There's No Wrong Way To Pinch A Penny

When I was growing up a popular saying was, "There's no wrong way to eat a Reese's."

The statement can be true of living a Penny Pinching lifestyle. No two family plans look quite the same. You may be content adding an extra $100 to the car payment each month. Another family might want to add $200. It depends on how much debt you have, the size of your family, your age, income level, and many other factors.

For Jake and I, our financial plan meant giving up most entertainment, including going out to eat, and living within a budget that we had worked together to create. Then, in addition to our regular incomes, we try to pick up extra work each month to earn income that we pour directly into our debt. If we got hung up on making sure we were following a plan that had worked for someone else, I don't think we would be very successful.

The key is figuring out what works for you, and this will take a few months. It's important to stay flexible, too, in case you need to re-focus the budget in order to achieve your financial goals.

I've heard stories about couples paying off a hundred thousand dollars in just a couple of years, but I've also heard other stories about people who spent just as much time paying off a few thousand.

But I can't get hung up on either of these stories. Instead, I need to say, "There's no wrong way to Penny Pinch." As long as we are doing our best with what we have, we are doing it right.

Keep pinchin' :-)