While shopping at Barnes and Noble the other day, I came across this book. I try to live as frugally as possible but I don't always succeed.After college graduation I moved back home with my mom, got a job, purchased a car and loved spending money. I didn't own a credit card and because my mom was awesome and only asked me to pay one household bill, I had a lot of freedom to shop, shop, shop!
That all ended when I moved out on my own. With bills and rent, gas and groceries, I realized that Saturday trips to Target and trips to the mall were out. I just didn't have the extra money to do that very often if at all. In 3 years, I have trained myself not to buy a lot. If I do make that fun trip to Target and overspend, I feel guilty. Especially when I buy stuff that I don't need.
Since our wedding, we have combined checking accounts. I thought it would be a horrible idea but it has worked out very well. We also combined our cell phone accounts and have discovered that some of our bills are lower each month. Sure, I married my husband's debt but we have a financial plan to pay those off.
All of that being said (sorry, I am wordy), I still want to find ways to cut back on spending. This book has 365 tips on how to live cheap. Some are not directly related to swiping your credit card but can save you money in the long run if you take care of yourself.
My favorite section of the book is the one titled "Cheap Tactics for Love and Marriage."
265. Don't spend to impress
266. Give gifts of sincerity
267. Plan a romantic free date (Not free of romance, free of money!)
268. Take walks together
269. Write love notes
My plan over the next week of my vacation is to look through the book and try to find the ideas that apply to us. I really want to make a difference in the amount of money we spend in 2009. We plan to make '09 the last year we live in this apartment so saving as much money as we can is very, very important.
How do you live cheap? Any tips??
4 comments:
Board games...lots and lots of board games. :)
http://www.thesimpledollar.com/2009/01/04/review-making-it-all-work/
Search for "turn up in unexpected places," and that'll be a link to your own website.
You're also probably going to get a lot more traffic from the Get Rich Slowly blog. He has a link to your site. :)
I was here. I know that's more likely to be seen written on a bathroom wall or etched onto a tree, LOL.
I visited from Trent's link and you were already told it was the "turn up in unexpected places" link.
Post a Comment