Nose to the Frugal Grindstone

As with most things in life, it is hard to establish a good habit.  Why make your own dinner when you can pick up fast food?  Why go to the gym when you can veg out on the couch?  Why cut up celery when you can open a bag of chips? 

I have fallen off the wagon.  The frugal wagon that is.

I have to admit that over the past few weeks, I have been a bad, bad, spending girl.  I've been feeling a little down and have been filling that void with internet shopping.  Bad, bad Frugal Fairy. 

Amazon has been my drug of choice.  Having my credit card linked to my account, my free "Amazon mom" Prime membership subscription, and an endless supply of "good deals" makes for a bad combination for this addict. 

It started with stuff for my son, Jackson.  Here's where it all began.  I reasoned that internet shopping couldn't be bad if I was buying stuff for my son.  It starts with necessities - like how he HAS to have a "puddle jumper" for swimming.  Then I move onto books, because certainly he's too young and too rough to beat up library books and he surely "needs" more books to read.  Oh!  Then he really "needs" to have some more Yo Gabba Gabba stuff because, well, he loves it.  He'll only be 22 months old once.  He "needs" this stuff people!!  I'd basically be a horrible mom if I didn't buy these things.

Then I move on to things for the house.  Again, I rationalize that I am not doing this for me.  It's for our house, our family.  Therefore it can't be bad.  I decide that we "need" to get new measuring cups.  Of course I can't just buy the basic cheap (and frugal) kind.  I have to buy the Russian nesting doll ones because I am convinced that it is a tribute to my Grandmother who passed away and that she would want me to have them.

Then the flood gates open and I decide that there are things that I "need".  I "need" new perfume.  This is a necessity for school, work, etc.  Then I "need" a pair of Tom's shoes that I find on ebay for a good deal.  While it is half off of what an actual pair of Tom's would cost me, it is still not really a necessity.  I have plenty of shoes.  Piles even.  I convince myself that I need some new shorts.  While at the store, I decide that I need an Elmo shirt to wear because Jackson loves Elmo.  The shirt, I reason, is for him. 

Next thing I know, I've raked up a ridiculous credit card bill.  Don't worry, I pay off my credit card every month, but I use it to rack up points which I can, in turn, use on Amazon. 

So now I have $10 of Amazon credit that I can use.  Since I am having my own personal intervention on my spending spree, I'm holding onto it until I really "need" something else. 

I had to convince myself that I don't "need" a Kindle (though I did have myself convinced that I did need one for a while because I reasoned that I could get tons of free books on it). 

But alas, I have put a stop to my spending spree for the time being.  I need to get back on track.  It's back to couponing and DIY projects.  However, I think I "need" some new craft supplies.....

The Psychology of Being Frugal

In trying to make the background to this short, I'm going to use a bullet point method to get you up to speed:

• I haven't written in a while because I've been super busy.
• I've been super busy because I am in grad school full time (5 courses, 15 credit hours), and working part time (22 hours per week), and there's the whole "being a mom and wife" thing.
• Because of this, my individual income is now about half of what it was.

So that's where I am today.

Because of these recent developments, I've of course had cut way back.  If I was frugal before, now I'm probably edging on the line of "cheap". 

However, being the glass-half-full, optimistic person that I generally am, I hate looking at things in a negative light.  It is depressing and very limiting.  For example, I hate looking at things and thinking "I can't afford ____."  Instead I like to spin it like "I am choosing not to by ______ so that I can instead get _____." 

I think for me, that's a huge part of the psychology of living a more frugal lifestyle.  I like to frame it as though I don't HAVE to, but that I choose to.  In that sense, it empowers me and helps me make better decisions and also to feel good about those decisions.