A Steep Climb
Wow, it has been a busy, busy day! We went down the mountain for several appointments and, as usual, they each took longer than scheduled.
I just didn't know it was this late...I think Friday's post may be posted on Saturday. To be sure, very, very early Saturday morning, but still....
So, Fridays are devoted to frugal living. In today's economic situation, I think most folks are probably practicing frugality (Is that a word?) out of necessity. I know that I am.
So what exactly does frugality mean? After searching online I came up with this definition: "Careful use of material resources, economical in use or expenditure; prudently saving, not wasteful." Doesn't sound like the popular definition to me!
Most folks think that frugal people are cheap, living only with bare necessities if that, skinflints. But stop and think...would you want to be wasteful? Wouldn't it make more sense to be careful when using your resources or things?
Frugal living to me doesn't mean that we don't spend money, nor eat out, nor deny our family or our selves. For me, a frugal lifestyle means being mindful of how and for what we use our resources and not to waste them. And I include my time and energy in that equation.
I think a frugal lifestyle and a simpler lifestyle go hand in had. In both we need to decide what is important to each of us and what isn't. Of course, making those kind of decisions are not always easy.
For most of us, our resources include that five letter word...money. A lot of us like to avoid the whole issue of money...ignoring it until it comes up and bites us to let us know that we are out of control. So I think the first thing for us to do is assess where we are in terms of our relationship with money.
There are lots of resources to help us with our financial situation. But I really think that the first thing we need to do is decide exactly how we view money. What does it mean to each of us? Does our self-esteem come from how much we make and how much we can purchase.
Let's take this week and examine how we really feel about money. It may seem like a steep climb to really take a good look at our relationship with money, but in the long run, it will help us take control of our resources.
My Weekly Challenge:
Because we had to be in the city for a couple days, I did eat out:
$1 for soda
$1 for bag of chips
$15 for lunch
$6 for compact
TOTAL: $23...two dollars short of the $25 I budgeted for myself.
I enjoyed visiting with your this week. I hope you stop by next week....