On Frugality

               Friends, I need a chest freezer. It just makes sense. Surely the path to wealth involves saving money. I can’t save money if I’m spending it all on gas. I need to load up on as much food as I can, meal prep every week, and keep that chest freezer stocked so I never have to waste my hard-earned money on convenience foods from the gas station or restaurants. The problem is… I already have a chest freezer. 7 cubic feet. I want the exact same one. A second one. Because the first freezer is already full. And that’s the problem with frugality. Where do you draw the line? How do you know that spending money to save money is the correct move?

                I’ve recently started an office job. I learned some Excel in school while getting my bachelor’s degree in accounting. I didn’t really care for it. That isn’t Excel’s fault. The curriculum forced me to stray away from Excel and come back to it every two months, and by the time I got back into it I was burnt out on constant learning and had mostly forgotten every formula I had learned two months prior. Now though, school is over, student loans are to be repaid within two months (only $16k, nothing like the hundreds of thousands that others have been fleeced for) and I can actually slow down and use Excel to build something awesome, something personal. I have a wicked Personal Finance Command Center that I use to track my finances. My budget, my debts, my spending habits and my goals are all on there. When I’m at work using Excel and when I’m at home relaxing I nerd out trying to figure out better formulas and spreadsheet layouts to increase the usability and accuracy of my financial workbook.

                All that is to say… frugality is so much fun! I’ve saved $20 a month just by calling my internet service provider and threatening to switch to their competitor (total bluff; I didn’t want any part of that hassle). I’ve saved $100 snatching up a sale on a supplement I regularly take, even factoring in the outlandish high interest credit card debt I’m expected to pay on that purchase. I can see, assuming the world is perfectly kind and nothing goes wrong, exactly when my debts will be paid off if I put every dollar I take in to its best use.

                And that’s why I need a second freezer. I live in BFE, where there is no way to save money on food. And food is such a HUGE and recurring expense. The one and only option is to plan out perfect shopping lists, drive 2 hours to Walmart and Sam’s Club, absolutely load up on supplies, and then store it properly when I get home. Right now I’m going to the store every two months at $40 a trip in gas. Assuming a heavy load, and going every six months instead, at $50 a trip in gas, plus the electricity cost of running a second freezer every year of around $50 per year (maybe a little less if I keep it full), and of course factoring in the 28.96% APR of my high interest credit card, the freezer should pay for itself in….

                Who knows?! I’ve labored over this decision for three days (which, if you’re going to be frugal, a great habit is considering expensive purchases for a very long time, until you just can’t take it anymore and you have to have it). That’s the problem with frugality. I don’t have a problem of spending too much money. My problem is I don’t make nearly enough money. Trying to save pennies when I could be making $1,000’s is just bad math and a waste of time. And that’s not frugal at all. Wasting the most precious resource is an extravagance I definitely can’t afford anymore.

 

P.S. I definitely put it in the mountains.