Balancing Val

Let’s face it, when you are a kid, pay day is only on birthdays and holidays. And if your a January baby like me, this means you gotta stretch those dollars out through the whole year and more importantly only buy what you truly want. Just ask Dad about the many times I walked around a store with things I wanted to purchase listening to the voice in my head who kept asking “Do you really need this?” Only to find me walking out of a store with nothing. For the record, Marie does this too.

Flash forward to now. I can say I have a good handle on my finances. I know when all my bills are due, I never had a late payment as of yet and I still only buy things if I really need or want them. But, you can be sure that I am researching and comparing prices before I do.

I guess you could call me FRUGAL

In my house, this was always a negative, but I realize now that its because frugal seems to be synonymous with CHEAP

But let me tell you . . . It’s not!

From what I learned, a frugal person is someone who is able to take care of their needs and wants while still being able to save money. This means they pay their bills, get what they want for the least expensive price buying quality items and are still are able to live their lives and do what they want to do. Frugal people are usually more healthy because they cook from scratch more often then not 😉

A cheap person is someone who only cares about getting something for the
lowest price possible without any affinity to quality or how it will affect their lives. Cheap people only have Money on the mind.

Ok, now that this is cleared up, I would like to tell you that I have taken a pretty big interest in saving money. I have learned a lot of things and I am hoping to learn even more.

I don’t have a lot of money by any means, but I have been comfy in the fact that I have our monthly finances ready to go and have a good routine down. But, that is about to change, so I would like to introduce . . . .

Balancing Money Series

The price of going and commuting to NYC is insane! But I am convinced that there is a way to get through it, be able to live my life AND save enough to make a good dent in my student loan at the end of the year.

What better way to document than to make it a series on my blog! I will share tips, my monthly contributions to my “balancing money account” and my struggles and challenges with it all. I will post more details soon. I hope you will join me 🙂

Have you ever been in a situation where you had to save money? What is your best tip for managing it all?
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