How I Went From Spendthrift to Tightwad in Four Short Years
Being frugal is a way of life. It does not mean giving up everything that you have or want, but it does mean that you have to be more selective about which things that you buy. When you have control over your finances, you will not be a slave to your debt or your job and you will gain the freedom to live your life the way you choose. Traveling the road to frugality can be a choice or a necessity. For us, it was a necessity. Here is my story.
I have made a 180 degree change in the way I think about money. After college, I lived in my parents house while working the grocery store job I had worked since high school. I made $1300 a month at a time when I had no bills. I spent money to make myself feel good, eating out daily, going to movies frequently and buying a whole host of consumer items each of which only held my interest a few days. My frivolous spending was so out of control that this was not enough play money and I quickly spent $4000 that my grandmother had saved for me since I was a baby. Still, I did not learn and began charging my deficit on credit cards.
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My first wake up call was when I was declined additional credit after maxing out all of my credit cards. When I moved out of my parents’ house, I had a very difficult time managing my money. I was able to pay only the minimum payments on my credit cards and resented the evil credit card companies who had done this to me, not admitting that I was the problem. |
When I got married in 1994, my wife and I disagreed about money. I thought it was everyone’s "right" to have some money to play with, but she had lived most of her life with no money and wanted to eliminate every bit of unnecessary spending so that we could pay off debt. As we slowly paid down some of the debt, I began believing more that Tawra’s methods could improve our financial situation, but I was still unhappy about giving up the fun stuff.
In 1996, we moved to Idaho for a job that fell through when we arrived. We had no money, I had no job and we were in a small town a long way from a city. We had no money but were determined not to charge anything. We gave a lot of thought to what items were needs and which were wants. We did not have a lot of basic household items that most people take for granted. We did not have a refrigerator or freezer. It was winter in Idaho so we stored our cold items outside in a utility shed. One day, some cats got into our shed and tried to eat our last two pounds of round steak, leaving teeth marks in the frozen meat. We anguished over whether we should throw away the meat, but since we could not afford to get rid of it, we cut off the bite marks and cooked it anyway. This was the beginning of my turnaround.
I got a job and we bought a small and very inexpensive house. We cut our own wood for heat, planted gardens and slowly worked to pay off the debt. We scavenged a lot of garden material (pots, potting soil, bricks, plants, etc.), used building supplies and furniture from dumpsters outside of our town. We even made some money selling dumpster finds at garage sales. Along the way, we had two children and incurred some unexpected medical bills. Still, we were able to pay off $20,000 in debt in the first 5 years we were in Idaho while averaging $22,000 per year.
There was one more incident that made me realize how completely I had turned my thinking around. Tawra’s family gives money at holidays instead of gifts. Since we had cut all of our unnecessary expenses, this money was all we had to buy ourselves "fun" stuff. At first, I bought myself a few CD’s and some other items that I again lost interest in quickly. I decided to save for a bigger and better item, but after saving the money, I was unable to bring myself to spend it. I asked myself "Do I really need this?" and "What if something better comes along?" I have since joked with Tawra and her mom that they ruined me since now I can’t even bring myself to spend the fun money!
When I wrote this, I earned $1700 a month which we use to support our family of four (Tawra, myself and two pre-schoolers). We now laugh at the fact that I came from a mindset of being unable to make it with no bills and a $1300 a month income to being able to support a family of four on $1700 a month. Take heart anguishing spendthrifts! It is possible to change. It takes a little time and determination, but it is definitely worth the effort.
-Michael |
