On an everyday basis we’re so used to the frugal things we do that we’ve stopped seeing them that way, until I see someone else doing something I’d never consider doing, or someone notices and makes a comment.
We haven’t had cable in nearly 20yrs, we buy used cars with cash and drive them until they die. We all pack our lunches and eat in restaurants only on special occasions (about 4-6 times a year). When we drive to visit relatives (6hrs each way) we pack a picnic lunch and drinks – no roadside fast food required. Most of our clothes come from thrift stores and we only buy when things are actually worn out or the kids have out grown something. We repair most things ourselves and only pay for a professional on a very rare occasion. Nobody in the house gets perms, highlights, acrylic nails, heck I’ve never even colored my hair.

Living as we do now seems normal and it’s only when we pause to look at how others do things that we realize how differently we’ve chosen to spend or more likely not spend our money. I think the important thing is to keep focused on the big picture. Why are you living frugally? What will you do with the money you’ve saved. Saving with no purpose or goal seems pointless to me. We travel with our children now and plan to retire early. Others might trade frugal choices in order to fund expensive cars, or other toys. They’re not the choices I’d make but that’s kind of the point of frugal living to me. Know what YOUR priorities and passions are and don’t mindlessly spend on the things your neighbours do. Most of us will never have enough money to have everything we want all at the same time, so you have to prioritize. And once you have, feel good about it and don’t feel you need to justify to anyone why you choose not to have or do the same as them. I sometimes think others try to get you to spend just to validate the choices they’ve made.

I reuse Vitamin Water bottles (ha, not frugal to buy that in the first place!) for regular water, but that’s really just because I like those bottles.

It was so strange. She manually emptied out the bag by sticking her hand into that little opening at the top. She would take out all the grit and cr*p that she vacaumed up. The odd part was that she was really proud of what she did. She’d say “look, this is the 8th time i emptied this bag!”.

She also used to make split pea soup for less than $2.00. Then she would say (as we were eating) “this whole pot was less than $2.00! ”

Can she get the prize?