Learning to think like a frugal person

iammumtoone

Hi

I normally only lurk on the debt free diaries and don't comment. However your diary has inspired me. I love the way you have an actual plan that can be followed by others. I am subscribing and going to write my ARC list later, I don't need to lose a lot of weigh but could do with eating more healthy so will include something to that effect along with debt busting and sorting my house out (de-cluttering).

Good luck with your journey I look forward to reading about your progress and following the plan.

KittyBoo_2

I've subscribed too as I thought this sounds very interesting.
I did some training with Paul McKenna years ago and a lot of his stuff was similar.
One of the things we did was making a timeline for the next 12 months stating what you wanted to achieve and how you were going to work towards it. A lot of visualizing too. I found it very effective.
Do you have a link to your weight loss thread? I'm very happy to have come across this one and look forward to reading and hopefully, contributing too.

ForMyGirls

Welcome to my diary Enjoying life more, Munchin, iamamumtoone and Kitty Boo - it is lovely to have you on board for the ride!

Munchin - using CBT for weightloss was a revelation to me too - I had been saying for who knows how long that what I needed was help with the psychological dimension - I've known for a very long time what I needed to do to lose weight - I just didn't know what to do to make myself do it. So I was very pleased to find Beck's book and am finding it incredibly helpful.

Kitty Boo - I will google Paul McKenna - it sounds very interesting. I don't have a weight loss thread on MSE - there is a community of people supporting each other on the Beck Diet Solution on a forum called 3 fat chicks on a diet (which I am part of). I will explain a bit more about this space when I get to Day 6 :-)

But enough chatter - I need to tell you about Day 4.

Day 4 is about giving yourself credit. It requires zero adaptation! The theory goes that we spend an awful lot of time giving ourselves grief about the things we do wrong and very little time recognising what we do well. Beck says we need to turn that around - there is a place for acknowledging and accepting where we could have done better but if we want to create an upward spiral of positivity we need to get into the habit of noticing what we do well.

I am an Aussie (hence all the 'middle of the night' posts, from most of your perspectives) so 'talking yourself up' runs very contrary to my cultural conditioning. I have it somewhere in my head that this is a part of our culture we inherited from our anglo-celtic ancestors so it might feel the same for those of you in the UK too. So it has taken a little getting used to - but these days I'm pretty good at saying how good I am :-)

Ideally I give myself credit at the time that I do something credit worthy but often I forget so one of the things I include in my nightly post to my weight-loss buddies - and will be doing from here on in in every post with you, my money saving mates - is to give myself credit for at least one positive step I took that day. Sometimes I can't stop typing - sometimes it is a struggle to find something - but I always do and it makes a big difference to my mood when I do find it on those tricky days.

So - without further ado - here's my credit for yesterday - I got a letter asking if I wanted to renew my mail redirection (I moved to my current home a year ago). First thought was "!!!!!! - another bill I hadn't budgeted for". Then I thought - hey, if I just action that item that has been on my to do list for the last 12 months and call or email the people / companies that don't yet have my current address I can save that money. Email is free and I have a generous call limit on my mobile so phone calls are free too. Hooray to me for not spending unnecessary money.

Incidentally as I write that I remember that I was going to say that I have seen a lot of posts where people point out the things they have done well - so I think many of you are a large part of the way to having formed the habit. The excruciating bit though is adding the self-congratulatory words - "hooray for me" or "credit to me" or whatever phrase does the job.

Anyone feel like sharing a credit for their day?

Day 4 checklist:
1. I read my ARC at least twice
2. I created a system for reminding myself to give myself credit
3. I used my "stop impulse spending" and "savouring" strategy - every time? most of the time? some of the time?
4. I gave myself credit for using my "stop impulse spending" and "savouring" strategies

ForMyGirls

Hello again my money-saving mates,

I forgot to say at the beginning of all this that one of the surprising things about the Beck Diet Solution is that she recommends waiting two weeks to start your diet. Basically her take on it is that you need to get your psychological tool kit ready and THEN start the diet.

I did that when I started dieting. It felt quite difficult to wait - sort of a terror that if I didn't start immediately I would lose my nerve. She talks in the book about the fact that most people change their eating patterns just by having decided to address their weight and often end up losing some weight before they are even formally on diet. That was how it went for me and when I formally started my diet it felt like I was just continuing something I had already started.

I haven't done the formal waiting on the budget front - though that is more a result of necessity than anything else - there simply wasn't anything left to spend (I'll expand on that one of these days when I talk about my lightbulb moment!)

I'll be back with Day 5 in a little while.

ForMyGirls

Big_bog wrote: »

I'm loving this thread and I can't wait for my book to arrive. FMG you really are inspiring - food and money are my two problem areas so I think you are going to be a massive help to me. Off I go to look for Ynab....

Thanks Big Bog - I think you are going to be a massive help to me too!

Mrs_Cheshire

FMG - loving the posts!
I'm giving myself credit for having a free day out yesterday! I took the boys to the local cinema and used the free passes we got last time as there was a delay. Took our own food and drink!

chanie

This is a great idea FMG. Can I join you on this thread. I've made some efforts to start to think like a frugal person over the last few years, but need to step it up some more.

iammumtoone

Thanks for the updates, I like that idea of waiting two weeks to start. I am a bit fickle and often start things that I don't continue, if I wait two weeks then I will know for sure that it is something I am ready to do and less likely to drop out. I looked at ynab but the cost is a bit high for me at present, maybe if I start to budget better I might be able to save up for it, in the meantime I found a couple of free downloads so will see how they go.

When to the shop yesterday for some milk and picked up a box of reduced chocolates - I then put them back, gold star to me . I know what you mean FMG its is difficult to praise yourself hopefully it is something I will get used to.

Edit: think I need to give my self two gold stars lol one for the diet side and one for the money saving side.

PippiShortsock

I'm a bit evangelical about YNAB as I started using it a couple of months ago. It's reduced to £14.99 on Steam at the moment which makes it a more manageable price. I'm not quite sure how Steam works though - I think it's a free membership site but might be wrong.

Loving the CBT approach to weight loss and money gain FMG! I'll be reading.

ForMyGirls

Welcome to my diary chanie and pippishortstock - thanks for joining in.

And well done Mrs Cheshire and iammumtoone on your bold self-crediting (and the impressive frugality that gave rise to it!)

I feel like I am bursting at the seams with credits for myself today but I will try to keep it brief.

We ran out of coffee pods today and they have to come out of the "play money". I was all set to go and buy them and thought - enter them into the system first - which reminded me I have no play money left so they will have to wait till Tuesday. If I have one shot the next 3 days I'll scrape it in :-) Credit me for remembering my rules and sticking to them.

At the grocery store I bought generic brand painkillers - nearly $1 cheaper. Then I got to thinking - if I am more frugal with my grocery shopping the coffee can come out of the grocery budget. (My partner is really good at using up leftovers etc so if I follow his lead I reckon we can cut lots off the grocery budget).

Then cooking dinner I grated more cheese than I needed. 6 months ago I would have eaten it, standing up, while I finished cooking. A week ago I would have thrown it in the bin. Tonight? Tonight I put it in the container with the remainder of the block of cheese so I can use it next time I needed grated cheese. One small step for mankind, one giant leap for me!