Hopefully some of the information on living in a frugal manner found here will be helpful to those who want to live in a more economical way. Some options may appear too thrifty while others may not seem to go far enough. My goal is to share some possibilities to choose from. Watch for more articles in the future.

Living frugally doesn't mean you have to lower your standard of living or that your quality of life has to diminish. You don't have to resign yourself to wearing ill fitting castoffs or buying only second rate goods.

Behaving in a thrifty manner also doesn't mean a life of being selfish and miserly. In fact, the savings in time, money, and energy that can be realized may even allow you to be more generous with these commodities.

It's important to set priorities and distinguish between what you really need as opposed to what you want. There's no reason to feel deprived to save money for the future as well as to reach more immediate budget goals.

Being frugal doesn't just pertain to purchasing things. You can also save by using and/or wasting less, reusing, and making things last longer.

Finding secondary uses for items once their primary purpose has been utilized--another form of recycling--stretches your dollars and resources, too. And behaving in a way that's kind to the environment can provide "savings" that can't be measured in dollars and cents.

This type of lifestyle requires planning ahead, doing a bit of research, comparing prices, and being patient. You also need to consider your limitations of money, space, time, energy, and ability. It isn't really very cost effective to invest a lot of time or energy to save a few pennies.

As contradictory as it may sound, sometimes you need "to spend money to save money." You might make a higher initial expenditure but would save over the long run. An example would be buying a more expensive, better quality mattress but getting more years of use from it than a cheaper, poorer quality one.

Acting in a thrifty manner is a lot like eating sensibly. If you do it most of the time, you can "cheat" and indulge yourself now and then without harm. It can also become a habit, which takes repetition over time to occur.

It generally works best if you start out making small changes. Just ease into new ways of doing things and add more as these patterns become established. The rewards should soon become apparent.