Strategies for Frugalism
There are several strategies used to employ frugality in one’s life.
The first is the reduction of waste, such as garbage, old clothing and unused food.
The second involves changing costly spending habits and suppressing instant gratification by means of financial self-restraint.
A frugal person seeks the utmost of efficiency, avoids financial traps and defies expensive social norms, embracing instead any free options, bartering and staying informed about local circumstances and both market and product or service realities.
The philosophy of Frugalism surrounds the idea of being wary of “expert” knowledge, which often comes from commercial markets or corporate cultures-sources that claim to know what is best for the people in the world.
There are many spiritual communities that consider frugalism as a virtue or as some sort of spiritual discipline. Two of those are the Religious Society of Friends and the Puritans. Their basic premise is that their members (and people in general) should share money so there is more available for others. There are also environmentalists who claim that frugalism is a virtue as it brings humans closer to the hunter-gatherer roots, carrying little with them and needing little out of the world.