To Review: Idea stolen, with permission, from Centsible Living with Money Mom on youtube.
FYI: I loathe the new blogger interface. Sucks. The 3 things I used to do with a single click are not several step processes.
Anyway. Digging deeper for the tips now that we're approaching 101.
[I had to "revert to legacy blogger" option. Too hard to find the 3 things I use all the freaking time. GEEZ google. WTF? Did you look at blogs and think "how can we get these Luddites to just use facebook? I know, let's make it hard to type, hard to post, hard to save, hard to see what labels you've used, hard to put in a link, and hard to find your own blog.]
74 Track What You Don't Spend. If you want something and don't spend money on it, just do with out, track that like you track your spending. I do this when I need extra motivation. I make a note. This week I noted the times I wanted a coffee out or forgot part of my lunch and didn't run to the store and fill in the gap. I mean, I am in ZERO risk of starving in the 4 hours between lunch and heading home.
75 Eat Enough, Not Too Much. In a NOT NEWS FLASH: Many of us eat more per day than we need, hence we get fat or spend $$/time/effort (check all that apply) burning the calories we didn't need. I do exercise and burn 200 or so calories a day. I go ahead and eat enough healthy, or unhealthy, quality food to cover that and the basic being alive thing. What I'm trying to do during the current budget tightening to pay for the house-build, is NOT just over eat and end up having to cut back on food the next day or exercise more. That's silliness. There was a time when I overate quite a bit and much of America and the world intakes nearly twice the food needed to live and work and to enjoy living by getting out and about and doing active stuff. If we stopped that, we'd save money on food, save on stress on the land by not having to produce as much food, and have (as we already do) enough food to feed the planet. We'd still have the distribution problem and wouldn't feed the world with the food we have plenty of, but we'd still have the option to sort that out.
76 Know Needs vs Wants. This is a good place to start actually. It involves some hard looks at life. Sure, I "need" clothes because sometimes it's cold and sometimes I burn the bejeebus out of my upper back by not wearing enough clothes for the amount of sunlight (recent issue...oops! Stupid strappy tank tops). But do I need NEW clothes. Nope. Almost never. The minute you get the clothes home and wear them or wash them or just have them, they are used clothes. You usually need to wash new clothes before you wear them. Same with used clothes. Thrift, consignment, yard sales, clothing exchanges etc. Do I need 20 coats. Nope. I have maybe 10. Also don't need 10 coats so I'll work on that. I regularly wear about 8 of them. It's not that you don't get to buy anything that's a "want" but know that it is a "want" not a need. Know that one life choice between want/need has repercussions in other want/need areas. I need a place to live. I WANT to live on acres in a house of my own design. So I'm spending money to do that. The repercussions include a more reliable car than I would have if I lived closer to town. If I had stayed in town, 3 blocks from work, I could have gotten by with no car. I wouldn't have but I could have. Where I am, I COULD get by without a car, but it would mean riding a bike or walking or finding a ride to town sometimes. So, each choice influences other want/need choices.
77 Make Conscious Choices. When you decide to do something, do it on purpose. Can't pay all the bills this month? Think through which one to pay. Which thing has immediate consequences and how serious are they? Which has long term consequences? How serious are they? What are your options. Once upon a time I couldn't pay all the bills. This was due to choices I'd made to be in grad school and stop taking student loans. Hence, temporary poverty. I couldn't pay all the bills. I had nothing to liquidate that would sell in time and bring in enough money to cover things. I chose to pay rent rather than electric. I asked a friend to help me cover electric and paid her back out of the next check. Hated doing it but there you go. I made a choice. Not paying rent resulted in a big fee. Not paying the electric bill resulted in a small fee. The friend helped me stay far enough ahead that I didn't have to pay that fee twice. Recently I forgot to pay the cell phone and had a 5$ late fee. DAMMIT! I hate that. That was not a conscious choice. It was a mistake. So, back to having an automated alarm in my phone reminding me to pay for phone service.
78 Sustain Effort. It's like getting or staying healthy, getting through school, raising kids, saving the world. You have to do it for a long time. Keep trying even if you screw up. See above...screwed up the phone bill so trying again.
79 Reboot. Sometimes try new things or let go of things that don't work for you. Some people need to have a cash envelope system. It hasn't been my thing but if I need a reboot, I will try it. I didn't used to track my budget on paper. I used to get 200$ cash when I got a paycheck and make that last, or intend to, until the next paycheck. Groceries and gas came out of it. This broke down off and on and with my longer commute and the sometimes high gas prices, fuel costs eclipsed food and the rest and so it didn't work well. I also found that gas was no longer cheaper when I paid cash at most places so the going in and talking to people and maybe buying a pop was no longer something I wanted to do. You can go back to something you used to do. I used to keep a paper budget. Then let it go for a while when the debt was paid off and the savings seemed to be building up fine. I'd track 1 or 2 months a year and let it go the rest of the time. When I wanted to up the savings for a new goal, I went back to full time paper budget/spending tracking.
80 Think in Systems. As above in #76, one thing leads to another. The housing choice connects to the transportation options. The job choices connect to the income level. My personality type makes me prone to systems thinking. I see a whole pattern and the weak points. This helps with budgeting or being frugal. It's obvious to me how choices between wants/needs in one area affect others. Not just in money areas, in all areas I think in systems but those areas aren't relevant here. Apparently the whole system isn't obvious to lots of people. I'm forever staring at someone thinking "How did you choose to buy a truck that gets 3 miles to the gallon and NOT realize your fuel costs would go up?" I would think those two things are clearly linked. Nope. I live in the boonies and am constantly amazed that folks buy a place an hour from town on a dirt road, and think they can drive a Prius. You can OWN one, but it won't drive to/from your new place 6 months of the year due to depth of snow and mud. I have often failed to care for my health (see above sunburn), but I'm not surprised when that results in healthcare costs or other costs (this time just aloe vera gel). I see how it happens. Re that sunburn...sometimes I'm not focused so don't see the systemic issues like wearing a tank top and being in the blazing sun too long. When I'm focused or thinking through a choice, being conscious, I do see the system. I'm not pleading perfection here, I'm pleading aspiration.
81 Commitment. Make a commitment to something. Or a few things. If committing to frugality for its own sake doesn't appeal, perhaps debt elimination does. Or avoiding taxes (live on less than the minimum taxable income and you don't have to pay them! As long as you don't earn more than that or donate to your favorite charities to the point you get your net income below that line). Whatever. commit to it and you might end up saving $$ or the planet or whatever it is you want to do.
82 Half-Assery. If you don't want to commit to something that hard, half-ass it. This also comes from Jeff Yeager, author of "The Cheapskate Next Door." If you remember to track your budget half the time, you'll figure out some of the leaks in it or some of the ways you spend money that bring you no life-benefit. Remember to contribute to savings half the months of the year and you'll save more than if you never do it.
83 Talk to the Duffers. Old people have been through some crap in their time. Talk to them. Perhaps more importantly, listen to them. Ask some questions. I asked my gramma what her family garden looked like growing up and she eventually mailed me a letter with a list of what she remembered her folks growing. It's pretty interesting. I took some tips from that like grow what you eat or grow the high dollar items. I asked her how many clothes people used to have. LOTS less than most of us do now. She said most families had 1 or 2 outfits for each kid to wear. Maybe 3 if they had a "sunday best" option in addition to school and chores/play. She said her family had lots compared to others partly due to frugality, partly due to income, partly due to her parents being more indulgent and a lot to do with spinster aunts who could sew and got clothes donated from other people that they reworked into clothes for Gram and her siblings. Good to know. Made me rethink my wardrobe.
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