This is What Frugal Looks Like: Making This Home

This is What Frugal Looks Like is a series that highlights different ways that people can be frugal in their lives- after all, frugality doesn’t have to be drastic or just about clipping coupons. Frugality can be fun and easy. Each respondent answers the same four questions. Today’s interview is with Katie from Making This Home.

What does frugality mean to you?

Being frugal doesn’t mean living with less or making yourself miserable. I think it’s all about questioning what we really need in our lives versus our wants.

What is something that you do that is ‘typically’ frugally?

In May, my husband and I decided to challenge ourselves and how we viewed clothes. We called our project the “No New Clothes Challenge”. Our plan was to completely stop buying clothes. It was only going to last for the summer. But then I got hooked on the idea because I noticed a funny thing was happening to me. I started appreciating myself and my clothes more. I wasn’t so tempted by what I was supposed to have or what would make me prettier. I don’t even walk into department stores or clothing shops anymore. The temptation is gone.

You can read about the “No New Clothes Challenge” here.

What is something frugal that you do that is unusual?

We’re vegetarians. If you think about it, the most expensive item on your dinner plate is always meat. The cheapest meals at restaurants are the meals without meat. We didn’t cut meat from our diets so much to save money as we did it to improve our health and the environment. Saving money has just been a really awesome perk. It allows us to buy more organic and whole fruits and vegetables with the same budget.

What are some of your longterm goals that being frugal will help you to accomplish?

Spending less money and owning less stuff has already given us a huge opportunity: my husband and I live in Berlin, Germany. I’m an American. Our apartment is 450 square feet. Berlin is a really inexpensive place to live, especially compared to every other capital city in the European Union. Frugality allows us to live in this amazing foreign world. We can make it happen today instead of wishing and hoping for being here one day. That’s the power of knowing you can make your ideas happen if you keep your desires simple.

Katie also personally recommended this post, on living small!