Finance

Thrift - Tips on Saving, Scrimping and Being Thrifty

By Joe Marchelewski ⋅ July 21, 2008 ⋅  Email this post ⋅  Print this post ⋅ Subscribe By Email ⋅ Post a comment

Thrift is not a four letter word, although some people treat it as such.  Thrift is a way to maximize your dollar and have more wealth stored up for tomorrow.  Rarely do Americans these days put the proper amount of stock in being thrifty.  The idea of it is almost repulsive, because being thrifty means not leasing a car, not buying a new MP3 player every year and not eating out every week.

Wealth is not defined by how many toys an individual has, rather it is defined by how much control an individual has over his/her economic freedom.  A person could have a great house, great car, take vacations every year, and own a boat, but if they’re mortgaged to the hilt and can’t retired until they’re 130, then they aren’t wealthy.

Here are some basic tips on how to be thrifty with your dollars:

• Find places to save - Why buy underwear at Macy’s when you can buy it at Marshalls?  Why buy cans of soda when drink mixes are available?  Little tricks such as these can save you hundreds of dollars a year.  Think of items that don’t need to be new and shiny, these are the easiest places to cut back spending.
• Restaurants or Fast Food, pick one! - Do you like eating a nice steak at a French restaurant or a hamburger at McDonalds?  Take a three month test and forgo happy meals for fine wine, or vice versa.  Find out which you like more and ignore the other.  This can teach you to choose where and when to spend money.
• Why buy from Pottery Barn? - Label whore is a strong term, but we all have a little label whore in us.  We want labels to show people our status, but status and wealth are often complete opposites.  Status is fleeting, wealth is long term.  If you shop at Ross or Marshalls for dishes or home furnishings, you could save tons.
• Put Down the Latte - $5/day X 5 days/week X 52 weeks = 1300.  That means if you buy a latte and a cookie every weekday for a year, you’ll spend $1,300 on shoving around 700 calories down your through.  That makes no sense for your diet or your budget.  Make the latte at home and burn some calories steaming the milk; make yourself a regular cup of coffee at home and eat a piece of toast; or, drink tea.  The idea that five dollar latte’s are normal or a right is false, they are a privilege.  Your are not responsible for making sure Howard Schultz’s stock stays in the black.
• Leave your wallet at home -  Don’t take your debit card with you, it’ll only help you spend extra dollars every day.  Try leaving your debit card in your dresser and give yourself $20 in cash for the week.
• Don’t try cold turkey - Failure can lead us to give up, to quit.  Setting ourselves up to fail is like trying to learn Japanese without a teacher.  Learn bit by bit, start small, make a budget, look for ways to cut back and then move forward.  Trying to end years of learned behavior all at once is foolish, but unlearning it bit by bit will lead you down the right path.