The New Frugality
Today’s been “chore day,” and I’ve spent most of it on the phone and online making all the necessary arrangements for my move on May 10….
A thought-provoking post at Digerati Life on the recession diet and the shift to frugal living caught my eye as I was working my way through the gas company’s telephone menu. The article summarizes various news sources’ descriptions of ways in which America is tightening its belt and offers a list of hints for cutting down costs.
I do pretty well with the “recession diet” described there, although I’m not the Queen of Frugality by any means.
I eat lightly and hardly ever cook meat, but I don’t skimp on the quality of the food I buy — I like organic milk, arugula, and fresh mozarella.
I shop at outlet stores, including Ross and Mervyns, for the fundamentals, but I love blazers from Chico’s and Coldwater Creek, and I recently invested in handful of expensive but versatile and long-lasting button-down shirts from Brooks Bros. Fortunately, both Chico’s and Brooks Bros have outlets near me, so I can get their stuff at a few dollars off.
I plan to drive my pickup into the ground, but since travel is one of my life priorities, I’ve been traveling more often in this last year. However, I fly economy, try to mix travel with conferences to get the trips partially paid for by the university (and some expenses written off for business), and stay in cheap hotels — in my off-conference days in Australia, I’ll be renting a room for myself in a youth hostel! Paying for two hostel beds in a room with an en-suite bathroom is still considerably cheaper than getting a hotel room, and I expect I’ll meet some interesting people there, too.
I rent DVDs instead of go out for movies, use the library to get books, don’t watch TV, don’t play video games, use energy-efficient light bulbs, and in general don’t have any expensive hobbies except reading manga, which doubles as my academic research interest. I feel that my Netflix and internet subscriptions are worth the money I pay for them, so I’ll be keeping them. If I thought there were any reasonable way for me to get rid of my phone I would, but that’s not really practical. I do own the ugly freebie phone and use the cheapest plan Verizon offers, though, despite my lust for an iPhone.
I’m reluctantly avoiding househunting because I know a mortgage would put me at financial risk. Yeah, prices are dropping, and yeah, my university would give me a small forgivable loan to help out, but this is one of the most expensive areas in California to live, so….
I guess I can call writing a “second job,” although I get precious little income from it. 
I might teach a few classes next summer to help save up for a trip to Japan that I hope to take in 2010.
I’ll be spending some money on the move, of course — besides the cost of movers and all the utility setup fees and so forth, I’ll want to buy a few new household items, too. I have an odd phobia about moving toilet brushes from one place to the next. I mean, doesn’t that seem a little “eeww” to you, too? And I’ll certainly be paying more at the new apartment than I am here. But I’ve budgeted for all this, and I’m really looking forward to getting into a nice apartment of my own again!
drupagliassotti @ April 30, 2008