April’s post this morning about renting designer purses and other luxury items raised a few eyebrows. Because the focus here at Get Rich Slowly is on frugality, it’s not often that we delve into the world of high fashion.
In the comments, for example, Ami wrote:
I thought this was the Get Rich Slowly site, not the fritter your money on fripperies site. For me, Getting Rich Slowly is about changing your mindset about what’s necessary and important, which reduces your list of financial needs.
I think Ami’s comment is spot-on. Smart personal finance is about changing your mindset about what’s necessary and important, about reducing your list of financial needs. But I’ve learned that part of this is finding a balance so that you aren’t ignoring your Wants entirely. As Ramit at I Will Teach You to Be Rich says, there’s a place in every budget for conscious spending.
The basic law of frugality
Last summer, Kris and I had dinner with some of her old teacher friends. (My wife taught high-school chemistry and physics for eight years. She’s been out of the field now as long as she was in it, but we still get together with her former colleagues several times a year.)
During the conversation, one of the women — Linda, who teaches history — revealed that she doesn’t own a computer. She didn’t even have a functional TV until her siblings bought one for her. She’s never felt the need for these things, and she’d rather spend her money on something more important to her, like world travel.
Which is the “better” way to spend your money: world travel, an expensive handbag, or an HDTV? Or should you simply tuck your money into a high-yield savings account? This will come as no surprise, but I don’t think there’s any one right answer.
We each have things we spend on that others think are crazy. Linda is willing to live without a TV or a computer so she can fly to China and Belize and Nepal. Other folks are willing to cut corners on housing so they can afford four surfboards. I buy comic books, but I don’t spend much for clothes.
Are these things frugal? If your goal is to pinch every penny, then no they’re not. But if your goal is financial balance, spending on the things that make you happy is perfectly fine. To me, the basic law of frugality is: Decide what’s important to you. Give yourself permission to spend on these things. Pinch pennies on everything else.
Sometimes you CAN get what you want
I have no concept of fashion. I don’t care about name-brand watches, purses, shoes, jackets, or jewelry. For better or worse (and some would say it’s worse), my style is thrift-store chic. All I want to do is pay as little as possible for basic clothes. But I’m not about to condemn those folks who do like fashion.
If you can afford it — by which I mean you’re not sacrificing your financial goals — and if you’re spending consciously and if you’re comparison shopping and if you’re buying quality…If you’re doing all of these things, then there’s absolutely nothing wrong with buying an expensive purse, if that’s what’ll make you happy.
Frugality doesn’t have to mean sacrificing quality. And it doesn’t have to mean you never buy anything you want ever again. You can’t always get what you want — but you can sometimes!
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Ha I browsed through these comments but when I saw #50 kaitlyn “laptop… boyfriend wants me to upgrade… I don’t see the point” I nearly bust a gut
I’m one of those guys always urging the girlfriend (brother, aunt, neighbor, guy at the supermarket…) to upgrade their computer. Sure it’s something I enjoy (I think I like the process of installing the hardware more than using it) but others don’t see value in it. It’s pure entertainment value. An experience. One I value that others do not. Just as they value other things that we do not. I think it is funny how some of us try to make hand bags or sports cars or any other item “less valuable” on some universal level but unless we’re talking about food and shelter, every one of those things is a luxury that has value for some, no value for others.
I have lots of things I could live without, and live happily, but I made my mistakes, and I justified the purchases. Now I just work hard to recover from mistakes, and focus on positive successes and where I’m headed next.
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yikes! lots of latent sexism going on here.
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Wow: “Decide what’s important to you. Give yourself permission to spend on these things. Pinch pennies on everything else.”
This is an epiphany for me, because I recently wrote that one of the most important things for me is to live somewhere quiet and aesthetically pleasing, yet I’ve always agonised over paying more rent for a nicer place. (I’ve just leased a studio apartment, so by ‘nicer’ I don’t mean bigger, just something with good bones.)
My home is what’s important to me.
I’ve cut back my budget in many other areas: started using the library and cooking at home a lot more, and have made a commitment to buy at least a third of my wardrobe secondhand next year (and to pay less than retail for another third)… None of that has been a sacrifice. But I won’t feel guilty now about spending a bit more on housing. Hooray!
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@Will & all the men who are unable to see the value in a quality purse: Just because you can’t appreciate it doesn’t mean there isn’t a discernable difference in quality between a department store purse and a designer one. Please, do us all a favor and stop making assumptions about the motives of women who *are* able to appreciate such quality. ANY luxury item can be purchased to show off: cars, clothes, houses, fine dinners, etc. Just because SOME people have such motives does not mean that is the “primary purpose” of the item. One person can appreciate a well-made sports car, another a well-made handbag. They are both just things. It is not shocking that the men here can’t understand a woman’s desire for a beautiful purse. It *is* surprising that they would make such gross generalizations about their motives.
(For the record, I am not one who is able to appreciate the difference. But that does not mean I have the right to go around assuming the motives of those with more expensive tastes.)
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@Will–Buddy, I have to disagree with you. Not all women buy expensive handbags soley so they can look “rich”. I have a friend that used to go through (wear out) a department store purse every six months. Five years ago, she bought a Coach purse…it doesn’t even look worn! There generally is a quality difference between the high-end stuff and the economy stuff. Don’t be so judgy.
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Loved the post. Sent it to a sister who is on the rise and loves to carry a nice bag. I laughed to find out she already rented her bags!
Hated the comment that someone judges all people by their shoes, purse and glasses. That judgement is the part that drives our society wild with greed!
Saving for nice things is great. Judging people by your nice things standard is not so great!
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I was glad to see this post too. I find it hard to give myself permission to spend on things
I think it’s a great point though to remember — especially when we’re tempted to judge others’ spending. I think sometimes communicating a goal — like “I’m not eating out as much to save money for a new couch” — goes a long way.
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Thank god for video games and the internet. I can pretty much skimp on everything else as long as I have my PS3, XBOX360, and my MAC laptop.
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I think this is a fascinating area of discussion, and JD nailed it. I love the quote, “You can have anything you want, you just can’t have everything you want.”
I know in my own life, it took me a while to find a balance. Like most everyone else, in the beginning, I was buying whatever I wanted, and I ran up a fair amount of debt in doing so. Then I began prioritizing, and cutting back on the things that I realized I didn’t care as much about. I would imagine that to most observers, my life must look pretty odd.
I have $8,000 worth of Magic the Gathering cards. I play at least once a week with several friends, and I enjoy it. We travel on road trips to big tournaments in other cities. But it’s completely a luxury, and has no useful, functional purpose whatsoever.
I have $10,000 worth of camera gear. Why? Are my photos really that much better than I’d get from a $300 camera? Maybe 2% better, to use a reference from further up this thread?
I have an enormous house. My wife and I live alone (no children) with our 2 cats in a 2600 sq. ft., 4-bedroom, 4-bath, $450,000 home. I love having the space, but we certainly don’t need it.
Then there are the “frugal” aspects of our lives. I haven’t bought any new clothing items in over a year. My wife and I just have one car – an ’05 Mazda 3 with 200,000 km on it. I take the bus home from work. We cook almost all of our own meals. Much of our furniture is from Ikea. We haven’t been on a vacation out of the country (Canada) in 3 years.
We’ve focused our energies on the aspects of our lives that are most important to us. The only reason we can enjoy our luxuries guilt-free is by having the rest of our financial lives under control (we’re debt-free, other than the mortgage, and we have a 3 month emergency fund). I like to think we’re living in the same spirit JD preaches, focusing our spending on what we value, and showing ruthless restraint toward things we don’t value as much. I don’t care if I drive a flashy car of have the latest clothes or hang out in clubs every weekend. But I love what I can do with my camera gear. I love the comraderie I get from traveling for a day-long Magic tournament. I love having a dozen friends over for Thanksgiving dinner and not having it feel crowded.
I think there’s a lot of unexplored topics to be covered in this area, and I’ve got to say, I like that JD is willing to host these kinds of discussions, even though they might appear to contradict some peoples’ idea of “frugality.”
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Adam #27 said, “Wealth is being happy with what you have. You might think someone is making trade-offs, but that person might truly be content.”
When I wrote about paying off my student loan on this blog, one response was, what was the trade-off. What did I have to give up to do it? Absolutely nothing. There was no trade-off. There was nothing else that I wanted to do any more than paying off that loan. It simply made me happy to do so.
Thank you for this great post.
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What about giving? Where does that fit into the discussion about satisfying one’s desires?
Not lecturing – just sharing my personal experience. We became comletely debt-free in order to free up our income to spend on what’s important to us. At the time (14 years ago) we thought that would be travel but discovered that giving money away is just as rewarding.
For us, buying *stuff* is like snacking on a candy bar. Donating money feels like a five star meal.
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I was uncomfortable when I first read April’s post as well (I haven’t read all the comments), but I realized the truth in what she wrote. It would be a great idea to be able to rent such expensive luxury items. The mentality that goes with such items is often what people struggle wtih–but each of us probably have our “areas of specialities”.
My mom, who is one of the most “tight-fisted” people I know, still has her weakness and that is German and/or English bone china. She wears yard sale clothing and rarely takes a vacation, but she owns, I think, 12 sets of fine bone china.
So, as long as your spending is under control, there really shouldn’t be a problem with your having splurge items. What would it be like if all of us were similar to JD and my mom and fighting over the same “used clothing items”? (I’m pretty similar in this area as well). But the comic stores would all go broke if they depended on my business since I’ve not bought a comic book in years and years.
On the other hand, we don’t have cable or a nice tv, but we do have high speed internet and I went to Crete for a holiday with my daughters this year (paid for by cash).
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I don’t understand the purse label thing, but I do understand how some things have more value to others. Just as long as your spending aligns with what you value and you have your financial ducks in order, why should you feel any guilt for spending money? The end game is not to just accummulate wealth, but to have a fulfilled life.
Like one of the previous commenters, we have a big house because we like our space. We like to travel often. But we don’t have cable and only eat out once or twice a week. And I do not even remember the last time I went to a movie. The difference in people is what makes us interesting. We cannot all be bots with pre-programmed hobbies and values.
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I feel that as a person who loves expensive purses, among other things, I should comment here. For someone like me, these things are beautiful. I don’t love a purse because of the price tag. I love it because the leather is exquisite to the touch, the detailing is stunning, the shape is interesting, the hardware is gorgeous and intricate, the color is fascinating, and so on and so forth. I have looked at A LOT of purses and nine times out of ten, you get what you pay for. I have cheap purses (most of my purses fall into this category) and they deteriorate and fade and whatnot but they’re trendy or serve a specific purpose. However, the few luxury purses I have are absolute classics that have taken their fair share of beatings with flying colors. You might blow milk out your nose reading this but to some people, fashion and all of its accessories are akin to living breathing art so it’s just not as simple as buying “a bag to hold stuff” (my hairs are on end).
As with anything else, be careful making assumptions and pronouncements about things you know little to nothing about.
@ Adam #15
“The reason I view these items negatively is because of a very clear case of diminishing returns.”
This is simply not always true with luxury items. Vintage luxury is often just as expensive if not more than new luxury. Many luxury items are high-quality items that last through the years and are even passed down. As a matter of fact, I can tell you from personal experience that the diminishing returns are not as drastic as you suggest. Using purses for example, sure you’ll get a discount if you wait a season or two but wait a bit more than that and good luck getting the purse at all–especially at a discount. Not to mention, I can guarantee you that a ten year old Chanel bag retains its worth much better than a ten year old Apple computer for instance (you mentioned technological things so that’s why I’m using that).
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Aye aye, great post. As far as the “frippery” comments in regard to pricy handbags specifically, I’m not into them but my sister is – she gets a lot of pleasure out of them, enjoys the materiality/design and the “collectable”/vintage aspects of some of them (a la comic books!) and perhaps most importantly uses them constantly rather than leaves them gathering dust. And she can afford them! What harm?
I mean, cars is one of the counter examples in the other thread but I’m sure we’ve all met the guy who “needs” a $40,000 truck because he, um, “does a lot of home maintenance” but ends up with it parked outside the train station 60 hours a week. And again, if he gets a kick out of it, what harm?
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@64 I think he was using the term “diminishing returns” in the economic jargon sense (diminishing marginal returns) rather than the regular American English sense.
Basically what it means is that the first unit of improved quality or the first unit (like the first purse) is valued less than the nth unit which is valued less than the n+1 unit. You still value the nth unit or n+1 unit, but not as much as you did the first unit. The more you have the less happiness you get from each additional piece.
The common college textbook example is with pizza (authors like to use pizza and beer as examples for some reason)… you value the first slice a lot more than the 2nd slice and by the 8th slice you’re wondering what you were thinking. Eventually you stop eating. Since quality is usually subjective, it is more difficult to come up with an example for that, but if you can think of units of quality, it’s the same kind of idea.
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JD
I really was upset when I read the article “Lifestyle of the Rich and Famous…on Lease”. I really really appreciate the articles written by you and this website. I think the article above does not live up to the ideals of this website. This is a getrich slowly website. Not a website on how and where to get good deals on household items. There would be millions of other websites for that purpose.
Hope you understand our concerns and not let others post such articles.
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I think JD’s post makes great sense, because why live frugally and “get rich” if you are never going to spend the money on anything. Unless of course you just love having the money pile up in the bank, but then that is your enjoyment/”thing” and more power to you.
This website is all about how to save and improve your finances so that you can do whatever is important to you. Really, doing what is important is what makes you “rich” in the first place. Why would you want to have tons of money if you are miserable.
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@Raghu
I’m a guy so I don’t buy purses, but I liked the article. Heck, why do guys rent tuxes but women have to buy wedding dresses?
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@ Vanessa #53, good for you on making the choice to invest in quality of life! And may you long continue to enjoy it.
DH and I chose to allocate a large amount of our monthly budget to rent, just so that neither of us has a long commute, we’re secure, we have space to entertain, utilities are low, and the space is attractive & peaceful. We made this choice because we know we’ll be in this area a long time and we don’t want to buy (buying the same square footage would cost 2 to 3 times more per month).
Our exchanges: we drive efficient, paid-off vehicles, don’t make a habit of eating out, vacation at drive-to destinations, and don’t overspend on clothes, etc.
Some people choose to drive three hours a day so they can have a house in the suburbs. To us that’s madness. We want that three hours to live our lives.
It’s all about the balance, and what each INDIVIDUAL finds of value.
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@ Dan #69 sorry to double comment but I had to p.s.
My DH bought a custom dance tuxedo for our wedding … around $2K with trimmings. I got my dress on eBay for $150 and altered it myself. Again, the individual!
But yeah, why bust on purses? Do guys just not like the *word*?
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@Madeline (#64) – Your comment about clothing being “akin to living breathing art” was right on target. I wonder if the differences in opinion on the value of designer accessories is based in a large part on one’s value of aesthetics. In a very gross generalization, I find that women tend to value aesthetics more than men do.
As an example, I like things that are “pretty”. Pretty house, pretty yard, pretty clothes. I value beauty for itself, not because it serves any function beyond being pretty. (Meanwhile my husband would say, “An inverted 5-gallon bucket makes a perfectly serviceable footstool…”). Sometimes you can get prettiness in a frugal way, but other times it comes at a price (as you point out, the high-end designer goods tend to be more unique, use better fabrics, incorporate more interesting details, etc). To me, the visual and tactile enjoyment I get is often worth the extra cost.
A good male-centric analogy is music. From my perspective, listening to a halfway decent U2 cover-band is just as good as going to an actual U2 concert. To me, the cover band is “98% as good,” so why bother paying hundreds of dollars for the real thing? But some people appreciate and value that 2% difference. The aural enjoyment they get is worth the extra cost.
In both examples, though, it comes down to how much you value a particular art form, and what you’re willing (and able!!) to pay to experience it.
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We are material creatures living in a material world… different creatures like different material things, often falling along male/female lines.
first of all, should make a disclaimer this is all in the “wants” section, after needs and saving are taken care of. The question is, what is “appropriate” to spend in their “wants” section of their budget. Are some things wrong, other things right, considering the rest is taken care of?
So what’s with all the hating? If anything maybe you should have sympathy for those who can detect and care about the differences between an expensive and inexpensive purse, since they will be spending buku money on a purse that you can save, or spend on say on 500 comic books or 1/4 of a cool car, or 3 gaming consoles, or 400 flip flops. Seems like there is a value judgment about the person simply because it is a “purse”. Is your enjoyment any better or more correct than her satisfaction? At any rate from the descriptions of the purse lovers out there, even if she ended up not getting as much satisfaction from it as she thought, sounds like she could recoup much of her money by re-selling it, which one would think the personal finance people would like (can be considered an asset).
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Been reading GRS for more than 4 years and it has pointed in me in the right direction. The post about designer purses, however did turn me off for one reason.
J.D. can talk about balance but most of us are trying to get balanced.
If you rented a $17,000 purse, would you be wearing a expensive dress or a $50 or a $1000 dress or would you be renting that as well ?
Let me quote from Stanley and Danko’s, Millionaire Next Door “Take for example the affluent parents who gave their son Bill and daughter-in-law Helen a $9,000 rug that we were told contained millions of hand tied knots…….he earns $55,000 a year….the expensive rug looked out of place in a room filled with hand me down furniture…so Bill and Helen felt compelled to purchase expensive walnut dining …”
A gift of $9,000 rug starts Bill on the way to financial ruin.
Will a rental of a $17,000 purse put you in the same direction of financial ruin of living beyond your means ?
Yes, Definitely !
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To my husband, a purse is a purse is a purse…
But *I* can tell the difference between a $20 purse and a $200 dollar purse.
To me, a drill is a drill is a drill…
But my husband can tell the difference between a $20 drill and a $200 drill.
To us, a bottle of wine is a bottle of wine…
But our best friend can tell the difference between a $20 bottle of wine and a $200 bottle of wine.
It’s all about who you are and what you love.
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Great post again! Like others here, I’m slowly learn when to splurge and not splurge. I’ve spent a lot of years not making a ton, and I often will buy the cheapest option or go with something that works. Since I have a great savings cushion, I’ve slowly been working on buying things that are nice and will make me happy.
For example, I used to have an old wallet of my dad’s. It was free, and it got the job done. But it didn’t look very girl-appropriate, and it was old and dirty. Finally, after my boyfriend said something about it, I allowed myself to get a new wallet. It was $25 at REI but is my style and really pretty. Whenever I pull it out, it makes me happy. It’s just adorable, and I’m not embarrassed to own it.
It’s a slow process, and I love that you’re touching on it. You really can’t take it with you, so it’s important to find a balanced way to responsibly enjoy *all* that we have in this life.
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“Sports car’s aren’t for people to show off their wealth and feel like they are better than others? hmmm…”
Different people, with different priorities, quite often have different reasons for liking things. A status-obsessed person, certainly, will buy a sports car mostly to show off that he has a sports car. A person who appreciates speed and power and beauty and a good drive, on the other hand, will buy the same sports car to enjoy the car and the experience of driving it.
For me, it’s about ME enjoying a beautiful and powerful and responsive sports car . . . other people seeing it as the same thing actually falls into the negative category to some degree. Whether it’s potential carjackers, cops who cut a bit more slack on speed-limit enforcement to minivans than they do to Mustangs, greedy (soon to be ex) boyfriends who try to hog the driver’s seat, or family members who are vocal and repetitive about considering it wasteful spending, sometimes I’d prefer to have a sports car that everybody else saw as a used sedan.
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Meg Says:
It’s ok to drop a lot of money on a certain car or tool (and this is why some of us think that some commenters think stuff for men is ok, but stuff for women is stooopid), but if someone wants to spend *their* money on something else, it’s wrong.
Exactly. Unfortunately we – women of course – have this stigma of loving things which, not being for immediate practical purposes, must be stoopid.
But hey, people judge in any case, even if you spend on books…
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@77 Kyra:
Wouldn’t it be great if we could have the item we wanted, and what other people saw was the responsibility of the purchaser – you could drive your sports car and everybody else got to see the sedan? There’s little that frustrates me more than people passing judgement – in many cases, not quietly – about how my decisions are irresponsible because “that money would be much better spent on (insert something here that they love but I don’t)”. There’s no consideration given to the fact that I don’t value the same items they do – as far as they’re concerned, they live in the one true “value reality” and understand that distinction between what’s important and what’s frivolous better than anybody else.
To each their own – I used to get incredibly frustrated that my wife spent $250 cutting and coloring her hair until I realized that it’s just what she valued. It’s not about what you buy and what’s important – as Dave Ramsey says, it’s about “giving every dollar a name”. As long as you’re living within your means and you’ve chosen to forgo other opportunities so that you can afford this one, then others have no right to comment about the legitimacy of the things that make you happy.
Enjoy your sports car – after all, you’re the one who earned it.
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Another point to consider (although it should, given respect for people’s priorities, be superfluous): sometimes the extra features gotten for the extra money make it a vastly different usefulness curve than 98%/2%.
I have, at present, a point-and-shoot digital camera that cost maybe $200 if you include batteries and memory cards. I’m looking at purchasing in the near future a digital single-lens-reflex camera with interchangeable lenses that will run around $1000 to $1500. The extra features in terms of macro, wide-angle, zoom, etcetera, lenses will result in a HUGE increase in my ability to take the sorts of pictures I generally want to take, and a higher megapixel rating will let me make larger high-quality prints (another important factor to me). After a year and a half of getting to know my current camera’s uses and limitations, and having a good idea of what an SLR with interchangeable lenses can do due to having a film camera with similar properties, I make the calculation that the point-and-shoot does perhaps 10% of what I want to do and would be able to do; thus it would be in simple mathematics the same investment-return for me to spend $2000 on that new camera (which I won’t be doing because the ones in the $700 range for the camera body (plus a few hundred dollars worth of lenses) provide pretty close to $100% of what I want).
The math for the film SLR camera is harder to do—it takes the pictures I want (most of them; I don’t have a wide-angle lens or as much zoom as I want)—but I can’t switch film to a different light-sensitivity, or color to black-and-white, mid-roll, I hate how every shot I take irrevokably uses film, it’s expensive to develop, I am hesitant to take risks with a shot because I don’t like to waste film, I can’t see the finished shot right away to see if I can correct/improve something and redo the shot, and I find it exceedingly slow and annoying getting them scanned into the computer where I prefer to do my editing.
All this makes spending a thousand dollars or more on a camera and lenses provide a different set of rewards for me than it would for, say, my uncle, who has a point-and-shoot that is used mostly for taking family photographs and who has never pulled over to the side of a winding bluff road to get a macro shot of a tiny white flower growing ten feet up the hill.
Not only is it “different priorities, different wants,” it’s very definitely “different priorities, different needs.”
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I was about to make a judgmental comment on that post about how stupid it is to spend hundreds (or thousands) of dollars on a purse. I consider that a ridiculous waste of money. But then I realized that a lot of people consider it a ridiculous waste of money to lease a luxury car, but that’s something that is worth it to me, and I can afford it. I guess if someone who is in the same financial situation decided to buy a cheap used car and spend the difference on expensive purses or designer shoes or eating out frequently (all things I consider a waste of money), who am I to judge?
Of course, the key is being able to afford it. Just because you cut back on housing, cars, and clothing doesn’t necessarily mean that you can afford to splurge on purses (or anything, for that matter). If you’re in credit card debt, for example, you should probably think long and hard about splurging on anything — especially things most people view as luxuries.
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Here’s what I think – if you’re looking after yourself financially in an ethical way and not killing, extorting or blackmailing your way to wealth, then you can spend your money in any way you wish and you don’t have to justify it to ANYONE!
Happy New year, all!
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>74 Will a rental of a $17,000 purse put you in the same direction of financial ruin of living beyond your means ?
Yes, Definitely !
No, not definitely. Like everything else here, it depends on the individual and their motivations. After I bought my own semi-luxury purse, my urge to buy other clothing actually went down, not up. And the sort of people who are interested in such things are also often both familiar and comfortable with high/low mixing.
I remember that rug story quite clearly, and it was never a universal truth either. One of the least realistic parts of a generally good book, in fact. That couple was already on the edge. If not the rug, it would have been something else.
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Being frugal means being thrifty on things that don’t matter to us so that we can afford to spend on things that do.
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JD . . . this post (and this dicussion in the comments) is EXACTLY why I love your blog. Keep up the great work!
“Decide what’s important to you. Give yourself permission to spend on these things. Pinch pennies on everything else.” Amen to that!!!!
Laura
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It’s crucial to know yourself and try to figure out why you’re drawn to particular kinds of merchandise. What is the dominant emotion you’re trying to satisfy with a purchase? Will you truly enjoy owning it, or will it simply take money from your wallet and add clutter to your life?
Years ago when I was deeply depressed, I got sucked into toy collecting as an investment. It took thousands of dollars to realize that giving myself a second childhood would not erase pain from the past or guarantee good times or securtiy now. I ended up selling everything for far less than I paid, but I haven’t been tempted to buy a toy since.
Living off Social Security, there’s no way I could afford or justify a $500 designer purse. But it might be smarter to spend $30 for a genuine leather bag that lasts than to keep replacing $10 vinyl ones every time a strap or zipper breaks. I’ve learned to search my soul before opening my purse to buy anything, and someday that restraint may allow me to upgrade to a better one.
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This post is great! Frugal living is always tough especially with the stress the world can bring. I know when I am stressed, I take a day off and go see a movie, get an ice cream cone and relax for the rest of the day. It not expensive and the best thing is, I stay happy and keep at my peek performance. Spending money on your happiness is one of the greatest investments, ever.
Happy New year!!
- Matt
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I like your line: Decide what’s important to you. Give yourself permission to spend on these things. Pinch pennies on everything else.
It’s interesting how everyone defines frugality differently. I wrote an article about using the Marginal Utility Principle from economics to define frugality. http://thethriftylifestyle.com/2010/02/the-marginal-utility-principle/
It would be an interesting article idea to compile all the different ways people define frugality!
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I think Frugality can Defy Common Sense. Seriously. Take for example, my husband’s car. In his mind,it doesn’t matter what it looks like, as long as it runs and gets good gas mileage. And if you get it for a bargain, that’s the best. It doesn’t matter that his car’s engine broke in half within 6 weeks of ownership. It just got soldered together and presto! Fixed! Or even that the power windows don’t go down anymore. Did I mention that the car was totalled by a freak hailstorm one year and even the trim and rims are dented? How about the fact that it’s at 300,000 miles and he says he’ll push it to 500,000? The passenger door can’t open/close on command anymore. He gets pulled over by a cop but can’t roll down the window, so he jumps out of his car to greet the officer. Nice.I think he’s driving a safety hazard and he claims he’s getting his money’s worth. All in all, he paid $4000 for it and the freak hailstorm totalled it, so he got $3500 back from the insurance company. Basically, he’s been driving around in a $500 car for 6 years. I told him to have the electrical system looked at and he refused, stating that he won’t pay $100 to get the windows/door fixed as it’s “only a sensor” causing the problem. I told him that to have it checked costs only $55. It’s called basic maintenance. He said he won’t pay that either. I think Frugality can be taken waaayyy too seriously. Don’t even get me started on our oven….
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Totally agree with conscious spending. You almost have to train yourself to think “Do I really need this?” every time you open your purse.
Good take on frugality.
Fru xxx
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