A few days ago over at I Will Teach You To Be Rich, Ramit talked about saving and compared it to cutting out various foods in your diet.  His attitude seems to be that “frugality is for losers!” just like “cutting out all the good foods you love never works in the long term!” and in a way, I agree with him.  If you’re going to feel deprived by your frugality or your diet then sooner or later you’re going to stop sticking to it.  However, I think this answer misses something, and that’s what I’d like to talk about here.  There’s a difference between scrimping and saving because you feel like you have to and making life changes that end up making you happier.  Let me explain.

Last Resort Measures

Changes that make you feel as though you’re depriving yourself of something rarely work simply because your motivation is not going to last forever.  Sure, it sounds good to cut all that candy out but are you really going to keep that up for the rest of your life?  Sure, it sounds good to save money by never going out to a movie again but six months from now when that new Twilight movie (go Jacob!) comes out, are you really going to stick to your promise?  Probably not.  The only time these kinds of measures work is when something dire is on the line.

For example, people who have just had a heart attack usually have good motivation to stop eating steak every evening just like people who lost their job tend to save more.  However, even here we all know that’s not always the case.  How many of you know someone who had a heart attack and yet keeps smoking and never exercises?  How many of you know someone out of work who still has cable TV and still goes out on occasion?  Think about that.  If these measures don’t work even for people in dire situations, why the heck do you think they’ll work for you when all you want is to look good in a bikini or to go on a nice vacation to Hawaii?

Heck, we’re still in the worst recession in multiple generations and people are already going back to their free spending ways.  Check out this graph of American savings rates:

Notice that even as the economy was crashing all around them, people only increased their savings rate by a paltry 4%. That’s right, banks are collapsing, the stock market is taking a giant nose dive and we all react by saving an additional 4 cents per dollar. Oh, and one year later, even though banks are still collapsing, unemployment is sky rocketing and houses are still falling in value we already start seeing people go back to the low savings rate of 2008. Seriously, if we can’t even change our ways in the middle of this incredible economic crisis, what makes us think we’ll ever stick to our “no more morning latte’s” promise?

I know we all want to think that we’re different and we’re not as weak willed as those fat/poor people but the truth is that we’re just like them.  We’re wired to find gratification and the short term gratification of a chocolate cupcake is way better than the long term and nebulous gratification of good health.  So, if these methods don’t work, why am I still talking about them?

Some Changes Actually Feel Good

The problem with Ramit’s argument is that he assumes any change which causes us to remove some foods from our diet or remove some spending from our budgets is one which will make us feel deprived.  If his assumption is true then he’s 100% right, these changes are pointless in the long term.  However, I’m going to challenge that assumption with a few examples from my own life.

1. 7 years ago I moved and, mostly due to laziness, I never got my TV hooked back up to cable.  I found out that I actually enjoyed my life a lot more without cable TV and had plenty of time to do other things.  End result, I saved money and didn’t feel deprived.  That change stuck and I’m still cable free.
2. 5 years ago I stopped going to the movies every summer weekend and started hiking.  I found out that I loved hiking!  It’s an amazing past time that costs virtually nothing.  Three weeks ago my girlfriend and I found this beautiful lake out in the middle of Point Reyes and spend an afternoon swimming and swinging off the rope swing.  Thanks to this change I am now healthier and I’ve saved a lot of money.  Note that I still go to an occasional movie, just not as often as I used to because I now prefer to go hiking instead.
3. Right after I started hiking, I also discovered that my legs were actually a great mode of transportation.  So I deliberately chose my current home based on its proximity to stores, restaurants and bars and I now walk almost everywhere.  I can’t tell you how much fun this is and I’ve found that walking is a great way to think through problems or just relieve some stress after a long day at work.  I’m healthier and I save money (plus the added upside of never having to worry about having one drink too many, or is that a downside?)
4. Last month I stopped drinking caffeine (I had a 5 can a day coke habit) and now drink nothing but water.  The first two days were hell!  However, I now feel amazingly better.  I no longer have energy swings nor do I fall asleep in meetings.  I saved money and I’m healthier.

There are more examples but these four are enough to illustrate my point.  In each example I made a change that Ramit might consider self depriving.  I saved money and became healthier with each of these and the best part is that all of these changes seem permanent.

Why Does This Work?

The trick here is in finding changes that improve your life rather than making you feel deprived.  The added health and money are then side effects or fringe benefits rather than the driving force.  In other words, I stopped looking for ways to save money or be healthier and started looking for new things to do that I might enjoy more.  I tried new things because it’s fun and exciting, not because I had to.  As for you…

• Don’t replace your cable subscription with Netflix and Hulu because you want to save an additional $50 per month, do it because maybe watching these shows on your own time and without commercials (<3 U NetFlix!) rules!  If you like it, keep it.  If you don’t, go back to your cable.
• Don’t cut out the morning McMuffin because you want to lose 20lbs, replace it with some fresh fruit because a nice orange or banana in the morning (or even better, some berries in yogurt) tastes a lot better and doesn’t make your stomach feel like the second ring of Dante’s inferno by 10am.

See where I’m going here?  Stop looking for ways to save $5 here and 10 calories there.  Start looking for ways in which you can have more fun in life.  Just don’t rule out something because it happens to be frugal or healthy.  We’ve somehow gotten to a point where people assume that any habit which saves you money or makes you healthier must also be a horrible thing to bear and will take all the fun out of their lives.  Stop thinking that way.  Experiment with your life without any preconceived notions and see what works for you.  If you happen to find something that you enjoy and saves you money / makes you healthier, that’s great!  You’ll be surprised by how much fan you can have without spending a lot of money or eating two gallons of Ben and Jerry’s Phish Food.

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Thank you to That Girl Is Funny for posting one of my articles in their TGIF Links and 20 Blogging Tips From Expert Bloggers and thank you to Blog Conduit for doing the same thing with their Blogging For Profit Carnival.