Tiffany Raiford
There is such a stigma that comes along with being frugal. Those that are not frugal consider you cheap (and I’m not going to lie, I didn’t understand the difference between the two for myself for a very long time and I feel a little guilty for labeling). Sometimes people think that you’re sitting around the house ignoring the kids while all hell breaks loose so that you can cut a million and five coupons and save a few dollars on 58 bottles of soap. There’s a lot of misconception, and it’s fine. People will always think what they think and there is very little you can do to change their mind and their opinions. But you can make yourself feel even better about your frugal nature. Or maybe you can just make it a point to feel better about a new venture into the world of frugality by understanding that there are many hidden benefits to this way of life, and it’s more than what you think. It’s not just about saving money; it’s about so much more. People assume being frugal means you save; and it does. But it also means so much more than that. Read on to see just how much being frugal can change your life.
Less Consumption
One of the biggest benefits of living a frugal lifestyle is the fact that you consume so much less than others. For example, you will consume far fewer products that will eventually turn into waste. This goes even further than you thought at first and turns into something that saves the environment and produces less waste and trash. There; you just saved the world and you did it by also saving money. How cool is that?
You Save on Gas
Living frugally means you don’t go to the store 78 times a week (like me) and that has plenty of advantages of its own. For one, you aren’t forced to make small talk with people you barely know for precious minutes of your day when you do run into the store more often than you should. Secondly, you aren’t wasting gas driving to and from the store because you forgot fresh basil – which should cost you all of $3 but you know you’ll spend at least $50 on things you don’t need.
You Have a Better Retirement Plan
Here’s the crazy thing about saving; you get to actually save. And this doesn’t mean you get to just save some random amount of money, either. You get to save a lot of money. You get to save enough so that you can retire early, retire better, pay off your debts and maybe even pay off your house. There is nothing better than having a retirement plan like that, which is just one of the many benefits of being a great frugal shopper.
Your Kids can go to College
Hey, how many of us struggled to pay for college? It’s not cheap and when you have kids it can become even more stressful to think about college. You have to pay for classes for your child – or children – and it can be stressful. Trust me, I have four kids. I think all the time about paying for college and weddings and first cars and all that jazz. It’s a little stressful, especially when buying our brand new walkers their first pairs of real shoes was a $150 purchase – seriously, they just turned 1, how can their shoes be so expensive at this age?
You Learn to Stop Caring
People are going to think what they want and when you are frugal and saving what you’re saving, you’re going to learn to stop caring. I mean, seriously; you will stop caring at all. People will say what they want and do what they want and think what they want, and you won’t care in the least. It’s kind of a nice feeling; a nice sort of thought process when it comes to life in general.
You Have Less Stress
Being frugal means you don’t have to stress so much. You are saving, you’re not overspending and you’re not feeling any sort of need to keep up with the Joneses. Most of us go through a phase in which we feel we have to flaunt what we have, and it does go away, which is why it’s always a bit funny to me to see people my age making the decisions they’re making that just are not financially intelligent. The motto we live by is “Just because you can doesn’t mean you should,” and that applies to everything in life from the clothes I wear to the car I drive to everything in between.
You Always have Money
And there’s the biggest benefit of being frugal; it’s nice to have money. It’s nice to know that you will never live paycheck to paycheck or that you will never have to worry about saying no to something that is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity because you are too busy worrying about how you will pay for it. It’s nice; it’s so nice.
Your Kids Learn a Valuable Lesson
When you live a frugal lifestyle, your kids learn the value of a dollar. They learn that you have to work hard and save for what you want because money comes with a value. You don’t have to be ‘poor’ or tight on cash to be frugal, either. In fact, our best friends are multimillionaires and they are some of the most frugal people I’ve ever met. They are frugal to the point that their 6-year-old son gave me a lecture on the fact that our 1-year-old twins touched his new toy and he, “Saved all my birthday money for that and it was $30!”
You have more to Give
What’s nice about always having money and not wasting what you do have is that you have more to give. You can afford to give more at church. You can afford to give more to someone in need. For example, when a young boy my husband and I know worked so hard to earn money for his 5th grade Washington D.C. trip but his parents could not pay the additional $600 needed for him to go despite his hard work and effort, we decided to pay it. This kid is smart, kind, and generous, and we decided – along with two other couples – that a few hundred dollars is nothing. This is a memory that will last him a lifetime, and he deserved to go. So we split the cost and surprised him. He cried – we all cried. Giving is nice and it does feel good.
You Learn Something New Every Day
Being frugal means you learn something new every day. You learn about the products you consume. You learn more about food and cooking and things of that nature. You learn. You learn a lot, and it’s kind of cool. It’s actually more than kind of cool – it’s really cool.
Photo by Gareth Cattermole/Getty Images for Sainsburys
Comments
Loading…