Last week (okay fine, two weeks ago), Mapgirl wrote about 20 ways on how she lives frugally. I wrote a response post (in my head), and forgot to post it (write it). Checking my feed today, I notice a follow-up post at Jonathan’s MyMoneyBlog, so here are my three four ways on how I live frugally:

1. I look ugly.

Yup. Most of the times, I believe I have an appearance that only a mother would love.

Occasionally, I’m fugly.

And that’s okay (at least to me). I’ve already mentioned the need for a new wardrobe, which I’ll definitely get around to when I start caring (sometime this century).

The fact is, I’m not exactly out to impress anyone and I don’t care too much about my looks, so I save the money on clothing, shoes, hair cuts, what have you.

Mind you, hygiene and looking ugly are two different things. I’m also not saying that you need to be ugly to save money, as there are plenty of savvy, frugal people out there who can dress sharp and still keep their wallet fat. I’m just not one of them.

The problem with looking ugly is that occasionally you need to dress the part. Whether it’ll be a wedding, some other celerbration event etc., jeans and single-shade color T-shirts just won’t cut it. It’s about being polite; after all, if you’re at your sister’s wedding and you look like a douche bag, your sister will probably punch you in the balls (because mine will).

2. I don’t buy gadgets.

Gadgets of any kind are incredibly cool. Electronic ones are even better. The more bullet feature list, the bigger the wow factors.

But they’re kinda expensive. Although I like to gawk at gadgets, read about them, I never really buy one. My latest gadget would have to be my new phone, which is the Blackberry 8100. Prior to this phone, I had some crummy free LG phone from Verizon and a free Nokia brick from Pacific Bell. The Blackberry is most likely my most expensive gadget… and the funny thing about that is that it’s free ($50 cash-back too after rebate).

It’s a neat phone. Having Google map and other handy-dandy java application at my fingertip is great. But the $20 per month data plan sucks (that’s $240 per year!). The minute I move back down to Southern California is the minute I’ll say bye-bye to the data plan (which will most likely make this phone worthless).

3. I comparison shop.

This may sound incredibly simple and stupid, but I honestly save quite a lot of money just by taking the time out to compare prices. In short, I don’t buy something on the spot just because I need it. If it’s expensive enough, I’ll take a few minutes to look up prices before I buy it (and honestly, for me, anything over $20 is worth the few minutes of Googling).

Sometimes, I’ll spend so much time trying to find a good price that I end up changing my mind on the purchase. Which is a bit good and a bit stupid, since I wasted all that time searching.

4. I delay gratification.

Sometimes you just gotta be patient on the things you want. Many times, if you just wait a couple of days or a week, the “need” will magically disappear. Seriously.

Car wash?

Wait a few days. Bam. It starts raining.

Ghetto car wash by nature? Yes please.

Alright I’m kidding about the ghetto car wash (it’s not even a good example of delay gratification), but the concept of delay gratification really will save you money. The cost of wanting something now will usually be higher than that of having something later.

Sure, I can go out and buy a BMW 3 series right now and most likely be able to handle the monthly payment; but if I wait just a few more years, the affordability of the purchase will dramatically increase, especially if I buy the same model year used.

This is probably the best way I try to live frugally. It is also one of the more dramatic changes I took up when I got rid of my past debt. I went from impulsive purchases to stop buying crap. As far as I’m concerned, delay gratification isn’t some magical personality trait that you’re born with, it is a habit that you can teach yourself. At the end, if an ugly, gadget-less, comparison shopping, ex-impulsive buying blogger can teach himself to delay gratification, you can too.

July 31, 2007