I was chatting with some folks the other day, trying to pick their brains about the best place and price for getting a Wii. Like so many other families, we’ve decided to get this gaming system for our kids–and a Wii Fit for me–for Christmas. And like so many other families, I imagine, will be doing, we are making this our one big present for the holidays and that’s it. It’s our attempt not to let the grinch steal Christmas while still staying in the black.
While many of the women gave me great advice–check out Costco, have you looked on eBay, things like that–one of the women made a snarky comment that really caught me off guard: “Gee, I should try to be your kind of frugal,” she said to me. “It would raise my standard of living.”
Huh?
I think she must have me confused with a spendthrift. I guess it’s her assumption that if you’re living frugally, you can’t possibly be doing something like buying a Ninetendo Wii. But she would be wrong.
The reason that we can afford to get this present this year is because we’ve cut back enough to save up the money to buy it–painfree and debtfree. I think that’s the part this person has missed.
On the other hand I have a friend who would never consider buying her daughters a Wii–and she calls herself frugal like I do. However, I think that this woman is actually a tightwad or a cheapskate. While she lives well and is always nicely dressed, I know that it pains her to spend money on anything. She relies on Freecycle for nearly everything she needs, she’s an avid gardener and canner, and I can’t remember the last time she got in her car–she hates to spend money filling the tank.
I couldn’t help but think about this friend–and myself–when I came across a survey from Wharton Business School that asked, “Are you a tightwad, frugal or a spendthrift?” In surveying 13,000 Americans about these three “labels,” they determined that people who fit into one of these categories have very different personality traits. (I’d referenced this study once before in an earlier post on grocery shopping in a more affordable manner.)Here are some of their findings:
* Tightwad
According to this study, which created its own “spendthrift-tightwad” scale, tightwads are defined as people “who feel intense pain at the prospect of spending money, and therefore tend to spend less than they would ideally like to spend.” In fact, tightwads, which some call cheapskates, tend to underspend on many things and therefore always feel as if they’re living at a disadvantage or like they’re missing out on something. That doesn’t sound like much fun.
* Frugal
Frugal folks take great pleasure in saving money and will spend when they know they are getting the best bang for their buck. The Wharton study showed that frugal people tend to be the happiest of the three. “The more frugal you are, the happier you are,” says the study’s authors.
* Spendthrift
Spendthrifts “feel insufficient amounts of pain at the prospect of spending and therefore tend to spend more than they would ideally like to spend.” Because of their out-of-control spending, spendthrifts carry a great amount of guilt, which makes them feel unhappy.
Having once lived my life as a spendthrift, with more debt than I knew what to do with, I can tell you first hand that I am much happier now that I’m living a frugal life. I feel like I’m in control of my spending, how I feed my family and what I’m able to save each month.
I mean, my husband and I made a conscious effort to cut back on our spending in the past year because of various goals we had. One of them was to pay off our car so we could free up $400 a month. In 10 months time, we saved up the $20,000 and in August we sent a check to the bank that held the car loan. Now we have a little more financial flexibility because of the $400 we don’t have to send in car payments anymore, which is why we can afford to spend money on a Wii.
I’m frugal and I’m proud. What about you? Based on the description above, which category do you fit into–frugal, spendthrift or tightwad–and why? I’d love to hear your thoughts.
READ LEAH ON HOME GOES STRONG
I am frugal.
We are also thinking of a Wii. Keep us posted where you think the best deal is
It’s not so much that we ended up finding a great deal on the Wii but finding one available on CircuitCity.com. Unfortunately, Circuit City filed for bankruptcy yesterday.
Leah
I am a reformed spendthrift who now falls comfortably into the frugal category. We’re giving our boys a wii also, and I had a similar conversation with a friend of mine the other day (she was surprised that we’d spend the money on it) Imagine her utter shock when I told her we got it free this summer for signing up with Comcast when they were running a wii promo (sign up for 2 years of service, get a free wii)Since there’s no way my hubby is ever going to give up cable, it was a no brainer for us to make the switch from RCN and get the free wii!
We’re frugal, no question about it. We live carefully each month so that we can do nice things.
We have a budget that covers our monthly expenses and includes money for savings. We even have a category for vacations so that we never shortchange ourselves.
Our budget only covers my husband’s salary, so we spend only what he earns. Anything I earn goes straight to savings. I’ve always worked for non-profits, so we’ve learned the hard way not to rely on my salary, because I never know when my funding might be cut and I’ll be out of a job.
I’m a work in progress trying to leave spendthrift behind, and working towards frugal.
Finding a wii and a wii fit are exercises in patience and collaboration… and I’m guessing demand is going to be creeping back into the hard-to-find realm as Christmas approaches. I found my dad’s wii at Sears in June, and a friend found mine at Walmart a few weeks later… and I found Wii Fit on the shelf at Meijer in September and picked up 2 of the 3 that store had and sent one to my brother. Enlist other people to look while they are out and about and be ready to decide at a snap with a phone call.
We’re frugal. Like you we paid off our car loans early. Now we have $450 ‘spare’ a month which we’re paying onto the mortgage. We have a cushion of savings to fall back on, but the ONLY debt we have is the mortgage now. We use our AE card for gas/groceries (we get points/cashback for using it) but pay it off in full each month.
All our bonus money right now goes to the mortgage. Our aim is to pay it off in less than 10 years which we’re well on the way to doing.
I am also a former spendthrift and I agree being frugal doesn’t mean not getting anything extra it just means not going in the red further and further with every purchase. We are also buying a Wii for the family for christmas and it will be the one big gift we watched and found it on amazon at a great price and have saved to pay for it. We happily classify ourselves as frugal and hope we get better at it every day.
I’m trying to work towards frugal, but I’d honestly rather keep being a spendthrift than become a tightwad. This is something I’ve been thinking about a lot lately, as I read more and more frugality bloggers–how do you avoid becoming miserly when you focus so much on saving money? I’d like to see more people write about it.
Grace:
I'm going to use your question as a Q&A post this Friday. I hope you'll check back then.
Leah
My wife and I are newly frugal. We started on Dave Ramsey’s “Total Money Makeover” plan in April of 2007. At that time, we had $58,000 in debt made up of student loans and car loans. We learned to bargain shop, cut unnecessary expenses like dining out, and looked for coupons before we went shopping. Today, we are debt free with the exception of our mortgage. We made the final payment to Sallie Mae on October first and it felt wonderful! We are now on step three of the plan and will have a fully funded emergency fund by January.
Someone asked about the best deals on a Wii. I found Circuit City and Best Buy have the best prices on them at $249.99 each. I bought one at Best Buy yesterday. I asked the store manager if they offered a discount if people pay in cash. He agreed to take an extra 5% off the total purchase. It wasn’t a huge discount, but every little bit helps. Plus, I got it purchased without the hassle of having to battle the “Black Friday” crowds.
You sound exactly like us, frugal but we want a Wii also. That is because my husband and I will forgo exchanging gifts this year to get it. You give some, you get can get some more. It will be a challenge to find it discounted now that the holiday shopping season is here and the sales projections are fairly abysmal! Costco is my best bet, or eBay I think.
Congrats to Mike! My family also follows the Total Money Makeover. For us, it gave us some focus about where to put that extra $100 a month. It helped us make saving priorities and goals. Good for you on being debt-free!
We are frugal. Frugality has enabled us to become debt free including the mortgage. I cannot emphasize how empowering it feels to know we have a secure home, in a place (North Las Vegas) where it seems like every other house is either in foreclosure or in danger of falling into foreclosure.
With our house paid for, we continue to be frugal. Frugality is enabling me to quit my job and homeschool my daughter.
Although we’re not a family for for computer games, and don’t understand the attraction of iPhones, Wiis and the like, we too indulge in the occasional luxury. I don’t understand the ‘bitter grapes’ from people like your reader who left the rude message. Enjoy your Wii, you’ve earned it.
I’m glad that so many of you saw yourself in the frugal description in this post. And how cool that others have saved up for a Wii, too?! Enjoy.
Leah
I am in Pa and found a large supply of Wii’s and Wii fit in stock at Game Stop today.
We bought the basic package with the Wii Sport game included for $249.99
Kay:
Thanks for the suggestion about Game Stop. We were able to get the system via CircuitCity.com–before they declared bankruptcy.
Leah
nice blog leah, first time here
we are frugal. for us is all about being debt free.
We are fairly frugal, but the one thing that keeps us in good financial shape is this: NEVER, ever, ever, ever run a balance on any credit card. If a purchase would mean you couldn’t pay off the whole c.c. bill that month, you don’t need it that badly.
We run our custom jewelry design studio the same way that we run our household- we only charge what we can pay for in full when the bill comes. We are watching a local reatail jewelry store, that charges far more than we do, go out of business. We deliberately chose the studio model so that we would not have to charge retail prices to our customers. We reward ourselves with coffee out instead of lunch or lunch out instead of dinner. And we always prepay for our vacations so that there is no bill when we return home. We consider ourselves frugal.
[...] Frugal Without Being Miserly Jump to Comments Earlier this week I posted about the notion of being frugal vs. being a spendthrift vs. being a tightwad or a cheapskate. Many of you posted comments to let us [...]
Being frugal I see is not necessarily not spending, but spending wisely.. Buying something expensive, spending alot of money and leaving wallet almost empty was such a tightening experience Indeed when you are plentiful you have more rooms for joy.. Seriously, I have changed to frugal, and overspending beyond one’s capacity really burdens and frugal is good^^