Beware Fake Frugal

Let me start that I got this point from “The Art of Frugal Hedonism” by Raser-Rowland and Grubb. I have found this book to be a real eye-opener on how you can still have a life of hedonism and still be frugal when it comes to the purse strings. I know that within the FIRE community, there seems to be a lot of talk about frugality so I thought this particular point might be of some interest to you all.

What is Fake Frugal? – Simply put, if it is cheap to buy, but at the expense of someone or something else, it is Fake Frugal, and it simply is not fair.

Factory-farmed eggs, cheap brand-new clothes made by sweatshops overseas, “value packs” of disposable razors that end up eventually in the ocean. These sorts of things.

A lot of people (myself included) thought Fake Frugal might only apply to when you buy things of poor quality, that quickly need replacing. Not only is this of course Fake Frugal, because not only does it end up costing more in the long run, but it also leads to us contributing to a significantly sizeable rubbish dump. But there is so much more than can encompass the definition of Fake Frugal.

What about food items which we buy because they are cheap, but are not the best for our health? Buying cheap meals like 2-minute noodles even though it is so stripped of nutrients that you end up with a depressed immune system, which in turn leads to more sick days and being forced to purchase expensive supplements to make up for it. All of a sudden the meal is not that cheap anymore?

Not to mention food items that are produced conscientiously, the price might seem expensive compared to what is available. But consider this, at the end of the day we spend a relatively small portion of our weekly income on groceries (only estimating but I would say around 10% of our income at the top end to be spent on our weekly grocery bills). So, when we are at the store, we compare the products and typically go for the option which is the cheapest, or we might look at dietary information, but a lot of people often overlook the sustainability of what we are purchasing. For example, looking to buy organic yoghurt but then seeing it costs a couple of dollars more than a non-organic variety.

But now that prices are continuously being driven lower and lower, the people producing the products cannot afford to fulfil costs incurred such as ecosystem maintenance. There are still the necessary costs that need to be covered (labour and materials etc), but the other costs which were once used to maintain the land over time, have been thrown by the wayside in an effort to drive costs down and maximise profits. Just look at the issues currently facing farmers due to the last couple of decades – loss of top soil, carbon emissions, fertiliser pollution, these are being left to dealt with by poorer people and future generations.

If we stop wasting money on wasting food and spend it on giving farmers a better sum for their wares, it means they aren’t stuck using damaging systems just to be able to make a living.

That is just one example of the impacts of current lifestyles has on the world around us. The same can be said for new clothes which are dirt cheap, they are only cheap because someone in a third world country is getting paid $1 per day to work there. Not just clothes, electronics, phones, furniture, appliances, pretty much every item that is made in these sorts of countries is only cheap because they are being exploited for their labour.

One issue is, it does not necessarily mean that when you pay more money for items that it will go directly to better conditions, a lot of the time just because you pay $15 for a shirt instead of $5, the extra $10 will just go to profits of the company, and the producer of the item will still be exploited for their labour. That is why it is important to look at where the item is made specifically and find a country which has adequate conditions for the producers of the items. It is not easy however, because a lot of the time (particularly with electronics) there is no alternative to find countries that manufacture the products that are not third world. But at the end of the day, we can only do our best.

I am not trying to be all high and mighty by bringing this up, mainly because I am most likely as bad as the next person when it comes to taking advantage of these systems that are in place. I just wanted to try and discuss the topic, to see if anyone else within this community might find this sort of thing as eye-opening as I did when I first read it. Or if someone has been working proactively in their own lives on how to reduce their negative impacts in this world, if they would be able to share some advice on the steps they took.