We talk about frugal living often on ELYM. But frugal living without a purpose is pretty pointless. So today I wanted to go over three benefits of frugal living and the ways it’s helped to improve my life (plus two drawbacks).
You’ll Have Less Stress
When you make the conscious choice to live frugally and spend less than you earn you’ll naturally have less stress.
You won’t have to worry about having enough money to pay your next bill because you’ve chosen to live frugally and save the remaining portion of your money. And since money can be one of the largest sources of stress in someone’s life it’s easy to see that frugal living is well worth the sacrifice.
You’ll Reach Your Financial Goals Faster
As a very goal oriented person I love that making smart choices with my money and keeping my expenses low allows to me to save for the important stuff.
I have many financial goals and by following my budget every month I’m now able to put a large portion of my income straight toward my goals.
You Become More Intentional
When I first started cutting my budget back so that I could save I was working with a pretty low income. I would scrimp and save but at the end of the month I still didn’t have a whole lot to put into savings. This caused me to be really intentional in the choices I made.
I knew that my financial choices didn’t only affect me, they also affected my daughters. Because of this I did some rather unorthodox things in order to keep my expenses low.
Now that my income has increased I am still intentional with the way I manage my money.
Two Drawbacks of Frugal Living
Frugal living is more than a passing trend. It’s a way of life that can dramatically change your relationship with money. However, there are also a couple of drawbacks you should be aware of.
Frugal Living is Only Half the Equation – Some people get caught up with trying to save every single penny and still can’t seem to make ends meet. In this case frugal living isn’t the solution – increasing income is.
If you really want to reach your financial goals faster you have to concentrate on both sides of the equations, spending less and earning more.
Frugal Living without a Goal is Pointless – If you’re hopping on the frugal living bandwagon without any clear cut goal, is it really worth it?
It’s like the show Extreme Couponers. The participants say they are “saving money” but in reality that haven’t saved a darn thing. All they did was get a bunch of junk they didn’t need for free or cheap. Where did the money that they “saved” go?
You have to have a goal. If you don’t then it’s easy to get into the trap of thinking you’re “saving” money by taking advantage of sales and deals when in reality all you’re doing is spending money on stuff you don’t need.
You need a clear cut goal that will direct your frugality.
There are many benefits of frugal living as well as a couple drawbacks. As long as you have a clear financial goal frugal living is completely worth it!
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