Frugality

AH is frugal, I am not. Merging our finances was quite the adjustment when we got married. One thing that I always love and appreciate about AH is his willingness to compromise. In a financial sense this meant that I tightened the belt and he let his out, I’ve watched my spending and he has been more willing to part with funds so long as we achieve our financial goals. These adjustments did not happen overnight.

Are we the most frugal family? Not even close. I still battle the urge to splurge and at times make purchases of non-essentials (way way non-essential) only later to have feelings of remorse when I get home and the occasional return of item(s). AH has usually been the rock of reason and, to the annoyance of the marketing industry, does not fall into the lavishly fancy marketing print, radio or TV ploys. A few years ago one luxury car manufacturer had a TV ad with the tag line of “Don’t you deserve it?” – AH’s reply was, “Yeah right, I deserve to have $60,000 in debt.”

However, we all have our Achilles heel; an area of weakness when it comes to needs vs. wants or desires. For AH that weakness has been the dream of owning a nice 4x4 truck. For 9 years he drove an older model Mazda pick-up that was gifted to him by his dad. It was a good little truck that met our needs without depleting our wallet. When the Mazda reach 19 years old and needed some repairs we decided it was time for AH to have a new vehicle. At the time gas was exceptionally high, trucks were not moving off dealer’s lots and amazing deals were to be had. AH made one of those amazing deals and his dream was realized. . . sort of.

As time went on AH had to leave his vanpool and I could hear the ache in his wallet every time he had to put gas into the truck. He would often come home lamenting about the cost of owning such a vehicle and yet loving it at the same time – the inner turmoil was fierce. Last weekend AH came out of his truck coma for good. He called me with the news of wanting to buy a Ford Fiesta – I was not pleased but I was open to the discussion. Unlike AH I don’t look at my vehicle as just a means of transportation, I actually do care about what I drive though I keep it within reason for AH’s sake (see there’s that compromise thing that we do).

AH worked up an elaborate two page spreadsheet comparing different vehicles to the truck. We were definitely looking for a more fuel efficient car, yet it had to roomy enough for our family and groceries, and it had to be relatively inexpensive. I had planned to make my next purchase a VW Jetta TDI. They get exceptional gas mileage (40+ mpg), are very roomy and are priced reasonably – but when we looked at the numbers the cost of the Jetta didn’t measure up. This resulted in more discussion, more spreadsheet comparisons and more stress for AH.

The other day I decided to be exceptionally mean to AH and I threw out the idea of a foreign Hybrid. I was teasing him because I know that AH would never buy an expensive Honda or Toyota (he likes to buy American “ad” cars). Never say “never”. AH did his research, compared costs and came back to me with the idea of buying a Toyota Prius. I fell out of my chair – okay, not literally but figuratively in my brain. This is so not typical of AH. He found a few used ones in our area and in our price and today after dropping the kiddo’s off at school we high tailed it to the dealership.

We went home with a new to us 2008 Prius.




We also went home with the knowledge that we will be saving $2000 per year in gas alone, as well as some additional savings as a result of this vehicle exchange.

AH is happy and his frugal soul is at peace once again. . .



I did catch him looking at used Ford Rangers on Craig’s list this evening.