I was reading through posts in a facebook group about financial independence recently and someone asked about the best way to buy fresh flowers for their home. Sadly, there were many replies talking about how flowers, especially fresh flowers, were not a very frugal choice. While I admit for myself, and definitely for the people making those comments, fresh flowers would not be a frugal choice; I believe they would be for the person asking.
One of my favorite parts about seeing the FIRE movement expand is that, as more people become involved, terms are being changed or added to better express the movement. One way I have mentioned before is that the idea of “retire early,” while still an option, is being challenged by many who have achieved financial independence, but enjoy their work and still find value in doing it. This idea of value is integral to not only your working life, but also your spending and saving. Brad Barrett, of the ChooseFI podcast, talks often about how he is not a frugalist or a minimalist, but a value-ist. Personally, I would argue that he is a frugalist in that he is, “economical in the use of money,” as Webster’s 1828 Dictionary defines frugal.
This idea of value is integral to my financial independence journey and for me is my guiding light. One of the most common things that happens when someone finds the FIRE movement and frugal living is that they cut all expenses and attempt to lead a happy fulfilled life. They quickly realize that this lifestyle is impossible because, in cutting out all expenses, they have also cut out what is valuable to them. They were trying to live cheaply instead of living frugally.
As I have mentioned many times, being frugal is not about not buying things, or living the cheapest existence possible, but it is finding what makes you happy and fulfilled and then removing the rest. In other words, it is consuming/purchasing things of value in your life. The picture at the top of this article is my usual writing setup. I have my trusty coffee mug and my 2017 MacBook Pro. The coffee mug looks like what most picture when they hear the word frugal, but a shiny MacBook Pro? Again, frugal living is not about buying the cheapest product, but about intentionally purchasing what brings value to your life.
I have been asked numerous times why I do not replace my coffee mug. Many people just assume it is because I am cheap and don’t want to spend the $10-$20 it would cost to purchase a new one. While it is true that I don’t want to spend the money to replace it, it is not because I am cheap, but because the coffee mug still has value to me. I bought my coffee mug to keep my coffee hot for hours and to prevent it from spilling in my bag as I ride my bike to work. While it may look a little different now than when I bought it, it still has value to me because it fulfills the purposes for which I bought it. To me, purchasing a new one would be an unnecessary expense because it would not add any new value.
Contrary to my coffee mug, the computer I replaced, a mid-2010 MacBook Pro, had lost its value to me. I depend on my computer for managing my life on the road from email, to creating work documents, to helping run my family’s real estate business, and numerous other tasks. I had upgraded the RAM in my 2010 model, replaced the hard drive, and performed other tasks to keep it valuable for many years. Eventually though as with all electronics it began to wear out. The battery life began to severely wane, its responsiveness became slower, and I could not depend on it to help me perform the daily tasks for which it was needed. It had lost its value and while I researched replacing the battery and the like, I decided this would not be a wise choice as it would not extend the lifespan of the computer greatly.
You could argue that I could have bought a cheaper computer, and for some that would be the frugal option, but I evaluated the purchasing decision and decided a MacBook Pro was the valuable option for me. I run all Apple products in my life and it is an immense value to me that they all talk to each other and stay updated. This is especially valuable since I live on the road and do not always have the time to manually sync them with one another. I have also found Apple products to be very dependable, and since I am often in a new city every week not knowing if there will be computer repair places around, it is extremely beneficial to have a dependable product.
All of the above being said, you still need to be economical in your use of money. My coffee mug, pre-dented, was bought on an Amazon Daily Deal. I purchased my computer from the refurbished section of Apple’s website saving over $200 from the cost of a new one while still getting a warranty and such. I also intentionally purchased one without a Touch Bar because I researched and discovered that the Touch Bar would not add value to my life. Not only did I buy my computer from the refurbished section, but I went onto the Chase shopping portal through my credit card and was able to get, I believe it was, 3 credit card points to the dollar as opposed to the 1 1/2 points I would have gotten if I had just used the credit card on the Apple website without going through the portal.
Going back to the fresh flowers, for me they would be an unnecessary expense because they would not bring value to my life. I would purchase them, place them in a vase, and then promptly forget about them. However, the person asking about purchasing them I assume derives happiness (value) from seeing them sitting around their home and in them asking they were trying to find an economical way to purchase them. Frugality is not about deprivation, but about purchasing things of value, and eliminating spending on that which is not valuable to you.
P.S. While I have not personally used it, I have heard great things about the website camelcamelcamel.com.This site tracks the prices of Amazon goods so you know if you are getting a good deal based on historical prices, and can also alert you to price drops.
