One of the areas I am consciously trying to change is my need to have all of it. Not in the form of materialism, but in the way I use items, like the amount of food I eat, the amount of toothpaste I use and the amount of water I shower in.

A frugal life consists not always in sacrifice but in the small steps that help make the larger decisions much easier. It is about training the brain to see the world a bit differently and also training the brain to see that cutting back isn’t harmful. Instead, these small seemingly inconsequential steps will fit so easily into your lifestyle that they will be almost invisible and, you may even think that they aren’t that important.

So, two things are happening here. First, you are saving money by using less. For example, if you have sugar on your cereal every morning and you dump two spoonfuls into that cereal each morning but for a year you decide to only use one spoonful, this will extend your sugar by a whole year more. In that way you are saving money, but also working on the second part of this, training your brain that you don’t need as much.

Just because a value meal from McDonalds come with 24 ounces of soda, medium fries and a burger, doesn’t mean that you need to eat it all. It most cases 12 ounces and a burger is enough to relieve the tummy ache. The same is true when you eat at home. Instead of dishing onto your plate loads of food that you may end up not eating, do only half of what you would normally eat, and finish that before you grab some more. That way if you are full, you won’t have the extra wasted food on your plate and can put away the rest for left-overs.

All this doesn’t apply to just food, this can be done with other things as well. Take toothpaste for example, if the brush is loaded up with toothpaste, how much of it falls off the brush and into the sink and how much is needed to get a good foaming going? Not much really. The same is true for showers, by cutting down on the time in the shower, less water is wasted (unless you catch it all in a bucket) and the water bill is lower. In my apartment when I first lived there the water bill was always above 35.00 a month and I took some long showers. After I started using a shower timer and keeping my time down, I have bills that rarely go above $25.00 now, this savings of 10 dollars a month isn’t a lot, but looking at the big picture, I am saving the equivalent of 4 months of water bills. Money that can be used elsewhere.

This is your homework for today if you should chose to wish to try it. It can be anything, let your mind think about the things you use and pick two things that you will cut back on, starting today.

—–
Dawn C. is site owner of Frugalforlife.com where this is a repost from: A Little Dab Will Do Ya. Dawn is residing in Colorado with her spouse, Teri, of 11 years.

Photo credit: Frugalforlife.com.