Frugality

Many people have a warped view of what frugality is.  When I talk to my friend about saving money he just replies that he wants to enjoy his money now while he’s young not wait until he’s old and retired to enjoy it.  He thinks saving money now means a life of no fun until you retire and then you won’t have the energy to enjoy.  This is what I think many people who aren’t frugal think frugality is, and perhaps even some who are frugal think this way.

That isn’t how I think of it at all.  To me frugality is about making choices.  I have plenty of fun now and I expect to have plenty of fun when I retire which I plan on doing early.  It is possible to have fun and save money if you just make wise choices.  For instance I can pay $10 to see a movie at night, or $5 to see the first matinee on weekends, or $0 to rent a DVD from Redbox.  To me the fun value is the same, the only difference is in the price I paid.  Another example is that I enjoy a free book from the library just as much as one I buy at a bookstore.  For almost all kinds of fun you can have there is a frugal choice available.  When I’m spending my money on entertainment I look to get the most fun value for my dollar.  I’ve been going a little overboard on entertainment lately but I’ve still been able to save.  I don’t feel like I’m denying myself anything now, I’m just making wiser choices which will benefit me both now and later.

These six questions are from the book “How to Survive Without a Salary” by Charles Long. The questions are part of the process of examining your needs before spending money.

1. What’s the problem?
2. Who needs it?
3. What would change the need?
4. How long will it last?
5. What are the alternatives?
6. What are the costs?

The questions are mostly self-explanatory but I’ll have another post Monday going into more depth about what the questions entail.

This is another way to earn some extra money.  There are a few ways to do this.  In the past I used PayPerPost and Blogitive to get paid for blog posts.  I didn’t do them on this blog and had a blog that I used primarily for paid posts.  The good thing about these programs is that you’re guaranteed to be paid a certain amount for your blog post.  The bad thing is that you’re usually writing about something you have no interest in and your readers don’t either.  A loss of readers could end up costing you more than you make.  These programs do require you to have a blog to participate.  I have made over $650 from PayPerPost but I gradually quit using the program last year.  Now that the blog I was using has lost its page rank there aren’t any opportunities available to me anymore so I won’t resume using the service.

Another program I use is Associated Content which you can use whether you have a blog or not.  They pay you a certain amount for each article you submit and then a little bit more depending on how many page views you have.  I haven’t used this service much but I plan to use it more this summer.  Since I’ll be working for free during the week I need to find a way to supplement my income.  I can submit articles based on my blog posts so it doesn’t have to take much time to write an article.  You can read my articles here.

Frugal Dad wrote a post talking about the five craziest things he has done to save money.  Since I’m often accused of being too frugal I decided to come up with my own post. This was harder than I thought because most of the the things I do to save money that seem crazy to others don’t seem crazy to me. Here is what I came up with but I’m probably leaving something crazier off the list.

1. Cut my own hair- This is one I share with Frugal Dad.  I know I’ve seen a few other PF bloggers mention it also.  When you buzz cut your hair it is hard to justify paying to have it cut.
2. Turned off my hot water- Last year I turned off my hot water during the summer due to my gas company’s customer charge of $25 whether you use any gas or not.  This resulted in a bill of about $40 a month just for hot water. I just showered at the gym or took cold showers.  I saved about $160 by having my hot water off over four months. I got hot water again when I moved to a new apartment. I had to have gas then because it was getting cold outside and I needed the gas heat.
3. Dumpster Diving- I haven’t actually crawled into the dumpster and pulled stuff out but I would for the right stuff.  My dumpster diving has consisted of pulling coupons for free meals and other valuable coupons out of the junk mail bin by the apartment mailboxes. I even managed to sell some of the coupons and make a little money.
4. Spent $30 total for food in 1 month- Last May I decided to see how little I could spend on food. I wanted to spend even less than $30 on food but I didn’t have quite enough willpower. It helped that I work in a pizza restaurant and get a few free meals every week.
5. Drive a Hoopty- I don’t really think this is crazy at all but some people do. I love my 94 Toyota Corolla.  My friend keeps asking me when I’m going to get a better car.  I don’t plan on replacing mine soon.  It looks ugly but runs fine. Also, it gets 30 mpg in town which is a great feature with the high cost of gas.

I’m sure I’ve left out some crazier stuff than I’ve listed.  What are some crazy things you’ve done to save money?