Do I Even Want This?!
This is a Christian FIRE blog, which means you can assume that giving (to the church and those in need) and saving (for financial independence, whatever that looks like) are my big money priorities. But while shifting my mindset and making these my primary goals took some effort initially, they pretty much run on autopilot these days. Mr. Sense and I make an annual financial pledge to our church, we’re signed up for monthly recurring automatic payments to Blue Ridge Area Food Bank, and whenever we are blessed with unexpected extra income, we look for possible causes to share with (Valley Mission, Unchained At Last, and individuals in our community are favorites). After we give back to God and our neighbors, we save as much as we can to get us closer to our goal of financial independence. These days, the savings machine basically runs itself too– money is automatically pulled out of our checking account and into our brokerage account and dividends are reinvested without us having to do anything.
On a day to day basis, most of our money decisions are related to the somewhat smaller category of spending. We’re halfway through the year, and according to my very detailed spreadsheet, our net income has been split up roughly according to plan: about 12% giving, 61% saving, and 27% spending. Barely more than a quarter of the funds have taken up the vast majority of the time we’ve spent thinking about money and actually making decisions. How have we managed to keep our spending so low relative to our income? We’ve been blessed financially, but we’re certainly not professional footballers or hedge fund managers. Mr. Sense is a stay at home parent and I work in sales.
We love little frugality tricks, many of which I’ve detailed in other posts, but it all comes down to opting out of spending on stuff we don’t really value. Most people, including myself before I discovered the FIRE community, spend large chunks of their income on things that they think are required but are really optional or easily scaled back.
It took some time to figure out some of the sneaky holes in our finances, but with a little thought and some careful analysis of every dollar that was going in and out, we identified some easy places to cut spending. I stopped buying new clothes for work (and right now I’m halfway through a year of forgoing all clothing purchases). Our family mostly eliminated fast food and got used to eating leftovers for lunch, which had the added benefit of avoiding food waste. We generally wait until November to turn on the heat and instead wear sweatshirts inside, and we didn’t replace our central air conditioning when it broke. We decided not to worry about fancy hair and body products or services, started making our own cleaning products and using up the store of half empty bottles rather than buying new stuff, and even cut back on paper towels by switching to reusable clothes which we wash and leave outside to dry on a rack Mr. Sense made himself. None of these changes made us feel deprived, because, unsurprisingly, our happiness didn’t come from the paper towels or the designer shampoo.
Weirdly, cutting our spending on certain items had the opposite effect than I initially expected. For example, we made deep cuts in our spending related to personal appearance– no more professional haircuts or manicures, no makeup or brand name soaps and hair goop, thrift store clothes only as necessary. Instead, Mr. Sense and I started exercising more and eating healthier foods, and now I feel prettier and more put together in clothes I’ve owned since college than I did when I tried to feel good about my appearance with careful styling and shopping trips. I think the same principle applies to our home– we stopped buying trinkets, reconsidered replacing things when they wore out (do we actually need more beach towels?), and learned how to fix more things around the house ourselves. To my eye, our home actually looks nicer than it used to because there’s less clutter. Mr. Sense just replaced our broken kitchen faucet, and I think we all get a little extra satisfaction out of using the new faucet because we know he figured out how to install it himself.
Some of these things might sound dreadful or embarrassing to a few readers. If so… don’t do those ones! As long as you’re not going into debt, buying high thread count sheets or organic produce or whatever else floats your boat is totally fine. The key is identifying places you spend money and don’t get something you value in return. If you can do that, you’ll be able to indulge in the treats that really matter for you. (For me, that means living in a beautiful house close to downtown, educational options for my college-bound daughter and any other future kids we might have, a [Craigslist] fridge perpetually full of non-alcoholic beer and strawberries, and regular lunch dates with Mr. Sense at Gloria’s Pupuseria.)
Frugality feels like a grind when you’re cutting out your favorite things, and that might be necessary in a pinch. But frugality can also feel like a secret little game, with extra fun thrown in when you’re winning.
