Be choosy. If you are newly espousing a frugal lifestyle it is acceptable to do what you’d like to and have a good time with friends and family. So if you decide to have a pizza night: order pizza in or go out its fine. Maybe going out to dinner with friends is something you do once a month. Instead of worrying about whether or not this will destroy your budget, here are some things you can do before you splurge.

Plan for entertainment. There are some cheapskate blogs that say you shouldn’t include entertainment in your spending plan. Even if you are borrowing DVDs from the library and popping popcorn at home that is entertainment. This may be the entertainment that you do so you can save up for something more expensive.

Let’s say you and your friends decide to go to a restaurant. Most restaurants in urban areas have online reviews and many of those have a sample menu as well. If you know your finances are tight, then you can plan to have an appetizer, soup or salad as your dinner (or a combination) rather than an entree which will save you money.

Skip the alcohol. A glass of wine or a flight may cost the same amount as an entree. If you have water or soft drink then you can cut your bill in half.

Let your friends know that you are saving money. If you are honest with them then they will not try to sabotage you. Diets don’t work for the long term. A spartan financial diet will not work for the long term either. Maybe instead of going out once every two weeks, save up and go out once a month. Then you will be able to have fun and not stress about breaking your budget.

A spending plan should include everything that you need and some of your wants. When all of your needs are met, including saving for the future then you can afford your wants. Do not charge your entertainment wants because you will pay for those a lot longer than you enjoyed the entertainment.

If you are selective in what you do entertainment-wise then you will enjoy yourself more because the experience is not something you ordinarily do. If you go out everyday eating out isn’t special. If you go to a movie theater every week then the experience isn’t as special as if you go once a month or once every two months.

When you cut back, don’t cut back on everything because this will set you up for failure. If you cut back and include some of the things you like to do in moderation you will enjoy your frugal lifestyle more.

Burying your head in the sand is not the thing to do right now. The stock market is dropping but over the long term because you want to have money for the future, so sit tight. If you just started investing last year or five years ago in planning for your retirement, your money would probably be in less volatile areas where there would be less growth but more stability.

In the meantime, don’t fret.

Here are some tips to help stretch your dollars.

1. If you have some coffee that is high quality and some that is average. Make your own blend: use half premium coffee and half not so premium. This way you do not waste anything. Make your own custom blend of coffee and you can still enjoy your favorite beverage.
2. As your lights go out, replace them with CFL light bulbs. They cost more initially but the savings will definitely be noticeable when you receive your electric bill.
3. While the temperatures are cooler, take advantage of the extra heat that your oven will contribute to your home and bake a casserole, or other dish or your choice. This way you are benefitting from the extra heat from your stove.
4. Use a little less detergent than recommended. I have washed clothes and forgotten them until the next day. Inevitably when I rinse out the clothes soap bubbles come out with that extra rinse. If you have a good quality detergent then try using a little less than recommended. Your clothes will be fine and smell just as fresh.
5. Keep contributing to your savings account. This way you still will have an opportunity to have money for later.
6. Check the bottom of your receipt for surveys. Most stores will offer you an incentive for answering the surveys. A restaurant that I used a gift card for 3/4 of my transaction offered me a $10 gift card just for completing a survey. Basically, the gift card could pay for another visit to the restaurant.
7. Swap books or movies with friends. This way you can see movies that they own or even play some of the games they have if you have a comparable system.
8. Don’t buy things just because you have a coupon. Many gift cards (and cash) you can save but coupons have an expiration date. I only use a fraction of the coupons that I receive, sometimes I pass these on to friends or skip them all together.

Have you tried saving money in as many ways as you possibly can and can’t think of another?

Do you pay bills online?

If you pay 4 bills a month online, you will save 1.64 a month. The savings are greater if you pay more bills online. Another benefit to paying your bills online is that they are credited to your account faster. So if you were like me and would wait until the last minute to pay your bills because you forgot, then paying your bills online definitely would help you avoid additional fees.

Think about all of the bills that yo have to pay each month.

I have a cell phone, home phone, electric, mortgage, credit card bills, insurance. So each month I save about $2.50. It doesn’t seem like much but that’s a conservative amount. Some recurring charges are billed automatically to my credit card because then I do not have to worry about a late payment because I forgot.

Paying online or having charges automatically billed to a credit card or deducted from your checking account means that you still need to check your bill. I still check all of my bills and then go over my credit card bill as well. Errors happen but if you check your statement often then you will be able to call and catch the error quickly.

Not everyone banks or pays bills online but with the price of stamps and the possibility of lost mail, paying bills online is something to look into. Besides this way you won’t have to order checks as often.

Take the time today to focus on Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.’s legacy and achievements and what we still need to work on today. It only takes one person to bring about change.

Have you checked your cupboards lately?

It is important to take stock of what you have and what you use often so that you don’t have to spend exorbitant amounts of things that you use often and could buy in bulk. Especially things like toilet paper, toothpaste, and soap.

I went to get a bar of soap out of my stash today and I found that I only had three bars. When I took one out to use in the shower that mean I only had one left. So now is the time for me to go shopping for bar soap.

I have about two weeks until I will run out of soap and even then I have a full sized bar in my travel case.

What do you use often? The last thing I had to stock up on was dish washing detergent. If I don’t have a lot of dishes I do not like to wait to have a full load for the dishwasher. So I will wash those dishes by hand. When I saw Palmolive on sale for 99¢ at Walgreens I jumped on the offer and bought three. They will not go to waste and will last months.

I stocked up on toilet paper with the mega rolls from Target the other day and I have a couple of tubes of toothpaste lying around.

The only item I don’t stock up on is paper towels. A roll of paper towels lasts me quite a while in the kitchen so I only keep one or two spare rolls and I’m not brand loyal for paper towels.

When you take inventory of what you have and set a replacement threshold when you need to replenish your supply then you will have a better grasp of your finances. Also, just because you get a great deal, this does not mean that you have to buy out the store but figure out what is a reasonable amount for you to have in your cache. If you only like to buy soap or toothpaste three times a year then shop around. If you are comfortable waiting until you have the last quare of toilet paper on the roll you will always pay more than you would if you decided to stock up at least a little. If you are comfortable cutting it close, then maybe when you get down to two rolls of toilet paper left: start shopping around for the best deal.

Take inventory of your non-perishables and by planning ahead you can save big.

Saving money, buying what I really want, and not wasting money is how I like to live. There are some things that I splurge on and others that I have to really think about before purchasing. While I was watching the Fed Chairman on television, I kept thinking that he was going to say something of substance. To my liking, he never did.

Ben Bernanke wasn’t really saying anything that we didn’t already know. Yes we know that prices are over 3% higher, closer to 4% higher than the previous year. We also know that there isn’t as much economic growth or any in some sectors. Your wallet knows the difference. He said it may be because of the higher fuel prices being transferred to the consumer but he didn’t know.

“Getting money to low- and moderate-income families is good in terms of getting the most bang for the buck,” Bernanke said. This would stimulate the economy but would it be the best for all Americans?

One representative asked: how can we make sure that people won’t spend the money they receive on non-essential items? You can’t if people just receive a check then you can’t control how people spend their money or if they spend it. If people are given food stamps or other limited ways of spending money such as a credit on their utilities.

Do you remember the 2001 rebate that George W. Bush wanted us to have? I do but I don’t remember what I spent it on.

There is no way to make sure that people spend their money on specific things. Bernanke said that when the $300 tax rebate was given to people in 2001 to stave off the effects of the recession that one third of the people spent their money, one third paid down credit card debt and another third saved/invested it.

So, if today I received a check in the mail the money would go to one of the two ways spending or saving. With the difficulty that people are going through now, if they are near foreclosure they may use it to pay down debt.

Even if you are working and are comfortable you may be more inclined to restrain your spending because you do not know what the future holds, even if you have a fixed rate mortgage or none at all and a good hold on your savings and investing.

Retailers are trying to stimulate the economy the best way they know how by offering coupons and discounts. Two major book retailers have sent me coupons in my mailbox one for 25% off and the other for 30% off. Gas stations and grocers need to offer those coupons too, to everyone and that would be a real way of stimulating the economy. Although that wouldn’t help those who do not drive or do not cook at home. Our economy is fragile, we consume many things – much more than we probably need to. As people are realizing this, or realizing that they can’t pay for their whims then they pull back.

Let’s say the government decided to give everyone coupons for goods and services that they use and in order not to increase the national debt, people were able to use the coupons only if they paid cash for their purchases. This would make the economy get moving because people would spend their money on essentials without adding to their debt.

In a way, with the turn away from consumerism, and more people leaning toward being financially conservatism there will be a recession or downturn in the national economy. With more people cutting back on their spending en masse whether they have to or not, it really affects the economy. Especially if people cannot finance their chosen lifestyle with debt the way they had been doing in previous years.