Frugality

Frugality without creativity is deprivation.
Amy Dacyczyn

Frugality has been a bust for me today -- this weekend we celebrated the kids' birthdays...not an easy time to be frugal :-) While we are not really into the exuberant regarding big gifts, we do like to bring together their friends to celebrate.

Sparing or scaling back the grandeur of the modern lifestyle is a challenge for me. I do have these long deep thoughts sometimes of simplifying, not purchasing so much, saving, scrimping...what have you. It helps that my personal need/desire for the material has decreased over the past few years as I find less and less pleasure in having "stuff"

The real challenge is making the transition from the easy decision of just wanting less to the difficult of actually cutting back what I feel I "need". To simply know that I am not driven to have more goodies does not make me frugal, it just means my desires have changed. To actually think of what it is I want and how to drive to using less, wasting less, making economical choices...now that is the hard. It really is not frugality if there is no sense of sacrifice.

Given that the whole weekend my wife and I have been providing birthdays parties for my children and their friends, it seemed an odd time to really focus on frugality. But then again, would it really have made a difference to the kids if we had spent $500 or $20 on the parties? Would their own desires and needs for "stuff" drive a feeling of disappointment?

It is my belief in creating The25Virtues list is that the virtues themselves should be pervasive in my life. That by intentionally focusing upon them, I would grow to be a more ethical, centered, peaceful individual. Frugality is going to be a tough nut to crack.

Tomorrow -- Generosity (ironic that it comes right after frugality, eh?)