Comments on: Why Frugal Living Makes Sense

By: Anne

Anne — Sat, 19 Jul 2008 22:17:03 +0000

I heard of one of the best impulse-buying quenchers ever the other day. A friend of mine told me that after months of buying things excessively on their credit cards and acquiring tons of debt, his wife decided they needed to make a change. She cancelled all but a single credit card in their name. She took the card and their bank cards, placed them in a mug of water, and stuck it in the freezer.

Now, whenever either of them decides to make a purchase outside of their budget (which includes only necessities), they take the mug from the freezer.

The mug is rounded, so the ice cant slip out. If they were to attempt to chip at the ice, the mug would break. If they put the mug in the microwave, the magnetic strip on the card would fail. They usually have to wait a day or two until the ice has melted.

If they still feel they need whatever it is they wanted to buy with the card after this period of time, they can. They usually dont.

They’ve gotten rid of $18,000 in credit card debt, and are now debt free. And they dont have a lot of useless junk around their house.

By: John Jackson

John Jackson — Wed, 22 Aug 2007 00:16:09 +0000

I call it living beneath your means. Frugal sound to cheap.

By: Susan

Susan — Wed, 23 May 2007 19:45:49 +0000

Good post! I know this post is way old, but I was going through your blog and you have some great posts here! I definitely will check out consignment stores for clothing!

By: Tyler Ingram

Tyler Ingram — Fri, 22 Dec 2006 22:44:24 +0000

Good advice. I definately need to cut spending and I have been recently. I do more grocery shopping than eating out. Sushi gets expensive!

Anyway I need to cut spending costs down too because I seem to just ’squeek’ by every month and it is definately not fun.

I need to redo my budgets and see where I am spending money, where I can cut out expenses or save etc. I’m not sure where my money goes and I need to know!

By: ISPF

ISPF — Fri, 22 Dec 2006 10:07:24 +0000

[...]One of the first few student PF blogs I started tracking is by Jennifer Lynn at Broke-Ass Student. I like reading her posts since it seems to me like she puts a lot of thought into what she publishes. Her posts have depth. Also, when she does short posts with links to other blogs/articles on the web (like the “random browsing” on this blog), the quality of the material the link points to is very good too.[...]

By: Kathy

Kathy — Thu, 21 Dec 2006 16:19:30 +0000

I am old enough to be your mother and find it funny that frugality is being discovered as a concept. When I was a young adult, eating out was still something you did for special occasions; eating your owned cooked food was the norm. I got married before I graduated and gave birth to my first child a month after graduating from college. Supporting a family of 3 on my husband’s grad school income, we pinched pennies till they screamed. We have followed the save-up-for-it approach for our entire married life. I have never regretted it. Btw, look for the Tightwad Gazette in your library. Now there’s frugal living for you!

By: Ken Cheung

Ken Cheung — Wed, 20 Dec 2006 09:39:05 +0000

I became more frugal after I was laid off. I hate those mail-in rebates, but you sure can save a bundle.

By: Matt

Matt — Tue, 19 Dec 2006 19:51:52 +0000

Great post - I’ve started living more frugally than I had just after starting to work. Unfortunately I’ve got a nice pile of debt to work through. I like your list, very thorough. My favorite is the library suggestion, I love my library and the best part is they bring books in from other libraries for free.

By: Shelley Batts

Shelley Batts — Tue, 19 Dec 2006 07:13:15 +0000

“Living frugally means attempting to save money where you can, rather than blowing your earnings faster than your bank account can absorb it.”

Good advice, and some that most college students have a hard time following. Although its much better to try to stay out of high interest debt as much as possible, obviously. Eating out will especially blow through your money, not to mention be much more unhealthy on average.