I've been doing lots of things more frugally lately for the following reasons
1. To Save up for retirement
2. To Save for big purchases and so I can enjoy them without debt
3. To establish a solid emergency fund.
4. To control my money. I want to decide where I spend it - not just happen to spend it. I want to get maximum bang for the buck.
Thanks to having spent time paying off debt I now enjoy good cash flow. I want to ensure that for my future while having fun today. I don't think being frugal is about denying myself so much as controlling what i spend and ensuring I spend it in ways that get me where I want to be. Balancing the short term "I wants" with the longer term "I want/need".
And I'm enjoying it. I'm lucky that for me it isn't about being deprived of things. I choose not to do certain things so in the future I can do other things.
Why am I frugal
August 5th, 2006 at 01:06 pm
August 5th, 2006 at 11:25 pm 1154820353
This reminds of Isiah Berlin's distinction between positive freedom and negative freedom. Negative freedom is freedom FROM constraints; positive freedom is the freedom TO do things. E.g., who is more free, the teenager who spends hours every afternoon hanging out at the mall with friends or the teenager who spends hours every day perfecting some skill? Negative freedom says that the kid at the mall is more free, but positive freedom says that the teenager who practices and becomes, say, a world-champion figure-skater is more free--they have the freedom to do things with their bodies that leave most of us open-mouthed with astonishment.
You're buying yourself some positive freedom there!
August 6th, 2006 at 04:11 pm 1154880695
out of bed because....Iam stiff or in pain because of arthritis.Even though
I dont make much ...I pay myself first. 100.00 goes to saving it money I
never see so I don't miss it .100.00 a month not much but, you have to
start someware...Iam hopeing that over time it will add up and oneday
I will have enough to retire befor I am too old and sick to enjoy it.
Flinnie