Financial

Frugal Winter Fun

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You don’t need a wallet full of cash to enjoy the cold, snowy days. There are all kinds of frugal ways to enjoy the winter season together both indoors and outdoors. Here are a few frugal boredom busters to keep your kids happy this winter, and to keep your pocketbook even happier.

*Homemade Snowman Kit

It’s just not winter fun without building a snowman. Assemble a snowman kit to have handy. Your kit can contain the following: A hat, scarf, mittens, plastic carrot nose, charcoal briquettes, (place in plastic baggie) buttons, and can add two dowels or branches for arms.

*Obstacle Courses or Winter Olympics

Jump over the mounds of snow or have relay races.

*Snow Paint

Mix food coloring and water and add to spray water bottles and spray the snow to make colorful works of art outside.

*Homemade Bird Feeder and Bird Identification

Need large pinecones, peanut butter, and birdseed. Add peanut butter to pinecones and roll in birdseed. Keep a journal of birds in your yard. Can borrow a field guide from your local library.

*Snow Ice Cream

Mixing together a quart of milk, an egg, 1 cup sugar, 1/4 teaspoon salt, and 1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract in a pan. Cook on stove top until mixtures thicken and cool to room temperature. Pour this mixture over fresh snow.

*Snow Golf

Use a tin can buried in the snow for the holes or just carve out holes in the snow.

*Winter Photography

Take pictures of nature. Icicles, birds, trees, etc.

*Identify Tracks in the Snow

Check out a book from your local library on animal tracks.
Once you get started, you and your kids will find lots of ways to have fun without spending money this winter – maybe you’ll even build your own igloo!

Frugal Living – What It Is and What It Is Not

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There is a lot of advice out there on how to live a frugal life. You can go from anything as simple as turning off the lights when you leave a room to grinding your own flour. There are forums out there where people discuss the way they use the rainwater they collect to do everything from watering plants to flushing their lavatories. These have their place.

Being frugal is not about washing out Ziploc Baggies and reusing them. It is not about grinding your own wheat or collecting rainwater. It is not even about that new dress you did not buy. It is about thinking before you spend. It is about conserving what you have. It is about saving money and managing your finances.

The point is that every household has to look at their own situation and then decide where they can – or need to – become more frugal. Frugal living does not mean doing without. It does not mean that you do not have what you need. In fact, it means the opposite.

Frugal shoppers are careful. They take care of their money and make the most of it. Many frugal shoppers actually have everything they want and the satisfaction that it does not hurt them financially. They spend time to make wise decisions. They learn how to make their dollars really work for them, instead of against them. They have more for less money.

Frugal living is about reducing what you spend, living within your means, using what you have and taking care of your belongings, including your money. It is about making goals and working to reach them. Which would you rather be: the person who decides when and where to spend his money or the person whose money is spent before he makes it?

Being Frugal Begins with Attitude

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When it comes to saving money, it doesn’t have to be all work. It can also be a little fun. I know that living frugally brings to mind all sorts of unpleasant things to many people. But those that live frugally often have a zealous approach to frugal ideas. They are actually excited by the idea of saving a little money. And it doesn’t matter how little it really is.

Frugal living becomes a game you play against yourself. You are looking for ways to save. I started out simply looking to see if I could really lower our electric bill. And I did with very little effort. Then I looked to our heating costs. Hey, I did it again. Then I looked to our driving expenses.

Frugal living isn’t something that is painless on a family when you take the attitude that you must do it. It is like cleaning house. It is something that has to be done. You can either make it a good experience or a bad one. With the wrong attitude you will probably fail.

Consider frugal living as a challenge. And the best thing is that you are improving more than just your financial situation. Many financial counselors and advisors say that when people gain control of their money, they gain control of their lives. That is because self-control bleeds over into other things. You simply begin to look at things differently.

Whether you are looking to a frugal life out of need or out of a shrewd money management plan, begin by simply tackling one area of your expenses. Then move on to another. Over time, you will find that your attitude changes and you look at things differently. And you start seeing that you can save money (to spend on things that really matter) without much exertion at all.

And that’s the best thing about the frugal challenge — you save money.

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