Frugal Living: When Less Means More

Table of Contents

Frugal Living
Chapter 1: Introduction to Frugal Living
Frugal Living as a Choice
Frugality as a State of Mind
Living Frugally Doesn’t Mean Leaving the Fun
Chapter 2: What the Great Depression Has Taught Us
Chapter 3: Today’s Lifestyle: Mindless and Consumerist
Chapter 4: How Society Has Conditioned Our Current Lifestyles
Chapter 5: Small House Living
Saying NO To Expensive Home Loans
Other Benefits of Small House Living
Conclusion
Author Bio
Publisher

Introduction to Frugal Living

What comes into your mind when you first hear about frugal living? You may be one of the many people who are likely to utter the words such as cheap lifestyle, miserable life, boring, or unhappy life. However, frugal living does not mean any of those words. It is not a miserable way of life because it is a choice in the first place because no one ever chooses to live a miserable life. More so, it is not boring considering the number of meaningful activities one could engage in when living in frugality. And more than that, frugal living does not mean having an unhappy life because it only means finding happiness beyond what money could offer.

Surely, money allows you to buy the things you need, or maybe gain significant experiences. However, with the consumerist lifestyle that most people have, there is a greater tendency to consume more, and spend for what is useless in life. Most people do not even realize that there is an abundance of ways to get to experience what they want in life. Instead, they go for expensive materials and buy those with big brand names, or get a luxury vacation package, and then show it off for others to see because it is what has been taught to them.

When we talk about frugal living, we are dealing with a free lifestyle. It also means untying from a societally controlled lifestyle, which is the root of many of the pressing issues today. With the overly mindless consumption and consumerist lifestyle that most people have, we could say that the world desperately needs to learn the principles of frugal living. The proof of this frantic need for change is seen every day, when you see people drive to work in their single-occupied SUVs, whizz at the sight of beers and pack of cigarettes that minimum wage workers feast on during the day, or the group of youth holding their smartphones barely talking to each other. Regardless of your family’s income levels, no one is immune to mindless consumption and no one is exempted from rejecting frugality.

Most people fail to pursue frugal living, even at the micro and macro levels. The United States economy is falling at the pit of debt, which is thrice the GNP of Japan, yet the country continues to spend more. And for the information of everybody, Japan has the world’s third largest economy. That makes it so unbelievable how we confidently spend money, while also watching a handful of European countries worry about debt and everything combined. And it is not so surprising that this consumerist behavior reflects the spending behavior of most of its people.

Fortunately, at present, there is a growing return to frugal living, given the condition and the aftermath of the Great Recession. The unemployment rates serve as a wake-up call for proper execution of our financial responsibilities.