frugal lifestyle!

In the name of Allah the Most Gracious and the Most Merciful :)

FRUGAL LIFESTYLE

The term was first introduced to me by my sister. I overheard her repeating 'frugal lifestyle' again and again in her conversations... I wasn't sure of the exact definition for the term frugal. But I could guess that it had something to do with being thrifty.

Later on, I bought a book entitled 'Teaching your kids about money'. I haven't finished reading the book so I couldn't give an overall review. I will get my salary soon, in about 2 weeks time insyaAllah  :) and I could feel the urge to learn more about financial planning. So the book is actually for me, the title should be 'Teaching yourself about money' ;)

The book is simple enough and straight forward enough. I once tried reading a financial book by Azizi Ali but I didn't find that the book was an easy read, even though the book was meant to be simple. I need something simpler.

Frugal means practicing economy ; living without waste; thrifty.

It is relatively easy to practice frugality when you don't have that extra money in your bank account. But once you've started earning, the desire to spend would come instantaneously.

RASA MACAM ADA JE BENDA NAK KENA BELI  =0
rasa macam banyak lagi benda takde ;p
RASA MACAM BARANG-BARANG YANG ADA DAH BURUK :0
rasa macam dah lama tak beli benda baru =P

Right? those are the notions that will be playing in your head. Repeating itself over and over again.

I don't know how successful I will be at practising frugality once I've got my salary (soon enough)...
If you are a frequent visitor of this blog, you might notice that I really really like this book called The last lecture by Randy Pausch. I like it well enough to blog about it twice. I learn a lot about frugality from the book. For example Randy won't buy any new clothes until the one that he had was already worn out. He was contented with his wardrobe. He didn't feel the need to follow fashion and to keep adding new sets of clothes into his wardrobe. This is the kind of mentality that I am trying to instill into myself.

However, being frugal doesn't mean that you have to be stingy. Sedekah is a must. Buying things when the old ones are already worn out is OK. Rewarding yourself once in a while is also OK provided that you've accomplished something(worthwhile). Don't fall into the trick of rewarding yourself anytime anywhere. You yourself must do the checking. Why am I buying this? Why am I buying that?

My hubby sometimes helps me in doing the checking.
'Perlu ke tak? kalau perlu, beli...'
'Nak pakai ke tak, kalau akan pakai, beli...'
'Dah ada ke belum, kalau dah ada tak payah beli...'

I like pretty cute things such as cute notebooks. Whenever I wanted to buy something cute, he would say 'kita beli sesuatu bukan sebab dia cute or best, tapi sebab kita perlukan benda tu...'

Not easy right. The temptation is always there.

An interesting quote here - To get big things you must make do without the small things :)

What is the point of being frugal? So that all our money is directed towards a good cause.
For dakwah, for sadaqah, for education, for buying a house. For all the big things.

InsyaAllah :)