Learn how to have fun and express your sense of style while spending less. This book is filled with money saving strategies for shopping, fashion, beauty, home decor and entertaining.
Excerpt
Introduction
With so many books on budget living the obvious question is, what makes me an expert on living well for less? For starters, I was living the frugal lifestyle long before it was fashionable. For many years I have chosen to drive a used car in good condition, live in affordable one-bedroom apartments instead of spending more money on more spacious digs, shop at Target and Wal-Mart for cheap clothes, take advantage of clearance sales at better department stores for nicer clothes, and avoid expensive purchases that would lead to debt, unless they were absolutely necessary. A “necessary” purchase would be buying another used car when the old one inconveniently dies on the freeway, only to restart, die, restart, and then cruise into the nearest town at a painfully slow pace. Yes, that really did happen to me. (I would personally like to thank whoever invented the cell phone, because it allowed me to get assistance in a slightly less hysterical manner than if I hadn’t had a phone.)
I would love to claim that all of this frugal living was part of some great long-term plan to save up to start a business or build my dream house, but that’s not how it happened. My frugal lifestyle is a result of getting stuck in a series of low-paying jobs that were routinely interrupted by periods of unemployment. Over the years this pattern of being employed long enough to catch up on bills and save some money, only to use up a good chunk of my savings when the job ended, made me develop a healthy sense of mistrust for employers. This lack of trust lead to healthy savings habits that served me well when a boss delivered the inevitable “You’re doing a great job, but unfortunately the job you are doing so well has been eliminated” speech. I have seen other, more naive employees turn their cubicles into personal shrines full of photos and nostalgic memorabilia. I, on the other hand, have demonstrated an impressive, businesslike efficiency by bringing nothing but my purse, my lunch, and myself to work. This has allowed me to clean out my cubicle and leave that dead-end job behind faster than you can say”filing for unemployment.”
For years I had a negative attitude about living cheaply. I thought of frugal living as something to be tolerated until I earned the type of income that would allow me to buy nice things, eat at fine restaurants regularly, and spend more freely without worrying about draining my savings account. At some point I finally decided I was not going to put the good life on hold waiting for decent-paying job. I started focusing on enjoying myself more and expressing my sense of style in ways that wouldn’t break the bank. This shift in attitude–from being preoccupied with financial survival to focusing on living well for less–was empowering. Once I started looking at my options instead of looking longingly at the stuff I couldn’t afford, a world of possibilities opened up. I realized that being fabulous has more to do with the right attitude than anything else.
My favorite story about being frugal while having a fabulous attitude comes from an article I read in the local paper. A group of women definitely past prom age liked to get dressed up in old prom dresses for a special day out. On this special day out, one of their husbands acted as a designated driver while the women sat in the back of the minivan sipping champagne and listening to their favorite oldies tunes, happily singing along whenever the mood struck.
These women spent their special day in fancy dresses, laughing with one another and being chauffeured around to local shopping destinations. So, what were the fabulous shopping destinations that they got all dressed up for? Garage sales! Not fancy estate sales, mind you, but typical all-American garage sales full of outdated electronics and unfashionable clothes. They took a nonevent like garage-sale shopping and turned it into a marvelous and memorable occasion. As Jean Webster once said, “It isn’t the great big pleasures that count the most; it’s making a great deal out of the little ones.”
The Secret to Frugal and Fabulous Living
I have discovered that mastering the art of frugal and fabulous living has more to do with making the most of what you have than with the size of your bank account. To truly live well you need to focus on opportunities for experiencing the finer things in life now instead of simply settling for less until your finances improve.
The first thing to let go of is the “all or nothing” mentality. It’s easy to look at some millionaire’s home on a TV show and think “I’ll never be able to live in a home like that!” Just because you might not be able to experience the lifestyle of the rich and famous every day doesn’t mean you can’t experience it at all. There are historic mansions that have been turned into bed and breakfast businesses, and luxury hotels with spa amenities that would be happy to treat you like a VIP. A weekend spent in fabulous luxury is certainly better than a lifetime spent whining about what you can’t have.
A little planning can go a long way toward getting what you want. For years my family paid for vacations partially through selling stuff through a local consignment store. The money from the things we sold went into a bank account that was used strictly for family vacations. When the travel account wasn’t full enough for an expensive vacation, we simply visited local attractions, museums, botanical gardens, and so forth, acting like tourists without the expense of distant travel. When the travel account reached a certain point, we chose a destination and sought out the best travel deals. By the time we got around to taking a trip, one family member had accumulated enough frequent-flier miles on her credit card to help cover the cost of plane tickets, which greatly reduced travel expenses.
You might have the money to treat yourself to something special without realizing it. I used to buy a $2 celebrity lifestyle magazine every Friday to read during my lunch break to take my mind off of my painfully boring job. After weeks of buying it, I did the math and realized that this magazine, which I threw in the trash after one reading, would end up costing me $100 a year! For $100 I could get a nice facial from an upscale salon. Even if I only got one facial a year, the pampering benefits of the facial far outweighed some mediocre magazine whose entertainment value was easily replaced by watching the TV in the employee break room. The more you say “no” to small expenses for things that add little value to your life, the more money you will have for the finer things.
A resourceful bargain hunter knows that just because something is normally expensive doesn’t mean it’s always going to be expensive. Sometimes high-ticket items can be had for free or very little. Popular contests provide an opportunity to win free trips, new cars, and even free homes! It’s possible to attend expensive charity galas or theatrical performances for free simply by volunteering for those organizations. Once-expensive merchandise can end up drastically cut in price due to going-out-of-business sales, being last year’s model, or being property seized by police and sold to the public. Learning to keep your eyes open for opportunities that bring the things you want within reach allows you to live large even on a small budget.
Read more about The Cheap Diva’s Guide to Frugal and Fabulous Living: How to Shop Smart, Look Your Best, Decorate with Style, and Have Fun for Less Money! and Stephanie Ann HERE.
Copyright 2010 Stephanie Ann. All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, recording or otherwise, without the prior written permission of the author.
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