Hello Dear Reader,
I often say this, being thrifty, frugal, careful with money is not just for anyone who is living on a small income. It's a choice that anyone can make. We make that choice so we can live debt free, with savings and live below our means. We could spend every month but we choose not to. We certainly are in the position to make choices and we never forget how fortunate we are. We've had minimum wage jobs, two young children and difficult times. We made bad financial decisions that we had to pull ourselves out of. We are now reaping the benefits of improved financial decions and a thrifty lifestyle.
We have a method of making sure we stretch our personal finances so we get to have some of what we want as well as everything that we need. By doing this we can make long and medium term financial plans.
Our main plan this year is to pay off 15% of the balance of the mortgage capital. If we keep doing that, then the mortgage will be gone in five years. The second part of our plan is to have a holiday this year. So far, I have paid the dog minder as you can imagine, with three dogs that's the next biggest cost to the holiday itself. We go in school holidays so, try as we might to find them, there really are not any cheap deals to be had. With that in mind, our accommodation is a big cost. We have a whole pile of money to put by. No hostels, back packing, house sharing or camping for us and we'll bite a very expensive financial bullet and go on a self catering holiday.
We make sure we 'budget for the big stuff' by getting rid of the money on the first of every month. All of our direct debits go out, all the monies are transferred into the mortgage and various savings accounts. Other than enough for food and travel, we leave ourselves with nothing more than a monthly £50 'float'. We make a point of not spending it just because we can. We don't have to do this but choose to. We often put that back into savings at the end of the month.
So, we menu plan, heat our house with wood, use the slow cooker, keep our bills low, use cash back accounts and make sure we get the very best deal or price on everything we have to pay for. We keep our purchases to a minimum, repair what we can and buy second hand if we can. We keep ourself busy with cheap (ish) hobbies. However, we eat well, stay warm and live the life we choose.
Over to you Dear Reader, do you have to be skint to be frugal or would you be skint if you weren't thrifty?
I'm off to book my holiday!
Until tomorrow,
Love Froogs xxxx