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So many people begin their journeys into the thrifty lifestyle because they want to pay off their debts–and yet when they do they gladly continue applying thrifty principles. Why? Because they have discovered the positive results of embracing the thrifty lifestyle and they don’t want to let them go.
My family is one of those many. Although I was raised thrifty, I strayed from the frugal aspects of my upbringing for a few years as a new bride. Soon my husband and I discovered that spending freely was causing us to feel not free but chained–chained to payments.
And so we began a journey of thrifty living. Each and every expense was questioned–how could we reduce or eliminate an expense? We created several flexible streams of income to pay down debt and then when it was gone to help us stay that way.
Slowly our finances went from tight to comfortable. When we entered the comfortable stage we were faced with a decision. Do we keep questioning each and every expense? What areas of our budget do we raise? Do we raise any at all? What do we do with the wiggle room in our budget that we have created?
We have discovered in this new stage that we are thrifty because we want to be, not because we have to be. Living the thrifty lifestyle for the long haul allows us to live a very positive lifestyle.
For a list of 52 different websites, apps, and stores our thrifty family uses to help us keep our expenses low, click here to visit our Thrifty Tools Resource Page.
5 Positive Results Of Embracing The Thrifty Lifestyle For Life
1. Less Financial Stress
It is true that paying off your debts reduces financial strain, but no payments isn’t the only positive effect of living thrifty. Being thrifty means you didn’t pay retail for hardly a single item you own. When you purchase your possessions for a fraction of retail you simply don’t stress about them like you do about those that you spent too much on.
Yes, you do take care of them–that plays a big part in frugality–you simply stress about them less. Being thrifty you know how to replace an item should it get damaged, lost or stolen–plus you know you have the money in the bank to replace it.
2. More Ability To Give
The longer you live the thrifty lifestyle the more and more wiggle room you create in your budget. Wiggle room is awesome! And one of the best things to do with that spare cash is to give it away. Help out that family you know is struggling. Donate to the community fund for a better playground for children in your area. Sponsor a child in a third world country. Giving makes your heart happier than a full wallet ever will.
Somehow bargain shopping is all the more thrilling when you know it means that the money you save on your purchases means you can meet the needs of others.
3. A Creative Life
Going to the store and purchasing something new off the shelf does save time, but it doesn’t nurture your creativity.
Taking that yard sale found dresser home and converting it into a changing table for your best friend that is expecting her first baby–now that requires tapping into your creative side.
Being creative is part of cultivating a passionate life. Allowing ourselves time and energy to be creative is a huge stress reliever for many and what better excuse is there to make time for your creativity than to save money and create something original for either yourself or someone you love.
4. More “Yes”
When you keep the wiggle room in your budget instead of filling it with larger than need be expenses you can suddenly say yes to things you never dreamed you could.
Our family, for instance, is currently on a 5 1/2 month RV road trip that we were able to say yes to largely thanks to living thrifty years after we really needed to.
5. More Time For Relationships
In the early stages of being thrifty you look for ways to increase your income that are somewhat flexible. You want to increase your income to knock out debt, but you also want to sleep some too.
Those passive income streams continue when the debt is paid off and they set you up for more flexible working hours. Sure you might still have to work your 40 hour a week job once the debts are paid, but chances are you don’t have to work it plus another 20 hour job to pay down debt.
With your flexible income streams becoming healthier by the year (trust me, most of them will) you are now able to not just have more time available to spend with friends and family, but also more money to spend on the activities you do with them.
You no longer have to say no to dinner out with your foodie friend, you simply work it in the budget saving money in other areas to make it work. You can go the gym and meet the gals for Yoga class 3 days a week–because it is a priority to you and you can now budget by priorities instead of payments.
Embracing The Thrifty Lifestyle For Life Allows You To Thrive
If I were asked to chose just one word to describe the benefits of living thrifty for life it would be thrive.
Being thrifty allows you to thrive in life. With continually growing financial wiggle room in your life you can make dreams happen –your own and those of others.
How Do You Start Embracing The Thrifty Lifestyle So You Can Thrive?
Being thrifty is more than figuring out how to spend less on your groceries or get the best price on a secondhand vehicle. Being thrifty is a mindset. Thrifty people develop habits and principles that become so ingrained that they can’t help but make thrifty life choices.
My book Thrifty & Thriving: More Life For Less Money shares those habits and principles with you as well as ways to develop them in your own life so that you too can join those who are thriving because of their thrifty lifestyle.
Here is the book’s description as see on Amazon…
We all know that thrifty family—the one that manages to live on a cash budget with ease. They don’t worry about their credit card bill, because there isn’t one.
They seem to wear what you wear and eat what you eat, even though they may earn less than you do. Yet they are free of the financial worries that cause you hours of anxiety each month.
How do they do it?
This book is going to show you their secrets. This is not your typical “how to save money” book. It does not list 25 ways to save on food or 10 ways to decrease your electric bill. Instead, it shares more than 40 key practices and principles that thrifty families use every day.
Those practices and principles are broken down into manageable action steps that YOU can use to start changing your finances for the better—one small, snail-pacing step at a time.
Thrifty & Thriving is available in both paperback and Kindle on Amazon.
Available in paperback and Kindle on Amazon–get your copy here!
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