Lifestyle

When it's hard to be frugal (and how to talk yourself into it anyway)

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Additional smart, frugal people

I love the plethora of frugal ideas that people are happily posting, for free, all over the internet. I'm sharing some of my favorites here. Because I can. And because Mr. Chen's rather prolific posting of late is bringing out my long-buried (and possibly imagined) sense of competitiveness.

Also, we don't technically have a blogroll yet (or as highly technical people call it, "that-list-of-other-blog-sites-on-one-side-of-the-page-linky-thing"), I thought it might be good to prove that we are not threatened by the plethora of frugal advice online. We embrace it.

Some of these links are to main blog pages, and others are to specific blog entries that I thought were worthy and frugal without being tacky.

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Can I Conquer My Vanity for the Sake of My Sanity?

I’m worried that becoming frugal will force me to give up a certain amount of pride. And at the same time, I’m hoping that becoming frugal will help me to give up a certain amount of pride.

It’s hard for me to be frugal. I don’t mean that it’s difficult to clip coupons, or to restrict your spending, or to limit spendy nights out on the town. All of those things are difficult, too, but they are not the root of the problem with finding frugality. The root of the problem, for me, is selfishness – the selfish need to be seen as NOT selfish.

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Frugal is More than a Way to Spend Money, Part 2

It's not wrong to spend your money. This is a little bit of a caveat to this series that I'm doing, but worthy of time and energy anyway.

My experience, which consists of examining my own life and talking to my friends, says that most Americans struggle with a combination of cultural messages about spending money.

The "Typical" Debtor

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Frugal is More than a Way to Spend Money, Part 1

I don’t know what you think of when you think of “frugal,” but I think of my parents. They are undeniably, definitively frugal, and they always have been. It’s how they were raised. So, when I think of “frugal,” I think about how they spent their money. I think about the black and white TV we had until I was 12 (that was 1991 or 1992) and the Chevy from the ‘60s that my dad drove (without air conditioning and with vinyl seats) until I was 5 years old.

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Quick Notes: Saving on the Holidays

It’s that time of year again. Right…the time of year when I alternate between being over-the-top excited about whichever amazing gift I’d love to buy because it’s Just Absolutely Perfect for Someone and being in the depths of hopeless despair because there’s no way I can afford ONE of whatever item I want to purchase, let alone something that nice for everyone on my list.

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