I’m undertaking a 1000-day reinvention project, blogging here daily to track my progress. In Wednesday Wealth, I write about money management, retirement, estate, and long-term care planning.
For the past couple weeks, I’ve had difficulty getting my “Friday Flash” blog post out. I didn’t have any epiphanies to share. The week before last I went back and wrote about free will, but last week I gave up and left the day unblogged. Friday Flash too easily blends into Saturday Reflections and Sunday Planning, then Monday Musings, and I really haven’t had topic guardrails at that point for four days.
This week I’m introducing a new Friday category for myself: Friday Frugality. “Frugal Friday” would sound better — and maybe I’ll use that instead — but all of my other categories start with the day, and I like to follow rules, even those I just made up myself.
I find that frugal is fun, whether I’m growing hollyhocks from seeds a neighbor gave me or making assemblage art out of extra items I find around my house or finding a barely used ivory-colored Columbia fleece hoodie for $4 at Goodwill (I have two of those now!)
This morning I had breakfast with my father, and he told me he’s shopping for a Mac Mini. He asked what I thought he might need as far as RAM and hard drive space goes.
I told him, “you know, for your needs [emailing, reading news online, managing the occasional photo] you could probably get the most minimal version and have plenty of memory and hard drive space.”
He said, “I’m not a minimalist though!” as though I had insulted him.
And he’s not. I don’t follow in his footsteps in that respect. He buys the best of everything for himself (and for his loved ones too). No frugality for him.
But I’m not just frugal; I’m also a hedonist. I love indulgences. So I immediately grabbed the book The Art of Frugal Hedonism: A Guide to Spending Less While Enjoying Everything More by Adam Grubb and Annie Raser-Rowland when I saw it available as an ebook from the library.
I checked out the book’s website and was delighted to find that the authors’ other book is The Weed Forager’s Handbook. I love it. I can definitely see myself (maybe in a parallel universe) foraging for weeds.
From the intro to The Art of Frugal Hedonism:
The truly savvy hedonist avoids blunting her capacity for pleasure against a barrage of constant stimulation. He knows that the rewards of the journey frequently trump instant gratification. They shun that level of convenience and indulgence that insidiously erodes their mental and physical vigour. She makes non-monetised sources of pleasure her first port of call, so that she’s not trapped into shaping her life around earning. Far from being acts of martyrdom, such frugality-compatible behaviours can in fact be your best ticket to enjoying everything more on both the deeply fulfilling and sensually satisfying levels.
I will, of course, write more about frugality on Friday if, as I’m thinking, I introduce a new daily theme for Friday.
But I’m so excited about it, I’m writing about it already today, for Wednesday Wealth. I’ve realized, since I left full-time work, that I can spend a lot less money than I used to just because I have more time and energy to do things thriftily. For example:
- I fixed a rock chip in my windshield myself. Safelite quoted me $120 to fix it (and it wouldn’t have been covered by my insurance, as I do have a deductible for that). The kit I used cost $14.
- I’ve grown a cottage garden almost entirely from seed instead using already-grown plants from a nursery.
- I eliminated my Dropbox subscription and moved all my stored and backed up files to a large external hard drive I already owned.
- When one of my sprinklers failed, I took two days to investigate and figure out how to fix it myself instead of texting my sprinkler guy to stop by.
- Every morning, if it’s cooler outside than inside, and I want it cooler inside, I run my attic fan with windows all over my house open. It’s much cheaper to get the house cool this way than to use air conditioning, and it makes the house fresher.
- I get all my books from the library — mostly ebooks because with my bad retina I can’t read printed books very well — and have plenty of time to research what I should be reading.
And I enjoy many cheap or free indulgences:
- Swimming at the Highlands Ranch lap pools — free because of the HOA fees I pay that cover rec center usage. The pleasures of an afternoon lap swim — water bubbling in my ears, an unhooking from financial news, feeling my shoulders even the sore one working again to propel me — are almost unparalleled (skiing is close, but not as cheap!) And every time I swim at the HRCA pool I do my showering there, saving water and water heating expenses.
- Blogging daily here. I look forward to getting up every morning and indulging in a time of reflection and communication, all for about $300 a year, or less than a dollar a day, to pay for WordPress.com which makes easy work of managing a personal website.
- Sunday Scaries with my daughter, who lives with me. Every Sunday, or sometimes Mondays if one or the other of us is busy Sunday, we alternate choosing a horror movie, bake frozen pizzas doctored up with cut up precooked meatballs and banana peppers, and join together in being completely frightened and totally released from our day to day cares. The movie usually costs $5 to stream (or less depending on which service) and we get two gluten-free frozen pizzas from Costco for $10 (cooking them both means leftovers for each of us). Meatballs add another couple dollars. That’s less than $20 for a weekly treat we look forward to and plan for all week.
- The daily dog walk. Each morning, my daughter and I meet in the front hall of my house and wrangle two super-excited dogs into their harnesses. We walk a mile. The dogs get their exercise, and their chance to potty, we get a chance to share our daily schedules and whatever’s on our minds. Cost: $0. Value: Priceless.
When I’ve had high paying jobs in the past, I would spend money because I could, and because it helped me feel better about the tedium and difficulty of my days. Now, spending money just doesn’t give me the same charge. Saving money, or spending money on only what gives me a lot of pleasure, is what makes me feel good.