It is with great pleasure that I reintroduce Clair Schwan of Frugal Living Freedom.  This is a three part guest post from a frequent contributor, Clair Schwan, on spending money.  It is a very timely topic, in that with the holidays, we are all making purchases.  Furthermore, with the economic crunch, we all need to think much harder about our purchases.

Clair has also composed a four part series on this site about saving money on gasoline usage [Here are the links for his previous posts, Guest Post: Ways to Get More MPG (Part I), Guest Post: Ways to Get More MPG (Part II), Guest Post: Ways to Get More MPG (Part III), and Guest Post: Ways to Get More MPG (Part IV)].  Be sure to check out his site, here is my review, Blog Review: Frugal Living Freedom.  --DDFD

Now is as good a time as any to take a close look at how we spend our money.  Do we exercise caution?  Are we aware of our motivations?  Can we spend our money more wisely?  Do we know how to avoid irresponsible spending?

Why should we even care about how we spend money?  The reason is simple; no matter how much money you make, there is absolutely no end to what you can spend money on, so you either do it wisely, or you run out of money before you run out of month.

Let's look at the basics in the general area of needs.  Our list is rather small, but it has the potential to cover a lot of ground.  It contains things that we must spend money on in order to live a reasonably fulfilling and successful life.

So, if we only spend our money on these needs, we'll be making good decisions, right?  Well, not exactly.  The trick is to more clearly define what each of these general categories means, and then be certain that the decisions we make are based on:

It takes good planning, deliberate decision-making and mental toughness to stay focused on careful spending, even when trying to meet our own basic needs.  For a more detailed discussion on life planning from a financial perspective, go to http://www.frugal-living-freedom.com/cheap-living.html

If we look at our wants, it becomes even more difficult to make careful decisions.  Coming up . . . Spending Our Money (Part II), where we'll look at satisfying our wants.

Here's to all my frugal friends out there who recognize the value of money,

Clair Schwan