HOW A FRUGAL LIFESTYLE MAKES YOU RICH

CAN LIVING A FRUGAL LIFESTYLE MAKE YOU RICH?

Well, that all depends on what you consider to be rich. If being rich to you means having an enormous amount of money, just living a frugal life will likely not get you there. Today, I wanted to talk about how while living a frugal life on its on is not going to making you wealthy as commonly defined as having loads of money.  Living a frugal life can make you rich in many other ways. From Merriam-Webster dictionary, online “rich implies having more than enough to gratify normal needs or desires”. There are often individuals that make much more than us, but unfortunately, lead much less rich lives because they do not value what they have. Frugality can help you feel rich in so many ways, no matter your level of income.

NOT BEING IN DEBT

Living frugally has allowed us to make changes to our spending that have enabled us to get out of debt. We do still have a mortgage, but we no longer carry balances on our credit cards. In the past seeing those large interest amounts tacked on to what we owed each month was discouraging. Learning how to budget our money better and not have to rely on credit cards reduces stress in your life. When you aren’t always in the process of trying to pay off your past purchases, you can live more freely. You will have more money to put towards the priorities you have today.

HAVING AN EMERGENCY FUND

Through frugality, I learned about the importance of having an emergency fund. Our family never had an emergency fund until last year when we started it.  We just finished getting it fully funded. Right before we completed funding our emergency fund, we ended up needing a major roof repair. I was disappointed in having to pull funds out of our emergency fund before we even finished funding it. But, having that money available and not having to figure out which card we would use to pay for this repair was amazing. It definitely made me feel rich!

PRACTICING GRATITUDE

Practicing gratitude is actively acknowledging your thankfulness and appreciation for the things that you have. We often have so many things in life to be grateful for, but don’t always realize it. When taking time to recognize and appreciate what have, it can lessen the desire to want to purchase more or new things. This allows you to put your money towards what is most important to you, rather than always trying to upgrade. The practice of gratitude does not only relate to material things that you have. There are so many things to be grateful for, and many of those things are not material items. When you begin to really think about all of the things that you have to be happy for in your life, it can make you feel more positive about everything.

PRACTICING CONTENTMENT

Contentment goes hand in hand with gratitude. The more appreciative you are of what you have, the less likely you will feel the need to upgrade the things in your life. You will not feel like you are lacking anything. When you are happy with the things that you have it makes you feel rich!

PRIORITIZING YOUR SPENDING

Frugal people are intentional about their spending. When you take the time to really think about where your money is going you can make sure to put it to what is most important to you. By prioritizing your spending, you often can find that you do have the money for the things you really want in life.

SAVING UP FOR THINGS

Anticipation is often just as fun as actual events or things that we are anticipating. Frugal people often have some savings goals in place, for things other than emergency or retirement. These might be for a home improvement, a vacation, or maybe a car upgrade. As you take the time to put money aside for these things and watch your savings it’s almost as fun as when you are able to make the actual purchase! And it feels great when it is time to make that home improvement or go on that vacation knowing that you have the money to pay for it!

BEING RICH IS NOT JUST ABOUT MONEY

I am certainly not implying that we should not do the best we can to achieve our earnings goals. There is nothing wrong with building wealth.  I think building wealth is a great goal to have. However, I think that it is important to see that on the journey to achieving whatever financial goals we have, it is important to appreciate where we are at now. Some things that make me feel rich:

• Knowing that I have a little sinking fund put aside to get my kids a fancy drink at Starbucks as a treat
• Like I mentioned earlier – finally having a fully funded emergency fund
• Saving up for home improvement projects
• Having a budget for Christmas and the money set aside to purchase the gifts
• Seeing our savings for various things increase each time we get paid, no matter how small those increases in savings might be!
• My amazing family room couch – that we bought second hand for 1/5th of the retail price
• Flowers that I grew from seeds in containers on my deck!
• Too many more things to list!

Thanks so much for checking in! If you would like to hear the podcast version of this topic to check out Lola’s Frugal Life Podcast! Also, be sure to check out my other blog posts on this site!

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