In college I got a Tivo with lifetime service, which added fuel to the fire of my TV escapism. No longer did I have to plan my evenings around TV, my Tivo would allow me to be free from the agony of ads and timeslots, but my Tivo was smarter than  me. It started recommending new shows that I might like. Soon I was staying up until 1 or 2am every night just to finish my TV Shows. My schedule began to conform to the shows that Tivo recommended and now I was back in the same rut as before except I was watching more TV. 

Then something magical happened, something life altering, something fantastic… Hollywood writers went on strike. There were no new episodes for me to watch, and I found myself having <gasp> free time.

This concept of free time is something that I had never felt before, I had always consumed myself with TV because it gave me a false sense of accomplishment. What would I do with this free time? Well, I became productive. I started working out more, I finished the many half-finished projects from remodeling the house we were living in at the time, and I started writing this blog. But perhaps the most surprising thing about all of this is that the only thing I missed about TV was the ridiculous antics on The Office.

Don’t get me wrong, it’s not like we don’t watch TV…truth be told the only shows I consistently watch are The Office and 30 Rock, and Mary swaps out 30 Rock for Private Practice; we just watch TV differently now. I have an antenna in the attic that picks up all of our local stations in HD, and I have a computer hooked up to the main TV. The computer enables us to watch whatever we want from the iTunes store or Hulu whenever we want, and we have our trusty Tivo set up in the bedroom.

Now Mary and I focus our time productively on being entrepreneurial. We each have business plans that we are working on, and we are working together to start selling some of our home baked bread at a local farmers market. Who knows, the lack of cable may not just save us money, it may make us money.

Have you ever thought about what you could do if you cut out TV? I bet it’d be pretty amazing.

The next paragraph is a bit of a rant, feel free to ignore:

I’m not against having cable entirely, I’m mainly against it’s pricing structure, much like gym memberships, cable companies take your money while giving little to nothing in return. In fact they don’t really give you anything except for the opportunity to spend your time watching TV. I would actually be willing to pay a premium per channel to be able to choose the channels I want, I don’t need 100 channels, I don’t even need 25, why not let me choose and make more on a per channel basis? But I digress…

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Maintenance.  In a world where quality has declined, and new products are cheap, frugal people go out of their way to take care of every purchase as if it’s an investment.  And they know that spending money on maintenance is less expensive than spending money on repairs.

• They maintain their bodies.  Did you know that fit people get sick less than non-fit people?  Which means by taking care of your body you can save a great deal of money in doctors bills!  They also find frugal ways to work out: Run, Walk, Stadium Steps, the list goes on.
• They follow a maintenance schedule for their car and house.
• They check to see if something can be fixed before they buy new. You’ll be surprised to realize that more often than not things can be fixed.  The soles in my nice dress shoes were completely worn out, but I took them to a local cobbler, and for $15 they are as good as new!  

Make instead of buy.  Frugal people understand markup and know that they can easily make many things instead of buying them to save a great deal of money.

• Mary and I make most of our meals instead of eating out.  Just by taking our lunches to work we figure that we save at least $250/month.
• Instead of spending $80 on a particular medicine ball for our workouts, I made one using an old basketball, sand, and a tire patch, now I have the same thing for about $70 less.  It’s not as pretty, but it’s just as functional.
• Here’s a list of 100 Things You Can Make Yourself, some of them are very random, but it’s interesting to learn what you can make with household products.

Set a budget. Frugal people track their money and set priorities, because being Frugal isn’t about not spending money (that’s called being cheap), it’s about prioritizing where you spend it and where you save it to have balance between to two.  They think long term and know why they are prioritizing and saving.  They will occasionally splurge with their discretionary spending, but it’s something that they plan on doing.  They also tend to budget on meaningful things like a nice family vacation, instead of spending money on stuff.  By setting a budget frugal people are always aware of their financial standing.

• Check out 13 Tools for Building a Better Budget to get a good grasp for budgeting.
• Also, check out Mint.com, it’s an online budgeting tool aimed at Gen-Y that will send you text messages or e-mails when you go over budget on something, when your bills are due, or when you get charged a bank fee!  We’ve been using it for about a year, it’s a great tool.

Research. Frugal people know that they can’t avoid spending money, so when they do buy something, they research it first.  Frugal people spend money on quality that will last, they don’t go right for the cheapest thing.  So spend time researching, and looking for the best deal.  As a general rule of thumb my Finance Professor taught me, spend an hour of research for every thousand dollars that you spend.  I think this advice is pretty fitting, essentially, the more you spend, the more you should research (but remember to value your time!).  Here are some great research aids for you:

• Fatwallet, the forums on this site are a great resource for finding deals.  It may take you some time to learn the lingo (PM= Price Match, YMMV= Your Mileage May Very, B&M= Brick and Mortar store, FS= Free Shipping…), but you’ll be sure to find great deals in their Hot Deals section.  Also check out the Finance Section for great financial tips, and the Deal Discussion section for great tips on buying cars and houses.
• Edmunds is a key resource for all your car buying needs.
• Bankrate is a site dedicated to finding the best rates on Mortgages, Auto Loans, Home Equity Loans, Savings Accounts…

Coupons. Frugal people know that 35 cents here and 50 cents there really starts to add up.  They also know how to combine coupons with credit card rewards and/or haggling to save even more!

• Buy the Entertainment Book, spending about $30 on this book (if it’s available in your area) can save you hundreds throughout the year.  It has coupons for everything from groceries, to movie tickets, to dinner.  In fact, when we go out, we check to see if we have a coupon from the Entertainment Book first!
• Subscribe to the Sunday paper, it’s full of great coupons!  We pay $7.50 per month to get the Sunday paper, and easily save at least $5.00 per week in coupons!
• Learn how to combine coupons with rewards programs, like learning how to make CVS work for you!

On the Ball. Frugal people are on the ball by being organized and informed.  They don’t just use the paper for coupons, they actually read it too!  How does staying informed help you be frugal?  It makes you aware of where rates are at so that you might be able to get a higher return on your money, or a lower rate on a loan.  It allows you to follow legislation that might have a direct effect on you. Staying organized is also a key aspect, if you aren’t organized, you aren’t ready to act to make sure you lock in that low rate on your mortgage refininance, or you can’t find the coupon you need to make use of the CVS cash back. Only informed people can make informed decisions, and only organized people can act quickly enough to make the move.

Understand Needs vs. Wants. Frugal people understand what is a need and what is a want, and they ask themselves if something is a need or a want before making a purchase.  Do you want something really badly?  Prioritize and save for it, you might be surprised to see that the desire to purchase will pass.

• I am writing this from a 6.5 year old Powerbook.  Do I want a new mac?  Absolutely, but I maintain my computer and it still functions perfectly for what I need it for.
• I drive a 10 year old Acura with 150,000 miles, and yes, I want a new car, but I absolutely cannot rationalize it.  It’s paid for, it runs great, I can work on it myself (unlike many new cars with which the manufacturers have made it nearly impossible to work on yourself).
• I want to finish outfitting our garage as a gym, no we don’t need it, but Mary and I see an ROI in our health (body maintenance) so we are slowly gathering things from Craigslist, and finding good deals at specialty shops. We understand that this is a want, but it is a priority for us, so we are pursuing it.

I hope that you will be able to form some of these habits and become more successfully frugal!

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When I began writing, I’m not quite sure if I had the knowledge of frugality that I do now, but after a year of writing and adapting my frugal lifestyle I think I’m finally able to give a good explaination of what frugality is.

First, in order to give a good view on frugality we need to remember that being frugal is not being cheap.  A cheap person refrains from purchasing until they absolutely have to, even then they might wait to buy.  When they do buy they buy the cheapest thing with no regard for quality.  A frugal person may hold off making a purchase, but it’s usually to make sure they get the best deal (not necessarily the cheapest).  Case in point: Would you rather spend $400 every two or three years on a piece of furniture from Ikea, or would you rather spend $1,000 on a nice good quality piece that will last you a decade or more?

Now we need to analyze the day to day lifestyle of someone who is frugal vs. someone who is cheap.  A cheap person tends to not buy things unless they absolutely have to, a frugal person makes calculated choices about what is important to them.  You may frequently see frugal people at starbucks or going out to dinner.  Cheap people typically don’t like to put money into maintaining what they have, they will use something until it is broken, and then might keep using it.  Frugal people put money into maintnence.  We take care of our vehicles by do regularly scheduled maintnence, and we take care of our bodies by staying fit and going to the doctor for checkups.  We keep our houses nice and frequently do minor improvement projects so that we don’t have to do major ones later.

Being frugal is about controlling your money and making choices so that you can allow yourself to splurge.  It’s about not doing X so that you can do or buy what you love.  In fact, you will frequently see people choose to give up Starbucks so they can afford a nicer car, or give up a nicer car so that they can afford a nicer house.  We all need to splurge, if you don’t you’re letting your money control you, and you will eventually lose.

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I went to the dentist for my six month cleaning today, after the usual small talk they updated my x-rays that hadn’t been updated in over two years.  Then the dental assistant walked in and asked “when was the last time you flossed?”  My response: “you did it” (ripped straight from an old Jeff Foxworthy joke).

Now, because of my lack of flossing, I have a small cavity forming between two of my teeth, which I didn’t even know was possible, and (not related to flossing) one of my old metal fillings needs to be replaced.  The cost?… Should be around $500 after insurance pays their third.

Until now, I always kind of laughed about flossing.  I floss after I eat popcorn, I never do it before bed or in the morning, but now is different.  Now it’s personal, I’m going to become a flossing machine.

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