"Frugal Consumer" is an Oxymoron

Consciously Frugal recently did a "spreading the word" post about a company looking for thrifty families to feature on a new reality TV show. First of all, I want to be totally clear that I don't mean this as a knock on Aldra, because I think she totally ROCKS. I also think that as far as reality TV goes I'd much rather see a show on thrifty families than the sort of ridiculousness that generally makes it onto the airwaves.

But... aside from the fact that I can think of nothing more antithetical to the entire concept of "simple living" than subjecting oneself to the horrors of reality television, there's something about it that's really bothering me. Here's the pitch from the company:

Is your family the thriftiest in America? Do you refuse to pay full price? Are you always on the lookout for the best deals?

Calling all coupon experts, yard sale fanatics, thrift store wizards and super savers for a brand new show on a major network! This show will be the chance to put your skills to the test in a fun competition and prove once and for all that you and your family are the ultimate bargain hunters!

To be perfectly honest, just reading this blurb makes me shudder. Now I realize that they're trying to be cute and catchy, and that they also need to craft a program that will have some hope of appealing to the average American, but the whole idea that frugal living is somehow accomplished through "thrifty shopping" seriously makes me crazy.

This message is by no means unique to the producers of this show... in fact it seems that ever since the country entered the "great recession" we've been bombarded with articles, feature stories and human interest pieces about people who are finding ways to buy the "American dream" with less money. The message is that if you just learn how to shop better, you can "have it all" while paying less.

But here's the thing. The problem is not that people don't know how to shop properly, and it's not that the proverbial American dream is too expensive. The problem is that the American dream as it's currently understood is really a nightmare foisted upon us by a society which treats its people as consumers rather than citizens.

I would posit that if you want to live frugally, you don't need to cut coupons, find deals or hunt for bargains... what you need to do is stop buying things! We don't need to find ways to "get more for less" what we need to do is "get less" in the first place!

Now, obviously even the most frugal of the frugal will need to acquire a few objects from time to time, but seriously folks... how much stuff do we need?

Consumables excluded, I probably only buy about a dozen or so "things" per year... and that includes everything - clothing, garden tools, kitchen toys, home improvement items, gifts, cat stuff... everything. When I decide to buy something, I do try to get it as inexpensively as possible, but the truth is that the savings achieved by "thrifty shopping" is really negligible compared to the savings achieved by never "going shopping" in the first place.

And as far as "consumables" are concerned, my theory is that with very few exceptions, any product that has enough of a marketing budget behind it to be able to print coupons, is not something you need to be buying in the first place.

Here's the thing. There's just no way to shop ourselves out of the mess that our society is in. It doesn't matter how cheaply you're able to buy things, the very act of buying things in the first place sets us up for problems. We buy more things, we need more room for our stuff, plus we worry that people will break in and steal our belongings. So we get bigger houses in "nicer" neighborhoods, and then we need more time, energy and money to maintain and pay for them. And don't even get me started on "keeping up appearances." The whole process just puts us on a treadmill that becomes very difficult to get out of.

I guess what I'm saying is this. What we really need in this society is not cheaper stuff, or better deals, what we need is a complete paradigm shift.

Colin Beavan (AKA No Impact Man) gave a talk a while back about this topic. He was speaking about sustainability not frugal living, but it's all pretty much the same as far as I'm concerned, and he really hit the nail on the head.



What do you think?