Here’s a practical tip that is unbelievably simple and effective. Keep your coupons in your car. The reasons are quite obvious, but when I saw my wife do it, I thought she was a genius and should patent the idea (if we weren’t married already, I might’ve proposed on the spot).
Being the clueless husband that I am, it took me months to realize that my wife always had a bag of coupons with her. I mean, always. She would have the clip outs when we were shopping for groceries, and she would have the coupons while we just happened to drive by a supermarket and wanted to buy a bag of chips.
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We hear about all those people who are underwater on their mortgages, and we hear about the incredibly high amounts of distressed properties on the market today. Yet, many of us never really come across the foreclosure process. Is it really that bad? Is it really happening everywhere?
As I write this, I’m on my way to Cape Charles, VA where we have a yearly golf trip (I didn’t go last year because Emma and I went on our honeymoon instead). Usually, we stay in a nice little place we like to call Yellow House but not this year. Yesterday, I found out that the Yellow House doesn’t have water anymore because the owners stopped paying the bills. Uh oh.
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After some frustration, several phone calls and a long time listening to more commercials while being on hold, I managed to get the erroneous $175 termination fee on my AT&T phone bill waived. Here’s how I did it.
What Happened to My Bill
Many cell phone companies ask for a commitment in exchange for free phones (or cash rebates). Some are 1 year contracts, while others are multi-year ones. I signed up for a 2 year contract a few years ago, which I do regularly as I switch from carrier to carrier to take advantage of all the cash rebates that many companies offer. For a long time, everything was fine and dandy.
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At some point, many of us will doubt whether our frugal lifestyles are really worth it. At times, we might question our ways when our friends buy expensive luxuries. Other times, it could happen when we wonder whether our budget spreadsheet is too empty. It doesn’t really matter how often we try to assure ourselves because those pep talk seldom work. If you ever wonder whether being frugal is right for you, here’s an idea.
The Greener Grass on the Other Side
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Out of necessity, we are just smarter about some things when we are college students than we are as we age. One of those things is personal finance. Sure, we made some really dumb mistakes with our money but we also tend to have a much better grasp on frugal living than most of us in the grown-up working world do.
Here are some of the top frugal living tips that you probably knew when you were in college but have forgotten as you’ve gotten older:
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I don’t know why it is, but it seems like almost every marriage comes with a spender and a saver. I have seen rare exceptions where both are unleashed spenders – which often turns out to be quite disastrous, and even rarer still I have seen marriages with two savers. But for the most part, it seems like most have an eternal struggle between the spender and the saver.
So, as expected, I am the saver in my household, while my wife is the spender. That is not to say that I don’t enjoy spending, it is just that I enjoy saving a lot more than she does. 😉
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