How I Will Be Rich

Archive for the ‘Frugality’ Category

This is part of my ongoing theme “The 8 Step Process to Being Rich“.

I’ve been reading Zen Habits a lot lately and one thing that I’ve realized is that I need to de-clutter. I have so many collections and I’ve recently began to wonder what the point was. I have a large comic book collection, a massive DVD collection, a pretty good size CD collection, about 100 shot glasses from around the world and quite a bit of old video games that I’ll probably never play again. Is there really any reason to have these things? I haven’t read my comic books in years, there’s only about 5 or 6 DVDs that I’ve watched more than once, most of my music is on my IPod and I’ve never had a party large enough to justify the 100 shot glass collection. So now that I’ve decided that I don’t need so much stuff, what do I do with it? The way I see it, I have 3 options. I can 1. Trash them, 2. Donate them or 3. Sell them. It seems like a huge waste to trash them so in actuality I really only have two options.

The first thing I’m going to do is attempt to sell what people might buy. I would take my CDs down to the local Music Trader and see what I can get for them. I’d take my video games and DVDs down to the local Gamestop and see what they offer. I can take my comic books to the local comic book store. The comics alone are probably worth a good $1,000 or so. If my local stores fail me, I have some other options. E-Bay comes to mind. Anything that doesn’t sell offline probably has a market somewhere online.

If I just absolutely can not sell something, I will take them down to the local thrift store and drop them off. I’d keep a few things that are especially valuable to me. Some of the shot glasses that I have, hold great sentimental value to me because they were gifts or were obtained on travels and serve as the one trinket I have to remember the trip.

I think that people will find that once you have a de-cluttered a little, you will find your home to be cleaner and your life to be less stressful, not to mention you may be able to put a few extra bucks in your pocket. I’m hoping to pay down a large portion of my truck once all is said and done.

Next is Step 7: Start Your Own Business

-M

This is part of my ongoing theme “The 8 Step Process to Being Rich“.

There is so much to say about being frugal and so many tips that I could give. Being frugal basically means to spend wisely. Don’t waste money on things that you don’t need but don’t be cheap and skimp on the things that you do need. Being frugal means that when you do have to go out and buy things, you don’t really need the best of the best most expensive things. When you are grocery shopping, buy the generic equivalent of what you want. When buying cars, buy used and hold on to it for as long as you can. There are so many tips I can give that have already been given. Instead of making a comprehensive list of all the frugal ways of doing things, I will make a list of great sites and great posts by others about their frugality. Give these links a try:

• Top Ten Frugal Cars from Young and Broke
• 25 Gadgets That Actually Save Money from The Simple Dollar
• Borrow, Barter, Buy Used: Espousing the Frugal Lifestyle from The Digerati Life
• Simply Thrifty has tons of great posts. I can’t give just one. Visit the entire site.
• Cheap Vs. Frugal at I Will Teach You To Be Rich
• 15 Ways to Eat Healthy While Keeping it Cheap from Get Rich Slowly
• How to live on $600 a month from Finance is Personal
• How to get money for your old clothes and buy quality clothing at a fraction of retail from Generation X Finance
• Don’t Be Afraid to Ask for a Discount from FiveCentNickel
• Thrifty Vs. Frugal Vs. Cheap from Ask Dong
• Frugal Lunch from Clever Dude

Check Out some of those posts to get a real feel for what frugality means. This site is called “How I Will Be Rich” not “How I am Rich”. I still have a long way to go on this step. I’m trying harder every day. I stopped buying DVDs and Music CDs on a weekly basis. This is a step to no only live more frugal but too also de-clutter my life a little. About 6 months ago, I even took a step that is against what I now preach. I bought a new truck. In retrospect, I probably should have bought used but now that I have it, my goal is to get it paid off as quickly as humanly possible and hold on to it as long as possible.

The next post will be Step 5: Start a blog and take steps to monetize.

-M