Frugal Living Improves Decision-Making Skills
Do you have good decision-making skills? If you don’t, you can improve them by adopting a lifestyle based on frugal living principles. It’s all about making plans and setting goals.
Decisions making skills applied toward finances or something else require a common approach. You need to go through several steps to ensure your choices are sound.
Frugal living improves your decision-making skills by keeping you aware of those steps. You practice making goal-oriented decisions. You are assertive by adopting methods to enhance the success of your choices. And when things don’t go as planned, you use your resources to develop reasonable alternatives.
Frugal living has many benefits. Among those benefits is saving money. Saving money leads to opportunities for investments and saving more money. With more money, you can enhance your current lifestyle and your future. You can also experience personal growth. You can do these things because you make goal-oriented decisions.
Are you ready to start making better decisions? Read on.
How Frugal Living Improves Decision-Making Skills
As with any skill, decision-making requires practice, and good decisions develop within an established framework. I will show you how the frugal living mindset provides step-by-step direction to making good decisions.
If you are living frugally, I’m sure you already have your decision-making steps laid out. You’ve found it also works in areas of life that don’t directly involve finances. (Does one exist???) If you have yet to use your decision-making framework as a life-encompassing tool, do so. Frugal living is a whole-life endeavor… Keep that in mind if you are considering or new to frugal living.
Frugal living improves your decision-making skills. You’ll develop your own plan. Below are steps that need to be included:
1. Choose a goal
2. Make a plan
3. Be assertive
4. Ask an expert
5. Keep it in perspective
6. Set deadlines
7. Limit choices
You can use these same steps to make decisions in every area of life. It’s all about careful consideration one facet at a time:
Start With A Goal
Decide what you want the outcome to be. For example, let’s say you want to reduce your electric bill by twenty-five percent.
Having a “why” for your goal is essential. It could be as simple as wanting to bank more money or accumulating funds to meet a need (or even a want).
A timeframe may or may not be important. (In the lifestyle example of lowering the household electricity bill, time may or may not be a factor– we’ll say it ought to be done ASAP.
Once you know your desired outcome, you’ve established your goal. In this case, it’s using less electricity. Next, you make your plan. Your plan will consist of what you’ll do to achieve that goal.
Plan — Actions That Will Accomplish Your Goal
Turn off lights when not in use
Set the air conditioning up ten degrees in the summertime
Use fans when necessary
Set your heating down ten degrees in the winter
Wear more clothes, maybe a hoodie if you are cold.
Turn the water heater down twenty degrees
Caulk around windows and doors
Install weather stripping on the bottom of the doors that lead to outdoors
Heat and cool only the rooms being used.
Be Assertive — Take Action:
As you move around your house, ensure that things needed to accomplish your goal are being done. (Some of these in themselves may require mini goals if they involve spending money.)
Caulk around the windows and doors to prevent air from entering or leaving the house.
Turn the water heater down
Keep the outside doors closed
Install a smart thermostat to keep the temperature correct
Make sure lights not in use are turned off
Keep the doors closed to the rooms not being heated or cooled
Let people know your goal and how you plan to accomplish it. Remind others that you are trying to save money on (in this case) the electric bill. Request their help in doing so. (BTW: It helps to remind yourself of your goal regularly. It’s a good idea to review your goals and plans frequently to ensure you continue to make progress.
You enforce your plan. You make it happen.
Track Your Progress
Whether you have a deadline or not, tracking your progress is important. After working on your goal for a month (or at the end of a new billing cycle), take note of any changes.
If you are not moving toward your goal, you must consider why? Is it no longer of interest to you? Do you discard it or revise it? Whether you decide to abandon it or modify it, consider it a learning opportunity. (Know yourself better the next time you set a goal, Maybe your plan had too many personal pitfalls?)
If you decide to keep the goal, you may need more self-discipline or help from another source.
Ask An Expert
It’s essential to get as much help as possible. Self-confidence is great. Moral (and practical) support from others is appreciated. Sometimes, however, we need the wisdom of education and/or experience. You may have overlooked something. Be willing to seek an expert for advice. Have an open mind. Listen and consider what is feasible. Use new practicable viewpoints, experience, and information that will meld with (or replace) your own to generate progress towards your goal.
Weigh your options and “make it happen.”
The Decision Making Process
It’s a simple process, but you must consider other people and their needs. Is your method the best? Would some other plan work just as well (or better)? You weigh your options, then limit everyone’s choices.
What is the gold in your plan? Notice, I didn’t say “goal.” I said, “gold.” This is where your “Why?’ comes in. Essentially, the goal and the gold are the same. The emphasis is different: The goal is a finish line. The gold is the reward. It’s best to get everyone affected by your goal to see their stake in the gold. It could be as simple as saving money by cutting back on the electricity used for running the air conditioner this summer to have the funds to pay for heat this winter. (I’m sure you can think of something more personal.)
Be Reasonable
As much as you want results, you may not see them immediately. You and others may need time to change your thoughts and behavior. Change is difficult for some people. It may take time to get everyone to adopt the necessary changes. (This is a good reason for frequent review of progress.)
Keep It In Perspective
When do you expect to see the change (in your electric bill or anything else)? As I said above, change can be difficult for some people. Make sure everyone knows how this goal will benefit them. (We tend to be more cooperative when we know we will get something out of it.)
Note: You can also introduce an element of fun into reaching your goal. Think how much small children delight in “helping.” You could make them light and door monitors. (Give them a badge to make it “official.”) As surprising as it sounds, assigning responsibility to almost anyone will make them more compliant, especially if a reward is involved. (You might get more “help” than you can handle…)
Whatever your goals, you must make the necessary sacrifices and rewards of value to everyone going through the experience with you.
Conclusion
Making decisions is an integral part of life. A practice of goal setting, developing a plan to achieve the desired outcome, analysis of options, a prescribed method of implementation, and regular review, along with communal support and some flexibility when encountering stalled progress will improve your decision-making skills in all aspects of life. Essentially, frugal living improves decision-making skills through practice, practice, and more practice. Learn from all that practice, and you’ll build a history of success.
Because frugal living is a lifestyle commitment, using it as a springboard for decision-making will improve the skills involved. Yes, frugal living improves decision-making skills.