To me, frugality is about freedom: by being mindful of my money has allowed me to do things that really mattered to me that I wouldn’t have otherwise been able to do. For me, that has meant skipping on coffee shop drinks, making my own lunch to take to work, not getting a car until I got a job in a rural area.

I bring my lunch most days. It’s definitely cheaper and definitely healthier.

When my daughter was in high school, she and her friends would dine out more often than me and her father. Not just Chipotle and Chick-Fil-A, but also Thai food, sushi, etc. It was quite apparent that she didn’t understand the financial cost of her actions. So when she moved into an apartment in her sophomore year of…

When I was in my 20s, my dad told me, “When we were broke, we spent time to save money. Now that we’re not, we spend money to save time.”

I consider 2 grand to be a lot of money, personally. And it’s not an unreasonable estimate for people who eat out every day. I try to pack at least 3 days a week, and when I do, I cap the cost of my packed lunches at around $3-$4 each but it can easily be even less than that if I’m eating leftovers.

The problem here is in the question itself; it implies that specific numbers must be named in order to exchange financial advice. You can share information about how to make, spend, or save money without naming the amount. Do I need to tell you how much I make at my job to tell you that there is a great opportunity at…

I’m very open about money—mostly because I’m very open about anything/everything and talk about myself nonstop.