Finding Inspiration to Save: Why Not Use Lent to Increase Your Motivation?

Written by Lyn Brooks, Staff Writer

Sometimes, it's hard to get motivated to save money. Even when your finances are in a shambles and you know you need to take some drastic actions to get a better handle on your money. Finding the inspiration to save is especially difficult around the holidays. Even when it's not a "major" holiday, like Christmas, or New Year's Eve, the minor holidays that are "sprinkled" throughout the year can be especially dangerous and tempt you to go off your budget and spend. Parties and other celebrations are especially hazardous to our budget's health.

Last night was not only the New Hampshire primary, it was also Mardi Gras, the last night of festivities for Carnival. Sadly, I didn't get to enjoy any King Cakes this year, or go to any parties. I've not even made any gumbo or jambalaya, which is really pitiful when you consider how frugal and low cost these great dishes can be!

In addition to Mardi Gras, this week was also the start of the Chinese New Year, another holiday with plenty of temptations to spend!

Today, however, is the date of a much more subdued tradition. For Catholics, today is Ash Wednesday, and the start of the Lenten season. Traditionally people give up something that is seen as an indulgence or temptation for them during Lent.

Even though I am not a member of this particular faith, I often feel led during this time of year to increase my prayers and to give up something meaningful in the days and weeks that lead up to the celebration of Christ's resurrection. As with many things, you don't have to be Catholic or even particularly religious, to observe Lent, or even any other holiday. Holidays are what you make of them.

So as I was thinking about what I should give up for Lent this year, I also began to think about how to use this holiday to increase my focus on improving our finances, rather than blowing our budget by throwing a party.

Even though we've started this year out well and truly broke, there is one area of our finances where we still splurge a little from time to time, and that is on eating breakfast out.

Two to three days of the week, my husband and I enjoy eating breakfast out together. Whether we go in and sit across the table from one another waiting on our order, or, just go through the drive through and order biscuits, coffee and tea off of the dollar menu, it's nice to have something hot and warm to eat and drink first thing in the morning that we didn't have to prepare ourselves.

We spend about $17 a week, each week, doing this. Quite frankly, that's $17 that could be used to increase our weekly savings, or in keeping with the theme of the Lenten season, that's $17 we could donate to charity!

Still, it's awfully tempting to continue eating breakfast out so that we don't have to get out of bed so early in the morning to make it ourselves. This is something that is meaningful for us and that won't be so easy to give up. That is why we have decided that eating breakfast out is our little indulgence that we are giving up for Lent this season.

Our local McDonalds' had the following special this week: two bacon, egg and cheese biscuits for $3. We got the special, a coffee for my husband and a sweet tea for myself as our last breakfast out before the start of Lent. They now serve breakfast all day, so I am already tempted to cheat on my resolution. It's a whole 46 days until Easter, so we'll see how it goes over the next few weeks,

If we are successful with this challenge, who knows, maybe we will stay on the straight and narrow and continue this new tradition long after Lent ends.

Do you observe Lent? If you do, what did you decide to give up this year?

Photo Credit: Flickr, Randy Heinitz

Apps and Sites that Let You Shop Without Money

By Lyn Brooks, Contributor

If you are short on cash, you might want to consider using sites and apps that make it easy to share, lend and barter to help you save money on everyday activities. 

Sites My Family Uses to Get What We Need and Want While Spending Little to Nothing in Money

The age old system of bartering to exchange resources is alive and well in America, and several apps and sites make it easy for my family to get what we need or want while paying little, if any, money.

I live in a family of book lovers, and we use to spend $50 to $100 a month on books, but not anymore. We've been able to exchange books for free with other members on BookMooch and Swap.com. Swap also allows you to swap video games, and DVDs, and you just pay for shipping. Both sites have really helped us to lower our cost for entertainment.

When my son moved 500 miles away to attend college in the city, he used Zipcar to rent a car for next to nothing when he needed one for special trips a couple of times each semester.

My oldest daughter saves money on name brand or designer clothing by using Swapstyle to swap clothes with others around the world.

We also use our regional Craigslist to find used items at a low cost. When I was unemployed and our refrigerator, stove and dryer all died within 17 days of one another, we were able to find replacements for $50, $25 and $20 through this site. The appliances look and work great and we are still using them today. Most Craigslist groups also have a Free section -- which is where we scored a free upright piano that was in pristine condition when our youngest daughter wanted to learn to play.

A site that we turn to frequently to find the items that we want and need for free is Freecycle, and the most interesting item that I have ever received also came from this site. This site has literally come to my family's rescue countless times.

Most of the items that I've receive through Freecycle have been fairly straight forward exchanges, but the very first time that I participated really stands out in my mind. One poster listed several bags full of boys clothing to give away, as long as you agreed to take away a "couple of leftover moving sale items as well," as the poster was leaving that afternoon to move to a new state.

I readily agreed and drove into the nearby city to collect the items. I arrived literally as they were closing the doors to their moving van and getting ready to drive off. A very nice lady loaded 3 large trash bags into the trunk of my car and said, "Whatever you can't use, please pass on to someone who can, just don't let it end up in a landfill." She then drove away in the moving van, and I drove home.

Once I got home, I started to go through the bags. In the first bag, there were several pairs of brand name jeans, that were barely worn and fit my son perfectly, as well as several pullovers and hoodies. My son basically had a new wardrobe.

In the second bag there was a really nice, lined khaki jacket with multiple pockets that is perfect for my husband's hiking trips. We looked it up and found that this particular brand costs several hundreds of dollars new, and it was in pristine condition.

In the third bag we found the most surprising and unexpected item -- mixed in with the lady's unwanted plastic storage containers and kitchen gadgets was an object that I didn't recognize. I speculated that it was perhaps some sort of musical instrument -- which made my husband laugh when he corrected me -- it was a pot bong! Of course, we didn't keep that item since its illegal, but it made the experience memorable!

All of these sites have helped us to drastically reduce the amount of money that we spend.

I love receiving feedback from my readers! Have you ever used one of these sites to get a low cost or free deal on something that you wanted or needed? Why not share your favorite sites and apps with your fellow readers so that they, too, can start saving money and begin to get out of debt?

Photo Credit: fontplaydotcom