Ahh, the great debate – Is it better to save as much money as possible and live an extremely frugal life OR seek out side jobs to make more money?
Natalie Bacon over at The Finance Girl discussed this in depth a few weeks ago, and I wanted to share where I stood on this issue.
Based on the title of this post, I’m sure you can guess that I’m more about earning and than saving every penny. I wasn’t always this way, though. In fact, it was just in the last few months that I decided I really wanted to focus on earning more instead of save, save, save. Don’t get me wrong – saving money is good. But, what you save is somewhat (read: very) dependent on what you make.
Ways that I save include couponing (I’m new at this, but will be sharing tips and tricks as I go), purchasing necessary items off of Craigslist (tools for my husband’s job, used vehicles, etc), not paying interest (paying credit cards off EVERY month), buying generic items at the grocery store, buying items on sale only, shopping at Costco and more. I will say, though, that the main way I save is by simply not buying stuff I don’t need. Yesterday at the mall I was browsing through Bath & Body Works, and while I would love to own every single delicious smelling candle, I didn’t buy anything. I was there to walk around with the girls and let them play – not to shop. I try to avoid impulse buying and would say I succeed 90% of the time.
Now, I’m looking to earn more money. I work from home, so my options really are endless as I’m discovering. Of course, there’s only so much I can do in any given day as my two girls are my main priority 🙂 I am excited to explore more income-earning avenues as time goes on, though. My husband is also working for himself, which means the more he works, the more he’s able to make. Once we buy a house, him and I have a few ideas for side businesses that we want to start. We need space for those projects, so unfortunately we can’t start those businesses while living in our apartment.
While both earning more and saving more are absolutely necessary to financial independence, you can’t make millions quickly simply by saving (assuming you make an average salary). You need to bring in more money that way you can save more money. You need to invest your money, develop passive streams of income, possibly own and rent out real estate, minimize your bills and so on and so forth.
My husband and I are very good at saving money and living within our means. Going out to eat is spending $15 at the local BBQ restaurant to feed all four of us! We love cooking at home, going on walks and to the library, watching movies, playing cards, reading and more. This past week, though, BOTH of our cars wound up in the auto shop (more on this later) and cost us $400 (we got off VERY lucky!). Still, that was $400 we could have saved but instead had to go to our auto repairs. Unexpected expenses happen ALL the time, so instead of stressing about not saving as much, I’m changing my game and focusing on earning more!
What are your thoughts? Are you a spender or a saver? Do you focus on saving more, earning more or both? I would love to know!!
Natalie @ Financegirl says
atThanks so much for mentioning my post, Sarah! I’m a new reader, and I will say at first glance I love the layout and colors of your blog. I’m looking forward to reading more of your posts in the future. Have a great weekend!
sbrooks52111@yahoo.com says
atAww thanks for your comment!! Made my day! 🙂 The blog layout is definitely a work in progress haha, I’m not the best with coding but am slowly learning as I go! Hope you have a great weekend, too!
Erin @ Journey to Saving says
atNo need to worry on the blog, I agree that it looks great! We have extremely similar thoughts here. I used to be (and still am, ever so slightly) in the “save more” camp, just because it was easier to slash expenses right out of college. I continued living frugally (and use the same methods of saving as you do), but now there’s almost nothing left to cut. The only solution is to start earning more.
That’s partially why I became a freelance writer as well. I was stuck in lower paying jobs, and saw a lot of people making more from their “side incomes” than I was making at my day job!
MMD says
atI’m on the “earning more” side of the argument. My reasoning is simple. With saving, you can only go so far with cutting your expenses. $4,000 instead of $5,000 this month. Now maybe you’re living off of $3,000 next month. At some point it has to stop.
With earning more, the possibilities are endless. A lot of the online entrepreneurs I follow make almost $10K or more per month. If you ask me, I’d much rather invest my time and energy into finding a way to make $10K more per month than trying to skimp with $1K less in expenses.
sbrooks52111@yahoo.com says
atCompletely agree!!! That’s my goal – to make 5 figures per month online 🙂 I used to be all about saving, but you’re right…that only gets you so far. Plus, what kind of life is that if you’re always on a super tight budget?!
Thanks for the comment!! Looking forward to following your blog!!
Lila says
atThere’s only so much that you can cut back on even when you stack sales, coupons, and store loyalty cards. You can cut back but you can’t make things free. Here’s an example. I stopped getting processed food at the grocery store and stopped eating out so much.
I now get fruits, veggies, meat and dairy at the grocery store. Processed food like a frozen pizza, soda and cookies is 1% of my grocery bill. I practice minimalist couponing, I use my loyalty store card, an app Target Cartwheel when I go to Target for groceries, but I can’t make the groceries free even with all my saving tactics.
I used to spend around $100-150 for my groceries and now I spend anywhere from $45-60, although yesterday I spent like $79.77 but that’s because I got a lot of chicken that was antibiotic-free and cage-free eggs. I’ll use some of the chicken this week and the next couple of weeks so I don’t feel too bad.
I also go online to the grocery stores that are within 5-15 minutes of my home and see their weekly ads and compare what’s on sale. For example the other week Baker’s had organic Kale on sale for .99. So yes you can save and that’s good, cutting back is important, but I can’t make groceries free.
I think living within reasonable means to where you’re not feeling deprived and earning more are a perfect marriage. When you earn more you can accelerate goals like paying off a mortgage, saving for comfortable retirement, taking a nice family vacation, etc.