An empty space in my wallet shows me how the leather’s been stretched. There is no money at all in that once filled cavity, because I hardly ever go to the ATM. It is a small, yet significant response to the tight economy. Since I’ve never been organized enough to dole out regular allowances, I’d simply pull a few bills from my wallet as if they were Kleenex for my daughters to go to the movies or shopping with friends. Errands once deemed modest and vital to indulge my happiness go un-run.
Daughter 2, as a frequent babysitter, is the only one of us who has a nice stash of real bills on her dresser. Out of necessity, Daughter 1 and I have become resourceful. Long ignored coin catchalls organically stationed in several places around the house have become our new ATM. Finding $2.40 in coins under a sofa cushion feels like winning a lottery.
Once regarded as trivial, those quarters, nickels and dimes have a way of adding up nicely. Not THAT nicely, but well enough that I can to give Daughters 1 and 2 a stack of silver here and there to pay a buck or two for a school fundraiser, see a movie or buy a snack after school. The other day I unabashedly used a cache of recently unearthed coins to pay for a few necessities at the pharmacy. Coins look shinier and more valuable to me, as if seeing them for the very first time.
A few years back when I said I felt like we were being nickel and dimed, I really meant we were being ten and twentied. I always had bills bulging in my wallet, forming the vast expanse I am left with now. Even then, I knew it must not be good in the long run to keep throwing them around like confetti. But it’s what we did.
Two years ago we said without self-consciousness that we couldn’t live without cell phones with unlimited everything. Now, without self-consciousness, we say we are lucky to have jobs (for now, anyway), a roof over our heads and food on the table. We are proud of thrift, no matter how small. We are a lucky family, this Christmas. We know it.
Last night the four of us made stocking wish lists and drew them out of a Santa hat, promising to spend only $75 in place of us each buying everybody expensive gifts. We’re all giddy and optimistic reminding me of the Cratchit family in A Christmas Carol. Stop and pay attention to the people you love is the message. Make every nickel and dime count instead of mindlessly spending.
It was Benjamin Franklin, the president whose face would end up on those hundred dollar bills I only rarely have seen, who said, “A Penny Saved is a Penny Earned.” We’re starting to get this.
How about you? How has your approach to spending changed?
Relevant Reading:
The New Age of Frugality; Business Week, Oct. 20, 2008
The New Frugality is Likely More than a Fad, The Philidelphia Inquirer, Nov. 28, 2008
The Next Marketing Challenge: Selling to “Simplifiers”, “Harvard Business School Weekly Newsletter, Oct. 29, 2008 Apparently the folks at Harvard Business School have already given us a name
Suddenly Frugal : An information packed blog by woman whose family (interviewed in above Business Week article) has committed to living both green and frugal.
If you enjoyed this post, be sure to subscribe to my RSS feed!
{ 3 comments }
Thanks for mentioning my Suddenly Frugal blog. FYI, we’ve moved to a new platform so the new address is http://suddenlyfrugal.wordpress.com. Thanks again for the shout out.
I’ve been living the frugality thing for a long time. I was a graduate student living on small stipend for too many years. I got used to “doing without.” I love bargain hunting at thrift stores, so BTDT.
But yes, right now, pinching tighter in fear of economic impact. Eating out less with the family, which is to say, we’ve gone from seldom to hardly ever. Entertaining friends with home cooked meals in. I love to cook, so it’s not too much of a sacrifice. Not sure guests would agree? Oh, and the hardest cut of all. I went from imported vodka to domestic. Wah.
I left a paltry part time salary behind a few years ago, and at least that was good training for this… essentially we had to give up eating out so much. The weird thing is, I’m kind of having a good time in some ways with this now, and I like not being so wasteful. If my husband gets laid off or something, I’ll feel stupid for saying that! I’ve been around a lot of the whole “keep up with the Jones’s,let’s talk about real estate and stocks thing” that has gleefully entertained so many of us in recent years. I feel like now, I’m getting to know people better, whom I have known for a long time, and they may be getting to know me. It’s much nicer to wear your fat pants and have a potluck than to squeeze yourself into a pair of spanx to get all dressed up and try to impress each other. I’ve always been a pretty cheap date, because I rarely drink (it’s the one thing in the world that puts my allergies in a spin.) That imported vodka’s not as bad as most though. Clean stuff.
Comments on this entry are closed.