[genmed]

Why be frugal?

Well I can say I don't do it to "just get by." There are a lot of people in that situation that don't have a choice -- it's be frugal or not make it. I hope everyone gets a choice. Keeping from "going broke" Because I have a choice giving up every possible "luxury" doesn't work for me.

I can also say we don't have a huge income a year. Working every possible minute of the day to get an extra $xx/he doesn't work for me either.

My reasoning is to just enjoy life. There are things I want, and I pretty much try try to keep those to things I need. For me a need is what's really going to make me happy, not glad not please but really HAPPY. A need for me is a nice hot cup of tea in the morning. Just drinking water doesn't cut it and having Starbucks Chai Latte sorry don't see the point. Maybe your need falls somewhere else along that continuum.

Another one of my needs is to have a house that I can walk out of to a beautiful view every day... that might be a state park, water or whatever. I don't want a mansion -- not worth the hassle of cleaning and even if I had a million dollars not worth losing my privacy to hire someone to come clean it. So a house like I have now in a bit different location is my dream. I'm not there yet. I'm not wiling to give up all my time to get it.

What I am willing to do is compromise between being frugal and working extra. My answer to "earning more money" was to by back to school for both a doubling in my hourly salary and doing something I love. DH works extra on occasion to make xx/hr. We invest a little. So maybe I am just doing a little bit of the is it worth xx/hr to do it. On the other hand -- yeah I am also frugal to a certain extent. I do it for time/money/stress/and environmental reasons. When it's all said and done.. yeah DH spends an hour or two a couple of days a week extra making more money and investments bring in a little extra money (increasing income) and I spend a couple of hours a week doing things to save us money (house maintenance, shopping comparison) etc.

I think everyone has a different level of what will make them happy -- maybe it is that BMW for you and maybe for your neighbor it's time being home with the kids. I also don't think "being frugal" -- minimizing expenses and "increasing income" -- investing, etc are mutually exclusive. A different combination of those approaches just work for different people.