I struggled for years to put myself through college. When at last I was employed, and besieged by credit card offers, I was not very wise. I had lived so lean for so long that the temptation was too strong; and I went under. I had to contact a debt settlement company and retrench.
The most difficult thing about returning to a no-credit-card, watch-every-penny life was my mindset. Two problems beset me. One was boredom: when I am bored, I either shop or eat. But I learned that thrifty people are ACTIVE people. They don't sit staring at the wall where the television used to be. They are rummaging through closets to find materials to make a tablecloth, or figuring out what kind of casserole they can make out of ramen, a hotdog, and some wild carrots they found by the highway. They're always cleaning, cooking, creating, or organizing something. There is no time for boredom.
So I devoted myself to making sure my apartment was as clean and organized as I could get it. This serves three purposes. One, it keeps me busy. I'm not out spending money; I'm discovering how much lint can accumulate behind the oven. Two, it reminds me of what I have. Most thrifty folk know exactly what they have in the house. They don't go buy an extension cord only to discover a box of extension cords in the linen closet later. Three, it gives me a fresh look at the things I'm not currently using. This can spark your creative juices.
For instance, I sorted my leftover paint and two colors I had plenty of were white and dark blue. I decided to paint a mural on my kitchen wall! Now, I'd never painted a mural in my life but I had little to lose, since I could always cover it up again. So I took out my paint and thought: "What is white and blue, simple, but very beautiful?" Mykonos, that's what! Picture those cubist white churches against the dazzling blue ocean and sky! I found a photo on the internet that looked simple enough and started mixing my white and blue to make various shades. And I did it!
This reminds me to point out that another element of being thrifty is courage. You cannot be afraid to mix strange ingredients, or to paint something yourself, or trim your own bangs in the bathroom. Just take off one-half inch and STOP. If in three days you want to trim again, go for it, but not till after you've washed and dried them at least twice.
My other mental hurdle to overcome was a tendency to look at my disposable income as a lump sum at the beginning of the month and think "Oh, I can afford this rug, after all, I have $XXX in checking." Sure, but $XXX had to last another 3 weeks. The next thing I knew, I had 10 days left and no money. Again.
Now I do what I call "Beverly Hills on $30 a Day." (I'm literally 100 paces from BH.) On payday, I pay the bills, and send as much as I possibly can toward my last credit card bill. The remaining money is what I have to live on, and I divide it by how many days it has to last. I start each month with $30 a day. This is for bus, groceries, laundry, shopping, everything. I write down everything I spend in a notebook and keep a running tab, every single day, of how much I have left.
My goal is to be debt-free. If I am very careful for one more year, I will be. I've come a long way, and have developed a better mindset about money. I hope something in this essay can be helpful to someone else out there.
By Bethanie from West Hollywood, CA
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WOW! That is awesome! You are absolutely right though about living on a budget the right way. My philosophy is when you start telling yourself you can't have it then you begin to lose your will to stay on your budget.
Beautiful Mural! I especially love the matching table and chairs!
You did a great job on the mural and matching table and chairs. Good for you! I enjoyed your article very much.
I believe that most people who are living today on social security and they have no savings left, are living very much as you are now. We get our ss checks on or close to the same day every month, and we always get the same amount each month. We know ahead of time that whatever that amount is will probably not change for a very long time, if ever.
We had savings at one time, but sickness caused us to spend all we had prior to making the decision to just go ahead and retire when we'd planned to work for a few more years yet. Everything was changed for us.
The way we handle the situation is to immediately pay every bill we owe. House payment or rent, utilities, outstanding amounts owed to doctors, hospitals...our Medicare Part D for medicine and anything else we owe. We cut up all the credit cards years ago, and thankfully, we were never ones to spend money we didn't have, so we just didn't charge things. We saved for them, paid cash or did without. Credit cards have never been a problem.
Whatever we have left over after paying all the outstanding bills is left in the bank. We do fill up the gas tank on the car, check it to see if there's anything else that it might need like motor oil, transmission fluid, a burned out tail light bulb and buy those things ahead of time. Birthdays, anniversaries and other holiday plans coming up, we buy or make cards for, buy the gifts required etc.
Now, we know basically how much money we'll have for the rest of the month. First, if we are completely out of milk, butter, eggs, or those perishable items, we make a quick trip to the grocery store to get those and any paper goods that we can't live without. Then, we go for as long as we possibly can before going back to the grocery store unless there is a sale on for the things we use all the time. We'll buy as much of those things as we can so that they'll last for a couple of months maybe.
Whatever is left in the bank just sits there. It makes us feel a little bit secure knowing that if we have to get anything, we'll be able to. Once in a while, we might have as much as $500 left when our next ss checks come. We just leave it there. We don't do anything rash for as sure as the sun comes up in the east, we'll be needing it for some kind of car repair, a new tire maybe, or an unplanned trip. It's almost like there's a special little Murphy's Law which says that if we have a dollar, something is going to come along which needs that dollar.
I do save change, and that change has many times gotten us through an especially difficult month without us ever having to ask anyone for anything. If it's something we can do without, no problem. Doing without is something we learned to do when we were very young marrieds, and nothing mattered except being together. Almost 60 years later, that's still the most important thing of all.
We bought a little plaque which we framed and hung in our kitchen which says, "As long as we have one another, nothing else matters". We know we're some of the lucky ones.
Pookarina
I really enjoyed reading your article! You are a talented painter!
Blessings, Robyn
What an awesome article. I enjoyed it very much. I do pretty much what you do using the envelope system. It's so nice that when the oil change for the car is due I don't have to take it out of one paycheck. I have the money in an envelope already. After I pay myself first (savings account) I then pay my envelopes, 1 for vet for kitty cat yearly exam, 1 for dentist every 6 mos., 1 to get furnace tuned up every year (very important) and it's more than just changing the filter and the average "joe" cannot do it him/her self. I don't care what you think, 1 envelope for haircuts/color every 8 weeks, etc. and this works beautifully for me.
However, the money I have leftover after I pay mortgage, utilities, cable, etc. I never thought of dividing that into the remainder days that I have left until the next pay day. What a great idea.
Most days are no spend days for me as I pack my lunch everyday and since I'm by myself, preparing 1 chicken breast lasts 2 days, 1 pork loin on sale can last up to 4 days but I do freeze the left overs, etc. etc. So my goal now is to make double mortgage payments whenever I can so I can pay my house off in 5 years. Thanks again for your great article, I hope you win.
Terrific article, I especially liked your '$30/day' idea! Thanks!
Thanks so much for sharing with us. Your article inspired me to go around my home to take inventory on what I have which gave me some creative ideas on what to do with all my stuff I found. Thanks you so very much.
Inspiring article! I'm decluttering constantly and finding things to repurpose.
DH recently retired and we are now on a fixed income too. He is learning to be frugal, before it was "Oh we can buy another", but now he is rethinking and repurposing! Yea!
I really enjoyed this too. Great mural! Liked your article, thanks for sharing.
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