Comments on: Are they really conflicting viewpoints?

By: the weakonomist

the weakonomist — Tue, 10 Feb 2009 23:33:46 +0000

It always depends on one’s definition of cheap and frugal. Based on my definitions, I’m cheap and proud.

I wrote about it last week actually. Admin, if you don’t want it listed, feel free to remove my link:

http://weakonomics.com/2009/02/04/why-its-better-to-be-cheap-than-frugal/

By: Matt

Matt — Tue, 10 Feb 2009 18:47:35 +0000

The two points aren’t conflicting in my opinion; I have no problem spending money on things that really matter to me. I play hockey in the winter and spending $200 on a pair of skates is a perfectly reasonable expense even though I could get a pair far cheaper. For me the expense is justified and the money is well spent. Now if I were to spend $30 for a DVD I might watch once is a waste of money; I can get it used if I really want it or I can just rent it.

Not wanting to spend money really isn’t the issue here – its a question of wasting money. Buying that $2.99 bottle of water is wasting money especially since you can get it virtually free.

By: Coupon Artist

Coupon Artist — Tue, 10 Feb 2009 14:40:41 +0000

I am like you- I enjoy the process of shopping and picking out an item, but I don’t necessarily like to actually spend money to buy things. I think it is because anticipation is almost always better than reality when it comes to most purchases. It is a lot more fun to imagine all the great ways new furniture or new electronics will change your world and make it bigger, but in reality most of that stuff just ends up being more stuff that sits on a shelf or collects dust. I can think of very few purchases, other than my first computer and my first functioning car, that actually affected my life or changed it for the better in any real way.
The other thing I have noticed is that once I stopped spending money, the value of it changed. I used to buy things without a lot of thought, and $100 for a pair of jeans seemed reasonable to me. Now that I have gotten into the habit of saving my money to pay down debt, I look at a $100 price tag and I think ‘my gosh, people must be crazy to pay so much for clothing!” If you change your outlook and do something long enough, it becomes habit and doing anything so far outside the habit begins to seem crazy instead of routine.