This article began by writing about how to save money in these tight economic times, And, I realized that pinching pennies and being a millionaire are interrelated topics.
I have known people that lived through the Great Depression. They remember it well. These people learned to pinch pennies. And many have become people of wealth, that live modestly.
When I write this list, I reminds me of things my grandparents used to do.
They bring their styrofoam coffee cups home from fast food restaurants to use and reuse them.
They wear the same pair of shoes for years.
They don't wear a different outfit everyday..
They drive a modest car, with no car payment.
They shop with coupons.
They shop for items on sale.
They color their own hair.
They cut their own lawns.
They clean their own homes.
They don't eat lunch out everyday.
They don't buy drive through coffee.
Their habits can be closely followed. And they have a nest egg to show for it.
It often surprises me how careless some people are with their money. They have no regard for it.
Yesterday, I went through the drive through at a fast food chain restaurant. My bill totaled $3.37. When I got to the window I handed the cashier $3.50. She looked at me and said, "You don't need your change back, do you?" Was this something new? I wasn't sure that I heard her correctly."Excuse me?" She repeated, "You didn't want your change back, did you?" "Yes, I would like my change back!" 13 cents a day is the equivalent of $47.00 at the end of a year!
Often times when my family and I are cleaning a rental house after a tenant moves out we find money on the floor. And, over the years I have found that the tenants that had a difficult time paying their rents are the houses with the most money left on the floor, Interesting correlation? Maybe so, but not really. In some houses we have picked up as much as $10.00 in change on the floor!
I can remember my grandpa telling me, "If you have no respect for money, then you'll never have any!"
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Mirela: Oh, how you hit the nail on the head, again! I find this to be the case everyday. We work with bank-owned properties and are amazed at the things left behind...money. valuables of every shape and size, and most of these people must have been consuming something every day whether at Macy's, Target, WalMart, whatever. It seems they were shopping for their lives. I can't explain it. But they are the people who say no, keep the 13 cents!