Last week, I received an email from a reader in Canada.  She loved the Living With Less book and wanted to ask a few more questions about the subject.

After answering her questions, I thought I’d share them with you.  I’d love to know how you would answer any or all of these questions, too!

 

1) Would you recommend a frugal lifestyle as the best way a person can really get to know him/herself and evaluate whats important to them?

Yes. I believe that when we distill down to the “necessities” of life, it helps us identify what’s most important to us.  When I started staying at home with my kids, I found that having new furniture or even saving for college was much less important than being there when they got home from school.


2) Do you have any advice (favorite strategies) for people with debt issues on how they can not feel deprived while cutting spending to pay back debt?

Don’t give up EVERYTHING extra.  If you’re paying off debt, leave money in your budget to eat out on occasion or purchase clothing every once in a while.  Completely depriving yourself will only drive you to “binge spend” and mess up your debt reduction plan.  People paying down debt still wanna have some fun…they just need to do it less often or less expensively than they used to.


4) Do you think that a person really needs to know themselves and their goals in order to successfully eliminate debt?

You definitely need to have a vision for the FREEDOM of being debt-free.  I don’t know that you need to really completely know yourself and your goals in order to eliminate debt, but I believe that in the process of eliminating debt, priorities will rise to the top, challenges to those priorities will surface, and you will come to know yourself better in the process.


5) Do you think there’s a direct correlation between a person’s spending habits and a person’s health and well-being?

I think there is a direct correlation between a person’s spending habits and their EMOTIONAL and SPIRITUAL health and well-being.  Our spending represents what we think about ourselves, what we feel entitled to, and how we view money and possessions.

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