The New Frugality: Consume Less, Save More, Live Better

By Lynn Truong

Last week on Patt Morrison I heard Chris Farrell talking about "The New Frugality" and the trend towards a sustainable lifestyle. (I actually called in and mentioned Wise Bread — you can hear me on the segment.) I was stoked that he was familiar with Wise Bread (really, we’re on his blog roll!). After the show, I read his new book, The New Frugality: How to Consume Less, Save More, and Live Better, and reached out to Chris about doing an interview.

I felt this topic was extremely relevant for us at Wise Bread. When we started three years ago, frugal was a dirty word. Frugal meant cheap. It meant denying yourself pleasures. It meant sacrifice.

But from the beginning, Wise Bread sought to change this idea. We wanted to show that spending wisely meant getting more. Spending thoughtfully meant adding value and quality to purchases. And being able to get what you want for less meant, well, that was just cool.

Chris Farrell’s book goes into this concept of a New Frugality (totally different than the Old one) and shows how it works and why it’s here to stay. He emphasizes that we now have a greater focus on community, the environment, and living sustainably. And he explains how the economy will shift to accommodate our new attitude towards spending.

Here is my interview with him. Please check out his book, The New Frugality: How to Consume Less, Save More, and Live Better.

Lynn
What was your inspiration for writing the book?

Chris
It was a couple things. Part of it was just the impact of the Great Recession and the problems that it caused people. But also I just noticed that a lot of people I knew were being frugal and green.

One of the things that always had gotten to me was that the conversation about frugality was always about what we can’t do. That had always troubled me. Then I noticed that the new frugal trend was based on sustainability. I realized this could be a big deal. The thing about sustainability is that it’s really an optimistic act. You believe that you’re going to make a difference. So now frugality isn’t you’re being cheap or denying yourself, but you’re helping your community and at the same time helping your pocketbook.

Lynn
Is this why you call it the New Frugality, because the old frugality is just about saving money for money sake but this is more of a mindful and value added lifestyle?

Chris
Yes, very much so. Thinking about my parents, I used to roll my eyes at my dad who unplugged all the outlets and the hand me down clothes and all that. My parents did that because we didn’t have much money. Now, a lot of these things people are just doing because it’s going to make the world a better place. So it’s a very different mindset, and financially you kind of end up in the same place, but the motivation is very different.

Lynn
You’re right. On Wise Bread, we talk about things like how much electricity your electronics are taking when they’re plugged in and sewing your own clothes. These are things that our grandparents did, but now we’re doing it for completely different reasons. Now, frugality is not just about spending less money. We might buy local and organic which can cost more than conventional, but it’s just as frugal as buying used or repairing things instead of replacing them. What is the cause of this shift from cost to value?

Chris
I think there’s a number of trends going on. It seems that everyone’s had this experience during the recession of sort of looking in the apartment, looking around house and saying, why do I have all this stuff? So in one sense, and this may sound bizarre because we’re just coming out this recession with a 10% unemployment rate, we’re a really wealthy society. And I think we increasingly value things like education and health, because that’s what wealthy societies do. And what downturns do is they often accelerate social trends that were gathering momentum. My sense is that’s partially what happened in the Great Recession.

I did an event in Pasadena and a young woman there was saying that among her friends, being frugal was kind of cool. And that there’s a little bit of keeping up with the Joneses. I said I think that’s true, but you know what, that’s a good keeping up with the Joneses. There’s a lot of benefit to that. It’s sustainable and it’s sort of fun. Communities like Wise Bread create a very fun aspect to frugality. It’s a community of ideas, and not all of them will work for you — it depends on your lifestyle, your temperament, stage of your life — but it’s really neat to have all the ideas out there, and to experiment to see which ones are going to work for you.

Lynn
When people started to save more and spend less, there was kind of a backlash against that. People argued that because our economy is based on consumerism, we all were supposed to do our part for the economy.

Chris
It drives me crazy. First, you’re not responsible to the economy. You’re responsible to your own household finances and your own values and the values that you share with other people in the community. But you’re not responsible to this abstract thing called the economy. And so it drives me a little crazy because people were saving more because they needed to. They had borrowed too much and were at risk. And people were losing their jobs.

I think more importantly though, is that the American entrepreneur is endlessly inventive. And if people aren’t spending money on certain things, they might spend their money on other things. They’ll spend it on experiences or within the community. For example, 20 years ago I tried yoga and failed miserably. There was yoga back then but it wasn’t such a big deal. Now yoga’s really a career. People really take it seriously. Same thing with massages. 20 years ago there …