Hi Everybody, I must admit to being the most frugal person in my family to the point of occasional frustration of my mom, and yet despite my best attempts at being frugal, I find myself splurging on things I know I can do without (for example ready-food delivery everyday which I justify as the most fun part of my day...) or things that I know I could obtain for cheaper with a little more research. And then pursuing this thread makes me feel all the more guilty afterwards for not being my most frugal self. It’s not that I can’t afford it, it’s only the knowledge that the money could be better put elsewhere like a nicer vacation or more healthy grocery.
Yet at the same time, I wonder where do you draw the line? There’s also the time investment of looking for the best deal or best coupons. For eg, clearance clothing is usually cheaper but is it truly worth spending an extra hour or two to find that almost perfect blouse when you could have found a first choice blouse in a few min on the retail shelf? I have similar ambiguity about paying extra for nicer things that complement the value of your existing purchase — if I am spending more (say $500 More) to live in a nicer community but not willing to spend extra (say $100 more) to visit the “nicer” restaurants/gyms in the new neighborhood, then am I not doing reducing the value I get for my new rent? By paying more, I am getting more of my money’s worth but spending more than what I truly need to.
The other day I spent almost an entire day looking for the best vacation package and ended up going with the one I had first stumbled upon in the first 2 min of google search. At that point, having spent the day scourging for a better deal and having nothing to show for it, I truly wondered if my frugality is doing more harm than good and whether relaxing a bit about finding the best deal money-wise would allow me to create more value for my life.
December 30, 2018 at 11:06PM
