How to save money while having a good time

Or, how to be a Frugal Hedonist.

Hello! I’m Celine and I write about books, food, and surviving life in the city, with a wild heart. Subscribe for free posts like this one, or join the community for other exclusive writing. Either way, thanks for your support!

This is a topic that has been on my mind lately and in the age of cozzie livs, I’m sure it haunts you, too.

How can you live a rich and fulfilling life, when it costs so darn much just to get by?

It’s so easy to feel like all your earnings are directed at your living costs, such as rent, mortgage, student loans, bills, groceries… and not very much is left for the ‘fun stuff’.

And indeed, if you direct your money to any kind of ‘fun stuff’, you can often be left feeling guilty. As, wouldn’t that money be better directed towards your rent, mortgage, student loans, bills… and you can see how the cycle goes on.

So let’s perhaps disrupt this way of thinking a little. As there are ways to have fun, to embrace hedonism (which in itself, is merely the pursuit of pleasure and nice, warm feelings), without having to spend a pretty penny.

In some ways, I think the heart of this newsletter is examining how to live a rich and fulfilling life, within (or perhaps even rallying against!) the way the world is set up.

And when in doubt, you should always turn to books for assistance. So with that preamble done, I’d like to introduce you to The Art of Frugal Hedonism: A Guide to Spending Less, While Enjoying Everything More.

The Art of Frugal Hedonism by Annie Raser-Rowland with Adam Grubb

This is not a new book, first published in 2017. I read it not long after it was published, but felt compelled to return to it, recently.

Life can often feel like we’re on a bit of a consumption hamster wheel. You work, work, work to buy, buy, buy. A bigger house, a bigger car, bigger and better holidays. This is the growth mindset we’re told to buy into – what it’s said we should aim for in life.

All this business of keeping up with Joneses can feel somewhat… spiritual unfulfilling. You can find yourself plunged into debt, exhausted from overwork and even just plain old trapped.

This isn’t a book about budgeting or managing your money. Rather, it’s more about managing your mindset.

The authors of this book offer tidbits of advice into how you can change habits, so that life’s pleasures are not derived from how you spend your money, but how you spend your time.

This book does have some practical advice of how to re-use, dumpster dive, swap, trade, DIY, grow produce and barter. For those already in these spaces, there may not be much new information here.

Yet, what it generally heralds as king and something I’ve been thinking about a lot this year (and will hopefully articulate into a post sometime soon) is the taking back of your time. And also, savouring the simple things in life.

As such, there are plenty of suggestions for ways to seek enrichment, without spending too many or any dollars. And that’s where the suggestions and message of the book really shine.

While I know I have some way to go myself with changing my own money mindset (we are all on a journey after all! The journey is life!), here are a few practices I’ve started employing over the last few years:

• Question whether you actually need the thing you want to buy. Is it going to add value to your life? Or have you been getting along fine without it, so far? Is it truly something you need, or something you have been told you need?

• Implement a system where if you buy something, you sell, donate or give something else away. Or trade something you have, for something you’d like.

• Have honest conversations with friends and family regarding gifts. Rather than gift people things they may not necessarily want or need, I now mostly just ask if there’s anything in particular they have an eye on. Or, I gift them an experience we can do together, like a nice meal or a fun tour. In most cases, it easily becomes a thing that is reciprocated.

• Look for opportunities to gift time rather than money. Opportunities like this do exist! Maybe you go to a yoga or pilates studio that has a cleaning program, where you earn a ‘free’ membership by dedicating your time to resetting the room after class. Or you have a particular set of skills that you can barter in exchange for something you in turn, wish to learn or obtain.

• It’s okay to want to do things that are a little expensive at times, if they bring you joy. If there is something you want or would like to do, save up for it.

• Borrow books from the library. I know this one seems obvious but I’m a prodigious borrower of books and too often, fall prey to purchasing titles to add to my own personal library. Plus, often libraries don’t have older books (or at least suburban libraries in my city don’t), so try to hunt them down in secondhand bookstores instead, then sell or give them back (or to free street libraries) once you’re done.

• If you are going to buy something, make it an investment. As in, do the research, buy something that is top quality and will last a lifetime, and take care of it.

• Be considered in your hobbies. Having hobbies is wonderful and I would say, necessary in life, but they often require financial investments upfront and ongoing. Want to learn how to paint? Well, you need brushes, an easel perhaps, canvases and well, paint. Can you source some of these secondhand? Or save up, wait for a sale at the local art shop, let the anticipation build and then invest in what you need? Perhaps you wish to learn an instrument – rather than going out and buying say a cello, see if local music stores (or even a prospective teacher) will let you rent one out. There are ways and means, my friends.

• Beg and borrow what you need short-term. Note – anything you borrow, please treat it with care, and it doesn’t hurt to give it back with a bottle of vino or choccies as a way of saying thanks.

• This one can be confronting, but think about why you’re spending money and if it’s bothering you, why exactly. What’s the root cause? Is it a way of dealing with boredom, or eco-anxiety? Are you lonely? Or if you’re not comfortable with the way you manage your income, is it because someone or society itself is making you feel this way?

I’d love to hear your own thoughts on ‘frugal hedonism’.

Anyway. It’s a fun little book and one I know I’ll return to again and again. Highly recommend searching out a copy in your local secondhand bookstores, or borrowing from the library.

Thanks as always for reading. Be back in your inbox next week.

‘Til then, stay well and well-fed.

-Celine

Comments and likes are also loved (by both moi and dreaded internet algorithms).

If you enjoyed reading this, you may also like:

The ethics of urban foraging

Let's talk about tea, baby

Some rituals to see in midwinter