Do you ever need some frugal inspiration? We all have times when we know we should be saving but we keep spending instead. Or we get fed up with scrimping to pay off debts and book a holiday on impulse. Only the strongest and most determined of us have never been there!
There are definitely times when I need to strengthen my resolve and find frugal inspiration, so for this week’s five frugal things post I thought I would look up some favourite authors for great quotes. Here are the ones that leapt out at me.
Dave Ramsey
“Winning at money is 80 percent behaviour and 20 percent head knowledge. What to do isn’t the problem; doing it is. Most of us know what to do, but we just don’t do it. If I can control the guy in the mirror, I can be skinny and rich.”
I love Dave Ramsey. He is clear and to the point. I can rarely argue with anything he says! His books, such as Total Money Makeover, are down to earth and full of common sense. His radio show is also great value, for wisdom and laughs. You can find it on You Tube.
“Tightwaddery without creativity is deprivation. When there is a lack of resourcefulness, inventiveness, and innovation, thrift means doing without. When creativity combines with thrift you may be doing it without money, but you are not doing without.”
― The Complete Tightwad Gazette
Who can argue with this approach? People think that frugal living means austerity and a meagre existence. Amy Dacyczyn proves that isn’t the case. The Tightwad Gazette kick started my interest in thrifty living and I still go back to it many years later for a bit of frugal inspiration.
“Frugality is enjoying the virtue of getting good value for every minute of your life energy and from everything you have the use of.”
Vicki Robin was co-author of Your Money or Your Life , 9 Steps to Transforming Your Relationship with Money and Achieving Financial Independence
Maya Angelou
“You can only become truly accomplished at something you love. Don’t make money your goal. Instead, pursue the things you love doing, and then do them so well that people can’t take their eyes off you.” – Maya Angelou
OK, so Maya Angelou isn’t well known for writing on personal finance. However, I read several of her series of autobiographies years ago (most notably I Know Why The Caged Bird Sings
Benjamin Franklin
“The way to wealth is as plain as the way to market. It depends chiefly on two words, industry and frugality: that is, waste neither time nor money, but make the best use of both. Without industry and frugality nothing will do, and with them everything.” – Benjamin Franklin
Sara @ Debt Camel says
My favourite one is good for frugal living but works in a lot of other situations from decluttering and exam revision to saving the planet:
“Nobody made a greater mistake than he who did nothing because he could do only a little.” Edmund Burke
shoestringjane@outlook.com says
That one is so true. Things seem too big to tackle so we don’t bother. I think people are like that with our problems with plastic
Susan @ The Runcible Pen says
The one my husband and I most often quote is well known, but so true. From Mr Micawber in David Copperfield: “Annual income twenty pounds, annual expenditure nineteen, nineteen and six, result happiness. Annual income twenty pounds, annual expenditure twenty pounds ought and six, result misery.” Living just a tiny bit inside or outside of your means will make so much difference, for good or bad, in the long term.
shoestringjane@outlook.com says
You just can’t argue with this! Basic budgeting
Jo says
“Thrift is the really romantic thing; economy is more romantic than extravagance…thrift is poetic because it is creative; waste is unpoetic because it is waste…if a man could undertake to make use of all the things in his dustbin, he would be a broader genius than Shakespeare.”
G. K. Chesterton
This is similar to your quote from Amy D. of the Tightwad Gazette. I see it every time I visit the Thrift at Home blog as she has it on a sidebar.
shoestringjane@outlook.com says
Love it! I had never heard of it. He is a good PR man for a Thrifty lifestyle!
Charlotte Jessop says
I love these quotes! And I love the ones in the comments too. I’m now feeling a bit sad that I don’t have a frugal quote to live by. Off to search the internet for one.