Money Mondays...

You won't get great investment tips from me or how to get rich quick. This is just a simple matter of living beneath your means, and making your dollars stretch and work for you, rather than against you.

We're really lucky, when you think about it. We don't have much in the way of debt. We aren't buying our home, so we don't have that debt, though we do pay rent. I consider that much like utilities. A necessary evil. We have 2 cars. One is paid for, and the other is almost paid off. So there is THAT debt. We don't have credit cards or any misc. loans. Between the two of us, we have one student loan, which we're hoping to get paid off next year. And that doesn't have to be paid on until I graduate from school, which though, I'll have my associates soon, I'm heading straight into my bachelors program. I'm going to try to not take out another loan on top of that one, but we'll see how that pans out.

For most of my adult life, I've been a single woman with no children. This changed a couple of years ago, when Mr. V and I found out we were expecting. This was a rather large surprise because neither of us were supposed to be able to have children. So, us living in an already crowded duplex, with no means to get anything larger, plus our limited means, really put us in a pinch. So we "tightened" our belts, so to speak, and we started embarking on our trek to financial freedom. Granted, we don't go to the movies as often as we'd like. We don't get video games or trips to see concerts like we used to. However, we are pretty happy in our little space. And we've even knocked things down to only one income. That's right. Only one income. Things are pretty tight. But we figured it out, with daycare, we'd spend more money than I make in a month just for Lil Mr. V's things. And in school my toughest semesters are coming with student teaching and all. So we made the decision for me to quit, and spend the time at home with our little guy and we'd pinch pennies.

Living beneath our means. Seems so simple. Dave Ramsey talks on and on about minding the company you keep, because you're income is going to be much like theirs down the road, etc. And in another blog I read today, she mentions it's more than their salary...look at their attitude towards money. You know those people that seem to accumulate money and yet they can buy things all the time. Makes you wonder how they can do all that, when it seems like all your money goes right out the window. Yeah. Apparently, if you hang around those frugal minded people, you too, will begin to pick up on their habits and you'll start to accumulate money as well.

For me, this is a new adventure. I'm positive I'll make some mistakes along the way. And I'm also positive I'll be making more progress than not. :)

So what are some of your methods of living beneath your means? Do you coupon clip? Go to thrift stores? How about choosing to live in a house that won't break the budget?