Frugality
After the investigations I’ve gone through trying to save money for my Xbox 360, I’ve realized that there are lots of things I should be doing (or doing more of) financially for now and the future. Don’t get me wrong, I’m still getting my game machine, however the same way I’m saving for this can be applied to making extra payments on a credit card or actually saving it regularly on one of my high interest savings accounts.
There is a reason for the title for this post, I have decided that frugality is the way to go based on what I’ve been reading. I don’t mean that I’m cutting the cable or going back to dial up (that will never happen!!!). What I do mean is things like:
- Packing a lunch everyday for work instead of buying something from the crap-eteria (some days lunch can go up to $7!!!).
- Making coffee at home every morning (saves $1 a day, which is $5 a week, $20 a month, it adds up…).
- Cutting DVD purchases ( in the last 3 months I’ve bought 6 DVDs which is not huge, but of those six, three of them were impulse buys, those damn $5.50 DVD bins at Wal-Mart, one of the movies I hadn’t even seen before[something I never do, what if I don’t like the movie?]).
- Limiting dining out to once or twice a month, etc.
Those are just a few of the things to get me started. I’m also exploring ideas about taking advantage of 0% balance transfers from credit cards and using them to earn interest income, this is basically free money (not even close to making anyone rich so don’t get too excited). What I’m trying to get to is: by just being a little frugal and exploring different ways of thinking we can save more money for now and the future (like 401k’s or IRA’s).
As I noted on my last post, MyMoneyBlog.com is an excellent resource for ideas, advice, offers, etc. While there Jonathan has links to all sorts of other personal finance blogs which can keep you reading for hours if not days or weeks. There is a wealth of information available and as young as me and all 7 of the readers of this blog are, we should use it to our advantage.
As an update: both my Emigrant Direct and my ING Direct accounts are now open and I got my free $25 from ING for opening the account, yes!! Ironically, I found another blog that has a link where they give you $50 to open the same account (offer good until Dec 31 2005), you know my wife is about to open one of those right ;-) I’ll post a link to that blog later on…
posted by Unknown at 12:02 AM
2 Comments:
hey....I've been doing that for about 3 month now and it has worked for my family. Taking lunch from home , making cofee at home and not buying things that I don't need (in your case are extra DVD's but it can also be things for the house that you'll never gonna use, books, etc.). I'm looking forward to hear from that website of the bank that gives you the $50 for opening the account. What interest are they offering? Is it reliable?
Getting back to the title of the blog, your not being frugal, you're being concious. If you think about what type of food you get sometimes from a fast food service or from the "cafreteria", it'll make sense to say that food from home is healthier and better. Also the coffee from the gas station taste like a mix of water with sand and dust with a little bit of salt....You get the idea!
9/07/2005 09:23:00 AM
Well it seems like the blog just got its first SPAM post, you won't see it 'cause I deleted it but at least there is more attaention than I thought.
Will, I think you hit it right in the head, its really not being frugal but being conscious about how and why you spend your money. I do fully intend on cutting more stuff on as I move forward maybe then it might be considered frugal but it depends I guess. I will get that link for you once I can find it, I kind of forgot to bookmark it. As far as the banks go, my accounts have only been open a few days so I can't say for certain how good or bad they are, however they are FDIC insured and you can look up their registration certificates and such, so they are legit banks. I do like the user interface on ING more than Emigrant because there is a lot more that you can do as far as setting automatic transfers and such. However Emigrant pays a slightly higher interest 3.5% vs. 3.3% for ING, depending on how long you keep money on those accounts (and how much you have in there) the difference might matter, in my current financial situation it won't be much. If you are looking for more info on these accounts, stop by MyMoneyBlog.com, Jonathan has reviews there for the most popular ones.
Puerto Rico, ahi...
9/07/2005 12:52:00 PM
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