Living beneath my means is something I learned from my parents. They had 5 kids plus my elder sister who was still-born. Because my parents had to raise 5 kids they could not spend up all of their money on whatever they wanted because they had responsibility.
Therefore, they’d save money by spending less. Living beneath our means doesn’t necessarily mean doing without. It just means getting what we need at the most economical price so there will be some left over for emergencies or just to have if we want to use it for something.
My parents lived beneath their means by shopping at the thrift store for our clothing and toys as we were consistently growing children. My mom would also call around and get vouchers for some of the various thrift stores where we’d be able to pick out three outfits for free.
Living beneath our means can also mean waiting until we’ve saved up enough for that big purchase that we wanted instead of financing it or spending money that we did not already have. Personally, I don’t believe it’s wise to spend money that I don’t have. Now, there are certain purchases where we have to do this such as a house and in some cases a car, but even with a car we can still save.
I don’t believe it’s a good habit to form when we spend what we do not have consistently. I believe we need to carefully count up the cost of big purchases. In doing so, we can plan for the purchase so that we will minimize our monthly debt when we finally proceed with the purchase. For example, I was working two jobs for a few years not because I had to, but because I love kids and wanted to pour into kids.
Thus, I took an abstinence educator position where I taught in schools twice per week during the school year for 4 years. The checks I got from that went into my savings account; while my full-time job went into my checking account. I lived off of the full-time job and saved from the second job. When my car at the time gave out; I had a large down-payment on the car paying over 50% of the balance of the car. Because of that, I was able to pay my car off in a year.
I lived below my means all that year not getting any sew-ins. I took all of my extra money and put it on the car payment each month until the car payment was no more. I never made the agreed upon payment. I always paid more. Paying more on monthly payments is a quick way to decrease and eliminate debt while saving money on interest each month. Only purchasing what is needed such as food, gas, utilities, and housing for a period is a way of living beneath our means. It allows us to do without some of the things we may want for what we need and in turn, allows us to pay off debt sooner. Paying off debt sooner frees up more money in our monthly budgets to do what we want.
Finally, living beneath our means also means not buying the most expensive item available. Instead of buying a new $20,000 car, I found a car that was nice and to my liking for under $10,000. We don’t have to have the most expensive car or fit in with what our friends are able to afford. I personally don’t care what my friends are able to afford. I have to be responsible for myself. I know I’m the type of person who likes to go on trips here and there exploring and sight-seeing; therefore, I intentionally do not commit to overspending. I intentionally commit to sticking to a budget.
Now, sometimes things come up, for example, I recently had to spend more than I wanted with three different mechanics trying to get my car to pass the vehicle emissions test in time to have my license plate renewed, but that was an emergency. There was no way to get around that. Living under our means helps us to more easily take care of those emergencies and still do some of the things that we really want to do.
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