This is part of an ongoing series about how to trim the budget of the average American. As this series focuses on such broad-based tips, some will work for you and some will not. You’re invited to mention in the comments the tips that you found to be the most useful for inclusion in a comprehensive budget trimming guide at the conclusion of this series.

Apparel and Services – $1,881

Clothes make up the largest part of this category, in which the average American family drops $150 a month (on average). On clothing? It seemed a bit surprising to me, but then I realized that clothing is perhaps one of the areas of my life where I’m the most frugal. I already naturally do almost everything on this list.

However, if you’re finding that clothes constantly eats up a notable part of your budget, here are some simple tactics to try that might reduce your expenses.

Start your clothes shopping at the Goodwill Store. The first place to stop on any clothes shopping trip is the Goodwill Store. Many people immediately turn up their nose at this advice, but here’s why it works. Let’s say you go through the entire store and find only one thing that you’d wear. However, that one thing is a $75 item that’s marked for $2. That half an hour spent at the Goodwill Store paid off tremendously. Yes, the vast majority of the stuff you find at Goodwill isn’t stuff that you would wear. However, I’m constantly finding great stuff there – barely-worn stuff from surprisingly high-end manufacturers.

Move up the ladder as you shop, not down. Many people have a tendency to shop at the expensive store first, then if they don’t find what they want, “settle” for another store that’s slightly lower in quality. I’ve witnessed many people say things like, “Well… they didn’t have what I wanted…. I guess I could check Old Navy.” My perspective is the opposite. I start at the least expensive stores first and try to fill out my wardrobe needs there. Much of my apparel – white t-shirts, underwear, socks – is bought as inexpensively as I can find them, and most of my casual shirts are the same. I only go higher end for the clothes I’ll need for higher-end situations, like nice social events.

Don’t turn shopping for clothes into a social event. If you invite friends along, you’re adding social pressure and the “need” to “keep up appearances” to your clothes shopping. That usually means you’ll spend more – and often, a lot more. It’s okay to browse a bit with friends, but when you’re actually updating your wardrobe significantly, do it alone. This allows you to focus on your true needs without having to filter it through the eyes of those around you.

Buy clothes that are made from durable material and will last for a long while. When I buy my most presentable clothes, I make absolutely sure that the items are made from durable materials that will hold up over a long period – and I’m willing to pay more for that, if need be. If I’m buying a new sweater for winter social occasions, for example, and I’ve looked at some of the low-cost used stores and not found anything I’m looking for, I’m quite willing to pay more at that point to get a sweater that will last. If I can pay 75% more to get a sweater that will last three times as long, that’s actually saving money over the long haul.

Become handy with a needle and thread. If a button falls off of a shirt, it shouldn’t be disaster and it definitely shouldn’t hit the trash can. Instead, you’re greatly served by the ability to simply sew the button back on the item. You don’t have to have a sewing machine and be able to repair or replace anything and everything, but every bit of skill you have with a needle and thread will help you out at some point.

Buy clothes that accessorize well and match with many other items in your wardrobe. Along with durable, I usually buy clothes that go together well. I stick with basic, solid colors (most of the time) and don’t look for patterns that stand out in most of the clothing I own. This allows me to easily pull pretty much anything out of my closet and make it work. The end result? I don’t have to own as many clothes, since they all just work together.

Don’t wash an item of clothing every time you wear it, but only when it actually needs washing. Yes, wash your undergarments every time. But if you’ve worn a pair of pants or a shirt and it still looks and smells completely fine, don’t worry about washing it. One of my friends has a system where he has a separator in his closet. Everything on the left side of the separator is newly washed. Everything on the right side has been worn once. Then, when he undresses at night, he looks for where the empty hanger is from this morning and it tells him what to do with the item – put a left side item on the right and put a right side item in the wash.

Follow the instructions on the tag. It’s easy when you’re in a rush to overlook the special cleaning needs of particular items. Don’t. Instead, have a separate laundry basket for items that need special attention when washing and deal with them separately. Of course, the best choice of all is to minimize the number of “special care” items in your wardrobe.

I want your help! In the comments, please let me know which of the tips you find most useful for trimming these costs. I’ll include the top choices in a comprehensive budget trimming guide at the conclusion of the series.

Right now, my office is a mess. There’s a huge pile of things waiting to be filed. There are a few stacks of books that need to be sent out for PaperBackSwap. I have several pieces of correspondence that need addressing. The closet is overstuffed with all sorts of different things. The floor has a large number of boxes that need breaking down and storing (or disposing). My desk really needs to be cleaned up, too, with countless things that need to be dealt with sitting around.

Yet, whenever I look at the whole mess, I get the feeling described in the title of this post. Instead of dealing with it, I feel a bit overwhelmed – and I also feel like there are more urgent things pushing at me to get finished. Like writing this article, for instance.

So many of the projects that we feel overwhelmed a bit by are ones that fall into that “important but not urgent” category. Things like starting a good filing system, switching our accounts to a new bank, keeping in regular contact with old friends and key work associates – all of them are things we know we ought to be doing, but we put them aside.

Don’t.

Those things that are important but don’t feel urgent are the very things that are the keys to building the life that we want. It is the special person – the one on the path to success – who can put aside the countless “urgent but not important” things in life – like the new season of American Idol, the interrupting phone call, the latest social event in a long series of them – and replace them with the “important but not urgent” things.

Instead of going on and on with a lot more words, I’m going to stop this article right now and take my own advice. I’m going to go clean the entire office. Since this article is a nice, short one, why not take the few minutes you might have otherwise spent reading a longer article here and get a real start on that project that overwhelms you a bit.

See you later.

This is part of an ongoing series about how to trim the budget of the average American. As this series focuses on such broad-based tips, some will work for you and some will not. You’re invited to mention in the comments the tips that you found to be the most useful for inclusion in a comprehensive budget trimming guide at the conclusion of this series.

Transportation – gasoline, motor oil – $2,384

The average American family drops $200 a month on gasoline and motor oil – and that’s at early 2009 prices for gas, which were significantly lower than prices today.

However, this is one of the easiest numbers to trim in your entire budget. There are several simple steps anyone can take to reduce their gasoline usage without making radical lifestyle changes. Here are twelve options.

Form a carpool (or join an existing one). Even if this is an irregular carpool – my wife, for example, carpools with a friend two days a week, saving her one day of driving – it still saves you signifcant fuel costs on your commute and wear and tear on your car. In some localities, you also gain the option to use HOV lanes, which can add to the fuel efficiency of the drive.

Use public transportation. If you have easy access to public transportation, it is almost always a fuel saver, particularly if you can use such transportation routinely. Even if you can just occasionally use the bus system or the subway, it still leaves gas in your tank.

Use a bicycle – or your feet. Alternately, use a bicycle – or your own feet – to reach nearby locations. I often walk to the post office instead of driving there – it takes substantially longer, but if I use a brisk walk, I can get a moderate workout from the situation, making me healthier, while also saving money on the fuel.

Buy a more fuel-efficient vehicle. If gasoline is $3 a gallon, moving from a 20 mile per gallon car to a 25 mile per gallon car saves you $360 a year (assuming you drive 12,000 miles a year). If you’re buying used, such a savings can make it well worth your while to invest a bit more in a more fuel-efficient car.

Change your own oil. Not only will you save on the maintenance costs if you’re not paying someone to do it, but it also gives you much more control over the actual oil that goes into you car – and much more power when it comes to comparison shopping for that oil. Study up on the type of oil that’s truly best for your car, then shop around for it. You’ll find a great price on the best thing for your vehicle – a win all around.

Drive the speed limit, especially on the interstate. Stick in the slow lane and stick with the speed limit and you’ll find yourself saving quite a lot on gas. “But everyone’s going 90!” If that’s the case, and you still choose to drive there, then you’re paying a substantial amount to drive at that pace.

Keep your windows closed – or your air conditioning off. If you’re driving in town at low speeds, keep the windows down and your air conditioning off. However, if you’re out on the open road, do just the opposite. The wind drag when you go at higher speeds becomes significant, exceeding the fuel costs of running an air conditioner. Alternating between the two will save you the most money.

Minimize the “stop and go” when you’re driving in town. Instead of gunning it out of a stoplight then just slowing down again to a complete stop at the next stoplight, accelerate more slowly out of a stoplight and slow down gradually well before the next one. You’ll maintain much more momentum (and thus retain fuel) by slowing gradually rather than slowing quickly, stopping, and then accelerating from a stop.

Re-evaluate your routes. Are you taking the most efficient route to your regular destinations? Many people lock themselves into the first route to their destination that they discover, not bothering to investigate further and discover shorter routes. Doing so saves on fuel costs, wear and tear, and your valuable time.

Keep your tires properly inflated. Ever tried a bicycle with partially deflated tires? It’s hard work to pedal. Improperly inflated tires on your car cause your car to burn a lot more gas to get going. Given that it’s really easy to properly inflate your tires at your local gas station, you should take advantage of the free air to save yourself some cash.

Remove excess weight. If you’re carrying items in your car without a good purpose, remove them – they’re just slowly milking your fuel efficiency. Go through your trunk, your back seat, and the bed of your truck and look for items that don’t need to be there. (The same goes for fuel itself – you’re better off refueling when you’re close to empty than when your tank is mostly full – though the effect is tiny.)

When you’re stopped, turn off the engine. Whenever you’re going to be idling for more than fifteen seconds or so, turn off the engine on your vehicle. Idling just causes your car to burn gasoline without providing any forward motion for you – and even just a few seconds’ worth of idling eats more gas than is eaten during ignition.

I want your help! In the comments, please let me know which of the tips you find most useful for trimming these costs. I’ll include the top choices in a comprehensive budget trimming guide at the conclusion of the series.

A few days ago, in the mail, I received a notice from my homeowners insurance company notifying me that they were cancelling my policy as of January 18 due to a lack of payment. I was shocked, to say the least.

Back when we first bought our home and arranged our mortgage, the mortgage company offered to set up an escrow account for us. Each month, we would pay a certain amount into that escrow account and, from that account, they would manage the homeowners insurance and the property taxes on our home. After running the numbers and realizing that this would actually save us a fair amount of effort, we signed up for this program.

Flash forward a year later. Our insurance company was purchased by a second insurance company. To us, this seemed like a mere formality. We received a new policy in the mail and similar information was sent to our mortgage company. We kept making our monthly mortgage payment like clockwork, keeping money in the coffers for our insurance.

Then, suddenly, out of the blue, a notice about policy cancellation due to a lack of a payment?

Naturally, I spent the next two hours on the phone tracking down the problem. The problem itself was incredibly simple. My mortgage company failed to convert the records on my escrow account to refer to the new insurance company. Thus, when they received solicitations for payment from the new mortgage company, they checked my records, discovered they did not match, and assumed that there was some sort of error (or perhaps some sort of nefarious activity).

Everything was resolved with three phone calls, however, and everything is in place with no loss of insurance on my home. However, I did learn a few things in the process.

First, when there is an address change of any sort, make sure you contact the relevant people. Yes, others may actually be responsible for this. Yes, they should have already been notified by someone else. But at the same time, people are human and make human choices and human mistakes, which is what the problem was here.

Be proactive. If one of the companies you do business with changes an account number or an address, consider it your responsibility to make sure it is changed everywhere it needs to be, regardless of whether or not it’s ultimately your responsibility. Taking care of it now – and making sure it’s done right – can save you a big headache later on.

Second, read all of your notices. Even though I’m supposedly on the “paperless” plan for several of my bills, I still receive oodles of statements and messages from these companies. Most of them are completely unimportant to me. They inform me of very minor things like changes in terms of service, new “offers” that I can’t live without, and newsletters with articles that don’t interest me.

After a while, it’s very easy to become numb to all of it. Don’t. Open every one, read it over, and handle it appropriately. Yes, most of them will go in the trash can. Yes, you’ll often feel like you just wasted fifteen minutes of your life.

But for every fifty useless missives that you read, one will be very important. This little notice looked like several others I’ve received from the same company and none of the others were important at all. Had I attacked it with glossy eyes, who knows what may have happened.

Finally – and perhaps most importantly – don’t get irate with customer service representatives. Most of the time, the customer service folks you talk to on the phone have spent most of their day dealing with irate, rude people demanding various things of them, often over the top ridiculous things, and are treated rudely in the process. A little bit of honey goes a long way. Even if you’re upset and angry with the situation, remember that it’s not the fault of the person you’re talking to. Almost always, they’re trying to help you out to the best of their ability. Yes, it feels good to vent, but don’t vent at the person who is trying to help you.

Thankfully, everything is in order now, and I’ve learned a good lesson in being proactive.

This is part of an ongoing series about how to trim the budget of the average American. As this series focuses on such broad-based tips, some will work for you and some will not. You’re invited to mention in the comments the tips that you found to be the most useful for inclusion in a comprehensive budget trimming guide at the conclusion of this series.

Food – food away from home – $2,668

The average American family spends $225 a month eating away from home – dinners eaten out, quick snacks grabbed, and coffees ordered and consumed on the run.

Much of this spending comes about simply because it’s convenient. Rather than investing the time to get my coffee machine set up, I’ll just stop at Starbucks and get me a cup of some sweet mixture resembling coffee. I don’t have time to make lunch, so I’ll just stop at Mickey D’s and pick up a sandwich to go. It’s been a long day, honey – let’s go out to eat.

In each of those cases, though, you’re often paying for surprisingly inefficient, low quality food. Setting up the coffee pot before you go to bed takes just a moment or two – and you can basically have a cup waiting for you when you’re ready to go in the morning. It’s easy to make convenient lunches for yourself in advance that are much cheaper, tastier, healthier, and just as quick as anything you can get at the drive-thru. The same holds true for going out for dinner – if you know what you’re doing in the kitchen, you can have a great meal on the table in fifteen minutes, giving you a full evening to relax at home.

That’s not to say that one should completely eschew eating outside the home if they enjoy it, but these tips can help trim the costs a bit.

Keep eating out squarely in the “treat” department instead of letting it turn into a tired old habit. Given the huge cost difference between eating out and dining in – and given the special experience that dining out can be – you’re much better off if you save dining out for special occasions and eat at home the rest of the time. If you do this, not only will your food budget thank you, but the occasions when you do eat out will become that much more enjoyable.

Have materials on hand for very impromptu meals. Many people choose to eat out (or order food) because they can’t think of anything simple to make after a hard day of work. Don’t ever allow that to be an excuse. Always keep materials on hand for several simple meals. For example, we always have the materials we need on hand for chicken-broccoli-rice stir fry, spaghetti, homemade pizza, and chili, each of which can be cooked in about half an hour or so. We make sure to always have the things on hand for these meals, even if we don’t make them right away.

Learn how to cook at home. Hand-in-hand with that is the fear many people today have of their kitchen (besides the microwave). It’s really not hard to cook for yourself – it just takes practice. Teach yourself how to cook so that the thought of preparing a meal for yourself in the evening doesn’t feel like an overwhelming potential disaster.

Prepare full meals in advance and freeze them. On a weekend, make three batches of a casserole and freeze two of them as close to finished as you can possibly get away with – or do the same with any other complete meal, like a roasted chicken. This way, you can just stick the meal in the fridge the night before you want to eat it, come home the next day, preheat the oven, toss in the meal, and an hour later, you’re eating.

Prepare convenient breakfasts and lunches in advance and freeze them. Similarly, spend some time on a lazy weekend afternoon making an enormous batch of frozen convenient breakfasts and lunches, such as breakfast sandwiches or delicious lunch burritos. When you’ve made and frozen a big batch of these, making a quick, tasty, healthy breakfast is as easy as yanking the items out of the freezer, wrapping them in a paper towel, and microwaving them for three or four minutes. That’s it – you’re ready to go, and it’s a lot cheaper, faster, and tastier than the old drive-thru.

Brown bag it whenever you can. If you have any sort of a chance to prepare food in advance before you leave for the day, do so. A quick sandwich, vegetable, fruit, and beverage tossed into a bag can serve as lunch for anyone – and that’s just the start of it. There are many, many possibilities for the humble brown bag – and virtually all of them are less expensive than eating out or ordering food into the office.

If you eat for social reasons, host a potluck dinner. Perhaps you eat out regularly with friends. Instead of doing that, why not take turns hosting dinner? You can either handle the entire dinner yourself or you can ask the others to bring side dishes. Do it on a rotating basis so the work is shared and you’ll find that everyone is saving some money and still having all of the social fun.

If you eat out for social reasons at work, suggest a regular brown-bag day. Many people eat out with coworkers and use the opportunity to touch base about work issues – which is certainly a strong career element. However, why do you always have to eat out to do this? To start changing that culture, suggest a regular brown-bag day once a week for the group. Alternately, you could have one person in your group handle all of the brown bag lunches for everyone once every few weeks. Over the long run, this saves all of you some serious change without disrupting the social flow.

I want your help! In the comments, please let me know which of the tips you find most useful for trimming these costs. I’ll include the top choices in a comprehensive budget trimming guide at the conclusion of the series.

For the last few days, my entire family has been suffering from a vicious stomach bug. I was the first to get it – and the first to seemingly recover from it. After that, my daughter got it, then my wife got it, then my son got it, almost in domino-like order. It’s been several days of misery around here as everyone recovers from it (and helps others to get through it).

So, if I’m slow to answer emails or anything just now, that’s why.

On with some interesting articles I read during the past week.

When It’s Time to Destroy Debt, Start With a Goal Specifying a goal is the core of virtually anything you want to achieve with your money, your career, or your life. It all starts with a goal, and then a plan assembled on top of that goal. (@ wise bread)

What is your free time worth to you? I think the wisest statement here is this: “Focus on defining the experiences you value most, and how to get more of those experiences, and wise money/time choices will flow from that approach.” What really matters the most to you? Put that on top of everything else. Go from there. (@ unclutterer)

The Value of an Elite College Guess who had more career success on average: people who got into Harvard, or people who applied to Harvard but didn’t get accepted? It’s all about ambition. (@ free money finance)

How to Optimize Your Computer If you have a Windows-based computer, here’s how to replicate Best Buy’s “optimization” services for free. (@ bargaineering)

How YouTube Can Boost Your Grades I use YouTube as my first stop whenever I’m learning something new of any kind. There’s a nearly infinite abundance of useful information on there that’s easy to just watch, absorb, follow, and execute. (@ hack college)

This is part of an ongoing series about how to trim the budget of the average American. As this series focuses on such broad-based tips, some will work for you and some will not. You’re invited to mention in the comments the tips that you found to be the most useful for inclusion in a comprehensive budget trimming guide at the conclusion of this series.

Entertainment – $2,698

Clocking in at an average of $225 a month in a family’s budget is entertainment – and that excludes reading. Going out to shows, watching movies, listening to music, playing games, participating in sports – they’re all incorporated under this banner.

The breadth of this category means that what one person considers “entertainment” spending doesn’t overlap much at all with what others consider “entertainment” spending. Take me, for example – roughly half of my entertainment spending in 2009 was spent on board games, something which likely doesn’t overlap with a ton of other people.

So what universal tips can be offered to reduce entertainment spending and actually be useful? Here are some suggestions, no matter how you spend your entertainment dollar.

Focus on what you enjoy. What do you enjoy the most? Don’t pay any attention to what your friends find enjoyable – what do you find enjoyable? Don’t burn up your entertainment dollars in some sort of race to “keep up with the Joneses.” Instead, focus on accentuating the hobbies you personally find enjoyable. You don’t have to buy a giant flat-screen television just because your pals insist on watching in high definition. If they do, let them host the football parties.

Join a club. Joining an interest-based club is often a surprising money saver. Why? If you join a club, it will draw you more into a specific hobby because you’re spending social time with other afficionados. Quite often, time spent in such social activities is relatively inexpensive, plus such clubs are usually powerful sources for bargains and great suggestions when it comes to a particular interest.

Don’t be afraid of used items. You don’t need the latest and greatest items to thoroughly enjoy your hobby. There are quite a few board games I love to play that are beat-up old copies from the 1960s. I play golf with piles of old golf balls, many of which were actually fetched by my previous boss’s dog (seriously). For a long time, my wife used a homemade golf bag she made herself. Yet, in each case, we still thoroughly enjoyed the activity we were involved in.

Let others foot the bill when you dabble. Interested in trying a new sport? Before you go invest in a bunch of equipment, see what’s offered at your city’s parks and recreation service. Want to learn a new hobby? Visit stores that specialize in that activity and see what classes and groups are offered there. If you’re just dabbling in something to see if you like it, don’t immediately start shelling out the cash. Find opportunities to sink your teeth in a bit first to find out if it’s right for you.

Trade instead of buying. If you’re a movie buff and have friends that also are movie buffs, trade with them instead of buying new DVDs. Have a “swap meet” where you go through each other’s collections and borrow a big pile of DVDs from each other, returning them when you’re finished. You can essentially do the same thing with any sort of collectible form of entertainment, from video games to CDs to books. Similarly, there may be stores in your area that allow you to swap your used copies of items for other used copies.

Don’t go high-end immediately. Often, when people begin to engage in a new hobby, they invest in high-end equipment and materials with which to enjoy the hobby. They’ll buy shiny new clubs, loads of new balls, an entire kitchen full of new cooking supplies, and so on. Don’t. Start off using low-end equipment. Only move up to the high end when you’ve used the low end equipment enough that you can actually articulate and understand exactly how the higher-end equipment will help you go beyond where you are now. One should absolutely invest in higher-end equipment if they find themselves truly enjoying a hobby and can actually articulate real reasons why a high quality piece of equipment will improve their hobby. Until then, go with the entry-level stuff.

Master what you have. This simple technique went a long way towards trimming my video game hobby from one new game a week to roughly one game a quarter (and that one’s often used). If I buy a new game, I commit to finishing it before buying another one. The same rule can be applied to many hobbies – if I buy a book, I’ll read it before buying another one. If I buy a DVD, I’ll watch it at least twice before buying another one.

Maintain what you have. If you enjoy bicycling, take the time to maintain your bicycle. If you enjoy woodworking, take the time to maintain your woodworking equipment. If you enjoy playing on your computer, maintain it by running software updates and occasionally cleaning the dust out of the case. Investing a little bit of time and money now to keep your equipment in good shape means that the life span of the equipment will be greatly extended, saving you a lot of money over the long run.

If you’re a frequent consumer, look to renting. If you’ve already honed in on the fact that you deeply enjoy video games or watching movies or something similar, look for rental solutions instead of buying new ones constantly. Services such as Netflix and GameFly allow you to rent media for as long as you want with one low monthly fee which, if you’re heavily into those hobbies, is much less expensive than buying new items constantly.

I want your help! In the comments, please let me know which of the tips you find most useful for trimming these costs. I’ll include the top choices in a comprehensive budget trimming guide at the conclusion of the series.

A few months before we bought our current home, my wife and I toured literally dozens of different houses, trying to find one that was right for us. We had come up with a budget for our purchase and knew what our firm spending cap was.

On one bright spring day, my wife and I were visiting three homes for sale on the same block that were all having open houses at once. None of them really struck our fancy, but we did notice a fourth house on the corner that was for sale at a price about $60,000 over our price range.

We toured that house. We fell in love with that house. Even now, it’s really obvious to both of us that it was our favorite house that we toured.

But it wasn’t the house that we bought. We ended up with another home that was within the price range we had originally set.

It was a difficult choice. It was a choice that, if we had entered into the home-buying process with less planning and less self-control, probably would have turned out differently. It would have been quite easy to simply give into our desires and buy that house, but if we had, we would have been drowning in mortgage payments now. It was also a choice that many people made differently – and that difference in choice caused the housing bubble and a giant mountain of foreclosures.

It is so easy to just let our emotions take control when we’re making a major buying decision. It would have been so easy for us to walk into that house, tour it, smile at each other, recognize that we could probably make the mortgage payments, and then sign the papers.

But that one choice puts us on a different life trajectory. I would have been much more worried about leaving my full-time job. In fact, I probably would have wound up choosing it instead of choosing a writing career – and that would have meant the closing of The Simple Dollar. I would have had less time to spend with my kids – instead of taking them to the zoo or the Science Center of Iowa or just spending afternoons with them at the park, I would have been behind a desk somewhere. We would have had more money stresses on our marriage. We would likely have never chosen – or even considered – having a third child.

Yes, I would have loved to have that house. Yet, when I step back and look at all the good things that happened in our life because we stuck to the budget, I wouldn’t trade any of it for that house.

A house is not a home, after all.

The next time you’re about to make a major purchase, whether it be a home or an automobile or even just a high-end home electronic device, and you’re thinking about jumping outside of your budget for that purchase because you fell in love with somethng that dazzled you, step back for a moment and ask yourself about what you’d be giving up for this thing. Would you be tied even more to your job, at the mercy of your boss? Would you not have the financial resources to take advantage of opportunities that came your way? Are you going to have to push yourself more to earn more, taking away time from the other things you value in life?

On the other hand, if you simply stick to your budget and get a slightly downscale model, you gain the freedom to choose the life you want. What’s better, after all? The 2,000 square foot home that you have time to enjoy, or the 2,800 square foot home that requires you to work tons of extra hours?

Houses and cars and televisions and boats are just stuff. Don’t sacrifice your life for them because you want them in this moment.