• Option 1: Pay off your debts with the highest interest rates first because they are costing you the most money and only pay the minimum on the other debts.
• Option 2: Pay off your smaller debts first and only pay the minimum on the other debts.

I think the way you attack your debt is a personal choice. What may work well for some may not work the same for others. I personally choose the second method. It gives me some sense of accomplishment when I have a debt paid in full and I feel like I am making progress and starting to live more frugal.

I have found several frugal living tips in my research and journey in trying to save money for the future. I have made some huge mistakes that will take me a long time to overcome, but I am not discouraged. I know that I can win this battle.

Please join me on my blog and let’s take the quest together. I will share everything I have found, how it works (or didn’t work) for me and maybe you can apply some of it to your own life and being frugal living and saving money. If you are already a frugal person, maybe you can share your tips and we can all get out of debt together.

Frugal Living… A choice or a force!

It seems that more and more people are trying to learn how to be more frugal lately. Frugal living is among the top words searched for on the major search engines. Is this because people just want to learn how to save money, live more frugal and get out of debt or is it because they are forced to do so?

I think it is a combination of both. With our current economic crisis we are seeing increasing job loss, the real estate market is not where it used to be and credit card companies are aggressively cutting credit lines. This is forcing many people to become more conservative and live a frugal life.

Those who are forced to become more frugal – myself included are probably finding this is a rather painful process. The learning curve is steep and the price for failure is high. Overspending in one area will cost you in several others. Many things that were taken for granted have now become luxuries.

On the flip-side, if you were already living a frugal lifestyle you are enjoying this recession in many ways. Retailers have cut their prices and the frugal living people are stocking up.

So, the million dollar question is Will it last? Will people like myself realize that living on less is easier than we think? Can we learn to enjoy saving money and live simpler?

Only time will tell.

Planning out gifts, holidays on the calendar.  It not only makes sense, it will help the less organized – like myself keep things in order.  As we get older we tend to forget things like our best friend’s birthday or our parents anniversary.

Ok, let’s get started: 

Items Needed 

• Calendar  (I am a computer nerd so I use outlook for all my tasks)
• Writing instrument or computer
• Your monthly budgeting notebook or spreadsheet

The Planning Session

Part 1 – Birthdays & Anniversaries

• Mom
• Dad
• Brothers and Sisters
• Friends
• Other Relatives

Part 2 – Holiday’s and Special Occasions

• Christmas
• Valentine’s Day
• Thanksgiving
• Father’s Day  (got to have this one   )
• Mother’s Day
• Easter
• National Holidays

Filling Out The Calendar
Get our your calendar and start filling out those dates you worked so hard to create.   As you write the event on the calendar determine if you will need to buy them a present.  If you don’t usually buy uncle Bob a present for his birthday, write his name on the calendar and move on.  Once you get to a person or holiday that you will be buying a gift for, you will write their name down on the calendar and then open up your monthly budgeting notebook.  You will record that information here as well.  Since you will most likely not know what you are going to buy the person for the event, you just sent a general price range and leave yourself room to fill in possible suggestions as the year continues.

Allow yourself some extra spending on the holiday events.  You may be having a dinner and may need to bring food or drinks.  Just add a little cushion there so it doesn’t blow your budget out of whack.

Planning for the unexpected
It doesn’t matter how much time you spend on your holiday calendar, you will run into some unexpected expense.  Your child’s friends birthday party, a baby shower, etc.  To help offset this, make yourself a list of contingency occasions such as

• Birthday Parties (unexpected)
• Showers
• Weddings & Engagement
• Get Well Gifts

Using a gift calendar is also a great way to schedule out your year.  You have the year clearly laid out and will avoid that call from your best friend that slipped your mind saying ” Thanks for calling me on my birthday Yesterday “.  With this in place, your budget will avoid these pitfalls.
               

Let me give you a few examples of ” The Stupid Tax ” that I currently Pay:

1. Too Much Car Payment- We had been looking at the Yukon XL for a while.  We thought it would be ideal for our family and would provide all the room we needed to haul friends, go on vacations, etc.  On one sunny summer day I got a wild hair and stopped by the dealership and there it was… Not just a Yukon XL, but a Denali. The beams of sun were shining on it and the only thing missing was the “waaaa” sound.  Needless to say, I purchased it not giving a second thought of what my payment would be.  Now it is three years later and I still have a huge car payment and one year left before it is finally mine.  Once paid for, I will be driving it until the wheels fall off!
2. I didn’t Pay Attention To Credit Card Statements- I purchase almost everything from the Internet as do many people today.  Most of the time I will put it on my American Express card and never give it a second thought.  Recently I started looking at my statement and it was a real eye opener!  I had all of these charges for amounts like 9.95, 14.95, etc and I had no clue what they were for.  After further investigation I found out that they were recurring monthly charges due to some “opt in” agreement I signed.  Turns out, you really need to read all of the fine print when purchasing something online.  Many times when you check the I agree button you are also agreeing to some other subscription that you have no interest in nor do not want.  These companies feed off people like myself that just pay the bill each month and do not carefully investigate the charges.  After doing some simple math, I was paying around $50 per month for these types of charges per month.  That was an instant $600 per year saving by simply looking at my statement and making sure I ordered everything that I was charged for.
3. Last But Not Least, Tobacco Products – Hopefully I am the only person struggling with trying to kick the nasty habit of using tobacco that reads my blog.  I really had not thought about how much money I was spending yearly on tobacco until I read one of Dave’s articles. I use about a can of dip per day (sometimes more, but just to keep it on the low end) which costs around $4.25 where I live.  That habit is not only killing me, making my teeth yellow but is also costing me around $2,000.00 per year.  I did finally find a product that has really helped my teeth.  I researched and found a highly recommend product that came with a 30 day free trial.  I only had to pay the Shipping and Handling.. I have been using it for about two weeks now and I can tell a huge difference.  Since I dipped for so long, I don’t think I will get the brightest whites from this product, but I have probably brightened my teeth by 4 shades or more.   If you are in the same sad shape I am in, the product I am trying is Bright Teeth Pro. I don’t know if it is the best product on the market, but it has definitely made a difference on my teeth and I am just on the free trial.