When living frugally, every penny counts

I am striving to live as simple and frugal as I can. This lifestyle is partly informed by decades of Buddhist spiritual practice that I did in the past, partly by my personal ecological-economical convictions, and probably to some small extent due to the fact that I speak Toki Pona – a minimal language that promotes simplicity and harmony with nature. (The recent sci-fi movie ‘Arrival’ had a great way to illustrate how the languages we speak influence the way we think and see the world)

An example of a sentence in Heptapod Language (illustration created by Aaron Morrison and borrowed from WIRED)

It means that in my shopping choices I am usually guided by considerations of what is absolutely necessary and essential for a good and simple life. It is not just basic survival products, mind you, but also includes books, music, games, travels and occasionally a music instrument I want to learn to play.

Hey Nintendo gamers out there, do you recognise this instrument? ;)

I am also trying to save every penny I can – if the effort is justified. For example, I was heading to a supermarket this morning to buy some groceries. On my way there I passed recycling station in our courtyard. I went it and discovered that many of the residents of the surrounding apartment blocks put their empty plastic bottles and aluminum cans in trash containers. Every bottle and can in Sweden carries a deposit fee of 1 krona (about ¢11 – USD or EUR). So I fished them out and filled two grocery bags that I had brought with me. While doing so, I also put other kinds of plastic, metal, cardboard and glass containers in the appropriate recycling bins. I figured that while I was extracting economically valuable resources from the trash, I could just as well help the environment at the same time.

So I came to the supermarket with about fifty empty bottles and cans. After depositing them in the collecting machine, I could a receipt for $6.5. I also noticed that in the past month I spent about $350 on groceries. By using a debit card issued by the supermarket – which doubles as a customer loyalty card – to pay for my groceries, I accumulated enough loyalty points to grant me an instant $3.5 discount.

My grocery shopping today totalled at $17. But thanks to the empty containers that I brought with me (and that my neighbours thoughtlessly left in the trash, disregarding their value) and to the customer loyalty discount, I paid $10 less, cutting the expense by more than half. And look how much goodness it bought me:

If you have more tips to share on how you make savings in your everyday life and try to live frugally, please post them in the comments below!