Is Frugality WITHOUT Sacrifice Doable?

[Retired To Win]

My bottom line on eating at restaurants is that, for me, it is ALWAYS a discretionary fund expenditure, and NEVER to be accounted for as part of my basic living expense budget.

From my perspective, there is always a prep-it-yourself, frugality-without-sacrifice satisfactory option when it comes to meals.  Even when I am traveling.  (Hooray for coolers and motel microwaves!).

It also means that, when I decide I want a meal out at a restaurant, frugality is totally optional.   The eating out is an "entertainment" event to me, and I pay for it out of discretionary money.  So, in such a situation, I consider that smart thriftiness (discount coupon?) is fine; but frugality (refrain from ordering what you really want) is not.

[RetiredAt63]

I take my hat off to Sol, he is so young to be so philosophical.

I'm a biologist*, and it does colour the world-view.  I have a lot of issues with Disney, but The Circle of Life in the Lion King they got right (or close enough).


*I am retired from teaching Biology, I will never stop being a biologist.

Wait, Sol and Retiredat63, yer supposed to be over on this thread:
http://forum.mrmoneymustache.com/antimustachian-wall-of-shame-and-comedy/%27our-business-is-about-creating-desire%27/

[2ndTimer]

I don't feel like I am sacrificing to be frugal.  I just ate a tasty breakfast of steel cut oatmeal and natural peanut butter.  Oats from Winco's bulk section and peanut butter by the case from the salvage store. It wouldn't have tasted any better if it had cost $8.00 as a similar breakfast did back when I was eating on OPM. 

My rescue cats are just as adorable as if they were $5,000 purebreds. 

My latex mattress is just a comfortable as it would have been if it hadn't been a marked down floor sample.

My four season tent keeps out the rain just as well as it would if we hadn't found it in the return room at Cabela's.

My home made hummus is better than that which I have eaten in restaurants.

My 20 year old mountain bike is just as great a ride as it was the day I (over) paid for it. 

I could go on and on in this vein but you get the idea.

[Helvegen]

Winco is awesome. I was butthurt when I moved to the PNW from the Midwest and it didn't seem like there was any decent low cost supermarket like Kroger.  Then Winco came and saved the day. Their produce is complete hit or miss, but the rest of the store, particularly the bulk and deli section, is awesome.

[Retired To Win]

A lot of spending is just habit. If you change your habits it doesn't feel like sacrifice.  Some habits are harder to change than others but others are easy -- just require you to remember to do whatever the more optimal way.

Maybe what we are talking about here is hedonistic adaptation in reverse.  Frugalistic adaptation?  I can see that working.

[arebelspy]

A lot of spending is just habit. If you change your habits it doesn't feel like sacrifice.  Some habits are harder to change than others but others are easy -- just require you to remember to do whatever the more optimal way.

Maybe what we are talking about here is hedonistic adaptation in reverse.  Frugalistic adaptation?  I can see that working.

Absolutely; you adapt to whatever level you're at.  See: study of people who became handicapped and their subsequent happiness.

[2ndTimer]

A lot of spending is just habit. If you change your habits it doesn't feel like sacrifice.  Some habits are harder to change than others but others are easy -- just require you to remember to do whatever the more optimal way.

Maybe what we are talking about here is hedonistic adaptation in reverse.  Frugalistic adaptation?  I can see that working.

Two comments:

First, I vote we call it "Frudonic adaptation"

Second, I actually had the experience of becoming slightly handicapped and I can report that I did get back to my previous level of happiness plus a little because once I realized I was stuck with it and it was only going to be as good as I could make it, I pulled out my INTJ toolkit and started tinkering



Absolutely; you adapt to whatever level you're at.  See: study of people who became handicapped and their subsequent happiness.

[Retired To Win]

I spend on anything I want. I don't want much. No sacrifice here.

+1.

I never sacrifice, because I get everything I want.

I just don't want much.  And when I do get that stuff, I optimize how I acquire it, so as to do it efficiently and not waste.  That's frugal, but requires no sacrifice.

Yeah, I too am basically getting everything I want.  My "problem" now, being FI and having passive income that far outstrips my basic living expenses, is to find meaningful and satisfying ways in which to spend my surplus discretionary income.

(And, no, putting that money into investments would not answer the question.  It would just generate more untargeted discretionary income.)

That is what was in the back of my mind when I wrote in my September 6th reply (#52 in the thread)  about frugality being totally optional for me with regards to restaurant meals.  And I am working now to broaden that approach to apply to other discretionary wants of mine.

It is a bumpy process, though. Last spring, I gave myself a goal/assignment to spend $5000 on discretionary wants in the following 3 months.  Well, it is 6 months since then and I don't think I am 75% of the way there.  :O

(Yeah, I know.  The trials and tribulations of the financially independent.)