What Could You Live Without?
Posted on September 10th, 2010
Lynnae McCoy is a freelance writer, homeschooling mom and frugal living enthusiast. She writes about frugal living at Being Frugal.net and about balancing work and homeschooling at Freelance Homeschool Mom. When she has a rare spare moment, you can find her on Twitter.
We’re very fortunate here in the United States. We have access to many gadgets and services that make our lives easier and more pleasurable. Just two centuries ago, our ancestors lived without such conveniences as cars, running water and electricity.
With the advent of modern conveniences, though, came a sense of entitlement. In these past few years, when the economy has been down and people have been cutting their budgets, the lines between wants and needs have been blurred.
As a frugal blogger, my mantra is usually “Cut the expenses and save more money!” But if push came to shove, what could you live without? How far would you go to balance your budget. Could you give up:
- Cell Phones? I love my cell phone, and I justify the expense because I sometimes take road trips without my husband. If anything were to happen, its nice to know that I could call for help. When I was growing up, however, nobody had heard of cell phones. If we broke down along the road, we’d fix our own car or ask a passerby for help.
- Eating Out? I’ll admit to having a tough time giving up my meals out. I’m not fond of cooking, so a meal out is a real treat. In this day and age, “treats” seem to come along every week, rather than once every few months, though. Could you go several months without eating out?
- Entertainment? Almost all households in the United States own at least one television, and many subscribe to cable or satellite television. Going to the movies is a popular pastime and renting DVDs is considered the frugal alternative. If you had to cut your budget to the bones, could you survive on board games and reading books as entertainment or would it be too painful to give up the paid electronic entertainment?
This list is by no means exhaustive. We have many luxuries that our ancestors didn’t: air conditioning, a different pair of shoes for every occasion, multi-car households and more (paid) activities for the kids than we can count.
While it’s not practical to give up all modern conveniences, sometimes it helps to compare ourselves to those of days gone by before we make budget decisions. If you need to cut your budget, remember that as common as many of these things are, they’re not necessities.
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