Welcome to Frugal Fridays!
Welcome to my new series I'm calling Frugal Fridays! I wanted to start this series, because I think I we need to start talking about finances and stop making it such a taboo topic. In this series I'll be talking about money management techniques that have worked for us, including low-cost recipes, finding jobs, and budgeting. So, what would make me want to start sharing about my finances? Come with me for a short trip down this rabbit hole...
Ever since I was young, everyone told me about the importance of saving money and making sound financial choices. As I got older I realized very few people talk openly about how to do any of this, and what did and didn't work for them. I got even older, and I started taking finance classes in college where my eyes were opened to the complexities of making financial decisions. That's when I realized it would be practically impossible to just stumble into making consistently sound financial choices the rest of my life. You have to plan!
That's when I took it upon myself to learn as much as I could about finance, more specifically, managing mine and my husbands personal budget. There's so much information out there, but I ran into the same issue I did when I was younger. So many people are telling you what to do, but a lot fewer sharing ways to go about doing it. At that point I started playing with the idea of becoming a financial planner, but going back to school what just not in the cards for me at that time. So I read lots of books and blogs, and attended a few webinars about budgeting.
Now I'm not saying I have all the answers. Believe me... We've made our fair share of financial gambles that lead to some sucky situations. I'll be honest, I've had to call my dad from the side of the road because I didn't have $250 to pay for a tow truck to take our car to our house after an accident (PS thank you mom and dad!). BUT! You can bet your butt that I did my research on saving for an emergency fund, and we worked extra hard to find ways to put money in it. We cut our grocery budget, found ways to make some extra money on evening and weekends, and sold some stuff. It was difficult, but I haven't had to make one of those phone calls to my parents in a few years, which is totally worth it.
So, you might be thinking: Yeah, but how exactly did you do all of that without going crazy? Welp, you'll have to stay tuned, because these are the types of things I'm going to be sharing in this series.