Welcome to Simply Frugalynne

Hello! Welcome to my blogspot! I have been thinking for quite some time about starting a blog on being frugal. Frugality is pretty much second nature to me. I remember as a small child trying to get every last bit I could out of that dime at the Ben Franklin store. I do believe some people are born with frugal genes. Others are not. But never fear! This blog is not about beating anyone into frugality or making you feel bad if you are as much of a penny pincher as some more frugal types! As a matter of fact, I am not as frugal as I used to be (truth be told). I think frugality should be fun, a challenge and something you enjoy doing! Frugality is not a competition! Frugality is about making your life more simple, peaceful and happy no matter how much you make or where you are at in your finances. I hope you will join me in this journey! So that's my introduction to my blogspot! If you are waiting for frugality tips, that will be in later blogs. If you want to see why I think frugality is very important, please continue to read this blog!

I see more of a need for frugality now than ever, especially since the crash of 2008. Do you feel like you have less money now than ever and are you beating yourself up over it? Well, you need to know it is not all your fault. Americans lost a great deal of wealth in the crash and we all need to be looking towards the future. Americans lost a great deal of equity in their homes and are even now as we speak losing money from pension funds and the like. The stock market and your 401k may look good right now, but I would not feel too confident that it is going to last. If it does, great! But I think we all need to do what we can to prepare for the future for our families.

Student loan debt is higher than it has ever been and some are calling it a bubble. Kids today fresh out of college are strapped with debt almost the size of a mortgage. According to the Wall Street Journal, the class of 2014 has the highest debt ever, averaging $33,000 per student.
http://blogs.wsj.com/numbers/congatulations-to-class-of-2014-the-most-indebted-ever-1368/

We all need to do what we can to be proactive and make the most of what we have. I am not saying that some crooks on Wall Street, the Big Banks and Washington have not done their fair share to get the middle class where we are today, but protesting with signs and "feeling outraged" and demanding more things from the government is the wrong approach in my opinion. Those things may have a place at times but personal responsibility is a very good thing when it comes to finances and unfortunately, one of the most important subjects.....how to manage your money....gets little attention in the classroom. Ever wonder if that is by design? I do. After-all, the less you know about managing money, the more student loan debt you have and the more debt you have altogether, the more likely you are to happily hand your money over to someone else.

Half of all Americans can't come up with $2000.00 in a month's time.

http://business.time.com/2011/06/01/nearly-half-of-americans-would-struggle-to-come-up-with-2k-in-30-days/

How are people supposed to retire? Are you going to rely on Social Security? If you are in my age bracket, think of the demographics of that...The baby boomers are a huge generation. How are the younger smaller generations supposed to pay for all of them? Have you thought about inflation? That report you get tells you how much you will get every month if you retire at a certain age, but how much will that money be worth?

http://www.usatoday.com/story/money/business/2014/05/14/producer-price-index-april/9053889/

http://news.msn.com/us/the-rise-of-suburban-poverty-in-america

So, this blog is about personal responsibility. It is about frugality. And it is about fighting back. Not with fists raised in the air demanding more from an ever bloated government. But about taking charge of our own lives ourselves and doing what we can to make a happy, secure future for ourselves and our children. I hope you will join me.

I love feedback! Please feel free to comment!