During the Depression people had to cut back on everything, this was when good stewardship and rationing were the keys to survival. All the things they did to live cheap was just as important as the jobs they begged for. People didn't just run out to Starbucks for a $5 cup of coffee, they either only bought coffee by the cup when it was cold outside or if they had a way to make it at home. Now a days financial experts encourage us in modern times to save the $5 and put it towards the big expenses in our lives because every dollar still counts coming from an age when every penny counted.
People can choose to live 'cheaply' and some people are forced to live on less, and most of this doesn't matter. Being cheap for the sake of being stingy doesn't really do much, and being cheap because you are broke all the time from lack of good stewardship over your life also does not do any good in this world. Yet if you are actually using the extra pennies in your life to make permanent changes then this is actually serving a purpose. Then the tightwad cheapness is not a miserly view of the world after all.
If personal habits were truly analyzed with a 'just do it yourself' attitude then most of what we do to save money is a very important job, and could be considered self employment. If you stop yourself from going out to eat how much money did you save? If you don't pay for a lawn service how much over the course of the summer did you save? If you get out of your lazy mind and plan on just doing things for yourself how much money would you save? (Excludes those with actual physical and limited mental disabilities, and not the selectively lazy.) Most of the time it adds up to keeping a part time job to stop yourself from spending money.
Most people don't realize that if you don't spend unnecessary money you don't have to work as hard to make more money. If all of your basic earthly necessities are taken care of then you don't have to work extra for the unnecessary things that the shopping channel will offer you. It is not a rule or law that every extra dollar go toward 'savings', but if you are questioning if you can pay the water bill then you should not be buying Starbucks or anything else. You should be at home filling up empty containers in case you need to start living like actual Africans who keep their water supply in buckets when your supply gets shut off (I suggest learning about the wash cloth bath, save water).
This can also be linked to self entitlement issues (definition: someone who thinks they are worth a set level of entitlement), and trust me the water company will not agree that you are entitled to water if you don't pay the bill. This is not about ignoring some pampering in life, but when you are trying to save money and eat in a restaurant everyday then I will not believe that you are serious about saving money or making better things happen in your life with your savings. If you do something every day then this is called a habit and habits can be broken so long as there are not entitlement issues. This can be compared to all the people on Welfare (the 60% of Americans) who are living off of the 'rich' people (also known as you me and Warren Buffet, we are supporting the 40% who don't work). I know that this is a politically sensitive subject, but I am only referring to all the people I know who can work and pretend that they can't. They have major self entitlement issues. If they had a few less entitlement issues and got jobs, I wonder how much money it would save me annually in taxes? I could probably buy a new car. Controlling entitlement issues is a part time job that directly pays yourself to be more aware of your own behaviors. I know that I can save 50-75% of my money by not going out to eat all the time (excludes special times), I know that the library is free, and I don't have any false ideas about my self worth. Then this becomes about valuing myself and not giving additional value to a business when it comes to controlling my money. Starbucks does not control my money. Also, as a public service to restaurants everywhere, if you can't afford more than a $3 tip on any amount of food then DON'T GO OUT TO EAT. Please read one of my other blogs called $3 For 3 Minutes to get my opinion on this subject. Just more hooker money baby!
(Cheap We Trust is actually a good book to read.)
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