Spring is a great time to find bargains on decorating accessories at yard and garage sales. As seasons change, many times your local thrift and consignment stores will have a change in inventory. This is time when many folks finally donate unwanted merchandise that's just been sitting around garage or house. Spring cleaning!

My advise……..have your own yard or garage sale and make some extra money on those items. But, lucky for us frugal shoppers, there are some folks who just don't want to take time. So, be sure not to miss out on decorating supplies, furnishings, accessories, paint, wallpaper, and fabrics that can be found at many thrift stores.

Sometimes pulling items from one room to another and simply re-organizing, fixing up, or just using an item in a different way can be enough. Add a fresh coat of paint, different window dressings and replacement of furnishings, and WHA LAH! You have a new room.

Need some paint? If you can be flexible about color, check mis-mixed table at your local home improvement, hardware, or paint stores. You can find high quality paints for a fraction of original retail cost when colors don't turn out exactly as they should have. Sometimes you can find a slight variation of just color you've already picked that will work just as well with your selected color scheme and save you lots of money.

That most of us are considered poor is no disgrace, but does us credit; for, as mind is weakened by luxurious living, so it is strengthened by a frugal life.(Minucius Felix, 3rd century A.D.)

People who live a frugal lifestyle often live with less stress. Typically, those who take control of their money feel they have more control over their life in general. You've heard old cliché "Money is Power." What most of us fail to understand is that power isn't in having money, or how much you have, rather in ability to control what money you do have!

With that power comes peace of mind. It's peace of knowing that all you have is truly "yours". With that peace of mind comes Frugal Freedom. Freedom from debt. Freedom from envy. Freedom from ridicule, shame, and loss. Loss of what you might ask. Sanity, for one thing. Trust me, when walls of financial ruin come tumbling down around you, it's easy to loose your sanity! And, no matter how much money you have, if you can't control it, you are headed for financial ruin. There are many stories of those who have become wealthy and eventually fell to financial ruin. These are people who let money control them instead of responsibly managing their money.

Much of transition from spendthrift to frugal is within mind. It's not so much a physical shedding of luxuries of life. Rather, it is ability to accept that you don't have to "keep up with Joneses." This can be a huge mental leap living in today's world of material values.