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You have never lived until you fill a whole freezer FULL of those little, minature, frozen chicken-type animals (kitternish game hennys????) that have been marked down to 1/3 original price.
Eww. I'm going to guess that you're sarcastic and I just can't tell through the interweb.
Not all frugal people "chose" to be frugal. Some, like me, were raised by depression-era parents, and frugality was the only lifestyle we knew. Spending money needlessly or heedlessly went against the grain, and you don't get over it, even when you have enough money to do so.
Even billionaires turn the lights off when they leave the room. For some people, this occupies a higher level of consciousness than others.
I don't know, I think this is a personal concept, but being frugal does not mean living poorly, it means living within one's means and buying what one needs or what is priced right, and understanding the true value of things.
My grandparents were humble people, so I was raised as not to be wasteful, but that does not mean being cheap. I was raised to spend wisely and save for a rainy day if possible.
For example, some people feel great financing a 500K or 1M home ("homeowner"), and I am by no means criticizing them, to each their own.
As for me, even if I had a huge salary, I could never buy something that would take a 25 or 30-year commitment (within which I had to be making top salary or I would lose it). I either pay it in full, commit to a (much) shorter term or buy something I can pay with a modest/feasible salary.
So I guess it doesn't matter how much money I could possibly make, I would always have that "what if I lose my job/get sick" thought in the back of my mind. This is not a matter of being pessimistic, it is a matter of being realistic.
Not every rich person spends money like crazy. If one grows up with money, one does not value flashy bling or cars, for example, bc those things were simple/easy choices and really didn't matter much.
The ones who like flashy stuff are usually those who were either seriously spoiled from an early age "what one wants, one gets" or those who saw money later in life and want to compensate for a poor life they had before.
As for me, even if I had a huge salary, I could never buy something that would take a 25 or 30-year commitment (within which I had to be making top salary or I would lose it). I either pay it in full, commit to a (much) shorter term or buy something I can pay with a modest/feasible salary.
So I guess it doesn't matter how much money I could possibly make, I would always have that "what if I lose my job/get sick" thought in the back of my mind. This is not a matter of being pessimistic, it is a matter of being realistic.
I agree with this and I've lived like this. Only problem is, times have changed and the thinking process I've always operated under has changed too. Case in point - when I bought my first house - I could have bought a better house but instead bought less and did a horrendous commute to the city to try to get ahead. I had just enough of a mortgage so that if worse came to worst, I could flip burgers and still make the mortgage. Now that getting a job flipping burgers isn't even a certainty I can no longer think this way. I think that is why being frugal is even more important.
Plus, as Jtur says above, some of us did not choose this thinking, rather it was ingrained in us via our depression era parents. That applies in my case as well.
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