Financial

Frugal Gift in a Jar Ideas

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One of the most thoughtful gifts a person can give is a gift that is useful and is made with the recipient in mind. Gifts in a Jar come in an endless variety. You start with a wide-mouthed quart jar and layer the ingredients for a recipe. The ingredients can be cakes, cookies, soups, pasta, or one of any number of things. I have included two recipes to get you started.

Dream Cookie

1/2 cup orange-flavored drink mix (Tang)
3/4 cup white sugar
1 1/2 cups vanilla baking chips
1 3/4 cups all-purpose flour
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon baking powder

Combine the flour with baking soda and baking powder. Starting with the Tang, then sugar, chips and flour mix, layer the ingredients in a glass jar.

Attach Instructions: Preheat oven to 375 degrees F Empty contents into a large mixing bowl. Add 1/2 cup softened butter, 1 egg and teaspoon vanilla extract. Mix well. Roll heaping tablespoonfuls into balls. Place 2 inches apart on a lightly greased baking sheet. Bake at 375 degrees F for 12 minutes or until lightly browned. Cool.

Colorful Soup Mix in a Jar

1 cube beef bouillon
1/4 cup dried minced onion
1/2 cup dried split peas
1/2 cup uncooked twist macaroni
1/4 cup barley
1/2 cup dry lentils
1/3 cup long-grain white rice
1 cup uncooked tri-color spiral pasta

Use a funnel. Layer ingredients in the following order: bouillon, onion flakes, split peas, small shape pasta, barley, lentils, rice, and enough tricolor spiral pasta to fill jar.

Attach Instructions: Brown 1 pound ground beef or stew beef in a little olive oil. Remove tricolor pasta from top of jar and reserve. Add the rest of the jar contents to the pan and add 12 cups water. Boil and simmer 45 minutes. Add tricolor pasta and simmer 15 minutes more.

Frugality Can Equal Happiness

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Frugality and happiness aren’t something society usually puts together. Frugality often brings up images of great sacrifice. We think of the miser who lived in poverty only for others to find millions saved after the miser passes away. What was the use?

Frugal living isn’t necessarily what you may possibly consider it to be. Frugal people live very happy lives. They find happiness in meeting goals, reducing their financial burdens and living stress free.
How happy can you be when you are drowning in debt and struggling to make ends meet? You aren’t living frugally, but you aren’t happy either.

The frugal person often sees each step towards being debt-free or early retirement as a great success. They don’t focus on that outfit they didn’t buy or that new car they aren’t driving. They focus on having spending money left over at the end of the month. They focus on the things that really matter.

Frugality is also a huge challenge. You get to be very creative with your money and the way you live. Many people love moving from one thing to another, looking at the way to cut costs for each category. For example, you’ve cut your utilities, now what about your groceries or gasoline consumption?

The goal is what keeps the frugal person going. The daily victories and challenges keep them interested. The penny saved keeps them adding it all up. And the debt free life keeps them stress free.

Imagine a life where you have no debts to pay. All you have are your living expenses. Think about having two thousand extra dollars a month. Dollars that aren’t already spent before you make them. Think about retiring early to do something you enjoy instead of something you have to do. Think about following your dreams. Think about having money left over each month.

Frugality will get you there. Now wouldn’t that make you happy?

The Road to a Frugal Life

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Step One: Know your destination.

You can’t stay on the path towards your goals if you don’t even know what your goals are. Have you ever gone into a grocery store without a list? You wander up and down the aisles, not really knowing if you are getting what you need. This is a lot like your frugal living. You have to know where you are going and what you need in order to follow the correct path.

Step Two: Don’t take every path

You will quickly find that if you follow every single frugal path that you encounter, you will go crazy! It just isn’t possible. Not everything works for every person. It simply depends on where you are at in your life — and how much you want to take on.

Step Three: Keep searching for new paths

You know your destination, but you don’t always know how to get there. Frugal living is an ongoing challenge. There is no end to it. You keep learning and you keep pushing yourself to save a little bit more.

Step Four: Budgeting is your gasoline

You have to know where you are spending your money in order to spend less. It often helps to track every penny that you spend. Right down to the penny. Don’t cheat. Those small expenditures can really add up. Your budget will keep you working towards your goal and spending less each month. This is where you can really sit down and see what is necessary and what isn’t. When everything is on paper, it is easy to see the changes that could be made.

Step Five: Save your savings

If you save money on groceries, what happens to it? Do you spend it somewhere else? You should save your savings. Immediately write out a check to your savings account for the money you have saved. This ensures that the sacrifices you made in cutting back really pay off. If you don’t save it, it really isn’t saved money.
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