Do you have the F word? And by f word I mean FRUGAL. I heard someone on Instagram last week say they just weren’t frugal because they put coffee trips and vacations in their budget. I pointed out that they were in fact, frugal. Why? Well, let me explain.

What does frugal mean?

Okay, so the actual definition is: simple and plain and costing little.

But to me it means a lot of things.

Frugal means not spending money on things you don’t care about so you can purchase things you DO care about. Frugal means buying quality over quantity and waiting to get the best item for the best price.

But how do you go from hating the word to loving it?

I'll be honest. At first, budget, saving and frugal didn't give me the warm fuzzies until I just decided to jump in and navigate my way through this.

Stop seeing save, frugal and budget as bad words. Every time I mention the word 'frugal,' people want to take it as cheap, like tight-fisted. That's not what I mean at all. To me, frugality is not spending money on things that don't matter to you so that you can spend money on things that do.

The thing is, I don't spend money on trash that I'm going to throw away. I don't spend money on things that don't matter to me because I want to have money for things that do matter to me. Like helping out other people, putting money in my kids' college fund, paying off my house early, going on trips. These are things that matter to me.

Once you change your mindset about these words, once you realize a budget gives me freedom, a budget is me determining where my money is going to go, and allows me to spend money on things that matter to me.

Saving means securing a good future for myself and my children. Saving is putting money in retirement so I don't have to live with my kids or work as a Walmart greeter when I'm in my seventies. Frugal means, like what I said, I don't spend money on things I don't care about so that I have money to spend on things that I do.

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