Benjamin: What Drives You to Be Frugal

People who know me sometimes wonder why I’m so frugal. They question why I don’t seem to eat out. They can’t understand why I rather watch a movie at home than go to the movie theaters and they certainly don’t feel that I’m actually enjoying life. They, like most people, are simply failing to look at my life from my point of view.

Frugal Living Isn’t Just About Cutting Down

Many people may feel that being frugal is about having and doing less but it’s really about doing more with what you already have. It may seem weird to some that not getting something is actually good but there’s true happiness when you don’t feel the need to buy.

My parents used to tell me that they made up all these wonderful paper based games because they didn’t have the money to buy anything else. Nowadays, we not only need video consoles, we won’t be satisfied until they have an Xbox 360, PS3, Wii and a Nintendo DS. You would think that having one console would make us happier than not having any, but we actually feel worst. You may have four machines plugged into your TV, but you can only play one game at a time (I’ve seen some amazing stuff with kids playing video games, but I have yet to see them play more than one game concurrently). It’s not what we have. It’s how we feel about what we have that matters.

True frugal living to me is:

Enjoying what you have instead of what you can’t get
Detaching Yourself from Lure of Consumerism
Learning that Happiness Comes from Within

I’m not totally immune to consumerism. I go out to dinner, buy new gadgets and go on vacations as well. It’s just that I don’t see the need to do it as often as everyone else. I rarely feel unhappy about not buying, because I already buy a huge majority of what I want. I’m detaching myself from needing “things” to make me happy. For all those who care, this is good for me, not bad.

I’m not frugal because there’s a need. Rather, there’s no need for me to spend. How about you? Why are you frugal?

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