Credit Karma <\/a>consumer financial advocate Courtney Alev said a common mistake is cutting out too much at once.<\/p>\n“It’s similar to trying to eat healthy,” Alev said. “If you tell yourself today you’re only ever going to eat boiled chicken, brown rice and broccoli for the rest of your life, you’re probably at some point going to fail.”<\/p>\n
Create a new budget by looking at January’s spending to see what you can trim, like subscriptions and online shopping.<\/p>\n
“Then you can create a realistic budget, with the key word being realistic,” she said.<\/p>\n
Alev encourages consumers to make simple swaps, like more meals at home.<\/p>\n
“It is so easy to feel like saving money equals being a hermit. And I will be the first to tell you it does not need to be that way,” Alev said.<\/p>\n
Socializing on a budget <\/p>\n
For a frugal yet fun February, Alev recommends a potluck dinner, game nights and checking out what your local library has to offer.<\/p>\n
“Sometimes there are opportunities to get free access to local attractions or museums,” Alev said.<\/p>\n
She encourages anyone trying to save money to be open with friends and family about their financial goals. That way, you have support throughout the process.<\/p>\n
“I found that many people love an excuse to try to do something fun without spending money,” Alev said. “Sometimes we just default to always going out, whether it’s to a bar or a restaurant or brunch. It can be a really fun thing to do together to have a challenge of, ‘How can we have fun, catch up, get that great social time,’ without spending money.”<\/p>\n
Going beyond Frugal February <\/p>\n
There are countless budgeting apps available for people who feel they need a little help getting started.<\/p>\n
They include:<\/p>\n
“Get a clear picture of where your money is going, what you’re spending it on,” Alev said, “and then you can really reflect on it and see these are some areas where I think I could improve.”<\/p>\n
Alev recommends setting up automatic transfers to your savings account, so you have funds to build on for the rest of the year.<\/p>\n
“You don’t want it to be a habit that stops on the 28th of February, but rather the beginning of a new journey,” Alev said.<\/p>\n
Like Robb and other shoppers, you might want to give it a try.<\/p>\n
“We can have dry January and then move into Frugal February. I like that,” Robb said.<\/p>\n
That way, you don\u2019t waste your money.<\/p>\n
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This story was reported on-air by a journalist and has been converted to this platform with the assistance of AI. Our editorial team verifies all reporting on all platforms for fairness and accuracy.<\/p>\n
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For more consumer news and money saving advice, go to www.dontwasteyourmoney.com<\/a><\/p>\nMore Don’t Waste Your Money news:<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"If you missed out on ‘No Spend January,’ enter ‘Frugal February.’ The shortest month brings another opportunity to…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":270461,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[14],"tags":[114,268,140834,85,46,266,267,140835],"class_list":{"0":"post-270460","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-personal-finance","8":"tag-business","9":"tag-finance","10":"tag-frugal-february","11":"tag-il","12":"tag-israel","13":"tag-personal-finance","14":"tag-personalfinance","15":"tag-save-money-in-february"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/270460","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=270460"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/270460\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/270461"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=270460"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=270460"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=270460"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}