After posting on my 17% savings on Aveda products, I felt that I had some explaining to do. I state that I am “faithfully frugal”, yet I am spending over $18 (with 17% off no less…) a bottle on hair potion? How frugal can that be? Well, for a “categorically frugal” personality type like me, it is frugal.
However it is best to explain frugal personalities by starting small and working up to the larger ones. There are four types of frugal personalities: non-frugal (NF), selectively frugal (SF), categorically frugal (CF), and exclusively frugal (EF).
The non-frugal (NF) personality type just doesn’t have any relationship to cost when making purchases. I am not speaking of the super wealthy, although some people are super wealthy. This is more directed at the average folks. These folks tend not to have budgets yet not be spenders. For example, they do not purchase expensive cuts of meat at the grocery store but never look at their grocery receipt. The receipt is probably fluctuates up to $50 every week. There is no deep relationship between cost and choice. They may eat chicken breasts every week and complain that the price of groceries is getting more expensive, yet never think about switching to dark meat in order to save money. They will replace clothing when an item wears out…yet never wait for a sale.
For the selectively frugal (SF) population, this group of people exhibits frugality, well, selectively. These choose which areas or items of frugality that matter to them. However they would never be perceived as “frugal”. An example would be the person who drives an expensive car, lives in a very expensive home, and get expensive high-lights in her hair. However, she goes to a different salon for a haircut since the person cutting her hair only charges $12. It seems a little “off” to drive a luxury car purposely go to a second hair salon to spend $12 on a haircut. If you can afford the luxury car, you can afford a $50 hair cut. The $12 hair cut is a “selective” choice. These folks come across more quirky than frugal.
Categorically frugal (CF) people fall into one of two camps. You have the “rock bottom” group and the “averaging cost group”. The “rock bottoms” often spend as little as possible in a given category in order not to be frugal in another category. For this group, price is frequently a consideration. They might forgo a monthly cell phone plan to afford a cleaning lady to come twice a month. I heard of this example a long time ago– single mom, went without a cell phone which enabled her to afford a cleaning lady to come twice a month for a total of $40. The “rock bottom” group can also be a very “principled” group. For example, a gentleman always drove used cars to save money. This same man also paid for medical school for his son. He did not want to waste money on cars. Yet, he had no qualms on spending tens of thousands of dollars on medical school.
The “averaging cost” group does not want to spend a lot of money in a given category and usually averages the costs of two items to achieve a lower average cost in the overall category. They rely on outliers on both sides to achieve an “average”. (Outliers is a statistical term. Check out my business school post if you want to know more about my statistics skills.) I am unabashedly a pioneer in the “averaging cost group”. I may spend $18 on hair potions, yet my annual cost on health and beauty aids is low. Thus, if you look at my annual cost without seeing the $18 hair potion as a line item, you would never believe that I could have two $18 products and achieve such a low number. Let’s look at MY health and beauty aids for the year: body wash, shampoo, conditioner, disposable razors, dental floss, tooth paste, skin shaving gel, and hair styling products.
You can see that I am paying so little for the other items, that my $18 potions average out to $4.72 – annually! This is a pretty cheap cost for spray shine. It is nearly 50% less than the Umberto Shimmer Shine Spray featured at Target stores for $8.99.
Exclusively frugal people would rather vomit than spend $18 on spray shine. Their mantra is often captured by the change “Who needs a (pick a higher than average dollar amount) (insert a product)?” For example, “Who needs a $4 cup of coffee? Who needs a $100 hair dryer? Who needs a $40,000 car?” They do not spend money. Period. They are probably the unsuspected millionaire next door. They are harmless unless you are getting married and a) they are your parents and b) they have offered to foot the bill.
Now that we know that every person’s spending can be described in some relation to frugality, what kind of “frugal” personality typifies you? Are you a NF, SF, CF or EF?
I’m probably Exclusively Frugal. Recently I’ve been making that “Who needs a $ABC xyz?!?” statement a lot since I’m in need of new clothes. Seems like prices are twice what I remember and I swear I did my last wardrobe upgrade only two years ago!
There are so many other things I’d like to do with my money like start a business or be financially independent that buying things (or experiences, the latest craze) isn’t a priority for me. I’m pretty happy with my $1 shampoo and beans thanks
My husband wears though clothes. Two years is his max on pants and he purchased quality pants.
I like to think of myself as “value conscious”! I prefer to pay less than retail 100% of the time, I normally do not go without, but I am willing to wait for a better deal. For example, I just ought a new bicycle helmet and water bottle online for less than retail and it will arrive early next week. Overall I saved about $20 by waiting 5-7 days.
We could call you a “VC”. You would be proud of me, I realized that if I ordered my kids clothing in two shipments instead of 1, I would save $8. Quirky but $8 is $8.
I’m probably a hybrid SF/CF (rock bottom). I’ll pay more for a product if I know that it ensures quality. I’m more likely to spend more money on a product on a house or car than on expensive coffee (to make at home)
I am so the opposite…Starbucks anyone?
Don’t get me wrong I like Starbucks and will spend $4 on a drink but only on occasion (I only drink coffee first thing in the morning anyway and am at home so that’s why it’s rare). And I don’t mean I drink cheap coffee at home either (Dunkin’ Donuts coffee or organic store brand) but I also don’t spend as much as some friends on their home brew coffee which I’ve seen them spend $18.99/lb. That to me is insane!
$18.99? My husband purchased a ridiculously high end coffee maker. We don’t have to spend $18.99 to have a great cup of coffee.
Definitely in the SF category here! And Super Frugalette- I’d definitely be in the Starbucks with you!.
SF for me. I like to be thrifty whenever possible, but I also don’t mind paying for better quality for other things.
I’d have to say I’m CF. There are certain categories that I’ll splurge on (like coffee or skin products), but everything else must be rock-bottom prices!
Are you a Starbucks fan too?
Big Time! I set a budget of a certain amount and load my gold card. Once it runs out, then I make the Via packets (blended) at home.
I’m mostly CF & my husband is EF. We have predictable discussions! I like to think that we balance each other out a bit!
I would have a tough time if my husband was an EF.I would hate the feeling of having to justify everything? Do you have to do that?
No! But I do have to hear about it. lol I’ve learned to let it roll off my back like a duck with water. I’ve gotten him to loosen up a lot over the years too! As I said, we balance each other out! We’ve also saved a lot of money with each of our tendencies!
Would love to say that I’m EF but am not, probably CF. At the moment I have a girlfriend living a few hours by train from me. We can’t cook together at her home so we have to eat out a lot. And eating at only the cheapest places starts to get old very soon.
You could make a meal at your house and bring it on the train. What about freezing soup?
Yes, thanks, that would be an option. Not sure about the what and how though.
Most definitely “Categorically Frugal”.
I will spend $10,000 – $20,000 on vacations in a year, but not have a car or drive one that cost me $2000.
I like saving in certain areas but spending in others that make sense.
I think I’m CF that’s turning into Excessively Frugal. It’s probably not good to be EF when you can afford some luxuries though.
Employees make the best dates. You won’t need to get them and they’re always tax-deductible.
Disneyland is a work of love. We didn’t enter into Disneyland just with the concept of earning profits.
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