Important frugal living tips that you should follow

Frugal living does not imply additional thriftiness, rather it implies better money management and to live smartly. Frugal living means getting best deals for everything you purchase. It also implies Through frugal living, if you can save something at a regular basis, it will help you build up wealth which will in turn help you secure a prosperous future for you and for your family members. Here are some frugal living tips which you can follow in your life.

Buy a small home

If you have to necessarily buy, buy small. It holds good for the home that you buy. However, it does not mean that you have to confine yourself into a one room hut, it is to say that do not buy more than what you need. For each extra square foot you purchase, you need to pay additional money for your mortgage. Not only that, you are required to pay extra money in taxes, home insurance and utilities.

Eat out less often

Frequently eating outside along with your spouse and children creates a big hole in your pocket. You need to change this habit and need to eat at home more frequently. But, it is not to say that you should completely abstain from eating outside. Once in a while, you must eat outside along with family members also. You should try to curb your habit of eating outside occasionally. This will help you save a lot.

Use one car

Try to mange with single car. Using more than one car for the whole family, adds to expenses. It is wise to make slight adjustments among the family members and keep one car for the whole family.

Save on your fashion items

You may be a very fashionable person and may spend a lot of money on fashion items. Moreover, you may be an impulsive buyer. However, you need to curb the temptation of impulsive buying so as to live frugally. Before visiting any shopping mall, you need to fix up what you actually want to buy. You also have to decide upon your budget. Purchase those items only which you have already decided and need to ensure that you do not cross your budget. You can also look for online coupons and special deal in order to curb your expenses.

Stay healthy

Medical expenses can put huge strain on your finances. Best way to keep a lid on your medical bills is to stay healthy. Doing regular exercise and eating foods can help you and your family members to remain healthy. This in turn, helps you save a lot.

Frugal living does no way imply living in deprivation. Rather it helps you secure a better future for you and your family members.

Author’s Bio: EHM is a guest writer for various finance related Communities including CDFA, FCB, Debt Consolidation Care etc. She is a PG degree holder in Marketing and Finance and right now working in a reputed bank as a relationship manager. She is well equipped to write articles on debt consolidation , debt settlement, frugality, savings, economies of states etc.

Reduce Your Carbon Footprint and Save Money

Post written by A. Hall who is a guest blogger for Dog Ate My Blog and a writer on masters in social work online for Guide to Online Schools.

Contrary to what some people might tell you, alternative energy isn't simply a pipe dream. It's also a way that you (yes, you) can reasonably and realistically save money in the present, especially as the winter approaches. While it may seem prohibitive to put solar panels on top of your house or build a windmill (with the probable mountain of regulations designed to stop you from doing so), there are plenty of ways to refrain from using fossil fuels for transport or to heat your home without suffering in the process. As an added bonus, you reduce your carbon footprint substantially in doing so.

For example, depending on your town or city's infrastructure and the demands of your commute, it may be possible to get around easily by bicycle, which has two benefits: you get an opportunity to exercise on your commute and to save money on gasoline, which isn't quite as expensive as it was before the crash of late 2008, but has been steadily rising in cost since it was reduced from almost $5 to $1.50 a gallon. Additionally, with so many cities' budgets proving increasingly impossible to reconcile, drivers are starting to feel the brunt of this; the city of Chicago privatized parking in an attempt to raise funds for its Olympics bid, prompting astronomical rises in costs and mass frustration, and the city of Seattle is looking to raise its downtown parking rates to $4 an hour, the highest in the country, prompting divided responses.

Compare this to getting around on a bike, which can be free (after purchasing a good lock and supplies to replace or patch flat tire tubes), or using public transportation, which is often cheaper and doesn't require you to park anything or pay for parking (though, of course, public transportation can be much slower in some places and comes with its own set of drawbacks, such as not being able to make your own schedule and having to weather delays and cancellations, sometimes on short notice).

Furthermore, heating bills can be killer in the wintertime. Even small houses and apartments can be billed for hundreds of dollars per month if the heat runs at even temperatures as low as 63 to 65 degrees Fahrenheit all winter. While I have friends who never run their thermostats above 48 degrees, compromise can both bring down costs and make life inside bearable when it's too cold out. Temperature-regulating thermostats bring down costs considerably by keeping houses cold when you're gone and warm when you're in, and putting on coats, sweaters and long underwear makes running a house at lower temperatures exponentially more bearable.

Both of these will help to save you money and bring down the amount of carbon your habits produce on a regular basis. Though there are countless other factors, transportation and heat are substantial portions of one's output, and choosing to use motor vehicles to travel as infrequently as possible, and to keep down heat, has a huge impact on your influence and your bills.


A. Hall is a guest blogger for Dog Ate My Blog and a writer on masters in social work online for Guide to Online Schools.

Think about your life goals

Post written by Leo Babauta. Follow me on twitter or identica.

There’s never a good time to sit down and think about what you want to accomplish in life. We have busy lives, and even when we’re not busy, we might just feel more like vegging in front of the TV or checking our feeds than thinking about the rest of our lives.

Do it today, if you haven’t yet. It could take as little as 10 or 20 minutes, and it could make all the difference in the world.

And it’s not that hard. You probably already have a good idea of what you want to do, but you may not have it written down. Or maybe you’ve done this exercise before, but you haven’t updated your goals for awhile. Now’s the time to do it.

1. How to start? First, think about what you’d like people to say about you at your funeral. This comes from Stephen Covey’s 7 Habits of Highly Effective People — the habit called “Begin with the end in mind.” It’s also very effective. Imagine you are at the end of your life, looking back. What would you like to have accomplished? What kind of person would you like to have been?

Now here’s the key: start living your life so that you will eventually get to that point.

2. Now that you’ve given that a little thought, jot down some ideas for life goals you’d like to achieve before you die.

They can be in many areas, but here are a few to start with: professional, education, family, spiritual, travel, recreation, hobbies, community, charity. You can probably think of more, and you don’t need to have goals in all of these areas. Just some topics to get you started.

3. Refine your list, or expand it. After your initial brainstorm, you may want to trim it down. But you may also want to expand: sometimes it’s fun, and worthwhile, to dream big.

4. Now break it down. What should you accomplish in the next 10 years for each of these goals? How about 5 years? How about two years? One year? And this month?

Once you’ve planned out each goal for 10-year, 5-year, 2-year, 1-year and 1-month periods, you’ve got yourself a pretty solid plan.

5. Take action! I like to take my monthly goals, and make a to-do list for this week. What can I do today to further my goals? And if I can get just one thing done, I’ve done a lot to make those dreams a reality!

Take a step towards your dreams today by writing them down, and making a plan.

Top 20 Motivation Hacks – #6

Post written by Leo Babauta. Follow me on twitter or identica.

Quick intro: I first intended this Top 20 list to be in a single post, but I decided that breaking them into separate posts would allow me to concentrate on each a little more. So, I present my list of the Top 20 Motivation Hacks.

A number of people have commented that I must be dedicated to achieve some of the goals I’m going for: exercise, frugality, organization, healthy eating, etc. Well, I don’t believe in someone being naturally “dedicated” … it’s all a matter of motivation. You can achieve anything if you motivate yourself enough.

Motivation Hack #6: Make it a rule never to skip two days in a row.

This doesn’t mean calendar days, but days in which you are supposed to take action towards your goal. For example, if you planned to work out on Monday, Wednesday and Friday, don’t skip two of those workouts in a row (if you skip Monday, be sure to work out on Wednesday). The same would be true of any other scheduled goal tasks. If you are trying to eat healthy every day, and eat McDonald’s today, be sure not to cave in tomorrow as well.

This rule takes into account our natural tendency to miss days now and then. We are not perfect. I certainly am not. But missing one day should not cause us to get sidetracked for good. If we miss two days in a row, soon we’ll miss three days in a row, and we’re sliding down that slippery slope.

Don’t allow it to happen. It’s harder to start back up after a long break than it is after just missing one day. If you just miss one workout, for example, you’ve still got momentum going. Keep it going.

It’s not impossible to start back up if you’ve missed a week or a month or more, and in fact I urge you to do so if you have missed that much time already. You just have to start slow. But you’re much more likely to stick with it if you can be consistent, and you’ll see much better progress towards your goal too. Consistency is important in improvement.

So, you missed one day … now the second day is upon you and you are feeling lazy … tell yourself NO! You will not miss two days in a row! Zen Habits says so! And just get started. You’ll thank yourself later.

What are YOUR 43 Things?

I’ve been a fan of goals website 43 Things for awhile, although I don’t use it on a daily basis. What I love about it is that it forces you to think about what you want to achieve, what you’d like to do this year, or over the next two or five or 10 years.

If you haven’t done it yet, I suggest you go to the site and try it out (and no, I’m not getting paid by them!) … set your 43 things that you’d like to do (or whatever number you’d like). The cool thing is you can look at other people’s goals, and get ideas and inspiration from people all over the world. There are also other kinds of lists … books you’d like to read, places you want to visit, your lists of favorites or things you’d like to do before you die. Many possibilities, all of them good.

Of course, you can do this on paper or on any program. As long as you set some goals. Then make a plan to achieve them. Last year I set my top 8 goals for the year, and I accomplished all but one (to be able to do 25 pullups, which I hope to do this year).

Another cool feature, a new one, is the personal challenge — you publicly challenge yourself to do one of your things by a certain date, and if you don’t, you set something that you have to do instead (like eat your hat, or whatever).

Here are the 18 things left on my list:

1. complete a triathlon
2. live passionately
3. get out of debt
4. make my wife happy for the rest of her life
5. be present
6. live simply
7. pare my life to its essentials
8. save more money
9. complete an ironman triathlon
10. see the northern lights
11. practice zen
12. backpack through Europe
13. finish reading Ulysses
14. build a simple house
15. help end world hunger
16. do twenty-five pullups
17. watch a sunset in thailand
18. run a marathon in under 3.5 hours

I had more on here, but I’ve already checked them off.

For a more fun list, see the list of things I want to do before I die.

What are YOUR 43 things?

Top 20 Motivation Hacks – #7

Post written by Leo Babauta. Follow me on twitter or identica.

Quick intro: I first intended this Top 20 list to be in a single post, but I decided that breaking them into separate posts would allow me to concentrate on each a little more. So, I present my list of the Top 20 Motivation Hacks.

A number of people have commented that I must be dedicated to achieve some of the goals I’m going for: exercise, frugality, organization, healthy eating, etc. Well, I don’t believe in someone being naturally “dedicated” … it’s all a matter of motivation. You can achieve anything if you motivate yourself enough.

Motivation Hack #7: Become aware of your urges to quit, and be prepared for them.

One of the things I discovered as I was quitting smoking was that when I had an urge to smoke a cigarette, I didn’t really think about it. I wasn’t aware of the urge on a conscious level. And so I would automatically start justifying the urge, without realizing I was doing it.

And so I discovered that one of the most powerful things I could do was to start being more conscious of those urges. A good exercise is to go through the day with a little piece of paper and put a tally mark for each time you get an urge. It simply makes you aware of the urges.

This can work for any goal, because with any goal, we get urges to quit, at least for that moment. We might not feel like running today, so we automatically begin justifying it to ourselves. We might feel a lag in motivation about spending (and spending urges are strong!) or about dieting or anything else really. Become aware of those urges, those moments of crisis that are mostly unconscious.

The next step is to have a plan for when those urges hit. Plan for it beforehand, and write down your plan, because once those urges hit, you will not feel like coming up with a plan. It will be too late, usually. The plan could include such tactics found in the other motivation hacks here on this site, such as “just get started” or “remind yourself of your powerful reasons”. My strategy for quitting smoking was to take deep breaths and drink water, and never have a cigarette without goiing on the quit smoking forum and posting about my urges first. Then, if that didn’t work, I would first enlist the help of my supporters (my wife and mom). I made it very difficult to have that cigarette. And that worked for me. I suggest you have a similar plan, with a series of obstacles to get in your way.

First be aware of those urges. We all have them, and it’s no shame to get them. Just know that they are happening. And have a plan to conquer them. They are strong, but not unbeatable.

Best 8 Ways to Deal with Detractors

Post written by Leo Babauta. Follow me on twitter or identica.

We have all had them as we set and go after our goals, no matter where we are or what our goals may be: naysayers, detractors, people who poke fun or get angry or tell us we can’t do it.

Detractors are very serious business, even if they just seem to be having a little fun at our expense. Don’t let them stop you or even slow you down.

How do you deal with detractors? Each one will be different, but here are a few tips:

1. First learn to identify them. Sometimes we don’t realize that someone is being a detractor. They may be a close friend or spouse or other trusted person, so when they scoff or say negative things, we trust them and take it to heart. But there’s a difference between being realistic and just being a naysayer. Learn to listen to what others are saying, and see what your reaction is. If it discourages you, makes you feel like quitting, then maybe this person is being a detractor.
2. See if they have a valid point. Like I said, sometimes they are just trying to be realistic. They might have a good reason for their negativity. Step back, objectively think about whether they are bringing up a real obstacle that must be overcome, and if so, figure out how to overcome it. It’s rarely insurmountable. If you want it enough, you can figure out a solution. Now, if they don’t have a valid point, read on.
3. Zap any negative thoughts they give you. Detractors have a way of taking their negative thoughts and transferring them to you. Suddenly, there’s a seed of doubt. And it can grow into a huge oak tree of doubt, with roots that tear up the foundation of your goals. Stop those negative thoughts as soon as possible. Push them out, and think positive thoughts instead. Don’t let them overcome you.
4. Realize that there will always be detractors, and let them slide off you like water on a duck’s back. In every person’s life, there will be at least one detractor, if not more. You cannot completely avoid them. But you don’t need to listen to them. Just smile, and let them talk. Their words cannot stop you. They have no effect on you if you ignore their words.
5. Confront them, and get them on your side. Sometimes the detractor is someone close to you, someone you cannot ignore. If so, it’s best to enlist the help of this person instead of fighting against them. Do this as early as possible. Tell them that this goal is very important to you, and you cannot do it without their help. Tell them that you realize they have doubts, but you really need them to be positive, and support you. They can be your best ally, instead of your worst detractor.
6. Laugh with them. Sometimes people are uncomfortable when you make a change, and so in order to ease this discomfort, they will make jokes or tease you. This probably has less to do with you than it does with their discomfort. They don’t know how else to deal with this change. Realize this, and just laugh. If you take it as a good-natured joke, sometimes this will disarm them. They may continue to make jokes, but it won’t be as tense and won’t have as much an effect on you if you just keep laughing.
7. Have counterarguments ready, and inform them. Sometimes people are just misinformed. They might have misunderstandings about what you are doing. Know all of their arguments, and the common potential arguments, and have counterarguments ready. Do your research, and be very informed. Then try to educate your detractor. If you do it right, with a positive, sincere attitude, you might actually get the person to listen, and perhaps even change their mind. If not, at the very least you know better, and you don’t let their arguments create doubt in your mind.
8. Be secure in the knowledge that you are doing something good. Sometimes there’s nothing you can do. You can’t win them over, you can’t avoid them, you can’t laugh with them. So you have to just ignore them, and keep telling yourself that when you do achieve your goal, that will be your reward for enduring this detractor.

Again, there will always be detractors in your life. But they are just more obstacles that you have to overcome to get to your goal. There will always be obstacles, but if you think positive, and seek solutions, you can beat them (or get them to join you).