A Thoughtful Approach to Frugal February

Happy February, friends! Wow, I can’t believe we are already starting the second month of 2022. I don’t know about you, but I could have used a few extra days in January. Between planning content for my weekly blog posts and organizing and leading several workshops to kick off the new year at my day job, the month flew by. I’ll be honest, writing one post per week is quite a task for me, as I am a very slow writer. I have always admired women who are able to work full-time and blog 4-5 days per week, and my admiration has only grown this past month. I would love to increase the cadence to at least twice a week in the near future, but I’ll be sticking with weekly Wednesday posts for the time being. I hope you are enjoying them.

Today I wanted to talk about the Frugal February Challenge, as it relates to being intentional with my time (intentional is my word of the year) and somewhat tangentially to design content (one of my intentions). You may be familiar with this challenge that encourages people to prioritize saving money throughout the month of February, partly as a way to compensate for any excess spending over the holidays. I have participated a couple of times in the past and found each time to be both challenging and rewarding. I didn’t want to place any overwhelming restrictions on myself this year since we are still in the pandemic, so I decided to be thoughtful in my approach and select something that would be meaningful long-term and hopefully still fun.

Tips for Success

When I participated in this Challenge in the past, I found that I was most successful when I followed the steps below. I hope they give you ideas on how you might approach Frugal February or some insights if you find yourself struggling at any point.

1. Prepare
   • Review your finances from the past few months to determine where your biggest expenditures occur. Is it in Food, Entertainment, Home Improvement, Travel? Is there one that you can realistically reduce? The goal here is to be realistic so that you set yourself up for success. Several years ago, while I was still working in-person at my day job, I decided to eliminate purchased lunches every day of the work week (in the cafeteria and off-campus), as I was consistently exceeding my monthly budget for food simply by purchasing lunch at work. Expenses from eating out can add up very quickly. Unfortunately, bringing my own lunch to work each day wasn’t the most realistic goal for me, as I prefer to eat a salad for lunch, and I struggled to chop all the vegetables and portion them into containers each morning before leaving home. I didn’t find it any easier to prepare my salad the night before either. It was becoming such a chore, and was no longer fun, so I scaled back and eliminated a purchased lunch 2-3 days per week. This small tweak was just enough to make it more doable for me, and I was able to stick with it long-term while still saving money. I saw it as a win-win. Know your limits and be realistic about what you can achieve.
   • If you can’t decide on one particular category in your budget, then look at your spending behaviors. Are you most likely to incur extra charges while scrolling aimlessly through online shops during your lunch break or your free time in the evenings? Perhaps make a slight shift in your habits and take a walk outside, read a book, or call a friend or loved one instead. Friends of mine often say Amazon is their weakness, and they end up making too many impulse buys that leave them feeling guilty afterwards. If this describes your situation, one option might be to eliminate Amazon purchases for the month altogether. If that sounds too daunting for you, perhaps select a particular category to avoid. For example, if you purchase groceries or other necessities on Amazon, continue to do that, but eliminate purchases of non-essentials. Small tweaks can make a big difference.
   • Be sure to jot down a few potential ideas for how you can realistically limit your spending this month. I always find it’s best to have options in case I need to modify my plans slightly. That way, I know I can still achieve something, even if it is not what I had intended originally. Thinking things through ahead of time also helps me to feel calmer when making decisions in the middle of a process.

2. Plan
   • Once you decide what you will eliminate or reduce, devise a plan for how to do it. I am most successful in all aspects of life when I have a plan – the more detailed the better. Be sure to include how you will mitigate any potential temptations that might arise. For example, I found it very difficult to say no to friends and coworkers when they invited me to lunch at the office, so I implemented a solution that felt more comfortable. Instead of worrying each day about how I would respond to their lunch invites on the spot, I simply scheduled lunches into their calendars for days I had planned to purchase lunch. That way, I was still able to join them for lunch on a fairly regular basis, I worried less about saying no to their invites on days I brought my lunch, and I was able to meet the challenge I had set for myself. Although this was really a small tweak, it had a a very big impact on my outlook for the month.

3. Get Creative
   • Remember that you don’t necessarily need to eliminate or reduce something for this challenge. Incorporating free (and fun) activities into your schedule might be the best option for you. Check social media for upcoming local events and select a few free ones that you might not have considered before. Or get creative and invent something to do at home, using only supplies you have on hand. One idea I really love is to host your own Olympic Games at home, which would be perfect to do once the Olympics start later this month. Casey Finn (of the DIY Playbook) and her husband did this back in 2018, and it looked like they had a blast. They even hosted a medal ceremony at the end of their invented events, complete with flowers (in a vase), a gold medal (necklace from Casey’s jewelry drawer), and a podium (step ladder). It’s a great reminder that with a little imagination and very little (or no money), you can still have a lot of fun.

4. Review Your Progress
   • Check in weekly to monitor your progress. If you find it too easy, perhaps add an additional item to eliminate or reduce. If it’s too hard, and it’s only giving you stress, take a pause, and give yourself some grace. We’re already doing the best we can to get through this pandemic. As quickly as you can, try to get back on track. Stay the course, and don’t give up on your entire goal if you aren’t successful for a few days.

5. Make it Meaningful
   • With these kinds of challenges, it’s easy to see them as needing to ‘give up’ something, but I like to see them as a way to ‘gain’ something. By making a few small, but meaningful choices this month, it’s possible to gain better financial health, which can contribute to better mental and physical health. By selecting something meaningful, you have the opportunity to make long-lasting positive changes in your life. And the best part is, you’ll just need to do it one day at a time.

My Approach

I wanted to be thoughtful in my approach and make a change that I hope will become a long-term habit. I review my finances regularly throughout the year, so I have a good idea where money is going. The company where I work full-time at my day job sent us all home at the beginning of the pandemic in March 2020, and we have been working from home ever since. I have been able to eliminate so many extra purchases each month simply by not going into the office. I brew coffee at home, leisurely chop vegetables for the spinach salad I eat for lunch each day, rarely have to fill the gas tank in my car, and avoid Target much more easily simply because I am no longer driving past the store every night on my way home. For the time being, I prefer to continue social distancing, so I limit eating out and entertainment. Online shopping was never a big draw for me, as I live in Houston where we have our choice of virtually every type of store imaginable. Seeing, touching, and smelling items is so much more exciting for me than making an online purchase. Plus, chatting with local shop owners and learning more about the individual pieces they sell is something I love to do, making in-person shopping the experience I always prefer. Because of all these things, I didn’t have an obvious item to eliminate.

After carefully analyzing my finances and really thinking about how I spend my time each day, I realized I can have the biggest impact by eliminating home decor purchases this month. Aside from bills I have to pay, home decor is my largest line item. Although the financial benefit won’t be that significant, since the amount I spend is not exorbitant, I suspect the amount of time I save actually will be significant. By not perusing shops online and in-person (often times not buying anything), I have time that I can now use for activities that are more meaningful in the long run.

Another reason I chose this option is because I have dedicated several hours each week over the past few months to cleaning and organizing my home. I have taken numerous trips to the donation center and purged and shredded countless piles of papers (my downfall). While I strive to follow William Morris’ motto to “have nothing in your home that you do not know to be useful or believe to be beautiful”, I often find items have a way of accumulating without being immediately obvious. Because I have taken so much time and care to go through each room and closet, I want to enjoy my light, bright, and airy home and not immediately fill it with new decor pieces. I also want to absorb the sense of calm that comes from having a clean and organized space. In fact, studies have shown that people who have clean, organized homes are happier and healthier – both physically and mentally. With all that we have going on in our world today, I am so grateful to have a home that is conducive to happy and healthy living.

Instead of perusing shops for home decor pieces, I plan to spend that time this month doing the following:

• Enjoying my collection of interior design books. One of my goals for the year is to deepen my design skills, and perusing books by industry leaders, who also happen to be some of my favorite designers, will only contribute to my success in the future. It’s funny that when I peruse shops, I am inspired to spend, but when I peruse design books, I am inspired to create.

• Creating a few handmade decorations for spring. While organizing my craft closet this fall, I found some fun supplies I bought several years ago but never used. I plan to create a tutorial to share here in the coming weeks. It will be my first full-fledged tutorial, so I’m pretty excited about it.

• Designing and stitching my next heirloom felt ornament. It’s a design I first started in the fall of 2020, and I am so eager to share it with all of you. I hope to release it sometime in April.

• Perfecting my gluten-free recipes. After consultation with my doctors, I adopted the gluten-free lifestyle last year to alleviate some minor health ailments. I love trying gluten-free recipes and learning more about the overall health benefits of this lifestyle. I’m looking forward to dedicating more time to it.

I’ll be back the first week of March with an honest recap of how things went. I hope you will check back then.

Will you be participating in Frugal February? How will you be approaching it?

xo, Tiffany