I started being frugal out of necessity, I remain frugal because I found that living with less feels better. Stuff really does weigh me down and I’ve found that less expensive choices are often much better for us.

For example, it’s much cheaper to cook at home and the food is actually a lot better and the time more enjoyable than eating out. Also, free entertainment is a lot more fun that some more costly versions – -like taking the kids to the park, or planting things in our garden, or going for walks and bike rides together. . .lots of fun for free.

This has been fun to think about. I’m looking forward to tomorrow’s post.
Beth @ Smart Family Tips´s last blog ..Short Trip and Good Reads

We just can’t see how it makes sense to spend more than necessary for most items. We don’t see how it makes sense to throw out useful or repairable items just because we’ve tired of them or don’t feel like taking the time to fix them. We don’t understand the idea of always buying new when in most cases used is as good or even better. Although we have a mortgage and a rapidly dwindling car payment, we don’t see how being in debt makes sense and are working hard to become debt free.

We enjoy finding bargains, making repairs, cooking at home, growing some of our food, doing DIY projects, and finding alternative uses for things otherwise destined for the dump.

I really don’t think we’d live much differently at any income level.
Annie Jones´s last blog ..Cooking at Camp

I guess that we are frugal because we want to be and because we have to be, both. Because I am still in school and also will have a student loan to pay off at the end, we have learned to live pretty tight.

Here are two things that I have found helpful for challenging us to go the next step:

One is that I just edited our budget in preparation for the start of our second year of budgeting. Now that I know more about our habits, needs, etc. I adjusted some of the goals/limits to be more realistic and a few of them to be more challenging.

The second is that I am going to try to do some things I have always wanted to try, but never done, like canning vegetables/fruit this summer for next winter. Even though we already cook mainly from scratch and try not to go out, I think this next step will be rewarding on many levels. I’m sure we all have a challenge or two that we have considered but not tried yet.

Reading blogs like this one gives me the encouragement I need to go for it!

Sarah

@KelliM – How smart you are! You’ll be happy you were frugal before you needed to be. I sure wish I was