund. This will keep you from pulling out a credit card every time you need to fix your car or take your dog to the vet. Everybody’s needs vary, but I would say to sock away money until you have at least a couple thousand dollars in ready cash that is only to be used for emergencies. If you can accomplish this goal as quickly as possible, you will be better off than a large percentage of Americans.
- Plan for medium to long term savings. Your budget should also include contributions to a fund for planned expenses, plus a retirement plan. If you know you want to go on vacation next summer, start saving money so you do not have to charge the whole thing. If you charge your vacation, you could still be paying it off the next summer. I do not think I have to even mention why frugal people save for retirement!
Hopefully these extreme frugality tips do not look too scary. Take small steps. When you actually manage to set aside a few hundred dollars for an emergency, you should take satisfaction from making prudent steps to secure your future!
4 Responses to “Extreme Frugality Tips”
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