money stress Archives - the frugal millionaire

How to Start Managing Your Money

This is a sponsored post for PSECU, a not-for-profit credit union. All opinions are my own.

Managing your money is a necessary life skill and really should be taught in schools right alongside math and English. Usually, we make mistakes in our 20s and learn our lessons the hard way. We get into auto loan debt, student loan debt and credit card debt, then are left wondering how the heck we’re going to pay all this off.

If you’re just starting out with learning to manage your money, or if you’re knee-deep in debt and are trying to dig yourself out of a seemingly endless hole, this post is for you. Here is how to start managing your money in an easy-to-understand, step-by-step format.

2 Guaranteed Ways to Stop Stressing About Money

We’ve all been there: bills are due, things around the house keep breaking, a child gets sick, we of course need to eat, and basically the expenses just don’t stop rolling in.

I would say our “low” point was right after our first daughter was born (this was about four years ago). I had quit my full-time job when she was born and was just starting to break into freelancing. My husband was working for himself in construction and remodeling. We had just gotten back from a week-long family reunion (that my parents so graciously paid for or else we would not have been there) which meant my husband missed an entire week of work. We had savings, but for a few months, we were forced to make so many withdrawals that we were practically down to nothing.

I hated that feeling. Every day I woke up with a pit in my stomach. We lived in a very, very modest house (we purchased our first home for less than $150K), we ate pasta with sauteed onions for dinner multiple times per week, we didn’t go out to eat, and we by no means went shopping for fun. We were on a super tight budget, and even then we were still just scraping by.

Can anyone else relate to this?

Stressing about money sucks, period. And heck, I’ll say it, being on a tight budget sucks, too!

Fast-forward four years later (now), and we’ve completely changed our situation. I can honestly say that I haven’t been stressed about money (in that sense) in a while, and it feels incredible. I’m sleeping better, I’m happier and have a healthier outlook on life, my relationship with my husband is better than ever, and I’m truly enjoying life.

Want to know what I did to stop stressing about money? Grab a cup of coffee, this one’s a long one…

Finding balance between spending and saving

I’m a saver by nature and I’ve mentioned that before on the blog multiple times. I’m rarely tempted by material items and love when I can put my entire check straight into savings. But lately, I’ve been wondering where to draw the line. The rental house we live in is still pretty unfurnished, we need patio furniture and I’m due for an upgrade on my computer. But…none of these are necessities which is why I have a hard time justifying the expense.

“Next month if we make XX dollars, then we’ll buy a patio set.” “Once we have XX in savings, I’ll feel more comfortable splurging on furniture.” But the problem for me is when we DO make good money one month or we DO hit our savings goals, I still don’t feel justified spending a lot of money.

How to feel rich regardless of income

Happy Wednesday! Before I dive into today’s topic, I don’t know if anyone noticed but I got a new theme installed on my blog! It’s from Pixel Me Designs and I could not be happier with it. Laura, the designer, is wonderful to work with. I purchased a pre-made theme but emailed her a question and she responded immediately. I am all about good customer service and Laura surpassed my expectations! For those of you new to my blog, I have a self-hosted WordPress site and am using Genesis Framework. Laura provided me with the Child Theme that goes along with Genesis Framework. You can read more on how to start a blog here.

The original theme I was using didn’t properly load “page 2” and on, making it difficult to navigate my site. I deleted that theme a few weeks ago and was just running off of Genesis Framework. I took my time purchasing my current theme because I wanted to find one that I LOVED and that was functional. Having an appealing, easy-to-navigate, fully functioning site is vital if you wish to make money from your blog.

Anyways, on to today’s topic…

How to stop stressing about money

So, first things first. I typed up a nice long post this afternoon recapping my parents visit and saying how much we spend when guests from out of town visit and then… The post got deleted when I clicked “Save draft.” That’s never happened before, but I guess there’s a first time for everything.

So, onto another topic on how to stop stressing about money. I don’t know about you, but I am ALWAYS stressed when it comes to finances. No matter how much we save each month, how much we cut back or how much we make, I’m stressed. It’s seriously like a sickness and it’s GOT to stop.