My Frugal Lifestyle

I have always considered myself to be a frugal person, in fact over the years members of my own family have described me in some of the following ways: cheap, penny pincher and tight wad.  My own mother has even told me that I "squeeze George Washington so hard that a booger would come out of his nose."  I can only imagine how funny or strange that might sound to some.  You see I was once a single mother, raising a toddler all by myself  while going to college full time and working part time.  I had to make my money go as far as possible and count as much as I could.  During that time I developed some habits that helped me to become a frugal person. 

Now I am happily married and have four children (two here on earth with me and two angels in Heaven waiting for me), but those habits have held strong and I'm still using them today.  I thought  I would share with you the top six habits that I have developed in the hopes that they will help you (my readers) to begin living a frugal lifestyle as well. 

1.  Always look for sales!!
     It is very important to keep your eyes open for sales. Very rarely do I ever buy anything that is not on          
    sale.  By using this habit it will help you to stay focused on what you want and also teach patience as your 
    waiting for the sale to happen. 

2.  Shop Around!!
     Always get a competitors price when buying an item.  It is never wise to be impulsive in shopping, always 
     give yourself time to think about your purchase and time to check the price with another store. 
      
3.  Price Match!!
     Not all stores will do this for you, but for the stores that do, take advantage of the policy.  It will be worth 
     your time to price match an item at a store closer to you than to waste your time and gas driving to a 
     store across town.  Also, there are many apps out there that will help you to do this, that keeps you from
     having to go through all the weekly sales papers (which I still do).  

4.  Remember, the clearance rack is your friend!!
     Whenever I go shopping I always head straight for the clearance section of the store.  There will always 
     be racks in each clothing section and if you look on the "end caps" (the ends of  the aisle) you can always 
     find good clearance deals. 

5.  Always, I mean always use coupons!!
     Coupons are like cash money, if you are not using them, your losing money. I will be going into more 
     detail on couponing in a later blog. 

6. Don't be afraid of thrift stores!! 
    I have heard people put down shopping at thrift stores, but I can tell you some of the best deals I have 
    ever gotten have been in these types of stores.  Not every one will be great to shop in, but there are some 
    fantastic finds to be found. Just to give you and example: my cousin found a Kate Spade handbag at our 
    local Goodwill for just a few dollars, so shop thrift and get those deals. 

In the last year I have started following two very good blogs,Couponing to Disney and Moola Saving Mom. 
Both of these blogs not only give great couponing advice, but they also give you a heads up on good deals they find online and on special sales they find out about.  I have pasted a link to these blogs at the bottom of this post. 

In this day and age getting a good deal and saving money is very important to me.  I try to live as frugal a lifestyle as possible, by doing this I am able to not only save money, but to also have the extra to do special things with my family.  

That's my "two cent's worth", what's yours?


 http://www.couponingtodisney.com/ and http://www.moolasavingmom.com/