Skills You Need to be Frugal and Save Money
November 5th, 2007I wrote a quick introductory article on DIY (do it yourself) fashion and IMEDIATELY lost 8 subscribers to frugal101.com. I don’t know if I should laugh or cry. I think I did both.
So, before I scare off more readers, give me a chance to convince you of the legitimacy of DIY for folks who want to be frugal and save money.
What are some skills that we need in order to save money in our daily lives?
- Budgeting and basic financial skills. We need to know how to spend less than we earn. We need to save the difference. That is the basic premise of frugal living. If we can’t save some of the money that we’ve earned, we will never become a) rich b) financially secure c) have money for the things we want and may even d) die on the streets a pauper. There are lots of books out there devoted to this topic and I have lots of articles on this as well.
- Cook. We need to save money where we can and one place we can easily slash our bills is in food and dining. A useful skill to have is to cook, or else it’s canned and frozen food or, even more expensive, fast food, take-outs, and delivery. Cooking our own meals immediately saves us money and we can see it.
- Basic car maintenance. One skill I don’t have and truly wish I do is basic car maintenance. If only I can change oil, I would save so much money! My cousin knows how to change oil. She is my new hero. If you know how to take care of your car, even just a little bit, how many thousands of dollars can you save in a year?! Better yet, you would have the confidence to purchase older vehicles, or even accept free ones, and slash your transportation cost even more!
- Handyman skills. If you can paint, knock a nail to a board, sandpaper some walls, unscrew a lightbulb, put doorknobs back on, just little things, you would save hundreds of dollars a year, if not more, because you DIY! You don’t have to call in someone to take care of little things. Years ago, my bathroom drain got truly clogged. Crying and panicking, I called in a plumber. He used a wire coat hanger and unplugged the drain. You don’t know how P-ED I was at myself when I wrote that check for $95. I’ve kept my drains clear ever since using baking soda and, you guessed it, a wire coat hanger.
Now, all of these skills are basic, take care of yourself skills that fall under DIY. They all save us a tremendous amount of money, money that we can keep. Money that we can save. Money that we can spend on more important things, like investments.
To that list, I want to add DIY fashion.
For men, this is not so relevant because, let’s be frank, I don’t know too many men who can’t be satisfied with a shirt and a pair of pants, preferably clean. For women, this could be hundreds of dollars in savings, in a month!
So, if you have expensive shopping habits, even if it’s at the thrift stores, and you want to cut that down, but still be fashionably dressed, learn how to DIY. All you need is basic sewing skill. A straight stitch is fine. A pair of scissors, and some ingenuity.
College women, you’re probably thinking, you’d rather spend the time doing something else, rather than sewing. Me too. Use shortcuts. Lots of them. Don’t listen to what your granny said about sewing, because she spends a lot of time on it. You don’t have time. Forget hemming. Use fabric that doesn’t fray and leave off the hemming. Heck, forget sewing. Learn how to lace shoes, cut some holes, and make terrific shirts and skirts. Get your materials from Goodwill for cheap. I’ve made entire outfits for $2 in less than an hour.
Borrow Generation-T by Megan Nicolay from the library and get started on being fashionable AND frugal. Visit Threadbangers, especially the forum, for great ideas on how to look fabulous on the cheap.
Here’s a dress I made using ideas from Generation-T. All that was required was cut, sew straight up the two sides. Sew the black band on, again a straight stitch. Wear! There’s no time consuming hemming. Didn’t have to worry about fit because the jersey material is very forgiving. Cost was $2 because the original fabric as a XXL t-shirt from Goodwill and an extra black t-shirt I had lying around. Took me maybe 30 minutes top! How much would a dress like that cost at the mall? Actually, you can’t FIND a dress like that at the stores because they don’t make cool super hero clothing for girls.

