TILT #24: Frugality is NOT a bad thing

Recently a friend asked me about living frugally. That inquiry led to the opening of my photo albums and a wonderful time of looking back to discover the financial principles by which I lived that got me to where I am today. As I started writing, this post grew and grew because of my examples. I did not want any of my blogposts to take longer than 3 minutes to read so I'm splitting this into six short posts. You're welcome. LOL! So, this one will just list my few guideposts and I will tell my stories about each one in follow-up posts.

I came to this country as an international student, sponsored by my country of birth. What this meant was my government paid the exorbitant international student fees annually (approximately 10 times more than local students) and gave me a monthly stipend on which to live. I was given $425/ month from which I was to pay my rent, bills, food, and any other school materials not covered by my book budget. For at least three of the five years that I was an international student, the provincial and federal government refused to renew my student visa as they considered the monthly stipend “below the poverty line”. Regardless, my visa was renewed every year and I went on to graduate my one year of Canadian high school as an Ontario Scholar and then second in my class at McGill University.

During those pivotal years, I lived by several basic principles that allowed me to travel across North America as well as backpack in Europe, without accumulating debt post-graduation. These suggestions below are not investment tips. Investment tips will follow if anybody is interested. They're simply the mindset that helped me live well, appreciate life, and stay debt-free through my lean years as a young adult. Like any farmer, we reap what we sow. We also reap later, and greater. So, be careful what you sow.

1. Learn to say NO. NO to what the world says you MUST have to be cool, popular, happy, respected, whole, etc. etc. etc.. NO to the temptation to live beyond your means.

2. Learn to eat and drink differently within your budget. These were the years I appreciated drinking simply and mostly water and I learned to eat vegetables like bean sprouts, cabbage, and mushrooms. Eating out was rarely an option.

3. Figure out how to creatively make your money stretch. You can do this by the words you use when ordering or using discount offers found in likely and unlikely places. You'll find my story about this one funny.

4. Buy gently used items as much as possible. As a student, the only new piece of furniture I ever bought was my study desk from IKEA during my second of five years as an international student.

5. When possible, choose to spend on experiences instead of things. Things will depreciate in time. Experiences will form who you are. I used what little money I had to travel.

The main principle linking all of these is to choose to have as little “miscellaneous” spending as possible. Reject what the world shouts at you that you “must have”. Live with what you need and not everything you want and eventually, you might just get everything you want. You reap later, and greater.