Seven Ways Honesty Is Key To Frugal Living

You and your family would wish to live more comfortably and more frugally. One of the keys to successful frugality is honesty. These are just a few specific examples.

1.  Honest with yourself: in order to live frugally, you are under an obligation to live within a budget. This requires you to be honest with yourself about your spending. You can call a haircut “groceries” but you can’t feed your kids a haircut.

2.  Honest with your spouse: Successful frugality requires peace at home, which requires honesty between spouses. If you decide that you won’t spend more than $100 without the approval of your spouse, you need to be truthful about it and hold yourself accountable just as you will hold your spouse accountable.

3.  Honest with your employer: Earning a living is very important to your lifestyle. Nothing will get an employee fired faster than a breach of trust. Whether it be petty things like not working a full shift, “borrowing” office supplies, fudging on a expense report or lying about who drained the coffee pot without putting a new one on, any of these can violate a trust that leaves your job in jeopardy. Be scrupulous.

4.  Honest with creditors: When you borrow money, you have an obligation to accept that obligation as a literal, moral obligation to repay the money—not just eventually—but on the agreed upon terms. All your obligations are tracked carefully by those whom you owe and failure to be paid on time and as agreed can have long lasting and painful implications. Don’t borrow money you can not afford to repay.

5.  Honest with merchants: as you go through your day making purchases of all sorts, you demand absolute integrity and honesty from the merchants where you shop. If the price tag says $19.99, you are supposed to pay $19.99. If the system pulls it up to $24.99, you’ll call them on the error. Let the street run both ways. If the merchant makes an error in your favor, get to know. Not because your kids are watching, or even because its good karma. Do it ' cause it’s the right thing to do?

6.  Honest with your children: kids have a difficult time understanding money and limits. They may not understand why you don’t have $10 for milkshakes on the way to the grocery store where you’ll spend $100 on groceries. Don’t lie to them. Explain honestly that as a family you must have priorities and that in order to be in a position to afford essential things, sometimes giving up less worthy things is required. Honest dialog with your kids will make them your allies in saving money.

7.  Honesty in reporting: As you seek to live frugally, to save for the future and maintain a happy home, you need in order to measure your progress. Be scrupulous in the preparation of your reports. Follow up where the money goes, how much you do in savings and what your assets are worth compared to what you owe. Keep track in an honest way so that you and your spouse can use of reports to better plan and organize for the future.

Being honest with yourself and others regarding money will contribute meaningfully to have a prosperous home and family. Operating as a family, communicating honestly with one another about money, and treating your employer and merchants with integrity will tip the scales in your favor in the long run.