Being Frugal Doesn't Equal Being a Tightwad

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I found this article on how the recession affects frugal people interesting.  It details how some frugal people are becoming even more frugal because of the recession while others are discovering frugality.  It even had a mention of BeingFrugal.net which is a great blog on frugality.

I do object to them calling frugal people cheapskates and tightwads though.  I suppose I don’t have much room to object given that I use the name Tight Fisted Miser.  The name is meant to be tongue-in-cheek and I am not sure if the article intends their labels in the same way.  One person in the article did refer to himself as a cheapskate.  Overall though I think the headline equating tightwads and cheapskates with being frugal sends a negative message.  I see frugality as a positive, not a negative, regardless of whether there is a recession.

Ebay, Swagbucks and Twitter

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Here are a few things I want to share that don’t really justify making a separate post about so I’m putting them all in this post.

Ebay is having a seller special that allows you to pay no insertion fees March 10-23 for your first ten listings.  This might be enough to motivate me to actually list some of my stuff this weekend.  The stuff I’m selling is mostly media which would only be a five cent insertion fee anyway but since I’ve been meaning to list this stuff anyway I might as well save a few nickels. Visit the promo page for more info on the eBay promotion.

I’ve added a Swagbucks banner to the top of the site.  They are a search and win company and I’ve been pleased with my results at the site.  I’ve redeemed three $5 Amazon gift certificates and I have points worth about $25 more.  All of this just for doing searches as normal and occassionally mentioning the site here for referrals.  Click on the banner for more information or to sign up.

I’ve added a Twitter banner to my sidebar.  I’m still figuring out how to best use Twitter.  I’m thinking I’ll mostly use it to post special deals and freebies.  I also wanted to mention this post where $3 is donated to charity for each person who follows Tim Ferriss on Twitter.

The American Dream on a Shoestring

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The sixth chapter of Your Money or Your Life deals with frugality. The original version contains 101 frugality tips. I understand that the new version doesn’t have these tips but has a more general discussion on frugality.  This wasn’t an area where I really needed any help but I enjoy reading other’s frugal ideas.  And I guess a few people enjoy reading my frugal ideas or they wouldn’t be reading this blog.  Since the orginal version of this came out there are now tons of blogs and sites dealing with the topic of frugality.  If you want to read more about frugality after reading this chapter of Your Money or Your Life there is plenty of material out there to read.

Hiking on $200 a Month

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If you’ve been reading this blog for a while than you probably already know that I plan on doing a thru-hike of the Appalachian Trail starting in May. The trail is 2,178 miles and goes through 14 states starting at Springer Mountain in Georgia and ending at Mt. Katahdin in Maine. The trail will take me about five months to hike.

The cost of hiking the trail used to be pegged at about $1 a mile. Reading forums about the trail most people think that figure is now too low and consider $3-4,000 to be more accurate. My plan is to hike on $200 a month for a total of $1000 for the hike. This is much cheaper than most people hike but I live much cheaper than most people when I’m not hiking so I should be able to do the same on the trail. I have hike about a 1000 miles of the trail so I know what to expect. Hiking on $1000 is doable but it will not be easy.

My expenses will be broken down roughly to $100 a month for food and $100 a month for everything else. Hostels, motels, laundry, showers, gear replacement, entertainment, and such will comprise the everything else. The gear I start the trail with and my transportation expenses to and from the trail heads will not be included in my $200 a month budget. My GF will visit me a few time along the trail and expenses for those visits will not be included in my budget either. I think $200 a month is a realistic budget but if I find it isn’t enough or it is making my hike no fun I will increase the budget.

I will also have expenses back home such as my health insurance and cell phone but these will not be part of my hiking budget. I plan to still tally my total monthly expenses and will post those when I’m able. I expect my overall monthly expenses will shrink significantly.

I should be able to get on the Internet once a week or so and will update my blog then. I am going to keep track of everything I spend on the trail and will post those expenses. I will also repost some of my old posts and hopefully have some guest posts to keep new content on this blog. Hopefully, most of you will find my trail journey interesting enough to keep reading.

Now vs. Future

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I have a constant struggle between now and the future. I tend to focus on whichever one is easiest to deal with at the moment and that is usually to my detriment.

For example right now I am constantly thinking about my hike that won’t start for two months. Instead of doing school work I am spending my time reading people’s trail journals and browsing trail forums. I still have a lot of work to do for school and I’m spending too much time thinking about my hike. In this case I’m living in the future and ignoring my now. Although I am ignoring the part of my future where I graduate.

Usually I think more about what is happening now and ignore my future. I know that eating fast food and drinking soda all the time is going to cause me health problems. I enjoy eating my fast food and drinking soda now though and any future health problems still seem remote. This is the same way I used to be about my savings. It was much easier to spend the money now than save it for some future time. Now that I do have some money saved though it is comforting to know it is there in case I need it.

I need to spend more time analyzing my motivations for my actions and come up with a better balance between what I do for now and what I do for the future.