Frugal fatigue hits me at least once a month. I get tired of making food from scratch and think about how much easier it would be to just go to the store and purchase it. If I have to go to the mall, it really hits me as I love fashion (until I get sticker shock from the prices that is!)
What do you do when you don’t feel like being frugal anymore? -Michelle
1) Focus on the Best Return On Your Investment Of Time
Don’t try to implement every money-saving idea you run across. Otherwise, you’re setting yourself up for failure and burn out.
It’s really and truly okay if you don’t make everything from scratch, or don’t plant a huge garden and preserve 200 pounds of vegetables or don’t save 85% off all your grocery bills. You can’t do it all.
Concentrate your efforts on where you’ll get the biggest savings and skip the smaller money-saving ideas if they don’t work for your family or aren’t something you enjoy.
2) Allow Some Breathing Room in Your Budget
This goes hand-in-hand with point number one. Don’t beat yourself up if you’re not pinching every single penny you possibly can. The purpose of frugality is not to be a miser; it’s to be a wise steward.
If you can, include at least $10 to $20 in your budget each week for something fun: a treat at the coffee shop or ice cream shop, dinner out, pizza and a movie or whatever else you or your family especially enjoys. If it’s budgeted, you can guiltlessly enjoy it and look forward to it.
Want to make this budgeted money go farther? Sign up for the Groupon emails in your area and purchase a few deeply discounted vouchers to local restaurants or attractions.
3) Reward Yourself For Achieving Goals
I’m all about setting financial goals and working hard towards accomplishing them, but don’t forget to celebrate milestones along the way. Plan a party or go on a special family date every time you pay off a credit card. Put $5 in a special “Family Vacation” fund jar every time you save another $50 dollars in your savings account. Or, maybe make a commitment as a family that if you all stick to the budget for an entire month, everyone gets $10 in “blow money” to spend on whatever they want (be sure to budget this in, of course!).
Knowing there’s a reward at the finish line can give you much greater motivation to keep pressing forward.
Related: After I had written this post last week, my friend, Heather, sent me a link to her post on How To Combat Frugal Fatigue. She had quite a few other additional ideas.
How do you combat frugal fatigue? Tell us your strategies in the comments.
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I call it an Aldi Break…We allow a certain amount of wiggle room for date nights and spending cash, like Dave Ramsey says. When it comes to using coupons, we take Aldi breaks every once in a while. I am 36 weeks pregnant, 2 kids, running my own blog, housework, etc… Aldi’s sounds pretty good to me these days
I’m really inspired by all of the responses to this post. I know how tiring and downright boring it is to always be frugal, stick to your budget and just do everything you can to save money.
One way I would suggest beating frugal fatigue is to make a little time each month to volunteer-there are always other people that are facing real serious problems and helping just one person in need always makes you feel better about your own situation. Each of us has so much to offer the world regardless of how much money we have in our bank account!
I felt like giving up a couple weeks ago when I had my car repair bill almost paid off from last year and then had to basically incur almost the same charges on new repairs all over again. Ugh Sigh
I’m grateful to have no car payment but the second I start to feel like I’m making some head way I get knocked down again but I’m realizing if it werent for couponing and being frugal my situation could be a lot worse. Trying to find gratitude for having a vehicle and other things in my life is what I need to keep focusing on instead of what’s wrong. I love reading all the positive comments from everyone here. Although my debt is taking time to reduce I’m not charging anything else and I have learned to live “below” my means. I’m very grateful for all the valuable info of MSM. Thank you! 
Way to go, Autumn!
When I get tired of being frugal I look at the goals we have written down. Usually that helps. But sometimes not doing anything at all helps save money, too. Staying at home (or just going to work), can save quite a bit of money. And if I really need a splurge, I look on Craigslist first. Last week, dh and I had 3 places to go to pick up our Craiglist items – and the kids were off doing other things – so it was like a date – lol! I got a Vitamix and Pressure canner off of Craiglist (at wonderful prices), and dh found wood to complete a project he was doing. As all of these things were on our want list, we were able to get the items at a great price, and were able to have fun at the same time.
Very often I double and freeze recipies for lazy days. Other times I buy a preroasted chicken for about $5 and make a hot chicken salad . Cook the scraps and bones, for broth for later use.The flavor is wonderful!
Sometimes we use coupons and go out for dinner .You just have to take a break once in awhile.
I always clean and chop my fresh salad vegetables,put them in separate green containers. They stay fresh and it takes minutes to make a salad.
Do not forget the crockpot,I love the person who invented it!
These are great ideas, but we literally have ZERO extra money. Everything hubby brings home we need. I constantly try to remain thankful that our needs are met and God has always provided for us, but I am worn out. What a luxury it would be to simply go to the grocery store and buy what I want to cook and eat for the week instead of what we can afford. Ya know? Okay. Little gripe over now. Thanks for letting me get that out there.
{Hugs, Jo!} After I wrote this, I realized I should have addressed what to do when you don’t have any wiggle room. We’ve been there before and it’s really easy to burn out quickly.
If you have a chance, I’d encourage you to check out this post: http://moneysavingmom.com/2010/10/qa-tuesday-is-it-possible-to-save-money-when-were-barely-keeping-our-head-above-water.html
Also, if you have any extra time to put into Swagbucks, it’s a very simple way to earn free gift cards which you can use towards necessities or the occasional “splurge”. I’ll be sharing a post in the next few weeks on how to earn 100 Swagbucks every day (without referrals or spending any money) — this would be equal to an extra $25+ Amazon gift cards each month.
Finally, can you email me? I want to bless your family with a little something to maybe encourage you during this difficult time.
You are a really wonderful person, Crystal!
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