Frugality: Why and how?
Jun. 28th, 2010 10:08 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
sarahmichiganI mentioned frugality as a value when I was talking to a friend recently, and it reminded me of the fact that while there's a lot of info out there about how to be frugal, there's not as much about why. Sure, there are some bloggers out there who discuss the "why"of it, but that info is buried under mountains of info about how to coupon, save money, etc.
For me, the answer to, "Why do you value frugality?" is simple: Debt is slavery. And, related: Stuff is slavery.
I value freedom, and therefore, I value frugality.
For some people, I think frugality is an end in and of itself. Because of some religious or ethical principals, they believe in keeping finances tight, no impulse buying, saving as much as possible, etc.
For me, frugality is not the end but a means to an end. I'm very frugal (not cheap- there's a difference) on things that I don't care about so that I have the money to splurge on things I DO care about.
So, I don't buy books, I get them from the library. I have a lot of used furniture that was picked up from a curb or gotten cheaply at a rummage sale. I buy many of my clothes from thrift shops. I try to cook at home as much as possible and feel guilty if I eat out or order food in two days in a row.
You might see some of my other decisions and wonder if I'm really frugal. For instance, we have a projector and a big screen. I pay pretty big money for bras and some athletic clothing. I purchased a $300 bike (on sale) from a high-end bike store instead of a $90 Huffy.
This is the whole "means to an end" thing. I save on things I don't care about (I'll take the store brand facial tissues, thanks!) so that I have money to spend on things I do care about (good quality bras from Lane Bryant, thanks!).
I also am frugal because the more debt you have, the more enslaved you are. You can get tied down to jobs, to locations, to relationships you despise because you don't have the money to make the changes you want. When you're debt-free, or nearly so, you have more options. You can leave the bastard who's abusing you because you have a nest egg to start over. You can leave the high-paying job you hate and try that home business you've been thinking about if you're not drowning in debt.
Also, more things make you more enslaved. You must work to get stuff, and then you have to work to buy stuff to store your stuff. And if you've really accumulated a lot of stuff, you can't travel unless you pay to have someone watch your stuff while you're gone. You can't quit your job, because you still have five years of payments until you own "your" stuff outright. And so on.
One person that I think does a good job of articulating some of the "whys" behind frugality is Trent from The Simple Dollar blog. If you aren't already reading him, I think you'd find his "Road to Financial Armageddon" posts pretty interesting. He talks about how he got to the point that, even with a good salary, he was stuck in debt and living paycheck to paycheck. He also explains some of his thinking behind why he wanted to get out of debt and why he embarked on a more frugal lifestyle.
One of the biggest barriers to adopting frugality, I think, is this sense that, "I've been scrimping and saving all along. Now that I'm making more money, I deserve to splurge on whatever I want." I understand that mindset, and we did some of that after we got our first professional jobs and didn't have to live like students any more. But quickly, we returned to a mostly frugal lifestyle because we realized that sense of entitlement - "I deserve to have nice things" - is really a trap. After your basic needs are met, stuff usually doesn't make your quality of life better- it just limits your options.
Also, along the same lines,![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
popfiend just posted a great link over the weekend:
For me, the answer to, "Why do you value frugality?" is simple: Debt is slavery. And, related: Stuff is slavery.
I value freedom, and therefore, I value frugality.
For some people, I think frugality is an end in and of itself. Because of some religious or ethical principals, they believe in keeping finances tight, no impulse buying, saving as much as possible, etc.
For me, frugality is not the end but a means to an end. I'm very frugal (not cheap- there's a difference) on things that I don't care about so that I have the money to splurge on things I DO care about.
So, I don't buy books, I get them from the library. I have a lot of used furniture that was picked up from a curb or gotten cheaply at a rummage sale. I buy many of my clothes from thrift shops. I try to cook at home as much as possible and feel guilty if I eat out or order food in two days in a row.
You might see some of my other decisions and wonder if I'm really frugal. For instance, we have a projector and a big screen. I pay pretty big money for bras and some athletic clothing. I purchased a $300 bike (on sale) from a high-end bike store instead of a $90 Huffy.
This is the whole "means to an end" thing. I save on things I don't care about (I'll take the store brand facial tissues, thanks!) so that I have money to spend on things I do care about (good quality bras from Lane Bryant, thanks!).
I also am frugal because the more debt you have, the more enslaved you are. You can get tied down to jobs, to locations, to relationships you despise because you don't have the money to make the changes you want. When you're debt-free, or nearly so, you have more options. You can leave the bastard who's abusing you because you have a nest egg to start over. You can leave the high-paying job you hate and try that home business you've been thinking about if you're not drowning in debt.
Also, more things make you more enslaved. You must work to get stuff, and then you have to work to buy stuff to store your stuff. And if you've really accumulated a lot of stuff, you can't travel unless you pay to have someone watch your stuff while you're gone. You can't quit your job, because you still have five years of payments until you own "your" stuff outright. And so on.
One person that I think does a good job of articulating some of the "whys" behind frugality is Trent from The Simple Dollar blog. If you aren't already reading him, I think you'd find his "Road to Financial Armageddon" posts pretty interesting. He talks about how he got to the point that, even with a good salary, he was stuck in debt and living paycheck to paycheck. He also explains some of his thinking behind why he wanted to get out of debt and why he embarked on a more frugal lifestyle.
One of the biggest barriers to adopting frugality, I think, is this sense that, "I've been scrimping and saving all along. Now that I'm making more money, I deserve to splurge on whatever I want." I understand that mindset, and we did some of that after we got our first professional jobs and didn't have to live like students any more. But quickly, we returned to a mostly frugal lifestyle because we realized that sense of entitlement - "I deserve to have nice things" - is really a trap. After your basic needs are met, stuff usually doesn't make your quality of life better- it just limits your options.
Also, along the same lines,
popfiend just posted a great link over the weekend: 
![[identity profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/openid.png){kind=small}
no subject
Date: 2010-06-28 02:21 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2010-06-28 05:31 pm (UTC)Thank you.
*hug*
no subject
Date: 2010-06-28 11:47 pm (UTC)The Simple Dollar and also Get Rich Slowly and a few other financial blogs (Frugal Girl is another one I enjoy) and also Flylady got me out of the "stuff" trap. I was able to quit my second job and stop working in the summers by just stop buying so much stuff and cutting down on eating outside and ordering in. I realized that my friends and I always did the same things - we'd go shopping and have lunch or dinner, maybe see a movie. One afternoon would end up costing me at least $50 usually! I'm not friends with those people much anymore, so that helped me realize what a drain on my finances it was.
I've become a big proponent of experiences, not "things". I buy my sister tickets to a Broadway show for her birthday, instead of yet another MP3 player. I want to spend the money I save to travel and see the world, not for whatever iJunk comes along. I was wondering the other day when the iPhone 4 came out and they were showing the people that had waited in line overnight for the thing on the news, how many of them already had bought an iPhone 1, 2, and/or 3. Did they suddenly no longer work? What a waste, to purchase something new when your old one is still perfectly fine.
Which brings me to a another reason to be frugal: the environment. We live in such a throwaway society. If we all just ditch our 6 month old gadgets the second the new one comes out, the old ones end up in landfills. Plastic is made from petroleum. People work in often inhumane conditions to create these for us. By using things until they wear out, we are getting the most use out of something that took resources - both natural and human labor - to create. Sure, I'd like a new cell phone. But there isn't anything wrong with the one I have. So I'll wait until there is. Same thing with my car. And my computer, etc etc.