海角大神

This past weekend, I attended GenCon 2010, a gaming convention in Indianapolis, IN, with a group of several friends. I had been saving up to attend this convention for a while, and that savings consisted largely of money saved in the way : making lots of small choices that saved money and didn鈥檛 negatively impact my way of living.

During the convention, I had many opportunities to chat with people and I found that at least a few of them had done the exact same thing. They didn鈥檛 have the income or resources to travel to such things regularly, but they chose to cut back in other areas. Some of them didn鈥檛 own televisions at home, for example. Some of them ran small side businesses for income. Others simply did frugal things, like eating meals at home and putting the savings away for their trip.

In each case, the rule of thumb is the same: they took money away from something of less importance to them to use the money on something of more importance to them.

Translate this to your own life for a moment. What things in your life would you love to be doing but you can鈥檛 because you can鈥檛 afford it? What do you sit around daydreaming about but never actually do because you don鈥檛 have the money?

Maybe you are deeply passionate about travel, but you can only travel once every few years.

Maybe you dream about having the perfect home entertainment setup, but you balk at the price of the television and other equipment.

Maybe your idle thoughts focus on something like attending a convention related to your hobby, but the trip and the expenses are just too much.

You spend years dreaming about these things, but they just keep being out of reach.

That鈥檚 where plays a role. The trick is to cut back 鈥� hard 鈥� in the areas that don鈥檛 matter as much to you and save that money where you鈥檝e cut back. This enables you to live your life without misery. (Of course, there鈥檚 nothing saying you can鈥檛 also choose to make sacrifices in specific areas important to you, too.) At the end of the year, though, you find yourself with the money for that trip or that television or that convention 鈥� and you can just do it.

I鈥檒l give a very specific example.

I鈥檝e seen an absolutely gorgeous 60鈥� LED HDTV for sale at Sam鈥檚 Club for about $2,400. It鈥檚 beautiful 鈥� I won鈥檛 deny that. If someone deeply wanted an absolutely amazing home entertainment setup, they might very well make this television the centerpiece of that room. I could see someone who played a lot of video games and/or watched a lot of television purchasing this flat screen and installing it happily in their living room.

But they can鈥檛 afford it! What鈥檚 a solution to get there?

The person spends $300 a month on their energy bill. Installing a programmable thermostat will cost about $40 up front, but the reduction in energy costs will be about $50 a month or so if properly programmed. This adds up to a total savings of $560 over the course of a year.

The person does three loads of laundry a week. Making their own detergent saves $0.20 a load. Over the course of a year, that adds up to $31.20.

The person drinks a couple bottles of soda a day. Switching to refillable bottles of water stored in the fridge eliminates about $1 a day in spending, giving you $52 more (and it鈥檒l do wonders for your health).

The person commutes 20 miles to work every day for an 40 mile round trip. Setting up a car pool with just one other person four days a week eliminates 80 miles of driving a week. Using the , that simple switch will save you $1,040 a year.

The person eats out three times a week. Eating something inexpensive at home once a week instead of eating out saves the person $10 a week, adding up to another $520 over the year.

The person subscribes to a couple premium movie channels that he barely watches. Eliminating these subscriptions and joining Netflix instead reduces the monthly cost from $25 to $9, a savings of $192 a year.

Those moves saves the person $2,395.20 over the course of a year. If he鈥檚 socking that money away faithfully in an account bearing 2% interest, he鈥檒l wind up with $2,420 at the end of the year. Time to go buy that television.

Here鈥檚 the thing, though: none of those changes required much time investment and they didn鈥檛 affect that person鈥檚 quality of day-to-day life much at all. He didn鈥檛 give up anything life-affirming, but at the end of the year, he had enough cash in hand to make that daydream come true.

You can just substitute in your own 鈥渄ream鈥� and your own frugal methods of getting there right into this plan. Browse and and be selective with them, trying out only the things that work for you. Keep track of what you actually save and sock away those savings.

Eventually, you鈥檒l find that you鈥檝e built up some money for whatever it is you鈥檙e dreaming of. Even better, you鈥檒l find that this kind of savings is very sustainable and it鈥檒l help you keep building for whatever dream comes next after that.

You can use it to pay off debts. You can use it to build an emergency fund. You can use it to fly to Maui. You can use it to redo your kitchen. Whatever it is you dream of, sensible frugality can do it.

You just need a goal 鈥� and you need to start taking the little steps to get there.

Are you ready to start today?

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