Tapping Into My Inner Frugalista

When I wrote the other day about financial independence and our retirement planning, I mentioned our plan to become more conscious of our spending and, thus, to hopefully make a transition to spending less and being happier with what we have.

To that end, we've been writing down what we've spent money on this week and...whew!...what an eye opener.

Financial books often tout this as a first step toward fiscal understanding.  Boy, can I see why now.

I'm currently reading a recently purchased book which has turned out to be something of a catalyst for me: Suddenly Frugal: How to Live Happier and Healthier for Less. We could not have picked this book up at a better time, honestly, and I'm enjoying the read if not deciding that some of the tips in it will work well for us and some will never, ever fly.

But that's all part of the learning curve, isn't it?  As is this spending log.

Just like with dieting and keeping a "food log" so that you can calculate calories, keeping a spending log works on the same principle and makes you infinitely more conscious of how you spend your dollars.  Or how you don't spend them.

For my spending log, I'm using an old mini-notebook that got bought years ago and never used, that I found in one of my desk drawers.

Lesson one?  I buy a lot of crap that I don't immediately need -- especially something that I find on sale and because it's a good price, I think of it as spending money to save money and then never find a use for whatever it is I've bought -- and I need to stop it.


I've made this into sort of a challenge for myself for this month.  Because, honestly?

After a week of writing down this, that and the other thing of money pouring out of my wallet, I'm appalled at some of the crap I have bought.  And have resolved to be less frivolous and more thoughtful about future purchases -- or lack thereof, as the case may be.

To be fair, it's the beginning of the month grocery restocking time, so some of this is usual expenses that we'd have regardless.  But still...it's astonishing on how much little bits of unnecessary crap and frills we buy.  For no reason other than to satisfy a momentary whim in a lot of cases.

That's something we will have to rein in before retirement for sure, so I might as well start working on this now, eh?

I've also picked up a book I've had for ages: The Complete Tightwad Gazette.

Admittedly, some of the tips in here are ones I'd never use in a bazillion years.  (Saving frozen juice concentrate metal lids to make Christmas tree ornaments, anyone?)

But a lot of the ideas in the book are fantastic, like thinking about price per ounce as a truer means of comparing product pricing or looking at the value of a purchase over time versus its immediate "satisfy a purchasing itch only to be useless within days" utility for a lot of the crap we have bought.  Or my personal favorite, the universal quiche and muffin recipes that can use whatever you have on hand to make food for your family instead of requiring something special.

I got my original copies of these books (they were originally in separate volumes) when we were in law school.  Re-reading it gets my brain in the habit of thinking "what do we have that I can already use?" or "how can I come up with a menu that uses what we have in the cabinets and the fridge/freezer instead of going to the store?" or other thought processes that are equally valuable, and also are environmentally and fiscally responsible to boot.

I'm going to start posting various ideas that work for us along my budding frugalista path in the hopes that other folks will find it useful.  If you have some ideas to share, please do -- I'd love a conversation on this.

(Gorgeous photo via h.koppdelaney.)