Why are you frugal?

[GrayHare]

Being born greedy and demanding of instant gratification is an early survival tactic. The baby bird first to gulp down the food survives. Learning to aim for long-term goals is a learned skill. Now it is called "being green".

 

[pb4uski]

why am I frugal? because I play cheap golf balls just as well as pro v1s

+1 While I prefer Titleist and like Pro V1x and Pro V1 I really can't tell the difference between Pro V1, Pro V1x, NXT Tour, or any of the other Titleist models. I guess my game is not that refined. I usually buy used Titleist golf balls but the higher grade used balls that are clean and have no skuffs but I'm fine with living with some marker pen marks. I found a used golf ball outlet in a permanent flea market type place and bought 24 clean, no-skuff NTX Tours for 50 cents each.

 

[aida2003]

Over the years I've become more frugal from a conservative (small C) point of view. Conserving resources and lowering my impact. If I repair/repurpose/reuse things I not only save money, I avoid sending the item to the landfill. If I cook food from scratch (vs processed/prepackaged) I not only reduce the packaging trash I generate, I also end up with healthier diet. If I mow my own lawn and clean my own house I am getting some exercise as well as saving money.

It's bonus that doing all this saves money... I'm doing it more for conservation of resources.

This is exactly how I see it.
I don't stand on a bucket and yell for everybody to follow my lead (I'm not that brave and in addition I wouldn't like to be called cheap in return), but I do think that frugality helps the planet and your own health.

 

[Which Roger]

I would have to say I was born that way. As a kid I would make my Halloween and Easter candy last for months.

You are just like my sister. My candy would be gone within a day or two. Then I would hope that she'd feel sorry for me and hand over some of hers. It didn't work.

 

[nash031]

Not born that way, I don't think. My family was never terribly wealthy and my parents didn't start saving for retirement until very late. We didn't live an extravagant lifestyle growing up, but we never wanted for much most of the time either. DW was probably born that way. I'm definitely the relative spendthrift between the two of us, though I'm not much of one...

When I graduated college, I immediately started saving 10% towards retirement. I didn't view this as "frugality" so much as I just followed the "rules" and dreamed of being well-off, etc. As income rose, my savings rose until I was maxing out my Roth IRA and saving in my TSP every year. Eventually I started maxing TSP and had some money left so I started saving in taxable accounts as well.

Once my dad fell ill four years ago, I got serious about retiring early (as he didn't retire until he was 75 and was diagnosed with pancreatic cancer at 77 and died at 81).

At that point, married, DW and I really made a point of living well below our means. We already did, but we did it just because we made more than we really needed and we were both already wired not to buy a new car every 3 years, etc. It just doesn't make sense.

Looking back through the post, maybe I (we) was (were) born this way. We're both far too practical to want to replace cars, buy too much house, have all the latest clothes, and try to keep up with the Joneses. We like nice things, both drive "responsible" luxury car brands (Infiniti and Acura) but the cars are 8 and 12 years old... We like fancy dinners out, but they're not frequent. We probably spend too much on wine...

... but we're still able to save more than 40% of our gross income each year and are on track to retire without feeling the need to go spend more right now. Maybe once we've got our number and still rising, we'll spend more on luxuries, but I doubt we'll ever get out of control... we're just not wired that way.

 

[Midpack]

It began with my parents, we lived comfortably, but not extravagant. Taught to save money from an early age, when my allowance was 25 cents/week. Didn't know as a kid, but I now know my parents lived well below their means.

I married someone who was brought up the same way, mostly by chance, certainly not a prerequisite at the time.

Learned about investing financial independence before I was 30. We've lived below our means all along, reached FI about 12 years ago. We've been lucky...

 

[nash031]

This is exactly how I see it.
I don't stand on a bucket and yell for everybody to follow my lead (I'm not that brave and in addition I wouldn't like to be called cheap in return), but I do think that frugality helps the planet and your own health.

I'm becoming more and more this way, to the point that we may end up buying a Prius. I usually ride my bike 27 miles round trip to/from work at least once a week. I find myself eating less beef due to methane...

I asked my wife yesterday if living in CA and buying a Prius makes us Democrats now...

Maybe I need to go give a second look to MMM.

 

[FreeBear]

I am frugal because I am do not want to work forever. The reason why I work so hard now, is not because I am a hard worker, it's because I am lazy... At some point (very soon), I no longer want to work.

+1

Yes!!!

I guess most of us have an "unusual" gift of foreseeing the future as substantially a consequence of our present decisions. We see spend now, pay later, with compound interest!

 

[38Chevy454]

I grew up middle class, but not with a lot of extras. I worked my way through college. So for me it is the knowledge of what it takes to get money. I do not like debt, and can hold off on a big purchase until it is necessary, maybe longer than my DW would prefer. Since I have worked FT since 15, or PT during school, I am ready to retire and enjoy the efforts I have put in over last 37 years. Work is just the means to an end for me, it does not define my life.

I do think I can be frugal, but not cheap. To me the difference is knowledge and financial sense to know what is different. Frugal is using money wisely, being cheap is not always making the decision for maximum benefit of the bigger equation.

I have not always been as smart financially as current, but also minimized mistakes early on. Being an engineer, the math part is easy to understand and using logical thinking helps to be better at being frugal. My biggest splurging, if you call it that, would be my old cars. While I have money tied up in them, ultimately they actually go up in value and i am not losing any money on them. They are a big part of my quality of life, the expenses associated with them are an acceptable expense for me.

 

[Danmar]

No I wouldn't say I was ever frugal. Certainly LBYM prior to retirement though which resulted in a well funded lifestyle in retirement. A little more difficult to define LBYM in retirement perhaps?

Given our current lifestyle, I doubt anyone would consider it "frugal" although since we are generally just spending divs and pension, I think it is living "at" our means. Seems like a good strategy in retirement?

 

[JoeWras]

Parents were adults during the Depression and WWII.

There ya go. That was my influence. Actually mom and dad were kids in the depression and young adults in WWII. (Dad is a Purple Heart Vet).

Grandma saved all fat drippings and spread them on bread the next day. That was a typical retirement meal.

Mom grew up in poverty. The pictures we have of her as a child are nearly horrifying.

Dad grew up comfortable since his parents owned a store that nearly fed the neighborhood. I remember Grandma used to bring out her "debt book" to show the 50 year old debts owed. She wasn't bitter, it was just discussion and memories. Rather, the experience of being on the good side of the depression influenced her perhaps as much as being on the other side. She was extremely frugal in retirement.

It all made an impression on me.

 

[Philliefan33]

“Annual income twenty pounds, annual expenditure nineteen six, result happiness. Annual income twenty pounds, annual expenditure twenty pound ought and six, result misery.” -- Mr Micawber in "David Copperfield" (Charles Dickens)

Not sure when I first learned this, but I was frugal when we were poor and remain frugal now that we are not poor.

 

[NW-Bound]

Why am I frugal? I don't know. Maybe it was inborn, as my brother does not have the same trait although we grew up together.

It is just good that I share the same philosophy with my wife, and my brother with his. Else, there would be conflicts.

 

[Danmar]

“Annual income twenty pounds, annual expenditure nineteen six, result happiness. Annual income twenty pounds, annual expenditure twenty pound ought and six, result misery.” -- Mr Micawber in "David Copperfield" (Charles Dickens)

Not sure when I first learned this, but I was frugal when we were poor and remain frugal now that we are not poor.

I wouldn't say the Dickens quote illustrates frugality, rather defines living at or below your means. If you had a seven figure "income" and spent/gifted all of it would that be frugal? Don't think so. At least not in the normal sense of the term.

 

[Which Roger]

I wouldn't say the Dickens quote illustrates frugality, rather defines living at or below your means. If you had a seven figure "income" and spent/gifted all of it would that be frugal? Don't think so. At least not in the normal sense of the term.

ERs almost by definition live below their means, but many of us (myself included) should probably not be considered frugal. We were not spendthrifts, but our incomes were high enough that we could live comfortably without scrimping, and also save a fair amount of money.

 

[MasterBlaster]

I'm not frugal per se...

It's just that my money seems way better than anything it could buy !

 

[ESRwannabe]

Were you born that way? Did you teach yourself? Did you do it to overcome mistakes or to achieve a goal? Who were your frugal role models?

I was born naturally frugal.

 

[tmm99]

I have never wanted to spend a lot of money in one thing (I did spend money on a bunch of little things which didn't really amount to a lot of money) And I always wanted some money left over. I became frugal once I got my heart set on FIRE - I wanted the left over money to get bigger, and any *big* money spending was scrutinized.

 

[Midpack]

I would think being frugal is a learned trait, even though I've found several blurbs online suggesting it's genetic. Though none of them were very convincing.

Though while I am frugal, my sister was not at all. Unless it was our mates. Maybe it's genetic and learned. Hmmmmmm...

 

[Philliefan33]

I wouldn't say the Dickens quote illustrates frugality, rather defines living at or below your means. If you had a seven figure "income" and spent/gifted all of it would that be frugal? Don't think so. At least not in the normal sense of the term.

Fair point. I think of "frugal" as not spending more than necessary, not spending frivolously, and being happy with "good enough". As our income increased, our spending increased a little. But since we were LBYM, we made frugal choices.

 

[RobbieB]

My parents lived through the great depression. My Ma's family ate out of garbage cans. They would sort though the bins at the market where spoiled fruit and veggies were and cut out the bad stuff and eat the rest. Pops remembers eating a lot of potatoes during that time.

So, I got it from them. Pops told me at a young age that I could make a million a year but if I spent a million a year I wouldn't ever have crap, so "save some dough"

Which I did. I then followed his "investment plan" which was a 3 part plan;

1) Save cash for purchases so you don't have to borrow and build up an emergency fund.

2) Save more for a down payment on a house. The mortgage should be your only debt.

3) After that start investing in equities because they will give you the best return.

So by simply not spending all I made and following the "3 rules" I'm one of the millionaires next door. If you saw my house you would never imagine.

Now I find myself really having to force myself to "blow dough" because of all that past frugality and the realization that I want to make the most (have the most fun) with the fruits of my labors before they put me on the other side of the sod.

But I'm trying. Giving it the old college try! Not succeeding though, even after almost 2 years of first class airplane rides, $40 dollar lunches and $800 coffee machines, my net worth has not changed.

I'm just going to have to try harder -

 

[scrabbler1]

Growing up I didn't have a lot of money. Sure, my grandparents liked to throw $5 or $10 my way on birthdays and when they visited me which was nice. But a weekly allowance was small back then in the 1970s and I didn't get my first part-time job until I was 16.


I also saw how my parents handled money. My mom was an avid coupon clipper and I saw how they shopped around when they bought a new car in 1972 (I was 9), choosing a dealer who could offer the car for a $100 less than another (on a $4,000 car, that's significant. They also made sure to get gas at the gas station who charged a penny or two less than the one across the street (this was in 1972 when gas was 30 cents a gallon).


Both my mom and dad were good at fixing things instead of buying new stuff. My mom was good at sewing and often made her own clothing herself. I recall helping my dad change the oil on his VW Beetle, one of several things he did to maintain that vehicle.


I didn't have any expensive hobbies growing up so when you put all of these things together you have the makings of someone who is frugal and will LBYM later in life.

 

[hnzw_rui]

Lol, I was born a spendthrift. Any "frugality" is due to enforced circumstances (low income, etc). Thankfully, I also grew up in a cash economy with a frugal mom who tried hard to teach me and I hate paying interest so no high interest credit card debt. Alas, I managed to blow through all my taxable savings in my late 20s so that was a bit of a wake-up call. Now I wouldn't say I'm frugal but I'm certainly much more selective on what I spend my money on and I've started prioritizing savings again.

 

[daylatedollarshort]

I was pretty much born this way. I always liked budgets and spreadsheets.

We are probably not frugal as in living spartan lives but we still live below our means. I'm okay with leaving money to the kids and charity instead of spending it on consumer goods. There are many extremes of wealth and homelessness where we live. I am far from being one of the super wealthy, but still would rather be part of the solution than the problem.

I also like the idea of sustainable living and self sufficiency. Those are hobbies these days. There's also the "thrill of the hunt" for bargains, freebies and great thrift shop and garage sale finds.

 

[hesperus]

Learned. For me I think it's a feeling of security I get from LBYM and having a substantial portfolio . I get much more reward from growing my investments than I do from spending them.