Some people may think of frugality as cheapness, bargain bin hunting, or penny-pinching. That's not what I think of it as.
I think that frugality is long term thinking. Frugality is spending time or money now to make the future better. Frugality is valuing security over possessions. Frugality is learning to forego a reward now for a larger reward later.
I was reading the book, “Poor Economics”, an award winning book about the effectiveness of foreign aid in the developing world, and noticed it's basically pointing out missed opportunities to be frugal. A few examples that the authors point out are:
- Not getting vaccinations (leading to the spread of various diseases)
- Not using mosquito nets (leading to the spread of malaria)
- Neglecting to treat water with bleach (leading to diarrhea)
- Not buying fertilizer (despite the proven return on investment seen by larger crops)
These seem like obvious errors- mistakes you would never make. Of course the small amount of money spent on a mosquito net outweighs the cost of potentially getting malaria and of course clean water is worth the very small investment in bleach required to treat it. But, for these people, it’s not obvious and they don’t do it.
Are you making mistakes like this? No? Perhaps on a smaller scale?
I see the cause of these types of mistakes as short term thinking. Electing for convenience today rather than long term value happens all the time in the developed world as well:
- Eating out repeatedly (leading to money wastage and neglected health and diet)
- Not saving or learning enough to have job mobility
- Using money on impulse purchases that don’t lead to happiness
- Not exercising
- Abusing antibiotics
- Spending money on lotteries
- Not going for routine medical checkups
- Not taking advantage of tax breaks
- Going deeply into debt to get a college degree that doesn’t lead to increased earning potential
- Abusing alcohol or other drugs
Have you caught yourself making any of these mistakes? Can you think of other mistakes like these that you see people making? How can we go about avoiding them?
June 15, 2017 at 12:05AM
