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Tuesday, March 26, 2013

The Loneliness of the Frugal Neophyte

Not what you think. Not the typical lament of the newly frugal: My friends go out all the time and I don't want to spend the money. This is the opposite: I have saved enough to do something neat this week, but my friends don't have any money.

I am speaking of 20-something Frugal Son, with his worthy, but low-paying job. All his friends have equally low-paying jobs. Some are worthy; some are merely interim jobs before the next step. Frugal Son has developed his frugal chops, thanks to Mr FS and me. I do like to think that.

He does go out and about with friends. Lately, however, he has had to do some things solo, because none of his friends can afford to go with him.

Hence: a ticket to Cirque de Soleil.
Hence: a solo lunch at Galatoire's.
And even this.

3 comments:

Shelley said...

So, does he have any friends with full time jobs who have a bit of spare spending money? It seems a good idea to have friend with a range of incomes and tastes if possible.

Duchesse said...

That situation never changes, there are always those who have more and those who have less. (Sometimes that's the same person, at different phases.)

In my young adult years we handled this by having house parties; those with more supplied the food and those with less brought a cheap-and I mean cheap-bottle of wine.

Frugal Scholar said...

@Shelley--He's only lived there a few months. It turned out that a rich friend (oil well on family land) accompanied him to the $$ dinner.

@Duchesse--He does lots of cheap get-togethers, loves to cook for his friends.