Frugal Living is Team Work

A couple of days ago my daughter’s school sent home their monthly newsletter. It always has some interesting facts and ideas in it and in this particular edition, it had a little article about team work. It included the T.E.A.M acronym. I have seen this before, but thought I’d share it with you today and talk a little bit about how frugal living is team work as well.

Let’s start with what T.E.A.M stands for…

T – Together

E – Everyone

A – Accomplishes

M – More

There are several teams you’ll be working with throughout your frugal live. Your first stop should always be your own family, but your core family (parents and their children) as well as your extended family. How so?

The Frugal Family

Your first “frugal team” as I mentioned will be your family. You don’t live alone and your spending decisions will directly affect your immediate family. Your spouse and kids will be a lot more cooperative as you are starting to make changes to become more frugal if they are involved as well.

Start by telling them what you are planning to do and also explaining why being more frugal is important right now. Then as you start to become accustomed to a frugal lifestyle, keep pointing out what you can do because you are frugal most of the year. This could mean a bigger house, a vacation once a year and even the peace of mind that having no consumer debt and an emergency fund gives you.

Don’t forget to involve your family actively as well. Ask for their input on things you could do without or have them find coupons, deals or just save up for anything extra they want. My family has always enjoyed the challenge of finding the best deal for just about anything.

Not only will your children be less likely to complain about your frugal lifestyle, you are also teaching them valuable life skills about financial responsibility and managing money and other resources wisely.

You may also be interested in this article I wrote a while back – Frugal Living Is A Family Affair.

Let’s move on to our next frugal team. This will be a network of friends who share your views and values.

A Local Network Of Frugal Friends

Having some friends and acquaintances who are frugal as well is beneficial on so many different levels. You can share ideas, tips and places where great deals can be found. I also trade toys and clothes with other frugal friends who have children who are older or younger than mine. You can trade books, go in on larger purchases (my dad has been sharing a lawn mower with a friend who is also a neighbor for years), or just share coupons etc. that the other families do not need.

Another big advantage of having a network of frugal friends is the support they can provide. Living frugally isn’t always easy and there are times where you just don’t feel like saving or finding the best deal. It’s good to have some friends you can talk to that share your values.

With that said, let’s move to the next team – the online frugal community.

A Frugal Online Community

Last but not least, don’t forget about frugal online communities. They are a wealth of information and participants there (both men and women) are always ready to help and be there for encouragement and support.

You will find both free and paid frugal communities online and both of them certainly have their own pros and cons. The biggest pro with a free community is that you have access to a whole bunch of like-minded folks. At the same time, the information you can in free forums isn’t always the most accurate and you will often be presented with many contradicting ideas. You also need to be aware that since signup is free, many people there aren’t very dedicated to living frugally. My best advice is to take all advice you receive in free online forums and communities with a grain of salt.

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