If you are on the outside looking in to a family that has chosen to be thrifty, they might come up with crazy myths about being thrifty and frugal. If I have not heard these once, I have heard them multiple times. Spite how it all sounds, I think we know they are not true.
Myth 1. Living thrifty means you never eat out and having to eat a lot of rice and noodles
When talking to young couples and how they need to budget and be aware of their spending it will sometimes spark talk about they can sacrifice and eat rice 5 nights a week or ramen noodles. I hate it when they say that because it tells me that someone has told them that and they don’t know that.It all revolves around menu planning and budgeting. If you menu plan you can schedule your meals and know your budget of how much you can spend eating out. It is more about discipline not being restrained. Plus if you watch Groupon and Living Social, you can get some great deals for eating out.
Myth 2. Thrifty living means you won’t get to go shopping any longer.
You will get to shop but the difference is that you will be shopping for a purpose and not just because you want to shop. When you are trying to stay within a budget you will learn to shop with a purpose in mind. To shop is for a reason not to waste time or to impulse shop.
When you shop with a purpose you have done a little organizing and list making. Keep up with a list of needs for each person in the household. Everything from clothing, school supplies, living supplies, etc. That way when you are shopping you can look for items that is on the list and be able to not impulse shop.
Myth 3 Thrifty Living means that your family is not able to enjoy entertainment and have fun.
I think this is one that I hear more whining about than any other. And it is not true at all. My family has not missed out on anything fun that we wanted to do. It was just either planned or budgeted and not done on the spur of the moment. (no, we do get crazy sometimes and do things spontaneous.)
We use different avenues to save money while having fun.
- Our movie theaters here have $5 Tuesdays. This is a $3 savings for movies. We plan to see the movies that we want to see on the big screen on Tuesdays.
- We rent movies that we don’t really care about seeing on the big screen from Redbox. The cost is $1.20 (plus tax) My husband deems all chick flicks as being a red box rental…. If it doesn’t have shoot them up action, he thinks we can watch it at home.. lol
- Groupon is also a place I visit often to see what local deals are available. I have got several restaurants and also entertainment from Groupon that I would most likely not try unless I had the discount.
- Living Social is also another place that sales daily deals for restaurants & entertainment. I love getting the restaurant certificates from here. They are usually awesome so be sure to check the site out.
- Check out the local activities in your communities and get more connected to your neighbors. There is great movies on the great lawn in our area during the summer that is free. Also corn mazes and concerts that are low cost or no cost. Get a community calendar and plan some events.
