What’s that saying – the grass is always greener? Comparison, comparing, this against that. We do it all the time, whether at home, at work or wherever. Distance certainly plays a major part in how we perceive the world around us, too.

Often the further away or out of reach something appears to be then the more desirable it can suddenly become. This idea that distance and the desirable and exotic are somehow interlinked is certainly something the modern tourism industry has been capitalising on very successfully now for more than 150 years.

The Middle East has more than a touch of the exotic. Countries like Egypt, the United Arab Emirates or Qatar can send the imagination into overtime. Think pyramids, Cairo, Dubai, deserts, sun and the beautiful blue waters of the Persian Gulf. The Middle East also continues to be a destination for expatriates from the USA, the UK and elsewhere, all chasing the dream of earning the high-income salaries for which the region has become so famous over recent years.

Just as well Middle Eastern banking and finance in general is modern, transparent and up to the mark. Along with a string of home-grown banks, the area also boasts many familiar multinational names. From bank loans from HSBC to credit card offerings from Barclays, both expatriates and tourists alike are certainly well catered for.

However, it’s not just the money the expatriates are all after. For some it’s the experience of living in a completely different culture. For others it’s perhaps the promise of a more lavish lifestyle, or the next step up the corporate ladder. Truth be told, there are as many reasons as countries for living and working overseas.

Debt’s as good a reason as any. It seems Americans are just as much embroiled in debt as they’ve always been, although the general trend of recent years has been downwards. But a New York Fed report released at the end of 2012 warned that consumer debt was on the rise once more. Last year’s fourth-quarter aggregate consumer debt figures showed a slight increase of $31 billion, the first upwards movement since debt peaked at $12.64 trillion in the third quarter of 2008. December’s figure stood at $11.34 trillion.

However, the good news is that aggregate consumer debt declined in the first quarter of this year, by $110 billion, resuming once again the long-term downward trend. As of March 31, 2013, total consumer indebtedness was $11.23 trillion, down a percentage point on the previous quarter. Nevertheless, still a mind-numbing figure!

And with the biannual PNC Economic Outlook survey suggesting small and mid-sized business owners plan to delay hiring any new staff for the next six months, and instead do more with the same number of employees, is it any wonder the grass appears so much greener elsewhere?

Qatar, meanwhile, with it’s barely recordable unemployment rate of less than 1%, and positive GDP growth figures of around 6.2% in 2012 – predicted to increase to 6.5% in 2013 and 6.8% in 2014 – continues to live up to all expectations. So why wouldn’t you want to live and work there? Seems like a no-brainer!

You can check out the latest New York Fed figures here.

Forest’s thoughts:

I have never been to Qatar but have lived for a few years in Egypt. Not the same country by any means but a lot of sharing of culture.

Often the drive for people to move to places like the Middle East is money. Even teacher jobs can bring in top dollar and relative juniors can climb high on the ladder. Far from home the cultural switch and compromising of certain ideals can be a shock to the system. However the Middle East is a place of opposites, the most amazing place yet the most disgusting. Greed, hate, extreme poverty and all sorts of horrible things can be found but so can the most beautiful welcoming people, amazing sights and mind blowing experiences.

Open your mind and don’t just live locked away in your expat prison, meet locals, eat and drink tea like a local, learn Arabic and converse whenever you can. Immerse yourself in and experience your new world and life will be far richer than the money your new job is making you.

I say if you have the opportunity, take it, fly away and experience something new.

Debt consolidation can be a great tool – but it’s one you should only use very carefully. At the moment, there are various credit card companies offering 0% balance transfer deals and these are tempting, but they’re always dangerous and a loan can sometimes be a better way of consolidating your debts.

With a personal loan, the main advantage is that it’s for a fixed amount, so you consolidate all your debt into one neat package and this precludes you from continuing to spend. This is good for those of us who lack a little self-discipline. Unlike a credit card, a personal loan necessitates fixed monthly repayments. This is again good for those of us who can be less than disciplined sometimes as the payments have to be made and we can budget around them. They also mean the loan is actually being paid off gradually. The length of the loan differs but it’s most commonly for between three and five years.

The downside is the interest you have to pay. Typical loans at the moment are around the 6% APR level – which, of course, is more cash than you’ll be paying out on a 0% balance transfer credit card.

So this is the main advantage of the credit card route; consolidating your debts in this way means you can avoid any more interest charges for the duration of the 0% deal at least. The best deals in this regard currently run to around two years for customers with good credit ratings. But these deals often come with large balance transfer fees.

It’s all a question, therefore, of deciding how quickly you’ll be able to clear your debts and how self-disciplined you are. If you can’t honestly look yourself in the eye and know you won’t spend beyond your means, then a personal loan to consolidate your debt is probably a better bet.

Forest’s Thoughts:

Thanks for the guest post.

Before getting any new debt or transferring to new cards, new agreements or anything I really think you need to get to the route of all problems and fully investigate yourself as well as any companies you may be thinking of contacting to help you with your debt.

Debt is a serious problem and consolidation can be seen as a quick way out but often it just lands the person right back where they started. The ease on monthly payments means the old habits grow again and everything is back to normal, only this time the debt is even higher.

I do think transferring debt to easier to manage, lower risk alternatives is a viable tool but it isn’t the solution. At the end of the day a plan has to be put in place to clear that debt as soon as possible and gain a debt free life.

There are a lot of companies out there that will negotiate with creditors, set up plans and help you manage your finances. You may benefit from their help but I feel you should always fully investigate them and also make sure you understand exactly what is happening with the money and how you will carry on once the debts are cleared.

Good luck.

The cost of raising a child is far more than the million dollars I was always told it would take. Of course a monetary cost can’t be put on it. The bottom line is that children are really really expensive and I don’t ever feel that one I will be rich enough in actual wealth and two that my brain will be focused enough to be a parent.

Don’t get me wrong, children are awesome and I intend to do much in my life that helps children. Hopefully my actions will do some god towards making it better for the kids and the kids kids and so on. Raising children is not the only way to contribute to this world especially if you are not 100% focused on giving that child the best and in a financial position to do so.

Kids can cost you your career, your freedom, your life savings but of course what they bring arguably outruns all of that. It’s just not for me.

Possible options which could involve bringing up kids …

Part of my reason for not wanting a child is my belief that there are already enough children in the world at this point in time. The distribution may be a little off but there are a lot of children who need bringing up. If I ever feel the need to parent then I would seriously consider adoption. I know it’s ‘hard’ but life is supposed to be tough! Since when has bringing up a biological child been easy either!

Then there is the potential for foster care, volunteering in big brother schemes and other ways to be involved with making lives better for kids without it ‘costing’ you in the traditional sense.

The cost of raising a child is different for each individual. I do believe you need to be financially stable and mentally in the right place. I am neither and I don’t see myself being there anytime soon.

Children do shine light on the world and are needed for the survival of humankind but we don’t all need to have them. I feel a population cut back may do the world good for a generation or too but of course it never happens in a sensible or manageable fashion!

Now, it’s your turn to tell me how stupid I am or share your thoughts.

Thanks for reading!\

A lot of us dream of turning what we love into a ‘real business’. I’ve had a jumbled 5 years of maintaining myself as an online-tropreneaur. I work on websites that I own and building websites and doing graphic design for customers. My real-job was as a graphic designer so luckily my hobbies / business and previous real job all have some strong links.

My business has expected ups and downs. I have made a lot of mistakes over the years and kind of stumbled into the position I am in now.

Hindsight is a wonderful thing though and if I could go back I would have done things a lot differently and a lot more structured. Here are the steps I would have given myself.

What is your hobby and how will that become a business?

A hobby is great but kicking back watching football or writing down what birds visit your bird bath isn’t easy to translate into a business. However most hobbies have an angle that can be turned into a business and as someone who is passionate about something you have the upper hand as a person who with knowledge and a passion.

This is important. Just say you did love football or birds. There are business opportunities in these areas. Running a football news website, setting up a fact-sheet for the local birds and a business selling items to attract them to gardens are some ways you could turn those hobbies into a business idea.

A business has the potential to turn your hobby into a hate if you pick the wrong angle or something that you will have to wrk yourself into the ground to achieve  However most of us have more than one hobby and there is likely something in us all that we can turn into a service or product.

The plan and low cost startup

A person should always have a plan when it comes to business. It may not be a 100 page report and it may fit on the back of a napkin. But you need a direction, a mission statement and a direction to aim in. What do you want to achieve  Why and how? Can you lay out clear steps and ideas to pursue and will this be able to be done in a sustainable time span?

Cost often pushes people away from self-startups. However the world of the internet has given us tools to test and even fully fledged start our business on the cheap. A website can be set up for almost nothing (see my guide on starting a blog here) and you can even sell products without needing to purchase any stock. You can join affiliate programs at places like Amazon or Shareasale and earn a percentage of the sale. For example for your bird bath business you could set up a website with your recommended packages alongside all the local information. Those links could point to Amazon and you could earn a small portion of those sales. When the business is working for you and you have some capital you could start directly stocking the products and skip the 3rd party sales.

Branding and promotion

Your brand is important and all too often people skip this side of things. Branding doesn’t have to be something you go spending a million dollars on. You can do it yourself and start by designing your logo (use simple but clean type if you don’t have any graphic skills), laying out some consistant styles that must be used across your business and make sure you have a solid name and clear cut voice about what you do.

When designing your own brand make sure you gather material from all your favorite brands, look at how they do things. Ask friends and families for honest opinions of what they think and don’t let something you dislike out there into the world. People will remember your brand so make sure it’s a good memory.

At a later date you can flesh the brand out by hiring professionals. I am personally a designer so feel free to email me (forest.parks@gmail.com) to move forward in this aspect.

Once you have a brand you’ll want to start promoting. Carrying business cards (which can be printed very cheaply with companies like Signazon) and posting flyers at local places like coffee shops, libraries and stores is a great start.

However consider putting on events, advertising in local newspapers and offering customers referral bonuses. Something simple like offering a free coffee for every referral could work and may be a creative idea. You’d just have to ask a local coffee house about acquiring one coffee vouchers and they may even discount them if you are sending business their way.

That leads me onto collaboration. Offering a free workshop with your local library, Hosting a meet at a community center or local business, running a cross promotion. All these are ways to get involved and push your brand out there.

Make sure you have your business cards, carry brochures or flyers if necessary. Keep pushing the name out there.

Customers and taking business

You need to cherish your customers but be honest and considerate. It’s easy for a new business to try and take on too much then implode under all the work. Keep yourself an open book and keep your passion high. Remember this is a hobby that you are turning into a business and you don’t want to lose that angle. You want people to know you work hard for them and I believe keeping it small and personal in the beginning is the only way to do this. If you are too busy to take on more jobs then tell the customers that and let them know when things can be done.

Sustainability.

Set work hours, recognise stress, don’t spend too much money and keep it small. Those are some of my key points for keeping a new business sustainable. Allow slow growth, don’t allow yourself to explode and lose control.

I hope this helps and I would love to hear your thoughts and tips.

This post was produced in association with Signazon.

Part of budgeting and saving money will lead to times when you will feel that you are missing out.

It may be a weekend trip with your buddies or waiting for the latest blockbuster to rear it’s head on DVD. There are a lot of things that you may miss out on and it can be demoralising, depressing and feel totally unfair.

If you straight up don’t have the cash it can be tempting to use credit cards, if you are saving for something bigger it can be tempting to eat into those savings. However if you rationally deal with the emotional side of missing out you may find yourself being able to fend off the spending urges.

Make sure your budget does have some ‘fun’ built in. Even if it’s having your pals over for a potluck once per month or going to the park to play football. Make sure social time is built in but be budget conscious.

Also make sure everyone knows why you are on such a heavy budget, it may change their plans and they may work harder to do things that can accomodate everyone.

If you know something bigger and better is coming up and you miss out of the little things then focus on that big thing and make sure you are budgeting for that. Goals make it easier to focus so make sure you have them!

At the end of the day we all miss out on something every now and then and that is a reality of life. Your future will be better if you get your stuff together now and stop making excuses as to why you are spending all your money and not making progress with savings or debt payments.

Good luck and please take the time to comment.

The internet has rapidly changed our way of life over the last few years in many ways. It’s simple to meet like-minded people and stay in touch with loved ones, travelling is made easier and all the information you need is only one click away. This also applies to shopping: last year’s statistics show that online retail sales worldwide have hit a total revenue of more than fifty billion dollars. The average online shopper spends about £1,500 on forty items a year and these numbers are increasing day by day. Here are some tips to get the most out of your money.

1. Always compare prices

Don’t buy the first thing you see, even if it’s something you really want to buy. If you do a quick internet search, there’s a high possibility you will find the same items being sold for cheaper elsewhere as sellers are constantly lowering their prices to stand out from the competition.

2. Buy your bi-weekly purchases online as well

If you buy your cosmetics in bulk online every month instead of buying them at the grocery store, you will save yourself a lot of money. This also applies to technology and different media, such as eBooks, records and games. Don’t just buy fancy things online – buy things online you would’ve bought at the mall anyway!

3. Don’t just buy – sell, too

It’s incredibly easy to buy items online and equally easy to sell them. Why not profit from that? A good point to start is at www.musicmagpie.com, a site where you can sell your old DVDs, CDs and games to others. You’ll find out that it’s kind of addictive to get rid of your old belongings and making money off them by doing so.

Note from Forest: I’ve used Music Magpie personally and for me it was an extremely convenient way to get rid of a lot of unwanted DVDs and CDs. Maybe I could have gotten more selling them individually but it suited my needs at the time.

4. Buy responsibly

As it’s so incredibly easy and tempting to order stuff online by the click of a mouse and the filling out of a form, make sure you don’t get too crazy! Don’t buy items that you can’t afford and don’t take out loans to buy an item that stole your heart. Set aside a monthly budget for your online spending.

5. Always check if the site is legitimate

A great risk when buying your items online is that anyone can set up their own site and pretend that they’re a legitimate online shop. Lots of banks will cover any actual financial damage that will be done in the case this happens, but be aware of the fact that there are a lot of shady shops around. It will save you time, stress and energy. Don’t buy from them if you don’t trust them and don’t let them give your credit card details to stores that aren’t a part of a major chain. If you don’t trust them, opt for PayPal: the only information they’ll get from you is your e-mail address and it’s easy to reverse a payment.

I try to be minimalist and not spend unnecessary money. I also think I am pretty good at it. Of course, everyone has an achilles heal and one of mine is going out to eat. I don’t do it a whole lot however it is something I enjoy spending money on and something I feel benefits my life.

Done everyday I think it’s a terrible choice. Generally eating out is not healthy however if you are like me you love trying every little restaurant and type of cuisine you can find. As I travel to new places I find all the little ethnic places and then plan it into my schedule and budget. The pleasure about eating is that it leaves me with a fresh experience and no extra baggage, perfect for someone like me who travels and wants to spend money on experience not stuff.

However as much as I can dig into new and interesting cuisine and up and down every place in town sometimes I just want Pizza.

Take out of restaurant pizza has a place in my mind as a social food. Gathering with friends to watch an event on the TV, prior to going out to a show or something of that ilk.

Pizza is easy, delicious and suits almost everyone!

My favourite pizza is topped with veggies including pineapple, sweetcorn, peppers and something spicey! I also don’t have cheese believe it or not! For me it’s all about the bread and sometimes I love thin crust (when I make pizza at home it’s always thin crust) but often in groups i’ll let go and indulge in deep dish. I have to admit I love the dough!

When do you think it’s ok to eat out and eat pizza? What toppings do you like?

Check out Little Caesars deep dish, currently only $8, in the sponsored video below.

Yum!

Yesterday I talked about starting a blog. Blogging is a great way to create a space to talk about your passions and hobbies but there is a genuine chance for it to become a business and of course there are other business models that can be pursued online. This includes promoting a service you provide or selling items via an eCommerce site. At some point you may have to start taking payments and when it comes to taking those payments there are costs and details involved.

Today’s guest post supplied by Shopify looks at what costs should be considered when accepting payments via credit cards.

Costs to Consider When Accepting Credit Cards

Many merchants fail to consider the costs of accepting a credit card as a form of payment. These costs accrue quickly, and may require you to raise the prices of your goods or services. If you are in this position, it is important to educate yourself on some of the costs that are associated with credit cards.

Equipment

In order to be able to accept credit cards, you must have the proper equipment. Some companies may require you to purchase a specific processor, while others will let you rent one for a monthly fee. Depending on how advanced the equipment is, the cost of equipment could range from a couple hundred dollars to a few thousand dollars.

Start-Up Costs

When you first begin to accept credit cards as a form of payment, there will be start up costs. These costs usually come in the form of application or programming fees. Most of the time these fees are negotiable, and can sometimes be avoided. It is important to ask about the start up fees so that you are not surprised when you receive your bill.

Discount Rate and Acceptance Rate

The discount rate is the percentage of a sale that the processor is allowed to keep. When a customer’s chooses to pay for an item or service with their credit card, the merchant can choose to add on two fees. One fee is the discount rate, which can range from 1-5% of the sale. This is a fee that the merchant can negotiate over time, and may even be able to avoid it altogether. The second fee is the acceptance fee or transaction charge. This fee is a flat fee that is charged to every customer using a credit card. With most credit card equipment, when the customer swipes the credit card, they will be asked to accept or decline the fee. The customer must accept or decline to continue with the purchase. If the customer accepts, the purchase will be complete. If the customer declines, he or she will have to use a different form of payment.

End of Month Fees

Normally, end of month fees will range from .09 to .12 percent of monthly credit card sales. It may seem like a small percentage, but this fee is usually large. This fee is one of the main reasons that merchants will raise prices after implementing a credit card machine into their check out process.

Each of these fees is a way for processors to gain payment for their services. It is important to make sure that you do your research into the different fees before you accept their terms. Ask the processor to be upfront about every fee and find out why that fee is necessary. If you are able to negotiate any of these fees, you should do your best to avoid paying that fee. Avoiding these fees may allow you to reduce the amount that you will have to raise prices on your goods or services.

I’ve been blogging since 2007 now, hardly a lifetime but pretty long in the world of blogging. It’s been a rocky ride and although much a hobby it’s also a large part of my full-time income and allows me to freely travel the world.

Why you should blog…

Put simply blogging is fun, it gives you something to do (a hobby) and isn’t expensive to get started with. You’ll connect with people who share a passion. Knowledge in your subject of choice will sky rocket and you’ll interact with new people maybe even eventually make real friends. I have many people I consider friends that I met through blogging.

Other opportunities can pop up too. Your passion may start earning money, you may improve your chances of finding a better job through networking and may even find yourself head hunted.

Blogging also gives you an outlet, somewhere to talk about and share things related to your passion.

What you should blog about…

You can start a random blog and if that is what you want why should anyone stop you? That is the beauty about blogging, it’s your place, you can start a fanzine for your favorite music, a blog about an obscure (or widespread) hobby, instructional or informational, professional, creative, whatever!

The fact that you are thinking about blogging means you may well have a subject in mind. When reading about starting a blog you will likely be one of two things. Either that you must follow your passion or that you should go after a profitable niche! I say don’t worry about that stuff, start a blog about whatever you want, something you have a passion for or a passing interest that you’ll just enjoy working with. This is your first blog and it doesn’t matter if you grow bored of it and drift off to start another blog.

The quickest way to start…

You can be blogging within 5 minutes. Simply visit blogspot.com and start a blog, easy peasy. You get a YourDomain.blogspot.com url and an easy way to choose themes and write content. If you are thinking of being serious with blogging though I believe owning your domain and using the blogging platform I use is the way forward and the blog and content will 100% be yours.

Links in this post may be affiliate links and i’ll earn a small commission from services you purchase but these are companies I recommend and have used personally. You have my word they are good.

Setup YOUR own blog, step-by-step

Name your site

You need a name for your site. You can go for something descriptive or something fun or a mixture of the two. Just have a think and jot down some ideas then I recommend you get your domain from NameCheap. I recommend Namecheap as they are affordable and very reliable in my experience. So…

1. Brainstorm a name.
2. Visit NameCheap, use their Domain search to find out if it’s available and if not find one available. I recommend you use a .com domain.
3. Buy your domain.

Set up hosting

Next up you need web hosting. Hosting is the place your files go, your domain name points to this place. So it’s like the warehouse for the content of your blog. I recommend when starting that you set up with Hostgator and the hatchling plan at $7.16 monthly is a fine start. The longer you sign up for the cheaper montly price you get and it can go as low as $3.96 per month.

• Visit Hostgator here and use the coupon ‘FrugalZeitgeist’ to get 25% off.

Also here is a little video I put together to basically explain what web hosting is…

Pointing your domain name to your hosting.

Once you have your hosting set up you will need to point your namecheap domain to your hosting. You would have been given 2 addressees when you set up your hosting called nameservers. These will be in your welcome email.

1. Log into Namecheap.
2. On the top right click My Account
3. Under domains select your domain name
4. Now on the left hand side click Transfer DNS to Webhost
5. You’ll see 5 places to enter your nameservers, just enter the two in 1 and 2 and save changes.
6. It could take up to 24 hours for the domain to start pointing towards your web hosting account but usually it takes less than a few hours.

Install wordpress, Hostgator’s 1-click install

Ok, first off you may need some coffee right now, get some of that first! Then come back and we’ll install wordpress. WordPress is by far my favorite blogging platform and it allows you to control the look of your site in every detail, allows you to post content that can be read and hopefully indexed well in Google. It is also hugely expandable with plugins and can be bent to do pretty much anything you want.

Hostgator have this great video showing you how you can install wordpress in a few minutes. I suggest you install wordpress on the root directly of your site if the blog is going to be the main component. This means www.yoursite.com rather than www.yoursite.com/blog/.

Write your first post.

Now you have a blog! Time to open the champagne…. But first you may want to write your first post.

1. Log into WordPress, normally www.yoursite.com/wp-admin if you installed WordPress on the root directly.
2. Click on Posts>All Posts on the left hand side menu.
3. Hover over the one post title which will be Hello Word, click the option to trash it. This will now be deleted.
4. Click on Posts>Add New. You’ll now see the window to write your first post. Give it a title, write some content. Even add a picture using the Add Media button if you feel adventurous.
5. Hit Publish on the right hand side and share your new blog with the world.

What now…

This post should have you set up with a basic blog. The sky is the limit now and I suggest you get writing and writing and sharing all your work with friends on Facebook, down the local bar, at work and wherever you can.

Beyond writing you may be a bit lost right now but nearly everything you need to learn can be found in video tutorial form over at WordPress.tv. I suggest you watch videos on plugins and general settings right away to get yourself up to basic speed. About plugins, always be very careful and don’t install too many. Often they have been responsible for creating security leaks for hackers to get into people’s sites. So basically only install highly rated trusted plugins.

You may find yourself wanting to change your theme. There are 1000s of free themes available and you can learn to customise themes yourself. In fact the default Twenty Twelve theme is an excellent theme to work with. However for a supported and highly professional theme that you can customize I suggest you check out Genesis Framework and their huge range of awesome themes.

You may even want a custom design or design elements such as  a logo. I mentioned that I make some of my money from blogging but I also make money from creating blogs for people so I am up for hire. Send me a personal email at forest@frugalzeitgeist.com and we can talk direct about your specific needs.

Any problems or questions?

This is a lot to take in and you may be a little blinded by it all so feel free to ask any questions, let me know if something isn’t working as it should or if you have any other comments.

Also please do share your new blog. I can’t wait to see it. 

I like to head out for a coffee and do some writing. There is a case for working at home all of the time but hey I would go absolutely crazy!

I’m back in my home town of Woolwich, London right now. First off I can’t believe how fast it is changing and I am undecided about my thoughts on this! I keep thinking about the man who came up to Banksy while he was painting on the wall in Palestine and told him to stop. He told Banksy he didn’t want him to make the wall pretty because he hates the wall…. Woolwich hardly matches up to the wall in Palestine. I guess deep down I have a little misguided hatred for the place!

Good or bad the fact is that the changes are not only affecting me, I am making use of them. The trendy new pub, the giant (and I mean USA sized!) supermarket and of course Starbucks.

Starbucks came to town and for me it changed Woolwich. It gave me somewhere to go grab a reasonably priced coffee and work on my blogs. Great…. However I always complained that I only used Starbucks because it was my only choice!

Well, my remarks have been tested now as Woolwich and it’s changing landscape has finally landed a viable Starbucks alternative.

Not only a viable alternative but possible a better one! The Coffee Lounge is situated in a beautiful building on Woolwich’s most recently updated town square. You get better views than Starbucks, just as many drinks choices (as far as I can tell), more plugs for laptops and it’s got a nicer decor, in my opinion.

img src: facebook.com/TheCoffeeLoungeWoolwich

So of course I HAVE to use it, I love supporting independent business and it’s simply better than Starbucks.

But wait! Coffee is just a tad more expensive in The Coffee Lounge! Ahhhhhh, a frugal dilema!

So what would you do?

After back and forth between the two I have sided with the independent coffee house over the saving and likely will be using that in 80% of my visits.

If in Woolwich I suggest you take time to visit The Coffee Lounge.

The bigger picture…

This was a tiny choice to make. I generally have 1-2 coffees and stay for 5 hours or so. I’m not a highly profitable customer but am steady. So the savings by going to Starbucks are minimal.

When it comes to other frugal choice vs moral / local choice things get a little more harder as the money implications grow. As an example buying clothing from a sustainable source with no sweatshop work involved in a big area I want to improve in but I still often take the frugal choice.

My conclusion: Frugality is important and minimalism is a goal that can be worked upon but where choices involve a moral and you have the means to take that then you probably should.

I’d love your thoughts and stories.

I’d also love if you took the time to share on Twitter or Facebook and help us continue this discussion.