The biggest part of being frugal is looking honestly at what we need versus what we want. When I was working and we didn’t have kids it was pretty easy to go out for dinner a couple times a week. Having a butcher right on the corner and a new grill made for a very expensive summer of ‘99.

I try and remember back to that time and I don’t think that me would recognize today’s me. We have had to cut back on a lot of the stuff we thought we needed in order to make the budget work. I look at how some other folks spend money and often wonder if they are being honest with themselves. Stopping at Starbucks every morning eating out for lunch and dinner then complaining about not having enough money to make the house payment seems foolish to me.

They need to change their mind. If I recall my college days correctly (always a challenge considering my hobby haha) they call that a “Paradigm Shift”.

My advice to folks is to take a step back and look, really look where your money goes. Every time a wallet or purse is opened, look at what its for. Then decide do I need this. I had the perfect example just this morning. The girls and I were at the local Target and they had Rock Band for Wii. It just came out. It looks really fun. We would have a blast playing it!

It retails for $169.

While I had the box in my hands and looked long and hard at it, jaw slacked, I knew we didn’t NEED it and that is a LOT of money for a game, even if it comes with drums, guitar and mike and cool rock tunes…

I left it on the shelf. (This time.) The point is instead of just picking it up and rolling with it I stopped and thought whether the cost was justifiable. At this time it wasn’t.

Change your mind.

Peace!
Tony