Simply PROSPER: Cents & Bucks & Rock & Roll

"S": Can You Strategize Your Way Out of a Paper Bag?

The "S" in our PROSPER plan is for Strategizing. Boy, that word looks misspelled, when put in bold type. Onward, nevertheless!

The strategies we use to get us into a more frugal groove fall into two primary categories: situational strategies (a frugal way of dealing with a specific event, task, or object), and overarching strategies (a frugal theory, motto, or approach which can be applied to many areas of day-to-day living). The former are often encapsulated in little "helpful hints" in women's magazines--50 Tips to Save You $50!--or on websites or in books dealing with frugal living. The latter can often be boiled down into a catchy slogan or acronym (ahem, "PROSPER," anyone?) and look nice cross-stitched on throw pillows--"How Low Can You Go?" is a favourite in the Pincher household, and will be explained later in this article. It's fine to adopt a frugal "trick" here and there, and discovering new ones or sharing your favourites with your coffee clatch is about the most fun you can have without breaking international law (or at least, it is for Ms. Penny!), but you will need overarching strategies to help you get through those crisis  moments when you find yourself thinking, "But I don't know HOW to reuse a toilet-paper tube!"

Your primary overarching strategy is, of course, to spend less money. It's that simple. Keep your money in your pocket! The first step on the road to spending less is being mindful of where your money is going. Many budgeting systems suggest you carry a small notebook with you and write down every cent you spend, and what you spent it on, for at least a month. However, I have always wondered: if your hands are full of notebooks, pencils, and receipts, how do you hold onto important things like toddlers' hands, steering wheels, or martinis (note: Ms. Penny Pincher does not recommend trying to hold onto those three items at the same time, or even on the same day, if you can help it). Maybe the trick is that your hands are so busy with your little notebook, you can't reach into your wallet to get your money. Either way, the PROSPER plan doesn't subscribe to this approach. If you like the idea, by all means, have at it, but Ms. Penny prefers "stop-and-think" methods. Ask yourself: Do I need it? Do I have something like it? Can I get it less expensively elsewhere? Will it retain its value? Can I wait? Or, if you are about to make an impulse purchase, promise yourself that you will come back and get it tomorrow (a cooling-off period often results in recognizing an impulse as just that--impulsive--and you won't be heading back to the mall). Think about how many hours you worked at the job you don't love to earn the money you're about to spend; is the item worth that amount of time?

When it comes to any consumable--food, shampoo, telephone minutes, fabric softener--apply the "How Low Can You Go?" strategy. Reduce the amount you use, until it becomes uncomfortable, then bump it up a notch. If you usually use a half-dollar sized dollop of shampoo, try a quarter-sized one. If a nickel-sized bloop is not enough to make strangers sniff you in elevators and exclaim, "Gee, your hair smells terrific!" go back to using a blob the size of a quarter. Did you know that pretty much any load of laundry only requires one ounce of laundry detergent to get it clean (even dirty diapers!)? Did you know that most of those handy, pre-measured caps on laundry detergent bottles hold at least 4 ounces? Measure out one ounce of detergent and mark the level on the cap. You've just cut your consumption of laundry detergent by more than half! That 100 ounce bottle will now last you three months. (Your exact dollar amounts will vary, but this saves the Ms. Penny about $20/year.)

These are just a few examples of overarching strategies--others will be discussed in more depth in future.  And as for the "Heavenly Household Hints To Make You Hop Happily," Ms. Penny aims to post at least 7 of those per week, once we've laid out the remaining "-PER," and hopes readers will share.

One last note: the "S" can also stand for "Simplicity." There is a movement called "voluntary simplicity," which is primarily used as a way for overscheduled, frazzled, disconnected families to cut out the trappings of modern life in favour of more time together and a less hectic pace of life (something workaholic or otherwise overcommited singles can benefit from, as well). Much of the Voluntary Simplicity movement's values jibe with values held by frugal people, and it often has frugality as a side effect (if you limit your children to one activity at a time, rather than soccer and scouting and violin lessons, a byproduct of doing so is that you save money), but its primary focus is on quality of life rather than on saving money, so. . .the same, but different. If you are interested in reading more about Voluntary Simplicity, Ms. Penny recommends peeking at sites like PathToFreedom.org (in our links section) or doing a google search for "simplicity" or "simple living," and if it appeals to you, by all means, use it as one of your overarching frugal strategies. But don't become so voluntarily simple that you voluntarily toss out your computer or you will miss the very exciting next article, which will focus on "P": Promotion.

The Big "O": Organizing

My "Simply PROSPER" class participants greet this topic with a mixture of dread-filled moans and giddy "oh, goody!" anticipation. Even the most fastidious among us seems to have at least one area of their lives lacking in organization--the chaotic jumble of pen caps, twist ties, paper clips, and odd-sized screws in a junk drawer can be the outwardly organized person's secret shame. Most people claim they would love to be more organized, but feel the work to be done in getting there is more than they can handle. Most people don't know where to begin, or which system to use, or how to decide what's important and what can be left by the wayside--producing that reaction of dread I mentioned earlier. But nearly all of those who feel lost in the face organizing their lives are looking for that certain something, that magic key that will open the door, releasing them from their prison of paper piles, missed appointments, and lost car keys, which produces that other, more hopeful reaction.

Organizing--your time, your money, and your "stuff"--will only help you in your frugal endeavours. When your pantry is organized, for instance, you always know what you have on hand, and what you're running low on. By setting up a system for tracking the "inventory" of consumables in your home--whether shampoo, canned soup, or the almighty coffee--you will save yourself having to run out at the last minute to replace an item you've run out of--at full price.

When you set up and follow a simple budget, you will always have at least a general, if not to-the-penny, idea of how much money is coming in, how much is going out, and how much you have in reserves. And really, Ms. Penny begs you--don't get overinvolved in spreadsheets and itemizing; if you are always spending as little as possible (our primary "trick" to having more money is to never let it get away in the first place!), your main concerns will be getting your fixed expenses taken care of in a timely way, and deciding where to put all that lovely new savings.

If you have a schedule for yourself--and your family if you have one--and stick with it, you will find out where you are wasting effort, how much free time you really have, and can schedule things that are truly important to you (which you should have been thinking about way back when we started discussing "Prioritizing"), like volunteering in your community, traveling, or pursuing a hobby about which you are passionate. Many families express a wish to spend more time together, yet are overextended, overscheduled, and ultimately over-cranky! Routines are calming and helpful to children, but can also be so to adults! Setting up a family schedule helped me discover a lot of "free time" in our week that, if scheduled correctly, affords us more family time (a high priority for us), and more time for each of us adults to spend time on his/her own (a super-high priority for us!).

I will not get into specifics of how you get organized right now, as that will be the subject of future articles. For now, I suggest choosing a system and sticking with it. If, after a good long try-out (not a day or a week! at least a full month, if not a full season!), that system is really not working for you, tweak it or try something else. But it's important to give a new system time to really have an effect, as well as to become a habit. I find that particularly with those of us who feel intimdated by the task of organizing, we are looking for a magic bullet, and therefore we read books, visit websites, watch TV shows, and on and on. . .looking for that wondrous piece of insight that will ::poof!:: fix our disorganization problem. I'm telling you: there isn't one. There are systems that come close, though, and that will get you at least more organized, if not perfectly so.

Consider the last time you ran out at 4:00pm on a weeknight with two hungry, tired children in tow, to buy something for dinner because you were late getting out of little Beaulah's ballet class, and you only have 40 minutes before little Bubba has to be at soccer practice. . .and so shelled out for drive-through junk food. What if you'd had a well-organized calendar? What if you'd identified "dinner as a family" as a priority and so enrolled the kids in activities that wouldn't encroach on the dinner hour? What if you had set up your pantry so that even in a time-crunch, there was always an easy, home-cooked meal on hand?

Organizing your life is so integral and so basic to the PROSPER approach, I'd have put it as the first letter if I could. But then all I could spell would be "OPPRRES" which is not exactly conveying the message I want to send. So perhaps when you see the word "PROSPER," you should think of it thus: "oPoRoOoSoPoEoRo". Not exactly catchy, I know, but you're picking up what I'm laying down, I feel sure.

"R": It's Not Just for "Retail" Anymore

The first "R" in PROSPER stands for Reframing our attitudes toward spending and consumption, as well as our methods of attaining goods and services. Shifting our perspective on the ways we get our material needs met (and wants satisfied) will put a frugal spin on just about everything we do. Think of your life--the folks in your immediate family (children, partner, pets); the things you possess (from home and car down to the bottle of B-complex in your medicine cabinet); the places you shop; the foods you eat; the places you go and the things you do for fun; everything!--as a big picture. Let's call it, oh, I don't know. . ."The Big Picture." Chances are the frame around your current Big Picture has a tag grommeted onto the bottom of it that reads, "Amelia's Life," or "La Vida Loca de Barry" or similar. Or perhaps you have no frame around The Big Picture at all, no real way to unify everything and contain it.

What you're going to do with your new PROSPERous approach is put a different (trashpicked or thrifted) frame on The Big Picture, and tag it, "Frugal, Fabulous Fernando!" or "Teri's Tightwad Travails." You don't even have to use alliteration, though I think it makes things sound sassier. You could rhyme it instead--whatever blows your skirt up. The important thing is that you've now put a new frame around your Big Picture, so that everything within it relates to the frame of your new, frugal approach.

Looking at the contents of The Big Picture, let's see how the new frame of frugal living changes the way we deal with the different parts of The Life Less Overspend-y.

• The Folks At Home: The Reframed approach to caring for ourselves and our families suggests finding cheaper ways to clothe ourselves (yard sales, hand-me-downs, thrift stores, discount racks). Or maybe we limit our kiddos to one activity per school term (scouting or soccer, but not both). Maybe we learn to cut each other's hair.
• The Stuff of Life: Look around your humble abode and think about how much stuff is "enough"--can you live happily for one more year with your current car, that still runs well but has lost its new car smell rather than buying a new, more expensive one? Could you borrow CDs and DVDs from the library rather than buying them? Can we empty our shopping cart of impulse purchases before checking out?
• Oh, The Places You'll Go: Perhaps you've always thought of the mall as the go-to location for anything you need to buy: shoes, a lamp, shampoo, a prom dress. With a more cash-conscious frame around The Big Picture, maybe instead of the destinations being: mall, mall, mall, mall, they might be: clearance rack at the discount store (even if it means waiting a few weeks for a sale), yard sale, wholesale club, friend's closet.
• Fast, Frugal Food: Burgers and French fries for a family of four at the fast food place: $17. Burgers and French fries made at home for that same family: under $3. 'Nuff said.
• Movies Used to be a Cheap Date: Reframing the things you do for fun can save some big bucks. Bringing only enough cash to a live gig to pay your cover charge, buy two drinks, and cab fare home will keep you honest (even after the two drinks). Renting DVD movies means waiting a few months, but saves a lot of dough (better yet, borrowing them from the library or a friend is free). And when you take your kids to a theme park once a year, of course you'll pack a picnic lunch and let them decide if they want to spend their precious allowance on a balloon.

When you start to look at The Big Picture in that spankin' new, PROSPERous frame, it will help you focus on the values and goals that made you choose a frugal lifestyle in the first place, and you'll discover more and more places and occasions when it's just as easy to keep your money in your pocket as it is to lay it down for some impulsive purchase that amuses you for a moment but does nothing to help you acheive your goals.

"P" Is For: Get Your Priorities Straight

"So what's up, Ms. Penny," you wonder, "With this whole 'PROSPER' thing?"

Well, I'm glad you asked! Now I'll start to break it all down.

The word “PROSPER” is an acronym, with each letter standing for one of the keys to living frugally. Think of it as a cheat sheet, helping you remember a new set of guidelines to help you begin to cut back on spending, achieve financial goals, and do what's important to you. Maybe you'd like to retire at 40 with a zillion bucks hidden in your boot. You can! Well, maybe not a whole zillion, but half a zillion will be easy--if you get into a new headspace, where PROSPERing seeps into everything you do. Sound cultish and scary? It is.

No, it's not! Of course it isn't. That was just a joke! Anyhow:

The first "P" stands for Prioritizing. The numero uno thing you have to do is make saving more of your money one of your top priorities--as in:

• Eat
• Sleep
• Keep your money in your pocket.

Figure out what you want; set some goals. Think about what's really important to you--and not just in a financial sense. Sure, we all want a nice place to live, plenty of bacon fryin' up in the pan, and to have a little left over after paying the bills. But if you think about what else you value--to put a foot on every continent; to be kind to the overburdened earth; to raise kids who aren't spoiled pains in the behind; whatever!--you will start to see that maybe it's not so worth it, after all, to splash out for the big screen TV if it means you have to spend weekends working a second job (and not doing those things that you value) just to pay off the credit card bill. We'll talk more about goal-setting, values, and all that fun stuff in a later article, but for now, think a little about specific goals that having more dough would help you reach, and suddenly, tossing $4 a day on a counter for a fancy coffee-inclusive beverage might start to seem a little like tossing it out the window of a speeding car--it's definitely not helping you acheive your goals. You probably drink too much coffee, anyway.

An aside to those of you who now might be thinking, "I'm not married, not yet 30, and/or I have no kids--is any of this PROSPER thing going to apply to me?" The answer is: yes! You can decide to live frugally (or do it out of necessity) at any age or stage of life. If I'd been less of a money-moron in my 20s, I'd be a zillionaire already, instead of trying to make up for poor choices I made in the past. If you are still in your 20s, not yet (or not planning to be) a homeowner, or working one of your first jobs out of high school or college, it's not too early for you to get into the frugal groove. Similarly, if you're a single person of a more advanced age, you can adapt much of the information to your situation, even though it may seem to be aimed only at couples with children. A lot of the overarching PROSPER philosophies of life-on-the-cheap will still apply to you, even if you can fit your stuff into a Mini--rather than a minivan. That said, the Pinchers are a couple in our mid-30s with two kiddos, so that's where I'm coming from, a lot of the time. Just skip the kid-stuff and hang onto what works for you.

Next up: "R: it's not just for Rock & Roll!"