Make More Money or Live More Frugally? Which would you choose?

Make More Money or Live More Frugally? What’s Your Preference?

Posted by Lynnae on September 4, 2007

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Justin at Zen Personal Finance recently wrote a post in which he posed this question: Should you make more money or live more frugally? If he were forced to choose one, he’d choose to make more money. You can read his article for his reasoning.

I’m going to disagree with him. I’d rather live more frugally. First of all, efforts to make more money take time away from family life. Life shouldn’t be all about money. Family is important, and by finding ways to cut expenses, I can spend more time with the people I love. I’m a stay at home mom, because I want to be the person who has the greatest impact on my children during their formative years. If I were pursuing a career or entrepreneurial endeavor, I’d miss that opportunity.

Second, making more money often doesn’t solve the root problem. Have you ever noticed that when your income rises, your expenses mysteriously rise, too? When you focus your efforts on making money without taking the time to change your spending habits, any extra money you make will be absorbed in often frivolous spending. I know that if I were to spend lots of hours trying to make money, I’d have less time to cook, and I’d be eating out more. I wouldn’t have time to clean my house, so I might pay for a cleaning service.

Finally, by being frugal I teach my children the value of money and things. I teach them not to waste money, food, or anything else. Learning how to be a good steward of your resources is a great skill to have in life. Learning to evaluate the true value of purchases teaches children to make wise and responsible choices. It’s something that can be passed down from generation to generation.

Of course making more money and living more frugally aren’t exclusive to each other. But if I had to make a choice, I’d choose to live more frugally. How about you?

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Comments

13 Responses to “Make More Money or Live More Frugally? What’s Your Preference?”

Brip Blap on September 4th, 2007 6:49 am

Good breakdown - I think I’d choose to be more frugal, simply because as you said there are other costs to making more money. They aren’t exclusive, of course, but if you assume you would make more/spend more/consume more there’s a cost to the environment and to personal clutter, as well. I think consuming more has a significant cost to future generations in terms of the environment that can’t be ignored. I’ll vote for more frugal - but hold out for the more frugal/more money option
Paula on September 4th, 2007 7:16 am

I wrote a post about this very topic on Sunday. I was thinking of getting a part time job, but decided against it. Glad I made this decision since I had a wake up call this morning at 2:00am and my oldest son is sick. My youngest son was sick last week, so I would have missed two days of work to take care of my children.

Here’s the link if interested:
http://paulab52.blogspot.com/2.....pdate.html
JW Thornhill on September 4th, 2007 10:57 am

I admire your reasons for living frugal.
plonkee on September 4th, 2007 12:18 pm

I’d prefer to have my income raise for no work, then I could indulge in some budgeted lifestyle inflation. I don’t however, want to work harder than I do now.
Brian on September 4th, 2007 12:52 pm

I don’t think the two are mutually exclusive. You can find ways to increase your income that are either passive or require little time. For instance, you may use your blog as a nice income generator with a flexible schedule. At the same time, you can continue to live a frugal, disciplined life.

I’ve been wanting to write a similar post to this for some time (leaning towards income generation). Maybe I’ll use your post as my basis and we can start a JLP/trent style flame war. (for those who are familiar with them)
Lynnae on September 4th, 2007 2:31 pm

Thanks for weighing in, everyone! It’s nice to hear different perspectives! In a perfect world, I’d go for Plonkee’s suggestion.

And Brian, go ahead and use my post. I can take the heat.
come clean on September 4th, 2007 3:42 pm

Both should be issues that everyone should be striving for at all times in my opinion. Frugal, at least in my opinion, does not mean going without - only going without those things that you don’t use or are not a good use of your money. And everyone should be improving themselves which should lead to higher income in the future.
Erin on September 5th, 2007 7:26 am

I would choose both! I could make more money, but if I stopped being frugal then the results would be the same. Make more, but I would spend more too. I’d rather make more, and still spend less.
Jennifer on September 16th, 2007 7:24 pm

Interesting. We just moved, DH has a higher paying job. Once you buy a bigger house, pay more for car insurance (bigger city=higher rates) more for utilities to run your bigger house, and higher taxes in another state…we are really having to live on less, even though he’s making more. And I quit my job to make the move, with intentions to be a SAHM again. I’m all for making more money, but I’d like to do it once we get in really great frugal habits. Our lifestyle won’t change on more $ when it happens, but we will be pumping up the retirement & college funds for the kids, putting sweat equity into finishing our basement, etc.
Lynnae on September 16th, 2007 8:26 pm

I totally agree with you, Jennifer. Making more money doesn’t help if you don’t change your habits first.