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What IS frugality?

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Every now and again, a blogger agonizes over whether frugal habits lead to cheapness—or worse, will be perceived by friends and relatives as miserliness. Beyond Paycheck to Paycheck ruminates, to entertaining effect, on the wacky ideas people have about personal finance and frugality. True frugality, IMHO, does not mean asceticism, tightness, or pathological self-deprivation. So, what really is a healthy, productive frugality?

Frugality is. . .

• Independence

The frugalist knows better than to jump off a cliff just because all the other sheep do it.

• Freedom

Not until you’ve paid off your last penny of debt are you truly free to work where you please, to choose an occupation that remunerates you in something more meaningful than cash, or not to work at all.

• Common sense

True frugality recognizes the difference between penny-wise and pound-foolish.

• Charity

What goes around comes around. Over at Gather Little by Little, GLBL has been trying to explain the importance of giving for a while.

• Living light on the land

Frugality by its nature is “green.” Frugalists neither waste nor want…nor do they accumulate junk. So frugal habits tend to preserve resources of all kinds.

• Goal-setting

Pinching pennies for no other purpose than to pile up pennies is a miser’s habit. Frugal people save money for specific reasons: to get out of debt and stay out of it; to send the kids to college; to take a dream vacation; to buy a house; to accrue an emergency fund; to finance a secure retirement.

• Self-discipline

The frugal person stays on track toward the goal.

• Organization

Frugal people keep track of their finances and other aspects of their lives.

• Ambition

Frugality is self-motivation to do better in life as well as in personal finances.

• Minimalism

Frugal people furnish their lives with only what they need or truly appreciate.

• Love

Frugalists work to build a better life for those they care about: born or unborn, found or yet to be found.

• Faith

. . . in a better future.

Jamaica Sunrise, Adam L. Clevenger, Wikipedia Commons

Quinoa: Pretty good!

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During the last Costco expedition, I noticed they were offering organic quinoa, a grain I’ve long been curious about. The package suggested preparing it like tabbouleh, something I happen to favor.

First time I fixed it, though, it was breakfast time and things were a bit too rushed to fiddle with slicing garlic and onions and with harvesting herbs and making vinaigrette. One of my eccentricities is that I don’t like milk, and so I don’t at all care for hot (or cold) cereals splashed with the stuff. Oatmeal’s OK, if it’s prepared like pasta as a savory dish, instead of gooped up with milk and sugar.

So… I decided to try something along those lines with the quinoa.

It’s easy to cook, much like regular oatmeal or converted rice: just dump a cup of it into two cups of boiling water, turn down the heat, and let it simmer 20 minutes or so, till the water is absorbed. The result is a nice, fluffy product, light and pretty, with an interesting texture.

I had some sausage that I’d cooked and frozen. While the quinoa was steeping, I reheated that and sliced it into bite-sized pieces. Cut up a ripe tomato. sliced a green onion, chopped some parsley.

When the cereal was finished cooking, I served it up in a bowl with a big dollop of butter on it, and then topped it with all of the above, with a sprinkle of Parmesan. It turned out very tasty! And it really filled me up: I didn’t get the slightest bit hungry until past lunchtime.

Saved! Benefits cover without bankrupting

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Finally—finally, finally, finally—the state sent out a booklet showing the medical benefits offered during this fall’s annual enrollment period. We’re a week in to the normal open enrollment period and have had no information. GDU was supposed to have posted this stuff today, but at last look had not. The state, however, has known the facts long enough to print out and mail a 69-page document to every employee.

We still have an EPO, through the very iffy Cigna but at least an EPO, and my doc at the Mayo accepts it. Thank God! And according to the CSR I just spoke to, it will cover care at any emergency room, including the pricey Mayo. Premium is only $39 a month.

The total monthly premium is $523.  According to this document, those of us who are to be canned between now and December 31 will be entitled to the COBRA discount and so will have to pay only 35 percent of the usual outrageous COBRA premium. For the EPO, then, my cost will be $183 a month—significantly less than I’ve budgeted for Medicare Part B + Medicare Part D + Medigap.

Hallelujah! Now…if I can just manage to not get sick between now and my 65th birthday, I’ll be golden.

Landscaping job wraps up

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Richard’s men are almost done with the big landscaping job at the downtown house. We’d hired his company, Dick’s Landscaping, to xeriscape both the front and back yards, huge plots of land compared to modern tract lots.

They’ve ripped out a decrepit walkway, built a front courtyard and new brick walkway, installed an automatic watering system (front and back), laid three brick patios, planted eight trees and a bunch of ornamental grasses and shrubs, laid weed fabric over the bermudagrass-infested ground, and spread 75 tons of quarter-minus crushed granite. And the place is looking a lot better!

Here’s a “before” view of the backyard:

For a good view, click on the images

And an after:

We’re looking at a lemon tree, a lime tree, a Texas ebony, deer grass, a Mexican bird of paradise. Both the Lisbon lemon and the Mexican lime will get to be good-sized trees. Texas ebony is slow-growing, but over time it develops into a very handsome xeric tree. Not much we can do about the overhead wires, which actually are over the alley, other than consider them quaint characteristics of a character-filled antique bungalow.

Work in progress in front:

Men working, in front

And here’s the result:

The little tree is a multi-trunked desert willow, which grows to a medium height and bears lovely deep purple flowers for  many months during the late winter and spring. In a year or two, it should shade the front window and, with the mature carob tree just to its west, cool and shade the new courtyard.

More to come: We just had Richard’s crew do the heavy lifting for us. After the worst of the heat passes, M’hijito will plant more ornamentals and set various potted plants around the yard. And in back, we’ll lay flagstone stepping stones to build a pathway from the covered patio to the new sitting area in back.

The 1,450 bricks that came from the estate sale sufficed to build most of the three patios, and we still have a few left. Amazing buy!

Our project inspired the down-at-the-heels neighbor across the street to do a little keeping-up-with-the-jonesing: he snagged our workmen and hired them to lay a wide driveway in his front yard. Maybe some of the rolling stock will get moved off the lawn!

Toothless credit card consumer protection laws

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Well, if there ever was any question about who holds sway in the halls of Congress, the outcome of the effort to regulate the credit-card industry to provide a little consumer protection. Who owns Congress? Big industries with deep enough pockets to hire persistent, heavy-hitting lobbyists, that’s who.

Have you received your notice from American Express yet? Mine came a couple days ago: a flatly worded announcement that late fees and interest rates are going up.

Not that I care: I don’t carry a balance on any credit card, and though I charge almost every purchase as a matter of convenience, I make it a point to pay well in advance of the due date.

Betcha this isn’t the last we’ll hear from AMEX on the subject. The Wall Street Journal recently reported that American Express and other major card issuers are canceling hundreds of cardholders’ accounts without explanation and without notice. In many cases, the canceled accounts are deemed inactive because the cardholders haven’t used them in some months. But at least a few accounts, including one reported in that W. St. J. article, belong to people who use their cards, never miss a payment, and pay off balances monthly.

Over at Freep, commentator Brian Dickerson calls the new legislation “regulation a regulated industry can love.” He points out that Congress rejected the only provision that would have given consumers any meaningful protection—a cap on the already usurious interest rates card issuers can charge. Says Dickerson:

In the end, card issuers preserved both their right to charge whatever the market will bear and their right to abruptly cancel a cardholder’s credit without advance notice.

Uh huh. I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again:

Politics is money, money politics.

Yep, I sure did say it before!

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