I found this really neat article on CNN!
BrokeDad and I are both Spendthrifts…we like stuff is a more appropriate term for us.
It’s good that we found each other because we would be a tightwad’s worst nightmare. Since we have started on a cash only system it has made us more of a tightwad family. Frugality would not be a word that openly describes us but we are trying to be more careful with our money.
An example of our new tightwadness would be that I used to love going to McDonald’s every other morning to get an Iced Vanilla Coffee. I still love these addicting drinks but with cash in my pocket its harder to buy. This morning for example I realized I only have around $50 to get us through the next week and a half so treating myself to a coffee was not an option. This would never have happened if we were still using our credit cards.
Advice to Spendthrifts and Tightwads, chill out on both sides. Spendthrifts like myself, our advice would be to start using a cash system and freeze your credit cards. You will eventually start having Tightwad tendencies. Another big way to encourage tightwadness would be to see your debt get paid off faster and faster. We started paying off our personal loan and every penny we had extra went towards paying it off with a 10.25% interest rate. We got competitive about how much we could put towards it each month.
For Tightwads realize that having money it the bank does not always buy happiness. I can’t wait for our goal to not be paying off debt but putting money towards saving. I had a daydream the other day about us taking the extra we had each month and socking it away in a high-interest savings account. However, when we do have money we are still going to want to go out to eat and enjoy vacations.
Find the middle ground and stick to it. For us it’s working hard on our current goals and trying not to deviate.
Written by
robin@brokefamily.com
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