Wealthy and Frugal
Wealthy and Frugal
Having a high W2 wage has allowed my family many extravagances not afforded to your average employee. For instance, we rarely get granular about our non budget. We guide ourselves by principles of value and don’t usually worry about the specifics. This mostly works due to our fatFIRE frugal ways. By getting the big expenses right, we are able to relax the reigns on day-to-day spending. This doesn’t mean, however, that we cannot be downright cheap when it comes to certain issues. Although not minimalist by nature, we have learned to be both wealthy and frugal at times.
We don’t do this to save money. Because in the end the extra cash probably barely moves the needle. It’s more of an aversion to wastefulness.
More than not, we just hate to be wasteful.
Charge Her Up!
There is no question that my electric car is one of my major stealth wealth fails. Dropping a huge chunk of money on a depreciating asset definitely goes against my fatFIRE frugal ways. Yet, my Tesla has presented a unique opportunity to be both wealthy and frugal.
When I bought my car, part of the package included free charging at the dealership for life. After a few months of ownership, I saw our electric bills skyrocket to several hundred dollars a month. In all, it probably cost $5/day to charge the car at home.
My frugality gene kicked in. Although a small sum compared to our total monthly costs, it bothered me to know that we were expending so much each day. As it turns out, the solution was simple. The Tesla dealership happened to be a couple of miles away from a few of my nursing homes.
Why not see a bunch of patients and do all my charting remotely? This would allow me to plug my car in, but instead of wasting the hour it took to charge, I could be doing something productive.
And that’s just what I started to do. In fact, I haven’t plugged my car in at home once in the last 3 months.
The Latte Factor
I admit it. I’m guilty. I fell into the Starbucks habit. It was so easy. A shop around every corner was just beckoning me to stop in the middle of the day and buy an expensive, refreshing beverage as a treat. This treat eventually became a daily occurrence.
As the prices rose to ridiculous levels, I switched to Dunkin Donuts. This trade-off saved me several dollars a day, but still slowly sucked the cash out of my wallet every month.
Again, the thing about being both wealthy and frugal is that it’s not only about dollars and cents. It’s about wastefulness. Eventually I couldn’t justify these daily expenditures even if they were far from making me broke.
Now I have a single serving coffee maker (purchased with credit card rewards points) that brews me a cup every morning for a few pennies a day.
The Library or Bust
We used to buy books. So many books. The kids rooms were teeming with them. Far from a frivolous purchase, we took the reading habits of ourselves and our children seriously. A few years back, we discovered a used book store that sold gently (and sometimes not so much) worn books for deep discounts.
The kids were going to run roughshod over them anyway. Why not buy them beat up already. And when we were done and tired of the clutter, we could always trade them back for a small amount of credit.
Of course, it was only a matter of time untill we transitioned to the library. Why pay at all?
Final Thoughts
We are wealthy and frugal. Not out of necessity. More out of principle. It’s just hard to justify wastefulness in this ever bloated world we live. As our kids grow older, we want them to understand the value of things regardless of their economic situation.
Why pay for gas when you can go electric? Why pay for energy when it is free at the dealership?
Why give my money to Starbucks when I can brew a perfectly good cup at home?
And who needs to own a book when you can borrow one?
Getting the big things right is the most important part, like you said. We definitely save in other areas by trying to live by the mantra of “buying only what we need.” This allows non-necessary purchases to feel particularly special.
All the while, easily obtaining our financial goals.
TPP
Funny though, sometimes just saving a few bucks feels so satisfying.
Respect your frugal, non-wasting stand, a lot ! Kudos to you to teaching your children about this.
Call me moderate, but, I like to have Starbucks once in awhile, have a favorite blend to brew at home too,
like to purchase books , but also take out books at the library. While I mentioned this…..
Have to give a plug to Libraries, they are an undervalued great community resource ! And they need our support.
Definitely the moderate road in most things work. W e pick and choose our spots. We definitely use the library a lot.
Its funny, the habits that tend to lead to wealth accumulation tend to stick with you even after you don’t need them as much.
As a side note, I had no idea it was so expensive to charge a Tesla. I have considered getting one from time to time (they are perfect for my commute, 30-40 minutes with no speed limits over 45 mph), but maybe you don’t save as much over the life of the car as I had thought.
-Ray
I don’t think you save so much from Teslas. I think they are just fun cars.
It just goes to show no matter how much you have it would be stupid to waste it.
Amen. Frugality is a habit. It’s hard to change.
I think you’re doing it right. For me, you need to get the little things right as well as the big things. Most people say they’ll save on the big items and ignore the small stuff. However, they don’t save on the big stuff either. When you make frugality a habit, you’ll be able to save everywhere. Just aiming for the big stuff doesn’t really work for me. 🙂
It’s hard to parse habits. I think after the big things are tackled, the little things follow suite.
I think you mean teeming, not teaming. Good examples of ways to save money! I’m sure the expense and hassle of a fully electric vehicle is often overlooked by buyers. Good to get a perspective from someone who owns one!
Thanks for the spelling check. Electric vehicles do have some hidden costs.
I have always been an opportunist so low hanging fruits like using the library, brewing my own coffee, line drying my laundry is soo simple, it’s more work NOT to do it.
I like the idea of being an opportunist. Why not do it if it doesn’t feel like sacrifice?