bluntmoney.com

When you make frugality automatic, you’re not scrimping and saving on the little things in order to save money. Instead, you’re just living your normal life in a way that makes sense for you — and that happens to save you money in the process.

This leaves you free to focus on the big things that will save you even more money.

That’s important because the very definition of focusing is paying special attention to one thing. If you’re paying attention to a bunch of little things, you can’t pay attention to the big things.

But at the same time, if you pay attention to the big things without taking care of the little things, the little things will catch up with you.

So close up the little leaks in your life in a way that means you never have to think about them again. Eliminate bank fees, find out where the most economical place to shop is in general and then shop there as opposed to running all over town, create a habit of hitting up the library instead of the bookstore, etc.

Once you’re doing those things automatically, you’ll have the time to do things like spend a week getting the best deal on a car or researching long-term investments.