It is no secret, I am a frugal living enthusiast and I love it. However, I was not always so frugal-minded, I once had a mountain of credit card debt that could attest to that, but hey, it was all on sale! 
With the Great Recession came a need for many families to change their mindsets from “buy, buy, buy” to “save, save, save” in order to keep a roof over their heads. Maybe you became a frugalista because you or your husband lost your jobs.
But, is living a frugal lifestyle really that great and is everyone claiming to be a frugalista, really that or are they just cheap? I am sure if you are a frugal-minded person you have been called cheap before, I know I have, heck, my hubs’ favorite phrase to describe me is “her butt squeaks when she walks by because she’s so tight with money”.
According to ol’Mr. Webster, here are the definitions of frugal and cheap:
Frugal: characterized by or reflecting economy in the use of resources
Cheap: not costing a lot of money : of low quality : not worth a lot of money
Hmmmm……so there is a difference!
Frugal does not mean that you are simply couponing, looking for the next latest and greatest sale, or scoring something free, it is a lifestyle characterized by making the most out of your current resources.
Truthfully, when I was spending credit as if it was going out of style, I was actually being cheap. I was only purchasing items on sale or with a coupon, purchasing items that were not going to last, and overall just accumulating more junk with less value.
I grew up in a frugal home, my mom is a daughter of parents who grew up during the Great Depression and passed down their frugal living ways to their five children. I remember thinking that my mom was cheap because we could not purchase something if it was not either, on sale, with a coupon, or at the very least in the budget. Instead of purchasing Halloween costumes, we made them. I remember turning a concert dress (I played the flute) into a witch’s dress by cutting it up to make it look ragged and sewing ribbons and chiffon in random places. It drove me crazy as a kid, but now I get it.
My mom was a lunch lady with a very small salary raising two kids, frugal was the only option. My mom is still the most frugal lady on the planet even with an empty nest but I know that she will retire well and that her children will not have to bear the financial burden of caring for her.
Frugal living is a mindset and it is not for everyone. Frugal living means that you look at what you have and make the most of it, instead of just purchasing something to make it easier.
Do frugal and cheap go hand in hand? Sometimes, yes because shopping for deals and using coupons are simply a part of frugal living but they are not the means of living frugally. That is difference between being a cheapskate and being a frugalista. Purchasing items, you do not need simply because they are on sale versus, forgoing the purchase because it does not add value to your life and simply is not worth it.
Before making a purchase, I always ask myself if I have anything at home that I could use in place of purchasing this item. Usually, the answer is yes. For example, I really wanted to add something to our mantel because it was looking a little bare. In Target one day, I saw some gorgeous bottles on sale that would look perfect on our mantel. I had a Cartwheel coupon and immediately I put those bottles in the cart. As I walked around to grab the items that were actually on my list, I thought about those bottles and how, even with my coupon and the sale, I was going to be paying almost $40 for them.
I just could not do it. When I got home, I raided our liquor cabinet, and found three bottles that would work perfectly. I ended not spending any money and ended up decorating with wine bottles that I simply painted.
That is the frugal mindset. Instead of purchasing something on sale, or even at the thrift store, you first look to what you already have and make use of it first.
Are you a frugal-minded person? Do you agree with the difference between being cheap and frugal?
Check back tomorrow for another post in our 31 Days of Real Life on a Budget series!
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