[lrjohnson]

For me, the best sum up/advice of frugality:

Saving money in and of itself does not need to be the main goal. The goal is to save money on things where you arent' getting anything extra for the wasted money, so you have that extra money to spend on what's important to you.

For one person, using cloth instead of paper napkins may save them the money to buy "brand name" canned soup that they really really love. Another person might hate doing laundry, but with the money they save buying generic soup or making soup from scratch they can buy paper napkins without hurting the budget.

I want to spend my money on what's important to *me*. I wash and reuse ziploc bags, eat lots of generic and homemade, line dry, have no cable, etc. etc. However I love to go travelling, and other folks on my same income are surprised I can do two weeks in Europe (not generally considered frugal), without touching my savings, while they are scraping by.

Choose your own priorities, don't let anyone else do it for you.