Frugal living Or Smart Spending?

Recently a discussion with friends led me to thinking is frugal living a solution for the economic downturn? Definitely not because we do not live frugally, like they do in the villages of India. Metropolitans and city breds need to be smart in their spending. Here are a few tips that will get you thinking on how to save as you spend.

Scene 1: My cousin Akki was visiting us and Dad noticed he was wearing a nice pair of square cut shoes. He asked where he bought those from, Jabong was his prompt reply. He is one of those smart kids that spends some time online to look for coupons and what better place than Indiancoupons.com

It's easy to use, they have 43 categories to look up and 103 stores offering good deals. As I write this their statistics show 37,513 coupons used in the last one month! That's some cool no. of users, I'd say!

Scene 2 : Right now there is wonderful deal from Dominos, if you have a party on the weekend use this coupon on a Wednesday. Freeze the pizzas and heat them up for the party on the weekend!

Wednesday Offer: Buy 1 Pizza and Get 2nd for Free

The site shows the popular stores as well as top categories. That makes it easy for search. Look for what's hot on those widgets on the RHS. Also look up and share with your friends on FB and rate the best deals. It saves so much time than being lost in the deals maze on the internet.

Talking about saving time, if you are interested in just a particular store or a few of them; awaiting the best deals to feature then all you got to do is subscribe for the coupons and have them delivered to your Inbox!

Scene 3: I bought 10 kgs of fresh peas from APMC market, its a winter ritual for me. I buy the bulk, shell and freeze. It lasts me thru the year and the quality is superlative I need not mention it obviously compared to the branded frozen peas which are so meh!

In season peas cost me Rs.9 per kg and I have 7.5 kgs of shelled peas. Do your calculations now!

This is what my deep freezer looks like now!

You would have heard about a guy who is famous for living without money. The joke is that man is raking in money now for sharing his experience of 'living without money' for a few years that he did!

I can tell you that living without money is not a sustainable living unless you live like the adivasis, grow your own food and plant back what you have taken from nature.

I myself have lived really frugally while in Blr, about a year without TV, few years with just a mixie as the only gadget in my kitchen and so on. I felt deprived at the end of 3-4 years and I started indulging myself. Yes but that experiment taught me to be careful with money and prioritize my needs. Avoid financial liabilities. I am lucky to have none!

We all know that reality is something else, we need to earn and save money to sustain our lifestyles so the smart thing to do is to indulge in luxuries a little less and adopt SMART SPENDING! 

Go coupon hunting on  Indiancoupons.com, most of all have fun!