Frugal Fasting...the difference between investing and spending money on yourself.

“When the stomach is full, it is easy to talk of fasting” ~St. Jerome quotes (Father of the Latin church, 340?-420)

I was chatting with a friend the other day and topic of spending money came up. I did not think it could be done, but I believe I have finally met someone who is cheaper than me. While sitting in a local bookstore, we were looking at the food case and saw a Rice Krispy treat for $2.25. Now comes the dilemma? Do you buy the rice krispy treat or do you choose not to satisfy the urge for the tasty treat? Now to most, satisfying the urge for a rice krispy treat for around $2.00 is not a big deal, however, in light of recent times, most choose to do "frugal fasting".

Frugal Fasting as I define it is denying yourself something that you "want" because there is a cheaper alternative or you can just deal without.

I typically never spend any money on something that has a cheaper alternative or something I could do myself. After all, paying $2.25 for one serving of something that I can make a whole pan of for $2.50 just seems crazy. However, there are times where I make exceptions to these rules due to the fact that my health or my time may be worth more to me than the actual money that can be saved.

During the rest of the conversation with my friend, I kept asking myself a question as to how many people consciously make a decision to go without eating or eat poorly (such as the value meal at fast food restaurants) to save money rather than just pay to eat decent food.

I think about my college days as an example in my life where I did this constantly due to the fact that I did not have a lot of money. I'm sure there will be people that say fast food in moderation is no worse than anything else and there is value behind ordering from the value menu at most stores. However, I'm sure people would have second thoughts if they saw the movie "SuperSize Me". Thirty days of eating fast food wrecked the main character's body.

So the real question is, is it worth the investment to pay the money on every day items or should you go without to save some money? I think the answer is to go ahead and spend the money. Why? Well, as said previously, spending money on yourself is an investment. By eating higher quality foods, you can help you remain healthy over the course of your life. I have learned this by talking to one of my coworkers who only eats organic food. Although he pays more for his food than the non-organic counterparts, he told me that after switching his diet to totally organic, lost over 20 pounds over the course of a year. Amazing to see what eating food without all the additives can do for you.

In addition to that, in my current situation with renovating my investment house, I am finding that spending the money to contractors (over doing the work myself) has allowed me to be less stressed as well as avoid doing hazardous work. By no means am I trying to say that one should not try to save money where possible, however I believe that there has to be a balance. Is saving money worth putting your body through more stress? I say no.

I wonder what kind of damage I have caused to my body by applying "frugal fasting" to my purchases. There are many times where I have chosen saving money at the cost of sacrificing something else. However, I think that I will try to include more balance when faced with that dilemma again.

How often do you do Frugal Fasting? What items do you sacrifice daily for the sake of money? Where is your balance?

Stay Disciplined!