I like to bring a book or magazine into bed, where I can actually read without worrying that, “I should be doing this” or “I should be doing that.” Sometimes I read way into the night, other times just a page or two’ll do me.
Last night I grabbed my well worn copy of Amy Dacyczyn’s The Complete Tightwad Gazette for a little night time inspiration. Although I’ve owned this books for years and feel like I have it memorized, it had been awhile since I’d delved in.
In the introduction, Dacyczyn responds those who criticize her frugal methods as too extreme:
“This seems as good a place as any to respond to the common criticism that my ideas are too extreme. The very purpose of a newsletter is to meet a need that is not met by the mainstream media. Traditional financial advice and consumer writers offer safe, halfway advice: They’ll tell you how to feed a family of four for $84 per week (when it can be done for half that amount). The same writers will tell you it’s becoming increasingly difficult, if not impossible, for families to make ends meet. In fact by adhering to the ’safe’ advice, many families would not make ends meet. The Tightwad Gazette came about as a reaction to this traditional viewpoint, because I knew that people could achieve the ‘impossible’ with a little discipline, a little creativity, and a willingness to to do things that mainstream thinkers deem extreme.”
Too extreme? Isn’t that like ice cream being too smooth and creamy?
My frugality has been mostly well received, but there are those who complain that I’ve gone over the edge. This bothers me not one whit, as I am quite comfortable and confident with my methods of madness. And I completely agree with her assessment of mainstream media. If I read the tired advice of skip that morning latte one more time, I just might have to drown myself in a double shot soy venti hazelnut vanilla cinnamon white mocha!
An example of the degree to which I’m willing to go in the name of frugality happened just today. I was helping my mother clean out two of her rental cottages between tenants and was able to fill a grocery bag with the stuff that people had left behind.
I brought home:
- Half a bottle of corn oil
- A mostly full carton of milk
- A small bag of almonds
- A stick-and-a-half of butter
- A never opened bag of tortilla chips
- A never opened jar of salsa
- A half empty bottle of barbeque sauce
- An almost full bottle of shampoo
- A box of tooth whitening strips
- A bag of parmesan cheese
- An onion
- Half a box of linguine
- Half a bulb of garlic
- A wide mouth canning jar with lid
There are some who would say that scrounging for food is way too extreme for them. But I feel totally comfortable and completely non-paranoid about this activity.
Frugality is about saving money on the things that don’t matter so the money is available for the things that do.
I have a goal to get all my money-pit-of-a-house debt paid off as soon as possible. And this means both making extra money, as well as looking for every opportunity where I can shave a little bit from my spending.
Extreme? Maybe so, but without extremity I would be working full time and probably living paycheck-to-paycheck.
Are you willing to make some extreme decisions to support the life you want to live? Please share your thoughts in the comments section below.
Katy Wolk-Stanley
“Use it up, wear it out, make it do or do without.”
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