Everything in life is relative. How much you spend, how much you save, what you earn, and how much your house/car costs. It is all dependent on the situation you find yourself in at that moment. Even frugality is relative.
I realized that I’m pretty frugal versus the average person. I don’t try to be, but I am. But I have nothing on Mary Hunt or Amy Dacyczyn or any hard core coupon clipper. I try my best to save what I can and buy what I need. But I haven’t mastered the art of coupon shopping or searching for the best deals.
But compared to most of my friends and family? I seem like a true frugalite. I carefully watch my money, budget, and save. I also use coupons, make grocery lists, and plan menus. Yet at the same time I love to travel, spend money on fun (expensive) hobbies like snowboarding, concerts, good food and wine, and my dogs.
But it appears that in today’s economic downturn more people are practicing frugal habits. Thus does that mean I’m becoming the norm instead of the exception? I believe so.
So relatively speaking, I’m not as frugal as I could or perhaps should be. But I’m more frugal than many. I think I’ve found a pretty comfortable zone of frugality. What about you?
9 responses so far ↓
1 tom // Feb 6, 2009 at 10:13 am
one thing I find funny about some of the comments on your more recent posts is the number of people trying to “out poor” each other. “I was more poor than you growing up”, “I am poor right now”, “I am living like I’m poor”. It’s almost as if being rich and indulgent is a faux pas.
That said, I’m like you. I have a comfortable e-fund, invest in retirement funds, , budget, save, yet still spend money freely.
2 Meg from FruWiki // Feb 6, 2009 at 10:47 am
LOL! I’ve made the same observation as Tom! And ok, I probably engaged in a bit of that, too!
Fortunately, I’m definitely not poor. I’m not even living paycheck to paycheck. I’m just seriously in debt and working hard to get out of it. But I am very proud of the sacrifices that I’ve been willing to make to get out of debt — even though many of those “sacrifices” didn’t seem so bad at all once I made the adjustments and found cheaper or even free replacements.
And I like talking about those sort of things and comparing notes with others. It reminds me that I’m not alone and I get new ideas for saving money.
That said, I have no probably with people spending money on things that are important to them — so long as they have their finances in order or are at least on the right track. I like good, healthy food and clothes that look nice on me. I could save money short term if I didn’t care about those things, but frugality doesn’t mean sacrificing value for the cheapest option.
3 Mary // Feb 6, 2009 at 12:50 pm
I think it is about finding balance. You and your husband make a good income, so why shouldn’t you “live a little”. Not to say to be irresponsible, but to do what you enjoy.
I’ll admit my husband and I were getting out of the super frugal mode we were in to pay down debt since we had met that goal. We were actually going to “live a little” and then my husband was laid off. So, we’ll tighten the belt a little bit. My pay and his unemployment means we don’t have to cut anything, but we will trim the fat. Go back to making sure most everything we do is free. The “toys” get put on hold. I don’t consider myself a blackbelt in frugality just because I watch what I buy and try to limit my excess. I think it is just common sense to cut things out when you are paying down debt or have a change in income in the negative direction.
4 Miss M @ M is for Money // Feb 6, 2009 at 2:56 pm
There are things I save money on and things I splurge on, overall I’m relatively frugal. Even an expensive purchase can be frugal, depending on the value you expect to receive from the item. My primary change has been to consider value when I buy something, I used to buy stuff I didn’t really need. I’m never going to be a hardcore frugal, it doesn’t interest me and I do enjoy some of the ‘finer’ things in life. As another commenter said, finding balance is the key. Being frugal in areas where it makes sense without sacrificing happiness.
5 Kristy @ Master Your Card // Feb 8, 2009 at 4:29 pm
I agree with Mary on finding balance. I spent a lot of time while I was focused on clawing my way out of debt deprived of the things I wanted. Now, while I’m frugal in some respects, I don’t really deprive myself of the things I want unless they are simply unaffordable. I eat out with my friends on occasion, I buy the DVDs I want, I take impromptu trips at regular intervals, etc.
However, I do turn off the lights when I’m not in the room, I only use a third of the dryer sheet per load, I turn off the A/C and heater, etc.
I try to find the balance that works for me and I don’t try to compare myself, frugally speaking, to others because my situation is wholly different.
6 LAL // Feb 9, 2009 at 12:56 pm
I like to spend money. Like I said today, before I started really blogging we were blowing a lot of money on stuff. It wasn’t debt but we had FUN.
Tom, I noticed people being more and more frugal. UNFORTUNATELY i’m NOT frugal. I hate being frugal and if we make a lot more money I’ll be spending it on stuff again.
8 JoeP // Feb 26, 2009 at 3:21 pm
You say, “UNFORTUNATELY i’m NOT frugal. I hate being frugal and if we make a lot more money I’ll be spending it on stuff again.”
So what is unfortunate? It almost sounds like you’d like to be frugal, but then you say you hate being frugal. You even made a post declaring to the world, in no uncertain terms, that you are not frugal.
9 LAL // Feb 26, 2009 at 10:33 pm
Nope I’m not. I am frugal compared to our income bracket. I’m probably frugal compared to the area we live. I get a lot of looks for using coupons. I am frugal compared to probably even normal people our age. How many 29 year olds are frugal?
But I don’t particularly like it. I’d much rather spend money and not think about it.
Compromising Frugality - Feb 26, 2009
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