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Attitude

Attitude is everything! Only you have the power to change your attitude. No one can do it for you!

If you are in debt, only you can get you out of debt. Only you can decide that you want to be debt free. Only you can decide that you don’t want the burden of stress hanging around your neck weighing you down. 

If you want to save money for your future for just about any goal that you might have, only you can decide to do that. No one can force you and no one can do it for you!

I can give you every frugal tip to get out of debt but if you aren’t going to do the hard work involved, then you will fail. Hard work you say, yes hard work. Things don’t come easy for some people and then harder for others. It’s all about your attitude.

Just take a look around you. How many times have you seen people buy something because they say they deserve it? Everyone does deserve everything but not if they can’t pay cash for it. Change your attitude.

If you are in debt to anyone, you can’t afford to buy something that will put you more into debt. The burden you are carrying will get worse and your family’s future is at risk. Debt doesn’t go away all by itself. It takes hard work to get rid of it.


So change your attitude! Don’t just read about frugality. Take the time to put it into action. Do the hard work to get out of debt or save for your future.

One of the reasons, Hubby and I have no debt is we made it a goal not to. We did the hard work to pay off mortgages on our first two homes early. We paid the cash for our last two. Was that easy? No! We gave up a lot of things that people buy every day to do that. Things like coffee out every morning. Things like buying lunch when we worked. Hundreds of little things that helped us along the way to get where we are today.

Did we ever feel deprived? Absolutely not. We still had our coffee every morning;it was just made at home. We brought our leftovers or a sandwich to work for lunch. Did these little changes help us get to the freedom of being debt free? Yes but not by themselves. It was everything cumulatively. All of the things we did and do now get us to our goals. It isn’t done by accident or by just thinking about it. We put it all into action.


We knew we could do anything that we set our minds to. We wrote down our goals and we strived toward them every day. We knew how important they were for us and for our family. We were a busy family with jobs, kids playing many sports, and all of the other things that happen in every day life. But we took the time to work on our goals. We had the right attitude. We knew it would all pay off in the long run and you know what happened? We were right!

We didn’t say we can’t do that because we have no time. We didn’t say that is too hard. We didn’t say, let’s charge it because we want it. We had a plan to get where we are today. We said we know we can do it. We will do the hard work to get it done! So change your attitude and change your life.

You all know I have been around many, many decades. I have never met or seen a person who couldn’t do it. They just won’t do the work to get there. Why? They always seem to have an excuse as to why they can’t reach their goals. Excuses don’t get you anywhere. They keep you from getting where you need to be.

So get rid of the excuses and start doing what needs to be done to make things better. Get off your butts and put your plan into action. I know that you can do it and you do to! Change your attitude!

12 replies on “Attitude”

We are lucky in that we both have a high income, so we can have a few splurges & still hit our goals. That said, there is definitely lifestyle inflation in our area due to the other high salaries. It's amazing what you become accustomed to as "normal", that really aren't. We've tried hard to avoid the "normal" things many people in our area pay for: cleaning service, pool service, yard service, takeout, lots of restaurants, $100 shoes for the kids, etc, etc, etc. If we prioritized one of those things, fine. For now, none of that is on our priority list, and it is absolutely tempting to want to live like our peer group. I also try to spend time with others who do not have a high income (family, sister, etc) because it's a fantastic reality check of how lucky we are, and how our money can be better spent saving, sharing with others, etc. We still do prioritize travel (typically with family) & a few other things.

Thanks for sharing. You hit the nail on the head. It is all about prioritizing. We donate a lot and it always comes back to us when we share with others.

This is Chris. I wanted to say that I really identify with what you wrote, Hawaii Planner. It took me many years to not care what people thought. We always lived in affluent areas also, but never lived like our friends. It took a long time for me to not feel inferior because of our frugal lifestyle, when very few people we knew lived that way. The growth of the internet helped me to find my kindred spirits, like AD, and a group of women in our former city who I met on a mom's site, long gone, that was sponsored by our local newspaper at the time.

Spot on and hit a nerve. I "say" that I am over being in debt but I will still think about what financing is available to replace that couch we can longer sit on or a mattress for the guest bedroom because we are going to have company next month. (yes,I am battling his inner war right now). I am the queen of rationalizing and I also know it stems from the fact that DH buys whatever he wants, whenever he wants not leaving much left over to save for these items. I also know that I can have any financing paid off in a few months…but still.

When financing is 0% it can be the right decision. It is the only financing we do. I set up auto-pay that finishes 2 months prior to the required end of the 0% period. My $ is doing well in the market investments so why give it away?

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