Frugality as a Virtue- Less is More

I was raised in a family where being frugal was a virtue that everyone believed in, and everyone practiced. My father (God rest his soul) was famous for saying that there was no reason for anyone to have more than two pairs of pants. When he was dying from cancer, he refused to buy a car- partly because he felt it was doable to take the bus for an hour to see his doctor, and also because he was very concerned about the environment. It was in many ways an entirely unreasonable and untenable situation. He was so tired when he got off the bus he would sometimes lie down on a patch of grass on the sidewalk to regain his strength to be able to walk the few blocks to the hospital. My mother who accompanied him had the patience of a saint. In his last days when he was dying in the hospital, my mother then had to make the long trip alone on the bus to visit him. It was a trying situation- and perhaps an extreme example of my frugal history.

I am fortunate to have married a man who is as frugal as I am. Having grown up under the weight of communism and the lack that comes with that, he shares my happiness in making more out of less. Although most couples fight about money, I can safely say that has never been an issue for us- and for that I am grateful. One thing we both know is that in needing less, we have been able to be more free in our choices for our lives.

A number of years ago, I was talking to a friend who was making the decision to leave Wall Street to go into government work. She saw it as a calling, and although her new role would pay a fraction of what she had made before, she said it was for that reason that she too had been so frugal her whole life- not being attached to a lifestyle that would end up as a prison. At that time I was also planning my departure from Wall Street to go to a start up- an uncertain proposition at best- and I also had the flexibility to make that move. She said to me “this is the gift we have given ourselves”- to have saved and not over-extended all those years, meant we could follow our hearts. We were both also extremely lucky in many ways- there is no doubt of that.

I am struck by thoughts of being frugal in this new world in which we live. With recession looming and many people having to make ends meet in a much more constrained environment, living without waste is a focus. Like my father’s thinking about not getting a car, there are certainly pluses for the world if we all waste less. But I also think there are benefits that go beyond the material and physical. Going for a walk, or playing cards with the family, has certainly been bumped up to the highest form of entertainment these days. I am hopeful that this experience will inspire a less materialistic way of viewing the world, and a focus on the truism that “best things in life are free.”

I don’t expect that everyone will get a kick out of seeing how to make a chicken last for meal after meal (as I do)- but perhaps dialing back the consumerism and enjoying the simpler things in life, can be a blessing. The difficult reality is that there are many people in our society that are struggling to survive, and will continue to struggle for some time to come. For those of us who can continue to make ends meet, this is also a call for us to find ways to lift up the people in our communities in need. If we spend less on consumerism ourselves, we can give more to help our friends and neighbors who have lost jobs or are struggling with illness. The benefits we get from giving generously are unmatched.