A message to all you fledgling frugal-lers….

A lovely lady emailed me a little while ago to thank me for showing her that being frugal doesn’t necessarily mean shivering in the cold with extra socks and jumpers instead of turning the heating on which was the impression she got from some sites online and someone else recently mentioned to me that they were so overwhelmed with all of the frugal tips and tricks that they’d found online that they had no idea where to start with it all.

These two comments made me stop and think because I do know what they mean from my own personal experience because it’s so easy to look at what others are doing and think you could never be as good as them.

Years and years ago I used to read the MSE Old Style forum which is a sub forum on the Money Saving Expert site where thrifty people have a good old chat every day and share their hints and tips for being frugal.  It was also a place where people like me could go and ask questions and get help from a lovely thrifty bunch of people who seemed to know everything about how to live frugally.

I actually stopped going on there after a while though as I felt they were all much better than me at being frugal which I now know is ridiculous because being frugal or thrifty isn’t a competition, it’s just about making the most of what you have.

I felt like I could never be as thrifty as the people on there who were so good at it so although I really did try, I never particularly celebrated my successes or even felt like they were the huge steps that they actually were because they seemed so insignificant compared to everything that these lovely people were doing.  And that was never the intention of the forum or the people who posted on it, that was just in my head.

So, because I know that lots of people will have started 2017 off with a resolution to be better with money and to learn to live a more frugal life I want to say this to you….

That meal plan you wrote and (almost) managed to stick to for a week is a huge achievement.

The meal you cooked in the slow cooker and the leftovers you put in the freezer were a great start.

The packed lunch you took to work to save you buying dinner was brilliant.

Not buying that Costa or Starbucks showed great willpower and were an amazing start to saving money.

Working out your monthly budget is a great step to saving money every single month.

Just because you see other people doing things better than you (they’re probably not) or doing things you hadn’t even thought of (they probably hadn’t thought of it either until they saw someone else doing it) don’t let it take away from your achievements.

Also, don’t feel inadequate because someone’s perfectly instagrammed looks better than yours as it probably took them at least five photos to achieve that look of perfection and behind the scenes is probably as chaotic as your house looks!

Aaaand breathe!

This post started out as a bit of a round up of things that someone who wanted to be more frugal would appreciate having at some point and turned into a mini rant/pep talk.

Normal service will be resumed tomorrow.

Don’t miss out on future posts like this – receive updates directly to your inbox by email by adding your email address to the box on the top right of this page and hitting subscribe. You can also find me on BlogLovin, Yummly and Networked Blogs and I’d love to see you over on my Facebook page and on Instagram.