If you have been practicing frugal living but you still haven’t seen a difference in your savings or aren’t getting ahead, it could be that some of these efforts are being offset by other expenses that are either a direct or indirect result of your frugal living efforts.
Have you ever heard the expression, “Robbing Peter to pay Paul?” This is an expression I have heard many times growing up. Basically it means that you are taking money (or efforts) from one place and applying them to another, without ever really getting on top of things.
The expression can apply to frugal living practices that actually wind up costing you money instead of saving it. Here are a few examples of frugal efforts that may actually be going down the drain (hey, two expressions for the price of one–now that is frugal).
Buying food in bulk
Buying food in bulk can be a great money saver. Just be aware of some of the pitfalls. You may buy more than you can use, spending more than you normally would on what you really need.
Paying for purchases with credit cards
It is great if you decided to invest in a coffee maker to save on the daily $3 cups of coffee. But, if you put that purchase on your credit card and didn’t pay it off right away, you could be spending much more on interest than you would have saved by making your own coffee.
Using Coupons
Coupons can be a worthy thing when it comes to saving money, but there are a couple of pitfalls that make your grocery bill actually increase if you are not careful. Many coupons are for high priced convenience foods that could be made cheaper from scratch. Or, you may wind up buying food you don’t eat because of the coupon.
There are more ways that your frugal efforts can go down the drain. If you want to hear more, please leave me a comment!
Mary Ann Romans writes about everything related to saving money in the Frugal Blog, creating a home in the Home Blog, caring for little ones in the Baby Blog and now relationships in the Marriage Blog. You can read more of her articles by clicking here or subscribe to the blog using the subscription box on the right.
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