One of the things I try to steer clear of when starting a conversation with someone new is that my husband and I live frugal lives. The word frugal seems to cause confusion about its true meaning. Prior to the word being trendy, people felt that frugal people were misers or cheapskates. For the most part, I think that frugal people are just really careful about their spending habits.
Living frugal has really helped me to think about the decisions I make in my life whether they be big and make a huge impact on my family, or small and barely cause a ripple in our life financially. The great thing about living frugal is that we are aware of how we spend our money, and focus on what changes in our life have to be made to live frugal yet still live the life that we want.
Before being frugal I hadn’t given much thought to the energy consumption around our house or how it impacts us financially. I’ve always lived by the mantra “turn the light off when you leave the room”, but there is really more to it than that. Becoming aware of all of the little changes that we could make make as a family to both live frugal and energy efficient has challenged me to think of new ways for us to save money.
Another way that helps us over time with our grocery budget is that we stock up on an item while it is at a rock bottom price. I love cooking with red bell peppers, but I am not in love with their high price. The normal price here for a red bell pepper is more than a dollar if not on sale and I feel that it is too much to spend. I was really excited last week when red bell peppers were on sale for $.48 each. I only purchased seven of the peppers, but I am hoping that they will last until the next sale. The peppers cost me about $3.50, and if I hadn’t purchased them on sale would have been closer to $8 or $9. Before being frugal I would have only purchased 1 or 2 peppers even at the $.48 price because I didn’t know I could freeze vegetables. Not all vegetables freeze well, but red bell peppers do.
I’ve written in the past about our older vehicles which saves us a significant amount of money each month since we don’t have a car payment. One of the things that is frustrating about owning an older vehicle with high miles though is that eventually something will break or need to be repaired for it to continue to be reliable. The thermostat on one of our vehicles had to be replaced this week, and rather than putting it off, which would most likely cause even more damage to the car, we had it fixed.
Living frugal has really helped change my mindset about what things in our life can be changed to help us save money. The money that we save grocery shopping, living more energy efficient, and maintaining our vehicles can then be used in other areas of our budget.
Tags: Living Frugal