Thank you for reading my web site. I would encourage you to rethink waiting to implement the 60/40 principle until you are out of debt. This is how you work it. With every bit of cash that comes your way that is NOT your paycheck apply the 60/40 to it NOW. Don’t wait until you’ve paid off all your credit cards. You’ll have better luck and faster financial security if you act now. If you have additional questions for me, visit my blog or my web site and I’ll do my best to answer them. I want you debt free sooner rather than later that’s what 60/40 is all about. Have a great summer!

Excellent question.

Personally, I generally don’t tip at Starbucks. Why? I never really thought about it, I guess. That and the fact that Starbucks charges enough for their coffee in the first place.

Why should I tip for a such a simple service? Yet so many establishments put the tip jar right there on the counter and it creates a sense of obligation or guilt.

I could understand tipping the barrista for making that special cafe mocha latte extra thin blah blah, but coffee???

Please, tell me if I’m off base here.

Anyway, ditto on the frugal vs. cheap comments. To me, frugality is a virtue, whereas cheapness is a vice.

Still looking for garage sales feedback? I’ve “endured” participating in one almost every year…as a child and now as an adult. Frankly, the less free time I have in my life, the more I’m starting to despise the time and effort it takes in preparing and executing the sale. However, I feel it’s a learning experience for my boys on a multitude of levels.

First, obviously there’s the lesson of interacting w/a variety of people, most of whom are wonderful. Of course, there are a handful that are annoying w/their attitudes…I chose whether to sell to them or not. I take pleasure in holding firm to my price when they’re jerks.

Second, the business aspects of setting the right price, making change, packaging the goods, etc. are important lessons.

Third, my boys have started selling coffee and hot dogs at our annual sale…again, a hands-on lesson.

But most importantly, I point out to them the WASTE that is evident from our tables overflowing w/almost-new toys, etc. (from over-generous family.) It’s the old need vs. want argument. Those tables paint a thousand words!

Anyway, I’ll continue to have them…even if it’s only a few tables w/the kids’ castoffs and their “food stands.” Whatever’s left gets donated to friends/family/charity. Clutter-free is my goal!

PS Miguel and Sam–I’ve missed you! You too, JLP

To me frugality goes hand in hand with “walking softly on the earth”, and this implies a certain consideration of yourself and others, the greater community. I think you are frugal in part because you recognize that resources available to you have a limit — that they do have a certain cost — and out of self-care you seek to maximize your efficient use of those resources. Likewise, the act of living frugally can possibly allow others to have the benefit of having more resources available to them. It’s not so much a scarcity mentality as an honest evalution of how much is enough.

For example, if you choose to eat more frugally, one fringe benefit could be that another person has the opportunity to eat from the resources that you didn’t consume (or buy with the intent to consume but throw out as waste). So frugality really is about good stewardship of what you have, it’s a recognition and respect for the true cost of things to yourself (and perhaps others).

In contrast, I think (as others have alluded to) that being cheap is a different aspect of being greedy. You want MORE stuff for yourself, but you also want to avoid the burden of its true cost. Being cheap, being greedy and hording are all related and they all stem from a scarcity mentality.

My two cents,
DB

Cheapness is the compulsion to extract unreasonable monetary gains at the expense of others. It is the twin sibling of greed, which you could almost define in exactly the same way.

Give you an example. I was at a meeting recently where we had some excellent sandwiches catered for dinner. At the end of meeting, there was plenty of food leftover, and a couple of people at the meeting carried sandwiches home. Now, when I tell you that these people are worth more than you and me put together times 50, believe it.

Were they being cheap?

I think no – they were only being frugal. Good food, plenty left over, why not take some home to share. It has nothing to do with whether you could afford it or not.

Now if we add a hypothetical twist – What if one of them set the best sandwiches aside to keep for himself before anybody even got to eat? Now THAT would be CHEAP.

Why? Because he would have done it at the expense of the rest of us having fewer choices. He would have acted out of greed rather than practicality.

This is why I don’t wish to be friends with cheap people – ultimately, they can’t be trusted. Their greed will eventually get the better of them, probably at my expense. And who needs friends like that?

Frugal is saving the extra ketchup packets and napkins included in your sack of take-out food and using them later. Cheap is stuffing your pockets full of ketchup packets and napkins while in the restaurant, while telling people that “they are here for our use”. Obnoxious is taking a big wad of napkins and ketchup, using a couple, then throwing most of them in the trash.