I am so sick of the word frugal sometimes because people either hate it because they think it means ‘cheap as hell’ or love it so much they go mad and shred tissue boxes to line their beds and jackets with to keep warm in the winter.
I want to come up with a new word.
Intelligality or something to that effect, to mean making smart choices for the priorities you have in life.
This new, revolutionary word will tell you to just be RATIONAL about what you buy.
(Maybe a phrase like Rational Splurgist? Planning Splurgist?)
See, this word (or phrase), will cover the idea of these two basic points:
Not giving up what you love just to save money because you have made priorities
Love lattes? Buy the super large one every day if you want.
(By the way, I also really hate how we use Lattes for every example, coining the term ‘Latte Factor’, but it’s just so easy to relate to since coffee is such a staple. Maybe we need to change that to “Shoe Factor”, or “Necklace factor”)
Heck, buy two!
Why bother making it at home unless you want to when they do it better at your local coffee shop, and it saves you time?
(I would however like to encourage you to bring a re-usable container because it saves on waste, and keeps your coffee hotter, longer.)
But if you drink a latte every day, you can’t also go to the movies every weekend, buy new clothes online every time there’s a sale or go on a luxurious vacation every year.
Well, I stand corrected. Technically, you can do whatever the hell you want.
But if you don’t have the budget for it, aren’t saving any income, and are in debt, then you need to make a choice.
- Latte or Extra-fun Cable TV channels?
- Lattes or Shopping at sales once a month?
Figure out what you love, and spend money on what brings you the most happiness. If it’s buying a pair of Louboutins every month, why not?
But make sure you can afford it while being financially smart about your future.
That reminds me.
One lovely reader from Europe told me that she loved Starbucks and couldn’t imagine her day without it. But she’s not into the idea of having a huge home or lots of things, and that’s her tradeoff.
She doesn’t spend money on furnishings or on square footage she doesn’t need, and she takes pleasure in the daily latte she drinks because it’s a good start to her day.
And not being cheap on what you love just to save a buck.
And when you DO buy something you want like an MP3 player, buy the one that you want, instead of beating yourself up over it and buying the 50% cheaper No-Name MP3 player that doesn’t make you as happy.
And if you’ve saved up for it, and can pay it without using plastic and getting into more debt, why not?
Why the hell would you want to feel bad about hemming and hawing over the $100 you spent for an Apple product?
Just buy the damn thing, and love it instead of looking at your No-Namer as a cheap substitute for what you really wanted.
Envy will just eat you up, and besides, it’s just money and you’ve saved for it. It was a planned purchase.
That, in a nutshell is what “frugal” means, but it’s clearly a word with bad connotations and makes people roll their eyes at me because they think I’m going to get mad at them for buying a daily latte.
So what’s my vice? Electronics.
I want the Palm-Pre.
I pet laptops when I see them.
I want a mini video camcorder.
I want a new digital camera to replace the one I have.
I want an iPod Nano in blue for my future car.
I could gush about hard drives all day long.
I want the super thin, sexy red notebook by Vivienne Tam to travel with, if only the specs were better
But I’m not buying all of these things at once because I don’t want to throw down $3000 without thinking about my choices with three things in mind:
- Rationally (Do I need that now or can it wait?)
- Emotionally (Is it the design/prettiness I wanted? And do I really want it?)
- Financially (Can I afford it?)
(Hey that spells REF, ERF or FER… maybe we can make up a word out of that)
Instead I am spending my time researching and making choices about what I should buy next, thinking about the WHY and WHEN it’ll makes sense.
And that day may never come, especially for that sexy Vivienne Tam red notebook, but that’s okay.
I’m making a choice between buying an expensive but very pretty notebook, and buying a Garmin GPS instead because it’s more sensible and useful.
Other vices in case you care: Food, Necklaces, Purses, Jackets
Update:
Saw the Vivienne Tam Netbook in person and was not impressed. The red was not the shade of red I had imagined, and the design wasn’t as cool as I had expected.. and for the jump in the price tag, it was DEFINITELY overpriced.
Disappointed FB.
Just a girl trying to find a balance between being a Shopaholic and a Saver.
I cleared $60,000 in 18 months earning $65,000 gross/year.
Now I am self-employed, and you can read more about 
I just calculated that in the rest of my co-op work term I'll have spent almost $100 on cookies at the cafeteria downstairs. Maybe it's a lot, but I know that if I didn't spend that money I'd go crazy without my morning cookie-time break (sad but true, I wouldn't inflict this boring cubicle job on anyone for more than a year.)
I love that you have a morning cookie routine.
Love this post so much, it’s so depressing to see pathologically cheap people masquerading as ‘frugal’.
Beating yourself up over a buying a chocolate at the supermarket is no way to live ones life.
I like to call myself “Fiscally responsible” instead of frugal. 😉
this
oh this
oh yes this
Best post about frugal ever. No really-I mean it.
It is such a (insert negative here) word…but you summed up it’s meaning perfectly.
I’m still making my lattes at home though-cos girlie wants a house!
I agree. It’s all about balance. I bring my lunch everyday because it’s cheap, easy and it means I can splurge on going out to dinner. =)
My vices: hair care products, make-up, and sometimes clothing. I think the word “frugal” gets a bad rep definitely. When I was employed and had money (lol), my motto was “shop and save”. Which means, you can still save and invest your money while enjoying spending it shopping on what you like in reason.
Until I get another job (this crazy economy!)though, my motto now is “SAVE AND SAVE!” LOL. Great article. I so agree. You work for your money and certainly can’t take it with you when your dead so you just have to use it wisely.
Ack, I have a post along the same lines that I haven’t put up yet. I’ve come up with my new name, I’ll post it in a few days. I hate the connotation of frugal as well, it’s time for a new word.
I love the word frugal precisely because it means “not wasteful, using resources wisely, etc.” and not just “cheap”. I consider myself frugal, but far from cheap, because I’m very value oriented and I don’t want to waste not just money, but also time and other resources. And, unlike “cheap”, it also is very much in line with being green.
But of course, as is common with other words, it has lost a lot of it’s specific meaning due to misuse by people who don’t know the difference between frugal, cheap, miserly, etc. But rather than give up such a great word, I’d rather work to reclaim it.
FB – I’ve been following your blog for a little while now, and this post really hit home. It reminded me of a story from back in school about choices and priorities. It even inspired me to write a post if you’re interested.
Thanks for writing this! Love your stuff!
I think that if you love it and want it, then you should buy it if you can afford it.
However, so many people can’t afford it. They have trouble paying the bills, they don’t have money to buy new socks when they need them, and they wonder why they’re broke 2 days before payday, living paycheck to paycheck.
Those are the times when I say, “Suck it up and stop buying that $7.00 cup of coffee in the morning!”
You have to make sacrifices sometimes when your priorities aren’t in order and it’s affecting your life in such a way that your credit suffers and you have trouble paying your bills.
hahahahaha I always hated the word frugal too but I am guilty of using it on my blog. I’ll try to come up with something else 🙂
I love daily cappuccinos but since they cost $4.00 at Starbucks, my boyfriend and I bought a full espresso/cappuccino machine for a few hundred dollars. Now we just buy the Starbucks coffee and syrup and it tastes just like Starbucks at a fraction of the cost. We got our money’s worth on the espresso machine within about 2 months. *NOW THERE HAS TO BE A BETTER WORD FOR THIS STORY THAN FRUGAL* hahaha
I love this post!!
I completely one hundred percent agree! I would KILL for a digital SLR camera and not just a 6 mega pixel but the professional types, 20 mega pixels plus.
And you’re so right, I will save, save, save because in all honesty purchasing one on the cheap that is not as nice to save a buck = the true definition of being cheap and when it’s to yourself, yuck!
Exactly. It’s all about making choices. We spend A LOT of money on cable and internet. We have fancy movie channels. But hey, we RARELY go out. We only go to the movies when we have free passes and we don’t go to restaurants that often. TV and internet are how we keep ourselves entertained and that is pretty much it. (LOL I know I just made myself sound really cool just now. But hey, we’re nerds and we like tv.) I’m not really willing to cut back on it, because then I would have no way to keep myself entertained at home and I’m sure then we would start going out more to compensate, so it really makes no difference.