Are you Ashamed of Being Frugal?

by Andrea Hermitt | More from this Blogger

04 Aug 2009 08:03 PM

I just read an article by Frugal Dad who suggests that frugal people are being made to feel ashamed of their frugality.

"Many of us, myself included", he writes, "refused to accept that excessive spending and running household deficits was a reflection of our patriotism. In fact, it was quite the opposite. We felt it was time for everyone to reign in the wild spending of the last several years. As a result, some started to feel ashamed over their frugality. And that trend continues today, as many land here at Frugal Dad while searching terms related to ashamed to be frugal."

If you are afraid to admit you shop at thrift stores or if you pray people you run into at the grocery store won't look in your cart, get a hold of yourself. Don't let other people's bad relationships with money keep you from getting a good deal and making your money go further.

I realize it is hard to stay on track with frugality with even the government doing their best to get us back into the stores. Being frugal has become downright unpatriotic. Cash-for-clunkers has millions itching to ditch their old cars for a shiny new ones, being lured you into a 5 car loans. While the deal is a good idea, if you have to get into debt to take advantage of it, you probably shouldn't be participating.

If you are minding your nickels and dimes and not falling for traps to make you fall back into debt, you should not be ashamed. You should be downright proud. In fact, the only time you should ever feel shame about your frugality is when you fall of the wagon as in the case of the dimesavindiva who once spent $250.00 in two trips to the same grocery store in one day. Oh the horror!

Stop worrying about how others feel about your frugality and keep on using your savings websites and coupon discounts. Make a game of it and keep having fun.

...And when everyone else is crying broke because they spent all of their money, be proud that you are not in debt and can afford the necessities that you and your families need. Andrea Hermitt writes for parenting (specifically teens), the home blog, and also the frugal blog, and homeschooling at families.com.

Learn more about Andrea Hermitt

Andrea Hermitt is a native New Yorker currently residing in GA. She has been married for over 16 years and has two teenage children.

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thequeenofthecastle (413) 05 Oct 2009 09:56 AM

Sometimes I become embarrassed because it seems like even though my husband and I are always exceptionally frugal we always seem to be low on the scale of finances represented around us. I think there are many reasons for this, including belonging to a community that really is well off. Being with wealthy people you realize they tend to stick together and others have floated in and back out of our group probably because they feel they don't belong if they are not upper middle class. That leaves us being unusual in our group. But, the other thing I have to remind myself is that you can never truly judge someone else's finances by outward appearances. We share one car that is old and somewhat ugly, we live in a small home, we dress simply and inexpensively, but we also have significant savings, we give a large portion of our income away, and we have no debt. We live below our income. We very well may be comparing ourselves to people who drive nicer cars, live in bigger homes and have huge debts we are unaware of. Appearances can be deceptive.