What was your frugal light bulb moment?

**Shell** · 03-25-2005, 11:00 PM

Were you always frugal or what was your big light bulb moment?

For me it was my credit card bills. I HATED them. So, I looked for a book that taught me about saving money and VOILA I found The Tightwad Gazette. Even though, I didn't want to be as frugal as her it helped me with the way I looked at money and taught me a lot.

**Mom23boys** · 03-26-2005, 12:13 AM

I think my light bulb moment was when I quit my job about 6 years ago, leaving us with one income and then DH had to have surgery and he wasn't working either! That was a turning point in our lives. I went back to work of course and DH healed, but I kept my frugal ways.

**SewCrafty** · 03-26-2005, 01:36 AM

Finding this site over 2 years ago.

I was too embarrassed in the beginning to tell just how UN-frugal I was. Now I pick on my mom about her UN-frugal ways!

**notsadbuthappy** · 03-26-2005, 06:25 AM

worrying about the future that if something happened like the computers went or we didnt get money in for a couple months that there wouldnt be any moneys to use..or when i hit 50 or 60 years old i want to retire with money to live on not debts and penniesless

**britbunny** · 03-26-2005, 06:43 AM

My frugal lightbulb moment came when I first stopped working and I finally got round to looking at a book we'd got from FIL for Christmas it's called "Trade Secrets" and as the name suggests it has all the "tips of the trade".

I started to read it and realised how much money I was wasting, from there it grew out of curiosity to see what people did to avoid paying for things (as I really needed to save money) and then it all started to make sense - I've never waxed my legs with insulation tape though.

**rebecca** · 03-26-2005, 07:18 AM

Have been always been frugal but it hit me one day about six years ago that I should of started saving for retirement earlier. Since then I have been as frugal as I can and I have been taking about $50 a month about and putting it in a bank and not touching it and once pay off the house I am going to put in their what I was putting on the house and this will be part of my retirement fund. Also, have restarted my 401 (k) this January.

**Darlene** · 03-26-2005, 07:43 AM

Never really had a lot of money so grew up making the most of what I had, carried over when we had children and we decided that I would be a SAHM. No lightbulb moment but knowing how important we thought traditional family (1 parent home at all times) it was worth all the struggle & making do we've done.

**PrairieRose** · 03-26-2005, 10:18 AM

A few years ago we had to go to the bank to borrow some money for business purposes. They wanted so many records and cash flow statements and then and there I thought I don't want to ever feel like this again. Felt like we were being scrutinized under a microscope. Since then we've been working hard to be debt free.

**SCDowney** · 03-26-2005, 10:35 AM

I totally relate to what notsadbuthappy posted. I had a lightbulb phase about four years ago that got me back on track after my post-divorce spending phase.
I had approval for a mortgage from a government department that gives people a hand up, but the banker I'd dealt with for many many years wouldn't give me a 30 day note for 8,000, even though it was backed by the government. He said that if the gov't collapsed, they wouldn't get their money back!! Up until my divorce, he always said yes because my hubby made lots of $$ at a very stable job. I was so mad at this guy, I went over his head to the manager, who'd lent me money (unsigned for!!) for a volunteer organization. He'd done this for three years, and I always paid it all back within three days! Lo and behold, my application was approved. I realised though what the bank was looking for and decided to change my financial position.
It also helped that I worked for a financial advisor for a couple of years. Being privy to much confidential information really inspired me. Also having financial software helped me see where I was overspending.

**homesteadmamma** · 03-26-2005, 10:39 AM

It had to be when I added up our credit card debt and it was $18,000. I had a fit and decided then and there I was going to learn how to be radically frugal. I'm with Shell in that I found a few books on frugality, TWG being one of them and I was hooked.

**pita1213** · 03-27-2005, 10:08 AM

it wasn't exactly a lightbulb moment, but more desperation, and boredom mixed together. odd combination but that's what it was. we moved to CT when dh's company shut down one office. when we were looking looking into daycare for dks (neither old enough for school at the time) it would have cost more than i would have made to put them in daycare, so we decided i would stay home with the kids. it was an adjust ment for me. we were not in walking distance of much of anything like we had been before the move. so me and the kids were stuck at home most of the time. money was tight and i needed to find ways to stretch it and found FM's while doing a google search and that's where i got started. ordered the TWG one sale shortly after that.
joined a few other frugal message boards along the way. not sure how i found the village though. but i'm sure glad i did. y'all have kept me on track over the last few years.

**sunshine** · 03-27-2005, 10:26 AM

Hmmmm , always been frugal to an extent. . . but when money was plentiful we always found an excuse to spend it.

Then dh got sick and we borrowed money for travel, for a different home, for a motor home . . . . . . . and one day I paid the bills on payday and had $11 for gas in the cars and groceries for 2 weeks. We had to borrow money from the kids college savings in order to make it that month. . . . I started looking for ways to get ouf of debt on just my salary.

We found Financial Peace, Miserly Moms and I found the Miserly Moms website/message group. . . . from there I was introduced to FM's, here and some other sites.

We're still massively in debt, but less so and we are managing our money better, so no more borrowing money from the kids.

**thrifty gal** · 03-27-2005, 12:37 PM

For me, and dh it was when while he was laid off we discovered I was pregnant. We had a ton of cc debt, and other bills. He was laid off for 7 months that year. We were terrified. I had read the TWG books and other frugal books before all this, but it just didn't click, until we hit rock bottom-so to speak. We realized that since we had a kid on the way, things had to change.

**Makat2u** · 03-27-2005, 01:34 PM

Living on a very low income {SSI & DSHS for my DD} I learned very fast that $$ didn't last very long nor stretch as far as we needed it to. I always shopped for bargains which helped then a few months before my mom died she gave me a computer & I founds sites that helped a lot more. I also taught my DD how to be frugal since she doesn't have much of an income as of yet.