I thought I’d finish up the original frugal series from my tome by including this part about frugal fatigue. I didn’t invent the term and I don’t recall where I read it first, but essentially after being good for so long, we’ll start to feel deprived and get tired of the restrictions. That’s when we’re more likely to end up having dinner out a second time in a week, and then a third time because we deserve it or are so tired or we’ve been so good etc. In the early days, we lost financial ground because we didn’t actually see the damage we were doing to our savings. Now that we review our financials every month, we see the trend right away before it becomes a budget buster. This recession isn’t over, Kent doesn’t have a job and us choosing to eat out more often just hurts US.
We’ve also learned that we have to find ways to treat ourselves within our budget or else we will fail catastrophically. For us, those treats include buying an ice cream cone (or a pint of Ben & Jerry’s ice cream), or deciding that yes, this week we will eat out once and then have take-out because take-out is still cheaper than sitting down at a restaurant. The key is spending with a plan—my dear friend Cindy has the same philosophy about her diet. Six years ago she was over 100 pounds overweight and now she’s a personal trainer, certified in yoga, Pilates, spinning etc. Her tag line on her blog is “eat intentionally,” and I’ve changed it to say “spend intentionally.”
Kent pointed out that where we made the most severe budget cuts were in the areas that brought us the least pleasure (cable TV, new clothes for the non-working spouse, and minimal clothes for the working one). That’s brought us the most bang for our budget buck. Rather than spread the cut-back pain around everywhere, we completely cut some things out. Living without these low-pleasure items was easier than we thought. Even if we wound up bringing those things back into the budget, we had a very clear idea of how much we wanted to spend.
We’ve also cut out making big house purchases that fall into the want category rather than the need category. This got tested when we had to buy all our furniture again after the flood, because pretty much all of it was ruined. That was a chance for us to decide which items we really did need (not want) and hold off on the rest. So we didn’t replace my sewing cabinet, we didn’t replace the bed even though it’s got a tiny bit of rust on it, and we share one dresser (which required paring down our clothes).
If you are living on a restricted budget, where are your pitfalls? What’s likely to trip you up despite your best intentions?
3 comments:
I like that phrase! Just saying "frugal fatigue" makes me feel better. Like I let it out! Confessed. Take out is a very good choice for us when we just HAVE to have a dining "out" experience. I can take a noodle dish and two other choices that come with "free" rice and turn it into six meals for two including my own fried rice with a little bit of everything at the end! Makes me feel even better!
We will be homeless and bi-coastal on October 7th. Hoping the company picks up the hotel rooms for half of October and November, and half of December will be with family and on the company for travel. All those pesky little bills gone for a couple of months. We are seriously discussing NO dish, cable or TV expenses. All our big ole' TVs are staying in VT. No we do not have a flat screen! (So, now you know someone who doesn't :-)
Until very recently, we've lived right on the margin, right on that big old crack that I feared falling into. Frugal fatigue doesn't hit me too much because frugality has been a must.
Satellite tv (we have one tv in the house) will never go because it's our main source of entertainment. We never eat out - I cook (or my husband does) from scratch. Every night (I plan a few meals that last the whole week).
We don't have a budget, per se, but I have a hard time not purchasing things that make the house more livable - shelves and bins, things that contain objects and organize. I'm good about throwing out and donating but there's still an immense amount of clutter and not enough closets to contain it all.
Phone (one phone) and internet is a must. I buy clothes twice a year, usually. I HATE to shop so I order stuff.
My downfall may be my kids. And books. We buy books whenever we run into them. We have a lot of books. A lot.
We ditched the landline in favor of our wireless phones. We need the wireless ones for work/potential work and figured the landline could go. I haven't missed it in over two years.
I'm not sure I would have ditched it with children still at home, especially since my older son has type 1 diabetes. E-911 is better but not as reliable in showing location for emergency dispatchers.
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