Love yourself – not what you wear or carry!

I have a long time friend who visited me this weekend. While we were chit chatting about different things going on in our life, we also touched upon the finances. It started with her comment, “Your standard of living has improved so much since we last met, you are still the same, very cautious with money. You have not changed even a bit in past so many years.” And we were casually discussing ideas that I put in my money, when she told me about her finances:

“I don’t know how you manage to save! I am working from last 7 years non stop and no matter how much I earn, I always seem to be short of money. Credit card bills, telephone bills, and my salary vanish almost as it comes. Inflation is at all time high, I am worried whether I’ll be able to support my expenditures like this, I don’t know how can you even save when you earn slightly lesser then me?”

And I know her, so I simply asked, “Do you want to know truth or good!” and she said “good” blinking and we moved on with other topic.

She needs no one to tell her the truth, she herself knows it. But still, she told me to list down her 10 habits that she uses to waste her money on (and believe me, she told me that whatever I am listing as anti-frugal, it’s so much required)and also said that I should publish them on my blog. (OK, I am keeping my promise :) ). Here is my list:

1) Who needs to buy 10 new pair of branded clothes every month?
2) Who needs to have kilograms of non-precious jewellery in their closet?
3) Who needs the latest and expensive most mobile phone to stay connected (and it means changing your set every 2 months)?
4) Who needs uncountable pair of shoes?
5) Do you really need extra iPod, when you have phone that has almost similar capabilities?
6) Dining and wining out at costliest most restaurants almost half of the month is by no means a must?
7) 6000+ monthly telephone bill is unexplainable, even if you get breakup of all calls?
8) You are subscribed to your office transportation, why can’t you get up 15-20 minutes earlier and catch it up all working days, rather then driving 7 – 10 times a month.
9) Makeup, I think you are pretty good even otherwise, costing thousands every month?
10) Last but not the least to say, those extravagant beauty parlor trips? I mean shampooing you hairs or oiling them can be done yourself. Don’t visit specialist for them please!

God! No one can teach you frugal living and managing wealth, but time. All the best! :(