I fell off the bandwagon, but I am getting back on

I began to impliment many of the cost cutting measures discussed here at the beginning of April. When I hit the six week mark, I hit a wall. All the rain kept me from hanging out my clothes for about 3 weeks. I am guessing I won't have a $36 electric bill for May. We also have been on the road A LOT the last 3 weeks. That has resulted in us eating out more than we had been. Not just on the road, but even at home. I just haven't had time to plan and make meals like I had been. These two things combined have cost us financially.

I am getting back in the game. I am starting back where I left off. The sun is out and the clothes are out on the line. We will be home for a long stretch. I will be working on some menus this weekend and will be grocery shopping to get us back on track.

I just want to encourage you to stick with cost cutting measures. If you do backslide for a time period, just get back to it when you can. Life happens and you have to make adjustments when necessary. I read a really encouraging article on Yahoo! Finance the other day (see link below). It was about how to spend like a frugal millionaire. While my spending is not even close to theirs, the ideas are the same, and that is encouraging. They practice delayed gratification & time consumer purchases. For me this translates to not buying things until I can pay in cash. I do not want to incur debt. It also means waiting for what I want to go on sale. They don't like wasting anything. Here, it means not wasting electricity or water in order to lower my bill. Their sense of self-entitlement is highly minimized. This means telling myself no, lots of times. I don't have keep up with, or measure up to, anyone else. Self-entitlement gets a lot of people into a lot of financial trouble. There are some other tips and it is a short read is you are interested. (http://finance.yahoo.com/news/How-to-Spend-Like-a-Frugal-usnews-15357371.html)

I don't think of a frugal lifestyle as being cheap or denying myself. I think of it as building habits that will move me towards being free of the bonds that finances place on us. I think of it as building habits & attitudes that millionaires have. So if you haven't started yet, or got to a slow start or started great, but haven't stuck with it, thats ok. You can always start again. Persevere towards your goals and don't let the little bumps in the road stop you.