I would like to know your story, if you would like to share.

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Too many people spend money they haven't earned to buy things they don't want, to impress people they don't like. - Will Rogers

I have never been frugal in my entire life, however I am on a steep learning curve. My soon to be ex husband leaves the house this week and my household income is cut in half. I am going to have to be pretty ingenious to pull this off alone, but that's why I am here - to learn and learn quickly!!!!!!

M

I got majorly frugal 11 years ago when I became a single parent with an infant & and went back to college as a full time student. Ahhh...good times...LOL!

I did it out of necessity. Ended up a single parent after boyfriend died when I was 3 months pregnant. I was determined to be responsible and raise my son myself. He is now 18 and I have a GREAT paying career now, but I still shop wisely even though it's not a necessity anymore. Now I just can't bear to pay full price for anything!!! I'd rather have the money in my pocket than in the store's!!

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Work like you don't need the money,
Love like you've never been hurt, and
Dance like you do when nobody's watching.

MyCoupons Is #1 for Holiday Shopping

When I was first married, we were both young and had low paying jobs, had never lived on our own and knew nothing. But I learned quickly the value of a dollar, how to get the most from my money and started using coupons. I think honestly that it was in my genes, LOL. I have some in my family that are just frugal and I was around my grandparents a lot as a child and because they were older, they tended to be more frugal than my very young parents. I think I took that with me through my life. So I've just kind of always been frugal. Now it's paying off as my 20+ year marriage is ending and I have 2 kids, no job and am having to get creative with frugality!

My mom was a couponer, refunder, etc for as long as I can remember. Being divorced and finding myself in debt and unemployed certainly changed my ways. I did without and it did not kill me. Employed again and newly married we lived within our means. I was able to quit work and that is when I really got frugal. I accepted saving money as part of my "job". The way I made money was to save money. Now it is just the way we live...it does not seem like a chore and it is just how we do things. We pay cash, I coupon, second hand shop, etc.

Grew up poor, and not in a great family life situation. Moved out of the house the very day I turned 18. HAD to be frugal then. Got a job, eventually making fair money, remained frugal. Got married and increased income by 2X, but still remained frugal. Once I had my kids and became a stay at home mom for 12 years, had to become even more frugal. I have been frugal forever...truly. I am fairly certain that if I won the lottery, I might splurge on a few things, but I would still be a sales shopper and probably even still a couponer.....It is just ingrained in me now....

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"Well-Behaved Women SELDOM make history."Laurel Thatcher Ulrich


"Yesterday is but a vision, and tomorrow is only a dream. But today well lived makes every yesterday a dream of happiness, and every tomorrow a dream of hope." Anonymous

"Your candle does not lose it's light by lighting another candle" Generosity

Have the courage to be yourself.

I grew up in a household where the mantra was "Use it up, wear it out or hand it down". We were not poor it was just thought to be wasteful not to take care of your things and to make your money stretch as far as possible. When I got out on my own it became like a game to win. If I could get a smokin' deal on something I needed or wanted, I won. I still think it's the challange of having the lifestyle that I want within my budget.

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Life isn't about waiting for the storm to pass
It's about learning to dance in the rain.

I grew up poor. I watched my parents live pay check to pay check. They spent their money on stupid stuff like cigarettes, booze, clothes. I vowed I would NEVER live like that. After nursing school, I started to save 10% of my income from my very first check. I lived the first year in an apartment with a bed, a chest of drawers, a rocking chair, a some donated lr tables and one bookcase. When I got my first income tax return, I bought a TV!! When one item was paid for then I would add another. The 10% account was NEVER used for anything except long term savings. When it was big enough to invest, I invested. I bought a rental property. I bought college bonds and Keoghs. When I woke up one day and decided I was tired of working, I put in my one month notice. My CEO nearly had a heart attack. Everyone said, "You can't do that!". But, I could. That 10% account had grown to enough money for me to live on. I had never hada pedicure or a manicure for that matter, Ihave never paid more than $10 for a pair of jeans, I have never stayed at a 5 star hotel, I have never bought a super mocha latte with whatever at a coffee shop, I have never stopped at McD's for a soda,...but I have been to 26 countries, been married a couple of times, have a ton of friends who think I am cheap, give huge presents at Chrismas to kids I do not know, and I can go to sleep at night knowing everything in my house is paid for and I NEED nothing. PS next year we are going to China.

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Lyn Clarke

Thanks for sharing your ideals. You should be very proud of yourself.
The truth is that none of us want to wake up when we are 60 yrs old and realize that we did not plan our financial future very well. What a panicky feeling that must be. Taking a small percentage from your paycheck to save was very responsible and smart. I have had an IRA and have been consistently adding since I was around 20 yrs old, so I will have somewhat of a cushion.

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I don't suffer from insanity, I enjoy every minute of it!

It's just always been a way of life in my family going back as far as anyone can remember.

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Vicki


TLJ Women united in Spirit!

My parents were frugal, once ex hubby and I weren't broke all the time I was not really frugal.
then I started raising 3 kids on 6.50 an hr with a house pymt and all that goes along with it. I got no government asst or child support....so I HAD to be frugal. I just carried that with me into my now happy marriage.

I'm the same as most. married young, had a baby within a year and a half, going to school and working with one puny paycheck and a mortgage. I learned to live frugal. Now, I cannot break the habit but could afford to. My kids still ask if it is on sale or do we have a coupon. Bless my DD's heart, she will not even think of paying over 20.xx for anything a the Limited Too and waits for sales. I figure why spend more on things when I can get them cheaper. Thank heaven for MC!!

My dad lived during the depression on a farm with 11 brothers and sisters. I think that is what got me to being frugal. My dad always bought on sale and in large quantity( I had 4 sisters and 3 brothers). We had a joke about the fact that he was so tight he squeaked. When I got married I naturely went for deals and saving money when shopping. I got into groups that traded coupons and other items. Then I moved to a different state but continued to shop in the same way. My kids knew that they would not get something unless it was on sale or had a coupon. I have been married for 33 years and love to find deals.

You are my idol. I lived like you fresh from college. I ate dinner sitting on the floor off a Bolla wine box until I could afford a real place to eat. I've saved well, but I didn't do as well investing it. I need help to make what I have generate more .... GOsh, I'd love to retire at 50....could probably swing it if it weren't for the pending mountainous cost of college for my two boys.

cj/

all I am thinking is my two kids ask for somerhing in the store and they say look mom its 50 or 75 precejnt off then they say can I have it? I say let me see if i have a coupon.

I was raised in an extremely frugal family of four. My mom tells me that one year, my dad brought home $1200. They are no longer married.

I have my own way of being frugal -- different from that of my parents -- but it is definitely in my blood.

It's in my genes, my mother is cheap and my father was even cheaper, so I am too.

I was born frugal -- my paternal grandparents were farmers during the great depression. My maternal grandmother lost her parents when she was very young so her and her siblings were adopted by another relative who already had several children. My grandmother went to work at an early age. She met & married my grandfather and they were working class poor most of their lives. That is the influence my parents had and still today they are so frugal that sometimes it drives me nuts. I am not nearly as frugal as they were and still are, but I do try to save money in a lot of places where it's not noticed -- buy on-sale, in bulk, with coupons, reuse as much as possible, etc.

DH's family was fairly poor also -- DH learned to walk at the unemployment office (his dad was an auto worker in the 70s), but they liked to live paycheck to paycheck and not save much. Fortunately, DH understand the necessity of saving and he's pretty good at it.

Sarah.........mom to Jason & Devin

Came from a fam of 7 kids where my dad either was earning an upper income salary or we were on welfare.
DH has always made an above average salary, but we spent every cent we ever had adopting our (6) kids.
We always seemed to get by *okay* (coupons, clearance sales, net deals, etc.) until one kid's extraordinary legal expenses nearly bankrupted us. That is the one thing that made me more frugal than I ever thought I could be.
Even up to that point, my kids learned from us to shop the clearance racks first and decide if something was a need or a want, and then they had to save for those things. I am so proud of how fiscally responsible my grown and nearly grown kids are to this day (and even my younger kids still at home , all 4 of the lil buzzards)
DS#! has totally financed his expensive university education himself and is actually more flush than we are!, he has even worked it out so he doesn't *have* to work this summer, but he will in order to make his future more financially secure ;-)
And growing up in a large fam, it was natural for me to automatically make grocery dollars stretch to the point where I could make 2 nickes squeak.
MZ