Anne Simpkinson over at Guideposts wrote a story about a topic that, at face value, seems to be an oxymoron: How to thrive through thrift.
She’s focusing on debt reduction this year, which put her in the mindset of deprivation, feeling that she’d have to give up so much stuff in order to get out of debt, that she wouldn’t really enjoy the journey.
I can totally relate to her situation, because our family is in a bit of a financial bind right now with a rental house that has been vacant for 6 months now, and more repairs that need to be done.
To make our budget work, we’ve had to cut expenses in some areas and have really had to find ways to stretch our dollars, and our pennies.
But, like Anne describes in her article, we’ve also enjoyed some satisfaction, and have even had a little fun in our renewed emphasis on thrift. She explains the reason why: Because in its earliest usage, the word “thrift” was synonymous with “thrive.”
My wife and I realized that if we could have fun while being thrifty, we could teach our kids some valuable lessons about contentment, making do with what you have, and making conscious choices about how to spend our money.
Thrift could become a way of life for us, and for them, and it could give us greater freedom down the road to do things we never thought could be possible.
So, what about you? What’s your view of thrift? Is it a necessary evil, or a way of life? Or something else?
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