Some Frugal Tips For You This Week!

Part of accepting the call to ministry is accepting that you won’t ever be rolling in the bucks. HA! Hopefully, it also doesn’t mean you are left living hand-to-mouth. It mostly requires that you live more frugally. Sometimes that baffles us. Or we come up with a couple ways to save money and can’t figure out how to cut any less. So this week, I wanted to share with you a few tips to help you leave a few extra dollars in the bank to use on something else.

When I talk about being frugal, sometimes I see this look come over a woman’s face. Being “frugal” is often equated with being “stingy.” Frugal people live undesirable lives, right? Ya know, they are the ones wearing stained, pill-covered, out of style clothes. Or they’re the ones washing the plastic forks and putting them back in the box for next time (the very idea of this makes me turn green).

So let’s just be clear – living frugally does not mean depriving yourself! More than that – it is possible to be classy AND frugal.

There. I said it.

So over the years we’ve started embracing our simple lifestyle. We’ve even developed a philosophy. We feel:

• People and families (that’s us) can live on far less than the cultural norms around us seem to believe.
• Debt is not a necessity. And we are determined to live within or below our means.
• More importantly, we feel strongly that life is not about consumption, and we’d rather make a difference through wise and biblical stewardship of our time, talent, and money.
• We place a greater emphasis on quality, rather than quantity. This applies to all of the facets of our lives: the tangibles as well as in our relationships.
• PEOPLE ARE MORE IMPORTANT THAN THINGS.

I know, in theory, we all agree with this. The difficulty often comes in the practical application of these points.

So what do you do? You set a goal. A realistic goal.

Maybe you’re wanting to be a full time stay-at-home mom.

Or maybe you’re wanting to spend less so you can put your kids in extra curricular activities.

Maybe it’s so you can take a family vacation.

Or maybe you need to get out of debt. And so you create a debt-snowball which requires that you live on less.

Once you find that “thing” – work to keep that goal in the forefront of your mind. Write it down and put it in an obvious place. Track your success and you’ll begin to realize the benefits of your frugality.

If you feel like falling off the wagon, remind yourself of this goal. And think about your needs versus your wants. Is this present need really worth losing that goal?

So we come back to living frugally and how and where you cut. This week I’ll show a few of the things we do around here to keep it simple. I can’t wait to see what you think of some of them. And I bet some of you have some great suggestions too. So jump in the conversation and offer your thoughts along the way! Remember this is meant to be a place where we can share and be a community together!