Being frugal sometimes gets a bad wrap. A frugal lifestyle is often viewed as one where you sacrifice all niceties just to save a buck. With this view, it may seem that life would be harder for those trying to be frugal.
This is only partly true. I personally see a big difference between a cheap lifestyle and a frugal one.
To me, a cheap lifestyle focuses 100% on the dollar amount with little attention given to value. A frugal lifestyle however, cares much less about the dollar amount and much more about the value something brings to their life. A cheap person is looking for quick fixes to their problems while a frugal person is looking for long-term solutions.
A frugal person knows that the price does matter when comparing two products of similar value but not so much when a product solves an important problem for them.
And we have to note that value is relative. A product that is incredibly valuable for you might be worthless to me. The trick is to understand what we truly care about in life, while shutting out the noise of the world and other peoples’ expectations. Once they know what is important, a frugal person then focuses their resources in that area. This means that other areas will be neglected, but for the frugal person that is okay. Frugal people are often the best at measuring value because they understand what is important to them and are willing to ignore everything else.
Now, back to my original question. Is life harder for those living frugally? Sometimes it may seem that way as others are more willing to be extravagant in all areas of life. But over time, those who are frugal live a life full of only the things they care the most about. Not to mention that they are more likely to be financially independent in the long run.
Now, I don’t have anything against having nice things. I love nice things and higher quality things are often higher value anyway. The hard part is not getting nice things solely because the world pressures us to but because it is something we truly care about.
Conclusion
Before anyone mislabels themselves as either cheap, frugal, or extravagant, we have to remember that we are all a mixture of the three. There are times when we tend to be more cheap and other times, extravagant. And that is okay. I truly believe that we should all use money to bring joy to our lives and to the lives of those around us. The hard part, and the part that we are all trying to figure out everyday, is how to best do that.