Yes, great post! I've been a reader of The Simple Dollar for a few years now, and other than student loans and a few hundred dollars that I'll probably pay off shortly (it's on a 5.9% balance transfer rate that will remain at that rate as long as I make at least the minimum payment on time each month) I'm debt free. I still use my other credit cards, but they both are on automatic plans that pay them off in full each month. That feels great.
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.
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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.