My Top Five
Hmm...this is good! I was going to say I don't have any methods since I just started being frugal. But I guess I have taken some baby steps to reducing my budget and cutting down debt:
1. Write everything down (budget, total debt, total income), and check bank account balance daily.
2. No spending money until bills are paid. Project budget for at least a month and a half out, adding in any expenses I know are coming. Those come out of spending money, so whatever is left over is what we get to use. Take it out of the ATM and carry it around; seeing it dwindling keeps me from buying magazines or sodas.
3. Almost no more eating out or drinking out. Plan weekly menus and stick to it. Comparison-shop at grocery store. Buy produce at farmers market. We now host "happy hour" at our house every few weeks. For about $40, we can entertain ourselves and a handful of friends with plenty of food and drink; far less than it used to cost for the three of us to go out and just pay for our own tab. Some friends have even repaid the favor with cocktail nights of their own; hello free entertainment!
4. Cheap hobbies: gardening, Netflix, puzzles and games, special TV nights at friends' house, writing my blog on this website. :-)
5. Being open with my household about why I'm suddenly restricting our spending. Show them our debt and budgets regularly so they see I'm not holding out on them. Congratulate and praise them when they do something thrifty (yes, even adults respond well to that!) Plan "splurges" into the budget weeks in advance so they're already paid for when they come around. Don't allow the regular kind of splurging to hang out with you anymore--it's a bad seed!
CJ
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