Instead of shopping on the day after Xmas, I was cleaning my house–in spite of the jjaw-dropping sales. I ended up going through boxes and boxes of clothes that I had in storage, taking out each item and stacking them according to whether they were pants, shirts, summer, winter–you get it–and when I was done I had a pile of clothes about 3 feet high in each category.

I realized in that moment that, barring perhaps some socks and underwear in a couple of years, I could easily not have to shop for clothes for 5-7 years. Which is what I decided to do, unless I have a specific reason to get a particular outfit.

Most of my kitchen stuff is 30-40 years old and still works fine. I use a hand blender I inherited from my mother, dating from the late 60s. My cast iron pans were passed on in the family, and one of them is about 100 years old. Works great. My point is, stuff, carefully selected and properly cared for, and repaired when it breaks or presents small flaws, lasts a *long* time.

There is, in fact, very little I need to buy on a weekly, monthly, or even half-yearly basis, when I sit down and think about it. Once you have the basic equipment of living, which in many cases can be either inherited or purchased secondhand, most spending is unnecessary outside of housing and food, and food for one person can easily be brought down to below $100 per month if you eat exclusively in and pack your lunches and travel food (I admit, it has taken a few years of changing my habits to get to this low level of food spending).

Our basic needs (for “stuff”) are very simple and are easy to provide in the society we live in. In fact, my most treasured possessions of late are warm turtlenecks and a couple of sweaters that keep me toasty-comfortable in my house, which is at between 50 and 60 degrees, depending on the part of the day and the part of the house. (The bedroom, only used for sleeping, often gets down to 45 on cold nights, yet I am perfectly comfortable because I have set the bed up for those temperatures).

All of this brings up the point that, once you stop pleasure- or distraction-shopping , shopping only when actually necessary, and normalize putting a good chunk of your income as savings, which itself leads to less worrying and even less time spent being concerned about financial things, what do you do with yourself in your freed-up time? At that point you may find yourself facing yourself and your existence and wondering,” what do I do now, and why?”

It was not the least bit unusual for a family of 6 to live in a 3 bedroom, 1 bath, 1,000 sq.ft. house 40 years ago.

Who’d be willing to live so small today?

-agreed…. but it’s not the whole picture… the great depression happened in them midst of the Golden Frugal Age

“If you go into homes that are 60 years old, the cupboards are tiny. That’s because nobody had much stuff”

-That’s because “stuff” was really expensive back then. Thanks to fossil fuels, globalization and increases in manufacturing technology “stuff” is really cheap now.

Frugality is not a virtue unless it’s a means to a worthwhile end.

Perhaps I’m just not your target audience.

So, reading between the lines here… your assertion is that the increase in wealth we’ve experienced since 1935 is due to Social Security, pensions, and IRAs.

Great Post. I would like to add something more. There’s a direct linkage between savings and long term sustainability of the planet earth. This is another ‘inconvenient truth’. Everybody needs to realize that if we want long term sustainability of the planet earth, frugality or conscious spending is the way to go.Check out the details at http://www.themoneyquest.com/2008/12/savings-step-towards-sustainable-living.html

It’s a relief to live frugally and not need to buy beyond the basics; even all these crazy sales on at the moment are not a temptation. IMO, frugality = stress-free living.

There is a lot of truth to paring down what you have. If nothing else it adds to the peace in our home. We still have too much stuff, but at least it’s stuff we use! And we’re doing a lot better than we were before.

I know that many people *do* share one car, or live close enough to their city/job/etc that they can utilize their bus/rail/public transit. But for the majority of Americans, it’s not feasible or easily accomplished. We really did love how easy it was over there, though!

I have listened to and read Robert Kiyosaki’s books and seen the current economy and just wonder.

Yes saving is great but if the stock market is so unreliable nowadays and people bet their retirements on it? Don’t they wonder that they can go broke?

Although I am assuming here that you are referring to RRSP and savings in terms of their own savings and putting it into mutual funds. Am I accurate?

oh yeah.. happy holidays everyone!

A point I would like to add is the astounding environmental benefits that can be gained if more and more people jump on the frugal bandwagon. With every material purchase comes a trail of spent resources, fuel, and the accompanying pollution. And this is not-to-mention what ends up in the landfill from the purchases. Less consumption equals less waste!

Modestly living can not only help you remain a lot in hard economic times, but can have so many further benefits in terms of being lest waste producing, healthy (less stress from being constantly in debt), etc.

Gail I hope a ‘follow up’ show is in the works.

Thanks!

In general people do have legs, they can ride a bike (yes, I am Dutch), or they can use public transport (buses, trains, subsways etc.) to get somewhere.

I know that the US is an entirely different country when it comes to the distances people have to travel to get to the mall or to get to work and maybe the entire system of public transport does not meet the needs when everybody is going to travel this way, but it would be a nice idea to consider other ways of traveling.
If using a car is the only possible sollution, what about sharing your car?

Greetings from the Netherlands,

Jacco.