Are you more or less frugal then you were last year?

I have to say that I am certainly more frugal than I was this time last year. Back then, I was still a student and wasn't thinking about the things that I was going to be doing in the future. Now, I am thinking about the fact that I am going to be buying myself a house within the next year or so, and this means that I have had to be more frugal so that I can save up the amount of money that I need. I am glad that I have changed the way that I think about money, because I honestly think that I am a lot more happy this way.

I am more frugal this year! I have reinstated my way of measuring how much money I spend when I pick up something. I ask myself if it is a "want" or a "need". If I can't answer it right away I will put the item back and wait for the next time I go to town. It makes a load of difference in regards to the amount of money I spend. I also have changed the way that I keep things in my home. If it is something that I haven't used in a year, it gets donated or boxed for an upcoming sale in the city park where I live. I am so tired of storing stuff that I don't use very often and haven't used in months. I look at it in the respect of the amount of space the item is taking up and how much it is costing me to store the items. It's amazing how much stuff I have eliminated from the nooks and crannies of my home. I had over 40-18 gallon Rubbermaid bind under the house. I now have a grand total of 10, and some of them aren't totally full. I am going through those and the others and marking the ones t hat need heavy duty sorting so that I can pare down the amount of clutter even more...and maybe my pay off will be that I can find things when I am looking for them. My motivation to keep frugal is remembering how much money my Mom spent on totally useless stuff. She spent thousands of dollars on fabrics that she would never get used. Plus the other thing she spent tons of money on was furniture...you couldn't move in the house for furniture. It took ten years to clear out the clutter and furniture. That is a great motivation for being frugal...if that doesn't work then I tune into "Hoarding Buried Alive", that is a great motivator!!!

I am more frugal, but sometimes it is difficult. It is harder now to find good deals on food items.

I think i have been a bit less frugal. Making a few more trips to the NWT or to calgary than i used to but then i havent traveled anywhere else. I'd rather visit family and such than go traveling by myself. I dont buy as much stuff like music books videos. i have satellite but im a home away from home for a star choice account. Rarely use it anyways. I did invest in netflix. but...that cut back on my video rentals. My power bill should go down the next meter reading as i had the power to the heat for the water trough disconnected for the winter and it normally adds an extra 400 a year to run that thing...no animals here through the winter its not necessary to heat it. I'd say more frugal in someways...less frugal in others. I dont go out of my way to use coupons...if i find them for an item i use i will use them but i dont buy an item just because i have a coupon for it.

My budget is worse so I am trying my best to save more. I understand how it can be tiresome, that is always why I am looking for new ways to save money and make money as well. It is always good to take a couple of weeks off and splurge a little here and there because you know you have earned it!

Sometimes that happens but once in a while. Occasionally, I postpone buying something for too long until I wonder whether I will ever buy it at all. This makes me live the house and walk into the nearby store pick it up and purchase it. I even wonder whether it is of any importance when the same money gets spent on something expensive than what I want to forego.

I think I am more frugal than I was a year ago. we've done some bigger things, like switching to cloth diapers and cloth napkins, and I think it's made a difference. But yes, it's getting old. I think I'm just running out of energy for everything and I'm tired of having to work so hard for everything.

well, we don't use credit cards at all but we do have extra jobs that pay for those little extras once in awhile (like getting donuts or going out for ice cream). between my hubby and i (he works full time and i work part time), we have 3 other jobs that we do on the side. i am motivated to being frugal because sometimes we just don't have extra cash for extras.

i haven't really changed any big habits, but, i now have money in two different savings accounts. all the bills are being paid. my rent is higher than last year. i have a used car that i'm making payments on, which also means my insurance has more than tripled. but with all the new payments, hubby has a better a paying job and i've been given two different raises. i also work with mint.com which helps me keep up where my money is going and how much i'm spending on bills vs frugal items. it has helped me tremendously.

I am much more frugal this year, because my husband and I want to save up money for our trip to Asia. This year our trip is our motivation, and we have chosen to cut back on a lot of things. Last year weren't very frugal. We worked a lot and we earned quite a lot of money, but we also spent a relatively large of amount in our daily lives because we often went out for dinner etc. This year we don't earn as much as we did last year when we worked 7 days a week, so we have to think carefully about the money that we spend if we want to travel.

I can't be more frugal this year since my kids need a good food with a good nutrition . Here milk is somehow expensive and education need more budget too All i can do to be more frugal is only in buying clothes i hope i can have a better job with a better payment this year

Hi! I understand where you're coming from; hard to not have some kind of reward somewhere along the way. I do find that my frugality is about the same as it was last year; still shop at Goodwill and other second-hand stores and find that I do just as well there as I do anywhere else. I also reward myself in other ways such as clearing piles away and getting through other things I've been meaning to and reward myself with a movie or a good book or fixing a watch. Sometimes the smallest things have the biggest rewards.

well, in my country most of us are not rich .so frugal is a normal situation in my country.we have to frugal about every thing .like buy food,drink even the electricity .plus the economy is bad,everything is expensive than last year at this time,so we're even more frugal than old time.

im less frugal now. i cant help but spend money on stuffs which are not important, just luxuries. i somehow hate myself for this. nevertheless i still try to manage my budget and keep in mind that earning money is so difficult these times, and it really is important to save.

I think I was born frugal, but I keep finding new ways to save a penny here and there. It's been that way all my life, so I guess I'm not more frugal in a sense, but I have found a few ways to save even more. My income is about the same as it was last year but I've had more expenses and need to do more to the house and so on, so it's challenging.

I am more frugal this year since money is tighter. I keep a monthly budget in Excel to keep me on track and motivated.

Our budget is still a little up in the air here. Hubby has a new good paying job but the fall out of flood bills and work still needing to be done has hindered a recovery of the budget. We lived rather frugally to begin with and we are to a point that we really couldn't make much more less money then we have now other then going to extremes some how. It is a lot of work to be frugal and yet in others it is not. I have no problem unplugging things or not even turning them on most of the day if at all. It is hard though sometimes to look at the stack of coupons and newspapers and get my self motivated to attack the weeks shopping list. I wish at times I had that rush the extreme couponers on TV have that make it an addiction to save maybe we would be further a head right now if I did.

I don't keep track of what I spent in last year and compare to this year. So far, I think that I spent more during the beginning of this year already, and I hope that I can make more money from variety of sources. I hope that I can save more and spend less. That is all depends on my moment of whims. I hope that I can do better this year.

Hi happuthoughts, I have all ways been a frugal person... Life has never been a fly by night with me, I have always try to live within my means..which means I never lived a filet migon life with a hotdog pocket. One can always live a nice happy life if they live within their means... Now don't get me wrong, to dream is a natural goal..but unless you have a Bill Gates in yoir family to past down the riches or you are in a position where the price of filet migon is not an issue....Money is great to have...but until that time LIVE YOUR LIFE!!!!!