You Talk the Frugal Talk, But Do You Walk the Frugal Walk?

One of the questions I get from readers of Savvy Frugality from time to time is "sure, those tips LOOK good on paper, but you don't really do all of that frugal stuff, do you?" Well, sure I do. I wouldn't put a tip on Savvy Frugality that my family and I don't follow ourselves at home.

One of the things I don't consider Savvy Frugality to be is a financial advice blog. I don't know the first thing about giving somebody financial advice. I am certainly no expert. I spent several years making all the wrong money moves. If anything, Savvy Frugality is about giving readers advice about what NOT to do, because I did some really stupid things with my money over the years.

It all came to a head about six years ago. My family and I literally didn't have a place to call home, we had no savings, and we had a pile of bills that needed to be paid. I knew that we had to do something, and we had to do it fast, or we were headed for disaster.

You think I would have learned my lesson several years ago, when I was about 25 years old. My son needed multiple surgeries on his ears, and we had no health insurance. As a result, we were forced to file for bankruptcy. While that was bad news, the bright side to that story SHOULD have been that we had a clean slate from which to start. We could start over and start doing all the right things. But, we lapsed back into our same old bad financial habits.

So, yes...I do actually follow the tips I pass along on Savvy Frugality. I couldn't go back to handling my money the way I once did. That was disaster. Remember, frugality isn't about denying yourself of a good life. It's about making your life better, getting your financial house in order, and sleeping well at night. It's about living within your means, whether you earn $10,000 a year or $10 million dollars a year. Nobody can spend more money than they earn and live a prosperous and peaceful life.

There are many personal financial blogs out there, and I read many of them. There are a lot of good ones, and I mention them here often. There are also some that are written from the viewpoint of somebody who I suspect might be talking the frugal talk...but are they walking the frugal walk? Do they have a "rock bottom" story? You know, that moment of clarity when they realized there had to be a better way to live?

You've got to walk the walk.