Let's say you're frugal to try and pay down debt. Won't even ask if it's student loan, credit card, or how it got there. But you need to save to pay it off. So your life now looks like this:
You bring your rice and beans to work yet again. But your coworkers are going out to that $12/burger place. So now you're a little upset at lunch. You try to spend less than the $194 food stamps maximum. Now you're aiming for $60-$100 because some people on /r/eatcheapandhealthy said it's super easy to eat for that cheap. You feel guilty with that $194 number now.
Everyone's talking about going to Hawaii, Florida, someone mentioned Australia. They get to you, you're staying home with your paid time off because going anywhere is too expensive. They make weird faces at you. It's bad enough you can't go, it's worse that they don't understand why.
You get called in on your days off because you're the overtime person. You don't keep that money for fun, it goes to the emergency fund and/or debt. Maybe you keep $1/hr for you. Others only work OT to buy fun stuff with all of the $$.
New people ask about pets. You don't have any because they cost too much, even though you'd love one. That reminder hurts, but you know they didn't mean anything bad asking about it.
Sales are going on at Victoria's Secret (or a fave clothes place). You don't go because you don't want to be tempted by nice things. They all say they spent $200+, you're chillin' in your Walmart (or equivalent) underwear.
Maybe you're one of the ones that can get to work by bus or walking. So you're "not allowed" to buy your own car, due to one already being owned by your spouse. You now can't even stand car buying talk.
Your life is basically reading forums like this one on how to reduce expenses. Reading grocery store circulars. Learning frugal skills off YouTube. And often looking at your payoff date on unbury.me. You may have a hobby, but it's severely limited by funds.
Years pass and you're still 5+ years away from your goal. Every nice thing other people can get that you can't pings at your emotions. You can't even escape it on your few days off because it's the same crap from non coworkers on social media. You're now excessively bitter every day because it feels like there is no end. They only have an end to suffering from low wages/high debt due to rich parents or rich husbands. So you suffer alone.
I'm wondering if anyone else is going through this exteme negativity. I think I may have frugal fatigue, but I'm more worried about being angry over every little thing people can have that I can't.
How do you guys deal with this? It's driving me insane.
June 21, 2020 at 11:47PM
