There are a lot of ideas below that will help you when it’s time to buy clothes for the whole family and will keep your budget down to a reasonable level while still keeping you in style and looking good.

One of the best is to shop the clearance racks. Almost all department stores have them and they can be a great place to find awesome deals on clothing that may be just out of style, a ‘weird’ color or, sometimes, close to perfect with no problems whatsoever except that there were way too many in the store. Make sure you purchase things that will definitely be worn as even a great price on a piece of clothing is still a waste if it’s never used.

Shop for all the kids in your family during the month of August when there are many sales for ‘back to school’ and great prices on new, high quality clothes that the kids will love because all the other kids will be wearing the same thing.

Consider selling your used clothes on eBay, Craigslist and through brick-and-mortar consignment shops.  Doing this will make you money for new clothes and help to recycle the old, which is great for the planet.

If you have kids that are particularly tough on clothes buy patches for their jeans and sew them on the inside and outside of the knees.  This will help them last longer and keep you from having to buy new jeans every other week.

Get yourself a ‘clothing shaver’ to remove pills from sweaters and other garments. This will aid them to last longer and also looks better.

A great way to use the same clothes but make them look different is to accessorize.  When you do this you spend just a little extra but can make an outfit look completely different in several different ways.  This will save you from having to buy many different outfits.

Stores like Wal-Mart, Kohl’s, Marshall’s and Ross have excellent prices on good quality clothing.  Shop at these excellent stores and save big.

Lastly take care of your clothes and don’t purchase needless new clothes all the time.  That’s a great way to keep your clothing budget under control, as well as all the others above. Good luck and good shopping.

As you’ve gathered by reading many of the posts here on Saving Without a Budget, I really don’t think it’s all that complicated for anyone to become “financially successful.”  It just takes a little bit of basic knowledge regarding personal finance and a whole lot of will power.

Note: financially successful doesn’t necessarily mean rich or wealthy.  When I say “financially successful” I mean stuff like you don’t have consumer credit debt, you’ve built up your savings, you invest a little toward retirement and, generally, you are more than able to get buy on what you have.

In going back to the basic knowledge it takes to become financially successful, I think there are really only four things people need to focus on:

1) Maximize your earnings.  Obviously, it’s much easier to save more money if you’re making more money.  Long story short, get education where you can, and consider turning your current hobbies into a part-time small business.

2) Always spend less than you earn.  Here comes a non-shocking fact: it’s impossible to save money if you are consistently spending more than what you earn.  So, if you want to save, cut your expenses!

3) Live below your means. One would think this is the same thing as spending less than you earn.  It’s not.  Living below your means is fully embracing living a frugal lifestyle.  It’s an ongoing thing.  Spending less than you earn is simply the act of being frugal, and for many people, can be a one time thing or something that is practiced on a limited basis.

4) Don’t buy stuff for the sake of buying stuff.  Even people who practice the first three steps of financial success find themselves getting into trouble here, namely buying things to keep up with the Joneses.  Here’s my rule of thumb: if I don’t need it, I don’t buy it.  Sure, it sucks getting accustomed to not buying things you want, but after a while, living the minimalist lifestyle and not caring about the Joneses feels awesome.  You’re not owned by your things, your home is clutter free, and you’ve got tons of money either saved or ready to be spent on something that’s worth it like an awesome family vacation.

If you want to find out more about becoming financially successful, please check out my latest book for the Amazon Kindle, aptly titled “Four Steps to Becoming Financially Successful,” where I go into more detail regarding these four steps and  how you can implement them into your daily habits.

Without a doubt, the holidays can be one of the most stressful times of the year. It seems you’ve got one family gathering after another, you’re busy trying to get your decorations up, and you’re stressed about getting gifts for everyone without blowing your budget.

While I can’t help with the first two problems – and let’s be honest, having family gatherings is a good problem to have – I can help with helping you get gifts without blowing your budget.

I’ve written The Frugal Christmas Gift Guide: Holiday Shopping Without Busting Your Budget for the Amazon Kindle as a general guide to help you get through the most wonderful and expensive time of the year without having a horrible credit card bill waiting for you in the new year.

In The frugal Christmas Gift Guide, I talk about how to take advantage of awesome holiday sales – not just Black Friday – as well as other ways you can give gifts without spending a ton of money (hint: the gift of time goes a long, long way).

I’d love it if you checked out the book and then let me know what you think.

Happy Thanksgiving and happy kickoff to the holiday shopping season!

A while back, I wrote about how my wife and I spent the better part of a weekend doing a deep clean of our home. We went through every room in the house and ended up donating or trashing old clothes, dishes, cooking utensils, DVDs, useless papers, you name it.

And, as I stated before, it was an amazingly cathartic experience and, when it was all said and done, felt like we had a two-ton boulder lifted off of our shoulders. (I’m a poet and didn’t even know it!)

Since then we’ve aspired to follow a minimalist lifestyle, meaning we try to get by on no more than what we truly need. This, too, has been an awesome experience.

One would think that living in a consumer and materialistic society, the adjustment would be difficult. In fact, the opposite is true, mostly because of how great we now feel.

For example:

Being frugal is a lot easier. The enemy of being frugal is a warped sense of knowing the difference between needs and wants.

In our materialistic society, many people determine their own personal worth by how many things they can acquire, how big of a house they can buy, etc. Ultimately, you’re mostly succumbing to your wants, which, in turn, makes you want even more!

By following a minimalist path, you’re succumbing to just your needs. You’re not out every other weekend at Pottery Barn trying to buy the new trendy lamps for your home. Your basic, solid-color lamps do just fine of filling your house with light. You don’t have 800 decorative pillows on your bed because the only ones you’re not going to chuck aside as you fall asleep are the pillows you lay your head on.

In cutting out the wants, you’re able to save boatloads more money.

You feel happier. When you aspire to own a bunch of stuff and fall short, you’re left with an empty feeling. Or, even worse, when you are able to get everything you want and it’s still not enough, you’re left with an even bigger void.

By being genuinely happy with less that void simply does not exist. If you can have all of the basic stuff you need – food, shelter, companionship – along with a few small indulgences, you’re much more likely to feel whole and fulfilled; you’re not constantly chasing things.

These two points are big, but they’re just the beginning.

Seriously, please consider going the minimalist route. You’ll be incredibly happy you did.

What are your thoughts? Have you tried being a minimalist? Does the idea seem weird to you? Leave your comments below!

Well, apparently the author bug has really bitten me, because I’ve already released another book for the Amazon Kindle!

The book, “Family Money: Easy Ways to Cut Your Family’s Expenses,” is a light-hearted how-to book on ways to drastically slash your monthly expenses without correspondingly affecting your lifestyle. Through years of writing on Saving Without a Budget I’ve found that the single biggest reason people don’t adopt a frugal lifestyle is because they think they’re going to have to live a life of self-deprivation. It’s not because they’re lazy or stupid; it’s because they falsely believe they’re going to have to drastically alter the way they live day-to-day.

The book offers well over 100 simple ways individuals and families can reduce their monthly expenses without ever really noticing a change in their lives. These money saving tips are broken down into different types, like utilities, clothing, and groceries; i.e. the major expenses in people’s lives.

Considering the price of the book is only $3.97, buying Family Money is certainly a worthwhile investment, especially when you consider following just a few of the tips for less than a day will save you much more than $3.97!

Please leave a comment below and let me know what you think!

All too often I hear people complain about how hard it is to begin living frugally because they think they are going to have to live this terrible life in the World of No, meaning any impulse they have to spend money on something they’d like automatically must be shot down with a resounding no.

I’d like to think nothing could be further from the truth.

Yes, living a frugal life does require a bit of sacrifice and you are going to have to give up some of your guilty pleasures.  I’m not arguing that.  What I am saying, however, is that by choosing to live a frugal life you aren’t necessarily headed down the path of self deprivation either.  In fact, many people – myself included – feel their quality of life actually increases once they fully commit to living below their means and making a conscious effort to not get caught up in the rat race of “who can buy the most things.”

Frugal = Compromise

If you’re still having trouble with the concept I have a trick that may help.  Going forward, when you hear the word frugal and throw up in your mouth a bit, instead, use the word compromise.

Here is a great article by Meg Favreau of WiseBread, which, as its title suggests, gives you 12 Frugal Compromises you can make that allow you to avoid self deprivation while enjoying a life of living below your means:

When we talk about frugality, it can be easy to get into an “all or nothing” mentality. Our two options are to eat a big meal out or cook at home. To have a lot of stuff or pare down all of our possessions to the very basics. But the reality is that there are a lot of savings compromises that can be made — frugal things you can do that, while they may not save you as much money as other efforts, might also save you time, make you happier, or make your life easier. Here are 12 frugal compromises to consider.

Here’s the Cliff’s Notes version of the article, which, again, you should read in its entirety.

1. Buy part of your meal already prepared
2. Hire moving helpers
3. Meet somewhere cheap for dinner
4. Buy new accessories
5. Drink cheap beer… or just one nice beverage
6. Hire a cleaner once a month
7. Don’t take the car… sometimes
8. Get take out instead of delivery
9. Rearrange the furniture and buy one new thing
10. Have a coffee treat day
11. Trim your own bangs
12. Use disposables alongside reusables

Obviously, all of these things are little splurges that won’t sound like much if you’re currently living a lavish lifestyle.  That being said, take it from someone who has been practicing frugality for a few years: a lot of these little guilty pleasures can actually help to keep you on the frugal path.

So, what are your thoughts on this?  What are some frugal compromises you allow yourself to have?  Leave a comment below and, as always, please share this post using the social bookmarking buttons below and at the top of the page – especially Facebook and Twitter.

You’ve probably heard of the name John McAfee, however, if you can’t place the name, go to the bottom right corner of your computer screen and check out your antivirus software. Is it McAfee

As you might have guessed, creating one of the world’s most widely used antivirus software makes you rich. Really rich. $100 million rich. It buys you several multi-million dollar homes, cars, toys, you name it. Sounds pretty awesome, right?

Not according to McAfee, who ultimately lost almost $90 million of his estimated $100 million fortune, and he couldn’t be happier.

In an interesting article entitled “Antivirus Software Pioneer Gets Dose of Reality,” Chris Bury writes about McAfee’s story and how he (McAfee) became a slave to his possessions:

McAfee’s net worth dropped from within the ballpark of $100 million to less than $10 million, he told ABC News. But instead of feeling a sense of loss, he says he feels free.

“I feel a sense of freedom,” he said. “People think that it’s a joy to own things. But it really isn’t.”

McAfee’s net worth dropped from within the ballpark of $100 million to less than $10 million, he told ABC News. But instead of feeling a sense of loss, he says he feels free.

“I feel a sense of freedom,” he said. “People think that it’s a joy to own things. But it really isn’t.”

McAfee’s net worth dropped from within the ballpark of $100 million to less than $10 million, he told ABC News. But instead of feeling a sense of loss, he says he feels free.

“I feel a sense of freedom,” he said. “People think that it’s a joy to own things. But it really isn’t.”

(Click here to read the entire article.  It’s a great read!)

Obviously, this is a $100 million problem many of us would like to have, and it’s easy for someone to still be happy after losing $90 million when you still have $10 million or so left over. I don’t expect much sympathy for McAfee and, quite frankly, neither does he:

McAfee says he expects no sympathy. “Oh, God, I hope they don’t have sympathy. I don’t have sympathy for my position,” he said. “I’m perfectly happy.”

In fact, he believes that to a certain extent, the recession has served a useful purpose: “It’s brought home a dose of reality,” he said. “And sometimes a little pain is necessary to see and understand the true circumstances of your life.”

The moral of the story here is that even for really rich people, less is often more. 

By being happy with what you have and living below your means you’ll avoid becoming a slave to your money and your possessions, and exponentially increase the quality of your life!  You won’t be stuck in the possession-based rat race which ultimately does nothing but suck the life out of you.

By staying away from the trap of placing so much importance on material possessions, you will truly be free financially.

Thanks to record low mortgage rates and home prices that have fallen roughly one-third on a national level from the real estate bubble’s peak, buying a home is now more affordable than it has been in decades.

(NOTE: This takes into consideration the price of the house/mortgage only, not other costs such as HOA fees, insurance, taxes, maintenance, etc.)

If you decide now is the time to buy a home, make sure you know what you're doing.

So, at a macro level, now is a great time for first-time homebuyers to consider purchasing a home. Obviously, individual factors will have to come into play – how long you think you’ll be living there, is your job stable, do you think prices will sink further while rates remain constant, etc. – but, in terms of affordability only, now is a great time to explore your options.

If you do decide that now is the right time to buy your first home, make sure you’re not going into the process blindly. Chances are this is the single largest purchase you’re going to make in your life, so make sure you’re treating it as such. Do your due diligence, talk to a bunch of different lenders and real estate agents, and see a lot of properties, among many other things.

Don’t end up making a purchase you later regret! Here’s a great article on 10 first time homebuyer mistakes that will hopefully help to ensure you make the best possible decision and don’t end up with home buyer’s remorse.

Here’s a Cliff’s Notes version of the first time homebuyer mistakes:

1. Not knowing what you can afford
2. Skipping mortgage qualification
3. Failing to consider additional expenses
4. Being too picky
5. Lacking vision
6. Being swept away
7. Compromising on the important things
8. Neglecting to inspect
9. Not hiring your own agent or using the seller’s agent
10. Not thinking about the future

Click here to read the article in its entirety. I definitely recommend you check it out!

From a financial standpoint, I believe the two most important items on this list are 1) not knowing what you can afford and 3) failing to consider additional expenses.

If you rely on someone else telling you what you can and cannot afford, you’re setting yourself up to get screwed. Keep in mind, many of these jobs tied to real estate are commission based. It’s in their best interest to stretch you into the highest priced property you can afford. I’m not saying every person tied to the real estate industry is shady or dishonest, but greed makes you do a lot of things you wouldn’t otherwise do.

Additionally, your mortgage person isn’t really going to know the ins and outs of your monthly finances. Come up with a figure you want to spend based on your knowledge of your own finances. If you know you want to spend no more than $1,500 per month on a mortgage stick to your guns, even when you’re told you can afford a $2,500 payment.

You also have to keep in mind that owning a home is not cheap. You’re responsible for all of the maintenance and upkeep; when something goes wrong, you can’t call your landlord and have him pay for the repairs.

Make sure that when you’re going through the home buying and mortgage qualification process you are able to set aside some money each month for maintenance and upkeep of your home. Chances are you’re not going to spend $200 per month, but by saving $200 per month, when you have to replace your roof in five years, you’ll already have most of the expense, if not all of it, covered without having to dip into your emergency fund or take out a loan.

What was your experience as a first time home buyer? Leave a comment below and, as always, please share this post using the social bookmarking buttons below and at the top of this article – especially Facebook and Twitter!

Editor’s Note: Throw out doesn’t necessarily mean put in the trash. Recycle, donate, sell or put in the garbage is what I mean.  Putting that in the title makes it a little long…

A little over a week ago, my wife and I did a deep clean of our house, and it was, in a word, awesome.

Even though we had only been in our house a little over eight months, we were able to get rid of enough stuff to donate seven boxes of clothes, linens, and electronics; recycle two bags of papers; and throw out three bags of stuff that should’ve been gone years ago.

Throw it out!

On top of that, our home now bigger and far more open, we can actually use the office, and, in general, we just feel a lot better because we’re not being suffocated by junk!

Obviously, I’m happy with what my wife and I did and I think we made some real progress.  That being said, I just found an article on Wise Bread that really, really wish we would have had prior to our deep clean.

In the article, “25 Things to Throw Out Today,” author Paul Michael not only lists the 25 things you need to throw out, but he also references my favorite quote from the movie Fight Club:

There’s a great quote from Fight Club, one of my favorite movies. It comes from Tyler Durden, Brad Pitt’s character, and it’s prophetic — “The things you own end up owning you.” After watching several seasons of Hoarders, that’s got to be one of the most truthful statements ever to come out of a movie.

Now, we all have a little hoarder inside each of us. We see some things that we just can’t bear to get rid of, probably because there’s an emotional attachment to them. Sometimes things are valuable, and we keep them for that reason. On rare occasions, we don’t even know why we’re hanging onto something, but we are.

Well, there’s a great feeling of liberation that can come from shedding these items. If you’d like to feel it yourself, here’s a list of 25 things that you should throw out today. And by that, I mean donate, dump, trash, incinerate, whatever you like… just remove them from your life.

You should certainly take the time to read the entire article, but for brevity’s sake, here’s the entire list of the 25 things you should throw out today:

1. Clothing and shoes you haven’t worn in the last 18 months
2. Old paint
3. Contents of the junk drawer
4. Dated receipts, paychecks, and bills
5. Unread books
6. Expired medicines and vitamins
7. Cups and mugs
8. Plastic containers
9. Linens
10. Power cords
11. Magazines
12. Spices
13. Old greeting cards
14. DVDs, VHS and audio tapes, CDs and video games
15. Makeup
16. Old underwear, socks, and bras
17. Dated technology, including old cell phones
18. Coat hangers
19. Toys
20. Those “fix it up” projects
21. Cribs, car seats, and other baby/toddler products
22. Perfumes and colognes
23. Jewelry
24. Rugs
25. Food

Check out "The Joys of Less" for more motivation on decluttering your home and life!

This, obviously, is a very inclusive list and highlights a lot of items we hold on to for nonsensical, and even reasonable reasons.

For me, getting rid of things like power cords, plastic containers, coat hangers, etc. is difficult because it’s easy for me to see a scenario where I could use the items in the future.  The problem is, those scenarios hardly ever come to fruition, so all I’m left with is something I don’t really need taking up space in my house.

Long story short, print out this list and over the next weekend or two, deep clean your house.  Sure, it’ll be painful while you’re in the middle of cleaning, but once you’re done you’re going to have gotten a rid of a lot of stuff and you’re going to feel great for it!

What do you think of this post?  Leave a comment below and, as always, please share this post by using the social bookmarking buttons below and at the top of the page – especially Facebook and Twitter!

Most of us get by on modest incomes, so the idea of living frugally is pretty much a no-brainer and is something many of us choose to do out of necessity.  After all, in a tough economy you’ve really got to stretch your money to get the most out of it while being able to still stash some away for a rainy day.

Despite having billions, these guys don't burn through money.

Based on this, one would think that the more money you make, the less apt you are to be frugal.  And multi-millionaires and billionaires?  There’s no way they would live in modest homes, drive beat up old cars, or fly on something other than a personal jet, right?

Think again!

Some of the world’s wealthiest people have taken to living a frugal life despite their vast fortunes – which may explain why some of them were able to get so much money in the first place (read: they understood the value of money and investing).

Here are some of the world’s frugal billionaires, some of whom are very well known people:

Must be nice being frugal AND the world's third richest person.

Warren Buffet – He’s the world’s third richest person with a fortune of over $50 billion and, along with Bill Gates, is one of the world’s foremost philanthropists, having either already donated or pledged billions of dollars to charities.

He is also famously known for living in the same Omaha, Nebraska house that he bought for $31,000 in 1958, has shunned all the toys that would likely come with being insanely rich and, most recently, having an Op Ed published in the New York Times where he writes about how taxes on the super-rich should be raised and raised immediately.

Oh, and being the greatest value investor – meaning he buys good stocks/companies that are currently undervalued and holds the stock for a long, long period of time – of all-time certainly doesn’t hurt his case, either.

IKEA's founder, Ingvard Kamprad drives a 16 year old Volvo!

Ingvard Kamprad – The guy who started Ikea – a value, put-it-together-yourself furniture company – always flies coach and, when he isn’t flying, drives an old Volvo 240 GL.  He’s of the belief that his customers aren’t jetting around the world in private jets or driving flashy cars, so he shouldn’t either.

And, considering he famously practices what he preaches, it’s not as if this some sort of marketing tactic to get the “common folk” to shop at his stores.

Apparently, he was also so frugal as a business owner that he would insist people uses pencils down to the nub and use both sides of a sheet of paper.  To many of us this sounds crazy, but, to Kamprad’s credit, he used this frugality to help build a fortune of over $6 billion.

John Cauldwell – This guy is a real rags to riches story: he started off as an auto-repair shop owner who got into cell phones in 1987, right before they really caught on, ultimately amassing a fortune of nearly $2 billion!

Oh, he also rides his bike to work and cuts his own hair.  Yep, you read that correctly, a billionaire who could easily afford to pay someone $100 for every hair on his head that they cut, is so frugal that he cuts his own hair.

I’m sure the list goes on and on, since not every billionaire is like Larry Ellison, buying yachts and homes worth many multi-millions of dollars.

All I know is that one day, I’d like to be a frugal billionaire, too!

What did you think of this post?  Please leave a comment below and, as always, please share this post using the social bookmarking buttons below – especially Facebook and Twitter!