Do You Qualify to be -Truly- Frugal?

By Mrs. Accountability on December 31st, 2009

On Sunday one of my fellow bloggers was taken to task by an anonymous commenter, who suggested that the author was not “truly frugal”. Abigail from I Pick Up Pennies defended herself rather admirably in a response post What is a “True” Frugal Blogger?

I thought it would be interesting to have a look at the various bloggers who have discussed this highly subjective topic. Are you frugal? Are you TRULY frugal? Are you REALLY frugal? Or are you just cheap? Let’s find out.

Gather Little by Little had a similar experience and examines whether his family is frugal in What is Frugality and Are We Frugal? He decided to research the question and in the end discovers with some surprise that by the descriptions of frugal on three frugal sites Being Frugal, Frugal for Life, and Frugal Village that the lifestyle he and his wife are leading, they are actually considered frugal.

Lazy Man asks if it’s going too far to split a burger at Fuddrucker’s.

I’ve written about it in the past A Truly Frugal Person in response to Meg’s post at her old blog here How Frugal is Too Frugal and later pondered at her new blog whether a gym member was being Too Frugal because she’d stopped showering at home to save water, plus the gym provided shampoo, body soap, and conditioner.

Maybe these Top 5 Evil Rules for Frugal Living from FruGal are what we should use as our guide to being Truly Frugal.

I Will Teach You To Be Rich makes some comparisons of being Cheap versus Frugal in the end deeming, “Cheap people think short term. Frugal people think long term.”

Lynnae at Being Frugal shares a gift list to buy for frugal people in Frugal Gift Guide. I think the kitchen items are fabulous ways to save money, and to make them even more frugal, check out your local thrift stores to find most of those items as a mere fraction of the cost. Sometimes you can even get them brand new!

Frugal Family tells us how to use our credit cards properly, if this is a test of frugality, then most personal finance bloggers would qualify as being frugal.

Frugal Dad shares with us the 10 Truths about Living Frugal.

Mrs. Money lists all the positive and negative terms for being frugal in Thrifty, Tightwad, Miser – Good and Bad Frugal Terms.

Get Rich Slowly asked readers to share in How Do You Keep the Frugality Fun and Interesting?

It’s Just Money lists the worst frugal ideas heard on a radio show, and invites commenters to share their own.

Flexo at Consumerism Commentary wants to know Are We Missing Out On Life by being frugal?

Funny About Money asks What IS Frugality?

The Digerati Life asks Am I Frugal? – How I Balance My Efforts to Spend and Save Money.

Trent at The Simple Life recently said “Frugality is all about your personal value – maximizing the ‘bang for the buck’ for the things you value.” as he discussed what to wrap presents with at Frugality and Your Sense of Value. Trent has an amazing 431 articles categorized under Frugality.

OH! Moolanomy actually has devised a test to figure out if you’re Frugal or Cheap. I scored a 31, the test says I’m definitely frugal.

BluntMoney shares a matrix to enlighten us on Frugal vs. Cheap.

Kacie from Sense to Save shares a story of a woman whose frugalness turned deadly.

I’ve talked before about my Grandma, and how frugal she was. She puts anyone I’ve ever known to think they are frugal to shame. My mom and I had a pow-wow together and came up with every single frugal thing Grandma did her entire life.

I’ll have that post to share on New Year’s Day.

Yours Truly,