by Trent Hamm
Available in 24 free installments
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Industry, perseverance, and frugality make fortune yield. Benjamin Franklin
For a lot of people, frugality is a nine letter word for cheap. They think of people doing stuff like buying cartloads of generic products, using forty coupons in the checkout aisle, wearing patched clothing, driving a rusted-out old vehicle, and other such things that it's easy to look down your nose at.
Here's a secret, something that I've witnessed several times in my own life and read about many more: those frugal people that you look down your nose at often have a mountain of cash in the bank (not always, of course, but more often than you think). They're not drowning in a mortgage, they're not making payments on a five figure credit card debt. They're not working to death on the weekends or drowning an ulcer in Pepto-Bismol. They're living their life according to their own rules.
Everything PF
http://www.thesimpledollar.com
The best part is that we can all apply some of those same rules in our own life. Here's what you can do to start reducing that spending.
Maximize Every Dollar
Every time you spend money you make a decision. You decide that whatever you're giving that dollar for is worth it, and thus you make the exchange. The real key to spending less is to raise that definition of what a dollar is worth.
Here are 100 great tactics for reducing your spending and saving more money.
1. Switch your bank accounts to a bank that respects you. You shouldn't be spending your hard-earned money on maintenance fees - you also should be earning some serious interest on your checking and savings accounts. I use ING Direct as my primary bank - I earn roughly 1% on my checking account and 1.4% on my savings account (even in this down economy) and they've never dinged me with a fee. It's not too hard to switch banks, either, if you sit down and just do it. [23]
2. Turn off the television. One big way to save money is to watch less television. There are a lot of financial benefits to this [24] : less exposure to guilt-inducing ads, more time to focus on other things in life, less electrical use, and so on. It's great to unwind in the evening, but seek another hobby to do that.
3. Turn a critical eye to your "collections." Most people collect something - what do you collect? Is it something that consistently brings you joy? Or is it
something that you just do out of habit at this point? Does the collection itself have value? Could you perhaps "trim the fat" from this collection by getting rid of duplicates or getting rid of the items you no longer use [25]? Also, could you perhaps cut down on your spending on that hobby [26] , [27]? Focus on trimming the things you don't feel strongly about - if you dig into things that bother you, you're going to eventually relapse.
Everything PF
http://www.thesimpledollar.com
4. Sign up for every free customer rewards program you can. Even if you rarely shop at that place, having a rewards card for that place will eventually net you some coupons and discounts. Here's the basic game plan for maximizing these programs [28] : create a Gmail address just for these mailings, collect every card you can, and then check that account for extra coupons whenever you're ready to shop.
5. Make your own gifts instead of buying stuff from the store. You can make food mixes, candles, bread, cookies, soap, and all kinds of other things at home quite easily and inexpensively [29] , These make spectacular gifts for others because they involve your homemade touch, plus quite often they're consumable, meaning they don't wind up filling someone's closet with junk. Even better - include a personal handwritten note with the gift [30] , This will make it even more special than anything you could possibly buy down at the mall, plus it saves you money.
6. Master the thirty day rule. Whenever you're considering making an unnecessary purchase, wait thirty days and then ask yourself if you still want that item [31] , Quite often, you'll find that the urge to buy has passed and you'll have saved yourself some money by simply waiting. If you want, you can even keep a "thirty day list" where you write down the item and the day you'll reconsider it, but I prefer just to keep this one in my head - that way, I often just forget about the unimportant things.
