Frugality

Today's post might not be full of fun and laughs. Just a warning, which was probably unnecessary.

I've been thinking about money. It's one of those things you can't really talk about with your friends, along with (sometimes) religion and politics. But it is something that everybody has to consider, me included.

Now, we are not wealthy by any stretch, at least in the American mind. (Compare us with any Bangladeshi, and we'd likely win hands down, right?). We've been blessed, however, in that we've both had employment when we wanted, and occasionally when we kind of didn't want it, and sometimes with a little extra employment on top. Dan has his bachelor's degree, and I'm finishing mine. We're in good health, we have a nice home, and our cars work, like, 74% of the time, but at least they're paid off. Other than our house we don't have any debt.

Having exposed a big chunk of my Personal Financial Secrets to the world at large, I have to admit that we are not as careful or frugal with the money we have as we could be. We don't just blow it on anything - by anything I mean stuff like flat screen TVs and time shares in Hawaii - but in comparison to some families we're positively spendthrift.

I felt chastened today while reading "The Tightwad Gazette III" by Amy Dacyczyn. There are, as you've figured out, three volumes, all of which I have on my shelf and have read cover-to-cover at least once. I have the information about HOW to be frugal but haven't adhered too much to any of it. The book was written by a mother of 6 kids who, along with her husband, have lived and raised their children on (in 2007 dollars) $22,710 a year in a large, rural house in Maine. Her husband was in the Navy but retired when the newsletter Amy started began to really take off. By comparison (in 2007 dollars) the federal poverty guideline was $34,000. They wanted to be frugal initially so that Amy could be at home with the kids and they could purchase their antique home, but continued to live that way even when it wasn't strictly necessary. (I keep saying "in 2007 dollars" because the books/newsletter were written in the 1990s, so I did some math - well, Googling - for you).

I don't want to bore you with the "How in the world did they do that?" stories. My point, I guess, is that we're blessed. We could be saving more than we are. There aren't many guarantees in the world but I am pretty certain that my kids will just need more money, the house will need repairs, and someday we'll be old - all contigencies that require money. There's always a rainy (or, in Michigan in March, a snowy) day, a famine for every feast, and I believe if I can live on less now it will serve my family well later. Since we're still young, saving now can mean incredible returns later through compound interest.

Caveat: Living cheaper day-to-day, paying less for consumables like food and clothes, means that we can still go on vacation sometimes. You all know what that means! :0