A few weeks ago on tour I stayed in a private room in the home of someone I did not know for a week and rode my bicycle two miles to work. If you would have come up to me three years ago and told me I would be doing that I would have called you crazy. Three years ago I had ridden a bicycle maybe 10 times since childhood and did not own one personally. Three years ago on tour I stayed in the company hotel option and was perfectly content. So, how did I go from staying in hotels and not owning a bicycle to staying with strangers and riding multiple miles to work? I strengthened my frugality muscle.
Since 2016 I have been working with a personal trainer. He is an online trainer and uses a great app that tracks when you last did a certain exercise, how many of them you did, and at what weight. Thanks to the app I can look back through the years we have been working together and see that when we started I was lifting lighter weights than I am now. I can see how as time progressed I upped my weights by 10, 15, 20 pounds or more for various exercises as I became stronger. Now, not only am I able to lift heavier weights than when I started, but I am also able to do more reps at the higher weight and enjoy it.
My frugality muscle operates the same way. When I first started on my journey I was not lifting the “weights” I am lifting now. I started my lifting with the light weights; making coffee in my hotel room instead of going to Starbucks, eating at fast casual restaurants instead of always eating at sit down restaurants, and drinking water with my meals. As these weights became easy, I was able to begin lifting heavier weights, weights like transportation and housing.
This is why one of my biggest pet peeves is when people in the financial space start talking about how cutting out a latte won’t make you rich. As I showed in this article, making just small changes to your spending can have astounding results. While I do agree with those in the financial space that cutting out a latte won’t make you a multi-millionaire, what I hate is that they do not seem to acknowledge that frugality is a muscle that has to be developed.
There are many choices frugal people make that seem crazy to the outside world, from downsizing their living space, riding a bicycle everywhere, to living with roommates, etc. I would be willing to bet money though, that if you were to ask these people about their frugal journey to making these choices, the above listed items were not the beginning of their journey. I would bet that many followed a very similar path to mine where they started with the lighter/easier changes, and then made bigger changes after their frugality muscle had grown and those bigger changes were now easier.
Just as I did not start out physically lifting the weights I am lifting now, mainly because my muscles could not handle them, I did not start out riding a bicycle to work or staying with strangers because my frugal muscle could not handle it. Instead, I started by tracking my expenses, figuring out my net worth and savings rate, and making small tweaks to my spending. When I realized that these small tweaks had no effect on my happiness or contentment, but did raise my savings rate which made me happier, it spurred me to make larger tweaks.
One of the most common phrases I hear when people talk about choices someone living a frugal lifestyle make is, “I could never…” Just as I would not expect someone to walk into a gym having never worked out before and do the same workout as someone who has trained 5 days a week for the past two years, I do not expect for someone new to frugal living and financial independence to make huge life changes in the beginning. Three years ago if I had read an article about someone who stayed in a private room in a shared residence and rode a bicycle to work I would have thought them a bit crazy, and probably would have said, “I could never.” But, after having strengthened my frugality muscle over the last three years, here I am.
I want you to avoid the trap of, “I could never…” and instead focus on your training. If you are currently at a 10% savings rate, do not get intimidated by those with a 50% rate, instead focus on building your frugality muscle. Strengthen it to where you can hit a 12% savings rate, and then 15%, and you may be amazed where your journey takes you!
I write all this to say do not get discouraged in your journey! Do not get discouraged by looking at “world class frugal athletes” and thinking you will never get there. Instead, commit to training and lifting the light weights and see where your training takes you!
*If you are looking for a great personal trainer I highly recommend checking out Robbie at Side Quest Fitness.
** Image by Łukasz Dyłka from Pixabay
