Has frugality been easy for you to grasp or....

**homesteadmamma** · 01-08-2006, 10:35 PM

Hard to get a handle on?

At first is was very hard, however now it's just second nature.

**Shell** · 01-08-2006, 10:43 PM

I have to work at it.

**beckanoah** · 01-08-2006, 10:56 PM

Yes, to me it can be difficult, but only because I have very little money to begin with, so when I get extra, I want to "TREAT" myself....

**owiebrain** · 01-09-2006, 12:32 AM

Frugality comes naturally to me....most of the time. I still have my weaknesses, though.

**AmyBoz** · 01-09-2006, 07:22 AM

It actually came very easy to me. It just seemed logical.

**YankeeMom** · 01-09-2006, 07:58 AM

I'm a very sensible, no nonsense kind of person. Frugality has always come easy to me. Growing up we were a frugal family, never were well-off, had a large family (6 kids). It's just a part of me.

But even so, I am ALWAYS learning new ways to be frugal!

**Michelle** · 01-09-2006, 08:06 AM

Originally posted by YankeeMom
I'm a very sensible, no nonsense kind of person. Frugality has always come easy to me. Growing up we were a frugal family, never were well-off, had a large family (6 kids). It's just a part of me.

But even so, I am ALWAYS learning new ways to be frugal!

except there were only 2 kids in our family.

**mizniteowl** · 01-09-2006, 09:26 AM

Sometimes I really have to work at it.

**Hollyhandi** · 01-09-2006, 09:35 AM

I have always had to pinch the pennies to make them scream.
I am really beginning to get the gasp of it now since being here for the last year and learning and watching from you all.

**QuilterMom** · 01-09-2006, 09:44 AM

Originally posted by owiebrain
Frugality comes naturally to me....most of the time. I still have my weaknesses, though.

**JaneP** · 01-09-2006, 09:56 AM

I think we all have our weaknesses. We went through a long period of time where money was very short and we couldn't afford much of anything. It was a relief if we had the money to pay the mortgage on time. Business got better and we started treating ourselves more and getting freer with the grocery money and just basically living a little.
Now we're ready to get serious about saving money again and get out of debt.
I try to make a challenge out of getting the bills down as low as possible and it's kind of a game for me but DH has a harder time of it. I think men take it as them not being man enough to provide or something. Anyway we're adjusting and I'm anxcious to see what my total for groceries will be at the end of the month. I've been trying to be really careful lately. I've been spending about $100/week for the 4 of us.

**ironmaiden** · 01-09-2006, 10:39 AM

I've always lived beneath my means because I was taught you don't spend what you don't have and you should always save something. I've never wanted what I couldn't afford and am not easily impressed. One of the many, many reasons I don't want to live next to a mall!!!

But we've also been lucky and we've both always had good jobs. My first car and my student loan - both of which I paid off early were our only debts other than our mortgage. And we thought hard about how much mortgage we wanted to take out - we didn't want to be house poor. Plus we were lucky and bought 11 years ago before the big rise in prices.

**AGierald** · 01-09-2006, 11:53 AM

I still have so much to learn, and its taking a while to get my husband used to it... neither of us were ever extremely well off growing up, but we never really went to measures such as the ones ive seen listed to save money, at least that I know of, but we're working on it

**kestrel91316** · 01-09-2006, 11:55 AM

I was raised by a fairly thrifty set of parents. My dad was a career USAF officer, so we didn't make a LOT of money. Funny, I always thought of us as upper middle class, but in retrospect we werre just plain middle class.

Mom probably could have economized more by cooking from scratch more than she did, but back then (50s and 60s), convenience foods were ALL the rage for housewives. I never had a cake that wasn't from a box mix until Mom got Gramie's Sauerkraut Chocolate Cake recipe when i was about 17. And she LOVED Hamburger Helper. She just wasn't an adventurous cook.

My dad just worked and worked, and never spent money on himself much that I could see. But he put his two daughters through not only college, but professional school for me.

I learned to sew OF COURSE. Mom sewed most of our school clothes (dresses - we couldn't wear pants until I hit HS) so we were MUCH better dressed than most classmates. She made LOTS for us. So it was natural for me to learn to sew, too. I would be sewing now, but the old Pfaff needs a bit of work. I am not afraid to tackle needed sewing projects, so this can be a money saver. And I taught myself to crochet (watched my grandmother do it for years).

When I was a kid and got extra money, for babysitting, or birthdays, or whatever, I was encouraged to save, and SAVE I DID. I never spent any money on myself. I just put it in the money teapot, then into the bank. I didn't need much, as I had a transistor radio, and access to a library, and we had TV, and I had friends to visit with. We lived pretty simply.