Improve Your Life by Being Frugal, Not Cheap

Posted On 28 May 2021

Last updated on April 10th, 2024

People often use the terms cheap and frugal interchangeably. While I believe that they are fundamentally different, I am guilty of sometimes using them interchangeably. There is a difference between the two words. That difference is the mindset that goes with being frugal versus cheap.

It is my opinion that frugal is the term that applies to those who strive to get the best value for their money. On the other hand, cheap is only considering the lowest price for an item. It really comes down to knowing the difference between price and value.

Now, I enjoy eating, so let me start with explaining this difference with restaurants.

Chicken Strip Basket vs. A Deal

When I was a teenager (with a good appetite!) I was spending the day with my family and a friend of the family. We had travelled to a touristy town about an hour away. The friend of the family offered to buy us lunch. I was quite hungry and looking forward to getting something to eat.

When she brought the lunch to the table, it was just a 4-piece chicken strip & fry meal. And this was supposed to feed 4 adults! I could have easily eaten the whole meal myself! Let me just say that it really made an impression on me of what not to do when I grew up. I have always been drawn to the frugal side of life.

I don’t know what the financial situation was, but since we were all traveling, a reasonable amount of food should have been afforded. Fortunately, we now live in a time when we have the information of the Internet at our fingertips.

Apps – Great For Deals

The frugal mindset is finding a restaurant that has a deal. It seems that every restaurant has a mobile apps now. And now, thanks to the pandemic, most of them offer mobile ordering as well. Once we have the app, we have access to their deals! I have seen deals available for those making their first mobile order and I have also seen them have a “deal of the day”.

Will I put an app on my phone if I am only going to use that app once? Yes! Will I set up an account to get a deal? Yes! Since it does not cost anything and I can get a deal, I will get the app. I can always unsubscribe from email, uninstall the app, or turn notifications off. There is no downside in my opinion.

Now, if you are travelling to another country and you want to get their app, but it is not available on the Google Play Store, you can read my post about installing Foreign Apps. Deals are available to us even when we are on vacation!

Buffets – My Favorite

Another possibility is eating at a buffet. Oh, the amazing buffet! I am so looking forward to the day when we can eat at a buffet again. Ok, I got off track.

When I travel with my wife (and/or kids) we try to stay in hotels that include a breakfast. Best Western has a great breakfast! We love their breakfast because we can eat all we want, and they even have foods for those who are trying to limit their carb intake – like my wife does. Getting breakfast included with a hotel stay can save the cost of a meal or two – depending on how much food is eaten!

With buffets, those with big appetites can get filled up. Picky eaters can choose what they want. Carbs can be limited, well, depending on the buffet. They also give us the opportunity to try a whole variety of the food that the restaurant offers.

Shopping – Quality Rules

There are the cheap products on the market that just don’t last. There are times when a cheap product makes sense. For example, if I am working with roofing tar, I will use a cheap paint brush because it cannot be cleaned well enough to be used again. If I am painting a house, I will only use a quality brush that holds paint well, applies the paint in a uniform manner, and can be cleaned and used on many jobs. Buying good quality tools on sale is being frugal.

Disposable table clothes can be great for a party. They don’t need to be cleaned or stored. If something is only going to be used one time, go cheap! If you are hoping to use that product for a long time, pay for quality. You really do get what you pay for!

Ethics – Getting What You Want at Another’s Expense

I talk a lot about getting deals and saving money. While I am always on the lookout for a bargain, I am not looking to take advantage of another person or company. If the other party is offering the thing for only a fraction of what it is worth because they want to get rid of it, that is one thing. I will not try to talk them down to nothing just so I can get it.

It pisses me off when a person will do something like eat half of a burger before “realizing” that their burger does not have cheese on it, then they want the restaurant to make them the right burger that they paid for. Ethics goes both ways. The restaurant should do their best to make sure customers are getting what they ordered. Customers should make sure they got what they ordered before eating it. Why should the restaurant have to give a customer free food just because the customer is not paying attention? I call that scamming and cheap!

Hording – Fear of Poverty

When the whole pandemic was getting underway in 2020, people lost their minds and bought crazy amounts of certain products. (Toilet paper comes to mind!) We don’t like to run out of things we need, although there is a balance when we live a frugal life.

We use the 1-Up System to ensure that we are well supplied, yet it keeps us from having too much of a certain product. When other people were freaking out and stocking up on things, our shopping did not change. We also buy as much as we can when stuff is on sale.

By maintaining a comfortable supply of things at home we do not have a fear of running out of things. When we need a certain item, we simply add it to the list. If there are items in short supply, we can simply keep our eye out for that item. A year ago, the stores were out of eggs. We just started looking for eggs when we were down to a dozen. I kept checking back daily, and a few days later I was able to buy the eggs. We never ran out of eggs at home!

Dangerous – Tainted Food & Faulty Tools

Food has an expiration date on it for a reason! I know that food can (and often does) last past the expiration date. Buying expired food is not something we do to save money. We don’t dig through dumpsters looking for free food. Food poisoning is not worth free food.

If we pay attention and shop with a plan, we can get some great deals. Just recently, my wife and I were able to use points to purchase $200 if food! When you consider that most of the points that we accumulate are bonus points the deal we got was amazing!

A bit of creativity and learning how to use stores’ rewards programs are an excellent way to live a frugal life. You can even use a cash-back card to pay for the groceries when you are earning the rewards points! That’s a double win!!

Traps – Stay Safe

There are some traps that people can get caught in when they are shopping. You can read about them in my post about Shopping Attitudes. One of the biggest traps is being lured into saving money buying things you really don’t need.

Sure, you saved 75%, but if you didn’t buy it, you didn’t spend the 25%! There are enough items out there that we like and use, why buy what we probably won’t use?

We can also be tempted by the candy racks at the grocery store check-out. Stores put the candy racks there for a reason! We don’t need the candy, but we are hungry and just standing there waiting. Frugal people rarely buy impulse items. Yes, I do buy some impulse items because I’m human. When I shop with a list, I tend to do a much better job at not buying impulse items.

Let’s Be Frugal Together

I invite you to join me in living a frugal life. Being cheap feels, well, cheap! Let’s question our purchases and see if there is a way that we can get the same things, or experiences, for a better price. Just remember, value is more important than price.