Help
With Your Rule
Frugality & Simplicity
Dear Holly,
I want to thank you for sharing the tremendous gift of A Mother's Rule of Life with us. Thank God! I need a rule!
Do you have any suggestions on how I can be more frugal? We are a one income family and we need to save money anyway we can. Could you recommend a book or a website with some insight?
Labels: 5th P Provider
posted by Holly at 2:25 PM
9 Comments:
We live in such a materialistic culture and have such consumerist expectations, not to mention that everything just costs so much lately - and the recent rising fuel costs due to the hurricane disaster in the southern US are only going to add to it. So I think your question is timely and very important for families.
For me, frugality has always been tied to simple living, and for me, simple living has always been tied to 'needs' vs 'wants'. So, I think the heart of your question really rests with each of us analysing what we really need in our lives and to have this reflected in our purchases.
A brief assessment of food, clothing, shelter, education, personal needs, in discussion with your husband, would help.
It also helps to do an analysis of your past year's purchases by examining your receipts or financial records to help assess how you have been spending your money. Sometimes we can be surprised by how much money we actually spent at the convenience store down the street! Or how those daily coffees our husbands get add up, when a thermos or mini-coffee-maker at his workplace might have saved him $60 a month!
And I think it also means, that we need to look at ways to meet these needs in the most economical ways possible. So growing our own vegetables to supplement the grocery bills... Mending clothes when possible... Spending time instead of money where applicable... Reducing superfluities... All of these things help.
A friend of mine has always enjoyed "The Tightwad Gazette" so that might be something you would find interesting. And I have always found books on homesteading or do-it-yourself manuals from the local library very helpful. I am sure even by typing in 'frugality' in a search engine would bring up a host of articles on the topic.
Holly, this is such a great topic and I feel moved to add that reading Fr. Dubay's Happy Are You Poor: The Simple Life and Spiritual Freedom would be an excellent way to start as he covers all areas of true simplicity w/our spirituality always connected as it should be as devout Catholic women/families. In fact, w/the fall approaching (which also means holidays around the corner), I have decided to pick it up & re-read that one during our homeschool breaks, etc. here. Hope this helps! God bless!
I love Fr Dubay's works, so I am going to get that one myself! Thank you!!
I also highly recommend Amy Dacyzyn's Tightwad Gazette book(s). Most libraries should have them. They have lots of tips, but what is really useful are her articles about mindset and things. The "pantry principle" and a "price book" for groceries can help anyone save on their food expense. She also talks a lot about kids and their attitudes about things. Very useful and enjoyable reading.
One of the first books I got when we were married 19 years ago was "(The)More With Less Cookbook". This has a lot of ways to stretch your cooking dollar. There is another book by the same author (Doris Janzen Longacre)called "Living More With Less". They are a bit dated, but still contain a lot of great information and inspiration.
"The Dollar Stretcher" is a great online resource as well.
I echo the comment about Fr. Dubay's book on simplicity. It is excellent!
As Holly said, it starts with determining needs vs. wants. We have been able to cut back on many expenses by looking at this idea, and teaching it to our children.
The thing about simplicity is that it helps us focus more on God and less on the material things that tug at our attention. Simplicity and gospel poverty are a witness to the materialistic world in which we live. It is very freeing to try to live this way. It also helps us to see and experience our dependence on God to meet all our needs.
Another suggestion that has really helped me get control of our grocery budget -- which was my biggest difficulty in getting our finances in line (it's food, right? We need it!) -- is to look at the book MISERLY MOMS. I got it from the library, too, so I didn't spend money on the book! My husband and I had previously done meal planning for the week...now we do meal planning for the week around what's on sale at the grocery stores. There are a lot of suggestions in this book besides groceries, and probably more suggestions about any one topic than you can actually implement at one time, but I went from being constantly over budget on groceries to being under budget every month except one so far this year. It made a big difference. If there are other areas of your budget that give you consistent trouble, chances are they're covered by this book.
I have been thinking a lot about the 'budget issue' myself lately, and have read several of the books mentioned. What I am hoping some of you can help with, though, is the spouse dynamic in budgeting. I am naturally the saver, and so want to dive right in to skimping to the essentials, whereas my husband would feel very constrained under such circumstances. Even trying to come up with 'rules to follow' is met by quite a bit of resistance from him. Have any of you found ways of helping your spouse to save/ follow those saving rules?- thanks!
HINT TO HELP HUSBAND SAVE MONEY: I give my husband money! No kidding! Actually, I give him his own money, as he pulls in the bacon here...:-)
I find that when he has some of his own spending money, to spend as he chooses, it is easier to stay on track with our budget because his cash is allotted for. It's when I don't give him his own little bundle that our funds get dipped into, exceeding the budget.
I have always been frugal and my biggest secret is to "just ask." By that, I mean to ask if the sales person will take a little off even though the sale doesn't start until tomorrow, or to ALWAYS call the manufacturer to see if they will replace a defective product rather than assuming that they won't and buying a new one. Good examples - our mattress was causing us back pain after only 1 1/2 years. Most people would buy a new one and chaulk it up to a bad choice, but I called to see what the store would do, and they found a defect and agreed to replace (no charge to me). Same with our carbon monoxize detector (just stopped working and had a five year warranty that I was unaware of) and coffee pot (broke in less than one year) - all in one month's time!!! I saved myself hundreds of dollars just for asking!!! Sometimes, it takes time, but I think it is worth it. Good luck!
Post a Comment
<< Home