The F-word is something that’s tossed about like crazy in the personal finance space. Some people love living a frugal lifestyle and claim it’s a sure-fire path to saving gobs of money, while others prefer to live it up and just earn more. Most of us, however, fall somewhere in the middle. I make it no secret around here that I stand firmly in Camp Frugality. Although I’m certainly not opposed to earning more income, I also know for a fact that cutting back expenses and living simply is the quickest route to bolstering a savings rate. Oh, and good news, frugality isn’t an all or nothing kinda thing. In fact, my husband and I ditched the extreme flavor for a more balanced approached. We now subscribe to selective frugality and enjoy the benefits. And with that, let’s dive into 9 ways frugality can actually lead to a happy life.
1. Frugality Is Environmentally Friendly
Living a frugal lifestyle is inherently good for the environment. The foundation of frugality is rooted in saving money and, most times, saving money means fixing, reusing, and upcycling items that would normally be replaced.
The more you can keep what you already have or repurpose things that still have some life left in them, the more you save the environment by keeping stuff out of landfills.
Case in point, I have a tendency to wear my shoes until they are quite literally falling off my feet. And even then, as long as the uppers are in good shape I will use super glue to keep them together and keep me moving. If they’re too bad for glue, I’ll pop into my local shoe cobbler (yes, that still a thing) and have them re-soled or repaired by a pro.
Not only am I saving money by repairing my shoes, I’m also saving the environment. That makes me happy.
2. Time Savings
As you might expect, when you’re not traipsing all over creation to buy items you don’t really need or eating dinners out when it’s just as satisfying and healthier to cook at home, you’re going to save time. And what’s that old adage? Time is money. It is so true.
Being in the midst of my adult life, I’m constantly trying to juggle a career that provides a consistent salary and benefits for my family, parenting (including soccer games, snuggles, and nighttime stories), a healthy marriage, our family home, 2 rentals, and on and on and on. All that said, at this point in my life anything that saves me time is worth its weight in GOLD.
Having more time means I can spend it with the people I love and continue to build strong bonds and memories that will last the rest of my life. I mean, if I can save money by gluing my boots together instead of shopping for a new pair, I can use that savings to bump up our investment account and use the time I would’ve spent shopping to cuddle with my daughter and read a book. It truly is a win-win on all fronts.
For me (and probably for you too), more time = happy.
3. More Money
This pretty much goes without saying but I’m going to say it anyway, when you’re fixing, reusing, and upcycling items, you’re inevitably going to save money that you would otherwise be spent to replace said items. When you save money you have more money to spend on things you truly value and you have, wait for it, peace of mind.
Having more money on hand isn’t going to make anyone less happy, right? Therefore, more money means more happy.
4. Peace Of Mind
There are no two ways about it. Frugality leads to a simple life and more money in the bank. More money in the bank means you have peace of mind knowing that if your car’s muffler falls off as you’re driving down the highway, you have the means to easily cover the emergency and make the repair.
Having peace of mind from additional savings also allows you to sleep easier at night knowing that an unexpected job loss wouldn’t force you into homelessness or eating ramen every single night.
After we embraced frugality and watched our bottom line grow fatter, we were able to breathe easier knowing we’re more prepared for whatever life throws our way. Obviously, you can’t prepare for everything like catastrophic health issues but, having more money in the bank is always better than having less.
Peace of mind is synonymous with happiness…at least in my book.
Related:
- F.I.O.R. – Financial Independence Optional Retirement
- Episode 19: 5 Fringe Benefits Of Frugality
- How We Saved Over $2,000 On These Simple DIY Home Tasks
- The DIY Pet Grooming Hack You Need To Know About
- Shifting To A Frugal Mindset Has Given Us Options. Tons Of Options.
- How We’re Achieving FIRE/FIOR Through Selective Frugality
- A Cost Savings Analysis For Home Energy Upgrades
5. You Have Options
When you’re frugal, you have more money and more time. When you have those two things, you have the luxury of enjoying options.
Even though my husband and I are chasing financial independence, what we’re really chasing is options. We want the option to continue to work if we choose to. We also want to feel free to try a new career path or sit on the beach all day long with a pina colada in hand. Yes, I’ll have whipped cream on that.
We’ve found the benefits of frugality far outweigh the costs and with just a few tweaks to your current lifestyle, you can start living simply and, hopefully, enjoy a happier life too.
Having options to do whatever I want with my life and change course if it fits makes me one happy gal person.
What are your thoughts? Do you subscribe to the extreme or selective flavor of frugality?
10 Comments
I’ve definitely found myself on the extreme (to correct the other extreme I participated in for so long!), but now I’m happily in the middle. We’re pretty frugal, but we also try not to worry about money in general too much anymore. Amazing how being frugal (and increasing our incomes!) affords us that perspective!
It’s funny, I don’t consider myself to be extreme anymore, but I think others would. It’s really all about perspective and finding a balance. Congrats on being ‘happily in the middle’ these days and thanks for stopping by!
I fall somewhere in the middle. I definitely love having the peace of mind so when emergencies come up I’m not stressing, so that prevents me from going all out like I used to. Being frugal has definitely taught me about being content. I enjoy not finding happiness in material things anymore.
Yes! I love peace of mind and feeling content. Content is a word that some people shy away from using as if it’s a bad thing. Personally, I love it. It means everything is running smoothly and there isn’t any stress.
I’m happily frugal. I carry a $700 (retail) purse and own a sweet pair of $950 (retail) Minolo Blahnik shoes. The purse I bought for $3 and the shoes brand new for $4.99. Second hand is grand. We buy everything possible on sale, buy 98% of our clothes thrifted, no clearance aisle left unscoured. Rummage sales, yard sales, farmers markets. We are musicians so we go to a lot of free events and sing for our supper. It’s all good.
I LOVE this! Congrats on scoring those items! Buy used and save the difference. That’s what I like to do. 🙂
Okay, each one of these I was like THIS is why I love frugality. This is so well put, friend.
I had a feeling you might like this list 😉
You know you’re officially frugal when it literally hurts to spend money. I feel nauseous handing over my hard earned cash. I never lived a frugal life until my 50’s and regret the lost years of living foolishly. Now pulling out my wallet is best avoided! I mean, even a cat only hops on a hot stove once. I’ve learned that having no debts and more liquid cash is pure comfort. I don’t need a stinkin’ huge tv…my 32 incher has been paid for for 10 years. My 20 year old car runs like a new one and 95% of my clothes were purchased used for peanuts. I chuckle at the poor saps turning into the Olive Garden and Red Lobster. Those overpriced mediocre joints will never squeeze a dollar from me again. And my friends over at the Country Club? He he, I probably live a richer life than them.
I couldn’t agree with you more. Especially about the Olive Garden and Red Lobster! It’s incredible how much money is spent in restaurants like that for random meals. Glad you found frugality!