Roaming Returns

060 - Are These 5 Frugality Misconceptions Preventing You From Having This Wealthy Trait

• Tim & Carmela • Episode 60

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If you find yourself wondering why some people successful with their money and why others struggle, today's episode is for you. 


It’s a well-known fact that those who set up and stick to a budget hit their financial targets. These people have a major thing in common. It’s frugality. 

Which is probably not what you think. So many people have misconceptions of what being frugal really means.

It's not depriving yourself from things you enjoy, but instead being intentional and spending on things you value most. 

Adopting a frugal mindset will help you on your financial freedom journey, so let's clarify some things.

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Welcome to Roaming Returns, a podcast about generating a passive income through investing so that you don't have to wait till retirement to live your passions. Ever wonder what makes some people successful with their money and why others struggle? It's well known that those who set up and stick to a budget hit their financial targets. But there's a common underlying thread for people who budget well.
It's frugality, which is probably not what you think. So many people have misconceptions of what being frugal really means. Today, we're going to clarify exactly what frugality is so you can adopt a similar mindset that'll help you on your financial freedom journey.
Hey, guys, we're back. Tim's not going to be with me today because he's still on the road. He's actually in West Virginia right now.
So I'm doing a solo episode to make sure that we get the post out. He's going to have a lot of words, the wisdom in the episode I'm going to go over today is going to be a little bit of a primer for the next few thought processes that he's going to have, which will really help you guys, because what we're starting to notice, the more and more people that we're talking to and interacting with, it's not the system that's hard. It's the mindset and the beliefs to really mess people up.
So today we want to talk about or I guess I want to talk about with Tim and Ghost form over here. Most people think that you need to make a ton of money to become financially independent. But in reality, being FI is the result of your habits and your habits are formed by your mindset and beliefs.
And that means that anyone can master money. One of the biggest traits of the people who make it financially is being frugal. Did you just flinch at that word? A lot of people associate negative emotions with anything they think has to do with loss.
I've read tons and tons of books about finances when we first started this podcast, and I just I'm like a sponge. I absorbed everything. And one of my favorites is Your Money or Your Life by Vicky Robin and Joe Dominguez.
Their definition of money is fantastic, where they define it as your life energy. And they go into this whole spiel. But essentially, if you think about it, like when you trade money for something, it's the amount of life energy you're willing to trade for that commodity or that thing.
So if you start putting money in that viewpoint, you really do have this like different thought process that happens before you actually determine if that thing is worth that exchange. But when they talked about being frugal, I absolutely loved like their definition. But just just to sum it up real quick here, they defined it as a way of enjoying what you have and avoiding wasting your life energy.
That's literally what it means. They talked about it kind of like in the form of the Goldilocks syndrome, where it's not too much, it's not too little. It's like literally just right.
It's being a lot more intentional and conscientious about your consumption. It's not about penny pinching and it's not about getting rid of the stuff you love and enjoy. It is absolutely not.
And I think we've talked about that in our budgeting episode, but we're going to reiterate it here because that's super, super important. And that's one of the reasons I think that a lot of people really freak out about the word budget. They assume it's like looking at it through that negative lens of depravity.
And that's like if you do it more from an intentional spending plan, which is why I like to call it an ISP, it just makes so much more sense. So being frugal really when you boil it down, you get to the Latin root, you talk about all that type stuff, you look at it through an actual like lens with the emotional connotation out of there. It's about making conscious, intentional decisions to not buy things that are not worth your time and energy.
You focus on the things that add value to your life. So like a great example of this is recently since Tim's been gone, I've been like not going to the grocery store as much, but I do occasionally crave like sweetness. And we were going to the bargain shopper place that we were talking about in the one episode about savings, and they have a ton of different ice cream and they're kind of like whatever you get, it falls off the truck, you know, it's whatever expiration date.
So it's like slim pickings for certain flavors. But they're like $1.50, sometimes they're $1.99, sometimes they're like $2 for the pint sized things. And you go to like most of the other grocery stores and those things are like $3.50, $4 a piece, especially when you're getting into like the Haagen Dazs and the Baskin Robbins and stuff or Ben and Jerry's.
And I'll eat them and they're just kind of like blah. So it's like I'm going through the motions. I'm not exactly happy with the thing.
And then my dad introduced me. My dad's like a Haagen Dazs addict hardcore. So he picks it up all the time.
But they have a flavor called caramel cone. It is freaking amazing. Like I absolutely love really unique blends of things with a lot of different textures and tastes and like savory, like all those different flavors that come together.
And there's just a thing with like the cold, the warmth and all this stuff. So it's like for whatever reason, the caramel cone really gets my like tongue palate just juicing. So it's like that is so worth that splurge of eating something I wouldn't normally eat.
And even though it costs a little bit more. I actually made a decision the other day that like I'm not going to waste my money on just like ice cream for ice cream's sake. I'm only going to spend money on when I'm really truly craving good ice cream and buy the Haagen Dazs Caramel Cone. And that is like what I decided.
So just that is a prime example of being frugal. It is spending more where it matters so that you're consciously not or not unconsciously spending on like the multitude of like the lackluster results is essentially what that comes down to. And like you can talk about this from anything.
And Tim was talking to me about – his one aunt was like – he's talking about finances. Everybody tries to like shoot us down for like what you're saying. And his aunt was like, well, how much money did it cost you to drive all the way out here to New Mexico from Pennsylvania? And he's like, well, I totaled it up.
It will be about 11 tanks. He's like, I'm driving it like 60 miles an hour because I figured out that this vehicle is the most fuel efficient at 60 miles an hour. He's like, so I'm averaging almost like – I think he said almost 30 miles to the gallon in a 2006 like minivan, which is crazy, crazy if you think about it.
So this thing is not like a hybrid. It's not any of this stuff. So he was like – I think he equated it to like about $500.
And like she was dumbfounded because she didn't understand or couldn't comprehend that like when most people go on a road trip, especially if it's multiple days, they're spending on hotels. They're spending on convenience food while they're on their way. They're spending on like I guess boredom stuff or sleeping.
And like the whole reason we got the minivan, which doesn't seem like it would be normally something for us, but it's like we have the bed built up in the back of it and you can just pull over when you're done driving and nap at a rest stop. And then like he actually got a cooler before he left and he was able to put like sandwiches and peanut butter and jelly and like whatever else. So it's like he didn't really have to spend anything.
I mean there were a couple of times he did stop at like Cracker Barrel when he was really like craving good food. But for the most part, like that was an intentional thing for him where he needed to get up, stretch his legs. So it's just frugality really is just these things.
But I want to today go over like the general misconceptions, which is what makes so many people have this like negative connotation. And like even when I first like was thinking about it, like society does really seem to have a negative connotation with thrifty and frugalness. And I've been told that I'm like thrifty and stuff and I kind of felt a little weird about it.
But I kind of just like kept doing my own thing because I do tend to beat to the tune of my own drum anyway. Okay. So number one, people can perceive frugality as being cheap, right? That's the belief.
They think that being frugal is basically being stingy cheap, implying a massive reluctance to spend any money, even on unnecessary and like quality items. I will tell you that there's a major difference between frugal people spending and making intentional decisions and actually spending on, I don't want to say luxury items for the sake of luxury, but like higher quality items so that you don't have to actually replace the thing that just broke. So like for example, if you've ever been like a cheap ass and bought something on Amazon that was like the lowest priced item and then it broke in like a week and you had to end up buying like the higher priced one that you didn't want to put the money out for, but then you actually ended up spending more money because you had to buy both of them.
That is a prime example of like somebody who's cheap versus somebody who looks at the reviews, makes a more educated decision and realizes it makes more sense to buy the higher priced item because it's going to last longer and you're not actually going to waste money in the long run. My brother, I find it so funny, he'll spend money on a lot of really high priced items that I consider to be stupid and then he'll skimp on things that like most people would consider necessary. Like I don't know if anybody else is familiar with like vehicles, but like when you have spark, when you switch your spark plugs out, whatever, if you have a four cylinder engine, you have four spark plugs.
If you have a six cylinder engine, you have six spark plugs. If you have a V8, you have eight of them. Normally if you do one, you do all of them at once.
That way like the maintenance thing, you're not guessing and choosing and having to recheck everything. It's just one of those things. Like when you do your brakes, you do both sides at the same time on the front of the vehicle.
Like you wouldn't replace half of that and then wonder why something's doing whatever. Like that's just too much crap to take. It just doesn't make sense.
But my brothers and spark plugs are super fucking cheap. Like they're literally like three or five dollars per one depending what you get and you can get like really high priced ones, but like they're not that expensive, especially if you're driving an old hooptie beater. So he was like nickel and diming like one spark plug for whatever, whatever.
We're just like that doesn't even make any sense. So it's just time and place does not make sense. That is the difference between being cheap and being frugal.
Number two, people think frugality means deprivation. And the example that I used earlier in the beginning is a good example. Like when we went to Hawaii, I guess some people would consider like not spending money on hotels to be like a major source of deprivation, but like Tim and I's priorities are the enjoyment of the experience.
Like when I'm sleeping, I literally give zero fucks if we're literally in the Hilton or like the Ritz upon the Ritz upon the Ritz, or I'm literally sitting on a cot in a tent like passed out to me, like unless the resort or like where you're sleeping as part of the experience, I'm talking like a unique experience. Like I will pay for a tree house that is like bizarre. Like when we went to Greece, I ended up paying for this cool little bungalow thing that was just it was really interesting, very unique part of the experience, but like a normal hotel, normal stuff.
To me, that's a cookie cutter dime a dozen. I wanted to spend money on like stargazing and the cuisine and the culture, like going to the luau and biking here and there, go on scuba, snorkel, like that type of stuff. Like I do not have an issue spending money on those things, but I do not want to spend the $200 a night on a hotel because I do not find like value in that.
And it's just like it's not depriving myself. It's being more intentional. And that's the thing.
Like when you associate being frugal with the deprivation component, it makes so much sense that people will avoid being frugal because they're assuming they have to cut out things. They enjoy things. They value things.
They whatever. And that's not the case. So in reality, it really is figuring out what you value versus what is literally just like extra frivolous crap.
The third frugality misconception is that it's only for people who are poor or financially struggling. Not true at all. In fact, most people who are actually like financially independent and probably getting onto the page of wealthy, and I would probably say you can rule out the like people who are inherited wealth and like the filthy, filthy rich, you know, you can get rid of them out of the picture.
But most people like the general person can literally start with nothing and make their way to being financially independent. And they will continue those habits indefinitely. So like it talks to anybody.
There's a book written about it. Again, one of the books that I absolutely enjoyed was The Millionaire Next Door. They talk about how most people who think most people that people think are rich are actually what he calls pseudo affluent.
They are not actually rich. They're buying things to make it look like they're rich. But the real rich people look like General Joe Schmoes.
You'd never guess that your neighbor basically has a million dollars if they're driving a Camry, if they don't really wear flashy like, what did he say, Rolex watches and like designer shoes and designer clothes and like all of these things. True wealthy people do not care about brands. They do not care about things.
They value quality over whatever. And they're not flashy about it. They're modest.
They're humble. They're all of those things. And it's very interesting how the people chase the wealth before they really can afford it.
And that's how people get into that debt cycle all the time. Some other people, number four, think that frugality is associated with time consuming and complications, which I could totally see for like clipping coupons and finding deals and like managing finances. There are ways to definitely simplify it.
Like one of the things I've never, as much as I like to talk about tracking and budgeting, like spreadsheets, I get nerded out with it. I love making them and I'll stick with it for about a month. And then I see that like I'm underspending, so I don't really care.
So then I just won't really follow through with it. And there'll be a little bit of slippage when Tim's like, oh, let's go here. And I'm like, oh, FOMO on my butt.
But for the most part, like the managing finances really isn't that hard if you put a system in place that makes it easy to follow without like literally doing that nickel and dime dollar for dollar crap that Dave Ramsey talks about with every dollar. Actually most books talk about that. I mean, when you're struggling in the beginning, you do need to track it to make sure that you understand your like current situation to figure out where you're bleeding.
But once you actually get your habits dialed in, it becomes so automatic. You don't have to think about it. Like most people who are naturally skinny, it's literally a combination of their choices and their habits and behaviors.
They don't really have to think about, oh my God, this thing has so many calories. Or they do that naturally and it's just part of their thought process. It just kind of is how it is.
Now I will say that clipping coupons and like finding deals can be a little cumbersome. But if you're literally able to save hundreds of dollars, like for an example, my brother was looking to buy a new bathtub and my dad popped out. My dad's one of those people that like instant gratification.
He's like, I'll pay twice as much to have it this second. And my brother and I are both like, that doesn't even make any sense if I can wait and pay half the amount tomorrow. Like that doesn't make sense.
So he wanted to buy the freaking bathtub like showroom in-house. So my brother was like, yeah, I'm going to go home and like check some stuff up online. He looked online.
He ended up like literally finding half off. It was just like a little bit of a delayed whatever, not a big deal. Coupons are getting, I think, a little easier with like apps and certain things.
I find apps very cumbersome. Tim and I just tend to basically have things that we want or would like enhance quality of life, but they're not urgent. Sitting in like the back of our minds and like, I don't know if you've noticed with your phones and stuff, but as soon as you start talking or as soon as you start looking at stuff, you see ads pop up, you see different products pop up.
You're like, oh, okay, this is going on sale. Like for example, um, I have been waiting to do Tim's genetic testing for CRI genetics for like, I think it's been like two years. And I just saw the other day when I was talking to my friend about it, that they have a sale going on.
So I ended up actually buying it because I was like, well, this is actually really far on sale. I've known the regular price of this thing. I was like, shit, I'm just going to pull the trigger.
And like, I was ready to buy when I saw that sale. We do the exact same thing with stocks. We know it's a good thing.
We know it's a high quality stock. We know it's a high quality company. They're doing their thing.
It's something that's on our watch list. And then when the price comes into that buy range, we're like, pull the trigger. So it's setting up a system.
It's like having a methodology. It's again, it's sometimes a little more time in the beginning, but when you learn anything new, it always takes more time in the beginning. And then it becomes like riding a bike.
Once you do it over and over again, it becomes so automatic that it's really not that much effort at all. And the things that are, you can, at some point, once you have money, sub out if that makes sense. Because then you value that free time.
Because it really does boil down to time freedom through money freedom, through making your money work for you. All right. So the fifth misconception about frugality is like low quality.
So I guess a lot of those people who are like luxury conscious, there's this billboard that we pass all the time that talks about luxury as a lifestyle that literally makes me throw up in my mouth a little bit. My one cousin is like the spitting image. If you think of Fraser, it's like the same concept.
They're like these snooty, like pinky flared up, I don't even know, cray cray people. And it's like there's a luxury is like a level above quality because of I guess the flash and the snootiness that comes with it. And it's like that isn't necessary.
If that is something like you need as a lifestyle, you really do need to be making crap tons of money and gold digging somebody else's pocket potentially. Not our jam, not our thing. But like frugality does not mean you're buying low quality products.
It means that you're, again, this is like a reiteration of everything I've just said, you will invest in the higher quality items that last longer when it makes sense. And if you can get them on sale, you're like stacking the benefits and stacking the benefits. And like you're looking for things that are giving you value over time.
You're investing in those high quality items just like we talk about with stocks. That same concept transcends all things in life and the stock system that we use. So like when you really boil things down, frugality is intentional spending, making conscious decisions about where your money goes, making sure it aligns with your values and goals.
And this is one of the big things that I think people really screw up on when they're doing their like goal setting phase. I don't think they really have that like down the road picture or like the things that really matter and align with themselves. And that's where a lot of the negative symptoms and like the anxiety and those things will come into play.
It's like your subconsciousness is essentially trying to tell you you're not really aligned with yourself. Like you're out of alignment. And the life that I've built is such a good example of like putting so much time, energy and effort into a lifestyle that I freaking just does not work for me.
Like this constant obligation of maintaining a house, being in the space, all this stuff, all the rider costs that come with this is just like it drains me so much because it's like those are not me at all. Like I definitely would prefer so much more simplicity and just like that's why the van thing was such an easy choice for us. We like being in nature more.
And again, to us, a place to sleep, a box in a van like in the woods is good enough. Like that is literally absolutely all we need for that. But I'll go and spend like 300 plus dollars on like a white rider rafting trip.
Not a big deal. Frugality really means being resourceful and efficient. You're finding creative ways to save.
You're finding ways to like DIY things that are going to save you crap tons of money versus hiring out. Like I don't know if you guys are aware with this AI movement and all this other stuff that's happening, like blue collar jobs really are increasing the cost of what's happening. Inflation is affecting that too, but there's less workers.
So the cost of all these blue collar things are going up. So if you actually can like go on YouTube and figure out how to do some of this stuff yourself, you're saving yourself hundreds of dollars. A lot of those like contractor people won't even come out for less than $100 just for a console.
And that's not even before they do work. And then they upcharge you for parts and they do all of these things. So it's like if it's something that you're not going to like kill yourself, maim yourself, then why not try to DIY things? Repurposing different stuff.
You're trying to get the most value. And I think this is one of the key aspects of being frugal. It's like knowing the value of things.
Really really focusing on value. It's value exchange. So like I've noticed recently that I do not value spending a crap ton of money out at a restaurant for subpar food.
Subpar portions, subpar service, subpar... Again, I'm not a small talk person. So when they do that thing and they don't have our drink filled up all the time and we're the people that obviously are hard to read because we would actually rather be like left alone and not bothered compulsively if we're completely content. And I hate like when the waitress has come up 95 times to keep like asking if you need something.
It's like, dude, do I look like I need something? Like leave me alone. I'm just trying to freaking eat. And that's the thing.
And then it's like I always feel kind of weird because it's like, I don't know. I always feel like that sinking pit in my stomach a lot of times when we go out to eat because like the food just wasn't worth the cost. And I've noticed that it's like if I take a little bit more time, well actually I've actually done the math like an experiment that it costs or it takes just as much time basically to cook at home even though you don't think you are because you're like the time driving, the sitting down, the waiting to order, the actual cooking time and then driving home and then you're wasting gas and then you're disappointed with your meal.
So it's like we're getting more and more picky about like where we're actually eating when we're eating because it just doesn't make sense to like waste money on something that you're not getting the value out of it. For reality literally equals financial freedom, financial security. You're building a safety net.
You're building like discipline through the habits, the mindset, the traits that you adopt. You're automatically setting up savings and investments. You're automatically like budgeting pretty much.
You're putting yourself in a much better financial preparedness and just situation for your future. So it's like frugality equals that security that so many people are craving through that anxiety problem they have and the unknown and the future fear and all those things. Like being frugal literally abates those issues.
Frugality also is very, very like mindfulness and sustainability oriented. So they're just a lot more naturally mindful of consumption. And I thought this was interesting too.
There was apparently a correlation between like the consumption. Like Tim's been out in New Mexico and they're like literally in the middle of nowhere. So they have like wells but it's a dry, dry area and the whole family showed up and they're all like showering all the time and they're running super long showers and they're doing all this stuff with water and he's like, dude, we're going to run out of water at some point if like hundreds of you are taking showers and like the well just can't handle those resources.
But these people from the city are so spoiled or just I guess don't understand the value of water when you're out in nature and you're out in like the boonies. Well water is a completely different animal especially if you've been in a drought like we've been over here. And it's like I was reading, this was like when we were looking into the van and everything and because like clearly you have to have your tank and I did, I put a lot of thought into like our water situation and I made a decision to not have like a tank and a gray water tank and like all that crap because it just didn't make sense for like what I was intending to do.
But the average person, I think it's probably American because this does seem high and Americans tend to be less intentional or aware and value scarcity of things, but 80 gallons of water a day is what the average person consumes. That is insane if you realize how much water is going back down the drain and like you're paying through the sewer, you're paying like the income, you're paying per the gallon, per whatever. It's just like holy crap.
Like when we're in the van, we use like a max of three gallons a day unless it's a day that we actually decide to shower. And it's just that intentionality and that conservation and then it's like you're putting that water right back into the grounds and then the grounds cleaning it and filtering it like it always does. So it's like that's like a prime thing.
Energy usage is another one. One of my girlfriends complains about money. I love her to death, but I walk over there and it is like every single thing I look at, I'm like that's draining your money.
They run out all the time to convenience stores to get like Red Bull energy drinks and cigarettes and every light is on in the house. Every TV is on in the house. I'm like holy shit, holy shit.
I just can't even. And we're over here like we won't turn the heat on above like 55 degrees because it just doesn't make sense to heat the entire house to still be cold. So we bought a heating blanket and we sit in bed and we like do activities or I bundle up multiple layers of stuff like I figured out how to layer and that's so efficient for us because we go hiking and it just makes so much more sense when you like learn to peel the layers off so you can sweat wick and like you're not overheating or getting that cold sweat and then freezing your butt off.
So it just like it makes so much sense to do certain things. The same thing in the summertime. Like I have the air conditioning on right now because it went up above 90 degrees.
But when it's like 82 because the way the house is facing like I can get away with doing blackout curtains on certain windows. We don't even turn the air on. We just use windows and sometimes we'll put a fan on but like the days the air conditioner is on, I don't put it like colder than 78 degrees.
If you actually do the math and like check into resources on how much like money people are spending on having those few extra degrees or like 10 degrees difference to be comfortable which isn't even healthy if you really dig into the health realm, your body actually needs those constant fluctuations and stressors of temperature shifting to actually regenerate cells properly. So it's like this whole thing if you really want to dig into it which I won't go into right now because I feel like I'm wandering anyway. So it's that.
And then like one of the big decisions for us is like we don't look at depravity from a depravity sense or like having less or intentionally saving more right now. We're looking at we know for a fact if you have this equation, if you save this amount of money right now and you let that compound, you let compound to compound on compound and let the compound to compound on compound. If you watch the magic of that math and I'm guessing this is just because me being a math nerd and I love like graphing calculators and super hardcore crazy person.
But like finance was one of my absolute favorite classes when I went back for my master's. I loved it because it was like that exponential thing and I saw how that was applicable to like your money. If your money is working against you, you have debt and credit cards.
That interest is eating you alive. It is like literally draining your boat, draining your life force slowly over time. You are literally setting yourself up for a worse and more painful future if you have that side of the compounding working against you.
But if it's working towards you, you're literally having a better version of you or your better abilities in that long term thing. So it's like we look at everything through the lens of is this thing literally going to compound to like way awesomer stuff down the road. And that's where like having money for emergency set up like saving for like they say retirement but like we're basically like the non-deferred life plan.
Like we want to live. We want to travel. We're doing crazy things, doing crazy stuff but we still do a lot of free things to like not feel like we're deprived.
Like we go for hikes and that's probably why we're into nature but it's like I still do love that stuff. Like I play with my camera all the time and I still haven't justified upgrading my camera and spending like several hundred dollars on one when mine is functional until we get the freaking investments completely like dialed in. We're waiting for that compound factor.
It takes about three years is really the sweet spot when you really get that ball rolling. Once you hit that point like the more you can compound in the beginning just like when you buy a house, all the interest is up front. You really do yourself a favor by paying down that interest in the front and saving a crap ton of money and letting it compound in the beginning.
So living within your means to us with frugality is what it is. Balancing your budget like being smart with money management, it's not even that hard because when you really appreciate what you have, you don't really desire more of things that don't matter. So I see so many people that get raises and then they like grow to the size of their income because they're always telling themselves, oh, when I make more, I'll save more.
But then they get more and then they're like, oh, now I can buy a bigger house or oh, now I can upgrade my car or oh, now I can buy that entertainment center or upgrade my TV or this is two years old and whatever, whatever. I'm over here driving a freaking car from like our van is from 99. My car is a 2003.
I just don't see the point of trading something in like 223,000 miles isn't a big deal to me because it's like a Toyota Camry. Those things last sometimes 400,000 miles. They just do.
So I don't know. If you really tally all the money up for some of this stuff, it's like this is how people live beyond their means because they're not factoring in like all the factors of money management and like 20% of that should be your savings and investing. So if you're not putting away that 20% and your savings and investing and avoiding debt and having a balance like what you spend on the things you love instead of like the things that drain you, you literally are going to struggle.
That's just how it is. So those are all the pieces of being frugal. I mean, all of them come back to like the fact that you're being proactive.
You're being intentional. You're not looking at frugality from the negative feeling and like so basically if you understand and embrace the true meaning of frugality, it is going to help you be proactive with your finances. It is going to help you have a freaking amazing future.
It is going to give you that financial freedom that you truly crave and that you really do deserve if you put the effort in. You'll be more likely to get those goals with avoiding these negative feelings that come typically with the people who budget and save because they're looking at it through that lens of depravity. But it doesn't have to be.
Put yourself in the position of frugal means prioritizing spending money on the things that add value to your life so that you can avoid spending money on the things that don't matter. We covered that ad nauseum in that budgeting episode. I think it was like, I don't remember what episode it was.
But that is like the key thing. I don't want to spend money and I do the same thing with my time. I don't want to waste my time on things that I do not find valuable.
I just do not want to do it. And that's the thing. People who are frugal recognize the value of their time, the value of their health, and the value of their money and they would choose to be happy over having materialistic possessions that are not fulfilling.
And that really boils down to two of the major foundations of people who are living paycheck to paycheck and those who are setting up and dialed in for the future. You got to remember, if you're trying to be frugal and you feel deprivation, you don't quite have it dialed in yet. You got to learn to balance it.
It is a little bit of an art in the beginning because some people will fluctuate to the major penny-pinching situation where they're saving, saving, saving because the worry is eating them alive. But you actually have to fill your life with a little bit more of the things that you enjoy so that you don't leak out and then emotionally stress by things that really don't feed you. So when you go through these exercises as you're evaluating your spending and as you're evaluating a purchase, one of the easiest things is to stop and think.
Some people put a 24-hour rule on these things, but honestly, you can just ask yourself some simple questions. Do you truly value this thing that you're about to purchase? How much fun is it going to give you? How much time is it going to give you? How much happiness is it going to give you? Is it something that you can share with other people? Is it something that's going to keep giving you or is it something you're literally going to buy, be happy with it for two seconds, then feel that weird, dull, achy hole gap come back in and shove it in the closet, forget you have it, and then look for the next dopamine hit? So it's like when you ask those questions and you start looking at that thing, you need to start moving your spending into the direction of the things you do find value and you feel fulfilling and stop feeding money into the things that just are that thing that happens. So that's pretty much all it boils down to.
So I know you guys can do this. If we can do it, if Tim can do it with as many freaking addictions as he has, anybody can learn to get the habits in place. It's just getting the ball rolling in the beginning.
And then once you start seeing the compound machine and you actually start feeling good and you actually get permission and you feel it's okay to move away from the stuff that you probably don't value, and this tends to happen a lot with families. We'll go into that in another episode that we're talking here soon. There's so many people that spend money on gifts and a lot of other things they really don't want to spend money on, but they feel obligated because of family.
And we're hoping to give you guys the permission to focus on what you value because it really is all about you getting those emotions in line because then you're not going to have that spill spending and go over your budget and all these other things. So I hope you guys got something out of this today. And Tim will be back next week for sure.
He's going to be super drained the next couple of days because he just drove from Missouri the whole way almost to Pennsylvania. So we'll see you guys next week.