From Wasteful to Frugal – Our Journey

My husband and I have been in several different financial situations throughout our marriage. We’ve gone through cycles where we’ve had a fair bit of money and cycles where we’ve had very little money. The times when we were both working and earning fairly good wages were nice. We rarely, if ever, worried about having enough money to last us until our next paycheck. The times we were living on one income were a little more stressful and we had to be more responsible with how we spent our money.

It’s been quite a journey for us and I’m really happy at the progress we’ve made and how we’ve grown as individuals. Here’s a bit of how we went from relatively wasteful people to being frugal.

Living Large

When we had a lot of money coming in every month you can be sure there was a fair bit of money going out every month. We’ve always been good at paying ourselves first, in terms of saving for retirement, but there were no savings over and above what we should be doing.

I’m a bit embarrassed now to admit just how irresponsible we were back then, about 10 years ago now, but here it goes. Anything we wanted we bought, whether there was a true need for it or not. There was very little comparison shopping and when we did buy anything it needed to be the best of whatever it was we were buying at the time. We could justify purchasing anything.

Some examples: $800 down duvet, $1600 for a pair of leather reclining chairs, a brand new car, nearly $2000 on leather jackets, $2100 on a dining room suite and stools. I think you get the picture.

It’s not that we were living beyond our means but we were certainly living up to them. I never thought of it as being wasteful. We had the money so why not spend it?

Reality Check

My husband and I moved to Australia for 4 years for me to go back to University. Gwynn was able to work while I went to school. My scholarship covered student fees (~$22,000/year) but nothing more. It was all up to Gwynn. We had very little money and we arrived with a couple of suit cases of clothes and some blankets, which was great as the house we were renting was completely unfurnished so the blankets made for a more comfortable first few nights.

We set out to buy furniture and regular household items to get set up. Knowing that Australia wasn’t a permanent venture for us we didn’t want to spend much of what money we did have on setting up the house. This is when our frugal way of life began. We bought as much as we could second hand and accepted items from new friends who didn’t have a need for them any more. Couch, dining room set, computer desk, chairs, TV, car etc…all second hand and at a fraction of what it would have cost to purchase all of this stuff new. It was great! Why hadn’t anyone told us about this before? Who knew?

Live and Learn

When we looked at all the stuff we had in our house it suddenly occurred to us how much money we had saved by not buying new.

But did this stuff make us less happy than if we had all new? The answer to that was a resounding NO. It didn’t matter to us if it was fresh out of the showroom or not, it was serving a purpose. Not paying a premium for the “privilege” of taking the item out of the store was fine by us. In fact buying used and spending smarter made us happier in some way.

If the leather recliners that we spent $1600 on got a tear on the seat we would have been very upset. But if we paid $200 for the same recliners only they were second hand and they got a tear in the seat…not such a big deal.

We began to see things as they were meant to be seen, functional items that added to our quality of life.

Think about it. If you were to purchase a brand new car what kind of feelings would you get from that? How long would those feelings last? How upset would you be when that first dent shows up? Truth is, it’s pretty cool to have a new car…for about a week maybe a month. Then it’s really no more than a means of transportation, it too loses its luster.

Now think about buying that car second hand, already broken in, already with its first dent or three. You may not have that elitist feeling you get from the brand new car but after about a week even that new car will have stones on the floor mats, cheerios all over the back seat and toys on the floor like any other family car. The only difference is you’ll be paying a lot more for a lot longer with the first example.

New is nice but it  isn’t necessarily better. Don’t get me wrong not everything is second hand we still buy things new. These new purchases however are made where it really matters to us, after comparison shopping and a lot of thought. I’m glad that we came to the realization that: a) you don’t need new everything b) that you don’t have to spend all that you make and c) that there are some really good deals out there, you just need to be patient and know where to look.

By become frugal we’re realizing our financial goals a lot quicker than we ever thought possible. That’s a wonderful thing!

 

Photo courtesy of: Kevin

See also:

A Simple and Effective Meal Plan In 3 Easy Steps

7 Money Saving Ideas From The Kitchen

5 Tips for a Quick and Efficient Grocery Shop