How Simple Frugal Living Will Benefit You

Deprive yourself on nothing necessary for your comfort, but live in an honorable simplicity and frugality. ~ John McDonough

Often when we say the word ”frugal” visions of eating Top Ramen for breakfast lunch and dinner pop into mind. Perhaps you envision thrift stores and hand-me-downs. However, neither of these mindsets are what frugal simple living is really about.

The quote above perfectly sums up what simple frugal living is. It is not about denying yourself comfort, instead, simple frugal living is about avoiding frivolous and unnecessary purchases.

In this post, I talked about how simplicity and frugality are tied together and give you practical solutions for living a simpler frugal life. But I want to explain what frugality is and why you would want to choose a simple frugal lifestyle.

Frugal living isn’t about sacrifice and going without the things that matter to you. It is the opposite, it is about creating a life that brings you joy. Simple frugal living allows you to spend your resources, both time and finances, on the things that you really care about.

Frugality begins with understanding that you are choosing to exchange your time for purchases. So Frugality equals doing more with less.

Simple frugal living allows you to avoid an unhealthy desire for possession. Frugality and simple living release you from being held captive to material things that do nothing to improve your life. Frugality allows you to have the resources for those things that are truly important to living a fulfilling life.

Let me explain it this way, with an analogy I have heard in the past. When you think of the definition of “rich”, what comes to mind? Is it Donald Trump? Bill Gates? Mark Zuckerberg? Generally, when we think of the word “rich”, our first thoughts go to a large dollar figure.

So the analogy is this: What if you make $100,000 per year and you spend $100,050 per year. Are you rich? What if you make $50,000 a year and you spend $40,000 a year? Are you rich? You see wealth is relative. You can be incredibly wealthy with a relatively small bank account balance. At the same time, you can carry around large amounts of debt and financial stress all while earning hundreds of thousands of dollars.

In order to determine whether simple frugal living is something you want to pursue and believe will add true value and benefit to your life, you need to ask yourself some questions:

1. Why are you exploring simple frugal living?
2. What are your priorities for your life?
3. What do you value most?
4. Does the current way you are spending your resource’s match up with your priorities and values?

If your answer to question number 4 is no, creating a lifestyle of simple frugal living will allow you to begin living a life in line with your priorities and values.

Here are four benefits you will immediately see from pursuing a simple frugal living lifestyle.

1. Reduce Stress in Your Life

The more stuff we have the more stress that comes along with it. With frugality and simplicity as a way of life, you will relieve stress. Life is simpler and less complicated with less stuff.

You see, the more possessions we have, the more stress and resources it takes to care for those items.  For every possession you own, you have to store it somewhere. You also have to keep it clean or clean around your stuff. You have to maintain your stuff, which costs time and money.

Think about it just in terms of your clothing. The more clothing you own, the more extra hangers or dressers you need to purchase. The more clothing you own, the more you need to do laundry, which increases, the costs of supplies, energy, and gas. There is always a cost to maintaining a lot of stuff. Do you realize that the

Do you realize that the self-storage industry in the U.S. has 48,500 locations across the country?  This is more than triple the number of McDonald’s (14,350) restaurants.  The U.S. storage industry generates $24 billion in revenue every year. Because we have so much stuff it can no longer fit within the confines of our homes and garages, we need extra storage space. When you begin to eliminate unnecessary purchases, you eliminate all the stress that goes along with all that unnecessary stuff.

Because we have so much stuff it can no longer fit within the confines of our homes and garages, we need extra storage space. When you begin to eliminate unnecessary purchases, you eliminate all the stress that goes along with all that unnecessary stuff.

2. You Avoid Contributing to Waste

When we are regularly amassing possessions, we increase the waste that is so prevalent in this country. According to the Center for Sustainability, daily the average person generates 4.3 pounds of waste per day. This is 1.6 pounds more than most produced back in 1960. Where does it all go? Approximately 55% of 220 million tons of waste generated each year in the United States ends up in one of the over 3,500 landfills.

While yes we can, and should, recycle, reducing the purchase of unnecessary stuff will have an immediate impact on our waste consumption.

3. You Are Able to Give Generously

Do you have a cause or charity that matters to you, that touches your heart? By consuming less material possessions and making wise choices on what you do spend your money on, you have the freedom to be purposeful with your money. Your resources will be freed up to give to those causes that are important to you. Is there a missionary you have always wanted to support, or is there an orphanage or other organization you would like to give to?

Living a frugal and simple life will free up your resources to allow you to give generously and be purposeful with your spending rather than merely amassing possessions. Look for the good you can do through living a frugal and simple lifestyle.

4. You Will Increase Your Time

Every time you make a purchase you are trading your time for that purchase. You expended time to earn the money that allowed you to make that purchase. More time is expended in going out and purchasing that item. Next, you will expend time in storing and caring for or maintaining that item. By being more careful with your spending you will be able to work fewer hours and free up your time in caring for the stuff you are purchasing.

You will have the time to pursue things that matter to you. With this extra time, you can spend more time, with your family and friends. You can have the time to volunteer more at your church or in your community. You will have the time to spend on the things that bring true value and joy to your life.

Frugal and simple living is about determining what you want out of your life and finding a way to make it happen. Decide what you want to get out of life, and then use frugality to make it happen.

A word of caution being overly concerned with frugality can be just as dangerous as overspending. What frugality looks like for each person will be different. If you have a DVD collection of 50 movies that you regularly watch you may still be living a simple frugal life, while if you have 50 movies that you have watched once and will most likely never watch again, you need to look at the heart of why you have invested in those movies and why you are keeping them.

If you want a more in-depth article on the heart issues that go along with frugality, Tim Challis has a great article here.