Evaluate your spending more February 6, 2006
I came across this older Motley Fool article about living below your means. This key quote made me think about how I use money:
A lot of people seem to see frugality as money-grubbing, or selfishness. I guess we can’t expect everyone to see things the same way. For me money is useful for the independence it provides. It’s not to accumulate it so that you can buy more stuff. It’s to accumulate it to get it working for you so that you won’t have to work at some point.
We don’t evaluate our perception of money and how we use it enough. By doing this, we can sacrifice the things we really don’t need to buy (like that Starbuck’s coffee or another pair of shoes) and make the goal of financial independence more likely. I’ve recently started asking myself more and more how I can make better use of my money. For example, last month, I switched my phone provider from Verizon to Vonage (more on this another day). I consider my land line essential at this point, but by switching carriers, I went from spending approximately $80 per month to a flat fee of $14.99, saving $65. Now how do I use my $65 to make it work for me? For now I put it in savings, but after a year, that’s $780 savings. How can you evaluate your money more often?