Frugality Plans Ahead II

Posted by: DeputyHeadmistress on Friday, November 26th, 2010

Last week I wrote about the importance of planning ahead for bills you know are coming up (car insurance, for example), and how important this.  I said I know that this is not always easy.  I know that sometimes it actually is impossible- there is just no give in the budget, nothing you can pare down anymore.  Believe me, we have been there, too.  But if you can do this in any way at all, no matter how small, it still helps.

Suppose that next November you are going to be hit with a bill for 200 dollars, and you know that now.  Ideally, starting now, you will set aside 17.00 every single month and you will not touch it, and in November, you can pay off that bill and not feel a pinch.  But it's not an ideal world, and maybe you don't have 17.00 to spare each month.  Even then, if you can only save 100 by next November, it's still going to be easier on you to come up with the extra hundred dollars than to scrape up twice that amount, possibly forgoing paying some other bill to do that and thereby being slapped later with late fees, fines, and penalties.

Insist on doing whatever you can to set aside that money each month, and you will benefit by the practice of self-discipline, and in due time, you will reap what you sow, and in a good way.

When I was a girl I collected all things butterfly related.  I had jeans with butterflies, butterfly jewelry, butterfly stationary, butterfly decorated knick-knacks, gimcracks, and doo-dads.  I looked for butterflies everywhere.  And because I did that, I accustomed my brains and eyes to develop a sort of butterfly recognition software in my head.  I spotted butterflies without actually *looking* at everything else.  I could stand in front of a case of hundreds of small collectibles and my eye would be drawn to the butterfly stuff.  It was automatic.

In the same way, if you truly focus on hunting for ways to scrounge, save, and squeeze extra pennies, over time, that focus pays off. It becomes less of a burden, less of an effort, and your develop a sort of economizing software in your head.  You no longer look at windfalls- a twenty dollar gift, a dollar found blowing across the parking lot, fifty cents found in the couch cushions, a five dollar credit for Amazon picked up through swagbucks as 'free' money with which to splurge- you automatically know of a place for that money, a place where you can put it to work in order to cushion you from unpleasant surprises later.  You get better at spotting ways to save money, and then you are able to save more.  You also get better at self-denial, so that things that at one point seemed extreme to you (cloth pads, bone broths, refusing to buy breakfast cereal, compost buckets - all things I have thought were extreme or I was told were extreme by somebody else), become not only normal, but preferable.

And then... there's something that I have found true in my life- when you practice being faithful in the small stuff, that translates into being faithful in the larger stuff (Luke 16:10), and that is generally rewarded.  The harder you work at getting out of debt, the more you lose that sense of entitlement (we really don't 'deserve a break today,' you know, nor do we 'owe it to' ourselves to pamper and indulge the flesh, especially if that pampering costs money that really already ought to have a home to get us out of debt), the bigger the occasional windfalls become.  Seriously.  As a Christian, I have found that God rewards faithfulness.  I do not mean a sort of health and prosperity gospel, at all.  I don't believe God cares whether or not you are rich, He cares that you are a good steward, that you do not have a self-centered sense of 'I deserve....' whatever unnecessary indulgence you crave.

You start where you are.  You do what you can.  The more you do, the better your skills, the stronger your self-discipline, and then, in due time, you find you're gaining speed  in getting out of debt and/or building up savings.

related posts:

  1. Frugal Thinking Plans Ahead Planning ahead saves money.  That's easy to say, but for...
  2. Where Frugality Starts A couple years back I was reading a blog written...
  3. Cheerful Frugality Plans A Meal When it comes to menus, I'm a cheerful sale shopper....
  4. Cheerful Frugality Invests Long Term Tell me if this is a tightwad problem for you,...
  5. The Gift of Thrift In our early years we practiced frugality because we had...

Topics: misc.

3 Responses to “Frugality Plans Ahead II”

Dmarie Says:
November 26th, 2010 at 7:49 am

lovely post. That part about developing a sort of brain software seems so true… And for our frugal software to work, we just have to find ways to block the constant bombardment of consumerist messages (brain spam!) and keep focused on the financial/environmental benefits of living frugal/green in this society.

Pat Says:
November 26th, 2010 at 11:54 am

great post! I agree it is in the way we program ourselves to think. Looking for ways to save–but most importantly, being good stewards like you say.

This is something I’ve been trying to implement in our home for years– only in the last year has my hubby gotten on board. He’s finally coming around. I’m so proud! (smile)

I love reading your articles. For about 5 months we did with out internet and did away with the house phone to pay off some credit cards on our ‘fixed income’ (hubby retired last December) I was able to read my emails on my cell phone plan– yours emails (newsletters) kept me going.
Now we have the internet again…YAY! It pays to change your thinking and do without sometimes.

Melissa Says:
November 29th, 2010 at 2:59 pm

I just love the analogy of the butterflies. I love reading from like minded people.
Melissa

 

Leave a Comment