Frugal Living and Making More Money

Frugal living is about determining what you want out of life and finding a way to make it happen.

Frugality, is beneficial as it also focuses on reducing wastage and over-consumerism. However, frugal living will not make you rich. It will make you more comfortable living with the money you earn and ease your stress levels brought on by over consumerism.

If you are limiting your spending to reach your financial goals, then your income is limiting your progress.

If you want to pay off your debts, fund your children's education, fund your retirement and travel, then you'll have to do more than clip coupons or drop a brand.

We need to be conscious of our spending on things we love, but cut costs drastically on things that are unnecessary.

Better money management, bargain shopping and creativity is essential, but is this frugal living plan significantly reducing your financial strain?

Most things in life come down to one thing - balance, and a combination of living below your means and generating extra income will let you reach your goals faster.

People do save money living frugally, that is not difficult, but what interests me is how to make money work and how to earn more money, creating a strong foundation for your family and still be able to take care of yourselves when retired.

"If you find yourself in a hole - stop digging" and start climbing. There are many ways to invest in yourself and move your life forward.

• Have your own business
• Invest in someone else's business
• Take a second job, or
• Start a side business - Look at yourself and see what you can offer others.
• Make sound investment decisions and take a long term view
• Invest in growing yourself by furthering education

• Focus on becoming stronger in your field.
• Learn new tricks, get coaching, take a course, fresh knowledge will offer more opportunities.
• Your attention to constant education and growth will keep you moving forward.

We already pay service providers for their services some of which you could do yourself, say change you car oil, cook your own meal, cutting hair may be awkward.

Turn this around and offer your services:

• as a music teacher if you play an instrument.
• Is organising a strength - hire out your services as a personal organiser.
• Good at personal shopping, or perhaps you could run a grocery shopping business for a small fee of say $25 per hour.
• A freelance writer could add to their residual income and take a photography course, sign up with Dreamstime or Stockphoto, and sell your photographs.
• Are you good at a specific exercise or sport. If you love your Yoga class, why not learn how to teach it and become an instructor.
• If you have an in-depth knowledge of a subject such as Excel, Creative Writing, Math, Chemistry, English or another language, offer your services as a tutor.
• Take a class in resume writing - presentation of a good resume is a skill. Offering to check and correct prospective job seekers resumes so that employers will look at it, instead of tossing it could be an interesting second earner.

The dreaded credit card, I read an article in one of the business magazines that says most Americans say their average credit card debt is around $5000, however the credit card companies say differently. It is this avoidance in knowing exactly where we are with debt that causes our problems.

The credit card companies say the average credit card debt is $7500.

Taking the extra money earned, say $500 per month, lets look at $10 000 debt, which is relatively close to the average carried by people in the 30 - 40 year age group.

Frugality is important to a point,

but after a cut back to a reasonable level,

your biggest win will come from

earning more money.