If you go back five years, there is a good chance that you probably viewed saving money as a nice treat. For example, when you found a good deal on something, you probably got a nice little rush of excitement and a smile on your face. While it was great to save some money when you made a purchase, trying to save money was not something that you actively pursued.

However, let’s fast forward five years to the present, and I am going to bet that there is a strong chance that your feelings towards saving money have significantly changed. While saving money use to be a nice little treat that you would tell your friends about, saving money is no longer a passive activity for you. Instead, it is something that you have to actively go after. As a result of the weakened economy, you have had to tighten your purse strings and focus on being more careful with how you spend your money. So, while spending four dollars a day on a cup of coffee didn’t used to seem like a big deal, now you opt to buy economy sized coffee beans from the grocery store (especially when you have a coupon that allows you to save an extra fifty cents) and make your own coffee at home before you take off for work. While there are probably times when you wish you could go back to not caring about whether or not you were going to find a sale when you went shopping, I don’t necessarily think your current approach is a bad thing.

The reason I say that is because I have gone through the exact same transition as yourself. While I used to be the poster child for a wasteful consumer, I have been forced to change my ways over the last two years or so. At first, I found it to be very hard, which caused me to be unhappy about the change in my lifestyle. However, after I got used to a new way of doing things, I realized that it wasn’t so bad after all. Now that I have seen what life can be like with more money in the bank, I have realized that this is a lifestyle I want to continue. I have already promised myself that even if the economy improves, I won’t allow myself to forget all of the good habits I have learned in recent years.

In addition to seeing major benefits from the cumulative effect of all the small changes I have made, I have also taken some bigger steps. For example, about eight months ago, I started shopping around for a California home loan mortgage refinance. I spent a couple of weeks looking at different options and consulting some people I trust on these kinds of matters, and I eventually found a California home loan mortgage refinance option that worked really well for me. It’s now been about seven months since I finalized this transition, and it has proven to be yet another positive influence on my financial well being.