Spendthrifts: Good or Bad?

Apparently there has been some debate lately regarding opposing views on frugality. Frugal Babe discusses her own views after reading about a interview of a personal finances blogger where his interviewer called him a "cheapskate" and some views on the same issue on the Make Love Not Debt blog. With my handy dandy links you can go and read exactly what happened and all of the opinions voiced before I decided to barge in with mine...which I will continue with now.



Personally, I tend to side more with Him from Make Love Not Debt. Most of the personal finance blogs I read use a tone that reminds me, very uncomfortably, of fundamentalist Christians. You know the people I'm talking about. Over-bearing, force their religion down your throat, get up on the table and proclaim that you've accepted Jesus Christ as your savior or else you're going to hell! kind of people. I know it can be argued that with text on a screen you can't really have a "tone" but, this isn't texting. We can use adjectives and other colorful descriptions to get our point across, and a lot of the points gotten across to me are pretty self righteous.

I drive a twenty year old car and I own nothing new, I only shop at thrift stores and I saved so much money and this and this and this. Okay: good for you. That's great, really, that is clearly a frugal life and it's a great way to live. But why, oh why, do you have to make it sound like anyone who doesn't live exactly like you is an irresponsible jerk? They're not. Again, Make Love Not Debt made an excellent point. Not all people with nicer, fancier things are in debt. Just because they don't have old, second hand belongings does not mean that they are careless with their money or that they have no savings put away.

I don't like this attitude, and maybe it's because I'm not as frugal as a lot of other bloggers. Like I've said. I don't want a lot of things, but the things I do have, I want to be nice. I don't need nor want a brand new car with all of the bells and whistles (mainly because it's so hard to find new cars that come with a manual transmission, which is a whole nother topic for a whole nother day), but I want a car that I find visually appealing, with a nice paint job, and air conditioning. And power steering. And ABS brakes. I don't want to spend eight hundred dollars on a bag or three hundred dollars on a sweater, but I want nice clothes that look nice, clean, and aren't going to wear out in less than a year (i.e., Wal-mart clothes. They are not very reliable.) This doesn't mean I want everything I get from the mall, I have found plenty of perfectly good, higher end clothes at the thrift store, but I'm not going to shop only at the thrift store. You know what I mean?

Because the point of saving money is spend it on something later, be it your retirement or a house or what have you. Why spend so much time saving money to not use it. I don't want to die and leave a fortune behind, but I don't want to die and leave my family with my debt. I want to use my money, but responsibly, and always with a backup emergency fund readily available.

Which brings me to another point. This obsession with not buying anything new at all except for food and personal hygiene products in hopes of putting all of the stores out of business. Have we stopped to consider what this is going to do to our employment rate which is already in shambles? The economy? For example, I've read rants about how by not buying anything new and making more of your own things we can erase the need for "gas guzzling trucks spouting exhaust all day". This hits pretty close to home because, as you know, my husband is a long haul truck driver and this is our livelihood. Without this industry he would not have a job right now, and the industry is already suffering severely because of the economy. Also, semi trucks use deisel, not gasoline, you fool. I'm not saying that we should keep all the trucks on the roads all the time...less would certainly be good for the well being of the earth. But think of how many people's lives would be destroyed without trucking as a means for income? And not just the truckers, but everyone in the corporate offices and at the warehouses, etc.

What I would like to see happen is to yes, cut down on buying new things, but primarily stop shopping at big chain stores like Walmart. If we can eliminate those everyone will have to go back to shopping and eating at locally own businesses, which in turn can hire more local people, which I think would greatly help the state of the economy.

What are your thoughts?