A Frugality Lifestyle

As our journey towards a simple life continues (18 months later) we now realize that simplicity makes living frugal easy. We started our journey of voluntary simplicity to a simple life with the following definition in mind:

Simplicity is wanting less, Frugal is living with less, doing without.

We now work at the things we love to do, reducing our stress levels dramatically. Our income has decreased substantially but yet we live comfortably. We went from a 6-digit income to a low 5-digit income, a major change financially. We now think of being frugal in relation to our money…getting more for less.

Before we make a purchase we now stop and think how many hours do we have to work to pay for this purchase? We question is there better ways to obtain this particular purchase. Our time is more valuable to us than money! Working for ourselves is worth more than money. It allows us the freedom and flexibility to do what we want, when we want, how we want.

Frugality is looking at ways to save money by implementing simple things:

- making rather than buying, it is amazing how what you can make. Many of our gifts, birthday, Christmas, special occasions are made rather than bought. And, it is amazing how people appreciate the gift more that if we had bought it.

- purchasing second hand rather than new; we now attend auctions, buy at second hand stores, shop the yard sales. We have purchased brand name items for a fraction of the cost of purchasing them new.

- being creative; not only creating items for gifts, but being creative in our thinking. Is there other ways to do or make what we need?

- being aware of expenses; simple things like the cost and use of electricity, buying brand name grocery items vs store brands, the list goes on and on; things that we never even thought about when we were making a 6-digit income.

Living simply has resulted in us becoming more aware of the environment and the impact we have on it. We have learned more about the three R's -Reduce, Recycle, and Reuse and implemented them in our daily living. Amazingly, we have found that by implementing the three R's we are saving money! So we are helping the environment and helping ourselves save money at the same time!

We have now changed our definition of voluntary simplicity to the following:

Simplicity is wanting less but not doing without by being frugal - getting more for less with our money; implementing the 3 R's, spending our time doing want we want to do rather than being doing what others want us to do.

A frugal simple lifestyle is what we have achieved. It is a lifestyle that we love. We would never go back to our previous lifestyle.

You can read more information in our section on Frugal Living - filled with tips, information and suggestions on getting more with less money.

Our journey continues, read 30 Months Later, Questions Answered.......