Financial diary: Frugal or cheap?

In 2020 I really started to have a look at my spending habits and what I can do to save some money to be able to achieve my financial goals. While I have to give credit to all the amazing content that the bloggers and vloggers have put online, I saw that the line between living a frugal life and just being cheap is a fine one, therefore many of the pieces of advice are going a bit too far. So let’s see what is the difference between the two types of lifestyles in my opinion.

1. Housing 

I’ve seen so much advice that asks you to go smaller or to rent your spare room, even ones to start sharing your one-bedroom with someone else just to save some money. While I do think it’s wasteful to have a house of 5 bedrooms while living alone, after a certain point in life, I find it exhausting to share my living space with someone other than my significant other. There might be times when you have to share a room or an apartment, but doing it just to save a couple of euros, while jeopardizing your wellbeing and mental health, is cheap.

2. Food 

The other big spending item is related to the food we need to eat in order to survive. Clearly, there are many aspects here that we can discuss, but the one that I will be focusing on is the quality of your food. 

When it comes to our health, frugality should never be an option, going for cheap food is almost always a ticket to disaster in the long term. From fast food to very cheap supermarket food, the ingredients that will substitute the more expensive part will be artificial and potentially harmful.  

A way of being sort of frugal is not ordering takeout every night or going to fancy restaurants all the time, but even so, I would like to say that as humans we need to have some sort of entertainment in our lives. We need to go out every now and then, we need to stop being in the kitchen all day. The line between living, not only surviving to save, and actually sticking to a plan is one that each individual needs to define for himself, yet buying cheap when it comes to food, is a storm in the making. 

3. Entertainment

The area where most of the influencers on the market will ask you to cut everything is on the entertainment side, from subscriptions to date nights. It is the one area that everyone is under the impression that we can remove completely since we don’t really need it. Same as the point above, cutting too much from your social or pleasant activities can do more harm than good. Especially in times such as these, where most of our entertainment is indoors, making things even more strict can throw one into depression. Be careful with what you are removing.

While I do consider it frugal to have only one streaming subscription, I find it cheap to turn down any sort of small social activity to save a couple of euros. 

4. Travel

Clearly not a necessity, so cutting from this area was among the most common advice too. While I do know that traveling is pricey, especially when you want to go to a certain destination, much of the advice given is potentially harmful. 

Let’s take the ‘travel in the low season' one, yeah it will be cheaper, but it’s also at risk of the wet season, hurricane season, or extremely hot weather. All of these can potentially ruin your vacation, not to mention putting your life in danger. 

Another piece of advice would be on accommodation that is in a not-so-safe area or skipping insurance. When it comes to safety there is no such thing as frugal, I would much rather suggest downgrading the destination or number of vacations.

5. Clothing 

One of the most controversial topics is the one related to how much clothing a person needs and how much can one save by either going minimalistic or buying only from affordable stores.

The minimalistic approach is one that I find appealing, yet I know I will never throw away all the items that I already have just to give something like this a shot. If I realize that I am not a fan I will buy everything back, so it’s going to be anything but frugal. 

On the topic of affordable stores, I do think it’s the only option many people have, the luxury to choose from where you want to buy your clothes is not available for many, yet for the ones that have it, it should be mandatory to choose sustainable brands, and if not, at least the ones that you know are not exploiting poor countries in their own interest. 

We all want to save and be able to retire “yesterday” if possible, yet sometimes the struggle is not worth it. Or potentially can do you, others or the environment harm. Keep in mind that you need to live today and your mental health is just as important as your financial goals.