Some Shoutouts:
First, I want to thank Krystal of Moneyville fame and Give me back my five bucks for featuring me in a post as one of her 8 favourite PF bloggers! How awesome (and cute) is she!?
Second, I literally whipped up the post yesterday morning at 8 a.m.-ish after being given a deadline, and within 2 minutes, fellow Torontonian Money Rabbit had it posted on her blog and tweeted: The Minimalist Life.
Seriously. I wrote it THAT morning with a fast proof read.
THANK YOU! 🙂 What a wonderful & kind surprise.
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Financial fatigue is a big thing that a lot of you are facing right now!
I noticed a trend in readers’ comments:
- Some are just naturally frugal and don’t feel the “pain” of saving others do (lucky!)
- Some were shopaholics and learned to like being frugal (<— me!)
- Some try to be frugal but are struggling with it and hate it (<— partly me!)
So for those of us who are not naturally frugal, here are some tips.
Let’s start with this kitten.
Imagine this cute furball as your debt or your financial goals.
She doesn’t care that you had a bad day and you hate clipping coupons and you wish you could get rid of your roommate and have the whole apartment (and bill!) to yourself.
So if your debt doesn’t care, then how do you deal with getting frustrated and tired with saving and NOT spending?
How to combat frugal fatigue
Change your mindset
You must be thinking: That is the dumbest advice I’ve ever heard. How in the world am I supposed to change my mindset?
Well I think it’s a matter of removing money into the equation and linking it to other benefits.
For instance, you are paying out a wad of cash each month to your debt and feeling really fatigued, distraught and quite angry at the whole situation.
This is where you need to focus on the benefits (if you can).
Think about what getting out of debt will do for you:
- Won’t have to steal that kitten’s food to survive when you’re retired
- Able to sleep better at night
- Won’t have creditors/debtors knocking on your door
- Won’t have sweaty palms hoping your debit or credit card clears
- Able to save that money rather than “spend” it on debt
- Will loosen those purse strings and have a little vacation later
- Never have to make the same mistake again (I hope!)
- Will have a better grip/control on your money and confidence
You have to think of the benefits of what you are doing. Not the actual ACT of “losing” all that money to debt each month.
Set priorities
If you don’t have a goal or reason why you are getting out of debt, you are likely to become even more fatigued.
I am not talking about saying: Hey I want to be out of debt.
I am talking about setting priorities like saying: Hey I want to be out of debt so that I can start saving for a home and start a family.
When you start tying why you are saving all of this money to something positive and happy, you will be more inclined to stay on track.
This can be a really hard thing to do, but every time you pay money towards your debt, repeat to yourself a goal: This is for that nice 2-bedroom home I will soon own in the future. I will be debt-free, and have a down payment when I go into that bank and apply for that mortgage.
Treat and reward yourself
No one can be perfect and NEVER want a treat.
Celebrate milestones, like buying a reasonably priced handbag when you’ve saved M amount of money, or paid down D amount of debt.
Give yourself some money to spend each month and choose wisely.
This is all part of a budget, budgeting in the fun stuff is important, or else you are going to snap like a rubberband and end up going on some huge shopping binge that will negate everything you’ve worked so hard for.
Don’t beat yourself up over falling off the wagon
Just don’t make it a habit. If it happens, don’t say: ARG! I’m a total failure! I give up!
Pick yourself up, dust yourself off and promise to do better starting right now.
Try to stop yourself from thinking that you are a failure and don’t give yourself a sneaky free pass to wait until next week or next month to start again.
Practice really does make perfect.
You can’t give up at the first roadblock.
You have to jump over that hurdle, smash your way through it, and recognize what the situation is.
(Or at the very least, find a sister to blame it on. Just kidding.)
Credit
Make a vision board for visual motivation
What do you want to do at each milestone of getting out of debt or saving?
If you are saving for a trip to Paris, then make a vision board!
Kind of like this one below:
That’s all I have for frugal or debt fatigue tips.
It is what has helped me make it through all the falls, the bumps and the highs of getting out of debt.
You will come across times where you want to give up and it is absolutely normal.
NO ONE makes it through such a change in lifestyle and mindset without a hitch.
(If you have, I’d have to take your word for it…..but grudgingly :P)
Just a girl trying to find a balance between being a Shopaholic and a Saver.
I cleared $60,000 in 18 months earning $65,000 gross/year.
Now I am self-employed, and you can read more about 
Hmm you’re right! I’m definitely suffering from frugal fatigue. I think making some sort of visual calendar or count down will really help me. Thanks! =D
Any time. A visual calendar really helped me.. it made getting by each day a
lot better if I had something to focus on. That, and obsessively checking my
loan amounts 😛
Great post! I like the comparison/thing with the cat. getting tired of frugality only 'hurts' me in the end, because it will take longer to reach my goals, so I'm better off making it fun and trying to keep it fun. I find that it also helps to not focus on what you feel you lack because you're being frugal. There's often more ways to see it, so I try to find the positive side of things.
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It’s really to focus on what you HAVE not what you lack that I find difficult. 🙂
I have a hard time rewarding myself and not feeling guilty because I know that money could be put to better use elsewhere, but I also hit the wall sometimes and just break under the frugal pressure. I don't splurge, but just feel depressed about it for a while then get back on the horse. It's a frustrating cycle sometimes, but I know it will be worth it in the end.
My recent post Quick Tips To Insure A Smooth Transaction With The IRS
Sometimes when you open the splurging doors, all of this spending you never knew you had comes rushing out.. 😛
Helluva post! Seriously, it's easy to feel the fatigue and stray from the course. I've been hardcore about not spending and doing all the right things and sometimes it's inspirational posts like these that keep people like me sane and moving in the right direction!
My recent post Friday Evening Spending Dilemma
I totally agree. Sometimes I have fatigue in making my lunch every day for work, and I hear myself saying "Do I havvvvveee to???? Maybe I should just buy lunch tomorrow at work".
Then I tell myself that I am saving money for my traveling addiction and then I get focused again.
It's all about looking at your goals and not losing sight of it.
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Awesome post 🙂 At the end of 2010 my husband and I definitely started to experience frugal fatigue.. though we went about solving the fatigue in the wrong way. We spent a little too much, not enough to take on extra debt, but enough that we had to reduce some of our savings contributions temporarily.
Awesome post 🙂 At the end of 2010 my husband and I definitely started to experience frugal fatigue.. though we went about solving the fatigue in the wrong way. We spent a little too much, not enough to take on extra debt, but enough that we had to reduce some of our savings contributions temporarily.
But we had a completely calm, stress-free budget discussion a couple weeks ago (no finger pointing – we both had things we spent too much on), and now we're back on track!
We want to pay off our student loans before having kids, and we want to have kids before I get too old due to pregnancy risk factors, so the goal right now is to pay them off in half the time, or about 10 years. We're back on the wagon, so here's hoping 2011 ends on a more conscious note than 2010!
My recent post The Paths Ahead
FB, your post is timely. I've just about had it with economizing during my one-year sabbatical. In place of a vision board, I hoard clothing catalogues on my bedside table. Sad, but true.
These are all good tips! I've found that switching up the motivation helps too, sometimes motivators can lose their spice and you need a new goal. Giving yourself time to adjust to the changes is also good. You might not be ready to make that hard change right away, but if you sit and stew with it long enough, it will come.
My recent post Screw Romance Novels- Try Finance Fiction
great use of a vision board…visualizing will hopefully keep up the motivation to save!
My recent post A little hankie panky goin on around here
Thanks for such a great post!
I love the visual board. Pictures make things so much cooler and more real. 🙂
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This is a great suggestion! Just this year, I decided that a small portion of each paycheck would go into my perkstreet account specifically for buying myself rewards after I pay off a credit card! Already, I am more excited about hitting each milestone.
This is a fantastic topic. Even not being in a lot of debt (except student loan debt, which I remind myself is "good debt" – kind of like "nice pain"), it's challenging to stay focused on saving and minimizing spending. All kinds of psychological games come into play, including comparison to friends, feeling victimized, etc. These are some great tips.
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hi FB 🙂 great post, I certainly know what it's like to feel debt/frugal fatigue LOL! these suggestions are great, I think it's important to plan a little treat now and again, for me it's going to the pictures or having a meal out with a friend. That helps me not feel so deprived. And reading other peoples blogs is a biggie for keeping motivated. Reading Krystals blog is what got me started blogging, and of course watching your debt payoff was fantastic!
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Love this! I'm naturally frugal, but I've been taking it to the next level this year. (Dumpster diving, free food hunting, less/no soap, etc.) My two weaknesses are eating out (boba, Vietnamese, Japanese, mmm…) and buying unique art/vintage items (for cheap, but still…)
I've been struggling to cut those two vices out completely to challenge myself. I really think your mood board idea will help me do this- visual inspiration is the perfect kind for an artist!
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Everyone, regardless of whether or not they're employed and making good money or unemployed and struggling, can take something away from this post. Nice!
My recent post Itll All Go
Thank you for this post. My rent is twice the amount of my boyfriend's and various friends because I choose to live alone. While I LOVE living alone, I tend to need twice or three times the amount the time to save than they do when we all want to take a trip / buy something big / have an adventure. It makes me miss the days that I spent less on rent but not enough to move or get a roommate. I cherish my white wine drinking, Glee watching bubble baths too much.
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This post is so inspiring!
You could also treat yourself in ways that aren't directly connected to money – like getting DVDs for free from your local library and inviting a friend over to watch, or giving yourself a home made manicure, or phoning someone you've been neglecting for a bit, or reading a book or something or finding a tutorial on the web for something you've always wanted to do but never had the time to do.
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I love the vision board idea! While I've done well saving for "big" goals (house, baby, retirement), I have a hard time identifying smaller goals and sticking to them. I think I'll try the vision board!
Another thing that I found really helpful for my student loan debt was to calculate exactly how much my daily interest was on my loan, create a spreadsheet where I broke it all down, and calculate how quickly I could pay it off (both with a bulk payment and a mid-month payment. The mid-month payment won out for paying things down faster, so with every payment that I made, I would update my spreadsheet.
I put in my goals for the payments, and whenever I was feeling down about where I stood, I would open up the spreadsheet to see my progress and play with the numbers. That gave me a way to feel empowered (despite the debt), since I was completely in control of how quickly I paid that sucker off. In the end, I paid it off in 2.5 years, which I felt was fantastic, since that was faster than my degree was.
My comment was too long!
I did of course have slip ups / didn't get to put as much down on my loan as I had wanted, but in the end I did get rid of it pretty quickly, especially for a loan that was supposed to take 15 years to pay off!
Now I put that money into my different savings accounts (honeymoon, wedding, tfsa, rrsp), and some months I spend more than I budgeted for (i.e buying a new laptop; spending on gifts, etc), but I definitely do sometimes feel savings fatigue! Luckily I have the available money, and I don't always have to save what I intend to, but I'm sometimes torn with decisions – I hate shortchanging my savings, but I also dislike having to be so careful with my spending. I want to spend more than $200 on fun, clothes, etc some months, especially since my clothes keep getting too big!
I completely agree with this theory of playing with the numbers. It really helps me get through my tough spots- my husband however is a different story. He just likes to buy things and the numbers do nothing for him. We really aren't on the same page with debt and the need to pay it off.
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