Living Frugally?

Question: We are so excited to finally start living a frugal life. We have tried before, but were never able to stop our impulsive spending.

But we’re motivated now. Just today we saved $275 per month by cancelling several things: cell phones, internet and a couple of club memberships.

We are planning now and have started a budget like you described in your book.

For Christmas we bought an inexpensive tree for $12 and saved enough money to buy a steeply discounted artificial tree during the after-Christmas clearance sales. Thanks for the encouragement.


Answer: You guys are awesome. As you continue learning and honing your frugal skills, you’ll find more and more ways to save. And the saving will become contagious — it will spill over to your friends. Another wonderful side effect of practicing frugality is that instead of it being a burden or feeling like deprivation, it produces freedom and fun. It’s a game and it’s really rewarding when you win.

We would offer one caution. We’ve seen what we call “debt reduction exhilaration,” which occurs when someone has some early frugal successes. They are so enthusiastic that they start cutting expenses and eliminating debt haphazardly, leaving them with little emergency savings and cutting expenses that they aren’t fully prepared to live without. If there is an emergency (car repair or major medical expense) the only option is to go back and use credit, which just starts the vicious debt cycle again. And often the eliminated expenses cause a “rebound” effect due to a feeling of deprivation, which results in even greater spending.


Taking time to discuss your changes together, planning to implement them slowly and carefully will ensure that you will succeed on your frugal journey. Go get ‘em!