Tag Archives: Being too frugal

The Problem with Being Too Frugal or Tight with Money

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When I was young, I didn’t have any money other than from allowance (which I pretty much was taught to save).

In fact, I was so frugal as a child, I hardly spent any money at all because of the belief that I needed to save it all.  While my financial picture was always pretty good, I missed a lot of great childhood and young adult opportunities because of the belief that spending money on them would be a waste and saving like a miser was the way to go.  This is one part of my past that I would love to change, but that window has past and I can’t time travel.

One of the most vivid memories of being too tight with money was when I was in the school cafeteria and a very pretty girl caught my eye.  She was strikingly beautiful and hot all at the same time.  I couldn’t help from keep glancing over at her.  Well, she caught me looking at her a few times, and with about 5 minutes left of the lunch period, she got up from across the lunchroom walked over to the area where I was sitting and asked me out on a date.  I wanted to go badly, but instead, I made up some excuse because I didn’t have a car and I didn’t have money for a date.  The girl was a knockout in every sense of the word, and I could kick myself for not taking action back then.

Girl Walking Away

Similar events have happened during my college days.  There were numerous times when friends would go to a concert or something that require a bit of money, and I would pass on that occasion because I felt like it would be a waste of money, and because of my own natural frugal behavior.

Not that I’m married with children, I don’t want my kids to behave the same way, but at the same time, I don’t want them to spend wildly either.  It’s a balance that I’m trying to teach them and myself at the same time.  I have progressed, I’m getting better!  I no longer get nauseous when I spend money on smaller and medium-priced options.  I was very pleased when I bought my son a laptop and I didn’t feel ill at all.  It was a wonderful feeling in fact.  Of course, I knew that I wouldn’t have to go into debt to accomplish the purchase too and that always helps…

I have to wonder if I’m alone in my money management style.  I rarely read about anyone with issues of spending, and in fact, I seem to be in the minority with my particular money skills especially since I’m totally debt free…

I’m not going to let the same happen to my kids, in a future post I’ll reveal my plans for them…

So readers, do you have problems spending and are you trying to establish a perfect balance as I am?

Spend some and enjoy life,

Don

Swimming With Dolphins On Vacation

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Both of my kids love dolphins!

dolphin

Awesome Dolphins

So this year my wife found a package were the family can “swim with dolphins” and the go to Sea World the next day during our Florida vacation.  Needless to say, this package is expensive.

Since both of my kids are still relatively young, a requirement in the deal was that at least 1 adult had to also swim with the dolphins too.  After a talk, my wife said she would like to do it, so we agreed that she was definitely going to be the one to swim with the dolphins too.

Because of the high cost, I chose not to do the “swim with the dolphins” activity.  While I like dolphins too, but by not going I will shave an additional $150 off of the price for the experience.  Obviously, the decision was purely financial in nature, but I have to wonder, is this one of those missed opportunities in life that I will regret later because I’m being too frugal?

After a few weeks of thinking about it, I hate to say it but I’m sure that this is one of those experience that I will miss in life because I’m trying to save a buck.  I would now like to reconsider and update the experience so that I too could swim with the dolphins, but the event needs to be scheduled because they only have so many people swim with the dolphins per day.  So even though I changed my mind, I doubt that I will be able to upgrade my time there to include the “swimming with dolphins” element too (I still get to snorkel though).

I don’t see us doing this again in the future, so I’m afraid that I just lost out on a wonderful experience for $150 extra…

What would have you have done?  I’m sure I’ll still have a great time either way…  Later, after my vacation, I will have a follow up post on this experience from my wife and kid’s perspective.

Bests,

MR