Why I'm So Frugal.

If you’ve watched my videos, you know I still use an iPhone X, I drive a 2012 Honda Civic, and my wife and I still track all of our expenses using a budgeting app.

But before you go and think we’re depriving ourselves, in the past year we’ve been able to take our dream trip to Japan, swim with whale sharks in the Philippines, and hike mountains out in Banff, Canada. All while saving and investing thousands.

DEFINITION
Who am I?

• If you’re new here, my name is JC, and I’m a financial coach that helps people break out of the paycheck-to-paycheck lifestyle and start living like the frugal rich. Today, I will share 5 reasons why my wife and I choose to live frugally.

  I’ve done it since I was a broke boi working at JCPenney for just $10 an hour, and it’s still how I live now, even though I make over six figures.

PRACTICAL ADVICE
5 reasons why I’m so frugal

• Reason #1: How I was raised and my early experiences with money.

  I grew up in a Filipino immigrant family. My dad was a rice farmer, and my parents made sure that we understood the connection between hard work and money from a young age. They put us to work mowing lawns, landscaping, and renovating homes. But more importantly, they taught us the value of a dollar.

  For example, I knew that mowing, weed whacking, and edging a whole lawn took one hour, and I would earn $20 for that one hour. So if I wanted to buy something like a pair of shoes for $80, I’d think about four sweaty hours of mowing lawns under the hot Florida sun—and that alone would make me think twice about buying those shoes.

  Quickly, I started to learn about the glorious clearance section and $20 shoes from Ross.

  That way of thinking stuck with me through college. I always knew that if I wanted to buy something, it didn’t just cost money, but the time it took to earn it.

  Over time, my relationship with money got healthier, and I finally learned how to start SPENDING mindfully while still saving a lot of money.

  Fast-forward to today. We’ve been together for almost four years, and we’ve been able to save an extra $50,000 without giving up the things we enjoy, like traveling and dining out. So let’s dive into the other reasons why I live this way, because these next four are actually something you have control over.

• Reason #2: Consumerism Sucks

  Everywhere you look—especially on social media—there’s a constant push to buy, buy, buy. (shoutout to NSync). From TikTok trends like “How to be THAT GIRL in 2024” to the endless “day in the life” videos, it can feel like everything is designed to make you spend money you don’t need to.

  But here’s the thing: living frugally means I don’t have to keep up with every trend. I get to choose what adds value to my life without feeling pressured by what everyone else is doing.

• Reason #3: We’re Not Tied Down by Debt

  One of the biggest benefits of frugality is being able to stay as far away from debt as possible. When you live a lifestyle that’s affordable, you don’t have payments, and you have an emergency fund locked and loaded; it doesn’t even make sense to go into debt.

  But let me give you the tea on how being frugal has helped us avoid debt while still enjoying our hobbies like dining out and traveling:

  We make sure to save on the BIG STUFF. So, for a lot of people, your biggest monthly expense is probably your housing and your car.

  My wife and I don’t have a car payment to worry about, so our biggest expense is our apartment rent. We got this 2 bed 2 bath apartment a few months ago, and we’re only paying $1,800 a month for it.

  This was our way of saving on our largest expense. We could’ve inflated our lifestyle and gotten the Instagram influencer-worthy apartment that was $3,000 a month. But now we have an extra $1,200 each month to go towards our emergency fund, our investments, or just fun stuff!

  Other BIG stuff that you should take a look at to see if there’s room for savings, is your insurance; your phone bill, and your subscriptions.

  But yes, it is good to save on the little things, like not buying lunch every day or coffee every morning. But that only makes a small impact compared to saving on the BIG STUFF.

• Reason #4: Frugality Isn’t About Sacrifice

  A lot of people think frugality means you’re constantly missing out, and constantly restricting yourself, but that’s not true. We love to try new restaurants now that we recently moved to a new city. And we love to go on vacations, like last week we went to Charlotte NC for my birthday.

  Here’s my point: Frugality isn’t about being cheap, it’s about being intentional.

  If I want to dine out, we’re going to allocate money in our budget towards dining out. For traveling, we’re going to plan out how much we want to spend on flights, on our hotel, and on the activities we’ll take part in.

  Also, when we do each of these fun things, we make sure to do them reasonably.

  For dining out, because my wife and I want to try as many new places as possible; most of the time we’ll just order one appetizer and one dish to share. So now we’re only spending $20 for one restaurant, and we’ll have more money to use at another restaurant.

  We’ll also take advantage of lunch specials, or we’ll download the restaurant app on our phones to take advantage of rewards and deals.

• Reason #5: It Gives Me Peace of Mind

  Living frugally gives us a sense of security. Just recently, my wife’s car broke down, and instead of panicking, we simply handled it. No stress, no financial scrambling—it’s covered.

  This peace of mind is something that’s hard to put a price on. Knowing we’re prepared for the unexpected is one of the best things about living this way.

OUR COMMUNITY
What are your questions? Or share a win!

• Reply to this email with any personal finance question you have, or share with me any wins in your life! (I’ll respond to your questions anonymously in future emails)