Feeling Affluentby Mary Ann Romans | More from this Blogger 10 Sep 2008 06:04 AM
In the beginning, especially, you are constantly calculating costs and values. Later, it gets a little more automatic. You know, for example, how to get the best price on bread, and you don't even agonize about getting the latest gadget because you know that it just isn't in the budget. One thing I wanted to mention is that sometimes it may be tough to practice frugal living in an area that it seen to be affluent. People around you may have bigger houses, more possessions and take nicer trips. It might be easy to feel "poor" or "non-affluent" yourself. You may be embarrassed to admit that you clothe your family from a thrift store or yard sales when your children's friends are sporting designer labels. But the fact is, from a global perspective, almost anyone that is able to read this post from home could be considered affluent. Go and check out a post by http://greensimplefrugal.blogspot.com/. Melissa explains all of this very well, how making only $6 an hour still puts you in the top 12.88 percent of the world's wealthiest people. Of course, I realize that in our industrialized nation the cost of living may be high, and families today would find it extremely difficult to get by with $6 an hour but our standards are higher, too. Her perspective on how we really are affluent is eye opening. While I never really considered us affluent, we really are. We can turn on the tap and get clean water any time we feel like it. We have a refrigerator and a pantry full of healthy food with plenty of unnecessary snack foods. We can devote some of our day to entertainment, such as watching television, reading or going to the park. We have closets and drawers full of clothes that we can wash from the convenience of a home that contains more than one or two rooms. We can go to the doctor when we are sick and vaccinate our kids against deadly diseases. Globally, there aren't a lot of people who can do all of that. We are blessed with an amazing amount of freedom in our lives because of our affluence. Click here for more articles by Mary Ann Romans. The Difference Between Being Frugal and Being Cheap
Just look to the right of this blog and find the subscription center (it looks just like this picture, although you'll have to find the "real" one just above the category listing ). Click on "Subscribe via Email". You'll be instantly subscribed and the email address that you registered at Families.com with will receive an instant notification whenever we post a new Frugal Living Blog! Don't miss a thing - subscribe now! Learn more about Mary Ann Romans  Mary Ann Romans is a freelance writer, wife and mother of three children. She lives in Pennsylvania with her husband, the kids and a 16-pound cat. Relevantfrugal tags User Comments Tashi (1013) 10 Sep 2008 04:00 PMHey, how'd you get a photo of my house?? ;-) Seriously, I enjoyed your article. SO true! We really are quite well off, even if our bank accounts don't necessarily reflect a six-figure salary. I know mine doesn't. I'm not quite to the point where frugal living is automatic. But I'm always trying to live that way,even if it's here and there. I am a big thrift store junky, and try to re-purpose things, for instance, to save some money and the environment. My company is big on recycling, protecting the environment, etc., which is a great boost and inspiration in my quest to be frugal. But I'm I still occasionally toss soda cans in the trash, and go to the hair salon rgularly (not the discount ones, either). All in all, if we lowered some of our standards, we'd save lots more money, and maybe even find out it's not as bad as we thought it would be. I've been much poorer and worse off, and I was ok. Life did go on. And life got better. I count my blessings every day. More people need to realize just how fortunate they really are.  Mary Ann Romans (26876) 10 Sep 2008 05:20 PMJust call me your paparazzi! Good thing you have opaque shower curtains! Tashi (1013) 10 Sep 2008 06:04 PMMy frugality is reflected in the rusty old 1990 vehicle out front, did you see that?? ;-) And those opaque curtains are from Goodwill, with some alterations by me. Mary Ann Romans (26876) 10 Sep 2008 06:15 PMI admire the tie backs for the curtains made from old earrings. Community Tags affluent, budget, frugal living, happy Discuss this article
|
Frugal categories |
Are you subscribed to the Families.com Frugal Living Blog? With the click of a button, you can receive an email notification anytime a new blog is posted in the Families.com Frugal Living Blog!
